The Vancouver Economic Commission (VEC) is glad to be back for our third year at Annecy International Animated Film Festival and Market!
The VEC storms Annecy alongside nine studios – a sample of the healthy digital media, VFX and animation ecosystem in Vancouver – to connect to an international market of professionals, seek new opportunities for collaboration, and to showcase Vancouver’s robust animation portfolio.
One of the VEC’s key purposes at Annecy is to trawl for ambitious, talented technicians and artists seeking to make a new career in a world-class destination for animation companies and talent. Even Vancouver’s fast-growing pool of talent cannot meet the surging demand of Vancouver’s Digital Entertainment & Interactive sector.
Vancouver aggressively seeks to talent at Annecy fill more than 800animation jobs, and local film is major award contender
· At present, the VFX Vancouver Job Board<http://vfxvancouver.com/> has more than 800 listings, with more positions created every week, and of 1,000 Digital Entertainment & Interactive (DE&I) companies in Vancouver, more than 60 studios make up the VFX and Animation subsector, representing both domestic and foreign-owned companies. Vancouver is hoping many of those jobs might be courted from talent present at Annecy.
· Vancouver just had a record year for Film & TV production, 353 projects were worked on in 2015 – from Angry Birds to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles–and that work is receiving accolades from around the world.
· This year here at Annecy, we have our fingers crossed for the Vancouver feature-length film in competition: Ann Marie Fleming’s “Window Horses,” co-produced by Stickgirl Productions and the National Film Board of Canada (one of ten in competition for best animated feature length film)
· The Canadian government realizes the need to support this growing industry and has revised elements of its International Mobility Program<http://www.esdc.gc.ca/eng/jobs/foreign_workers/reform/imp.shtml> to ease the way of temporary workers contributing to Canada’s economic and cultural interests. Most relevant to Annecy is the francophone speaker fast-track program that enables an easier transition to Canadian roles for artists in France and French-speaking European countries.
