Over a period of four months, teams of students in the animation division of the extraordinary Gobelins, l’école de l’image (Goeblins School of Communications) in Paris develop short (60-90 second) animated films that serve as introductions to the events of each day of that years Festival International du Film d’Animation d’Annecy (Annecy Animation Festival).
As I’ve mentioned before, these films are usually clever, witty, well drawn and well animated. Each year they give me great hope that the traditions of hand drawn animation are alive and well in the face of the tidal wave of CGI (both good and bad) from Hollywood.
This year there are five films (I think the official festival events are one day shorter this year), and the films are stunningly beautiful and well executed, even by past standards of extraordinary work from Gobelins students.
The Gobelins Student Work 2009 page lists the animations, along with credits, and has links (“Découvrir ce film”) for viewing the animations. (Non-French speakers can also view the page using Google Translate.) The films themselves are largely wordless so language is not a barrier.
One of the best ways to preview the animations before watching them, view large stills and a brief description, is by way of Michael Hirsh’s Articles & Texticles; which is what I do every year.
Form more, see my past articles on Gobelins Annecy Animations, which includes a list of links to previous years’ animations.
