Annecy Animation Festival 2018

For one reason or another, I hadn't been back to my all-time favorite festival in a few years.  But thanks to the kind people at the School of Visual Arts, I was invited back to Annecy after a three-year absence. And perhaps surprisingly, it was all due to virtual reality.

They had gathered a prestigious panel of VR experts - David Eisenmann (senior producer at Google), Paul du Bois (staff software engineer at Google), Chris Prynoski (co-founder and president of Titmouse Animation), and the delightful Hsiang Chin Moe from SVA was the moderator.

I'll let you know right now, I was not the smartest guy in the room.  In fact, I didn't really understand much of what everyone was talking about.  But we capped off the panel with a short clip of my new V.R. work in progress, "One of Those Days".  You might remember my old colored-pencil short with this name, where you see a guy having a really bad day, from his P.O.V.   It seems tailor-made for virtual reality.

Every year, I enter a few of my new films to the prestigious Annecy Festival, only to get rejected, three years in a row.  But this year I sort of snuck in through the side door. 

Because of the growing popularity of the festival, we weren't able to see any of the films we wanted to see, they were all sold out.  So my wife and I decided to treat it like a vacation in the French Alps.  We spent time on the pedal boats on the crystal clear lake, visited the great restaurants and went to a few parties that I was able to crash. 

Inside the main gathering place and the Bonlieu Cinema was where they had the tables set up for signings with famous artists.  I asked if I could sit in, but the tables were all occupied.  But luckily I spied an empty chair in the back corner and snuck in there - soon enough I had a good sized crowd of autograph seekers.  Then I was ensconced like a crab and it was impossible to get me out of there. 

It's OK, because all the other artists welcomed me, like Richard Williams, Lorenzo Mattotti (one of the greatest colorists alive, who's working on a feature film) and of course the great director of the brilliant film "Mind Game", Masaaki Yuasa! 

with Richard Williams

with Lorenzo Mattotti

with Masaaki Yuasa !!

It was a wonderful week, and I hope I can attend again next year.

--Bill P.

with Mark Osborne and Bonnie Arnold

with Spike of Spike & Mike's Festival of Animation

with David Fine and Alison Snowden!