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Studio Ghibli Co-Produced Film The Red Turtle to Screen at Cannes
posted on by Jabulani Blyden
The Cannes Film Festival revealed its official film selection on Thursday for this year's festival, and the festival will screen the upcoming Studio Ghibli co-produced film The Red Turtle.
The film will screen in the festival's "Un Certain Regard" category, which was founded in 1978 to encourage young talent. The "Prix Un Certain Regard" competition runs parallel to the event's main competition for the Palme d'Or. The Cannes Film Festival will be held from May 11-22.
The Red Turtle is the latest work by award-winning Dutch animator and director Michael Dudok de Wit ("The Monk and the Fish," "Father & Daughter" animated shorts). Studio Ghibli is co-producing the film with French film production and distribution company Wild Bunch. TOHO will open the film in Japan in September.
Director de Wit temporarily moved to Koganei in Tokyo (where Studio Ghibli is headquartered) to work on the film, completing the film's storyboards and the scenario in his time there, while Studio Ghibli director Isao Takahata checked them. Takahata also serves as the "artistic producer" for the film. Pascale Ferran (Bird People) wrote the film's script.
The director's "Father & Daughter" short won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film in 2001. The Red Turtle is de Wit's first feature film.
Takahata and Studio Ghibli's Tale of Princess Kaguya was screened at the Cannes Festival's Director's Fortnight in 2014. The film was the only animated film at the Director's Fortnight event. The film, however, did not receive any awards at the event that year.
In addition to The Red Turtle, the festival will screen films from Hirokazu Kore-eda (live-action Air Doll; Our Little Sister; Like Father, Like Son) and Kōji Fukada. Both films will also screen in the "Un Certain Regard" category.
Fukada will be presenting his sixth film Harmonium (Fuchi ni Tatsu) at the festival. Kore-eda will present his latest film, After the Storm. Kore-eda's Our Little Sister competed at last year's film festival. Our Little Sister adapts Akimi Yoshida's (Banana Fish) Umimachi Diary manga. Soshite Chichi ni Naru (Like Father, Like Son) won the Jury Prize at Cannes in 2013. Cannes also screened Kore-eda's manga-based live-action Kūki Ningyō (Air Doll) film as part of the festival's Official Selection in 2009.
Source: Variety; Peter Debruge, Elsa Keslassy
