‘Trolls Band Together’ Brings Back Boys Band’s Culture to Ecstatic Annecy Fans in Exclusive Sneak Peek

Guy Lodge Film Critic A lacquered Czech period piece with surprisingly topical interests at its core, “We Have Never Been Modern” rather ambitiously borrows its title from a key text by the late French philosopher Bruno Latour — in which he argued that humanity’s distinction between nature and our own culture is a wholly modern development, and one we’d do best to move away from. While Latour’s ideas can indeed be mapped onto a story that charts modern society’s fixation on human advancement against its rejection of human difference, Matěj Chlupáček’s gripping, gleamingly produced second feature isn’t as academic as all that: Ultimately a humane message movie planting flags for both women’s liberation and queer rights, this Karlovy Vary competition premiere could easily resonate with festival and arthouse audiences away from home turf.

Norman Reedus is back in the world of The Walking Dead and AMC dropped its first sneak peek scene of the spinoff The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon. Watch the teaser in the video posted above!

So many stars stepped out for Kenzo‘s fashion show in Paris, France!

and as TheWrap first reported, Marvel Studios and Universal are sitting out next month’s Comic-Con, according to insiders.Paramount will be making the trek down to San Diego and returning to Comic-Con to promote the upcoming animated film “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem” which has been generating positive buzz and strong word of mouth since it screened at Annecy in France. In 2022, Paramount promoted “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” at the convention and was one of the standouts at con.The writer’s strike, along with a potential strike by SAG-AFTRA, is making it tough for studios and TV networks to show up to the annual convention without product and performers to promote their projects.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Olivia Colman, Antonio Banderas, Rachel Zegler and Emily Mortimer are in talks to join the cast of “Paddington in Peru,” the third opus of the beloved bear’s adventures. Set to start filming on July, the third installment film will also star Hugh Bonneville, Julie Walters, Jim Broadbent, Madeleine Harris and Samuel Joslin. Ben Whishaw and Imelda Staunton will also be back as the voices of Paddington and Aunt Lucy, respectively. Filming locations will include the UK, Peru and Colombia. The movie will mark the feature film directorial debut of Dougal Wilson, and reteams Studiocanal with Heyday Films following their collaboration on the first two films of the Paddington franchise. Studiocanal is fully financing and will distribute in the UK, France, Germany, Benelux, Poland, Australia and New Zealand as well as through partners in China and Japan. Sony Pictures will distribute in the USA, Canada and other key international territories including Latin America.

Olivia Colman, Antonio Banderas, Rachel Zegler, and Emily Mortimer are all in talks to star in the long-awaited movie threequel Paddington In Peru. The quartet will join series favorites Ben Whishaw and Hugh Bonneville, who are set to return.

Pharrell Williams is making Louis Vuitton happy. The musician — who was named the artistic director of the French fashion house in February — unveiled his first collection with the luxury label on Tuesday, June 20. 

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent ANNECY — Bathed by gorgeous sun, the Annecy International Animation Film Festival and MIFA market came of age as a major industry and artistic event last week at the fairy-tale looking town nestling in the laps of the French Alps.  Takeaways from this year’s extraordinary edition, which ran June 11-17: Annecy Blasts Attendance Records The Annecy Festival and MIFA market smashed prior attendance figures to smithereens, recording 15,820 accreditations, 20% up on last year’s then all-time record of 13,200. That reflects “the extraordinary dynamism of the animation industry; more and more countries producing: our support of a lot of talents in emerging countries who want to come, of course; the [year-round outreach] in terms of meetings, and the official selection,” Mickaël Marin, CEO of the Festival and MIFA organizer CITIA, told Variety. “The festival was a great success, in its record numbers of attendance, exhibition booths and companies and dynamism and sensation of an extraordinary energy,” agrees Olivier Lelardoux, Blue Spirit Studio.  

France’s Annecy International Animation Film Festival has unveiled the prize winners of its biggest edition to date, running from June 11 to 17.

This eye-catching, dimension-traveling adventure might be aimed at kids, but there’s plenty here for adults who grew up believing the possibilities of animation might be endless. Now that Disney has done its best to persuade us otherwise, Benoît Chieux’s fabulous Sirocco and the Kingdom of Air Streams is here as a palate-cleanser, tucking away a tender story of love and loss in an insanely imaginative psychedelic brainstorm. If Matt Groening and Miyazaki took magic mushrooms and watched The Beatles’ Yellow Submarine together, they could conceivably come up with a movie to match this.

Emiliano Granada As Annecy rounds the final bend on its biggest edition to date, with a tantalizing promise of a brighter future for animation in much of Europe, Marjolaine Perreten’s 29-minute film “Pebble Hill” (“La Colline aux cailloux”), part of its TV Films competition,  has been one of the multiple gems to come out of it.  Minimalist in design, a trademark of the young Swiss filmmaker’s unique style, the animation, which has already won an award at Hamburg’s Mo & Friese Kinder Kurzfilm Festival, is charming and tender, the 29-minute film, produced by renowned Swiss production company Nadasdy Film in Geneva, a producer on “No Dogs or Italians Allowed,” and France’s Les Films du Nord, tells the story of a family of shrews that after loosing their home due to the breaking of an upstream dam embark on a journey alongside an old shrew to find the Pebble Hill. 

