Netflix returns to the Annecy Animation Festival (June 9-15) with a robust slate of animated feature and TV projects, highlighted by the premiere of “Ultraman: Rising” on June 12 (two days ahead of the feature’s streaming debut).
Also on June 12, Netflix will offer sneak peeks of an untitled “Wallace and Gromit” stop-motion feature from Aardman (streaming this winter), and Zack Snyder’s upcoming adult animated series, “Twilight of the Gods” (streaming this fall). Nick Park returns to directing “Wallace and Gromit,” about an out-of-control “smart gnome” with a mind of its own, while Snyder digs into Norse mythology for a violent Viking revenge actioner (from Xilam Animation).
Netflix will additionally offer previews on June 12 of Skydance Animation’s musical adventure “Spellbound” (streaming this year), directed by Vicky Jenson (“Shrek”), and “The Twits” (2025), a comedy about the never-ending battle between cruelty and empathy, from first-time director Phil Johnston (writer of “Zootopia”)
Work-in-progress sessions on June 11 will spotlight “That Christmas” (streaming in the fall), based on the trilogy of children’s books by award-winning writer-director Richard Curtis (“Four Weddings and a Funeral”). Curtis will be present along with first-time director and animation vet Simon Otto (“How to Train Your Dragon”), producer Nicole Hearon, and production designer Justin Hutchinson-Chatburn.
In addition, the June 13 making-of sessions will go behind the scenes of “Ultraman: Rising” and Season 8 of “Big Mouth” (2025), led by co-creator Nick Kroll and fellow co-creators. “Ultraman: Rising,” a partnership between Netflix, anime franchise creator Tsuburaya Productions, and Industrial Light & Magic, concerns a conflicted baseball star and superhero, who reluctantly adopts a 35-foot-tall, fire-breathing baby kaiju. The sessions will feature first-time director and animation vet Shannon Tindle (“Lost Ollie”), co-director John Aoshima, art director Sunmin Inn, and Hayden Jones, VFX supervisor with ILM.
Finally, the Emmy-winning “Blue Eye Samurai” and “Pokemon Concierge” will be in official competition.
