Gkids said Tuesday that it has acquired North American distribution rights to the French psychedelic fantasy Sirocco and the Kingdom of Winds.
Directed by Benoît Chieux, the film is a singular vision many years in the making. It had its world premiere as the opening-night feature of the 2023 Annecy International Animation Film Festival. Next up, it will have its New York premiere as the centerpiece film of the Fiaf Animation First Film Festival on January 26.
Kingdom of Winds is the first animated feature solely directed by Chieux, who previously co-directed 2013’s Aunt Hilda! The two-time César Award nominee also served as the screenwriter for 2008’s European Film Award-winning Mia and the Migoo, which was one of the earliest titles distributed by Gkids.
Gkids will release Kingdom of Winds theatrically later this year following a domestic release in France that began December...
Directed by Benoît Chieux, the film is a singular vision many years in the making. It had its world premiere as the opening-night feature of the 2023 Annecy International Animation Film Festival. Next up, it will have its New York premiere as the centerpiece film of the Fiaf Animation First Film Festival on January 26.
Kingdom of Winds is the first animated feature solely directed by Chieux, who previously co-directed 2013’s Aunt Hilda! The two-time César Award nominee also served as the screenwriter for 2008’s European Film Award-winning Mia and the Migoo, which was one of the earliest titles distributed by Gkids.
Gkids will release Kingdom of Winds theatrically later this year following a domestic release in France that began December...
- 1/9/2024
- by Valerie Complex
- Deadline Film + TV
The 60th Annecy Animation Film Festival, which wrapped up this weekend, provided a quiet defiance of the technological trends — including CGI and A.I. — that seem to be irresistible in the animated industry today. Every one of the 2023 Anncey award winners was a traditional 2D feature, a celebration of the old-school craft of hand-drawn cartoons and hand-crafted animation.
None more so than Benoît Chieux’s opening night film Sirocco and the Kingdom of Air, which won this year’s audience award. The director’s first solo feature — he co-directed 2013’s Aunt Hilda! with frequent collaborator Jacques-Rémy Girerd — is a loving tribute to traditional animation. Hand-drawn, with only some scene transitions done on the computer, the children’s film follows the adventures of two young sisters who get sucked into the pages of a children’s book, entering into a fantastical Kingdom of the Winds, ruled over by a Sirocco, a wizard...
None more so than Benoît Chieux’s opening night film Sirocco and the Kingdom of Air, which won this year’s audience award. The director’s first solo feature — he co-directed 2013’s Aunt Hilda! with frequent collaborator Jacques-Rémy Girerd — is a loving tribute to traditional animation. Hand-drawn, with only some scene transitions done on the computer, the children’s film follows the adventures of two young sisters who get sucked into the pages of a children’s book, entering into a fantastical Kingdom of the Winds, ruled over by a Sirocco, a wizard...
- 6/19/2023
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
This eye-catching, dimension-traveling adventure might be aimed at kids, but there’s plenty here for adults who grew up believing the possibilities of animation might be endless. Now that Disney has done its best to persuade us otherwise, Benoît Chieux’s fabulous Sirocco and the Kingdom of Air Streams is here as a palate-cleanser, tucking away a tender story of love and loss in an insanely imaginative psychedelic brainstorm. If Matt Groening and Miyazaki took magic mushrooms and watched The Beatles’ Yellow Submarine together, they could conceivably come up with a movie to match this.
Chuck Jones’ 1970 classic (albeit for weird kids and stoners only) The Phantom Tollbooth is a suitable benchmark, only here it is a game of hopscotch that provides the conduit between this world and the Kingdom of Air Streams. Which is where the story begins, with the mighty wizard Sirocco summoning the elements to assuage his boredom.
Chuck Jones’ 1970 classic (albeit for weird kids and stoners only) The Phantom Tollbooth is a suitable benchmark, only here it is a game of hopscotch that provides the conduit between this world and the Kingdom of Air Streams. Which is where the story begins, with the mighty wizard Sirocco summoning the elements to assuage his boredom.
- 6/16/2023
- by Damon Wise
- Deadline Film + TV
It’s Juliette’s fifth birthday, and she can wish for whatever she wants. Top of her list is an adventure, the likes of which this restless girl has only read about in books — specifically, a series of fantasy novels about a capricious wizard who controls the wind. In “Sirocco and the Kingdom of Air Streams,” a quiet afternoon takes an unpredictable, eye-popping turn, as Juliette (voiced by Loïse Charpentier) and her 8-year-old sister Carmen (Maryne Bertieaux) are whisked away to a dazzling surreal world of alligator-shaped airships and bird-headed opera divas, where seemingly anything can happen.
Welcome to the imagination of French director Benoît Chieux, who has crafted — in the year 2023, against considerable odds — a truly spectacular psychedelic excursion in the vein of head-trip classics “The Fantastic Planet” and “The Yellow Submarine.” It’s been roughly half a century since those two movies demonstrated just how liberating the medium of animation can be,...
Welcome to the imagination of French director Benoît Chieux, who has crafted — in the year 2023, against considerable odds — a truly spectacular psychedelic excursion in the vein of head-trip classics “The Fantastic Planet” and “The Yellow Submarine.” It’s been roughly half a century since those two movies demonstrated just how liberating the medium of animation can be,...
- 6/12/2023
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
Lille-born filmmaker Benoît Chieux has been coming to Annecy for 30 years. This year, to his own amazement, he is opening the festival with “Sirocco and the Kingdom of Air Streams.”
“It’s an incredible surprise and a huge honor. Today’s competition [in animation] is very tough and there are so many high-quality feature films out there,” he says, calling the event “an exceptionally rich place to meet and discover new things.”
In “Sirocco,” two sisters, Juliette and Carmen, discover a secret passage to the world of their favorite book, the Kingdom of Air Streams. Transformed into cats and separated from each other, they will have to find their way back and – with the help of talented singer Selma – confront the mysterious Sirocco, the master of winds and storms.
“His face is half-hidden in order to draw the viewer’s attention. In a spectacular film like this one, it’s important to...
“It’s an incredible surprise and a huge honor. Today’s competition [in animation] is very tough and there are so many high-quality feature films out there,” he says, calling the event “an exceptionally rich place to meet and discover new things.”
In “Sirocco,” two sisters, Juliette and Carmen, discover a secret passage to the world of their favorite book, the Kingdom of Air Streams. Transformed into cats and separated from each other, they will have to find their way back and – with the help of talented singer Selma – confront the mysterious Sirocco, the master of winds and storms.
“His face is half-hidden in order to draw the viewer’s attention. In a spectacular film like this one, it’s important to...
- 6/11/2023
- by Marta Balaga
- Variety Film + TV
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