The Red Turtle

The Red Turtle (French: La Tortue rouge) is a 2016 French-Japanese-Belgian animated film directed by Michaël Dudok de Wit in his feature film debut. The film is a co-production between Wild Bunch and Studio Ghibli, and tells the story of a man who tries to escape from a deserted island and battles a giant turtle. The film has no dialogue. It premiered in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival.

Production

The film was co-produced by Wild Bunch and Studio Ghibli in association with Why Not Productions. According to Vincent Maraval, head of Wild Bunch, he visited Studio Ghibli in Japan in 2008 and met with Hayao Miyazaki. Miyazaki showed him the short film Father and Daughter and asked him to find its director, Michaël Dudok de Wit, with the prospect of co-producing a feature film. Wild Bunch approached Dudok de Wit in London and convinced him to take on the project. The screenplay was written by Dudok de Wit and Pascale Ferran.

Release

The film premiered on 18 May at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival, where it competed in the Un Certain Regard section. On 13 June it will be screened as the opening film of the 2016 Annecy International Animated Film Festival. The regular French release is set to 29 June 2016. It is scheduled for release in Japan in September 2016. In May 2016, it was reported that Sony Pictures Classics had acquired the North and Latin American distribution rights for the film.

Accolades

Award	Date of ceremony	Category	Recipient(s) and nominee(s)	Result	Ref(s)
Cannes Film Festival	21 May 2016	Un Certain Regard Special Prize	Michaël Dudok de Wit	Won
		Prize Un Certain Regard		Nominated

External links

• The Red Turtle at IMDb
• The Red Turtle at Rotten Tomatoes
• The Red Turtle at Metacritic
• The Red Turtle at the Big Cartoon DataBase