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Now wrapping its fourth edition, the Annecy Animation Festival’s artistic residency program shepherds selected titles on a development odyssey, hosting filmmakers for a three-month stint at Annecy’s Papeteries Image Factory for tailored, individual mentoring sessions related to screenwriting and graphic development.

The program offers those most precious gifts all – time to explore and grounds to experiment.

Once done, the filmmakers can bring their projects to market, while the festival never lets past laureates fall too far out of sight. A graduate of the residency’s inaugural edition in 2021, director Upamanyu Bhattacharyya later brought his feature “Heirloom” to Annecy’s Cannes showcase in 2023 and will launch production this very month.

“We hope the film will be advanced enough for a Wip screening next year,” says Annecy Residency coordinator Géraldine Baché. “And then, of course, for a festival premiere in 2027!”

There are the three new titles Annecy hopes to accompany...

Mexico’s massive presence as the country of honor at Annecy is no mean feat, taking organizer Pixelatl at least a year to put together the programs and secure the classic and recent short films to showcase.

“We had to speak to the widows of some of these animation artists and get their works restored,” says Pixelatl founder-ceo Jose Iñesta. Mexican film institute, Imcine, helped in the recovery of at least 11 shorts, some dating back from the 1930s.

For Annecy’s tribute to Mexico, Iñesta teamed up with seven renowned Mexican animation pros: Sofía Carrillo, Ana Cruz, Lucía Cavalchini, Tania de León Young, Lourdes Villagómez, Christian Bermejo and Jordi Iñesta, to curate and organize the nine programs comprising 88 short films, 39 of which are directed by women and 29 produced by Imcine.

While Imcine’s incentives program allots some funds to animation, they are small sums divvied up among live action, animation and other formats.

Described as a “hugely ambitious feature film slate,” El Estudio and Morbido are launching The Latin House of Horror, and Variety brings us the scoop this afternoon.

The Latin House of Horror will be dedicated to “channeling the voices of a powerful new generation of genre artists emerging in Spain and, most especially, Latin America.”

A six-movie slate was announced out of Cannes this week. Mexico’s Sula Films will produce the series, with Film Factory Entertainment handling world sales.

Variety reports, “The slate is designed to supercharge genre production in Latin America, in ambition, profile and exports, just as Filmax’s Fantastic Factory did a generation ago in Spain.”

The slate of films and filmmakers for The Latin House of Horror includes…

9 Steps (Marissa Crespo, Moisés Romera)

Sara, a lonely girl with nyctophobia, receives mysterious notes and candies from the abandoned apartment above, leading her to confront a witch...

Production houses El Estudio, Morbido, and Sula announced a grande six-film slate of Spanish language horror films this week during Marche du Film.   Dubbed The Latin House of Horror the lineup of filmmakers include some who will be making their debut and sophomore film debuts. Others, despite their young years, could already be considered elder statesmen of genre filmmaking.   Of the half dozen five are based in Mexico. The lone Spanish filmmakers are Marissa Crespo and  Moisés Romera who will make a feature length version of their award-winning 2017 short, 9 Steps.    There are a lot of familiar names in the Mexican contingent of filmmakers on this opening slate. Animator Sofía Carrillo is finally moving into feature length with her new film,...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

El Estudio and Morbido are launching The Latin House of Horror, a hugely ambitious feature film slate channelling the voices of a powerful new generation of genre directors – and indeed writers – emerging in Spain and, most especially, Latin America.

The slate is designed to supercharge genre production in Latin America, in ambition, profile and exports, just as Filmax’s Fantastic Factory did a generation ago in Spain, El Estudio producer Enrique López Lavigne told Variety.

Mexico’s Sula Films, headed by Mexican producer Alejandro Sugich (“Los Hermanos Salvador”), will also produce the series. Vicente Canales’ Film Factory Entertainment is handling world sales.

Announced at Cannes, the House’s first slate of six movies features established talent such as Adrián García Bogliano, a founding figure of modern Argentine scarefare, now based out of Mexico; and Isaac Ezban, who rapidly established a reputation for films wrapped in hauntingly surreal scenarios: Think “The Incident” and “The Similars.

Not long after winning multiple Oscars for “The Shape of Water,” Guillermo del Toro visited his hometown of Guadalajara, Mexico, where he discussed ways to support the local industry.

Aside from launching two programs for Mexican animation talent to attend either the world-class Gobelins School in Paris through an Animexico scholarship or any film school around the world with the Beca Jenkins-Del Toro scholarship, he brought his celebrated “Monsters” collection of paintings, drawings, maquettes and artifacts to his beloved city. Most importantly, he founded animation studio Taller del Chucho, with his alma mater, the University of Guadalajara, as the lead investor.

He chose seven people with extensive experience in animation — Rita Basulto, Sofía Carrillo, Karla Castañeda, René Castillo, León Fernández, Luis Téllez and Juan Medina — to help transform the Taller del Chucho into a world-class studio, train a new generation of talent and develop IP.

With this move, he came...

The Urban Chestnut Beer poured freely (because it was free) at the Urban Chestnut Microbrewery in the Grove neighborhood inSt. Louis last night. It was the closing-night party for the 26th Annual Whitaker St. Louis International Film Festival where the slate of audience-choice and juried-competition winners were announced to an attentive crowd. Sliff presented four major filmmaking awards during the course of the 2017 festival: Charles Guggenheim Cinema St. Louis Award to Dan Mirvish; Women in Film Award to Pam Grier; Lifetime Achievement Awards to Sam Pollard; and the Contemporary Cinema Award to Marco Williams.

Tribeca Film Institute’s If/Then Short Documentary Pitch Competition

Tribeca Film Institute, in partnership with Sliff, sought short documentary projects by filmmakers living and working in the Midwest for its new If/Then Short Documentary Program, made possible with support from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Five projects were invited to enter...