Cannes Premieres 10 Animated Films Across Sections
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- Cannes is premiering 10 animated titles across its 2025 selections, with features opening Critics' Week, closing Directors' Fortnight, and appearing in competition and other sections.
- Directors' Fortnight head Julien Rejl selected three animated features from roughly 30 submissions — a record for the sidebar — and declared himself "fundamentally opposed to a token animation slot," saying he'd program all 10 if the quality justified it.
- "Flow" emerged from Un Certain Regard at Cannes 2024, drew 8.2 million admissions worldwide, and won the Oscar, setting a new benchmark for European animation and helping open the floodgates for this year's slate.
- In 2023, two French producer unions authored an open letter criticizing Cannes for programming zero animated titles in its main selections; by 2024, "The Most Precious of Cargoes" landed in competition and "Flow" broke out from Un Certain Regard.
- Miyu Prods. founder Emmanuel-Alain Raynal, who chaired the French independent producers union at the time, has two Franco-Japanese co-productions at Cannes this year — including "We Are Aliens" — illustrating the Cannes-Annecy pipeline he says gives animation "broader legitimacy" with talent and financiers.
- Charades co-founder Yohann Comte, who sold "I Lost My Body" and "Flow," says the market is shifting away from "one family slot for kids" toward "ambitious adult animation," with post-"Flow" breakouts driving higher minimum guarantees and more willing financiers.
- Six of this year's 10 Cannes animated titles will also compete at Annecy, reflecting a closer alignment between the two festivals that has strengthened the wider animation ecosystem.
Why it matters: Cannes now treats animation as a programmed pillar, with 6 of 10 animated titles also competing at Annecy. For independent producers like Miyu and Charades, the festival circuit translates directly into higher minimum guarantees, larger co-productions, and more willing financiers — making ambitious adult animation financially viable at a scale that didn't exist before "Flow's" 8.2-million-admission breakout.
