The 2026 Annecy International Animation Film Festival opened Sunday evening with a ceremony that balanced celebration, reflection, and blockbuster spectacle, culminating in the world premiere of Illumination\u2019s Minions & Monsters, the latest entry in one of animation\u2019s most commercially successful franchises.<\/p>\n
The evening was less political than last year\u2019s launch, but equally impactful in its own charming way.<\/p>\n
Festival artistic director Marcel Jean welcomed attendees, introduced jury members, political dignitaries, and guests, and highlighted several prominent figures in attendance, including filmmaker Guillermo del Toro, a longtime Annecy regular whose appearances at the festival have become almost expected, although this year\u2019s was a surprise.<\/p>\n
Before introducing Illumination founder and CEO Chris Meledandri, Jean reminded the audience that the executive and his films are Annecy regulars. He also presented the duo with a pair of hand print plaques that will hang in the new La Cit\u00e9 internationale du cin\u00e9ma d\u2019animation\u2019s hall of fame.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s always a pleasure and an honor to have you on this stage in front of the best audience in the world,\u201d Jean told Meledandri and the very friendly crowd. Illumination premiered the first Despicable Me film at Annecy 2010, and the studio has been back time and again, since.<\/p>\n
For Meledandri, this year\u2019s inauguration served as both a homecoming and a celebration of a partnership that has become increasingly important to both Annecy and Illumination.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is really an honor to be here for all of us at Illumination,\u201d he said. \u201cThere is nowhere in the world that we would rather be premiering Minions & Monsters than here at Annecy in this magnificent festival in front of all of you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meledandri repeatedly returned to the festival\u2019s role as a gathering place for artists, describing Annecy as an event that not only celebrates animation but also \u201chonors imagination and artistry.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also used the occasion to spotlight the hundreds of artists behind the film, many of whom work at Illumination Studios Paris, and several of whom were in attendance for the premiere.<\/p>\n
\u201cTonight, I get to share my appreciation for all of the care that has been poured into every one of the frames of this movie by hundreds of artists sitting in the center of Paris at Illumination Studios,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
That acknowledgment carried particular weight in Annecy. Although Illumination is headquartered in California, its creative identity has long been intertwined with France through its Paris studio, formerly Mac Guff, which has animated the Despicable Me and Minions films. Over the past decade and a half, the franchise has generated more than $5 billion at the global box office, making Illumination one of the industry\u2019s defining success stories and one of the most visible examples of large-scale feature animation being produced in France.<\/p>\n
Meledandri also explained why Minions & Monsters leaves contemporary settings behind for 1920s Hollywood. \u201cThe dawn of cinema in 1920s Hollywood is not an obvious place to begin a movie about Minions, but it is the perfect era to set a story that honors cinema and pays homage to the inspiration for the Minions themselves, the silent clowns, Keaton, Lloyd, Chaplin,\u201d he said. The executive added that the setting ultimately became \u201ca great setting for a story of a Minion who loves to draw and dreams about making a movie.\u201d<\/p>\n