EXCLUSIVE: Brussels-based Best Friend Forever and Tokyo’s Studio4ºC have jointly acquired international sales rights to Yusuke Hirota’s Japanese animation sequel Chimney Town: Frozen In Time, which will world premiere in Berlin’s Generation strand.
The 3D animation is the follow-up to the filmmaker’s Poupelle Of Chimney Town about a young chimney sweep who befriends the titular Poupelle, a man made of rubbish, which grossed around $24m at the Japanese box office in 2020.
Chimney Town: Frozen In Time is about the same young boy who is now grief-stricken after losing his best friend Poupelle, and accidentally wanders into a mysterious realm where a clock tower is frozen at 11:59. To return home, the boy must find a way to restart the clock and, alongside his cat companion, he slowly unravels its mystery and finds the courage to believe again.
The film reteams Best Friend Forever with Japanese animation house Studio4ºC after the two co-repped Japanese romantic fantasy animation ChaO, winner of the jury award at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival in 2025.
ChaO producer Studio4ºC produced Poupelle Of Chimney Town and Toho will release the film in Japan on March 27.
Best Friend Forever co-founders Martin Gondre and Charles Bin said the film “is now an internationally recognisable IP that will become an important reference of Japanime in the future”.
The company’s EFM slate also includes Geneviève Dulude-De Celles’s festival competition title Nina Roza, Patric Chiha’s Panorama documentary A Russian Winter and Brazilian family animation Papaya, which is also premiering in the Generation strand.
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