The biggest stories from the world of animation in January

January 2024 started with a bang as awards season kicked into high gear, Mickey Mouse entered the public domain, several new features were announced, and a handful of films hit major box office milestones.

However, it wasn’t all good news. Last year’s series of layoffs continued into 2024, a Colombian graphic designer who claimed to have worked on it The Boy and the Heron It went viral for all the wrong reasons, and some worrying advances were made in the field of artificial intelligence.

Here are ten topics that got our readers talking in January.

1) Awards:

We’re in the middle of awards season and many awards have already been handed out, including the animated Golden Globe, which went to Hayao Miyazaki The Boy and the Heron, the first foreign film to top this category. The Critics Choice Awards Animated Feature Award went to Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verseset and heron as the leading candidate for this year’s Oscars. The major animation awards, the Annies and the Oscars, announced their 2024 nominees in January. Other awards shows that had nominees this month included the César Awards in France, the BAFTAs in the UK and the VES Awards. Last year’s Emmy Awards were delayed due to writers’ and actors’ strikes, but finally took place in January The simpsons won his 37th Emmy for “Treehouse of Horror XXXIII.”

2) Layoffs:

2023 saw numerous layoffs and closures across the animation, VFX and video game industries, and 2024 is off to a similarly dismal start in that regard. In January alone, Unity laid off 1,800 employees (25% of its workforce), Pixar announced it would be making significant cuts this year, Riot Games laid off 530 employees (11% of its workforce), Microsoft laid off 1,900 Activision Blizzard employees (8% the studio’s employees) and Embracer Group laid off 97 employees at Eidos Montreal and terminated one at the same time Deus Ex Game that took two years to develop.

3) Artificial Intelligence:

The debate over artificial intelligence intensified in January, and artists found new allies in the fight against exploitation by the new technology. A technology group in Japan has proposed a new generative AI model called Anime Chain that will use blockchain to track all data used for training, protecting the rights of license holders. Computer scientists at the University of Chicago have unveiled a new tool called Nightshade that allows artists to manipulate image-generating AI models that use their work for training purposes. Perhaps less exciting for artists, Google Research has released details about its new AI model Lumiere, which can create the most sophisticated animated videos we’ve seen from an AI to date.

4) Title Announcements:

Several new animated titles were announced in January, including a Pharrell Williams Lego biopic titled piece by piecea Puerto Rico set Bob the Builder Movie, a sequel to the Netflix hit film Lionand the Korean horror film Exorcism Chronicles: The Beginning.

5) Festivals and Markets:

Mumbai’s Animela celebrated the best of Indian animation, VFX and gaming earlier this month. Nouns Fest has opened a call for animated short film projects and will distribute $1 million to select participants, whose films will then be streamed at the event later this year. And the Berlinale unveiled its competition lineups for 2024, including the world premiere of Mascha Halberstads Fox and hare save the forest.

Box office on January 8th

6) Box Office:

The 2023 box office continued the long road to post-pandemic recovery. Japan saw an increase in admissions and box office grosses from 2022 to 2023, led by four animated films. French cinema exports recorded their best year abroad since 2019, with animated features leading the way. lighting migrationStudio Ghibli The Boy and the HeronDreamworks’ Trolls band togetherand Disney’s Wish All passed key milestones in January. Pixar’s recycled releases were less impressive Soul And Sony’s Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Versewhich failed to get the audience to show up in January.

7) Distribution:

Netflix has signed an exclusive feature distribution deal with Japanese studio Ponoc and will release it The imaginary later this year. Tribeca has launched a new distribution unit to bring more festival films to major streaming platforms. Robert Morgan’s hybrid thriller Stop motion will hit US theaters in February before hitting Shudder on May 31st. And Busifan’s Chinese epic The storm had a limited circulation in several English-speaking territories.

8) Colombian Drama:

For about a week, all anyone was talking about was the Colombian graphic designer convincing several major media sources that she had worked extensively on Hayo Miyazaki’s work The Boy and the Heron. However, modern news cycles are short and the drama surrounding the scandal appears to be long over. What remains, however, is a Colombian animation industry that is maturing quickly and deserves more positive press. That’s why we’ve highlighted some of the best work being done in the country.

Infestation 88

9) Public domain:

Another fad that seemed to come and go in the blink of an eye was a short-lived obsession with Mickey Mouse, in particular Steamboat Willie Version of Mickey entering the public domain. There were a few days where a lot of new Mickey content hit the internet, most of it pretty bad, but the excitement quickly died down. That is, last year Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey grossed $5.2 million at the box office, so we don’t think we’ve seen the last Steamboat Willie-inspired content.

10) Interviews:

We had the great pleasure of discussing this year’s 15 Oscar-nominated animated shorts with their directors, who shared their favorite shots, the first piece of concept art they made for their films, and discussed their visual approach to storytelling . We were also allowed to sit down for a personal conversation Suzume Director Makoto Shinkai, who talked about writing and storyboarding his own films.

On the way:

DNEG promoted Crosby Clyse to managing director and David Park to production manager; Jellyfish Pictures named Archie Donato as executive director of animation