More than a decade ago, Illuminationlaunched with Despicable Me, the company’s first feature film that would establish them as a serious contender for Disney and Pixar in the realm of animation. The movie was powered by an all-star voice cast and helmed by Academy Award nominees Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud, two names who would remain at the forefront of Illumination’s slate of films, and introduced audiences to the mischievous little henchmen now known globally as the Minions. This year, Illumination CEO Chris Meledandri is proud to present Minions & Monsters, the third of these rascals’ standalone movies and the seventh in the entire Despicable Me universe, which will be celebrating its world premiere at the Annecy International Film Festival: “the single best place in the world to screen an animated film,” Meledandri tells Collider’s Steve Weintraub.

Although it feels as if it were just yesterday, nearly three years have passed since the summer of Barbenheimer. The dual release of Greta Gerwig's Barbie and Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer destroyed the box office as viewers flocked to see these two very different, yet forever intertwined movies. For Mattel, the record-breaking over-$1.44 billion box office haul that Margot Robbie's pretty-in-pink turn as the iconic every-doll marked the beginning of a cinematic universe, with everything from the recent Masters of the Universe movie to the upcoming Matchbox and even a View-Master film in the works. Of course, Barbie herself will be getting another adventure, though not under Getwig's hand.