Apr 27, 2023

Annecy announces 2023 official competition and competition lineup

At a press conference hosted by Cnc, the organizers of Annecy announced the competition lineup for this year's festival, which will be held from 6-11-17.

The lineup was presented by CITI President Dominique Puthod, Annecy Director Mickaël Marin and Festival Artistic Director Marcel Jean.

In addition to revealing this year's competition films, the group also outlined several key highlights for the upcoming edition, including special screenings, ongoing sessions and studio presentations. We dive deeper into those events in tomorrow's article.

Today we focus on the official competition of the festival and the line-up of Contrechamp. According to the organizers of Annecy, it is one of the most competitive things they have ever seen.1

"It's not that we had more than in the past, but the important thing is that the average level was clearly higher than in the past few years."In other years, it was much easier to choose 10 films for official competition, but this year it was very difficult because there were a lot of people who deserved it. . In other years, other films that would definitely have participated in the competition."

As for the trend between submission and final selection this year, Jean was particularly proud of the diversity in the lineup. For example, this year's competition features the first Cameroonian film in the Sacred Cave of Daniel Minro and Cyril Masso. Liu Jian, who was supposed to compete in the film "Have a Nice Day" in 2017 but was banned by the Chinese government, will return to his latest art school 1994.

And nearly a quarter of this year's films come from female directors, the new best for Annecy.

"It's not close to parity yet," Jean admitted, explaining that one day the festival wanted to go there. "But it's much better than what it was, even recently, as it was five years ago.

Annecy will host several big Hollywood premieres this year. It's usually the case for studio fare because festival organizers want to spotlight films that are not already supported by a million dollar budget and a professional PR team. On top of that, Jean says that studios usually don't submit movies for the competition section, because there's little to be gained.

"Big budget films prefer special screenings. If $100 million film lost crystal to Crystal3 million film, that's not good for them at all. And if a映画1 billion movie wins, everything everyone says is that it should," he noted.

But even those big players outside the competition are often the main drivers of the festival in practical terms. Marketing money from large studios allows the festival to invite more independent, international and short filmmakers. Organizers can give more certifications, host more events for undervalued groups, and provide a non-competitive platform where small projects and works in progress can be shared with big dogs.

This year's official competition will feature a total of 23 films, with 11 in the main competition and 12 in Contrechamp.