Annecy will soon be opening its doors to 192 competition films from 40 countries. Among these are five graduation films from Denmark, showing proof of a growing talent-mass in Danish animation. The Film Institute will be launching a promotional DVD at Annecy 09 to highlight this tendency. Director Dorte Bengtson will be meeting with a top international audience for the second time in less than a month, when the French Alps from 8 June provide the backdrop to Annecy's International Animation Film Festival – only a few weeks after her graduation film "The Sylpphid" showcased in Cannes' Cinéfondation. Five talents in competition
"The Sylpphid", a playful fable about a skinny little girl with big dreams, was one of last year's lauded graduation films from Denmark's National Film School. Another graduate from 2008, Casper "Cav" Bøgelund, will be competing with "Big Man", which lends its title to the film's central figure, a freak of a man who is huge as a tree, strong as an ox but has the mind of a child. From the Animation Workshop in Viborg, Denmark's other programme for animation education, come the three remaining competitors: "Katrine" by Malik Bruun, "Sheep" by Nicole Gallagher and Marie Thorhauge, and finally "Leitmotif" by Jeanette Nørgaard, Marie Jørgensen, Marie Thorhauge and Mette Ilene Holmriis. All three films result from the Animation Workshop's programme for Character Animation.Showing out of competition are two heavyweights in feature film, the satirical "Journey to Saturn" by Craig Frank, Thorbjørn Christoffersen and Kresten Vestbjerg Andersen, and Thomas Borch Nielsen's "Sunshine Barry & the Disco Worms".Craig Frank is also in competition with two advertising films on waste and global warming.Meet the Danes at Lake Annecy
The Danish Film Institute, in close collaboration with the Danish animation industry, will this year be launching a promotional campaign to push knowledge about Danish animation – a field that is making a strong showing these years with diversity in formats, artistic innovation and wide international distribution. A DVD with clips from Danish animation films will be distributed during the festival's market platform MIFA, and the Film Institute are hosts at a social event for international film professionals on 10 June at Lake Annecy.
For further information:Festival website
Annecy International Animated Film Festival (8-13 June)DFI Factsheet
The Sylpphid/ Sylfidden
Journey to Saturn/ Rejsen til Saturn
Sunshine Barry & the Disco Worms/ Disco OrmeneNational Film School of Denmark
Big Man/ For stor
www.filmskolen.dkThe Animation Workshop
www.animwork.dk
Animation special in FILM#66, May 09
Bigger isn't always better
To all the Sylpphid of the world
Cheeky on the outside, moral at the core
Animation education
New pixel politics
Danish Film Institute
Christian Juhl Lemche (feature films and promotional campaign), +45 2148 8522, christianjl@dfi.dk
Anne Marie Kürstein (shorts), +45 4041 4697, kurstein@dfi.dk