The Dutch director and animator Michaël Dudok de Wit (Academy Award for Father and Daughter, Oscar-nominated for The Monk and the Fish), after a long gestation period, has assembled an international production team to develop his first animated feature, The Red Turtle.

The film will be presented as a work in progress at the 2015 Annecy Festival, where the director will talk about his unique style using charcoal and watercolour.

According to the official synopsis given by Arte France Cinéma (which co-produces the film), the story of the film (which has no dialogue) takes place after a shipwreck.

The castaways find shelter in a deserted tropical island populated by turtles, crabs and birds. The film will tell the major life stages of a human being

Dudok de Wit has co-written the script with screenwriter Pascale Ferran (Lady Chatterley), and is the only European co-production of Studio Ghibli, the celebrated studio behind Hayao Miyazaki's works.

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