Skip to main content
Arco film image; animated girl clinging to someone who has light beaming from their forehead

Arco

This event has passed

The spirits of Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli run clear and deep in this limpid, hand-drawn animated feature from French comic book artist and illustrator Ugo Bienvenu. Set in the year 2075, technology has eclipsed a natural world afflicted by environmental crises. Yet, this is not the dystopian sci-fi we might expect. Iris is a young girl predominantly raised by a live-in robot, Mikki. Chasing a rainbow through the woods, she comes across Arco, a boy who’s stolen a time-travelling suit from his scientist parents and crash-landed in Iris’s time. Can Iris help him get back to the future?

Three things stand out above all in Bienvenu’s film: its unsentimental yet hopeful vision; the director’s love of bold primary colours (especially in Arco’s rainbow suit); and Arnaud Toulon’s sweeping, emotional score. This is a sweet, futuristic fantasy.

 

Community Partner

     

Director
Cast

Natalie Portman, Alma Jodorowsky, Swann Arlaud, Vincent Macaigne, Louis Garrel

Credits
Country of Origin

France

Year

2025

Language

English

Film Contact
18+
88 min
Action Animation
Remembers, MountainA France, France 3 Cinéma

Book Tickets

This event has passed.

Credits & Director

Executive Producer

Audrey Tondre

Producer

Félix de Givry, Sophie Mas, Natalie Portman, Ugo Bienvenu

Screenwriter

Félix de Givry, Ugo Bienvenu

Cinematography

Ugo Bienvenu

ANIM

Adam Sillard

Editor

Nathan Jacquard

Production Design

Fabio Besse

Ugo Bienvenu headshot

Ugo Bienvenu

Filmography: Maman (2013); L’entretien (2019)

Photo by Remembers – MountainA

Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre

Amrum

Dir. Fatih Akin
93 min

Twelve-year-old Nanning (Jasper Billerbeck) sets himself a mission to secure bread and honey for his mother to snap her out of her depression. It is 1945. The war is all but lost, and such luxuries are not easy to find on the remote island of Amrum...

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Holy Days

Dir. Nat Boltt
95 min

After his mom passes, Brian (Elijah Tamati) is comforted by Sisters Agnes, Luke and Mary Clare (Judy Davis, Miriam Margolyes and Jacki Weaver, respectively). The quirky quartet hit the road to save their convent from being sold to a property developer.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Steal This Story, Please!

Dir. Carl Deal & Tia Lessin
101 min

Urgent, provocative and unexpectedly funny, Steal This Story, Please! is a portrait of Amy Goodman, the host of the long-running progressive news show, Democracy Now!

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Palestine '36

Dir. Annemarie Jacir
118 min

An epic historical drama from director Annemarie Jacir that follows an ensemble of rural villagers who face off against British colonial forces during the 1936 Palestinian revolt.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre
More info

Sold Out

The Wizard of the Kremlin

Dir. Olivier Assayas
156 min

This sleekly speculative political drama traces the inexorable rise to power of Vladimir Putin (Jude Law) through his unerring grasp of modern propaganda tech.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Blue Heron

Dir. Sophy Romvari
90 min

In the late 1990s, eight-year-old Sasha and her Hungarian immigrant family relocate to a new home on Vancouver Island. Their fresh start is interrupted by increasingly dangerous behaviour from Jeremy, the family’s oldest child.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema