“In Waves,” an animated feature that made a splash at Cannes as a special screening opening Critics’ Week, has been acquired by Netflix after a worldwide bidding war, TheWrap has learned.
The film, a French/Belgian co-production, adapts AJ Dungo’s 2019 graphic novel and is directed by Phuong Mai Nguyen, marking her feature debut. It premiered in the early part of the festival, kicking off the independent International Critics’ Week section of Cannes.
The film follows AJ (voiced by Will Sharpe), a shy teenager, as he meets Kristen (voiced by Stephanie Hsu), who loves surfing. “They fall madly in love, and a happy future seems within reach. But everything changes when Kristen faces a sudden illness,” according to the official synopsis. “Together, they face adversity, driven by the strength of their love, their friends, and their newly shared passion for surfing and the ocean.”
Fanny Burdino and Samuel Doux wrote the screenplay; Priscilla Bertin and Judith Nora produced. Attached to the project as executive producers are David Levine , Yohann Comte, Carole Baraton, Pierre Mazars, Will Sharpe, Stephanie Hsu, Nick Shumaker and David Levine on behalf of Anonymous Content.
“From the very start, we were energized by Mai’s unmistakable talent and the ability of AJ’s story to deeply move audiences,” Shumaker and Levine said in a jointn statement. “This exciting partnership with Netflix will ensure that our romantic, coming-of-age story reaches people all over the world.”
TheWrap’s Steve Pond, like many who saw the film, was moved out of the Cannes showing, writing, “The director/animator’s style changes and morphs as the film goes on; she uses Dungo’s drawings but also turns waves into bedsheets and a hospital bed into the setting for fantasy. But for all the virtuoso hand-drawn animation, at heart this is an emotional story – and, make no mistake, a major tearjerker of a rom-dram.”
Pond also compared the feature to coming-of-age films like “The Fault in Our Stars” in its mix tragedy and pathos.
Judging by the response to the film, Netflix, which has not yet announced a release date, will likely launch a campaign for Best Animated Feature Academy Award, which in recent years has highlighted independent European films, like last year’s nominees “Little Amélie or the Character of Rain” and “Arco,” or the previous year’s winner “Flow.”
Netflix just released the animated feature “Swapped,” a co-production with Skydance Animation, and also has “Ray Gunn” (another Skydance collaboration) and “Steps” debuting later this year.
Last year, Netflix released “KPop Demon Hunters” (with Sony Pictures Animation) that would go on to become the most-watched Netflix original movie ever and the first non-Disney or Pixar animated film to win two Academy Awards (for Original Song and Animated Feature).
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