Despicable Me debuted at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival on June 9, 2010. Annecy is one of the world’s best-known festivals devoted to animated cinema, making it a fitting launch for Illumination Entertainment’s first feature film.
The festival debut happened before the movie’s United States theatrical release on July 9, 2010. Its premiere introduced audiences to Gru, a supervillain who adopts three orphan girls as part of a scheme and gradually becomes attached to them.
Annecy is sometimes confused with Cannes because both are major French film events, but they have different identities. Cannes is a broad international film festival, while Annecy is specifically associated with animation. Despicable Me later became a major commercial success, earning more than $543 million worldwide and establishing the franchise’s distinctive blend of villain comedy, family sentiment, and Minion humor.