AnimFrance / SPI: producers regret the absence of animated films in Cannes selection

As the Cannes Film Festival opened on Tuesday May 16, the French animation producers of AnimFrance and SPI (independent producers syndicate) regretted in a press release the absence of animated feature films in competition as well as in the other sections. The only animated films this year on the Croisette are presented out of competition (the closing film Elemental by Pixar studios), at the beach cinema (Mars Express by Jérémie Périn), in special screenings (Robot Dreams by Pablo Berger) or again with Acid (Chicken for Linda! by Chiara Malta and Sébastien Laudenbach).

"It is clear that animated films continue, year after year, to be excluded from the official competition of the Cannes Film Festival", they indicate, while the last animated film in competition dates back to 2008 with Waltz with Bashir by Ari Folman. “Why does this anathema have been repeated with constancy for almost fifteen years? As if contemporary animation cinema, whether Japanese, English, Korean or French, was only minor cinematography, incapable of producing films worthy of a Palme d'Or,” the producers continue.

Animated cinema is " much more than simple entertainment for children", they still believe, "it is a real means of artistic expression and it is a pity that the Cannes Film Festival is not, as it so often is elsewhere, a better support ”.