Annecy 2026: Record Crowds, Anime Boom, AI Backlash
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- Annecy Animation Festival logged a record 19,100 badge holders at its 2026 edition (June 21-28), up from 7,100 in 2013, even as France registered its hottest day on record on June 24 and Artistic Director Marcel Jean said the heat caused screening no-shows.
- Netflix told its Next on Netflix showcase that anime views grew from 1 billion in 2023 to 1.5 billion in 2025, with 44% of its 18-45 target now watching anime, and flew in Brad Bird and Ricky Gervais to preview 'Ray Gunn' and 'Alley Cats' alongside 'Ghostbusters: Night Shift.'
- Warner Bros. Animation and DC Studios unveiled their first-ever anime series, 'Joker: Laugh Riot,' and were credited by Variety with the most multi-project announcements of any studio at the festival.
- Disney and Pixar sneak-peeked upcoming features 'Hexed' and 'Gatto' as Toy Story crossed $578 million in its first 12 days, while the festival opened with an early screening of Universal's 'Minions & Monsters'—the seventh entry in the $5.5 billion-grossing Despicable Me/Minions franchise.
- S.S. Rajamouli's 'Baahubali: The Eternal War,' an animated spinoff from his blockbuster Indian live-action franchise, was the most-discussed work-in-progress, underscoring the U.S.-Europe-Asia animation axis Variety flagged as a defining trend.
- Hisko Hulsing's animated short 'Danse Macabre,' made with generative AI imitating his own paintings, became the festival's most-talked-about film: spectators wearing 'Let's Stop Generative AI' stickers walked out and booed during its screening.
- Annecy Artistic Director Marcel Jean publicly defended Hulsing, saying 'I cannot condone a witch hunt targeting the work of artists who explore the possibilities of these new tools with transparency.'
Why it matters: A record 19,100 attendees confirm animation's commercial ascendancy over live action, with Hollywood treating Annecy—already Europe's largest animation market—as a critical launchpad. But the walkouts and boos greeting Hisko Hulsing's AI-assisted 'Danse Macabre' show the generative-AI fight has migrated from Hollywood writers' rooms into screening rooms, forcing festival artistic directors to defend individual artists' tool choices in real time.
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