Annecy Unveils Anime-Heavy Competition Lineup and Special Presentations for ‘Inside Out,’ ‘Moana,’ ‘Despicable Me’ Sequels

Jamie Lang Organizers of the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, the world’s oldest and most important animation festival, revealed Thursday that all the big U.S. studio animation players will be in attendance this year to preview some of their most exciting upcoming titles. Annecy has long been a launch point for global and indie animation, but over the past several years, it has become an increasingly important platform for big studios as well.

This year, that trend continues and, indeed, ramps up. Disney will host sneak peeks of its 2024 animated feature releases: Pixar’s “Inside Out 2” and Walt Disney Animation Studios’ “Moana 2.” Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Animation Studio will offer a preview of “Transformers One,” a new animated feature coming to theaters on Sept. 20 this year.

Illumination will host a sneak preview of “Despicable Me 4” in its entirety. The three previous “Despicable” films and the “Minions: The Rise of Gru” spinoff all screened at Annecy, several of them making their world premieres there. For anyone who may have missed Annecy’s previous announcements, the festival has already revealed that “Fantastic Mr.

Fox” and “Isle of Dogs” director Wes Anderson will be at this year’s event to host a masterclass, that iconic director Chris Sanders (“Lilo & Stitch,” “How to Train Your Dragon”) will be there to tease his upcoming DreamWorks film “The Wild Robot,” and that Annecy 2024 will feature an all-new non-competitive section, Annecy Presents, that will be ideal for big-budget commercial films that don’t have a place in its competition sidebars. Netflix also previously announced it will be in Annecy to host early looks at Zack Snyder’s “Twilight of the Gods” and an untitled “Wallace & Gromit” project, as well as the world premiere of “Ultraman: Rising.” At today’s conference, it was also revealed that iconic filmmaker and Monty Python alumn Terry Gilliam will receive the 2024 Honorary Cristal and host a masterclass on Sunday, June 9. Gilliam, the filmmaker, is best known for his decades-long live-action catalog that features some of the most unique and oft-imitated films such as “12 Monkeys,” “Brazil” and “Fear and Loathing in