Annecy Asia Animation Festival to Launch in 2019

Seoul will get animated with a new Annecy-branded festival to launch in September 2019.

The French animation festival will partner with South Korea’s SBA Animation Center and SK Broadband to create the new Annecy Asia Animated Film Festival.

The event will be held at the capital’s Digital Media City, where most South Korean networks are located, organizers said Tuesday in Paris.

The organizers were light on details, noting they are just in the early planning stages of the festival. For example, it remains to be seen if there will be a competition section.

“It’s an opportunity to deploy our brand and our vision of animation to another continent,” said Patrick Eveno, managing director of festival organizer CITIA. “Annecy is now an international label.” The Seoul festival will be “largely designated” for the general audience, Eveno added.

The dates are yet to be determined and will be arranged to be synergistic with the country’s largest K-Pop festival, organizers added.

“Most of the Asian countries have been good in the animation market, but there is not an international market that focuses on creativity and their productions in one spot, and that is why we leveraged the brand name of Annecy and their festival with Asia together,” said Hyung Chul, president of SBA Animation.

Evano added that conferences and master classes are envisioned as part of the program that will be unique to Annecy Asia, “particularly European professionals going to Seoul,” he said.

If there are special content programs, such as this year’s roundtable on Women in Animation, the content may be exported. However, “we also think we will have general and original content for the festival,” Evano said.

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