The Annecy International Animation Film Festival opens its doors in just a few days, bringing together thousands of professionals from across the globe for a week.

In Annecy, we celebrate the very best of animation. We discover what will shape the industry in the months and years ahead. We build our networks over coffee, pitch projects,
forge partnerships, and sometimes even close deals along the shores of Lake Annecy.
Every year, hundreds of Africans also make the journey, arriving with minds and tablets full of animation projects, training initiatives, festivals, transmedia concepts..., all driven
by one main objective: making deals.

In this Annecy special issue of Spark, we explore what the festival truly represents for African professionals with Richard Opoku Agyeman. We also meet Minasie Terefe, founder of
Ethiopia's Behagerlij Studio, whose series Sunday Morning has been selected for the MIFA Pitches. We take a closer look at Cross IP, one of the most promising new spaces at the market this year. Finally, Christophe Pécot shares his perspective on the work that happens behind the scenes long before the market even opens.

As always, we bring you a selection of events and initiatives to follow throughout the festival. Finally, in The Notes, we explore one of the defining features of the African experience in Annecy: solidarity. In our industry, it often makes all the difference.

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Welcome to Annecy.