The website of the Cannes 2020 festival has finally revealed the titles of the 56 films that will be part of this year's official selection, including - unfortunately - zero Italian and three Japanese films: Asa ga Kuru by Naomi Kawase, Honki no Shirushi of Koji Fukada and, listen, listen, Aya to Majyo (Earwig and the witch) by Goro Miyazaki.
As we reported yesterday, Earwig and the Witch will be Ghibli's first 3DCG film and will be based on the 2011 children's novel of the same name. Diana Wynne Jonessadly disappeared the same year. The official website revealed that the film, directed by Hayao Miyazaki's son, will have one duration of 82 minutes, a figure that makes it the third shortest Ghibli film ever behind You can hear the sea (76 minutes) e The red turtle (81 minutes).
For those who do not know it, remember that the synopsis of the work is as follows: "Not all orphans would like to live at the Saint Morwald orphanage, but Earwig does. She gets what she wants whenever she wants since she was left on her way out. But everything changes when Bella Yaga and Mandragola arrive in Saint Morwald, passing themselves off as foster parents. Earg is intrigued by their mysterious home full of invisible rooms, potions, spell books and magic on every corner. Most children would be terrified of such a house ... but not Earwig. With the help of a talking cat, he decides to show who is the boss of that house".
The 73rd edition of the Cannes Film Festival was expected to be held between 12 and 23 May 2020, but the French government has opted for a suspension due to the health emergency. All preview films will therefore be shown in some cinemas with the "Cannes 2020" label, as well as in some similar festivals.
The famous French film production company Wild Bunch has confirmed that it will handle international distribution, in line with what happened with My neighbor Totoro and The red turtle. The company has already played the role of intermediary between Ghibli and Netflix, thus allowing to bring all the films on the platform. According to some corridor rumors there is a strong possibility that Earwig and the witch follow a similar path since the early months of 2021, in order to promote the highly anticipated How Do You Live? coming out in the near future.
The Official Selection for the 73rd edition has been announced! Follow the selected films' progress in cinemas and other film festivals using the hashtag # Cannes2020.
► See the list of 2020’s films 🎬: https://t.co/JTpo2RUHzO pic.twitter.com/f5iTYJPhrF- Festival de Cannes (@Festival_Cannes) June 3, 2020