The world’s largest gathering dedicated to animation hosted six productions with Nordic involvement, including Rasmus A. Sivertsen and Tommy Wirkola’s humourous Spermageddon.

The 2024 edition of the Annecy International Animation Film Festival (9-15 June) was brought to a close by the triumph of Adam Elliot’s oddball, dark dramedy Memoir of a Snail, which snagged the Cristal Award for Best Feature. Other prominent victors included Gints Zilbalodis’ Cannes-bound hit Flow (Latvia/Belgium/France), which scooped four awards including the Jury and Audience Awards, as well as Isabel Herguera’s Sultana’s Dream (El sueño de la sultana) (Spain/Germany), winner of the Contrechamp Grand Prix, and Shinnosuke Yakuwa’s Totto-chan: The Little Girl at the Window (Madogiwa no Totto-chan) (Japan), recipient of the prestigious Paul Grimault Award.

This year, the Nordic contingent attending the world’s largest festival dedicated to animation was represented by four Nordic-led pictures and two productions co-produced by Nordic partners.

First and foremost, the Midnight Screenings strand hosted the much-anticipated, adult-orientated flick Spermageddon (Norway), helmed by Rasmus A. Sivertsen and Tommy Wirkola and billed as “a film about the beginning of life”. “A tale so basic and universal, it’s a wonder no one has told it before. We’re talking about the race, the origin of all races as it were, between millions of sperm cells, all frantically trying to fertilise a single egg. It’s a quest fraught with peril, where all but one are doomed to failure,” reads Annecy official catalogue. The picture is produced by Kjetil Omberg for 74 Entertainment.

Meanwhile, the Annecy Presents section showcased Richard Claus and Karsten Killerich’s 3D adventure comedy flick Panda Bear in Africa. In the film, we follow Ping, a young panda who lives in an idyllic village in the middle of China. But when his best friend, Jielong the dragon, is kidnapped to be given as a gift to a spoilt young lion, Ping doesn’t waste a second: He sets off on an adventure that will take him all the way to Africa!

This family-friendly picture is co-produced by Cool Beans (Netherlands), Katuni (Netherlands), A. Film Production A/S (Denmark), Comet Film (Germany) and Le Pacte (France). Le Pacte is also in charge of its distibution.

Next, the short competition saw the participation of two Nordic productions – Elli Vuorinen’s Flower Show (Finland) and Toril Kove’s Maybe Elephants (Kanskje det var elefanter) (Norway/Canada).

Finally, the Haute-Savoie gathering also hosted two graduation films with Nordic involvement, namely Klara Thafvelin’s Girls’ Hair (Sweden) and Julia Granillo Tostado’s To Be a Seed (Ser Semilla)(Portugal/Belgium/Finland/Mexico).