Founder Eric Beckman Website GKIDSfilms.com Founded 2008 | Products Motion pictures Headquarters New York City Type of business Privately Held | |
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Industry Film Distribution
Animation Profiles | ||
GKIDS (Guerrilla Kids International Distribution Syndicate) is an American film distributor based in New York with a focus on "sophisticated, indie" animation. GKIDS uses a "bespoke" distribution method to release critically acclaimed, hand-drawn, international films—such as the works of renowned Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki—to North American audiences.
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The company has gained prominence since 2010 by garnering a series of Academy Award nominations for little-known, "underdog" films, beating out big-budget American films such as The Lego Movie, The Peanuts Movie and Finding Dory.
History
GKIDS was founded in 2008 by Eric Beckman, who previously co-founded and ran the New York International Children's Film Festival with his partner, Emily Shapiro. Their first general release was Azur & Asmar, a French film dubbed in English for British and Irish audiences.
The company attained national recognition with the 2010 release of The Secret of Kells, the debut film by Irish animator Tomm Moore, which received a nomination for Best Animated Feature at the 82nd Academy Awards. This surprise nomination was followed by two more Best Animated Feature nominations at the 84th Academy Awards, Spanish-language Chico and Rita and French-language A Cat in Paris. Both nominations were considered highly surprising by film insiders, beating out such notables as The Adventures of Tintin and Cars 2—the first eligible Pixar film not to be nominated since the category's founding. This marked the first time that an independent distributor had two films in the Best Animated Feature category in the same year, a decision which Puss in Boots director Chris Miller said indicated the Academy's "respect for diversity."
In September 2011, GKIDS announced the acquisition of the North American theatrical distribution rights to the Studio Ghibli library, that were previously held by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment, however, retained the home media distribution rights. GKIDS has since also managed the North American distribution of three new Studio Ghibli films, From Up on Poppy Hill in 2013, The Tale of the Princess Kaguya in 2014, and When Marnie Was There in 2015.
GKIDS received three more Oscar nominations in 2014 and 2015 with Ernest & Celestine, Song of the Sea, and The Tale of the Princess Kaguya. These latter two films beat out The Lego Movie, widely considered to be the frontrunner for the award. GKIDS has since released four new films in 2015, of which When Marnie Was There and Boy and the World were in the running for Best Animated Feature at the 88th Academy Awards but lost out to Pixar's Inside Out. My Life As A Zucchini was nominated for the same award in 2016.
Style and reception
While films distributed by GKIDS span a wide range of nationalities, languages, and animation styles, the distributor focuses almost exclusively on "handmade, mostly auteur-driven animated movies" created by individual animators working with small teams. Founder Eric Beckman has described their films as counter-programming to the predominance of "expensive-to-produce, expensive-to-distribute" animated films, primarily made using CGI, embodied by Kung Fu Panda 2 or Puss in Boots. To this end, the company relies heavily on critical reception and accolades to attract audiences, rather than big-budget marketing campaigns. Beckman has said of the Academy Awards, "The Oscars are the great equalizer. You don't have to spend millions to reach millions, you look to a smaller group of people who know and like film [...] But you've got to start with something super."
As a result of this focus on artful, stylistically distinct animation, GKIDS has been widely hailed by critics and animation insiders as a welcome complement to the standard Hollywood fare. Various sources have referred to GKIDS as "the saints of independent animation," "one of the most notable independent distribution companies in the US," and "the country's best distributor [for] traditional hand-drawn animation." Industry magazine Film Journal International said of the company's track record, "The reason GKIDS films keep getting nominated despite the company's low (relative to Disney, DreamWorks, et. al.) profile is that, simply put, their films tend to be really good."
Two films in GKIDS's collection have a perfect 100% fresh rating on review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes, The Tale of Princess Kaguya with 80 positive reviews and Sita Sings the Blues with 32 positive reviews. This latter film, combining stylistic elements of Rajput painting, shadow puppets, vector graphic animation, and Squigglevision, was selected by Chicago Sun-Times reviewer Roger Ebert for his annual Ebertfest, calling it "one of the year's best films":
I was enchanted. I was swept away. I was smiling from one end of the film to the other. It is astonishingly original. It brings together four entirely separate elements and combines them into a great whimsical chord. [...] To get any film made is a miracle. To conceive of a film like this is a greater miracle.
Films distributed by GKIDS
Some GKIDS releases have been distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures for DVD and Blu-Ray. The company also tours selections of short and feature films screened at NYICFF across the country. In mid-2009, the live-action features Tahaan and West of Pluto (À l'ouest de Pluton) were licensed for potential general releases but plans for both were dropped by late 2011 in favour of a focus on animation.