6 Luxembourg Co-Productions Selected for Annecy Animation Film Festival

Film Fund Luxembourg has reported that six Luxembourg co-productions are headed to a film festival in Annecy, France in June 2024.

The Annecy International Animation Film Festival, taking place from 9 to 15 June 2024, has unveiled its official selection. Included in the official competition lineup are the following five Luxembourg co-productions: Slocum and Angelo dans la Forêt Mysterieuse in the feature films category; La Vie de Château in the television films category; Oto's Planet and Mamie Lou in the virtual reality (VR) works category. In addition, the Luxembourg co-produced film Fox and Hare Save the Forest, has been selected in the new "Annecy presents" section (out of competition).

Film Fund Luxembourg confirmed it would be present at the festival's International Animated Film Market for the 23rd time, with a promotional stand bringing together about fifteen Luxembourg animation companies (production, studios and service providers). Luxembourg's Minister for Culture, Eric Thill, will travel to Annecy to meet Luxembourg experts in animation as well as students of the BTS (Lycée des Arts et Métiers) and the Bachelor (University of Luxembourg) in animation drawing.

Selected Luxembourg co-productions

- Slocum is a majority Luxembourg co-production between Melusine Productions (Stéphan Roelants) and JPL Films (Jean-François Laguionie) in France. After Le Voyage du Prince, this is the second film by French director Jean-François Laguionie to receive support from Film Fund Luxembourg. Almost all of the animation for the film was produced in Luxembourg by the Studio 352 teams, mobilising a little over 40 artists and technicians during nearly 30 months of production, including Denis Lambert (first assistant director), Pascal Gérard (artistic director of sets) and Cédric Gervais (3D supervisor). The audio post-production was carried out entirely by Philophon studios.

- Angelo dans la Forêt Mysterieuse is a co-production between Luxembourg (Zeilt Productions - Laurent Witz) and France. The film-making process spanned approximately two years and involved a team of approximately 50 people from Zeilt studio. Key positions such as production direction (Alice Backscheider), animation supervision (Michael Tenner Wijaya Oei) and prop and set modelling supervision (Philippe Steinkamp) were assumed by the Luxembourg studio team. The music for the film was recorded at the Conservatoire de la Ville de Luxembourg by the Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra, composed of 55 musicians, under the direction of Gast Waltzing. The sound design, sound editing and mixing were carried out in Philophon's studios.

- La Vie de Château is a six-episode mini-series co-produced in Luxembourg by Melusine Productions (Stéphan Roelants) with France and directed by Nathaniel H'Limi and Clémence Madeleine-Perdrillat. 35 people from Studio 352 worked on this series for seven months, particularly on line decorations, colour decorations, posing and animation.

- Fox and Hare Save the Forest is a Benelux co-production produced in the Doghouse studios in Differdange, which required the intervention of about 50 animation professionals at different stages of production (modelling, texture, 3D layout, 3D animation) for almost two years. The music for the feature film was composed by André Dziezuk and part of the audio post-production was carried out by Philophon studios, including mixing (Michel Schillings). In February 2024, the film was in competition at the Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale) and the Luxembourgish-language version (produced in Jang Linster's studios) was broadcast at the Luxembourg City Film Festival.

VR Works

Among 102 projects from 34 countries, ten VR works were selected, including two from Luxembourg:

- Oto's Planet is an animated VR work initiated and produced by Skill Lab (Julien Becker) and produced by Luxembourger Gwenael François, for whom this is his second virtual reality project (after Errance). He wrote and directed Oto's Planet in collaboration with Zeilt studio (Foetz) for animation and motion capture, Mad Trix (Differdange) for sound design and  DPT. in Canada for the integration and 3D part as well as Small Creative in France for the artistic research and original music, composed by Chapelier Fou. The project was supported at the development and production level as part of the Luxembourg-Canada initiative.

- Mamie Lou is an interactive animated VR experience created by Isabelle Andreani. The Skill Lab company, in co-production with Small Creative (France), oversaw the implementation of animation and motion capture at Zeilt studio (Foetz).

Alongside the official selections, the project Allah N'est Pas Obligé by Zaven Najjar (co-produced by Paul Thiltges Distributions in Luxembourg), will be presented in the "Work in Progress" category.