The Annecy International Film Festival is teaming with stop-motion studio Laika on an exhibition entitled “Wildwood: A First Glimpse into a Handmade World” to mark the launch of its new Cité internationale du cinéma d’animation.
The show, delving into world of Laika’s upcoming feature Wildwood, will run from June 21 to September 27 as one of the first exhibitions in the gallery space of the new year-round animation hub.
Laika President and CEO Travis Knight, who directs Wildwood, will accompany the exhibition, touching down in Annecy for the first time. Billed as a darkly magical adventure, Wildwood follows the odyssey of a young girl who ventures into a dangerous hidden forest to rescue her brother.
The immersive Annecy exhibition has been designed as an educational and experiential showcase. It marks the beginning of Laika’s global rollout of first-look material for the feature, which is set for an October 23, 2026 release in the U.S., with additional reveals to follow in the coming months.
Knight previously took directorial credits on the studio’s Bafta-winning and Oscar-nominated Kubo and the Two Strings, and produced its cult films ParaNorman, The Boxtrolls and Missing Link.
“Wildwood is the biggest world Laika has ever built, and the most personal,” said Knight. “It’s a story about the pull of the unknown, the courage it takes to step into it and who you become along the way. Our movie is a celebration of artistry over algorithms and of the belief that films made by hand, with enormous care, can still feel bold, surprising, dangerous and alive.”
The exhibition will include the miniature set inspired by the real-life Pittock Mansion in Portland, Oregon. It took more than 11 weeks to fabricate, with 45 to 50 artists contributing from design through final dressing. The forest surrounding the mansion itself is composed of individually crafted trees, inspired by the Pacific Northwest of North America.
Other highlights will include “The General”, one of the largest puppets ever created by Laika, measuring 34 inches (86 cm) from beak to tail with a 64-inch (106cm) wingspan.
Inspired by a golden eagle native to the Pacific Northwest region, the puppet features the studio’s first fully articulated bird wings, designed to open and collapse like those of a real bird. It is dressed with 3,794 individually placed feathers, part of more than 16,500 feathers cut over the course of production.
News of the exhibition coincided with a special presentation in Paris on Wednesday of the new center by CITIA, the Annecy-based body which oversees the festival, and the National Cinema Centre (CNC), a major partner of the event.
The opening will also feature the previously announced “Ankama: From Sketch to Saga, 25 Years of Creativity” exhibition, celebrating the French entertainment group’s multifaceted universe, the “Krosmoz”, in which animation, gaming and comic books converge.
Situated in the complex of the 19th century Haras d’Annecy, an historic former royal stud farm, the new center aims to build on the city’s connections with the animation world, forged across 65 years of the Annecy International Film Festival’s existence.
The new hub features an animation museum, specific spaces for temporary exhibitions, a 332-seat cinema, owned by the Département de la Haute-Savoie, cultural and artistic educational workshops and an artist residency.
Moving image education is central to the project with complex. The site’s “Grenier à images”, which is primarily designed for schoolchildren, is a venue focused on initiation and discovery, ranging from an introduction to the history of animation to hands-on experience of real animation techniques. All year round, workshops and educational activities will introduce young children – as well as visitors of all ages – to animation techniques.
“The Cité will be a place for today but above all for tomorrow. A place for young people. A place where animation, the product of artists’ imaginations, becomes a living heritage that everyone can enjoy,” Dominique Puthod, CITIA Chairman.
“We are opening a Cité because animation is not a minority form of cinema, but an art form in its own right, a universal language, a form of expression that connects generations and territories. We have a duty to provide this culture with a home where it can be shared, explained and celebrated.”
