Passion Pictures Melbourne Wraps up Annecy Festival 2020

Although there is much to be gloomy about right now, the move online of this year’s Annecy Animation Festival has had the team at Passion Pictures Melbourne 'pretty chuffed' - except those who would ordinarily be up to their eyeballs in cheese, admiring Annecy’s spring-kissed lake. Passion Pictures had some of its own amongst the talented coterie including director Robert Wallace's (Parallel Teeth - represented by Passion Pics in Australia and Strange Beast everywhere else) raucously energetic campaign to end child marriage, Vow 'Rebellion', was selected for Commissioned Films alongside Jack Antoine Charlot’s masterpiece of motion capture ‘The Rest of My Days’, which craftily blurs the lines between the real and the virtual.

A few of the team who rated their 2020 festival faves are as follows:

- Adrian Oostergetel, head of CG, commented: “I loved diving into the Young Audiences category this year. There were some impressive narratives - and it was great to be able to enjoy the films with my kids while working from home! The standout for me, by quite a stretch, was ‘Archie’, from BAFTA-winning director Ainslie Henderson. Gorgeous use of stop-motion, a beautiful, moving score - this one tugged at the heartstrings. Great storytelling really can surpass even the most impressive use of technology.”

- Megan Plane, junior producer, said: “I was captivated by director Camila Kater’s mixed-media short film, ‘Carne’. Relating the personal experiences of five different women, she uses different techniques (stop-motion, 2D, claymation, amongst others) to evoke each individual tale, and blends them seamlessly. A really powerful conversation about women and their bodies told across different life stages.”

- Karlene van Opdorp, producer, concluded: “My pick is ‘Murder in the Cathedral’, from directors Matija Pisacic and Tvrtko Raspolic. A macabre tale, told in beautifully nuanced 2D animation. The carefully crafted illustrations, dark humour and clever scene transitions made this such a pleasure to watch.”