Belle, Pompo Anime Films Screen at Anime NYC

GKIDS announced on Friday that it will screen Mamoru Hosoda and Studio Chizu's BELLE (Ryū to Sobakasu no Hime, literally "The Dragon and the Freckled Princess") anime film and the anime film of Shogo Sugitani's Pompo: The Cinéphile (Eiga Daisuki Pompo-san) manga at Anime NYC. This year's Anime NYC event is scheduled to take place on November 19-21 at the Javits Center.

GKIDS will begin screening BELLE in English and in Japanese with English subtitles in the U.S. on January 14.

BELLE opened in Japan on July 16. The film has IMAX screenings in 38 theaters throughout Japan. This makes BELLE the first of Hosoda's films to have IMAX screenings.

The film has earned a cumulative total of 6,397,159,950 yen (about US$56.44 million) as of October 10. The film is Hosoda's highest-grossing film. MX4D screenings for the film opened on October 22.

France's Cannes Film Festival first screened the film in the festival's Cannes Premiere section on July 15. It marked the first Official Selection at the festival for Hosoda. (The director's previous Mirai film screened at the Directors' Fortnight, an independent section held in parallel to the festival, in 2018.) The film had its North American premiere at the New York Film Festival on September 25, and then had its West coast premiere at Los Angeles' Animation Is Film Festival, which was held from October 22-24. The film won the Special Jury Prize at the festival.

Hosoda (The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Summer Wars, The Boy and The Beast, Mirai) directed and scripted the film, and is also credited for the original work. The film marks Studio Chizu's 10th anniversary. Taisei Iwasaki (Blood Blockade Battlefront, Dragon Pilot: Hisone and Masotan, The Naked Director) is the film's music director and composer.

GKIDS will begin screening Pompo: The Cinéphile in Japanese with English subtitles and an English dub in North America in 2022.

The film was slated to open in 2020 in Japan, but was delayed to a March 19, 2021 opening due to "various circumstances," and then delayed again to a June 4 opening due to the spread of the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

The anime premiered in North America at Montreal's 25th Fantasia International Film Festival in August and then screened at Los Angeles' Animation Is Film Festival.

Pompo: The Cinéphile depicts the craft of movie-making and revolves around Joelle Davidovich "Pompo" Pomponette, a talented movie producer who looks like a girl.

Operating out of the movie capital "Nyallywood," Pompo has been shooting one B-grade entertainment flick after another that anyone would enjoy. One day, Pompo's "movie buff" assistant Gene spots a new script written by Pompo and is moved by its exquisite story. In a fit of passion, he proclaims, "I want to see this as a finished work in theaters as soon as possible!"

However, Pompo tells him, "So you shoot this film." Thus, Gene takes on his first directing gig. Meanwhile, Natalie, an ordinary girl who just arrived in town with movie actress dreams, has been discovered by Pompo …

Takayuki Hirao (The Garden of Sinners movie 5, God Eater) directed the film at CLAP. Shingo Adachi (Sword Art Online, Wagnaria!!) designed the characters. Ryoichiro Matsuo (In This Corner of the World) served as producer. Vocaloid producer Iori Kanzaki composed three vocal songs for the film. Virtual singer Kaf performed one insert song "Tatoeba" (For Example), and DUSTCELL vocalist EMA performed the film's other insert song "Hangyakusha no Bokura" (We the Rebels). In addition, Seiko Niizuma performed the film's opening number "Dance on Fire." Rookie female singer CIEL performed the film's theme song "Mado wo Akete" (Open a Window).