The 2026 Annecy International Animation Festival features a record Japanese anime slate including Sekiro: No Defeat, Takopi's Original Sin, and a Grave of the Fireflies classic screening.
The 2026 Annecy International Animation Festival, running June 21–27, is assembling one of the largest Japanese anime lineups in the event's history. Multiple anime features and series span the festival's competition, Contrechamp, Midnight Specials, and Classics sections, with Crunchyroll anchoring a major studio presentation.
The highly anticipated anime adaptation of FromSoftware's acclaimed action game Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice will receive its world premiere at Annecy in the Midnight Specials programming slot. Directed by Kenichi Kutsuna at studio Qzil.la, Sekiro: No Defeat is one of the most buzzed-about titles heading into the festival. The Midnight Specials section, traditionally reserved for genre-forward and visually striking works, positions the adaptation for a late-night audience primed for its dark samurai action.
Japanese titles feature prominently across Annecy's curated sections. In the main competition, two anime films stand out: We Are Aliens, directed by Kohei Kadowaki, a Franco-Japanese co-production about childhood friends reuniting after three decades, and The Obsessed, directed by Wataru Takahashi, described as a spirited, colorful, and lyrical romance.
The Contrechamp section Annecy's venue for adventurous and boundary-pushing works adds further depth. A New Dawn, directed by Yoshitoshi Shinomiya, is a Japan-France co-production that previously premiered at the Berlin Film Festival. Pelelui: Guernica of Paradise, directed by Goro Kuji, explores the World War II Pacific Theater through the lens of Micronesian history. The Orbit of Minor Satellites, co-produced with Japanese company New Deer, blends live-action and animation in a hybrid approach that has drawn early critical attention.
Crunchyroll confirmed a significant festival presence, with three titles selected across the official Annecy programming. Beyond the Sekiro premiere, the platform is spotlighting Takopi's Original Sin the manga adaptation by director Shinya Iino, produced by studio Enishiya and based on Taizan 5's acclaimed source material which earned a slot in the official Television Films competition. The series previously received a Crunchyroll Anime Award nomination.
Rounding out Crunchyroll's showcase is a classic screening of Isao Takahata's 1988 Studio Ghibli masterpiece Grave of the Fireflies in the Annecy Classics section. The screening precedes a theatrical re-release planned for France and Germany in July 2026, giving the beloved anti-war film a new generation of theatrical audiences.
Crunchyroll's broader studio presentation, titled "All Anime, All Fans, All in One Place," is scheduled for Tuesday, June 23 at 9:00 AM, hosted by Executive Vice President of Global Commerce Mitchel Berger. The session will cover Crunchyroll's ecosystem spanning streaming, theatrical distribution, gaming, merchandise, and manga.
Several additional Japanese titles fill out the Annecy Presents and Midnight Specials lineups: The Ribbon Hero from director Yuki Igarashi, Chimney Town: Frozen in Time, On the Other Side of the World by Yusuke Hirota, Samurai Ballerina from Goro Taniguchi, and The Keeper of the Camphor Tree directed by Tomohiko Ito. The sheer volume of Japanese entries across nearly every festival section underscores the growing global appetite for anime on the international festival circuit.
With the festival now less than ten days away, the 2026 Annecy lineup marks a high-water point for anime's presence at the world's premier animation gathering. Titles like Sekiro: No Defeat and Takopi's Original Sin carry significant streaming and theatrical stakes, while the Grave of the Fireflies re-release bridges anime's heritage with its expanding international footprint.
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