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France's Annecy to Show Piano Forest, Appleseed Sequel
posted on by Mikhail Koulikov
The selection committee of the 2008 Annecy film festival, one of the world's leading events dedicated to animation, have nominated Masayuki Kojima's Piano no Mori (Piano Forest) and Shinji Aramaki's Appleseed: Ex Machina to compete in the festival's theatrical films category. The two Japanese entries will join seven others, from France (three selections), the United States (two), Spain, and Germany (each with one), in the running for this year's Cristal award. An award for audience favorite will also be given, and a special achievement award, which last year went to The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, may be awarded as well.
Annecy will also present the European premiere of Hideaki Anno's Evangelion: 1.0 You Are [Not] Alone. That film will be screened out of competition, along with Makoto Shinkai's 5 Centimeters Per Second, Takahiro Imamura's Fist of the North Star: Raoh Side Story Junai Arc, and nine other full-length animated features.
Other anime participating in this year's festival will include Shinkai's short "Neko no Shūkai", episodes of Kimoshi Chioka's Hakaba Kitarō and Satoshi Tomioka's Usavich, and Production I.G's "Asience: A Hairy Tale" animated commercial. Annecy 2008 will be held in the French town of that name from June 9 to June 14.
