131 - Annecy Classics 2026: Two Screenings to Celebrate André Martin’s Centenary!
- Clément Martin
- Jun 26
- 6 min read
Annecy 2026: The Veil Lifts on the First Event Celebrating André Martin’s Birth Centenary with Two Annecy Classics Screenings!
Organized by the CNC and CITIA with support from Gamca Animation, Annecy Classics presents an exceptional program dedicated to André Martin’s short films—or those to which he contributed—spanning from his earliest known work in 1948 to his final creation in 1983.
Two screenings will take place:
Wednesday, June 24 at 10:00 AM – Pathé 8
Saturday, June 27 at 12:00 PM – Pathé 5
Don’t miss it—here’s the program!
Animation students from Institut Sainte-Geneviève will showcase his legacy.
Before each screening, the third of six animated shorts created by second-year animation students at the institute—made in homage to André Martin—will be shown. What better way to discover André Martin’s journey and honor this heritage than through the vision of these emerging animators?
To open each screening, the third of six animated shorts—created by second-year animation students at Institut Sainte-Geneviève in tribute to André Martin—will be shown. There could be no better way to explore André Martin’s career and celebrate this heritage than through the work of these emerging animators!
A complete compilation of this work will be shown during the centenary exhibition at the Bonlieu Media Library. GAMCA Animation will present it in an upcoming article.
"Radio Clinic: Distressed Radio Set" by André Martin, Michel Boschet, René Rios, and José Piquer – 46" – 1948 – CITIA-CNC
The first film to be screened is a previously unseen work. This film, which has not been screened for several decades at the very least, was deposited by CITIA in the CNC’s Bois d’Arcy film archives and has been digitized by the CNC for this occasion from a 35mm print.
This earliest known film by André Martin is an advertisement for a Bordeaux radio repairman, created by a group of cinema-loving friends who were taking their first steps in animation (1). With its 1930s cartoon style, the film reflects the shared passion for animation that André Martin and his friends Michel Boschet, René Rios, and José Piquer had for animated cinema.
Patamorphosis, or The Painter’s Despair by André Martin and Michel Boschet – France, 1960 – Short version, 11 min – Music: Geneviève Martin – Les Films Roger Leenhardt – FRL Productions
For this screening, we will enjoy a version restored by the CNC and the VDM laboratory specifically for the event! A painter in the Luxembourg Gardens paints the palace. The painter, played by Michel Boschet, struggles to complete his painting.
"Patamorphosis" features a series of scenes showcasing various stop-motion film techniques, all delivered in a burlesque and entertaining style. It reflects André Martin’s enduring fascination with technique, whether in animation or all forms of image production.
André Martin collaborated with RTF’s Research Department from its founding by Pierre Schaeffer in late 1959. There, he delivered lectures, produced experimental broadcasts and reports, and created two animated films.
Extensive excerpts from "Patamorphosis" were later featured in two television programs, "Le Septième Art Bis", produced by the Research Department and hosted by Michel Boschet and André Martin. These programs are a treasure, capturing the spirit of the "Journées du Cinéma", and we hope to screen them soon during this centenary year.
1959 – Demain Paris (Tomorrow’s Paris) by Michel Boschet and André Martin – 16 min – Les Films Roger Leenhardt – FRL Productions
This commissioned film for the Ministry of Construction traces the history of Paris’s development and the region’s expansion projects. It offers a forward-looking vision of Île-de-France’s urbanization at the time.
Produced by Roger Leenhardt, this film already brought together the future team of Films Martin-Boschet, including René Foin, Michel Roudevitch, Julien Pappé, Jacques Leroux, and Manuel Otero. The film’s animation style echoes that of UPA during its golden era in the early 1950s, predating the mass production era for television.
The film reveals André Martin’s defining interests:
His passion for history, art, and architecture;
His dedication to writing, as seen in the film’s verse texts;
His fascination with the future and foresight;
A persistent undercurrent of humor.
This film has been restored by the CNC and the VDM laboratory for André Martin’s birth centenary.
An Atom That Wishes You Well by Henri Gruel – 1959 – 13 min – Les Films Hermès – France
An Atom That Wishes You Well is a short film promoting the civilian use of atomic energy, with texts by André Martin and animation by Michel Boschet alongside future Martin-Boschet collaborators such as Manuel Otero and Jacques Leroux.
Like in Tomorrow’s Paris, the film reflects several of André Martin’s key interests:
Historical and art history references, such as evocations of Romanesque basilicas (2);
Highly crafted text, rich in wordplay and humor;
The science of atomic energy;
And, of course, a forward-looking vision of the future.
The film belongs to the tradition of documentary shorts that use animation as an educational language. The distinctly UPA-inspired animation style brings freshness, accessibility, and humor.
The film promotes the benefits of atomic energy in civilian applications—energy, medicine, food preservation, agriculture, X-raying artworks—and more. Its forward-looking vision paints a bright future for atomic energy, already foreseeing "the era when nuclear power will reign supreme, once fossil fuels are depleted."
While the portrayal of atomic applications borders on naively idyllic, André Martin does not forget to caution that such uses must be reserved for the wise...
The Mona Lisa, or The Story of an Obsession by Henri Gruel – 1958 – 15 min 21 sec – Argos Films – France
This 1958 film, digitized by the CNC, offers a parody of the obsession surrounding Leonardo da Vinci’s painting, with commentary by Boris Vian. The special effects and animations were created by the Arcady studio, and it is possible that members of the future Films Martin-Boschet team contributed to it.
The film features Françoise Boschet as a 16th-century Italian, Michel Boschet as a street artist, and André Martin as a peddler selling Mona Lisa sweaters!
Maison vole by André Martin and Philippe Quéau – France – 1983 – 2 min – Color – Music: Geneviève Martin
A passionate advocate for "new computer-generated images" at a time when animation professionals largely ignored them (3), André Martin—alongside the Institut National de l’Audiovisuel (INA) and Sogitec—created a demonstration film: a fully synthetic (both images and music) 3D animation, narrative and poetic in nature. The visuals were produced using a flight simulator, while the music, composed by Geneviève Martin, was generated on IRCAM’s 4X system (4).
This film was made using Sogitec’s flight simulator, which was never intended for animation production. With what we might now consider modest means compared to today’s technology, the Sogitec team managed to adapt the simulator to create this film, leveraging André Martin’s directorial expertise to craft a feasible narrative.
André Martin was determined to demonstrate the potential of animation using digital systems at a time when the animation industry was skeptical. He founded the Forum des Nouvelles Images in Monte Carlo in 1981, which later became Imagina. History has proven him right...
We can only wonder what he would have thought about the use of generative AI in image creation. Don’t we need a new vision to integrate these techniques into the creative process while preserving the unique value of the artist’s hand? It’s up to today’s creators to invent that vision... or not.
Don’t miss this rare opportunity to see these films on the big screen!Join us on Wednesday, June 24 at 10:00 AM at Pathé 8, and Saturday, June 27 at 12:00 PM at Pathé 5!
Stay tuned...
#AnnecyFestival #AnnecyClassics #AndreMartinCentenary #CNC #CITIA #ArgosFilms #FRLProductions #INA #HermesFilms #InstitutSainteGenevieve #GAMCAAnimation
(2) 113 - Plaisirs de patrimoine durent un moment : Ils avaient la couleur !
(3) 16 naissance-du-cinéma-informatique-1ère-partie Des pionnières et des pionniers
et 23 Naissance du cinéma Informatique 2e partie : Les années 60 et les pionniers du numérique.
(4) 46 Maison Vole : L'envolée a 40 ans !
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