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Annecy Festival Residency: The 2024 mentors
A two-phase mentorship was arranged for the artists: assistance with the script before they arrive, then an on-site mentorship dealing with the project’s graphic choices.
The mentoring’s first phase allows the artists to take a step back from their film’s storyline and reflect on their objectives in terms of visual development. It is a kind of checkpoint providing the authors the opportunity to question themselves and subsequently confirm the elements which are ready enough to be explored from a graphic point of view.
The mentoring’s second phase is key. A real catalyst, it boosts creation and encourages the authors to think about their directing, explore new tangents, challenge their limits and allow themselves this experimental phase, which is so valuable in animation.
Discover the mentors who will be assisting the authors during this Residency.
The mentors for the graphic development aspects:
Vanessa Chenaie
Consultant, assisting the project Zako
With a degree in literature and oriental languages, Vanessa Chenaie launched her career in the film industry as a feature-film reader for a broadcaster, and co-producer of short films in a small organisation. Also a journalist, she pursued a career in the written press as Editor-in-Chief for a design and architecture magazine. Now, back in the film industry, she works with several independent producers as a consultant. She has set herself the joyful and exciting mission of assisting authors on their quest to write the story they wish to tell.
Céline Sciamma
Scriptwriter & Director, assisting the project Insectarium
Céline Sciamma was born in 1978 in Cergy-Pontoise, France.
After receiving a master’s degree in French literature, she studied screenwriting at the national French film school, La Fémis, in Paris. There she wrote Naissance des pieuvres that would turn into her feature directorial debut, Water Lilies, in 2007, selected for the Cannes Film Festival (Un Certain Regard).
Sciamma’s 2011 film Tomboy won numerous accolades, including the Teddy Jury Award at the Berlinale. In 2014, her film Girlhood premiered at Cannes Directors’ Fortnight.
Two years later, she scripted My Life as a Courgette, an animated film by Claude Barras that attracted considerable audience and critical acclaim, won numerous awards and received an Oscar nomination.
Sciamma returned to directing in 2019 with Portrait of a Lady on Fire, earning her Best Screenplay at Cannes. In 2021, she directed Little Mom, which premiered at the Berlin Film Festival. In 2023, she produced and directed her first short film This Is How a Child Becomes a Poet about poet Patrizia Cavalli’s house.
Valérie Zenatti
Writer, scriptwriter and translator, assisting the project Le Cabanon de l’oncle Jo
"For the last 25 years, writer, scriptwriter and translator Valérie Zenatti has been exploring the fundamental questions posed by childhood, language and war, in a broad search for the form these questions can take. She is author of several children’s books, including A Bottle in the Gaza Sea, published by L'école des loisirs in 2005, which has been adapted for the screen by Thierry Binisti, for stage by several companies and translated into eighteen languages. Translator of the Israeli writer Aharon Appelfeld, she wrote Dans le faisceau des vivants, a book reflecting on the relationship between the two writers (L'Olivier Publishing House, Prix Essai France Télévisions 2019). She has published six books with L'Olivier, including Jacob, Jacob, winner of the 2015 Prix du Livre Inter, and most recently Qui-vive. She is also co-writer of the CANAL+ series Possessions and the animation film My Father’s Secrets directed by Véra Belmont (2023)." – Patrice Normand
Patrice Suau
Film Art Director, assisting the project Le Cabanon de l’oncle Jo
Patrice Suau was born in 1969 in a village between Argenteuil and Pontoise near Paris, at the heart of one of the impressionist painters’ most cherished regions. From a very young age, he used to skip school to escape to the banks of the river Seine, where he encountered many painters and would very quickly follow in their footsteps.
He spent a number of years in idyllic bohemia, exhibiting his works of Parisian street scenes, the banks of the Seine and bridges at night, etc., in the cafés and restaurants. He also painted instant portraits there. But his passion for nature and beautiful landscapes prompted him to explore further afield in the countryside, paths and forests.
After several years of wandering, his work was noticed by an animation film director, who was impressed by his ability to reproduce the landscapes’ atmospheres and capture the poetry between light and colour.
A new life opened up for him, and after working on film sets, he joined the artistic team for numerous animation films such as Calamity, A Childhood of Martha Jane Cannary (2020), Long Way North (2015), Houdini (2014), Asterix and Obelix: Mansion of the Gods (2014), The Day of the Crows (2012) and Lascars (2009).
Graham Annable
Cartoonist & Animator, assisting the project Zako
Graham Annable is a Canadian cartoonist and animator. He was an Oscar®-nominated co-director with Anthony Stacchi for Laika Studios' The Boxtrolls.
His unique voice has been consistently recognized in the mediums of film, games and graphic novels over the last 30 years. He was a story artist on Coraline, ParaNorman, Kubo and the Two Strings, Missing Link and more recently on The Monkey King and Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio. His children's series of graphic novels, Peter & Ernesto, have garnered him an Eisner nomination, and the Canadian Silver Birch Award.
The Grickle Channel on YouTube showcases over 70 animated shorts he has created independently over the last decade that have popped up in various film festivals. During his professional career as a storyteller, he's had the privilege to work with such luminaries as Chuck Jones, Henry Selick, and Mark Gustafson, to name a few.
Kim Keukeleire
Animation Director, assisting the project Insectarium
Kim Keukeleire is an animation director and an animator specialised in stop-motion animation.
After completing her Master’s in animation film at La Cambre in Bruxelles in 1992, she worked locally and abroad on numerous productions.
Among others, she animated on the first Chicken Run (Peter Lord and Nick Park), Fantastic Mr. Fox (Wes Anderson), Frankenweenie (Tim Burton), No Dogs or Italians Allowed (Alain Ughetto) and Sauvages ! (Claude Barras).
She was Lead Animator on Isle of Dogs (Wes Anderson) and Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio (Guillermo del Toro and Mark Gustafson). Recently, she animated the alien sequence in the feature film Asteroid City by Wes Anderson.
She was also Animation Director on the film My Life as a Courgette (Claude Barras) then The Inventor (Jim Capobianco and Pierre-Luc Granjon).
Lastly, Kim has sat on juries at numerous international festivals and given many conferences, masterclasses and workshops worldwide.
The winning projects in 2024
Discover the three animation feature film projects selected to the 2024 Annecy Festival Residency.
The 2024 winning writers
Discover the writers of these future animated feature films who will be joining the Annecy Residency from April this year.
