The head of one of Europe's most trusted indie animation distributors speaks about the company's filmmaker-centric approach and the importance of festivals for animated films

Miyu Distribution has made its name with the international distribution of top-tier animated short films – and now the company is making bigger leaps into the wide world of feature films. The French outfit currently has three works in Oscar contention for Best Animated Short Film and two in the running for the same category at the Césars. We sat down with Luce Grosjean, co-founder and CEO of Miyu Distribution, to speak about the outfit’s humble origins, its step into the feature world and distributing for animation.

Cineuropa: How did Miyu Distribution begin, and how did it evolve?
Luce Grosjean: My work [before Miyu] was mostly freelance: sending films to festivals on behalf of animation schools as a service because they needed someone do it. I started to understand that certain festivals will create more impact on the life of the film. Two years later, I decided to open a company as I wanted to do production and distribution. The idea was just to be sustainable, and there was not really a business model. I realised a few years later that production was not my thing, so when Emmanuel-Alain Raynal, the creator of Miyu Productions, offered me a partnership to create Miyu Distribution in 2017, it was the best idea ever. I was really trying to be creative in distribution, especially for animated short films that I love strongly. It’s art, and it's a little bit under-valued, and I want to be sure that we can bring as much love and attention to it as we can.

What does your business model look like?
Our business model for feature films is mostly taking rental fees on screenings in festivals where it’s non-commercialised, so we’re taking 50%. For short films, we also have rights, but mostly we have the service fee for sending the films to a festival. We are trying to do not only festivals anymore, but also sales, by playing with awards seasons. But we make most of our income as a company in terms of sales from festivals or theatrical rental fees. When we do a big sale for a big platform or a big TV channel, it’s great because it’s cash directly for the rights holders. However, it’s still thanks to rental fees that we can recoup our expenses and make sure that the film is at least bringing a little bit of money back to the rights holders.

While your focus is on animated shorts, you have recently ventured into distributing animated features. Could you talk about some of these titles?
In 2021, we started to do a little bit of feature film distribution and sales. It mostly happened because we had this Dominican film called Olivia and the Clouds. I knew that the film was exactly what I was looking for: beautiful animation, great story – and a hard sell. There was no proper business model for this but [it became] instead about how we could work together to make something successful. I also received a feature film called The Great History of Western Philosophy that just world-premiered in Rotterdam. It was weird enough that I knew [it would work].

What is unique or challenging about distributing for animation in particular?
People underestimate the art. I’m sure everyone will discover in a few years that animation is one of the coolest art forms right now. I really believe it’s a question of faith, and it’s something that I share with my partners at Miyu Productions. The audience doesn’t know what they are going to see before going to the theatre. Therefore, I think having a strong brand like Miyu and making sure that people are going to see something they’re ready to take the risk for is important.

Could you elaborate on the role of festivals in your line of work?
We use festivals as a good place to release films, to promote them and to reach other people. The success of a film at a festival is a good marketing tool. It’s so hard to make a short film exist that I will say the most important tool we have is the programmers, whom we trust. We see them as curators that will help a film reach a good audience. From there, it helps us reach buyers.

What are you looking forward to in 2025? Any new developments brewing?
My goal right now is to focus on [the two feature titles] and continue to bring new talents into the world. We’re also going to release a theatrical short film programme in France around masculinities, and it will be fun to see how people react. I’m really trying to be more financially secure for the company. We are finishing developing an in-house software to help people working with us to have a clearer and more transparent way to see the way we're sending things to festivals. We have a big database so directors, producers and rights holders can check where we send films. My goal this year is to try to make it a service for a more open, global audience because we have knowledge that we want more people to have access to.