Annecy focus on Benelux countries

This relatively small town near Génève has been showing the best in animation art for 45 years and today still hosts the number-one international competitive festival. Linked closely to it, the MIFA is the only specialised trade fair in the world that brings together the animation industry for all broadcasting mediums. This year, the festival focuses on the Benelux, showing productions from the territory’s four cultural entities: Luxembourg, the Netherlands, the French-speaking Belgian community and of course Flanders. Together, they will be presenting two widely varied programmes: 'Best of the Future' and 'Best of the Past', scheduled on June 11th and June 12th. The first programme includes four shorts from Flanders: Mr. J. Russel (Wouter Sel, 2003), The All-American Alfabet (Jonas Geirnaert, 2002), On A Lead (Sandy Claes, 2005) and Something Fishy (Reinout Swinnen, 2002). 'Best of the Past' includes three classics from Flanders: Under the Waxing Moon (Hans Spilliaert, 1995), Little Wolf (An Vrombaut, 1992) and the Academy Award winning short A Greek Tragedy (Nicole Van Goethem, 1985). Like the three Benelux partners, Flanders also presents an extensive animation programme of its own. The selection consists of 19 shorts, including music videos, trailers for TV series and the 'Tour de France' sequence of Sylvain Chomet’s Belleville Rendez-Vous. Screenings will take place on Wednesday 13 and Saturday 16 June. The Benelux Focus will also be very noticeable at the market: Mifa will be having a Benelux day, with meetings and an opening night. The four Benelux partners co-host the opening party on Wednesday 13 June, presenting showreels and other promotional visuals highlighting the Benelux entries. Over lunch and during a seminar in the afternoon on Thursday 14 June, or Benelux Day, professionals will have the chance to get to know film funds, producers and other interesting parties from Flanders and the Benelux. Eleven production companies from Flanders have announced their presence at the Benelux Day: Beast Productions, CinéTé, Creative Conspiracy, GRID, Cyborn, DeFamilieJanssen, Skyline Entertainment, S.O.I.L., Les Paillard Castards, Vivi Film and Walking the Dog. The Flanders Audiovisual Fund will present the brand new website www.flandersanimation.be, aimed at introducing foreign professionals to the Flanders animation industry. Moreover, Flanders and the Benelux are on permanent display: the Bonlieu library is presenting an exhibition on the ties that have long combined Belgian comic strips and animation, and the CITIA permanent exhibition is showing off some Benelux creations Last but not least, four short animated movies from Flanders are selected for the International Competition for Animated Shorts: Dji vou veu volti (Benoît Feroumont), Bully Beef (Wendy Morris), Absence (Isabel Bouttens) and With My Quantum Stroke (Pieter Vanluffelen). Two films take part in the Student Short Competition: Administrators (Roman Klochkov) and Death's Job (Johan Pollefoort and Levi Tack). Sandy Claes' Bruised is selected for the International Panorama.