EXCLUSIVE: Best Friend Forever has taken on international sales rights to Japanese fantasy romantic comedy animation ChaO ahead of its world premiere in competition at this week’s Annecy International Animation Film Festival.
The Brussels-based company will handle sales outside of Asia, France, North America, Latin America and the UK for the debut feature from Yasuhiro Aoki. Set in a world where humans and mermaids co-exist, the film follows a quiet office worker whose routine life is disrupted when he is offered the chance to marry a mermaid princess named Chao.
GKids has already acquired North American rights while Eurozoom is handling French distribution and Toei will release the film in Japan on August 15. It is produced by Japan’s Studio 4ºc which was also behind Masaaki Yuasa’s Mind Game, Ayumu Watanabe’s Children Of The Sea, and anthology films The Animatrix and Memories.
Aoki, who has directed several shorts and was a key animator on anime features including The Lord Of The Rings: The War Of The Rohirrim, Steamboy and Neon Genesis Evangelion, described ChaO as “a love story about the importance of understanding different cultures in today’s world, where conflicts continue to rage”.
Martin Gondre and Charles Bin, Best Friend Forever co-founders, added: “We’re thrilled to launch our first Japanese animation. Visually breathtaking and incredibly entertaining, the film beautifully blends ecological themes and geopolitical insights into a captivating fairytale romance.”
The film is the latest addition to Best Friend Forever’s animation slate, which also includes Félix Dufour-Laperrière’s Death Does Not Exist, a Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight premiere that will also screen in Annecy’s competition.
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