Academy Award®-nominated French animation company Xilam is heading to Annecy International Animation Festival with a wave of activity across its features and series slate, including a Work-In-Progress session for upcoming psychological thriller feature The Wolf based on the graphic novel by Jean Marc Rochette; alongside official selections for Lucy Lost, a film adaptation of Listen to the Moon by British author Michael Morpurgo, and new Disney+ series “The Doomies”; and the French premiere of its original 2D animated series “Submarine Jim”.
Marc du Pontavice, Founder and CEO at Xilam, said, “This year, Annecy will mark a historic milestone for Xilam as we introduce an unprecedented slate of varied and ambitious mix of projects at Annecy. We’re thrilled to be showcasing our work across all areas of the festival’s programme and highlighting our creative strength and resilience during a time of continued industry-wide challenges – and this breakthrough across both our film and TV pipelines is testament to our commitment to creating and supporting striking and original content.”
Screening as part of Annecy’s ‘Work in Progress’ sessions, upcoming feature film The Wolf is co-written and directed by Benjamin Massoubre and Fursy Tessier – who previously collaborated on Xilam’s 2020 Academy Award-nominated I Lost My Body. It is produced by Xilam’s Marc du Pontavice, with Sabine Dabadie (‘Ourika’) also serving as co-writer, and follows Gaspard, a hardened shepherd haunted by the death of his son, whose apparent tranquility is shattered by the menacing appearance of a stray wolf. The session will be followed by a book signing with author Jean Marc Rochette, for the graphic novel on which the film is based.
After its 2025 ‘Work in Progress’ session, Lucy Lost is screening this year as part of Annecy’s Official Competition. Based on award-winning author and previous British Children’s Laureate Michael Morpurgo’s 2014 novel Listen to the Moon, Lucy Lost is co-written and directed by Olivier Clert (Klaus, Little Prince), and is co-written with Helen Blakeman (“Dustbin Baby”, “Hetty Feather”) and produced by Xilam’s Marc du Pontavice. The feature was produced at Xilam’s animation studio, and Goodfellas is handling international sales on the project, with French broadcasters Canal+ and Ciné+ OCS previously acquiring pay-TV rights. The film will be released in French theatres October 28th through Le Pacte.
Also following a successful ‘Work in Progress’ session in 2024, supernatural horror comedy series The Doomies will screen in the TV Films category. Produced by Xilam in association with Disney Television Animation, the series is created by Rémi Zaarour, Andrès Fernandez, Henry Gifford and directed by Andrès Fernandez – and will premiere on Disney+ during the Annecy festival on 26th June with 22 half-hour episodes, along with a new short-form series featuring four episodes.
Rounding out Xilam’s TV activity, original 2D series Submarine Jim is premiering in France on Wednesday 24th June, with the first 26 episodes launching on Okoo, France Télévisions’ FVOD platform for kids. The series launched this year in the UK & Ireland on CBBC & iPlayer, in French speaking Switzerland on RTS and on Cartoon Network in Latin America and South East Asia. Upcoming launches also includes Super RTL in Germany who commissioned the series with France Télévisions; RTBF and VRT (Belgium), NPO (Netherlands), YLE (Finland), NRK (Norway) and Noga (Israel).
