21/10/2025 - Unveiled in Cannes and winner in Annecy, Ugo Bienvenu’s debut feature is an animation gem harmoniously mixing together E.T. and Miyazaki, with a touch of Scooby-Doo

“A little boy falling from the sky, isn’t that important? Is it a magician or an angel?” Much like his main protagonist, who lands in the very far future and breaks the space-time continuum by diffracting light in a wonderful rainbow, the eruption of comics artist Ugo Bienvenu in the universe of animated feature films with Arco is a divine revelation. The film, presented as a special screening in Official Selection in Cannes and winner of the Cristal award in Annecy, will be released in French cinemas on 22 October by Diaphana.

With great visual beauty and rich in discreet details, the film indeed manages to create its own wavelength in an intelligent, remarkable and dynamic simplicity, drawing from the best sources of animation masters (Hayao Miyazaki in the lead), great myths feeding the collective unconscious and maintaining the connection between childhood and the adult world, and current issues linked to the climate threats faced by planet earth.

“What year is this? – 2075”. Written by the director together with Félive de Givry (the duo also leads the production), the script unfolds over the particularly original matrix of a double destiny. Disobeying his parents because he isn’t yet old enough (12) to travel through time, Arco steals the necessary equipment (a rainbow cape adorned with a diamond) and finds himself propelled into the past, in the heart of a forest near the small town of Iris. The latter, a little girl his age, dreams of ‘things changing” in her daily life of holograms, of houses covered in glass to protect from acute climate disruption (storms, fires), and robots replacing (as nannies, teachers, cops, etc.) adults who are absent due to overwork. Our two young protagonists will get to know each other and Iris will try to help Arco go back. But three mysterious characters are also on the trail of the rainbow kid whose presence in town is causing some interference…

A wonderful and powerful coming-of-age story (under the very subtle guise of lightness), Arco reaches the perfect balance between a hyper-rhythmic chain of events (secrets, experiences, chases, etc.), good-natured humour and romanticism, messages from the future (“everything is under water, we live in the clouds, on platforms hooked to great pillars, as if in giant trees, in round houses - like turtle shells - with large gardens”), fragrances of enchantment (learning the language of birds), and furtive reflections on the History of mankind and on the contemporary challenges of the acceleration of technology’s hold over us and of climate turmoil. Moreover, the whole is captured in magical 2D animation, pop and bewitching, marking the emergence of a filmmaker born under some very lucky stars.

Arco was produced by Remembers and MountainA France (Sophie Mas and American actress Natalie Portman) and co-produced by France 3 Cinéma. Goodfellas is handling international sales.

(Translated from French)