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
- Masashi Kawamura
- Keanu Reeves
- Sofía Carrillo
- Matīss Kaža
- Nicolás Celis
Studios
- dwarf studios
- Pimienta Films
- Inicia Films
- Productions Ocho
- Trickster Pictures
Sources
Listed so you can verify every claim. Cartoon Brew · AOI Pro