Indie powerhouse Neon announced today that it will release the English-language version of Annecy top prize winner Arco on Nov. 14 in the U.S. The new voice cast features Will Ferrell, America Ferrera, Flea, Natalie Portman, Mark Ruffalo and Andy Samberg. The film is directed by breakthrough French filmmaker Ugo Bienvenu, making his feature debut, and produced by Remembers’ Bienvenu and Felix de Givry and mountainA’s Natalie Portman and Sophie Mas.
The film premiered as a Special Screening at the Cannes Film Festival in May and went on to win the Cristal Award for Best Feature Film and Soundtrack at Annecy in June. The English-language version will have its world premiere in the Centerpiece section of the Toronto International Film Festival on September 7.
Described as a magical and beautifully animated journey through time, Arco chronicles the adventures of a10-year-old boy from a peaceful, distant future who accidentally travels back to the year 2075 and discovers a world in danger. As Arco develops a charming and touching friendship with a young girl named Iris, they band together and along with her trusted robot caretaker Mikki, set out on a quest to get Arco home, while the two children may also be the only ones who can save our planet.
In the past few years, Neon has emerged as a strong champion of acclaimed animated features from around the world. The indie released Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s Flee in 2021, which went on to be nominated for three Oscars ( Animated Feature, Documentary and International Feature) and won the Annie for Best Indie Animated Feature. Neon was also the distributor of Pablo Berger’s acclaimed 2023 animated feature Robot Dreams, which was nominated for the Best Animated Feature Oscar and won the Annie for Best Indie Animated Feature in 2024. 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.
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.
As always, the last two months of the year are shaping up to be quite a busy period for animated award season contenders. Netflix will introduce Alex Woo’s early favorite In Your Dreams on Nov. 24, and Disney releases Zootopia 2 on Nov. 26. Then, there’s Mamoru Hosoda’s Scarlet which is slated for Dec. 12 via Sony Pictures and Paramount’s The SpongeBob Movie: The Search for SquarePants on Dec 19. The list of big award hopefuls includes GKIDS’ Little Amelie or the Character of Rain, slated for the fourth quarter. Of course, the easy money is on Netflix and Sony Pictures Animation’s crowd-pleasing favorite KPop Demon Hunters, which has proved to be one of the biggest movies of the year, both in terms of streaming popularity and positive reviews. DreamWorks’ Bad Guys 2, which has amassed over $120 million worldwide since its release on Aug. 1, is also a strong contender and has a healthy 86% score on Rotten Tomatoes.