AniMela, India’s first-ever international festival for animation, VFX, XR, gaming and comics (AVGC-XR), has revealed dates for its inaugural edition in 2024. The festival is backed by India’s Aniverse and Visual Arts Foundation (AVAF) in partnership with Annecy Festival, France. AVAF is a not-for-profit organization founded by Kireet Khurana, Archana Trasy, Anne Doshi, Neha Jain and Tehzeeb Khurana to promote animation and other visual arts in India. The inaugural edition will take place Jan. 18-21, 2024 in Mumbai. AniMela has also confirmed leading leading South Asian player Hungama as the event’s digital media partner. Hungama offers content in more than 20 South Asian and international languages and boasts some 87 million music and video monthly streaming users.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Netflix, the world’s preeminent animation producer by production volume, outlay and awards, has set out a roadmap at Annecy for how it is looking to invest in the future of animation. Sketched by John Derderian and Karen Toliver, Netflix animation heads of series and film respectively, the gameplan takes in building on Netflix’s strengths, in adult animation, and genre and anime in series; maintaining a vast diversity of shows and movies; and looking in every project for a creator’s vision which Netflix will seek to connect with the right audience, at the right price. Derderian and Toliver talked to Variety at France’s Annecy Animation Festival whose Netflix’s panel this Wednesday June 14, From Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget to Blue Eye Samurai – See What’s Next @ Netflix, promises to be one of Annecy’s most talked-about highlights.

Illumination founder Chris Meledandri has confirmed he is working on new projects with Pharrell Williams and Pierre Coffin at the Annecy International Film Festival.

Naman Ramachandran Illumination founder and CEO Chris Meledandri was presented with the Annecy International Film Festival’s lifetime accreditation Golden Ticket on Wednesday. In a surprise appearance, two-time Oscar nominee and Grammy-winning global superstar Pharrell Williams presented Meledandri with the festival’s honor. Meledandri is the creative producer behind “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” the Despicable Me, Minions, Sing and The Secret Life of Pets franchises, and the upcoming action comedy, “Migration.” Williams, a longtime creative partner with Illumination, earned his first Academy Award nomination for his blockbuster song “Happy” from the studio’s “Despicable Me 2.”

Guillermo del Toro was given a rock star welcome at the Annecy International Animation Festival on Tuesday as he took to the stage to discuss his life long obsession with animation.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent “The Inseparables,” Jérémie Degruson’s ambitious animated feature competing this week at Annecy festival, has been sold to a raft of territories by Octopolis and nWave. Based on an original idea by Joel Cohen and Alec Sokolow, the Oscar-nominated writers of “Toy Story,” “The Inseparables” follows the misadventures of Don, a runaway puppet with a boundless imagination and, DJ Doggy Dog, an abandoned stuffed animal toy in need of a friend. Don and DJ Doggy Dog cross paths in Central Park and pair up against all odds for an epic adventure of friendship in New York City. The film was penned by Bob Barlen and Cal Brunker. Budgeted at $25 million, “The Inseparables” was produced by nWave Studios in Belgium, Octopolis in France and A Contracorriente Films in Spain.

Marta Balaga Disney Branded Television and Disney Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) looks set to reveal a slew of new titles at France’s Annecy Animation Festival. Apart from “Disney Junior’s Ariel,” a new series inspired by “The Little Mermaid,” pre-school adventure series “Magicampers” has also been greenlit.  Set at a day camp for magical creatures – its protagonists, Darly and Loomis, are half-pig and half-Pegasus, and half-donkey and half-unicorn – and created by Obie Scott Wade, it’s set to premiere globally on Disney+ and Disney Junior next year.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” is currently lighting up the box office (it’s already grossed as much as the original film did in its entire run and the sequel has only been out for two weeks), another, slipperier element of the “Spider-Verse” has just emerged at the Annecy International Film Festival and Market in France: “The Spider Within,” a new short film that is unlike anything we’ve experienced in the Spider-Verse yet.The Sony-produced film focuses on what happens when Miles Morales (once again played by Shameik Moore) starts to feel the pressure of his life as Spider-Man, which results in a scary, trippy little jaunt through his subconscious. It’s a really fascinating and moving little story, made possible by Sony Pictures Imageworks’ LENS (Leading and Empowering New Storytellers) program, which aims to “provide high-potential candidates from underrepresented groups an opportunity to gain valuable leadership experience.”TheWrap spoke to “The Spider Within” director Jarelle Dampier, who talked about where the idea of a horror-centered Miles Morales story came from, how his own sleep paralysis informed the short and being a part of the LENS program at Sony Pictures, which gives filmmakers from underrepresented groups the chance to tell new stories in the world of Sony Pictures Animation.

The 47th edition of Annecy International Film Festival opened on a defiantly upbeat note on Sunday evening just three three days after its picturesque lakeside home was rocked by a violent knife attack.