At the end of an edition trouncing yet another attendance record (18,200 accredited attendees from 118 countries), the 44th Annecy Animated Film Festival has unveiled a winners’ list dominated by French director Ugo Bienvenu’s Arco, which walked away with the 2025 Best Feature Film Crystal, awarded by a jury comprising Sepideh Farsi, György Ráduly and Pablo Picco.

Unveiled in a Special Screening within the recent Cannes Film Festival’s Official Selection, Arco is Bienvenu’s debut feature. The story asks us to imagine that rainbows are actually time travellers. Ten-year-old Arco lives in the distant future. During his first flight in his rainbow suit, he veers off course, loses control, and lands in our near future. Iris, a little girl the same age as Arco, sees him fall from the sky. She will do everything she possibly can to help him return home. Produced by Félix de Givry (who also wrote the screenplay in league with the director) on behalf of Remembers and by Sophie Mas for MountainA in co-production with France 3 Cinéma, Arco was also pre-purchased by Netflix and enjoyed support from the CNC’s genre film fund. Distribution in France will fall to Diaphana while world sales are steered by Goodfellas.

Besides the Jury Prize scooped by Japanese director Yasuhiro Aoki’s ChaO, first features ultimately reigned supreme in the main competition, with the Paul Grimault Prize clinched by Dandelion’s Odyssey [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Irene Iborra
scheda film], directed by Spain’s Irene Iborra; and the Audience Award nabbed by French film Little Amélie of the Character of Rain [+leggi anche:
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As for the feature films screening in the competitive Contrechamp section, the jury (Pablo Berger, Nadja Andrasev and Jessica Poce) awarded its Grand Prize to Endless Cookie by Canadians Seth and Pete Scriver, and its Jury Prize to Gwang-jang (The Square) by South Korea’s Bo-Sol Kim. The winning films are as follows:  

Feature Films

Crystal for Best Feature Film
Arco - Ugo Bienvenu (France)

Jury Prize
ChaO - Yasuhiro Aoki (Japan)

Paul Grimault Prize
Dandelion’s Odyssey [+leggi anche:
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Gan Foundation Broadcasting Prize
Olivia and the Invisible Earthquake [+leggi anche:
intervista: Irene Iborra
scheda film] - Irene Iborra (Belgium/Chile/Spain/France)

Contrechamp Grand Prize
Endless Cookie - Seth Scriver and Pete Scriver (Canada)

Contrechamp Jury Prize
Gwang-jang (The Square) - Bo-Sol Kim (South Korea)

Audience Award
Little Amélie and the Character of Rain [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Maïlys Vallade, Liane-Cho …
scheda film] - Maïlys Vallade and Liane-Cho Han (France)

Short Films

Crystal for Best Short Film
Les bottes de la nuit - Pierre-Luc Granjon (France)

Jury Prize for Best Short Film
Les bêtes - Michael Granberry (USA)

Alexeïeff-Parker Prize for Best Short Film
Sappho - Rosana Urbes (Brazil)

Jean-Luc Xiberras Prize for Best First Film
Zwermen - Janneke Swinkels and Tim Frijsinger (Netherlands/Belgium)

Off-Limits Prize
The Graffiti (Rakugaki) - Ryo Orikasa (Japan)

Audience Award
Les bottes de la nuit - Pierre-Luc Granjon

TV and Commissioned Films

Crystal for Best TV Production
Christo the Civilized Barbarian "Hunting Party" - Shaddy Safadi (USA)

Jury Prize for Best TV Series
Lena's Farm "Volles Nest" - Elena Walf (Germany)

Jury Prize for Best TV Special
An Almost Christmas Story - David Lowery (USA)

Audience Award for Best TV Film
Flippé "Décision majeure" - Théo Grosjean and Mothy Richard (Belgium/France)

Crystal for Best Commissioned Film
Naive New Beaters, Star Feminine Band "Ye Kou Si Kuo" - Lola Lefèvre (France)

Jury Prize for Best Commissioned Film
Desi Oon - Suresh Eriyat (India)

Graduation Films

Crystal for Best Graduate Film
Zootrope - Léna Martinez (France)

Jury Prize for Best Graduate Film
Entre les jours - Martin Bonnin (France)

Lotte Reiniger Prize for Best Graduate Film
Q - Masataka Kihara (Japan)

VR Works

Crystal for Best VR Work
Fragile Home - Ondřej Moravec and Victoria Lopukhina (Czech Republic)

Special Prizes

France TV Prize for Best Short Film
At Night - Pooya Afzali (Iran)

Sacem Prize for Best Original Music in a Short Film
Sebastian Hilli - Dollhouse Elephant (Finland)

Best Original Music in a Feature Film
Arnaud Toulon - Arco (France)

Pablo Pico Special Mention for Best Original Music in a Feature Film
Jean L'Appeau - La mort n'existe pas [+leggi anche:
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Canal+ Junior Jury Prize
Forevergreen – Nathan Engelhardt and Jeremy Spears (USA) (short film)

Young Audience Prize
Le Grand Party annuel des créatures de la Lune - Francis Desharnais (Canada) (short film)

André Martin Prize for Best French Short
Les Bottes de la nuit - Pierre-Luc Granjon Gram

Festivals Connexion Prize for Best VR Work
Fragile Home - Ondřej Moravec and Victoria Lopukhina

XPPen Prize for Best Graduate Film
Won't Be Here - Jiali Tan and Haoyuan Zhu (China) (short film)

Vimeo Staff Pick Prize for Best Short Film in the Official and Off-Limits Competitions
Les Bêtes - Michael Granberry

Annecy City Prize
Ibuka, Justice - Justice Rutikara (Canada) (short film)

Annecy City Jury Special Mention
Psychonauts - Niko Radas (Croatia) (short film)