News

Belle Film Makes World Premiere as Cannes Official Selection on July 15

The official website for the Cannes Film Festival announced on Sunday that Mamoru Hosoda and Studio Chizu's new BELLE (Ryū to Sobakasu no Hime, literally "The Dragon and the Freckled Princess") anime film will screen in the festival's Cannes Premiere section on July 15. This marks the first Official Selection at the festival for Hosoda. (The director's previous Mirai film screened at the Directors' Fortnight, an independent section held in parallel to the festival, in 2018.)

The festival will also screen the French- and Luxembourgian-animated film of Jiro Taniguchi's The Summit of the Gods (Kamigami no Itadaki) manga as part of the Official Selection.

The film will open in Japan on July 16. GKIDS licensed the film for North America, and will release the film in English and in Japanese with English subtitles this winter. The film will have IMAX screenings in 38 theaters throughout Japan. This makes BELLE the first of Hosoda's films to have IMAX screenings.

Hosoda (The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Summer Wars,The Boy and The Beast, Mirai) is directing and scripting the film, and is also credited for the original work. The film marks Studio Chizu's 10th anniversary. Taisei Iwasaki (Blood Blockade Battlefront, Dragon Pilot: Hisone and Masotan, The Naked Director) is the film's music director and composer.

Eric Wong, a London-based architect and designer, created the concept artwork for the film's online world of U. Jin Kim (Frozen, Tangled, Big Hero 6, Moana) designed the titular protagonist Belle. Singer-songwriter Kaho Nakamura will play the protagonist Suzu/Belle.

Update: Corrected some details on The Summit of the Gods film. Cannes also lists that Yoriko Mizushiri's "Anxious Body" short had its world premiere at the festival. Thanks, Jordan Scott.

Sources: Cannes Film Festival's website, Deadline (Tom Grater)