ANNECY– France’s Annecy Animation Film Festival and Mexico’s Pixelatl will launch Short Way, an initiative to boost artistic animation shorts production by Latin American creators. The first call for projects will be made officially at the next Pixelatl Festival, which unspools in September in Cuernavaca, Pixelatl’s headquarters, 50 miles south of Mexico City.
Among the submitted projects, ten will be selected to participate in a development boot camp which will take place in Mexico, offered by experts linked to both the Annecy Festival and Pixelatl. The four best projects will be pitched at Annecy’s Animation du Monde showcase next year, facilitating financing and co-production.
“The animated short is a key step for most French filmmakers, the opportunity to gain experience but also to give free rein to creativity, to take risks on a less expensive format,” said Geraldine Baché, Mifa head of special projects.
“In this interchange with Pixelatl, Annecy really wanted to bring this added value, this singular French-touch and guarantee of success,” Baché said.
Bach went on to say that Annecy and Mifa already have strong links with Latin America. “Highlighting talent has always been a priority, their creativity being the content of tomorrow. Joining Pixelatl on a less commercial and more creative format made sense immediately!”
Initiatives such as Ideatoon Boot Camp have helped six IPs from Latin American creators get produced, Pixelatl CEO Jose Iñesta observed.
“We needed to be able to support emerging auteurs who have great visual concepts which are often rejected by the big studios because they lack commercial appeal. Thanks to the great relationship we have with the Annecy Festival, we decided to launch a call for projects that could nurture new talents and animation aesthetics,” Iñesta told Variety.
Pixelatl runs Sept. 3-7.