The simple story of a mum who tries to keep her promise to cook her daughter a chicken with peppers on a strike day in France wins the top prize.
ADVERTISEMENTOnce a year France's small and pristine Alpine city Annecy becomes the world capital of animated film.
This year nearly 500 films in all formats, techniques and genres were presented over the week, in addition to numerous competitions for both feature films and graduation films.
And on Saturday evening its top Cristal d'Or prize was awarded unanimously to a Franco-Italian short called "Linda Wants Chicken". The simple story of a mother who has trouble keeping her promise to cook her daughter a chicken with peppers on a strike day in France.
Funny, tender and cheeky all at once, it was a clear favourite with many festival-goers.
It stood out amongst entries from dozens of countries but there were also hundreds of television, short and feature films screened.
The Jury Prize went to Hungary's Áron Gauder for his powerful and deeply political film, Four Souls of Coyote, about Native Americans deprived of their land, which emphasises that animation is not just for children.
"I really think it's Disney, and Pixar and Marvel who push this "family thing" - and that's why people first thought it's for families and kids. But there are a lot of serious nominations and I think people should see more of them," Gauder told Euronews.
Annecy also acts as a melting pot and springboard for future industry professionals. In any case, many projects get off the ground here, not least because creative minds are in direct contact with producers.
"We insist on being the world capital of animated cinema," said Marcel Jean, artistic director of the festival. "This ranges from the biggest stars who enjoy the biggest budgets in the animation business, the major studios - Pixar, Disney, Warner, Paramount - the big platforms like Netflix, Amazon, and Apple who have a presence here, but also independents and students who are the stars of tomorrow," he said.
