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Comments on Annecy ' 99 by:
	Comments on the festival:
	Ted Sieger (Switzerland)
	Bob Godfrey (Great Britain)
	Paul Driessen (Netherlands)
	Short film reviews:
	Bärbel Neubauer (Germany)
	Myron Emery (USA)
	Thomas Renoldner (Austria)

Ted Sieger (Switzerland)

The festival is of course a most exciting and shining event in animation, especially in combination with the MIFA. I hadn't been for a few years and the division and at the same time the entwinement of the two sectors (Money & Art ?) is getting more and more dominant. Maybe I'm naiv, but I still think, there must be a fair and sensible way to combine the two. I also think the independent authors and creators should network together better; I don't think that it should be only the producers taking about money (the animators usually talk about the lack of it...), financing, rights, shares of profit.... At Annecy/MIFA there was a lot of headhunting going on and the future of animation looks bright in many ways. I did actually get a chance to watch some films and some (all prize winners) were quite inspiring. And of course the lake was great to swim in. Ted Sieger, Switzerland Author and creator of "Ted Sieger's Wildlife", does animated TV serials, comics and picture books.

Bob Godfrey (GB)

One thousand seats are always full for the competition screenings. This is a town accustomed to animation since 1961. The first thing you notice is the audience - shouting, whistling, throwing paper darts, a fearsome creature, alive and volatile, it will love you or hate you and will let you know. I am reminded of a pop concert or perhaps a bull fight. The animation festival broke away from the Cannes festival because we were tired of being the poor relation of live action films. On reflection and on the evidence before me here in Annecy 1999 I think we can stride into the new millenium proud and confident we are nobody's poor relation.

Paul Driessen (Netherlands)

Annecy '99 for me will go down in history as one of the good ones. Many shorts of excellence in competition in a variety of styles, which proved that both simple and sophisticated techniques could still, compete easily with one another, when handled by talented artists. What I have seen of the student competition was a stimulating experience, but the selection of commissioned films was rather disappointing. It seemed there was far too little offered to the festival to make an interesting program of it. Also the awarded TV films seemed very conventional, with the exception of its Grand Prix "A Viagem". Annecy offered a large and attractive non competitive program this year which I appreciated specially as a teacher, since it educates and inspires a large number of people who would not have the opportunity to see these films elsewhere. Having the focus on Japan was of course a good idea, but opening the Festival with a very long and extremely agressive Japanese feature I would not call a wise choice. It satisfied only the taste of part of the audience and it certainly does not represent what Annecy is all about. Many of us were too exhausted to appreciate the rest of the evening's program. One thing I really regret is that Annecy, more than any other Animation Festival I know, seems to favor the animation establishment, rather than welcoming the new and the curious. It is always an ongoing struggle to try to smuggle in young and excited students, who are eager to be introduced to producers and favorite animators, into the MIFA and other meeting points and events, in particular into the closing party. I am sure that most of us would be very willing to share less extravagant meals with a larger and happier animation community, if that would be the price to pay. Abandoning this policy of exclusion would also help the staff of the Festival organization, which I find extremely efficient and helpful, to relieve them from the strain to find solutions for all these people desperate to get admitted to these events. Annecy's closing ceremony, usually not a flawless procedure at most Festivals, went very smoothly this year. I have only praise for the very capable presentators and the professional taste of the juries, highlighted in the NFB's "When the Day Breaks" as the delightful winner of the Festival. Paul Driessen, France, 1999

Bärbel Neubauer (Germany)

Reviewing some short films I enjoyed some of the programmes of this years Annecy very much. Both the programmes of the competition of short films and the competition of films for TV included some works I brought home in thoughts after the festival. Now I often think of them, giving me inspiration and good feelings. Among them are "Humdrum" by Peter Peake, "Fugue" by George Schwitzgebel, "The Night Of the Carrots" by Priit Parn, "Stumpytrunk's Pebbles" by Frederic Clemencon and Christophe Barrier. As in all his films also in "Fugue" George Schwizgebel uses this thrilling kind of light that is typical for his work. In "Fugue" it is not included in a conventional story, but it follows rhythmical, mathematical, musical elements, using repetitions and variations, as the title says. It is a transcendent fugue in image and sound, going across the border of simple perception or imagination. As a spectator you are carried through variations of some subjects, like stills, reduced and very skillfully and beautifully painted and animated. Suddenly you find yourself within a flood of shining colours of a landscape. Then you are in the twilight and under the huge movement of a sky. Now you move like a flying being - free like in a dream, now you change, flowing into a different space, another subject: a man and a woman walk on the ground, you see them from above.. The film starts and ends with variations of the same images: abstract squares and exercises in yellow, red and blue, and a person sitting at a table looking towards a window. The mathematical structure of the whole work makes it free from any pathos - it is as pure as a fugue should be. "Humdrum" [foto left side] is a film with a musical character, too, although it is story-telling. The soundtrack consists just of the dialogue between the two characters and some atmosperic effects. The images are the stylized shadows of two friends who are bored and decide to pass the time with playing shadow puppets. The film is a very charming, entertaining, and humorous poem. It was very refreshing for me to watch the funny and at the same time poetic story and to enjoy the reduced and elaborate film language of Peter Peake. The rhythm of the work is perfect, the image fantastic - not only the reduced figures, but also the room and the furniture which flirt with the audience.

