The Best New Movies and Series We Got To See

This marks Netflix’s second time on the ground at the raucous Annecy Festival for What’s On! Netflix brought its A-game again in 2026, although its presence felt quite different from 2025. Between the pre-show mouth pops, the paper airplanes launched in hopes of hitting the screen to thunderous applause, and the obligatory French yelling whenever a rabbit (or croissant) appeared during Aardman’s festival introduction — not to mention Netflix’s epic Hans Zimmer fanfare — the energy was undeniable. Here’s our full description and summary of the best things I saw in Annecy 2026.

Before we get into it, as a reminder, you can check out all of our Annecy Festival coverage using our tags page here.

The theme of Netflix’s Annecy in 2026 was the focus: what they brought was explored in depth, and we learned a lot and got to see a lot. However, this is a bit different from 2025, when we got a more extensive preview of new animated projects, even if it was just a short tease from an executive and a photo. If it doesn’t get a big, comprehensive deep dive, there’s not much to talk about.

There were some other titles too Featured in Netflix’s sizzle reel ahead of its main presentation, which includes Motel Transylvania And Magic the GatheringBut alas, they These were very brief clips and were never expanded upon. Given that they were fleeting glimpses, I don’t remember the details of each exactly, but they were both instantly recognizable.

So that means we don’t get any major updates for the two titles mentioned above or series like minecraft, clash of clansNor did we find out the future of some series that are still waiting for renewal, especially love, death and robots (Which I got to see on the big screen in Pathe and it was amazing).

In terms of the film, this means no major updates lion 2, michelle vs machinesor what sea ​​animalsDepend on Chris Williams.

A quick note: There won’t be much of the anime slate showcased here because most of the titles shown will be arriving within the next month or two, and we haven’t really learned anything new about them. a piece To be an exception.

In no particular order, here are the best things I came across, along with some impressions/thoughts, with the caveat that I’m no critic.

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step

step‘The work-in-progress panel was the best panel format I experienced all week. It offered a dedicated slot to delve deeper into the origins, design philosophy, and the amount of hard work that went into creating this new take on Cinderella, which is a tough task considering audiences nowadays are reluctant to touch anything already adapted.

The nature of this panel meant that anyone in the audience, from students to people from the trade press, could ask questions. It was interesting to see who worked on which areas, and we got some interesting answers about how they approached different aspects of the story and design. You can find our full article of the panel here.

In my opinion, the film is in good shape, the lighting is absolutely brilliant and the expressions and personalities of the characters are a highlight.

Then, on another level, this film represents a big moment for Netflix, which has relied on established animation houses for its films for most of its existence. The film is the first to be made entirely (end-to-end, as an executive said on stage) under the Netflix umbrella, after spending years building its own internal teams in the US, Canada and Australia. That’s a huge flex, and the fact that it looks great means that, hopefully, the next step in the studio’s evolution is greater efficiency in getting movies from page to screen at a much faster pace, because as we’ve said many times before, Netflix needs many more animated features to meet the clear demand for the genre.

The Thanksgiving release window shows a lot of confidence that Netflix expects the film to do well, a slot that has gone to some big movies over the past few years, not least Adam Sandler’s leo.

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living the dream

The biggest surprise of the week from Netflix living the dream. To be honest, I wasn’t sold when the show was initially announced. Netflix’s adult animated comedies are a dime a dozen, and most of them struggle to stand out, but as soon as the creators started explaining the premise, how it came about, and what it’s making fun of, I immediately got it and now I’m a big fan. Will it break the record? Probably not, but it’s just like British street catsBut with universal themes and gripes that are now universal.

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Ghostbusters: Night Shift

In terms of series, the big title Netflix was pushing this year was Ghostbusters: Night ShiftFor which we got a ton of new information and more background on what to expect when it releases sometime in 2027. Publicly, two images were released: one of which was a concept art image and the other was a completed image from the clip shown to the audience.

Let’s start with the good: This series has been crafted with great love and care Ghost Busters The IP, and specifically the monster design, is a great fit for the world. With a goal of authenticity and love for the Big Apple, New York looks like one of the best on-screen incarnations I’ve seen in some time.

My only concern with the series right now is how it’s trying to reach so many different audiences. From its lead characters and slightly clichéd tone, you’d easily think it was made for the young crowd, but its ambitions clearly span all kinds of age ranges. It’s not at all clear to me whether fans who grew up with the original will be into it. Also, browsing Reddit after our post, I have some concerns that it may fall into the trap of a culture war that consumes everything, whether it’s needed or not. Hopefully, I’m wrong about this.

Either way, this series is definitely worth watching next year, and the scenes we saw in the clip were incredibly large-scale and ambitious. We’ll see if this translates to all the other sequences.

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street cats

The winner of the funniest Netflix title of the week is undoubtedly street catsWhich establishes me as a huge fan of Ricky Gervais throughout his career. This iteration reminds me of the free-riffing nature that created this Ricky Gervais Podcast So worth a re-listen.

The screening of the first two episodes and several clips during Gervais’ masterclass got a lot of laughs, and deservedly so. Spontaneous banter feels like listening to a group of friends talking nonsense to each other. Because it was recorded with everyone under one roof, the overlapping nature, frequent breaks with the cast laughing, and more impactful and louder than you can throw a stick at, it won’t be for everyone, but it was super enjoyable.

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blue eye samurai (season 2)

I won’t go into much here because Blue Eye Samurai pretty much sells itself at this point, and for most, the multi-year wait has been stressful. We finally got a new still in public, and showed audiences some fresh footage, and it was just as good as we expected. It involves Mizu going rogue in a kinetic, bloody battle set in London.

The only criticism we’re leveling at the online audience is that we were expecting more than a few snippets and perhaps a few details of the release window. The wait continues, but man, it looks like it’ll be worth it.

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Ray Gunn

Although we decided not to rank, the ray gun was undoubtedly the highlight of this week. The opening sequence and seeing its lived-in, breathing futuristic city brought back immediate memories for me of being a kid and arriving at Caravan. Ratchet and Clank 1 As a kid and seeing Metropolis for the first time (sorry, very specific context, but it hits my point!). It’s a densely packed world, lovingly built after years of preservation, perhaps even criminally so. Brad Bird’s style and, to an extent, Pixar’s style are heavily present in everything shown, with the visuals being a mix between Monsters, Inc. and The Incredibles.

We didn’t get much more than that, but if I had my way, I wouldn’t want to see anything else and would watch immediately on release day or, even better, on a big screen somewhere, assuming we get the opportunity to do so en masse.

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What did you enjoy in Annecy this week? What did you expect Netflix to show? Let us know in the comments.