Academy Award-winning animation distributor GKIDS announced today it has acquired the North American distribution rights to the entire film catalog of award-winning director Mamoru Hosoda, internationally renowned for critically acclaimed animated feature films such as The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and Wolf Children. GKIDS previously released the Academy Award- and Golden Globe-nominated Mirai (2018) and the critically lauded Belle (2021), which became Hosoda’s highest grossing film to date in North America. Both films made their respective world premieres at the Cannes Film Festival.
Hosoda’s six features have all been nominated for, and five have been awarded, the Japan Academy Prize for “Animation of the Year.” Hosoda remains the only Japanese animation director outside of the famed Studio Ghibli to receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Feature. The director’s work is produced by Studio Chizu, whose catalog is represented internationally by Charades, and the new deal was negotiated between Eric Beckman at GKIDS and Yohann Comte and Carole Baraton at Charades on behalf of Studio Chizu.
Summer Wars and Wolf Children will enter GKIDS’ catalog immediately, while The Boy and the Beast and The Girl Who Leapt Through Time will enter the catalog next year. With this deal, GKIDS is committed to expanding the reach and furthering the brand of Studio Chizu and director Hosoda by bringing these titles to the North American audience in renewed ways. As a start, the films will receive new theatrical and home entertainment releases highlighting Hosoda’s unique artistry, with further details to come.
“One of GKIDS’ earliest distribution projects was the theatrical release of Summer Wars, when Mamoru Hosoda had already cemented his position as one of the most exciting animation directors,” said GKIDS’ President David Jesteadt. “We were honored to deepen our relationship with the release of his two latest films, Mirai and Belle, and are excited to now be able to showcase the full breadth of Hosoda’s ambitious storytelling across his film catalog, featuring some of the most acclaimed and successful Japanese animated films of all time.”
