Eleven Arts Anime Studio will be distributing the sci-fi coming-of-age film Penguin Highway in the US and Canada. The film, directed by Hiroyasu Ishida, won the Axis: The Satoshi Kon Award for Excellence in Animation award at Fantasia International Film Festival for the best animated feature. The film has also been nominated for the Japan Academy Prize for Animation of the Year.

The LA-based ELEVEN ARTS has set April 12th, 2019 as the theatrical release date for the film. The film will screen with the original Japanese dialogue with subtitles as well as the English dub.

Director Ishida rose to prominence in 2009 with his award winning self-produced short Fumiko no kokuhaku which led him to direct many more critically acclaimed shorts, wildly popular anime ad campaigns, and now finally his first feature film.

Penguin Highway is an adaptation of Tomihiko Morimi’s best-selling novel by the same. Mr. Morimi is also the author of The Night is Short, Walk on Girl, which also had an anime film adaptation made and released in the US in 2018.

Synopsis: Budding genius Aoyama is only in the 4th grade, but already lives his life like a scientist. When penguins start appearing in his sleepy suburb hundreds of miles from the sea, Aoyama vows to solve the mystery. When he finds the source of the penguins is a woman from his dentist’s office, they team up for an unforgettable summer adventure!

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Jerry Beck

Writer, cartoon producer and author of more than 15 books on animation history. A former studio exec with Nickelodeon and Disney; currently on the faculty at both CalArts in Valencia and Woodbury University in Burbank, California.

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