Synopsis
From the celebrated Academy Award®-nominated director Mamoru Hosoda and Studio Chizu, creators of Mirai, Wolf Children, Summer Wars, and more, comes a fantastical, heartfelt story of growing up in the age of social media.
Suzu is a shy, everyday high school student living in a rural village. For years, she has only been a shadow of herself. But when she enters "U", a massive virtual world, she escapes into her online persona as Belle, a gorgeous and globally-beloved singer. One day, her concert is interrupted by a monstrous creature chased by vigilantes. As their hunt escalates, Suzu embarks on an emotional and epic quest to uncover the identity of this mysterious "beast" and to discover her true self in a world where you can be anyone.
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ "EXTRAORDINARY"
"SPELLBINDING"
"IT SOARS""The most moving experience
of the Cannes Film Festival"
"ASTOUNDING"
"TAKES YOUR BREATH AWAY"
"DELIRIOUS"
"EYE POPPING"
"DAZZLING""Beauty and the Beast meets The Matrix"
"EPIC"
"DAZZLING"
"AN ABSOLUTE FEAST"
"MIND BLOWING""A world unlike anything we have seen"
"THE BEST LOOKING ANIMATED MOVIE OF THE YEAR"
English Dub Cast
Japanese Voice Cast
Crew
Find a Screening
Behind the Scenes
Mamoru Hosoda
Mamoru Hosoda was born in Toyama, Japan in 1967. Trained as an oil painter at Kanazawa University of Arts and Crafts, Hosoda honed his considerable skills working at famed anime production houses such as Toei and Studio Ghibli.
In 2003, he directed "SUPERFLAT MONOGRAM," a video for Louis Vuitton's spring/summer collection in collaboration with artist Takashi Murakami. Hosoda established his name in feature animation in 2006 with The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, which became a long-running box office hit and earned numerous awards. Hosoda’s subsequent films further cemented his reputation both in Japan and abroad with award-winning titles including Summer Wars, Wolf Children, The Boy and the Beast, and Mirai, which was nominated for an Academy Award® for Best Animated Feature in 2018.
Hosoda, along with longtime collaborator and producer Yuichiro Saito, co-founded Studio Chizu, the animation house that has produced his works since 2011.
Studio Chizu
STUDIO CHIZU was established in April 2011 by director Mamoru Hosoda and producer Yuichiro Saito as a new base for filmmaking. Studio Chizu is a studio specializing in the planning and production of animated films, and the name of the studio reflects the spirit of filmmaking: "to challenge new motifs, themes, and expressions, and to create a new map in the land of animated films, where there are still infinite possibilities. For children and their families around the world, we want to continue to be a "challenger" to create new values and a future for this era.
GKIDS
GKIDS is the producer and distributor of award-winning feature animation for both adult and family audiences. Since 2010, the company has scored an astounding 12 Best Animated Feature Oscar nominations with The Secret of Kells in 2010, A Cat in Paris and Chico & Rita in 2012, Ernest & Celestine in 2014, The Tale of The Princess Kaguya and Song of the Sea in 2015, Boy and the World and When Marnie Was There in 2016, My Life as a Zucchini in 2017, The Breadwinner in 2018, Mirai in 2019, and Wolfwalkers in 2021. GKIDS handles North American distribution for the famed Studio Ghibli library of films, one of the world’s most coveted animation collections with titles Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro, Princess Mononoke and others; as well as the critically acclaimed television series, Neon Genesis Evangelion. Also, GKIDS is the founder and host of ANIMATION IS FILM, the annual LA-based film festival which embraces the highest aspirations of animation as a cinematic art form, and is a vocal advocate for filmmakers who push the boundaries of the medium to its fullest range of artistic expressions. www.gkids.com