GKids Picks Up Animated Survival Drama ‘Funan’ for Spring Release

Indie distributor GKids has added “Funan” to its slate of animated Oscar contenders for 2020. Dennis Do’s acclaimed survival drama about the cruelties of Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge in 1975 won top prizes at the Annecy and Animation Is Film (AIF) festivals, and will have a spring theatrical release.

“Funan” follows a young woman and her husband separated from their four-year-old son as a result of the the Khmer Rouge’s forced exile from their village into internment camps. It features the voices of Bérénice Bejo (“The Artist”) and Louis Garrel (“The Dreamers”).

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“‘Funan’ is the perfect example of animation’s ability to tell all kinds of stories, for all kinds of audiences,” said David Jesteadt, president of GKids, which seeks its 11th Oscar nomination with Mamoru Hosoda’s enchanting time-traveling fantasy, “Mirai.”

GKids has additionally acquired two other features for next Oscar season: “Buñuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles” (from Salvador Simó), which took the AIF Special Jury Prize and recounts how the legendary Spanish director struggled to make a documentary about poverty-stricken Las Hurdes; and “Okko’s Inn,” the latest from Studio Ghibli veteran animator Kitaro Kosaka. Slated for an April release, the fantasy concerns a young girl innkeeper who sees ghosts.