The Cannes Film Festival has been good to French helmer Ugo Bienvenu’s first animated feature Arco. The well-reviewed movie which was launched this month at the event, has been picked up Neon for distribution. Produced and voiced by actress Natalie Portman, the anime-inspired movie follows the adventures of a young boy who is trapped in the wrong era after he uses rainbows to travel through time.
Neon has had a good run with animated titles. The indie also distributed Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s Oscar-nominated 2021 animated documentary Flee (2021) and Pablo Berger’s Oscar-nominated 2023 feature Robot Dreams. It has also distributed Oscar-winning live-action titles such Parasite, Anatomy of a Fall and Anora, which won the Oscar for Best Feature earlier this year.
The 82-minute-long film’s official synopsis reads: “What if rainbows were people from the future traveling in time? Twelve-year-old Arco lives in a far future. During his first flight in his rainbow suit, he loses control and falls in the past. Iris, a young girl his age from the year 2075, witnesses his fall and tries to send him back to his own era.”
Although this is Bienvenu’s first feature-length film, he is no stranger to the world of animation. After attending top schools such as Estienne, Gobelins, CalArts and the Paris School of Decorative Arts, he has created several comic-books, directed videos and shorts (including 2013’s Maman) and directed the 2013 animated Marvel TV mini-series Ant-Man. The film’s voice cast includes Alma Jodorowsky, Swann Arlaud, Vincent Macaigne, Louis Garrel and Oxmo Puccino. Portman will voice the English-language version. Portman produced the movie with Sophie Mas with their New York-based MountainA company and Felix de Givry’s Parisian outfit Remembers. Arco is also one of the ten features competing in the Official Selection Category at Annecy in June.
You can watch an interview with the director below: (courtesy of The Upcoming)
Source: Deadline.com
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