I saw Priit Parns "Night Of The Carrots" [foto right side] again - every time I see it, I enjoy it, every time I see it I discover new aspects. The film has so many levels, so many stories, so many aspects. It is so universal and so funny and angry in all elaborate details and ideas... to describe it, one would have to write a book. Every time I see the rabbits making Voodo via computer I feel so good. Priit's sight of the world and of society - that everything is a strange coincidence of coincidences, composed of different interests or disinterests of people who happen to be connected with each other, the result being absurd - Priit Parn's huge artistic and philosophical work makes me feel all right. The story of the film, the places and the figures were created by fantasy, sensitivity, intelligence and critical thought. "Les Cailloux de Tetempoire" (Stumpytrunk's Pebbles) by Frederic Clemencon and Christophe Barrier was shown in the last TV films' competition. In the catalogue it is described: "puppets and sets in fresh fruit and vegetables." This film is indeed very refreshing. The main figure is an elephant made of a pear: the stem of the pear is the trunk of the elphant, when he speaks, the stem circles round. Another figure is an exotic bird - very charming and very funny, too. It is made of a radish, very fresh with it's translucent white of the inner part of the fruit and the outer part's dark pink. The wings of the bird are made simply by cutting the sides of the radish like the Asian ways of decorating food work. The wings move according to the expression of the bird. The heads and the tails of some of the animals are additionally worked out with several kinds of curled salad, onion tops and other vegetable material. I did not understand the dialogue of the film - it was in French only - but the mood was transported so well by the image only, (also the voices were funny) that I enjoyed the film very much, and I could have watched the figures for a much longer time.

Myron Emery (USA)

General festival comments Annecy, indeed is a beautiful location fitting a cultural and aesthetic event such as this International Animation Festival. This appropriately pleasurable location is a perfect relief for the typical animator that spends countless hours in isolation producing work for the small as well as the large screen. Viewing magnificent work by fellow animators and taking time to commune with colleagues makes this an excellent place to recharge the creative batteries. Among the significant retrospective screenings featuring Japanese, Yugoslavian and films of Jean-Manuel Costa and the exhibit featuring Early Russian Animation Masters was exceptionally wonderful. ( Indeed an exhibition of master works.) Recognizing one of the origins of great animation through special exhibitions such as this reveals the foundation and framework of animation others can learn from and then venture beyond. Moving southwest geographically, another retrospective, the work of Alexandera Korejow of Poland is more modern, but equally masterful in accomplishment. Aleksandra Korejow's film poem of rhythmic fluid color reaches a state few other artists achieve with the technique of working directly under the camera. The artistry is consistently astonishing and inspirational. In Alexanderaís film, ideas emerge from the surface of the screen to become luminous wisps of organic abstraction and on occasion hints of illustrative imagery that create their own existence. This retrospective of films was a major highlight screening in the festival. Reviewing some short films s t o r y --- g r a p H i c Vuk Jevremovic's "Panther", a powerful animation, exhibits strong animation technique, contemporized and stylized in choreographed painterly actions. Blending techniques most often considered methods for producing static art traditionally seen in galleries and museum, this motion painting, this animation is inspired by R.M. Rilke's poem "Der Panther". Graphite markings and brush strokes of paint have an equal right to be seen, to perform and to be pleasurable stimuli to the eye and the mind. "Fugue" [foto left side] a painterly work by another sophisticated fine art talent, Georges Schwizgebel, is evidence that animation has the capacity to transport audiences to interesting mental experiences in unique and individual ways. When one thinks about story and the visual fantasy created from rejoicing in the pleasure of the graphic mark on the page, a film that must be mentioned is the winner of the JEAN-LUC XIBERRAS PRIZE FOR THE BEST FIRST FILM, "Chudovische"by Alexy Antonov. Bärbel Neubauer's "Feuerhaus", special mention for soundtrack, was a wise choice on the part of the jury. This unique film made in the tradition of Man Ray's "Rayograms" stands in an underrepresented category of abstract filmmaking at Annecy. Perhaps the unfortunate vocal disapproval of the uniformed audiences is an indicator of why animation art that explores terrain not bound to story is not likely to be present at Annecy. n e w   t e c h n o l o g y You cannot ignore "Bingo" [foto right side] the tour de force of animation and intelligent filmmaking from Chris Landreth and Alias/Wavefront. It does make you think and laugh..... uncomfortably. "Mask" by Piotr Karwas, a SPECIAL JURY PIZE winner, works nicely as a short commentary on personal identity and stands out as one of only a few computer animationís that is successful in its use of lighting. One example of new technologyís capacity to create images that not only simulate faux realists image but also work as a tool to produce other visual experiences, "Gas Planet"by Eric Darnnell with its hand made appearance is a powerful benchmark on the opposite end of the spectrum from "Bingo".

More Reviews of short films	Thomas Renoldner (Austria)

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