Mamoru Hosoda Film 'Mirai no Mirai' Announces Overseas Distribution Deals

Charades, a French film co-production and sales company, announced at the 68th annual Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale) this weekend that it has successfully closed a number of deals with overseas distributors for director Mamoru Hosoda's upcoming anime film Mirai no Mirai. The film, which will be distributed internationally under the title Mirai of the Future, will open in theaters in Japan on July 20, 2018.

According to entertainment news website Variety, Charades previously represented Mirai no Mirai at last year's Cannes Film Festival. The company is co-founded by Carole Baraton, former head of sales at German-French film distributor Wild Bunch, Yohann Comte, former deputy head of sales at French film distributor Gaumont, and Pierre Mazars, former sales manager at French film distributor StudioCanal.

Comte was responsible for international sales of Hosoda's 2015 film Bakemono no Ko (The Boy and the Beast) when it was represented by Gaumont. In a statement released last year following the founding of Charades, the company's partners said, "Charades will focus on films that are by turn inspirational, entertaining, rousing, disturbing, terrifying, and tear-jerking, but always audience-driven. It will service a cross-generational, cross-cultural, and cross-border audience."

Variety reports that Charades sold the rights of Mirai no Mirai in the United States to New York-based film distributor GKIDS. Since 2010, animated features distributed by GKIDS have received ten Academy Award nominations. Last year, in order for an animated feature film to qualify for an Oscar nomination, it must have been screened by November 1, 2017. If a similar timeline occurs this year, the company has approximately a three-month window if it wants to submit Mirai no Mirai for the 91st Academy Awards.

Elsewhere, Charades also sold the distribution rights of Mirai no Mirai to A Contracorriente (Spain), Anime Limited (United Kingdom), Dynit (Italy), MK2 Mile End (Canada), AV Visionen (Germany), KEM (Latin America), Filma (Turkey), Cineart (Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg), Exponenta (Commonwealth of Independent States), Selim Ramia (Lebanon and the Persian Gulf region), and Madman Entertainment (Australia and New Zealand).

In December, Hosoda and producer Yuuichirou Saitou said that Mirai no Mirai will be screened in theaters in 57 countries.

Source: Variety, Animation Business Journal