Two GOBELINS feature films in Special Screening at Cannes 2025!

After the short film "Dieu est timide" by Jocelyn Charles (selected for Critics' Week), two feature films directed by alumnis were presented in Special Screening as part of the Official Selection of the Cannes Film Festival 2025:

• "Amélie et la Métaphysique des tubes" by Maïlys Vallade and Liane-Cho Han

• "Arco " by Ugo Bienvenu

Maïlys Vallade (class of 2009) and Liane-Cho Han (class of 2007), both graduates of the Master in Character Animation and Animated Filmmaking, met during their studies at GOBELINS. They met up again a few years later on Rémi Chayé's "Tout en haut du monde" and "Calamity ", as storyboard artist and animation director respectively.

Their first feature film as co-writers and directors is an adaptation ofAmélie Nothomb's cult novel "Métaphysique des tubes".

This intimate tale follows the first three years of Amélie Nothomb's life in Japan, and plunges us into the emerging consciousness of a child.

Produced in hybrid animation combining traditional 2D and digital animation, the film invites viewers to adopt the gaze of a toddler and rediscover the world through his or her sensitive, singular perception.

" The whole challenge of the film was to know how we were going to translate the singularity of this story into images and animation. Responding to this difficulty led us to develop our cinematographic grammar around a strong bias: to be close to Amélie, to feel things with her, at her level [...] Fixing on particular details, as children do, was really our guiding principle ."

Maïlys Vallade

Synopsis:
Amélie, a little Belgian girl born in Japan, grows up in a world of discovery and wonder, thanks to her friend Nishio-san. But on her third birthday, something happens that turns her world upside down. At that age, everything can change, from joy to tragedy.

The film will also be in official competition at the Annecy 2025 Festival, and will be released in cinemas on June 25, 2025.

In the year 2075, a 10-year-old girl named Iris sees a mysterious boy in a bow-tie suit fall from the sky. It's Arco. He comes from a distant, idyllic future where time travel is possible. Iris takes him in and does everything she can to help him get home.

A director of music videos and short films, and the author of award-winning comic strips (Préférence système, winner of the Angoulême 2020 prize), Ugo Bienvenu (class of 2010) has signed his first feature-length animated film.

Arco is anoptimistic, colorful science fiction film for adults and children alike.

Produced by Remembers (co-founded by Ugo Bienvenu and Félix de Givry) and Mountain A, the American company founded by Natalie Portman and Sophie Mas, the film tackles contemporary themes such as environmental protection and thegrowing importance of AI in our lives.

Also selected forofficial competition at the Annecy Festival 2025,the film has already won the Gan Foundation Special Prize as part of the Prix à la Création 2023.