Asian animation enjoyed a particularly successful showing at the 2026 Annecy International Animation Film Festival, with five productions connected to Singapore, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan receiving six awards across the feature, television, immersive and graduation-film categories.
The most significant achievement came from “The Violinist”, directed by Ervin Han and Raúl García. The Singapore, Spain and Italy co-production received the Cristal for a Feature Film, the festival’s highest honour for an animated feature. It also won the SACEM Award for Best Original Soundtrack in a Feature Film, making it the only Asian-connected production to leave Annecy 2026 with two prizes.
Set across Singapore and Malaya, “The Violinist” follows childhood friends Fei and Kai, two aspiring musicians whose lives are transformed by war and the Japanese occupation. After Kai joins the resistance and subsequently disappears, Fei spends decades performing throughout Southeast Asia while searching for information about him. Her journey gradually forces her to decide whether she can move beyond the past and find her own artistic voice.
The 114-minute animated historical drama was written by Ervin Han and Jordan K. See. Singapore’s Robot Playground Media participated in the international production alongside Spain’s TV ON Producciones and Italy’s Altri Occhi. Ricky Ho and Isabel Latorre composed the award-winning soundtrack, while the voice cast includes Tan Kheng Hua, Kazuya Tanabe, Adrian Pang, Ayden Sng and Fang Rong.
“The Violinist” also represented a milestone for Singaporean animation. Before receiving the Cristal, it had become the first Singapore-produced animated feature selected for Annecy’s main feature competition. Developed from Robot Playground Media’s 2015 short “The Violin”, the ambitious project took more than a decade to reach the screen.
Japanese animation was represented by two award-winning productions. Yoshitoshi Shinomiya’s “A New Dawn” received the Contrechamp Jury Award. The Japanese and French co-production centres on Keitaro, a young man living inside an abandoned fireworks factory that was once surrounded by forest but is now bordered by solar panels.
Before the factory is demolished, Keitaro attempts to launch a firework left behind by his late father. Accompanied by his brother and a childhood friend, he prepares to close a chapter that has shaped their lives. The 75-minute feature was produced by Fumie Takeuchi of Asmik Ace together with Emmanuel-Alain Raynal and Pierre Baussaron of Miyu Productions, with Shuta Hasunuma composing the music.
“Takopi’s Original Sin”, meanwhile, received the Jury Award for a TV Series. Directed and scripted for television by Shinya Iino, the Japanese production is adapted from Taizan 5’s original manga, which was previously reviewed by Asian Movie Pulse.
The story follows Takopi, an alien who arrives on Earth with a mission to spread happiness. After meeting Shizuka, a lonely fourth-grade student, he attempts to improve her life using a collection of magical gadgets. However, Takopi soon discovers that the girl’s problems involve bullying, domestic abuse and emotional trauma that cannot be resolved through technology or good intentions alone.
Produced by Enishiya and Tokyo Broadcasting System Television, “Takopi’s Original Sin” features character graphics by Keita Nagahara and music by Yoshiaki Fujisawa. Its combination of colourful science-fiction imagery and an increasingly bleak exploration of childhood suffering also earned it a place in Asian Movie Pulse’s selection of the best anime of 2025.
South Korea was represented by Hyeunjoo Woo and Jiyun Park’s “Voooooo—Peeeeee—”, which received the Festivals Connexion Award for an Immersive Work. The 20-minute multisensory XR experience follows a woman who discovers that her body has become hollow after being reconstructed as data.
Combining virtual-reality cinema with a pneumatic wearable interface, the project allows participants to physically sense changes in the volume of the protagonist’s virtual body. Woo and Park directed and produced the work through UBAC Studio, while Woo wrote the script and Yihwan Lim composed the music.
Taiwan’s award came through Ting-Jui Chen’s “You Are Not Part of the Cake”, which received the Titmouse WTF Award. The Taiwan and United Kingdom co-production was one of five Taiwanese animated works previously announced for Annecy 2026.
Created at the Royal College of Art, the four-minute graduation short blends horror, experimental animation and dark humour. It follows Ping, whose relationship with her girlfriend Lala brings her into conflict with Lala’s violent and homophobic father. Their confrontation develops into an extreme ritual of violence, transformation and rebirth. Chen directed and wrote the short, with Ren-Yu Huang composing the music and Pei-Shan Wu and Chu-Hsuan Lee providing the voices.
The results highlighted the range of contemporary Asian animation at Annecy. The awarded productions encompassed a large-scale historical feature, an intimate Japanese drama, a psychologically harrowing television adaptation, a technologically ambitious South Korean XR experience and an experimental Taiwanese graduation short. Most notably, “The Violinist” placed a Singaporean story at the top of Annecy’s feature competition, while “Takopi’s Original Sin” continued its transition from acclaimed manga to internationally recognised television animation.
