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During the Annecy Festival & MIFA 2023 press conference, the organizers mostly focused on the selection, screenings and events, but they also discussed other topics. We took this opportunity to exchange with them about the overall budget of the event, how crowds are going to be managed given the fact that there are more and more people attending the event, the new MIFA Campus, how the Annecy Festival & MIFA are going to support Ukraine once again, and the carbon footprint of the even.
Here’s a recap of what we learned.
Annecy Festival & MIFA 2023: a bigger budget
We learned that the overall budget of the Annecy Festival & MIFA 2023 is around 7 million euros, which is significantly higher to what was spent last year (around 6 million euros). Inflation is of course a major root cause of this increase. Moreover, the Annecy Festival will begin 1 day earlier, and the MIFA will expand this year (10.000 square meters/12.000 square yards, compared to 8.000 square meters/9.500 square yards last year).
Photo : Annecy Festival / E. Nguyen Ngoc
13.000 attendees… and beyond?
The Annecy Festival/MIFA were of course impacted by the pandemic in 2020 and 2021, but the animation industry quickly came back, with over 13.000 attendees last year. In other words, the event is back on track and attendance is on the rise. It’s of course too early to know how many people will attend the event this year, but we might very well be headed to a new record.
This massive crowd of attendees is quite challenging. Hotels, AirBnbs are getting more and more expensive and crowded, queues are getting longer, walking from one booth to the next can be complicated.
When faced with such constraints, some festival choose to move to another city altogether, but this won’t be possible for the Annecy Festival and the MIFA. The event and organizers have strong ties to the city (physical locations for studios, events during the whole year). Moreover, Annecy is a very charming city, and it is part of the Annecy Festival experience.
Which is why the organizers told us there is no way this could happen. An hybrid event also seems to be out of the question: the 2021 hybrid edition led to poor feedback from the attendees.
Does this mean the organizers will have, at some point, to cap the overall number of attendees? Maybe: they are definitely thinking about it, but as Véronique Encrenaz, Head of MIFA, explained us, this approach raises lots of questions. Basically, to make sure that the event still features a wide range of companies, people and countries, quotas will have to be set. Otherwise some countries might not be represented, or there might be too many students and not enough professionals.
As for the lodging prices, there are discussions between the organizers and hotels, in order to avoid further increases. The Annecy Festival team is trying to put forward the idea that higher prices could hurt the event, and therefore also hurt the hotels. We’ll have to wait and see if this strategy is fruitful.
Overall, the takeway is that the Annecy Festival and MIFA won’t keep growing forever: one way or the other, this growth will have to stop, at some point. As Marcel Jean, Artistic Director of the Festival, explained: 25.000 attendees, for example, is such a high number that it just wouldn’t make sense.
In the meantime, measures have been taken to improve the experience during the event: additional screenings are during the Festival, which will also start 1 day earlier, as we said above. And MIFA has been reorganized: the booths should be less crowded.
Photo: © ANNECY FESTIVAL/G. Piel
Carbon footprint
The Annecy Festival also announced several steps taken to improve the overall carbon footprint of the event. For example, the goal is to decrease the energy consumption, to promote the use of bikes/buses/shuttles and carpooling by the attendees, to avoid using air conditionning when it is not required, to use less paper, to decrease the amount of trash created by the event and to recycle more and more.
A carbon audit will also be created this year. We expect most events of this size to follow the same path in the years to come.
That being said, Véronique Encrenaz, Head of MIFA, explained us that at this point there is no target, no figure behind this carbon footprint reduction goal: we hope that the Annecy Festival and the MIFA will choose to publicly set a target once the carbon audit is completed. This kind of public statement is a good way to make yourself accountable, and to lead by example. For example, French animation studio Ooolala recently released their carbon audit as well as their footprint reduction goal.
Photo : Annecy Festival / C. Sirieys
The Campus
The MIFA already featured recruitment sessions/booths, as well as rountables aimed at students and young artists. But this part of the MIFA became very crowded over the years.
A new area nicknamed Campus has therefore been announced. This dedicated place will be separate from the rest of the MIFA, and located a few minutes away by foot.
The Campus is on the top right, in yellow.
Annecy Festival & MIFA will support Ukraine, once again
Last, but not least, the MIFA will host several Ukranian companies this year, just like they did in 2022. A dedicaded booth (C.21) is planned with around 20 companies/organizations such as animation studios (Animagrad, Glowberry, Karandash, for example), production companies, and the Ukrainian Animation Association. If you already got your MIFA accreditation, you can already head over to Annecy Network and find Ukrainian companies/professionals using the research tool.
The Annecy Festival & the MIFA will also support Ukraine through events, such as a cocktail party and a pitching session. This should hopefully help the Ukrainian animation industry keep moving forward, despite the war.
Annecy Festival 2023 – coming soon!
The Annecy Festival & MIFA 2023 will take place from 11th to 17th June. Don’t forget to get your accrediation!
3DVF will attend the event. Don’t forget to follow us on social media to read & watch our upcoming articles and videos: Youtube, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn. We have several articles on the way, for example, about animation projects that will be featured at Annecy.
