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Thursday, June 13: the Annecy Festival 2024 continues! nWave unveiled exclusive information about an ambitious upccoming movie, we interviewed Illumination, and Pixar delighted the studio’s fans.
Interview with Illumination: The Secrets of Despicable Me 4!
One of the major events of the day was the premiere of Illumination’s new film: Despicable Me 4. Before presenting it to the festival crowd, director Chris Renaud and co-director Patrick Delage gave us an interview. They discussed their work on the film, the creation of a new antagonist, the genesis of gags featuring Gru Junior, and some animation intentions. They also shared their thoughts on generative AI.
The video interview will soon be available on our YouTube channel. Don’t forget to subscribe!
nWave Dazzles Us
Another highly anticipated moment was the nWave studios conference, in the company of Jean-Paul Gaultier!
Following The Inseparables (see our video interview) released last year, nWave caught our attention with this surprising collaboration with the famous fashion designer. We attended the conference with great curiosity.
The surprise was delightful: nWave is preparing a film about the journey of a moth living in a thrift store run by a retired model played by Rossy de Palma. This moth will discover Paris and the fashion world, dreaming of making a haute couture dress.
The moth will meet a young black woman who dreams of becoming a singer, and an antagonist named Paul Vital, whose appearance is directly inspired by Jean-Paul Gaultier.
The film won’t be released until 2027, so the team mainly unveiled concept arts: a bucolic setting for the thrift store, contemporary Paris, a building inspired by the grand boulevards in Paris with giant scissors framing the entrance for Paul Vital’s house, a giant fashion show at Place de la Concorde…
We also learned some plot elements, such as the presence of small sewing helpers. “Our own Minions!” nWave explained playfully. We will also see living hangers and mannequins commenting on the action like a Greek chorus. For the visual style, nWave will not “forbid themselves from doing minimalism,” and the film will end with a dreamlike fashion show.
Matthieu Zeller (CEO, nWave Studios), director Benoît Philippon (Mune), screenwriter Émilie Frèche (herself from a family connected to the fashion world), and Jean-Paul Gaultier delivered a generous, detailed conference. The film promises to be ambitious, and we eagerly await more information. We hope to see a Work In Progress conference at a future Annecy Festival edition.
As a bonus, upon leaving the room, we met two directors from the studio, Jérémie Degruson (The Inseparables, Bigfoot Family) and Yanis Belaid (from Piktura school, known for Les Larmes de la Seine, he recently joined nWave as a director). After a quick photo with them, we headed to MIFA!
Pixar : RenderMan & teapots!
At the end of the day, the Pixar team held a conference on the new features of RenderMan 26, which we detailed in April. Dylan Sisson (Marketing Manager – Pixar) also shared some personal projects before distributing the famous limited-edition Pixar teapots.
Planned and Unplanned Encounters
The day also provided opportunities to meet many other people during meetings, at the 3DVF/Progiss booth, in the MIFA aisles, in lines before sessions, or even on the Festival shuttles!
We spoke, for example, with CG Supervisor Nims Bun, and ARTFX student Alexia Vincent, who is aiming for a career in rigging and came to present her demoreel to studios.
Finally, in the evening, ESMA gathered students, alumni, and animation industry professionals for a drink in the old town of Annecy.
Friday’s Program: Disney screenings, interviews, and new encounters before heading back to Paris!
