All the Animation News That Stood Out from Annecy 2026

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I was unable to spend this week in Southeast France for the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, the premier film festival celebrating the medium of animation. Instead, I experienced the festival as most observers do: as a sudden influx of new animated project announcements flooding my X feed.   

Annecy, which was established as a bi-annual event in 1960 and shifted to a yearly event in 1998, hosts a main competition every year, with roughly 10 or so animated films of all types — from 2D to 3D to stop-motion — competing for the Cristal for Best Feature Film. But that, plus the Contrechamp competition, short film categories, and other screenings, are just part of the festival’s programming. It also functions, in its own way, as a trade show, where companies take the opportunity to preview upcoming animated films or TV shows, and announce projects that are on the way.

Ergo, late June, when the festival takes place, is often the time when you can expect some exciting news in the animation world to come out. This year was no different, with companies like Amazon, Netflix, and Warner Bros. all having showcases throughout the week, plus panels for returning shows like “Common Side Effects” or “King of the Hill,” and premieres of upcoming films like “Forgotten Island” and “Minions & Monsters.” We even got some big animation news that wasn’t directly tied to the festival, with a “Shrek” spinoff prequel about Donkey titled…”Donkey,” that feels more and more like a fake film from a 2013 parody YouTube trailer the longer I think about it.  

With the festival wrapping up tomorrow and most of the announcements from the festival largely unveiled, what news from Annecy stood out, for good or for bad? Amazon — a company that has not exactly been in the best graces of animation fans recently — had the announcement that most intrigued me personally, the unveiling of a “Conan the Barbarian” animated series at Prime Video from Genndy Tartakovsky, creator of “Dexter’s Laboratory” and “Samurai Jack.” Anyone who has seen his Adult Swim action series “Primal” knows that the sword-and-sandal pulp hero is an absurdly perfect fit for the animator’s sensibilities. It’s a project that’s not likely to come out for years, but one that I’m going to spend every day impatiently waiting for. 

The prize for most new projects announced is Warner Bros. Animation, which had multiple panels, including one for their DC Studios slate. At the DC panel, four new shows were announced, most intriguingly an anime about the Joker called “Last Laugh” directed by Yasuhiro Aoki, who made the underseen gem “ChaO” earlier this year. Then there’s a “Krypto” series for kids from the creator of “Chowder,” which mostly reminds me of the “Krypto” cartoon I personally grew up with and the theme song I could never get out of my head.

The most marquee of these announcements was “Absolute Batman,” an adaptation of an alternate universe comic reimagining Bruce Wayne as a blue-collar worker rather than the scion of billionaires. I’m not a huge fan of the original comic it’s based on, but it’s wildly successful — selling about 3 million copies since its 2024 launch — and it’s exciting that the original writer Scott Snyder is executive producing the project; the same goes for the previously announced “Mister Miracle” show from writer Tom King, which showcased footage during the presentation. 

Outside of DC Studios, Warner Bros. also announced an HBO Max spinoff of “Adventure Time” focusing on Marceline and Princess Bubblegum, as well as plenty of features, most notably the feature debut of “Hazbin Hotel” creator Vivienne Medrano, “Prehistoria.” Its most attention grabbing news, though, was confirmed development of a “Powerpuff Girls” feature film. To be frank, although I loved that cartoon growing up, I’m personally skeptical of bringing it back. Its 2016 reboot was poorly received, and the live-action attempt received so much backlash it was canned before it ever aired. This is not a franchise that seems capable of really recapturing the magic of the circumstances that birthed it; some good things are best left untouched and alone.

In decidedly less IP-based news, one of the more intriguing acquisitions to come out of Annecy was Crunchyroll’s distribution deal to take “The Wolf,” a French animated movie based on a graphic novel by the original creator of “Snowpiercer” and made by the directing team behind the great “I Lost My Body.” Crunchyroll is basically synonymous with anime distribution and streaming, but the company has handled both live-action releases and movies and TV shows hailing from outside Japan before, and “The Wolf” represents one of their biggest gets on the latter front. With other companies investing in anime more heavily — Netflix had an entire showcase for their anime titles, including a reveal of footage from their “One Piece” reboot “The One Piece” and a new series “Fool Night,” while Amazon announced Science Saru’s new “Ghost in the Shell” reboot is coming to streaming next month — its interesting to see Crunchyroll diversify their output in some strategic ways. 

There are way too many other titles to mention — including Selena Gomez and Timothee Chalamet in an Illumination movie “Not Alone,” the strangest possible avenue for a reunion of the cast of “A Rainy Day in New York” — including things like “Batman: Knightfall,” or Aardman Animation’s “Pokémon” stop-motion series that weren’t newly announced but received premieres or previews. But that’s what most caught my attention this week, and has me chomping on the bit for when they come out.