Miscellaneous 21,500 admissions to the Fantoche animated film festival

The international festival for animated film Fantoche in Baden has recorded 21,500 admissions at its 22nd edition. This year, it turned away from the polemic present and focused on "All We Need is Love". The guest country was Austria.

In the international competition, "This Is a Story Without a Plan" by Cassie Shao from the USA won the "Best Film" prize, as the organizers announced at the end of the festival on Sunday. The festival began on September 3.

"Pear Garden" by Shadab Shayegan from Germany received the International Audience Award, among others. In the Swiss competition, "Sans voix" by Samuel Patthey was named "Best Swiss" and also received the Swiss Youth Award. The Swiss Audience Award went to "Dieter" by Rolf Broennimann.

The children's jury chose "Bubbles" by Lezhi Xiao from China as "Best Kids", while "The Swineherd" by Magnus Igland Møller and Peter Smith from Denmark received the Children's Audience Award.

Three new feature-length films with Swiss participation were exceptional this year, as the organizers also announced. In addition to the opening film "Sauvages" (Claude Barras, CH 2024), these were "Journey of Shadows" (Yves Netzhammer, CH 2024) and "Invelle - Nowhere" (Simone Massi, I/CH 2023). This is encouraging, as there is still a lack of large animation studios in Switzerland, such as those in the USA, Japan or France.

With this year's 21,500 admissions, the number of visitors increased compared to the last ten years. According to the organizers, this is due to the increasing number of cinema admissions. The 22nd Fantoche showed a total of 224 animated short and feature-length films. The 2025 edition will take place from September 2 to 7.

SDA