‘Little Amélie’ Gets English Language Trailer, Hits Select Theaters Tomorrow (EXCLUSIVE)

Fresh off a best feature win at Animation Is Film, Little Amélie or the Character of Rain distributor GKIDS has given us exclusive access to its English-language trailer, offering a tease of one of the year’s best animated films, sure to be a top player during this year’s awards season.

Little Amélie will open in select U.S. theaters on October 31 and nationwide on November 7

The hand-drawn film from French co-directors Maïlys Vallade and Liane-Cho Han premiered earlier this year with a special screening at Cannes before heading to Annecy, where it was one of the festival’s buzziest titles, winning the audience award. Adapted from Amélie Nothomb’s semi-autobiographical novella Métaphysique des tubes, the film follows a young Belgian girl growing up in late-1960s Japan, whose innocent belief that she has a special connection with God gradually gives way to an awakening about identity, belonging, and the limits of imagination.

The new trailer, released today, captures the film’s dreamlike rhythm, pastel skies over koi ponds, anachronistic Belgian furniture, and plenty of painterly water effects, while hinting at the bittersweet self-discovery at its core.

“I read the book when I was nineteen… I realized that it’s not just that this character believes this — all children do at this age,” Han told us in a previous interview. Vallade added that animation allowed them to “see through [Amélie’s] eyes — to picture and depict her fantasies, and how she transfigures the world in a dream-like style.”

Their approach, blending French impressionism with Japanese cinematic sensibilities, results in a visual language both intimate and expansive. The filmmakers’ decision to remove outlines from their characters, opting instead for warm, textured brushstrokes, allows Amélie’s world to glow with a hazy realism that blurs the line between childhood memory and imagination.

The English voice cast is led by Lily Gilliam as Amélie, with Francesca Calo as Nishio-san, Page Leong as Kashima-san, and Jayne Taini as Claude, the grandmother. Brent Mukai voices both Patrick, the father, and the radio announcer; alongside Jessica DiSalvo as Danièle, the mother; Avril Kagan as Juliette, Michael C. Pizzuto as the doctor; Lucille Ainsworth providing additional Amélie voices; and Rhodes Carroll as André.