Agama Film animation studio participated in the 60th Anniversary International Animation Film Festival, which took place from June 15 to 30. Traditionally, the festival is held in the French city of Annecy, but this year, due to the coronavirus pandemic, the festival for the first time ever took place in an online format, as well as the MIFA film market, organized as part of the festival events.

Agama Film representatives took part in the Territory Focus online pitching and told the international audience about their projects and the process of their creation. All in all, 12 domestic animation studios took part in the pitching: Soyuzmultfilm, Steam Locomotive, Licensed Brands, Spa Animation, Vizart, AA Studio, Aeroplane, KinoAtis, Nashe Kino, Mercator, and Red Carpet Studio. VR-project "Under the Pillow" directed by Georgi Molodtsov and produced in co-production between Russia, Estonia and Belarus was also presented at the film market.

Festival events

Over three thousand films from 94 countries were before the festival jury this year. Many of the works touched on important and global themes of the modern world community, such as ecology and migration.

Traditionally, representatives of Russian animation appeared in the various sections of the festival program. The main feature film competition featured Konstantin Shchekin's "Fireball" from the "Vverkh!" studio and Andrey Khrzhanovsky's "Nos, or the Conspiracy of the 'Not Such'". Andrei Khrzhanovsky from the Shar Studio School. In the main short-film competition - "City Goat" by Svetlana Razgulyaeva, "My Galactic Twin Galaktion" by Sasha Svirsky, "Happiness" by Andrey Zhidkov, co-production of Russia and China by director Dmitry Geller "10,000 ugly ink blots".

The Perspectives section presented the animated film "Shall We Talk?" by Ekaterina Mikheeva, in the YoungAudiences section - "Bird Girl" by Ekaterina Nevostrueva and "Warm Star" by Anna Kuzina. In addition, the festival program included a section for student works (Graduation Films), where the animated films "Blimp of Unknown Direction" by Alexandra Galitskova and "Naked" by Kirill Khachaturov were screened, and a section for projects created to order (Commissioned Films), which presented the WWF and the singer Ivan Dorn's video "Dich".

Two Russian directors were awarded at the end of the festival. The Jury Prize, the second most important award, went to Andrei Khrzhanovsky's feature animation film The Nose, or the Conspiracy of the "Wrong Kind", a classic of Russian animation. The award for best graduation work went to Kirill Khachaturov's Naked, a graduate of the Moscow School of New Cinema. The main prize of the festival was awarded to the film co-production of France and Denmark - "Disaster, the childhood of Martha Jane Cannary" by Remi Cheye.

History of the festival

The Annecy Animation Festival is the largest international animated film festival and specialised film market, the most anticipated and significant event in the industry. The festival is also referred to as the "animation Cannes". The event was created in 1956 as an animation section within the Cannes Festival. Later, in 1960, it was decided to organize a separate independent animation festival headed by Pierre Barbin, a representative of the Directorate of Film Distribution of the Cannes Festival. The city of Annecy in the east of France, on the north shore of the lake of the same name, was chosen as the venue for a large-scale animated screening.

In 1985, in parallel with the competition program, the International Animated Film Market (MIFA) began to work, which gradually became one of the largest and most important commercial projects in the field of animation. Today MIFA is the main industry event of the year in the world industry, where deals are made on finished animated films and series, and industry representatives can find partners and co-investors for projects at various stages of production.

About Agama Film Studios

Agama Film Animation Studio was founded in 2017 by Dmitry Loveyko, co-producer of one of the most famous Russian animated series "Masha and the Bear". Marina Burlachenko was invited to head the new team. The main activity of "Agama Film" is the preparation and implementation of animation projects of varying levels of complexity, aimed at both young viewers and older audiences. Nowadays "Agama Film" unites a successful creative team and a dynamically developing young team of professionals.

The major project of the studio is a children's animated series "Fairy Tales" that has been viewed more than 32 million times since it was launched. The plot is based on a fairy story about five good fairies which live in the apartment of a girl Katya. In addition, the studio is releasing an animated series for the 18+ audience, Bone Voyage. The key features of the studio's animated series are the highest quality animation, unusual drawing of characters and decorations, creative and technological capacities of the world studios' level.