Sony Pictures has joined forces with Studio CHIZU and Nippon TV to co-produce and co-finance Scarlet, the latest animated feature from Academy Award-nominated Japanese director Mamoru Hosoda.
The film will be distributed globally by Sony Pictures, with a U.S. theatrical release scheduled for the winter of 2025. In Japan, Toho will manage the theatrical distribution.
This collaboration marks Sony Pictures’ first partnership with Studio CHIZU, the animation studio co-founded by Hosoda and producer Yuichiro Saito in 2011. The film’s production team includes Saito, Toshimi Tanio from Nippon TV, and Nozomu Takahashi from Studio CHIZU.
Scarlet tells the story of a princess who transcends both time and space. This film follows Hosoda’s previous work, Belle (2021), which premiered at Cannes and became his highest-grossing film to date.
Sony Pictures Television
Hosoda’s career in animation began in 1991 at Toei Animation. He earned recognition for directing Digimon Adventure (1999) and its sequel Digimon Adventure: Our War Game! (2000), but it was his 2006 film The Girl Who Leapt Through Time that brought him widespread acclaim.
The film won the first Japan Academy Prize for Best Animation and launched a successful streak of films, including Summer Wars (2009), which earned him an Annie Award nomination for Best Director and was featured at the Berlin International Film Festival.
With Studio CHIZU, Hosoda has continued to push creative boundaries with films such as Wolf Children (2012), The Boy and the Beast (2015), and Mirai (2018). The latter earned an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature Film.
Studio CHIZU, founded in April 2011, focuses on the development and production of animated films, with a mission to explore new and innovative creative directions in animation.
