Luis de la Rosa, a 34-year-old Mexican animator credited on Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and My Little Pony: The Movie, died on Wednesday, June 24, after being struck by a train on the outskirts of Annecy, France, while attending the Annecy International Animation Film Festival. Deadline first reported the news, citing local French newspaper Le Dauphiné Libéré.
The detail that identified him before any official statement: De la Rosa was wearing a festival accreditation badge when emergency services arrived at the scene — a fact reported by Le Dauphiné Libéré that allowed the animation community to connect the accident to one of their own.
What Le Dauphiné Libéré reported about the Annecy accident
According to the French newspaper, a young man in his 30s strayed close to train tracks running alongside a ring-road on the outskirts of Annecy. The conductor of the local Leman Express service called emergency responders at around 8pm local time on Wednesday. Despite the response, paramedics were unable to save the man’s life.
The victim’s identity was not immediately confirmed through official channels. It was social media posts and animation-focused blogs that surfaced his name over the following days, identifying him as Luis de la Rosa, also credited professionally as Luis de la Rosa Obregón.
A career built on landmark animated films
De la Rosa had carved out a real presence in the animation industry by his mid-thirties. His credit on Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse — one of the most acclaimed animated films in recent memory, celebrated for its genre-defying visual language — placed him among a generation of Latin American artists reshaping mainstream animation from within major productions.
His work on My Little Pony: The Movie added to a portfolio that spanned both prestige theatrical releases and beloved franchise properties. For many animators who got their start outside the traditional Hollywood pipeline, De la Rosa represented a path forward.
The Annecy International Animation Film Festival, held annually in the Alpine lakeside town, is considered the most prestigious animation event in the world. Attendance is a professional milestone for working animators — making his presence there a marker of how far his career had come.
The animation community responds
News of De la Rosa’s death spread rapidly through social media and animation industry circles after Le Dauphiné Libéré‘s initial report connected to posts from colleagues and peers. The festival community, already gathered in Annecy for the week’s events, absorbed the loss in real time.
Tributes have highlighted not just his screen credits but his role within the Mexican animation community, where his success on internationally distributed features carried weight as a source of inspiration. The broader animation industry has seen a wave of new talent pushing visual storytelling forward in recent years, and De la Rosa was part of that wave.
His full professional name, Luis de la Rosa Obregón, was confirmed through those community posts as the link between the accident reported by the French press and the animator known to his peers.
Annecy festival and the Leman Express line
The Leman Express is a cross-border regional rail network connecting Lyon, Geneva, and communities throughout the French Alps, including Annecy. The line runs through areas that can border pedestrian zones, particularly on the outskirts of the city. French authorities have not issued a public statement attributing cause or circumstances beyond what the local paper reported.
The festival itself had not issued a formal statement at the time of initial reporting, though the accreditation badge documented at the scene leaves little doubt about De la Rosa’s attendance as a credentialed participant.
He was 34 years old. For the Mexican animation community and for the wider industry that knew his work on the Spider-Verse films, the loss arrives at what should have been a career high point — a working animator, at the world’s top animation festival, gone without warning. His family has not yet issued a public statement, and no formal memorial details had been announced as of Friday, June 26.
