Cannes and Annecy Winner Eddy Cinema Backs Memory-Erasure Animation

Paris-based Eddy Cinéma, the company behind Louis Clichy's award-winning "Iron Boy," is producing "Wilderness of the Greenriver," an animated feature about a man who discovers a patient is the sister he lost. The project is pitching at the Taiwan Creative Content Fest (TCCF) in Taipei, which runs Nov. 6–9 at the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center.

Barcelona-based Hong Kong director Ellis Kayin Chan sets his story in a world where technology lets people wipe out painful memories. When Arin learns that a patient named Zia is his sister, the discovery shakes his beliefs and unlocks memories of a forgotten childhood. He must decide whether to uphold the system or embrace his own humanity.

Where does the story come from?

Chan roots the film in his own loss. The project grew from a simple conviction, he says: "Pain is not the enemy of being human – forgetting is."

He describes how he tried to erase the pain after he and his sister grew apart. "When my sister and I grew apart, I tried to erase the pain connected to her. What I didn't realize was that I was also erasing the tenderness, the care, the love that had shaped who I was," Chan says.

When he learned she had taken her own life, everything he had buried returned at once. "Pain was not what destroyed me. Pain was what proved that love had existed," he says.

Chan insists the film does not romanticize suffering. "It asks a quieter, more uncomfortable question: if we remove pain to survive, what parts of ourselves do we also erase?" he says.

Who is the filmmaker?

A Gobelins graduate (the famed Paris animation school), Chan recently worked as animation supervisor on "Lost in Starlight," Netflix's first Korean animated feature. His commercial work includes projects for Burberry and Balenciaga, and his shorts include "Monsoon Blue" and "Bluebird in the Wind."

The project already carries honors:

• A three-minute proof of concept, made with support from the Hong Kong Arts Development Council
• The top award at Taipei's Golden Horse Film Project Promotion (FPP) in 2025, with prize money funding writing and development
• Awards from Ciclic, SACD and Titra in the feature pitches at Annecy this year

What does the production timeline look like?

Chan is turning the treatment into a screenplay with writer Clément Roussier, aiming to finish the script in early 2027. Storyboard, casting and editing should wrap by early 2028, animation will run from 2028 into 2029, and a theatrical release is planned for 2030.

Eddy Cinéma produces, with founding member Nicolas de Rosanbo serving as executive producer. The company co-produced Clichy's "Iron Boy," which won a Special Jury Prize in Cannes' Un Certain Regard section and both the jury and audience awards at Annecy this year. It has worked with Chan since he left Gobelins.

"We have long admired the strong direction, delicate artwork and poetic writing which characterize Ellis's work, and are delighted to collaborate with him on his first feature," the producers say.

They position the film as a hopeful story about family and the ethics of technology, aimed at both family audiences and arthouse viewers. "We believe the film will have a strong market potential in Europe and Asia," they say.

In Taipei, the team is hunting for co-production partners in Asia, animation studios, and distributors and sales companies — deals struck at TCCF this week will shape whether the 2030 release date holds.