The Red Turtle

A man washes up on a deserted island. He builds a raft and tries to leave, and each time a giant red turtle turns him back and breaks it apart. Then the turtle becomes a woman and the two of them build a life there. Michaël Dudok de Wit directed and co-wrote with the French writer Pascale Ferran. There is not a single line of dialogue. Everything is carried by the images and Laurent Perez del Mar's score. The Studio Ghibli connection was made in 2008. When Vincent Maraval, a co-founder of Wild Bunch, visited Ghibli, Hayao Miyazaki showed him Dudok de Wit's short Father and Daughter and said he wanted to work with him. It premiered at Cannes in 2016 in Un Certain Regard and won that section's Special Prize. It was nominated for Best Animated Feature at the 89th Academy Awards and won the Annie Award for Best Animated Feature Independent. Rotten Tomatoes sits at 93 percent and Metacritic at 86. On a 10 million euro budget it grossed 6.6 million dollars worldwide. Who it is for: viewers who like wordless storytelling and hand-drawn animation. Who it is not for: small children. It looks calm and it is about death and loss, and it explains nothing.