Metrograph Announces Ugo Bienvenu (Arco) Season
One of the most acclaimed animated films of 2025 is French feature Arco. Ugo Bienvenu's debut film has already scooped up several Best Animated Feature Awards and scored several Annie Award nominations, including Best Feature- Independent and Best Direction. The time-bending sci-fi yarn is preparing for a US-wide release at the end of January. Ahead of that though, New York's Metrograph will be screening the film as part of a screening series.
Voyage Chromatique: Ugo Bienvenu includes a screening of Arco, as well as a program of Bienvenu's shorts. They are accompanied by a quartet of films hand-picked by Ugo as inspirations: Princess Mononoke, Casper, Last Year At Marienbad and Once Upon A Time In America. Quite the eclectic selection.
Bienvenu spent his formative years split between Chad, Guatemala, Mexico, and Paris, and went on to study at Gobelins and Calarts. His work encompasses short and feature animation, commercials, music videos and graphic novels. In 2018 he went on to found Remembers with Félix de Givry. In 2025 the studio's first feature-length film, Arco, premiered at the Cannes Festival and went on to screen at Annecy, where it won the Cristal for Best Feature. The film is expected to do very well in Awards Season, and is anticipated to pick up several nominations at the very least.
“When I was 14, I saw Princess Mononoke, and it felt like Miyazaki waved a magic wand, put me under a spell, and said, ‘You’ll do animation.’ I studied animation nonstop, started my own company in France at 23, and later founded Remembers with my partner Félix de Givry," says Bienvenu."Beyond Miyazaki, I’ve chosen three other favourites: Last Year at Marienbad, Casper, and Once Upon a Time in America. These works have shaped me artistically, influenced my sense of colour, and fed my love of complex and intuitive characters caught between worlds, memory, and time.”
Bienvenu's frequent collaborator and Arco co-writer Félix de Givry will be in attendance at select screenings for Q&As.
A selection of the director's short films will also be made available on the Metrograph At Home streaming platform from February 1. They include Dolly Zero, An Island, Maman, and Voyage chromatique. Voyage Chromatique: Ugo Bienvenu runs from January 9 to January 18, with select encore screenings to follow.
For more details and to get your tickets, see the Metrograph website here.
