Illumination founder and CEO Chris Meledandri received a “Golden Ticket” i.e. lifetime accreditation from the Annecy International Animation Film Festival.
In a surprise appearance, two-time Oscar-nominated and Grammy winner Pharrell Williams presented the honour to Meledandri, who is the creative visionary behind Super Mario Bros. The Movie, the Despicable Me and The Minions franchise, the films All on Stage and Like Beasts, as well as the upcoming holiday action comedy Migration.
Williams, Illumination’s longtime creative partner, was first nominated for an Oscar with his hit “Happy,” composed for the studio’s animated film Despicable Me 2.
Meledandri attended the Annecy Film Festival with Benjamin Renner, the Oscar-nominated director who came to unveil new images of Migration, the studio’s next feature film (in theaters from 22 December in the United States), which stars Kumail Nanjiani and Elizabeth Banks. The screenplay is by Emmy Award-winning Mike White.
Meledandri has a long and rich history with the Annecy Festival, which over the years has premiered several Illumination films. The studio – which he founded in 2007 – is now the industry’s leading entertainment production company for event-making animated films. Nintendo and Illumination’s Super Mario Bros. broke all box office records to become the first film of 2023 to generate more than a billion dollars worldwide. Despicable Me and Minions are the most successful franchise in animated film history, and the studio’s filmography now includes three of the top 10 animated films of all time.
Annecy Festival artistic delegate Marcel Jean said, “The collaboration between the Illumination studio and Annecy has been decisive in the recent evolution of the festival. The confidence that the studio has shown in us, especially during the various launches of the films of the Despicable Me franchise, has been a tremendous lever in our development. The presentation of a Golden Ticket to Chris Meledandri symbolises the importance of this relationship for Annecy.”
CITIA’s managing director Mickaël Marin said, “Chris Meledandri has helped change the way feature films are produced. By choosing to produce in Europe, and more particularly in France, he allowed the meeting of the best of two continents. It is this visionary spirit that we want to celebrate.”
The Annecy Festival awarded the first Golden Ticket to DreamWorks co-founder Jeffrey Katzenberg in 2016.