‘Memoir of a Snail’ Wins Annecy Film Festival

Adam Elliot’s oddball Aussie feature Memoir of a Snail has won the Cristal award for best feature film at the 2024 Annecy Film Festival, the world’s leading international animation fest.

The dark dramedy, about a lonely, snail-obsessed hoarder — voiced by Succession star Sarah Snook — recounting her life story to one of her beloved gastropods, is Elliot’s first feature since 2009’s Mary and Max, which also won the top honor at Annecy. An impressive group of Australian A-listers, including Kodi Smit-McPhee, Jacki Weaver, Eric Bana and Nick Cave provide supporting voice work. IFC Films picked up North American rights to Memoir of a Snail ahead of the festival.

Flow, a drama from Latvian animator Gints Zilbalodis (Away), which follows a cat that survives a world-destroying deluge on a boat with a collection of other animals, won this year’s jury award and audience prize, voted on by Annecy attendees. It also took home a special award for best music for the score by Rihards Zalupe and Gints Zilbalodis. Totto-chan: The Little Girl at the Window, Shinnosuke Yakuwa’s animated adaptation of the memoir by Japanese television star Tetsuko Kuroyanagi, took Annecy’s Paul Grimault honor.

Isabel Herguera’s Sultana’s Dream, which had its world premiere in competition at the San Sebastian Film Festival last year, won the Grand Prix honor in Annecy’s Contrechamp section, with the jury award going to Living Large, the stop-action feature film debut from Czech director Kristina Dufková.

Among Annecy’s special awards, the Festivals Connexion award for best VR production went to Emperor from Marion Burger and Ilan Cohen. The work, which had its world premiere at Venice Immersive last year, explores Burger’s attempts to understand her father, suffering from aphasia, as he begins to lose his faculties of speech and language comprehension. Another Venice Immersive highlight, Ethan Shaftel’s Gargoyle Doyle, won the Cristal prize for best VR work at this year’s festival.

The City of Annecy award went to Italian director Margherita Giusti for her short The Meatseller, which follows a young Nigerian woman on a harrowing journey to Italy as she pursues her dream of following in her mother’s footsteps and becoming a meat seller.

The awards, handed out in Annecy Saturday night, closed the 2024 French festival after a week that confirmed its position as the leading event on the international animation calendar. Highlights of this year’s festival included the world premiere of Despicable Me 4; sneak peeks at the upcoming Wallace and Gromit film and Andy Serkis’ Lord of the Rings Anime movie The War of the Rohirrim; and Disney unveiling new footage and the lead character’s opening song from Moana 2.

See the full list of 2024 Annecy Festival award winners below.

Feature Films

Cristal for a Feature Film
Memoir of a Snail
Adam Elliot
Australia
Arenamedia

Jury Award
Flow
Gints Zilbalodis
Latvia, Belgium, France
Dream Well Studio, Take Five, Sacrebleu Productions

Paul Grimault Award
Totto-Chan: The Little Girl at the Window
Shinnosuke Yakuwa
Japan
Shin-Ei Animation Co., Ltd.

Feature Films – Contrechamp

Contrechamp Grand Prix
Sultana’s Dream
Isabel Herguera
Spain, Germany
Abano Produccións S.L., El Gatoverde Producciones, Sultana Films, Uniko, Fabian&Fred GmbH

Contrechamp Jury Award
Living Large
Kristina Dufková
Czech Republic, Slovakia, France
Barletta Productions, Novinski, Novanima

Audience Awards

Feature Film
Flow
Gints Zilbalodis
Latvia, Belgium, France
Dream Well Studio, Take Five, Sacrebleu Productions

TV Film

The Drifting Guitar
Sophie Roze
France, Switzerland
JPL Films, Nadasdy Film

TV and Commissioned Films

Cristal for a Commissioned Film
Pictoplasma “Opener 2023”
Will Anderson
United Kingdom

Jury Award for a Commissioned Film
TED-Ed “How Did South African Apartheid Happen, and How Did It Finally End?”
Aya Marzouk
USA, South Africa, Egypt
TED-Ed

Cristal for a TV Production
The Drifting Guitar
Sophie Roze
France, Switzerland
JPL Films, Nadasdy Film

Jury Award for a TV Series
My Life in Versailles “Versailles Ghost”
Clémence Madeleine-Perdrillat, Nathaniel H’Limi
France, Luxembourg
Films Grand Huit, Melusine Productions / Studio 352, Film Fund Luxembourg

Jury Award for a TV Special
Lola and the Noisy Piano
Augusto Zanovello
France, Poland, Switzerland
Komadoli Studio, Folimage, Momakin, Nadasdy Film

Graduation Films

Lotte Reiniger Award
Maatitel
Govinda Sao
India
NID – National Institute of Design, GOIA

Jury Award
Pubert Jimbob
Quirijn Dees
Belgium
KASK & Conservatorium / School of Arts Gent

Cristal for a Graduation Film
Carrotica
Daniel Sterlin-Altman
Germany
Filmuniversitaet Babelsberg Konrad Wolf

Feature Films

Gan Foundation Award for Distribution
Flow
Gints Zilbalodis
Latvia, Belgium, France
UFO Distribution

VR Works

Cristal for the Best VR Work
Gargoyle Doyle
Ethan Shaftel
USA, Austria, Argentina
Detona Cultura, Easyaction Ltd, Amilux Film

Short Films

Cristal for a Short Film
Percebes
Alexandra Ramires, Laura Gonçalves
Portugal, France
BAP – Animation Studio, Ikki Films

Off-Limits Award
Glass House
Boris Labbé
France

Audience Award
Hurikán
Jan Saska
Czech Republic, France, Slovakia, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Last Films, Maur Film, Laïdak Films, Artichoke, Aeon Production

Jean-Luc Xiberras Award for a First Film
[S]
Mario Radev
United Kingdom

Alexeïeff – Parker Award
Beautiful Men
Nicolas Keppens
Belgium, France, Netherlands
Animal Tank, Miyu Productions, Ka-Ching Cartoons

Jury Award
The Car That Came Back from the Sea
Jadwiga Kowalska
Switzerland

Special Prizes

Best Original Music Award for a Feature Film
Flow
Rihards Zalupe, Gints Zilbalodis
Latvia, Belgium, France
Dream Well Studio, Take Five, Sacrebleu Productions

France TV Award for a Short Film
The Car That Came Back from the Sea
Jadwiga Kowalska
Switzerland

Best Original Music Award for a Short Film
Joko
Aliaksandr Yasinski
Poland, Germany, Czech Republic
Animoon, Las Sztuki Foundation, Clay Traces, Maur Film

CANAL+ Junior Jury Award
Noodles au Naturel
Matteo Salanave Piazza
France
La Poudrière

Young Audience Award
Hello Summer
Martin Smatana, Veronika Zacharová
Slovakia, Czech Republic, France
Studio Bororo, Maur Film, Last Films, Vivement Lundi !

André Martin Award for a French Short Film
Butterfly
Florence Miailhe
France
Sacrebleu Productions, XBO Films

Festivals Connexion Award
Beautiful Men
Nicolas Keppens
Belgium, France, Netherlands
Animal Tank, Miyu Productions, Ka-Ching Cartoons

Festivals Connexion VR Award
Emperor
Marion Burger, Ilan Cohen
France, Germany
Reynard Films, France Télévisions, Atlas V

City of Annecy Award
The Meatseller
Margherita Giusti
Italy
Frenesy Film Company