GKIDS Acquires U.S. Distribution To ‘This Magnificent Cake!’ And ‘Funan’

“This Magnificent Cake! is like nothing I have ever seen before,” said David Jesteadt, GKIDS president. “It is a triumph of filmmaking and craftsmanship, to tell a story of such power and nuance through detailed stop-motion animation. As a critical examination of a dark legacy whose effects are still being felt today, this is a timely and provocative film that has already sparked conversations at film festivals around the globe.”

On Monday, Cartoon Brew published a video interview with the filmmakers:

GKIDS also announced rights to Denis Do’s Funan, which it will release in the U.S. sometime this spring.

Based on his own family’s story, Funan follows Chou, a young woman living in the chaos of 1975 Cambodia, amid the arrival of the brutal Khmer Rouge regime. When she and her husband are separated from their 4-year-old son during a forced exile from their home, she navigates her new reality, working in the fields day and night under the careful watch of soldiers, and surviving the small indignities and harrowing realities of the increasingly grim work camps. Throughout Chou remains determined to reunite her family – even if it means risking everything.

Funan, a co-production between Belgium, Cambodia, France, and Luxembourg, won top prizes at Annecy and the Animation is Film Festival. GKIDS has not yet released an English-language trailer, but the original French trailer is below: