Annecy International Animated Film Festival provides opportunities to showcase
promising animation projects at all stages of production, and in past years South
Africa has had a variety of concepts in development accepted into the market’s
highly competitive pitching forums. But the real accolades are reserved for the
completed films screened as part of Annecy’s official selection, and this year three South African films have been accepted into competition in various categories.
In the Best TV Film category is Stick Man, the half-hour Christmas
special created by Triggerfish Animation and UK’s Magic Light Pictures for the BBC.
Screened on Christmas day in the UK, this stop-motion-style 3D piece is based on
the well-loved children’s book by Julia Donaldson.
“The Triggerfish team are thrilled that Stick Man is following the
tradition of the previous Magic Light films in being selected for Annecy,’ said South
African co-director Daniel Snaddon, who helmed the project along with London-
based director Jeroen Jaspaert.
In the Graduation Film category, a short entitled Arid has made industry history as the first African student film to be invited into Annecy. Created at Cape Town’s Animation School and directed by Charl van der Merwe, the short tells an evocative tale of a boy and a mysterious bull on a journey in the wilderness.
Lastly, there’s Naomi van Niekerk’s stop-motion short, ’n Gewone Blou
Mandagoggend (An Ordinary Blue Monday Morning). Inspired by the poem of
the same name by Ronelda Kamfer, the film was created for the Filmverse project,
which invites local animators to give visual life to well-loved Afrikaans poems.
Created out of sand, manipulated by hand and brush on a lightbox, this unusual film
is competing in the Short Film category. Van Niekerk, who studied puppetry in France before founding her multimedia studio, Dryfsand, together with composer Arnaud van Vliet said: “Getting into Annecy has been a distant dream and the fact that the first film I’ve made is accepted is a big surprise.’
All three local directors hope to represent their projects in person at Annecy taking place from 13 to 18 June 2016 in France.
For more information or to view the full official selection for Annecy 2016 visit the festival website.
