‘Chicken For Linda!,’ ‘Robot Dreams,’ ’27,’ Take Top Honors At 2023 Annecy Festival

After a week of screenings, panels, pitches, studio presentations, and high-profile masterclasses, the Annecy Festival held its closing ceremony tonight, awarding the best short films, features, tv productions, student films, and VR works that screened over the past week.

The festival’s top prize, the Annecy Cristal for an animated feature, went to Chiara Malta and Sébastien Laudenbach’s Chicken for Linda!, which also won the Gan Foundation Award for Distribution. Annecy regulars, the husband-and-wife team of Laudenbach and Malta have worked together regularly over the years on both live-action and animation projects. Chicken for Linda! was at last year’s festival for a sold-out work-in-progress presentation.

This year’s Contrechamp top honors went to Pablo Berger’s Robot Dreams. The film premiered at Cannes last month and was a favorite among critics and audiences at the festival. Berger’s animation debut, the film is a kid-friendly feature with a bittersweet tone that appeals to adults as well.