Millennium Actress, an animated drama handled by distributor Klockworx, has become the first foreign-language animation to be acquired by Dreamworks SKG.

Dreamworks has picked up all rights outside Asia to the film, which won the best animation prize when it premiered at Fant-Asia last July and took the animation award at Sitges, Spain

Millennium Actress, directed by Satoshi Ko, is a sci-fi love story aimed at general audiences with a particular appeal for women. Interviewed by a young journalist, an elderly woman recounts her life and the two travel back in time together.

Dreamworks has not yet finalised its distribution plans for the picture, but Klockworx says that it is hoping for international theatrical release through UIP. Klockworx will itself handle the Japanese distribution in early autumn through a "mini-chain" release.