GKIDS Acquires North American Rights to Mirai From Acclaimed Director Mamoru Hosoda
New York, NY (February 16, 2018) - GKIDS, the acclaimed producer and distributor of animation for adult and family audiences, announced it has acquired the North American distribution rights for the animated feature MIRAI from Japan's Studio Chizu. 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 in both its original Japanese language and a new English dubbed version.
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.
The all-rights deal was negotiated by Eric Beckman of GKIDS and Yohann Comte and Carole Baraton of CHARADES.
"GKIDS is both thrilled and honored to be releasing the newest film from the great Mamoru Hosoda, a true master and one of the most exciting, iconic, and humanist filmmakers working in animation," said Eric Beckman, Founder/CEO of GKIDS. "His previous films The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Summer Wars, Wolf Children, and The Boy and The Beast rank among my favorite animated films of all time and everyone at GKIDS is so excited to be working together with Studio Chizu and CHARADES on this project!"
SYNOPSIS
One day, KUN's mother brings home a new family member. For the four-year-old boy, joy quickly turns to disappointment when the little sister replaces her brother as the center of attention. The boy can't bring himself to accept her as his sister. But things turn magical when, with a mysterious garden as his gateway, the boy encounters his mother as a little girl and his great-grandfather as a young man, and has a series of surprising adventures with his "older" sister from the future. These experiences change how he sees the world and help him grow into the big brother he was meant to be.
ABOUT GKIDS
GKIDS is the producer and distributor of award-winning feature animation for both adult and family audiences. Since 2010, GKIDS has scored an astounding 10 Best Animated Feature Oscar® nominations with The Secret of Kells in 2010, A Cat in Paris and CHiCO & Rita in 2012, Ernest & Celestine in 2014, The Tale of the Princess Kaguya and Song of the Sea in 2015, Boy and the World and When Marnie Was There in 2016, My Life as a Zucchini in 2017, and The Breadwinner in 2018. GKIDS also handles North American distribution for the famed Studio Ghibli library of films, one of the world's most coveted animation collections with titles Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro, Princess Mononoke and others. GKIDS recently launched ANIMATION IS FILM, an annual LA-based film festival. The first edition took place last October at the TCL Chinese Theater in Hollywood for a sold-out audience of 5,000 and generated over 750 million media impressions. ANIMATION IS FILM embraces the highest aspirations of animation as a cinematic art form and is a vocal advocate for filmmakers who push the boundaries of their work to the fullest range of expression of which the medium is capable. www.GKIDS.com www.animationisfilm.com
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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