Arco (film)

Arco
French theatrical release poster
Directed by	Ugo Bienvenu
Written by	Ugo Bienvenu Félix de Givry
Produced by	Félix de Givry Sophie Mas Natalie Portman Ugo Bienvenu
Starring	Swann Arlaud Alma Jodorowsky Margot Ringard Oldra Oscar Tresanini Vincent Macaigne Louis Garrel William Lebghil Oxmo Puccino
Edited by	Nathan Jacquard
Music by	Arnaud Toulon
Production companies	Remembers MountainA France 3 Cinéma Fit Via Vi Film Productions Sons of Rigor
Distributed by	Diaphana Distribution[1] (France) Neon (United States)
Release dates	16 May 2025 (2025-05-16) (Cannes) 22 October 2025 (2025-10-22) (France) 23 January 2026 (2026-01-23) (United States)
Running time	89 minutes[2]
Countries	France United States
Language	French
Budget	€9.5 million[3]
Box office	$4 million[4]

Arco is a 2025 animated science fantasy film co-produced and directed by Ugo Bienvenu, who co-wrote it with Félix de Givry. It stars Swann Arlaud, Alma Jodorowsky, Margot Ringard Oldra, Oscar Tresanini, Vincent Macaigne, Louis Garrel, William Lebghil, and Oxmo Puccino.

The film had its world premiere in the Special Screenings section of the 2025 Cannes Film Festival on 16 May. It was nominated for Best Animated Feature at the Critics' Choice Awards, Golden Globe Awards and Academy Awards.

It was theatrically released in France on 22 October by Diaphana Distribution. Neon gave the film a week-long awards qualifying run in the United States on 14 November, followed by a limited theatrical release in Los Angeles and New York on 23 January 2026, and a nationwide release on 30 January.

Arco, a ten-year-old boy in the year 2932, is jealous that his parents and sister can time travel while he has to wait at home, for children are not allowed to time travel until they turn twelve. In the night, he steals his sister's time traveling cape and gemstone and attempts to travel to the time of the dinosaurs by flying like his family.

In the year 2075, Iris, a ten-year-old imaginative girl, is sitting outside her school drawing when she sees a rainbow. She follows it to its end and discovers Arco has crashed. She encounters three conspiracy theorist brothers named Dougie, Stewie, and Frankie who seem to also be seeking Arco. She takes Arco back to her home, where she is looked after by a kindly robot nanny named Mikki while her parents spend their weeks in the city.

Iris and Arco attempt to get him back home by having him fly off her roof twice. He is missing the time traveling gem, which the conspiracy theorist trio stole. Mikki reports Arco to the police in a well-meaning attempt to help him reunite with his parents, not realizing that they don't exist yet. Iris and Arco escape to her school, trying to hide from the police. A massive wildfire is raging over the town, seemingly a commonplace event as all the buildings in the area have special bubbles to protect them from regular out of control weather, including torrential rainstorms earlier.

The conspiracy trio tracks Arco and Iris to the school and help them evade the police. They return the gem back to Arco and he again attempts to fly home, but this time Iris begs to come along. Arco agrees, but she is too heavy and they crash into the middle of the forest and the wildfire. Mikki finds them and saves them both, taking them to a cave to shelter from the fire.

When Iris wakes up, she sees Mikki is on the verge of breaking down, carving pictures of Iris and Arco into the cave wall. Mikki dies and Iris and Arco escape from the cave. When they reach the outside, they see lots of rainbows and it is Arco's family coming to finally rescue him. They have aged a lot and reveal that they spent their whole lives searching for him. Arco goes home with them and Iris goes back to her home as well. It is hinted that Iris becomes an architect and builds the homes of the future, as well as beginning to invent time travel.

Director Ugo Bienvenu developed the film visually based on his own sketches rather than a script. He used ten to twenty drawings as the skeleton of the film and refined it further from there. Bienvenu worked on storyboarding for three years, and Felix de Givry translated the images into a script. They self financed and hired three people to create a full length animatic which they then used to convince investors to back the film. After securing funding and thanks to the previously developed animatic they were able to complete production in a little over a year. Bienvenu worked to balance the handcrafted look with the requirements of managing a team of 130-people.^[5]

In May 2024, it was revealed that Natalie Portman, who also served as a producer on the film, had joined the cast for the English dub, which was written and directed by Bienvenu, and starring Oscar Tresanini, Margot Ringard Oldra, Alma Jodorowsky, Swann Arlaud, Vincent Macaigne, Louis Garrel, and Oxmo Puccino.^[6]

Arco had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival on 16 May 2025.^[7] A few days later, Neon acquired North American distribution rights to the film.^[8]

The film opened in the Locarno Kids section at the 78th Locarno Film Festival on 6 August 2025.^[9] The film was released in theaters across France on 22 October 2025.^[10] The film was given a week-long awards qualifying theatrical run in the United States on 14 November 2025.^[11] In December 2025, Neon announced that the film would be given a limited theatrical release in Los Angeles and New York on 23 January 2026, expanding nationwide a week later on 30 January.^[12][13]

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 92% of 71 critics' reviews are positive. The website's consensus reads: "Blending together different influences that complement each other like the colors of a rainbow, Arco soars with its clever world-building and lovable characters."^[14] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 74 out of 100, based on 20 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.^[15]

• Arco at IMDb
• Arco at Rotten Tomatoes