Hosada’s “Mirai” Screening at Cannes; Picked up by Gkids for US

Hosada’s “Mirai” Screening at Cannes; Picked up by Gkids for US

April 17th, 2018

Jerry Beck

GKIDS, the acclaimed producer and distributor of animation for adult and family audiences, announced that the animated feature Mirai from Japan’s Studio Chizu will screen at the Cannes Film Festival in the Directors’ Fortnight section. The film is written and helmed by Mamoru Hosoda, the celebrated director behind The Boy and the Beast, Wolf Children, Summer Wars, and The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. GKIDS will release the film theatrically this fall.

Mirai follows a young boy named Kun who feels forgotten by his family when his little sister Mirai arrives. Running away from home, Kun stumbles upon a magical garden that serves as time-travelling gateway where he encounters his mother as a little girl and has a series of adventures with his baby sister all grown up, opening up a new perspective on his world.

GKIDS’ titles previously appearing in Director’s Fortnight at Cannes include Ernest & Celestine, The Tale of The Princess Kaguya, and My Life as a Zucchini, all of which went on to become Best Animated Feature Academy Award nominees for the company.

ABOUT STUDIO CHIZU
Studio Chizu is the animation studio and Director Mamoru Hosoda’s headquarters that was established in 2011. Director Hosoda gave the studio its name, Chizu (“map” in Japanese). There is a long history of animation films, but there are still unexplored motifs and themes with limitless possibilities. Be self-reliant and determined with a spirit of challenge like adventurers setting sail out to the big seas toward a frontier of possibilities. And to discover a new continent of movies that nobody has ever seen before and to draw a new map on that uncharted land. The name of the studio embodies this philosophy.

Studio Chizu is a place that embraces Director Hosoda’s thoughts and philosophies on movies and is his works themselves.

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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.