Michel Gondry to Be Honored at 2025 Annecy Film Festival

Michel Gondry will be honored at this year’s Annecy Film Festival, the world’s premiere animation fest. The filmmaker behind “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” and “Be Kind Rewind” will receive the Honorary Cristal “in recognition of his exceptional contribution to the vitality of animation.”

“Michel Gondry assumes the legacy of Georges Méliès as much as that of Norman McLaren,” the festival’s artistic delegate Michel Jean said in Wednesday’s announcement. “His boundless creativity and innovative approach have brought hand-crafted animation back into the mainstream, as brilliantly illustrated by ‘The Science of Sleep.'”

Gondry has a history with Annecy, but has never actually attended the festival.

In 2013, Gondry’s “Is the Man Who Is Tall Happy?: An Animated Conversation With Noam Chomsky” was awarded the Prix André-Martin for best French animated feature. Gondry’s last feature “Maya, Give Me a Title,” was almost completely animated, with bits of live-action photography interspersed. His next film is the Pharrell Williams biopic “Golden” (formerly “Atlantis”), out this May from Universal Pictures.

This year’s festival, according to an official release, “will highlight the links between animation and music videos.” Gondry is obviously a huge part of this connection, with his handcrafted videos for artists like Bjork, Daft Punk, the White Stripes and more, often incorporating elements of animation – whether that’s stop-motion, traditional or computer animation.

The 2025 Annecy Film Festival runs from June 8-14.

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