The tale of two unlikely childhood friends charted across three decades is the feature debut of rising filmmaker Kohei Kadowaki

we are aliens

Source: Charades

We Are Aliens

EXCLUSIVE: Paris-based sales company Charades has boarded We Are Aliens, the debut animated feature from rising Japanese filmmaker Kohei Kadowaki, and will launch sales at EFM for all territories outside of Asia.

The film is a Japanese-French co-production from Japanese production outfit Nothing New and France’s Miyu Productions. Nothing New is the company behind AnyMart, which was selected for the Forum section of this year’s Berlin International Film Festival and has been gaining international recognition. Miyu Productions, meanwhile, is known for titles such as Dandelion’s Odyssey, Death Does Not Exist and Chicken For Linda!, and has received multiple Oscar nominations in the animated shorts category.

We Are Aliens follows two unlikely friends – a quiet third-grade boy and his charismatic classmate – across more than three decades, taking in meaningful childhood moments and a seemingly minor incident that drives them apart, as time passes and their lives diverge. 

The film about friendship and human connection is now in post-production and expected to be completed before the end of the year.

Nothing New producer Kentaro Hayashi said: “We Are Aliens speaks quietly, yet powerfully, to something universal – the memories we carry, the people who shape us, and the distances that time creates.”

It is the latest animated title on Charades’ slate after the international success of Gints Zilbalodis’ Oscar-winning Flow. The company heads to Berlin with Yoshitoshi Shinomiya’s anime A New Dawn in the main competition, also produced by Miyu Productions with Japan’s Asmik Ace.

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