The 40th Annecy International Animation Film Festival announced on April 27 that The Red Turtle , the latest work by award-winning Dutch animator and director Michael Dudok de Wit ("The Monk and the Fish," "Father & Daughter" animated shorts), will open the festival. Studio Ghibli is co-producing the film with French film production and distribution company Wild Bunch. Studio Ghibli director Isao Takahata served as artistic director on the film. The film is also screening at the Cannes Film Festival in May.

The festival also announced that it will screen the Gamba: Gamba to Nakama-tachi CG-animated film and The Anthem of the Heart anime film outside of competition. No Japanese feature films are screening in competition this year.

Additionally, Koji Yamamura's animated short film "'Parade' de Satie" and Ryo Orikasa's "Suijungenten" clay short film will screen in competition in the short films category. No Japanese short films will screen out of competition.

Keisuke Matsumoto's "Into the Pocket" episode for the Super Short Comics series is screening in competition in the TV Films category, and Makino Atsushi's music video for Sasanomaly's "The Synthesesia Ghost" song and Masanobu Hiraoka's Japanese- and French-produced music video for Ez3Kiel's "L'Œil du cyclone" song are screening in competition in the Commissioned Films category.

The Graduation Films category will see three Japanese films in competition: Eri Okazaki's "Feed," Keigo Ito's "Nanimo-minakuteii," and Xinxin Liu's "Natsu no megami no kuchi no naka."

The festival will also host a special screening of Cinelicious Pics' 4K digital restoration of Eiichi Yamamoto's 1973 experimental anime film Belladonna of Sadness (pictured at right) on June 13 and 14. Mamoru Hosoda's The Boy and the Beast will also screen as an open-air screening at the event.

Established in 1960, Annecy is the world's oldest and largest animation film festival. This year, it runs from June 13-18 at the French community of the same name.

Last year, Production I.G's Miss Hokusai anime film received the Jury Award in the Official Feature Film Competition at the festival. The film competed against The Case of Hana & Alice (Hana to Alice Satsujin Jiken), Shunji Iwai's animated prequel to his 2004 coming-of-age film Hana & Alice . The "Food Chain" episode of Adventure Time by director Masaaki Yuasa competed in the TV Films category but did not win an award.

[Via Anime! Anime!]