The mermaid x human anime romance film ChaO is the recipient of Annecy International Animation Film Festival 2025’s Jury Award in the Feature Film category.
Other winners that hail from Japan include Ryo Orikasa‘s The Graffiti (Off-Limits Award, Short Film category) and Masataka Kihara‘s Q (Lotte Reiniger Award, Graduation Films category).
ChaO is set in a world of humans and mermaids, where male protagonist Stephan works at a shipbuilding company as an office worker. A proposal from the mermaid princess Chao brings a wave of change to his life.
The film will premiere in Japan on August 15 JST and will be brought to North America by GKIDS.
ChaO is a Studio 4°C production directed by Yasuhiro Aoki (Psycho-Pass: The Movie co-character designer, SAMURAI NOODLES “THE ORIGINATOR” unit director et al.). Other staff include Hirokazu Kojima (Shoka, More Than a Married Couple, But Not Lovers ending design and animation) as character designer and animation director and Hiroshi Takiguchi (Weathering With You) as background art director.
Source: Annecy website (via @animationbiz_jp)
