Arco

Ugo Bienvenu · 2025 · 82 minutes
Nov. 8 · Regal 2 · 3:30 p.m.

What if rainbows were actually time travelers flying across the sky? On his first flight through time, Arco crash lands from the year 3000 into our near future. His fall is witnessed by a little girl, Iris, who helps him return home.

Programmer’s Note

Described by Indiewire as “France’s answer to Studio Ghibli,” Arco follows in Hayao Miyazaki’s legendary footsteps in its reverence for childhood adventure and its deep concern for the natural world, but first-time feature filmmaker Uno Bienvenu has created an imagined world very much his own. A major discovery of the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, where it was presented as a Special Screening, Arco is sure to become an awards contender after its wide American release later this fall.

Arco opens in the distant future, when humans have discovered how to travel through time via a mysterious process involving rainbows and crystals. Our ten-year-old hero, Arco, is forbidden from joining his parents and older sister on their visits to the past, as are all children below the age of twelve. When his mischeivous curiosity gets the better of him, Arco steals away in the night, leaps blindly into the sky, and soon finds himself trapped in 2075, when Earth’s remaining population is struggling to adapt to the on-going climate catastrophe.

What follows is a classic “finding our way home” story, with countless creative and unexpected flourishes. Arco meets a young girl, who joins him on his adventure, and they soon come to the attention of three men who have spent the previous two decades trying to prove the existence of rainbow travelers. Co-produced by Natalie Portman, the US release features voice performances by Portman, Will Ferrell, Andy Samberg, Mark Ruffalo, and America Ferrara.