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Mexico had the privilege of being the guest of honor at the Annecy Festival, the most important in the world for animation. There were artists of the stature of Guillermo del Toro or Jorge Gutiérrez, who designed the poster for this edition of the festival. In this episode of the Carrusel de las Artes we talked with two directors of the animated short film competition: the Mexican Rita Basulto and the Argentine Patricio Plaza.
The 48th edition of the Annecy International Animated Film Festival was preceded by a drama that shook the city and all of France: the knife attack in which four children and two adults were injured on June 8. But the city’s response was to keep the festival, which received massive support from artists invited to the event and fans of animated films.
Annecy, in the heart of the French Alps, paid tribute to Mexico by raising it as the guest of honor country in 2023. Mexico is a young industry that has grown exponentially in recent years, thanks to the confluence of various factors.
“In Latin America, and in Mexico in particular, there has been a very rapid development of animated cinema. Also, the platforms have highlighted the weight of the Latin American market, and the need to produce content for the Hispanic public. But, in addition, there have been well-known Mexican figures working in animation and in Hollywood such as Guillermo del Toro, Jorge Gutiérrez, Alejandro González Iñárritu, etc. Today Mexican talent is recognized. And to that we must add the Mexican culture, which is one of the strongest and richest in the world”, explained Marcel Jean, the artistic director of the Annecy Festival.
The Annecy Festival gave a special space to animation made in Guadalajara, one of the most important artistic poles in Mexico.
“There is a tradition of stop motion animation and puppetry that has developed there in recent years. Guadalajara has been a very powerful artistic center for centuries. The largest book fair in Spanish and the Guadalajara film festival also take place there. All this has contributed to forging our own style, which we were interested in showing this year in Annecy”, added Jean.
a colorful poster
Mexico was of course the protagonist of the Annecy 2023 Festival poster, the work of the renowned Mexican artist Jorge Gutiérrez. The author of ‘The Book of Life’ or more recently ‘Maya and the Three’, who was inspired by Mexican traditions and culture to adorn all the festival spaces.
“I wanted to capture what happens at night in Annecy. The city shines, with the talent of the artists who are here and their stories. So I represented Mexico arriving on a trajinera (boat) to celebrate with the world. The main figure is a catrina, because in Mexico the idea of death makes us celebrate life. On the poster there are many fighters, because I think that illustrators are fighters, there are pre-Hispanic characters, musicians from the north and south of Mexico. That is to say, that all the good things about Mexico are in a small boat that arrives in France”, explained Gutiérrez.
Artists from Mexico and Latin America
Nearly 250 artists made up the Mexican delegation during the seven days of the festival. Oscar winner Guillermo del Toro made a brief appearance to deliver a master class, receive a special award from the festival, and champion animation artists.
The Annecy Festival organizes hundreds of events, screenings and various competitions in feature films and shorts every year. In this category was Rita Basulto, a director with extensive experience presenting her latest film ‘Smoke’, based on a story of the same name. The film, produced by the Taller del Chucho in Guadalajara, narrates the tragic fate of a child in a concentration camp using the ‘stop motion’ technique.
The Annecy festival also invited artists that go against the current, who are looking for other languages compared to the dominant models. This is the case of the Argentine Patricio Plaza, in the short film competition.
Plaza has written and directed three animated films. His latest work is ‘Carne de Dios’, a short film set in the 16th century about a Catholic friar who suffers from a strange illness. An indigenous healer performs a rite that has unexpected effects on the body and mind of the religious. ‘Flesh of God’ was produced by Ojo Raro, a platform that develops dissident, disruptive projects and silenced stories, as a counterproposal to the most conservative models and languages.
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