The Annecy Festival: How the Town Became the World Capital of Animation

One week a year, the most photographed town in the Alps changes subject: the terraces talk storyboards, badges replace beach towels, and paper planes fly through the cinemas before every screening. Since 1960, Annecy has hosted the world’s biggest animated film festival — and that is no accident of scheduling, it’s a story of mutual adoption.

1960: the bet

At the end of the 1950s, animation was an art without a capital: film festivals treated it as a curiosity. A group of enthusiasts won Annecy the right to host international animated film days — first edition in June 1960. The bet held, the event became annual, and the town grew attached to it until animation became part of its identity, as surely as the lake.

Sixty-five years on, the balance has flipped: it’s the global industry — studios, schools, streaming platforms — that makes the trip every June. Major premieres launch here, the film market deals here, and an entire generation of animators learned the craft in its screening rooms.

What it changes in town, one week a year

For the visitor without a badge, the festival stays very accessible:

• The open-air screenings on the Pâquier, free, in the evening — the great lakeside lawn by the water becomes the finest cinema in the Alps.
• The mood: short films on every screen, queues outside Bonlieu, paper planes — an Annecy audience ritual — and a whole town playing along.
• The practical lesson: this is THE week when accommodation gets tightest after the Fête du lac. Book months ahead, or come for the day.

The rest of the year: the museum

Animation doesn’t leave town with the badges. The Museum of Animated Film is housed in the castle museum above the old town — praxinoscopes, cels, and a route running from optical toys to digital film. It’s one of the best cards for a rainy day, and the logical companion to a visit to the comital castle.

What we wouldn’t do

• Look for a room “on spec” during festival week. Without a very early booking, you’ll sleep far away.
• Assume it’s for professionals only. The Pâquier open-air is free, and public screenings exist.
• Come in June for peace and quiet. It’s the densest week of early summer — you come FOR the festival, or another week.
• Miss the paper planes. Before the evening screenings, it’s the audience’s tradition — better to know than to find out by catching one.

Many towns have a festival; few have let an art form define them. Annecy made that choice in 1960, before animation was fashionable — and that is exactly why animation repays it every June.