Andy in Annecy 2026
AI moves from theory to workflow
This week: A short chat with Andy as he called in from Annecy (with sunglasses on and rosé incoming), while Jo and Emily hold the fort back at base. AI it seems, was a hot topic at the Festival, the oldest dedicated animation film festival in the world, where the conversation about the technology shifted shape.
The theoretical question of what AI might do to animation appeared to give way to a practical one of how studios are using it. Andy reported a split at the festival. Students are anxious about how it affects the rung of the ladder they need to start a career. Producers and executives are working out how to fold the tools into existing workflows. Both sides are at the same festival, watching the same demos, but maybe drawing different conclusions.
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For two or three years running, AI has featured at Annecy but what has changed is the make-up of the people talking about it. Andy describes a growing contingent who have stopped debating whether to engage with AI and started using it in production. A passionate group still vehemently oppose it, but people are adjusting their views in response to using the tools, not in response to thinking about them.
The feeling is that the window for theoretical positioning is closing. Studios who spent the last two years working out where they stand now compete with studios who spent the same time working out what the tools can do. Some are seeing workflow integration as a competitive variable for their business rather than a philosophical one.
But students see the rung disappearing
Annecy draws a large student population alongside producers, broadcasters, vendors and recruiters. Andy spoke about the concern at the junior end, that some entry-level animation roles will go. These are the roles students rely on to start their careers, and removing them changes the route into the industry.
Emily made a counter-argument in that the same tools also open creative options for solo and small-team work. Students with the tools and the willingness to take their own creative swings can produce work which needed a studio behind it five years ago. In that sense the route into the industry is merely changing shape, rather than closing.
When Toy Story landed, as Andy pointed out, CGI animation was a category of its own. Today, you find CGI in stop-motion features, 2D films and everything in between. The category dissolved because the tool became ubiquitous. Andy expects the same for AI in animation. Hybrid will be the norm and the discrete AI label will fall away the same way CGI’s did. In that sense we might soon stop thinking about AI as a separate category and start thinking about it as a production component.
Of the studios that Andy spoke to at Annecy already using AI in production, his suggestion was that the tools work best in smaller, nimbler companies who can move fast and amplify what their small team produces. For new entrants, that means you have a window where the cost and time advantages of AI reduce the gap against larger incumbents who still ratify every tool change through procurement review.
A primer on how Annecy works
For Jo, and those who have not been to Annecy, and who are weighing it up for next year, Andy spoke of how the festival sits together. The Imperial is the hotel at one end of town, where many of the bigger names park themselves at a bar table and let people come to them. MIFA, the market, sits in a tent next to the Imperial with stands from animation associations, studios and software providers. Festival films screen in cinemas across the town. Producers move between bars in the old town to take meetings, and a number of people take meetings by the lake.
A practical warning though - distances between venues are deceptive. Less au-fait attendees have been known to book meetings at opposite ends of town and underestimate the walk. Accommodation often sits well outside the centre too. Andy’s walk in was 45 minutes, in 38-degree heat. It’s a good job he had his shades, eh.
Netflix too, it’s worth noting, has used Annecy more aggressively over the last few editions as an announcement opportunity, with exclusives and breaking news landing during the festival week. If you are tracking commissioning intent in animation, Annecy may be becoming as much a news venue as a market. The Kids Media Club team has set itself an objective to record live from Annecy in 2027. If you are heading out next year, find us by the lake!
Love animation? You might enjoy this episode from April 2026:
Listen to the full Kids Media Club podcast episode for the conversation between Andy in Annecy and Jo and Emily. Connect with us at www.kidsmediaclubpodcast.com or find Jo Redfern, Andy Williams and Emily Horgan on LinkedIn.