Well, Annecy is over for another year. I came here not only to expand the minds of the French with Sick and Twisted but I went on a search for some great films for an additional show I am adding and calling “New Generation Animation.” It will feature Sophisticated, Innovative and Cutting-Edge Animation but not losing the sense of fun. I saw tons of great animation and received tons of submissions.
In a nutshell, Annecy is all about the shorts, shorts are king here. The main prize or the Annecy Cristal is reserved for the best short. Programs consist of Shorts in Competition, Shorts out of Competition, Graduate Films, Commissioned Films, TV films and Feature Films. I focus on the short films looking for that gem, Brian the Nice Guy also went to some of the feature films.

Saturday night was the closing ceremony, each year the Festival has a theme, this year it was the ‘Moon.’ The artistic director, Serge Bromberg, came out in a sort of astronaut costume and pretended to land on the moon. I think it was funny because the translations (a little headpiece where the translators would very dryly translate from French or English depending what they were speaking from the stage) were a little dry but the French were laughing!

This is the Moon set for theclosing ceremonies - this is the end with all of the winners mingling.

The winners of the shorts were: the Audience award went to Sick and Twisted favorite PES and his ‘Western Spaghetti,’ a cool film showing PES making spaghetti in the crazy creative way that he does, we hope to be showing this at San Diego this year. The Special Distinction went to David Oreilly’s ‘Please Say Something,’ a warped love relationship between a cat and a mouse. Special Jury Award (second place) went to Cordell Barker’s, (another Spike and Mike favorite, of “The Cat Came Back” fame) with his ‘Runaway,’ a funny film of a runaway train and what it takes to keep it going. The best first feature goes to my favorite, “The Man in the Blue Gordini”, a funny twisted film about standing up to authority. And first place went to ‘Slaves’ a dark, disturbing film about two children who were taken from their families by government sponsored militia in the Sudan and made into slaves.
On the feature side Henry Selick’s ‘Coraline’, tied with Australian Adam Elliot’s ‘Mary and Max.’ Audience favorite went to an Irish film ‘Brendan and the Secret of the Kells.”

The parties were not as great as they were in the past but the Danish Animation party at the old Bastille (prison) was pretty good. The Annecy closing party was great in the people meeting way; I hooked up with Peter Lord of Aardman fame and talked the very busy Serge Bromberg. Serge has always been good to me and Sick and Twisted.

Annecy Artistic Director Serge Bromberg and Spike confer at closing party.

A fan gets tagged by Spike.

Bill Plympton was there having a great time as well as Aussies Darcy Prendergast and Doug Bayne who were fascinated by a meat sculpture of a castle which they christened ‘Chateau d’Boueff.

This is the closing party.

All and all it was a great Annecy for me this year, I’m sure one day I’ll get the hang of it.

I toured historic Annecy after the Festival, Darcy Prendergast, director of Sick and Twisted Show “Ron the Zookeeper” helped me as I told the story of Eric the Red in his Chateau d’ Boeff!

I interview Darcy Prendergast, director of Sick and Twisted Show “Ron the Zookeeper” and upcoming “News.” Darcy is an Aussie and seemed to be everywhere at the Festival. I hooked up with his on Sunday after the festival as we walked around historic Annecy.

The Annecy closing party is always the best there is – it’s where I talk to all the people I meet through the week and pick up some more submissions. In this video I talk to the Little Italian and Little Frenchie, two friends I always hook up with at the festival.

Brian the Nice Guy does a quick walk through Annecy Animation Film Festival Closing Party. See if you can “Find Spike!”

I saw David Sproxton at the closing party of Annecy. David is the co-founder of Aardman Film, the creators of such cool films as the “Wallace and Gromit” series and “Chicken Run.” David has been a longtime collaborator with Spike and Mike and a great friend of Mike’s. I know it starts out of focus but give Brian the Nice Guy some slack, he WAS basking in my illumination!

David Baas is the director of the animated short “Skylight” which premiered here at Annecy in the sick and Twisted show.

This is me talking to Nick Park of “Creature Comfort” and “Wallace and Gromit” fame at Annecy 2009. Spike and Mike brought “Wallace and Gromit” to America and have been having a great relationship with him ever since but you would know it in this video. He’s such a kidder.

Bill Pylmpton likes to meet with his fans when he comes to Annecy so he asked me if he could tap into a little bit of the Spike magic and “introduce” him in the lobby of the Bonlieu at the 2009 Annecy Animated Film Festival. That night Bill had a great party at this bar where he screens films not selected for the Festival. Bill and I go way back with his films “How to kiss” and “25 ways to quit smoking.”

Thursday we had our big screening of Spike and Mike’s Sick and Twisted at the Decavision 2 theatre. It was the first of our three screenings and the biggest and craziest. Not only was it sold out and people sitting in the aisles, but people got tickets to other screenings to sneak into ours. This video is a little dark and out of focus in some places but you get the point. David Baas, director of the film “Skylight” was there as well as the ‘Little Italian. I only hope that the translator translated what I was saying. A couple of years ago Serge Bromberg, artistic director of the Festival translated for me and said I would give the first five people out of the out of the theatre after the show 1 million American dollars. That was an expensive Annecy for me. The other screenings for Sick and Twisted also sold.