Annecy Festival &#8211; The Animated Thrills &#038; Chills

The Annecy International Animation Festival returns in June 2026 with a programme that refuses to play it safe. This edition, under the banner of “Animated Thrills & Chills,” welcomes every genre that makes a heart race: horror, science fiction, fantasy, thriller, and western. It boldly affirms what animation can achieve at its most ambitious.

As Marcel Jean, Artistic Director of the Annecy Festival says:

“As we all know, animation isn’t a genre in itself! Horror, science fiction, fantasy, thrillers, westerns – every genre has its place in the world of animation film. This year, the Annecy Festival explores the vast realm of cinema that sends shivers down our spines with fear, delight, angst or adventure.”

This year’s thematic framework is more than curatorial decoration. It reflects a genuine critical argument. The animated form has long been underestimated as a vehicle for tension, dread, wonder, and visceral emotion.

Annecy 2026 intends to correct that record with force by spicing up the industry landscape with an eclectic mix of feature films, short film programs, and expert-led round tables.

The Feature Films: Four Worlds, Four Visions

The feature film selection anchors the programme with anticipation and retrospection, representing the cutting edge of global animation:

Jim Queen – Directed by Marco NGUYEN and Nicolas ATHANÉ (French Theatrical Release: 17th June 2026). The film centres on a queer superhero and has generated significant buzz before its release, partly because it inspires one of the festival’s key round tables on representation in animation.
Edge of Time – A high-profile preview boasting the programme’s most starry directorial pedigree. This collaboration unites Shinichiro WATANABE, Wei LI, Shuhei MORITA, and Ming WENG, bringing together talents whose combined influence spans decades of landmark animation across Japan and Asia.
Pilgrims – A compelling preview by South Korean director Pyoungkang HEO, promising contemplative, emotionally rich storytelling that distinguishes recent Korean animation internationally.
Mars Express – The acclaimed 2023 science-fiction noir by Jérémie PÉRIN. For those who missed its theatrical run, the film deserves to be seen on the largest screen. Its inclusion signals the festival’s effort to frame the short film programmes within a broader discussion of animation and genre cinema.

Eight Short Film Programmes: The Architecture of Genre

The festival’s ambitions come through most fully in the eight curated short film programmes, divided into thematic chapters that delve into specific emotional and stylistic territories.

Now, It’s Horror’s Turn

This programme makes no apologies for its intent, focusing on spine-chilling thrills and unfortunate protagonists trapped in dark, often absurdist misfortune. This section values craft and strangeness over mere shock, including:

Invocation (Robert MORGAN), Last Order (Hangjin JO), Teeth (Daniel Benjamin GRAY, Tom CJ BROWN), The Devil Light (Gervasio CANDA, Patricio PLAZA, Paula BOFFO), Worm (Mattis DOVIER, Yoann DOVIER), Flesh of God (Patricio PLAZA), and Sisowath Quay (Stéphanie LANSAQUE, François LEROY).

Disturbing Weirdness

Taking a psychological approach, this section explores cinematic territory where a familiar environment shifts into the unknown—uncanny, vertiginous, and quietly wrong, rendering the domestic threatening. It features:

Stanley (Suzie TEMPLETON), Wander to Wonder (Nina GANTZ), On the Other Side of the Woods (Anu-Laura TUTTELBERG), Hilary (Anthony HODGSON), Max (Émilien PICHON), and Beast (Hugo COVARRUBIAS).

Anime Conquering the World

Highlighting the global aesthetic influence of Japanese animation, this program gathers eleven films from Asia and Europe. Reflecting how thoroughly anime has reshaped contemporary animation’s visual grammar worldwide, the selection includes:

Includes Rush Order (Kris THEORIN), The Resolution of Time (Wenqian GAO), Graviton (Emil SHIRAN), and the Dead by Daylight short Sinister Grace (Stefan FALCONER, Mathieu DURAND, Richard PAYNE).

The War, Yes Sir!

Animation as a vehicle for the amplified emotions of tragedy. This curated selection confronts the genre’s core contradictions—heroism and cowardice, violence and tragedy, individual experience and collective catastrophe—featuring works that linger long in the memory:

The Trenches (Claude CLOUTIER), Paths of Hate (Damian NENOW), Tank (Raoul SERVAIS), Uncanny Valley (Paul WENNINGER), and Lettres de femmes (Augusto ZANOVELLO).

Death Steals the Limelight

A selection of gems where animators confront death and mortality through ridicule, knowing wit, and star-billing, treating it as a character to be interrogated, mocked, and ultimately disarmed:

Dji. Death Fails & Dji. Death Sails (Dmitri VOLOSHIN), Valentino and the Skull (Ivan SIERRA), and The Death, Dad & Son (Denis WALGENWITZ, Vincent PARONNAUD).

It’s a Good Storyline

Taking a literary turn, this selection gathers works that gleefully adapt, subvert, and reinvent established narratives, celebrating animation’s complex, transformative relationship with source material:

- Cinderella Penguin (Janet Perlman) and the Revolting Rhymes adaptation (Jakob SCHUH, Jan LACHAUER).

Little Chills

Designed for younger audiences, this section addresses children’s relationship with fear, recognizing and respecting it instead of sanitizing it. Ghosts, monsters, and strange creatures fill this selection, serving as sources of fascination rather than dread:

Land of the Heads, A Mouse’s Tale, and The Boogey & The Witch.

Focus: Dreaming of Asia

Standing apart as a dedicated retrospective, this section honors the body of work by Stéphanie LANSAQUE and François LEROY. For over two decades, this duo has built films incorporating Asian folklore and reality into fantasy and horror. Their six cohesive works, spanning China, Vietnam, and Cambodia, feature:

Goodbye, Mister Chu, Mei Ling, Red River, Song Hong, Cold Coffee, Cadavre exquis, and The Awakening of the Insects.

Industry Dialogues: Round Tables and Masterclasses

To complement the screenings, Annecy 2026 hosts three vital discussions exploring the ideas behind the images:

Between Sci-Fi and Horror, Animation of All Genres: A roundtable examining how animated genre cinema is created, featuring Jérémie HOARAU (Lastman, Season 2) and Jérémie PÉRIN (Mars Express).
Queers and Superheroes: A deep dive into representation and superhero storytelling. Uniting filmmaker Avid LIANGOREN with Jim Queen directors Marco NGUYEN and Nicolas ATHANÉ, this conversation promises to be among the festival’s most politically engaged.
Masterclass: An intimate session and a rare chance to explore the poetic, cross-cultural storytelling of Stéphanie LANSAQUE and François LEROY, whose work defies easy categorisation.