Asro
By Kévin Giraud | June 23, 2026
The Annecy International Animation Film Festival has long served as the global stage for the Belgian animation industry, a creative hub that consistently punches above its weight. This year, the lakeside festival is once again a testament to Belgian ingenuity. From the emotional depth of In Waves to the visual experimentation of Iron Boy, the Belgian delegation has arrived in force. Yet, among the slate of highly anticipated projects—including the series adaptation of Luce and the Rock and the latest short by auteur Anca Damian—one project stands out for its sheer, uncompromising singularity: Gregor.
Gregor marks the animated feature debut of veteran multidisciplinary artist Manu Gomez. A hand-drawn 2D thriller that weaves together strands of horror, grotesque fantasy, and dark humor, the film represents an extraordinary feat of endurance. Crafted by Gomez in a "one-man-band" approach that saw him laboring seven days a week for half a decade, the film is a bold statement on the nature of authorship in the digital age.
The Genesis of an Animated Thriller
The path to Gregor began not in a boardroom, but in the gritty, tactile world of fine arts in the late 1970s. For Gomez, animation was never just a career; it was an extension of his own hand. "My very first encounter with animated film dates back to my fine arts studies," Gomez explains. "Since we were studying drawing, it was animation filmmaking that felt like the natural next step. We made our first film with two classmates using Super 8, centered around a simple matchbox. The film, Allumette, Gentille Allumette, ended up on the festival circuit in Quebec. It was the spark that ignited everything."
Decades later, that spark has culminated in a 120-page manuscript turned feature film. Initially conceived as a short—consistent with Gomez’s history of "raw" animation, including his 1995 stop-motion piece Ubu, which famously utilized actual meat—Gregor evolved into a sprawling narrative. "The idea of Gregor’s cannibals came from imagining the world’s untouchable degenerates gathered around a table, devouring fresh human brains," Gomez says. "That was the initial seed. As I explored the possibilities, the story grew until it demanded the scope of a feature."
A Chronology of Obsession: The Five-Year Sprint
The production of Gregor is a story of total commitment. Starting in 2021, Gomez undertook a regimen that is almost unheard of in modern feature production. For five years, he worked eleven months out of every twelve, seven days a week, effectively becoming the film’s sole animator, director, and visual architect.
The Production Timeline:
- 2021: Concept development and the transition from a short-form concept to a 120-page feature screenplay.
- 2022–2023: Early production phase. Establishing the "one-man-band" workflow and defining the aesthetic, which eschews modern digital slickness for a raw, hand-drawn texture.
- 2024: The grueling middle phase. Managing the narrative flow of a feature-length thriller while maintaining the intensity of the hand-drawn medium.
- 2025: Final polish and integration of technical elements. Collaboration with sound designers and composers to complement the visual chaos.
- 2026: Finalization of the Belgian-French co-production, supported by MGV Productions, Monkey Productions, and Bagan Films.
This timeline reflects a deliberate rejection of the typical collaborative studio model. While Gomez acknowledges the necessity of his producers, he maintains that the creative burden had to be his alone. "If I want to express myself through drawing, it has to come from me," he insists. "The time I would spend explaining to someone else what kind of drawing they should do, I’d rather invest in drawing it myself."
The Philosophy of the Imperfect Line
In an industry currently obsessed with the efficiency of AI and automated animation workflows, Gregor stands as a defiant monument to the human touch. Gomez is quick to clarify that his resistance to new tech isn’t born of luddism, but of a belief in the necessity of the "flaw."
"I still work in a very traditional way," Gomez notes. "I use a pen tablet now, but the hand movement is the same as it was for the cave painters. People are looking for the flaws and imperfections specific to human-made creations. Those imperfections are what make us human."
For the director, the medium of animation is the ultimate bridge between the inanimate and the living. He views the act of animation as a form of alchemy. "Animation is the process of giving life to an inanimate object—a dead thing. I’ve animated meat, marble, drawings, and even toilet paper. Breathing a soul into something is an incredible experience."
Supporting Data: The Belgian Animation Landscape
The success of Gregor at the Annecy Midnight Specials selection is reflective of a larger trend. Belgium’s animation sector, bolstered by tax shelters and a high concentration of art schools, has become a hotbed for independent voices.
| Project | Medium | Focus |
|---|---|---|
| Gregor | 2D Hand-Drawn | Horror/Thriller |
| In Waves | Mixed Media | Emotional Drama |
| Iron Boy | 2D/Stop-Motion | Narrative Fiction |
| Luce and the Rock | Series/2D | Family/Fantasy |
The industry’s reliance on co-productions—such as the Belgian-French partnership behind Gregor—allows artists like Gomez to secure the distribution channels necessary to reach a global audience without compromising their artistic vision.
Official Responses and Industry Implications
The reception of Gregor at Annecy carries significant weight. For the festival organizers, the film represents a return to the "auteur" spirit that once defined the medium. However, for the independent animator, it highlights the increasing difficulty of producing feature-length work without massive corporate backing.
Gomez is candid about the financial constraints. "I started with zero euros, and we ended with almost zero euros," he admits. "It is a reality of the craft that to keep your total creative freedom, you often have to sacrifice the budget. You work for the project, not the paycheck."
Despite the hardships, the relief of reaching the Annecy premiere is palpable. "Working for five years, only to have a film dismissed, is a real fear," Gomez says, referring to his previous, more experimental work. "To be here today, with the film ready to be discovered, is the ultimate achievement."
Looking Ahead: The Future of the Auteur
As the curtains rise at Annecy, Gregor invites the audience into a dark, burlesque world that reflects the complexities of the human psyche. It is a film that challenges the viewer to look past the polish of modern blockbusters and engage with something raw, visceral, and unmistakably handmade.
The implication of Gregor is clear: there is still a vital space for the individual voice in the animation landscape. While technologies continue to evolve, the core appeal of the medium—the ability of a single artist to breathe life into a blank page—remains unchanged. Whether or not this "one-man-band" approach can be sustained in an increasingly competitive market remains to be seen, but for Manu Gomez, the journey has been worth every frame.
As he prepares for the premiere, his message to the next generation of animators is simple: "Animation is about the soul of the drawing. If you lose the human behind the frame, you lose the medium itself."
Lina Irawan
