A New Dawn – Miyu Productions Builds a Groundbreaking Bridge Between French and Japanese Animation

Japan-France Co-Production A New Dawn Redefines Cross-Cultural Animated Collaboration, Merging Japanese 2D Hand-Drawn Art with French Stop-Motion Craft

Featured in an official report by France’s National Centre for Cinema and Moving Image (CNC), A New Dawn (French title Une aube nouvelle, Japanese title Hana Rokusho ga Akeru Hi ni) marks a landmark achievement in Franco-Japanese animation co-production. Helmed by Yoshitoshi Shinomiya, renowned background artist for Makoto Shinkai’s iconic works, the animated feature is jointly produced by France’s Miyu Productions and Japan’s Asmik Ace. Breaking the conventional model of co-financing-only partnerships, the project delivers full cross-border artistic co-creation and technical innovation, setting a new benchmark for international animated filmmaking between France and Japan.

Oter Kaoru

About the Film: A Farewell and New Beginning for a 330-Year Fireworks Workshop

Clocking in at 75 minutes, A New Dawn serves as Shinomiya’s debut full-length animated feature. Centered on the Obinata Fireworks Factory, a 330-year-old craft site facing forced confiscation and demolition, the story follows Keitaro, a young man who has lived alone in the abandoned workshop for years. He devotes himself to perfecting Shuhari, a mythical fireworks display conceived by his father before his mysterious disappearance. On the eve of the factory’s demolition deadline, Keitaro reunites with his estranged younger brother and Kaoru, his childhood friend. Bound by shared memories of loss and hometown decay, the three youths resolve to launch the legendary fireworks show, embracing closure for their past and stepping toward an unwritten new future. Blending themes of vanishing wilderness, urban redevelopment, family heritage and adolescent grief, the film boasts Shinomiya’s signature translucent, watercolor-inspired visual style. The original score is composed by Shuta Hasunuma, balancing tender melancholy and hopeful warmth throughout the narrative.

Beyond Financial Co-Production: Deep Cross-Border Artistic Co-Creation Strategy

Emmanuel-Alain Raynal, founder of Miyu Productions, identified a systemic struggle plaguing independent Japanese animators during international festival travels: Japan lacks robust public funding for auteur-driven independent animation. Most young directors exhaust all resources on their graduation film and debut feature, then abandon personal projects to join mainstream animation studios. To address this gap, Miyu Productions launched a long-term initiative to act as an artistic bridge between France and Japan, debuting the collaborative framework with the 2024 co-production Ghost Cat Anzu, which screened at Directors’ Fortnight and the Annecy International Animation Film Festival.

The partnership for A New Dawn solidified in 2023 at the Niigata International Animation Film Festival, where Miyu’s team met Fumie Takeuchi, producer at Asmik Ace. French creatives took on multi-layered creative responsibilities far beyond investment:

1. Screenplay Co-Development: The French team provided iterative creative feedback on multiple script drafts, refining narrative rhythm and visual storytelling logic;
2. Full Stop-Motion Production in France: The film contains a signature hybrid sequence combining traditional 2D animation and stop-motion, a craft the Japanese crew lacked in-house expertise to execute. The entire stop-motion pipeline was entrusted to French specialists: Victor Haegelin supervised frame-by-frame shooting, while Juliette Terreaux engineered intricate physical miniature sets. The six-month cross-border production cycle presented unique technical hurdles: 2D hand-drawn animation allows easy frame-level revisions, yet stop-motion often requires complete reshoots for minor camera errors. A bilingual animation production coordinator bridged language and technical gaps, coordinating remote virtual check-ins to align stop-motion camera movement with pre-planned Japanese 2D storyboards;
3. Expanded Visual Reference Assets: Shinomiya was so impressed with the handcrafted French miniature sets that he requested additional reference photography of the models from all angles. These physical assets were integrated into the Japanese layout and key animation workflow, extending the French team’s technical contribution from a single sequence to the entire film’s visual foundation.

Overcoming Industrial Barriers for Sustainable Long-Term Collaboration

The co-production faced significant structural obstacles: no official France-Japan animation co-production treaty exists, disqualifying the project from standard public cross-border funding. Miyu Productions covered the French investment share entirely through private financing, supported by local distributors and international sales agent Charades. Long-distance time zones, language barriers, incompatible animation production pipelines and divergent workplace cultural norms created early miscommunication and rework. However, the iterative collaboration refined a repeatable cross-border workflow, and the fusion of two distinct animation traditions enriched the film’s singular aesthetic identity.

Miyu Productions has already completed a third Japanese co-production, We Are Aliens, and is partnering once more with Asmik Ace and Fumie Takeuchi on Masaaki Yuasa’s upcoming feature Daisy’s Life, retaining the model of deep French artistic creative input. The studio is also developing serialized animation co-production frameworks to scale up consistent Franco-Japanese industrial cooperation. Production director Tanguy Olivier emphasized: “France, Japan and the U.S. form the world’s three major animation powerhouses, yet meaningful deep co-productions between France and Japan remain rare. The challenges of these cross-border projects are also their greatest reward — the cultural exchange forged throughout creation outweighs the finished film itself.”

International Accolades & Release Schedule

1. Festival Recognition: Official Competition selection, 76th Berlin International Film Festival; Winner of the Contrechamp Jury Prize, 2026 Annecy International Animation Film Festival;
2. Theatrical Releases: Nationwide Japan release on March 6, 2026; French theatrical distribution handled by ADN (Animation Digital Network) and CGR Events, official release date set for 12 August 2026;
3. Global Sales: Charades holds exclusive international sales rights, with confirmed rollouts planned for Germany, Italy, Romania and additional European territories.