Canadian copro Saules aveugles, femme endormie (Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman) has won a Jury Distinction award at the 2022 Annecy International Animation Film Festival.

Directed and written by Pierre Földes, the animated feature film was coproduced by companies from Canada, France, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands, including Lucy Déry and Kim McCraw from Montreal-based Micro_Scope, and Galilé Marion-Gauvin from Montreal-based Productions L’unité Centrale.

The film’s other prodcos include France’s Cinéma defacto, Miyu Productions, Studio MA, Arte France Cinéma, and Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Cinéma; Amsterdam’s An Original Picture; and Luxembourg’s Doghouse Films. It is distributed by Gebeka Films and The MatchFactory.

Based on the Japanese short stories compilation by Haruki Murakami, the story follows a bank employee, his frustrated wife, and a schizophrenic accountant who are being helped by a lost cat, a giant talking frog, and a tsunami to save Tokyo from an earthquake.

The Annecy International Animation Film Festival annually highlights the creative richness of animations from projects and creators all over the world.

This year, multiple Canadian projects were also in the festival by competing at the Annecy’s Official Short Films section, including the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) production The Flying Sailor by Oscar-nominated animators Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby; the NFB’s Meneath: The Hidden Island of Ethics from award-winning Orkney Cree Métis artist Terril Calder, produced by Jelena Popović with consulting producer Jason Ryle; and the NFB’s Magical Caresses: Sweet Jesus from director Lori Malépart-Traversy.

Other homegrown titles at Annecy included the Austria-Canada copro Under the Microscope, directed and produced by Michaela Grill, which was in the Off-Limits Short Films section.

Meanwhile, the Young Audiences Short Films section had the Canada-U.K. copro Cat and Moth, directed by India Barnardo. It was written by Amar Chundavadra and Martyn Smith and produced by Stupid Horse Productions, Emily Shinyi Hsu, Barnardo and Dacey.

Image courtesy of Pierre Földes.