Annecy 2023 revealed the winners of the 32 project pitches selected among the 651 submitted this year.
Annecy Festival is a global event dedicated to animation, bringing together the most esteemed professionals from the sector to celebrate animation’s creative and diverse styles and techniques. Annecy’s MIFA (The International Animation Film Market) is the ultimate event in this sector. It enables meetings between authors, creators, and directors, with producers, distributors, and buyers, to contribute to this industry’s development.
Each year, the Mifa Pitches aim to showcase the best original animation film projects in development. The pitches are presently accepted in four categories — Feature Films, Short Films, TV Series & Specials and Digital Experiences, but are becoming more elaborate every year. With an international dimension, the Mifa Pitches make room for diversity and offer an eclectic selection, whether geographical, artistic, or technical. The selected authors present their projects to an audience of professionals and enthusiasts, in the hope of receiving future support.
Below are the winners of the 2023 Mifa Pitches:
Feature films
La Petite Cavale (On The Run)
Synopsis: Becoming a father is not easy! Especially for Cookie, a male penguin who cannot lay an egg. A volcanic eruption that upsets his New Zealand refuge puts an echidna egg in his path. What if he is the little one he has been waiting for?
Awards: Cristal Publishing Prize, SACD Prize, Ciclic Prize
Ogresse
Synopsis: A tragic musical comedy about an Ogresse who lives alone in the woods until a young man determined to kill her arrives and fatally wins her heart.
Awards: TitraFilm Prize, Ciclic Prize
Short films
Cuidadoras (Animation du Monde) [Caregivers]
Synopsis: Latin American immigrant women share their anecdotes about their lives as elderly caregivers in Spain and how over time they created a network that allows them to help other women in a similar situation.
Awards: Ciclic – Shortway Prize
La mujer parecida a mí (Animation du Monde) [The Woman Who Looked Like Me]
Synopsis: A man who remembers his previous life as a horse, or a horse who remembers his life as a man. Alone and wandering in the countryside, he arrives one night in a village. Interrupting a school play, he meets Tomasa. Both have a strange resemblance.
Awards: Studios Alhambra Prize
La Nuit des dameuses (The Night of the Groomers)
Synopsis: At the wheel of her snow groomer on the snowy slopes at the Italian border, Émilie sees strange shadows between the fir trees. Her loyalty will then be put to the test by her boss’ presence, who turns out to be anti-migrants.
Awards: SACD Prize
Le Jardin partagé (The Shared Garden)
Synopsis: Through two intersecting stories, we see a garden evolve over the seasons. This film tries to capture sparks of life. A colorful film and a story of transmission, in which nature is not reduced to the role of a mere background.
Awards: Ciclic Prize
Period Drama
Michaela is young and ready. However, when she finally gets her first period, it doesn’t feel the way it should. It is a nightmare. This short film is composed of four chapters, with plot points referencing the phases of the menstrual cycle. Michaela takes us on a surreal trip when she, much like an egg, matures.
Awards: Open Workshop Prize
Pie dan lo (Animation du Monde)
In 2020, a bulk carrier ship ran aground off the coast of Mauritius, causing the worst ecological disaster in the region. This short hand-animated documentary shows the impact of the event on local communities.
Awards: Folimage Prize – Young Talent Booster
Stigma
Synopsis: Bora, a shy 13-year-old girl, lives in Seoul with her hardworking single mom. When her uncle moves in to help out, Bora’s once peaceful world is disrupted by terrifying nightmares that drive her to attack the flowers she cares for with her mom. As Bora’s erratic behavior causes strain on their family, the root of her distress is finally uncovered.
Awards: Arte France Prize
What Comes at Night
Synopsis: A woman struggles in vain against insomnia. As the night progresses, provoking feelings of anxiety and powerlessness, she gets lost in a distorted spatio-temporal dimension. In that moment, a submerged memory resurfaces.
Awards: NEF Animation Prize
TV series & specials
Animal politique (The Ambush)
Synopsis: Deep inside the jungle, Jackie Woodson is running for her second term as Mayor of the small village of La Crosse. But when her campaign is blown off course by circumstance and opposition attacks, Woodson is prepared to do anything to hold on to power.
Awards: Disney+ Prize for a New Series
Faits divers
Synopsis: Using real headlines from the press as a starting point, the series conjures up fanciful stories to justify these headlines, which are often more compelling than the reality they are covering.
Awards: TitraFilm Prize
Garces (Bitches)
Synopsis: Jess and Alana, two best friends from Marseille, tell each other about their life as “trendy girls”, every day at the same table in the same café.
Awards: Ciclic Prize
Digital experiences
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Synopsis: Masses of women cross a vast desert heading towards the horizon. Arriving in front of an immense goddess of femininity, one of the women surrenders to an erotic trance and invites us to behold an intimate, poetic experience of female pleasure.
Awards: Francetv StoryLab Prize
Lumen
Synopsis: Lumen, a small luminous Animus, wakes up in a dark, rocky cave full of ancient symbols and magical elements. One day, the cave collapses and Lumen strives to get out with the only help from a group of fireflies. On the surface, Lumen discovers an immense, desertic universe inhabited by other luminous beings. From this moment on, Lumen starts a long journey to understand not only its life’s origin but also its destiny.
Awards: The Stereopsia Booster Prize
SACD was the official partner of the Short Film Pitches and Disney+ was the partner of the TV Series & Specials Pitches at Annecy 2023.
The Animation du Monde label was launched in 2015 to showcase creations from territories where animation is just emerging due to lack of industry, funding, or training. This label’s aims, present in each of the Mifa Pitch formats, are to give everyone an opportunity, widen our horizons, and discover incredible talents.
For each Pitch session organised during the Mifa, loyal partners reward authors and their projects through grants, residencies, pre-purchases or technical support. There is one common aim: to contribute to the projects’ development and offer them additional means so they can come to life.