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Sex, drugs and rock’n’roll were but three of the shared subjects animating the Annecy Animation Showcase, presented as part of the Marché du Film at last month’s Cannes Film Festival. Marking its fifth edition, this year’s work-in-progress spotlight imparted a decidedly adult flavor, with a preponderance of showcased titles tackling outré material for mature crowds.

“On the market side, adult-skewing projects are no longer a trend,” says Annecy chief Mickaël Marin. “The form is now well-established. Of course, global platforms have opened new doors and widened the field of possibilities, so we encourage financiers and broadcasters if not to take risks, then to at least explore new avenues beyond traditional family animation.”

Of the five projects presented at the Cannes showcase, “Hina is Beautiful,” from Japan’s Iwaisawa Kenji, and “Rock Bottom,” from Spain’s María Trénor, both deploy a similar, rotoscoped 2D style towards wildly different ends.

“Hina is Beautiful,” a new film from Japan’s Iwaisawa Kenji, director of the cult “On-Gaku: Our Sound”), headlines an Annecy Animation Showcase at this year’s Cannes’ Marché du Film.

The Showcase in general looks like a declaration of intentions from the world’s most important animation festival. Its shows heartfelt support for some of the world’s most original, redolent and sometimes riotous – think France’s Jul, Brazil’s Otto Guerra – adult animation auteurs of all ages, hailing from four corners of the earth.

All productions are works in progress, though production status varies radically from one title to another.

“Hina” looks to have largely flown under the international radar to date, which will make this year’s Showcase a must-attend after Iwaisawa burst onto the scene with left-of-field musical comedy “On-Gaku,” hailed by Variety as 2020’s “biggest dark horse in anime fandom.” If it’s half as...

Organized alongside the Annecy International Animation Film Festival and its MIFA market, Ventana Sur’s Animation! has announced the five Latin American titles that will comprise its 2022 Works in Progress strand, unspooling Nov. 28-Dec. 2 in Buenos Aires.

The section curates feature-length animation projects from Latin America and, since 2020, has expanded its platform, hosting productions from Spain and Portugal.

Brazen animation auteur Brazil’s Otto Guerra and co-director Tania Anaya will present buzz title “The Son Of A Bitch.” Guerra is no stranger to the event: His feature project “City Of Pirates” was an Annecy Works in Progress selection in 2017. “The Son Of A Bitch” stands as the most provocative of the bunch, promising to push the boundaries, something Guerra does well.

Another anticipated selection is “Sultana’s Dream” from Spanish director Isabel Herguera (“La Gallina Ciega”), named a talent to track by Variety in 2017. Galician producer-turned-director Chelo Loureiro, who recently...

Annecy, France—Walter Tournier’ “Small Town,” TV series “What Would Jesus Do?” and Gastón Gorali’s “Escape to India” are among five projects to be pitched on Wednesday June 13 at Mifa’s Animation!, a selection of winners at November’s Latin American animation co-production-sales market, held as part of Buenos Aires’ Ventana Sur.

In an alliance between Ventana Sur’s animation mini-mart and the Annecy festival, a showcase of Latin American animated features and TV projects were pitched in Buenos Aires last November. A jury selected four projects for the Animation! Focus @Mifa. A fifth –”Escape to India– has been added as a guest project.

In family comedy “Small Town,” Uruguayan stop-motion pioneer Tournier (“Selkirk”) directs a story set in a small town where its inhabitants have managed to combine the amount of methane expelled by the cows with porous stones in order to produce renewable energy. This implies a...

Two decades ago, there was hardly a Brazilian animation industry to speak of. Ten years back, a small handful of stalwart directors were struggling to gain international notoriety and impact TV, festivals and box offices domestically and abroad with low budgets and a lot of hard work. Today, Brazilian animation is thriving on all fronts, and in some cases, is even outpacing live-action in budget and ambition.

In 1951, Brazil’s first-ever animated feature, “Amazon Symphony,” was released; since that time 43 other toon features have joined its ranks. One feature every year-and-a-half is hardly anything to write home about, but according to Marta Machado of Brazilian animation house Otto Desenhos, 19 of those pictures have come in the last five years, and another 25 features are currently in production.

The clearest indicator of Brazil’s ascendance as an international animation force came in 2013 when Annecy, one of the world’s most important animation festivals and markets,...