Annecy boos AI: the digital witch hunt reaches animated cinema

The Annecy Animation Festival was the scene of a noisy protest against Danse Macabre, a short film that used artificial intelligence in its production. The boos during the premiere reflect the industry's fear that technology will replace creative jobs. Director Hisko Hulsing defended his method, combining manual painting with models trained on his own art, and the festival described the reaction as a witch hunt.

cinematic scene inside a dimly lit animation studio, a traditional painter's brush dripping with vibrant oil paint hovers over a glowing digital tablet showing neural network layers and training data visualizations, while a crowd of shadowy figures in the background raises hands in protest, their silhouettes throwing angry gestures toward a projector screen displaying a surreal dancing skeleton figure, the brush tip touching the screen where paint transforms into glowing code particles, antique animation cels and modern graphic tablets scattered on the desk, dramatic chiaroscuro lighting with blue digital glow contrasting warm amber paint, photorealistic technical illustration, tension between handmade craft and digital process visible in the action

The hybrid technique: real brushes and models trained with original work 🎨

Hulsing detailed that the process was not a simple automatic prompt. He painted each frame manually, and then used those same designs to train AI models that would replicate his style. The tool acted as a rendering assistant, not a substitute for the human stroke. The technical debate focuses on whether this transparent integration blurs the line between authorship and automation, or simply speeds up repetitive tasks without eliminating the original artistic vision.

Next time, we'll boo the pencil for being too digital ✏️

The funny thing is that no one boos Photoshop, After Effects, or Instagram filters, which are also software. But when an AI paints like its owner, the public gets up in arms. Soon we'll see protesters burning tablets because the stylus is suspected of conspiring against charcoal. Meanwhile, artists will continue using whatever is at hand: brushes, mice, or neural networks, while the public decides whether to applaud or boo based on the tool's manufacturing year.