‘The Violinist’ Scores Surprise Annecy Cristal Win As ‘Iron Boy’ Takes Three Awards – Full Winners List

When we spoke to Annecy artistic director Marcel Jean about the competition lineups ahead of this year’s festival, he told us that Ervin Han and Raul Garcia’s sweeping Singaporean love story The Violinist was “one of the best surprise I had in the in the selection process.”

Well, Jean wasn’t alone in being pleasantly surprised by the film. There were audible gasps as the crowd slowly figured out which film the jury was describing as they made their announcement on Saturday, as Singapore’s first animated feature in 15 years pulled off an even bigger upset, emerging from one of the strongest Annecy competition lineups in recent memory to win the festival’s top honor, the Cristal for a feature film.

After impressive debuts at Cannes, most of the buzz at Annecy was around Iron Boy and Tangles, but The Violinist never felt an out-of-place winner. Spanning nearly eight decades of Southeast Asian history, the film tells an intimate love story against the backdrop of war, colonialism, and political upheaval, combining elegant hand-drawn animation with carefully deployed CG and a score that is as central to the storytelling as its two leads.

If The Violinist was Annecy’s big surprise this year, Iron Boy leaves Annecy as one of the festival’s biggest success stories and strongest contenders to still be around through awards season. Fresh off winning the Special Jury Prize in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section and generating glowing reviews for its watercolor visuals and deeply personal coming-of-age story, Louis Clichy’s feature arrived in Annecy carrying enormous momentum. It ultimately collected three prizes, the Jury Award, the Audience Award, and the Gan Foundation Award for Distribution, reaffirming its place as one of the year’s standout animated features.

Spanish filmmaker Alberto Vázquez continued an impressive festival run with Decorado, taking home the Paul Grimault Award. The existential black comedy has been one of the year’s most acclaimed adult animated features, further cementing Vázquez’s reputation as one of Europe’s most singular animation auteurs after films like Unicorn Wars and Birdboy the Forgotten Children.

The Contrechamp Grand Prix went to Blaise, Dimitri Planchon and Jean-Paul Guigue’s offbeat adaptation of Planchon’s long-running comic, while the Jury Award recognized Yoshitoshi Shinomiya’s stunning directorial debut, A New Dawn, a handcrafted Japanese-French co-production between Asmik Ace and Miyu Productions.

In the short film category, indie rockstar Don Hertzfeldt claimed the Short Film Cristal for Paper Trail, his latest existential odyssey and his first Annecy prize in more than a decade, while France’s Jocelyn Charles earned both the Jury Award and Audience Award for God Is Shy.

Stop-motion specialist Anna Mantzaris took the Jean-Luc Xiberras Award for Please, while Etienne Bonnet’s visceral body horror film My Bellyaching Skin received the Alexeïeff-Parker Award.

Elsewhere, Belgian filmmaker Rémi Durin’s The Great Dreamscape won the Cristal for a TV Production, while French trio Victor Caire, Lucas Navarro, and Théophile Dufresne took the Cristal for a Commissioned Film with Unloved. The latter capped a strong showing for French studios in the commissioned category, with Austria and Germany’s Eco Beat receiving the Jury Award.

The festival also recognized emerging talent with Laurence Thérien’s Ball Face, from London’s Royal College of Art, winning the Cristal for a Graduation Film. Czech filmmaker Jamaica Kindlová received the Lotte Reiniger Award for Gently, while France’s Léa Pulini earned the Graduation Film Jury Award for Dying Embers.

Rounding out the Cristal winners, A Long Goodbye by Kate Voet and Victor Maes claimed the festival’s top immersive prize, underscoring Annecy’s push to platform animation beyond traditional formats. Audience awards elsewhere went to The Broos in the TV category, adding another prize for French broadcaster Arte.

2026 Annecy Festival Award Winners

Feature Films

Cristal for a Feature Film

The Violinist, Ervin Han, Raúl García (Throne Inc., Robot Playground Media, TV ON Producciones, Altri Occhi/Singapore, Spain, Italy)

Jury Award

Iron Boy, Louis Clichy (Eddy/France, Belgium)

Paul Grimault Award

Decorado, Alberto Vázquez (Abano Producións, María y Arnold AIE, Sardinha em Lata, The Glow Animation Studio, Uniko/Spain)

Gan Foundation Award for Distribution

Iron Boy, Louis Clichy (KMBO/France, Belgium)

Contrechamp Grand Prix

Blaise, Dimitri Planchon, Jean-Paul Guigue (KG Productions/France)

Contrechamp Jury Award

A New Dawn, Yoshitoshi Shinomiya (Asmik Ace, Inc., Miyu Productions/Japan, France)

Audience Award

Iron Boy, Louis Clichy (Eddy/France, Belgium)

Short Films

Cristal for a Short Film

Paper Trail, Don Hertzfeldt (Don Hertzfeldt/U.S.A.)

Jury Award

God Is Shy, Jocelyn Charles (Remembers/France)

Alexeïeff – Parker Award

My Bellyaching Skin, Etienne Bonnet (Girelle Production/France)

Jean-Luc Xiberras Award for a First Film

Please, Anna Mantzaris (Apparat Filmproduktion AB, Passion Paris Production, Kuli Film S.R.O., Mikrofilm, Böhle Studios, SVT/Sweden, France, Czech Republic, Norway, Finland)

Off-Limits Award

Core Dump, Alona Rodeh (Alona Rodeh/Germany)

Audience Award

God Is Shy, Jocelyn Charles (Remembers/France)

TV Films

Cristal for a TV Production

The Great Dreamscape, Rémi Durin (Autour de Minuit/Belgium, France)

Jury Award for a TV Series

Takopi’s Original Sin, Shinya Iino (Enishiya, Inc., Tokyo Broadcasting System Television, Inc./Japan)

Jury Award for a TV Special

Song of the Storms, Caroline Attia (Sacrebleu Productions/France, Belgium)

Audience Award

The Broos, David Mirailles (Bobby Prod, ARTE France/France)

Commissioned Films

Cristal for a Commissioned Film

Unloved, Victor Caire, Lucas Navarro, Théophile Dufresne (Illogic Studios, WIZZ/France)

Jury Award for a Commissioned Film

Eco Beat, Eva Bienert, Max Mörtl (Vorarlberger Gemeindeverband/Austria, Germany)

Graduation Films

Cristal for a Graduation Film

Ball Face, Laurence Thérien (Royal College of Art/U.K.)

Jury Award

Dying Embers, Léa Pulini (La Poudrière/France)

Lotte Reiniger Award

Gently, Jamaica Kindlová (FAMU, Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague/Czech Republic)

Immersive Works

Cristal for the Best Immersive Work

A Long Goodbye, Kate Voet, Victor Maes (Cassette for Timescapes, Tarantula Luxembourg, Valk Productions/Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands)