The Annecy International Animation Film Festival will launch its Asian event in Seoul in 2019 the Seoul Business Agency (SBA) said in a press release on June 16th. JOO Hyung-chul, CEO of the Seoul Business Agency, and the City of Moving Images (CITIA), the organizer of the Annecy Festival have signed a partnership agreement to launch the 2019 Annecy Asia Animation Festival in Seoul.

Seoul and the Annecy Festival have had a business agreement in place since 2004 that has allowed for exchanges and cooperative efforts in the animation industry. This year’s agreement was created to help nurture the local Korean animation industry. This is a continuation of the efforts that began when Seoul Mayor PARK Won-soon made the decision to rebuild the Seoul Animation Center in 2015. Seoul’s first Annecy Asia Animation Film Festival will be held in Sangam-dong’s Digital Media City in 2019. From 2020 onwards, the event will take place annually every September at other locations in Seoul, such as the Seoul Animation Center or Seoul Plaza.

The Annecy International Animation Film Festival started off in 1956 as a non-competitive program at the Cannes Film Festival. It moved to Annecy in 1960 and established itself as an independent, international animated film festival. Currently, the 57-year-old festival, the oldest of its kind in the world, is considered one of the big four international animation festivals, along with the ones in Ottawa (Canada), Zagreb (Croatia) and Hiroshima (Japan).