Two Japanese anime projects earned top honors at this year's Annecy International Animation Film Festival. A New Dawn, a co-production between ASMIK Ace and French studio Miyu Productions, claimed the Contrechamp Jury Award, while the TV adaptation of Takopi's Original Sin won the Jury Award for a TV Series.

A New Dawn marks the directorial feature debut of Yoshitoshi Shinomiya, who also conceived the story and wrote the script. The film brings together a talented crew including character designer Utsushita (Heavenly Delusion), artist Akiko Majima (Suzume), and composer Shūta Hasunuma. Singer imase contributes the theme song "Aoba" (Green Leaves). The film opened in Japan on March 6 after facing a one-year delay from its originally scheduled release.

The Annecy Festival featured A New Dawn as part of its "Animation Day" showcase in May 2024, where Shinomiya introduced the work alongside a behind-the-scenes video.

Takopi's Original Sin, adapted from Taizan 5's manga by studio ENISHIYA, premiered across multiple platforms on June 28, 2025—Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, ABEMA, and U-NEXT among them. Shinya Iino (Dr. Stone director) helmed the six-episode series, with character design by Keita Nagahara, a key animator known for Violet Evergarden and Sound! Euphonium. The anime's success has already spawned a compilation film titled Takopi's Original Sin: Thank You, See You Tomorrow.

Beyond these two winners, Annecy screened numerous Japanese titles across various sections. The festival's official competition featured films like Kōhei Kadowaki's We Are Aliens and Peleliu: Guernica of Paradise, while the "Annecy Presents" section included several notable works such as CHIMNEY TOWN: Frozen in Time and an original anime film called L'étoile de Paris en fleur. The festival also debuted Sekiro: No Defeat, a new anime based on FromSoftware's video game, in its midnight specials lineup.

These wins reflect the continued international recognition of Japanese anime across feature films and television series.