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2026-06-24 / industry / high

HIDARI's Keanu Reeves casting and Insectario 4-country co-production are top stop-motion headlines

Two major stop-motion announcements surfaced in the 2026 Cannes/Annecy cycle: (1) HIDARI — dwarf studios' stop-motion wooden-puppet samurai feature directed by Masashi Kawamura has confirmed Keanu Reeves as the lead voice (Jingoro Hidari); the pilot short surpassed 4.9M YouTube views and won 20+ festival awards. Selected for Annecy Animation Showcase at Cannes 2026. (2) Insectario — Sofía Carrillo's feature debut gained 'Flow' producer Matīss Kaža as co-producer/co-writer; it's now a 4-country co-production (Mexico, Spain, Canada, Latvia) with €250k Latvia NFC + Ibermedia Next + Telefilm Canada backing. Both are leading indicators for the next wave of international stop-motion features.

Films & works (2)

  • HIDARI
  • Insectario

People

Studios

  • dwarf studios
  • Pimienta Films
  • Inicia Films
  • Productions Ocho
  • Trickster Pictures

Sources

Listed so you can verify every claim. Cartoon Brew · AOI Pro

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