Three years in the making, the next film from Michel Ocelot – the French writer and director of animated films, likely best known for his 1998 debut feature Kirikou and the Sorceress (as well as its sequels; it’s a trilogy) – is set to launch this fall, first in the filmmaker’s home country, France. As with his past work, I expect this one will travel as well, eventually, and reach global audiences.

Another feature-length animation – his seventh – the film is titled Dilili à Paris (Dilili in Paris), and the story, of course set in Paris, follows the adventures of the titular Dilili, a mixed-race girl of the Kanak (the indigenous inhabitants of New Caledonia) during the Belle Époque era (1900-ish), who teams up with a boy her age to solve a mystery regarding little girls who are being kidnapped. They uncover a sect (comprised of adults) who are seemingly responsible for the disappearances and who the pair will have to go up against.

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Production kicked off in 2015, with a 2018 completion date eyed by the filmmaker at the time. It’s animation, and it’s feature-length; these things take time, especially if it must be great, which I’m sure he’s been aiming for, as he has done with past films.

Wild Bunch backed the Belle Epoque drama which will first make its world premiere at the Annecy Animation Festival, which runs June 11-16 in Annecy, France. And an October 10, 2018, theatrical release date is set for France for the $7.5 million film, produced by Nord-Ouest Films and by Ocelot’s own Studio O production company. Also Arte France Cinéma, Artémis Productions, Senator Film Produktion and Mars Films are co-producers.

No word on when the film will travel outside France, but I suspect it’ll be picked up by film festivals around the world to start including several here in the USA, as has been typical for the filmmaker’s work thus far.

In the meantime, a first teaser-trailer has been released by the film’s French distribution company, Mars Films, although I should note that it’s not subtitled unfortunately, but it at least gives you a first look at the film’s visual composition and soundscape. A first poster follows the trailer.

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Dilili in Paris

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