Regina Pessoa, director of the award-winning ‘Tragic Story with Happy Ending,’ designs the poster for Annecy 2015 with a focus on women and history.
Organizers of this year’s edition of the Annecy International Animated Film Festival have unveiled the official poster for Annecy 2015, to be held June 15-20.
Created by filmmaker Regina Pessoa, the new work is called “Curves and Shades.”
“My link with the Festival began in the 90s, when I was still a student. Since then, I've always received a great welcome on my visits to Annecy,” Pessoa comments. “I sent in the project for my second film to the Project competition in 2001, and it was thanks to the Festival that I was able to find funds to make Tragic Story with Happy Ending. I was completely overjoyed when the Festival rewarded the film with the Cristal for a Short Film in 2006. In 2011, I was delighted to be invited to be part of the official jury.
And then, this year, when I was asked to create the poster, I accepted the offer with great pleasure and much gratitude!”
Pessoa found her inspiration for the project from a variety of sources. “I was inspired by different things for this poster,” she explains. “First of all, the poster is paying tribute to animation: the hands, wearing old gloves from the days of the first cartoons, are making shadow puppets, one of the first shapes ever projected and as old as mankind itself.
“This rabbit shadow puppet is my tribute to the Annecy Festival public,” Pessoa continues. “After 20 years of regular visits to the Festival, I've heard this unique and very enthusiastic chant from the public of ‘Le lapin…le lapin!’ many times. The hands that are making the shadow puppets are a woman's. She is the main element of the poster because Annecy 2015 is dedicated to WOMEN. This woman, dressed in red against a yellow background, is a flamenco dancer... because this year's guest country is my neighbor, Spain.”
But Pessoa still found room for a more personal touch: “Finally, since the Festival graciously asked me to create this poster, I've put a lot of personal touches into it,” she says. “Especially my fascination for lights and shadows, which I believe sum up the cinema, and my rather somber and textured style that is a little bit frightening and magical. Shadow puppets are often featured in my work, and rabbits in particular, as they are a secret reference to ‘Alice in Wonderland,’ a story that inspires and has been with me since I started filmmaking.”
Source: Annecy International Animated Film Festival
Formerly Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network, Jennifer Wolfe has worked in the Media & Entertainment industry as a writer and PR professional since 2003.
