Cannes Standout ‘Iron Boy’ Set For U.S. Theatrical Run After Sony Pictures Classics Pickup

Louis Clichy’s hand-painted feature Iron Boy (Le Corset) has landed at Sony Pictures Classics (SPC) following its Cannes premiere in the Un Certain Regard section, continuing a strong festival run for one of this year’s standout animated titles, which will head to Annecy next month.

The French feature centers on a young boy growing up in rural France whose body mysteriously begins to collapse inward, forcing him to wear an iron brace. Clichy previously co-directed the CG Asterix features and worked as an animator at Pixar on films including Up and WALL-E. Iron Boy marks his solo feature debut.

SPC has picked up rights for North and Latin America, as well as additional territories, including India and Southeast Asia, for television. The acquisition follows enthusiastic early reviews at Cannes that praised the film’s watercolor-inspired aesthetic and emotionally grounded storytelling.

Playtime co-CEO Nicolas Brigaud-Robert, who brokered the deal, said of the SPC deal:

Coming into Cannes, we knew the film would be well received, but its success exceeded even our expectations both in terms of sales and reviews from the international press. It feels only natural that Iron Boy has found a home in the U.S. with SPC… They are not only exceptional distributors, admittedly among the very best in the industry, but also people of great sensitivity and taste. They will take this film very far.

The deal also reinforces Sony Pictures Classics’ long-running investment in prestige international animation. The distributor previously distributed Sylvain Chomet’s A Magnificent Life, Momaru Hosoda’s Scarlet, Polish Oscar submission The Peasants, and Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal’s They Shot The Piano Player.