Cannes Comedy 'Jim Queen' Adds Eastern Europe and Latin America Sales

The Cannes-premiered animated comedy "Jim Queen" has closed a new round of international sales following its first Asian screening at the Busan International Film Festival, with a U.S. release now slated for 2027.

Global Constellation, the sales arm of pan-European studio Vuelta, announced deals covering Central and Eastern Europe, Scandinavia, Iberia and Latin America. Prorom took the Czech and Slovak Republics, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria. HBO secured first-window pay-TV and SVOD rights across Eastern Europe. A South Korean deal is in negotiation.

The new buyers join an already long list:

• I Wonder Pictures (Italy)
• O'Brother (Benelux)
• Capelight Pictures (Germany)
• Praesens (Switzerland)
• Polyfilm (Austria)
• Elastica/Filmin (Spain)
• Lev Cinema (Israel)
• Madman (Australia and New Zealand)
• Photon Films (Canada)
• Pandora Filmes/Belas Artes Grupo (Brazil)
• Pimienta Films (Mexico)
• Creative Century (Taiwan)

Creative Century Distribution will open the film in Taiwanese cinemas on Oct. 23 — the first confirmed theatrical date among the Asian and Latin American territories.

For the United States, Global Constellation is weighing several offers. Jordan Firstman and Matteo Lane were recently announced as the English-language voices of Jim and Lucien.

What is the film actually about?

Set in Paris, "Jim Queen" follows Jim, a gym-obsessed influencer and the most desired man on the city's gay scene. His standing collapses when a virus called Heterosis begins converting gay men to heterosexuality. Abandoned by his followers and shunned by his circle, Jim keeps only Lucien, a skinny and fiercely loyal admirer, and the pair head into the Marais in search of a renegade doctor who may hold a cure.

The premise invites the label of provocation. The film's own French reception suggests something more substantial: The Jokers Pictures opened it in France on June 17, and it entered the box office chart at No. 3, behind "Toy Story 5" and "Backrooms." It has since passed 385,000 admissions and grossed more than $3 million — real numbers for a hand-drawn adult animation with a queer premise.

The Cannes premiere carried its own endorsement. Festival chief Thierry Frémaux called the screening "one of the most in the festival's history in terms of atmosphere." Verbatim, the claim is about atmosphere, not artistic merit; Frémaux said nothing about the film itself. Still, a festival chief rarely singles out an animated comedy for comment at all.

How does it play on screen?

Variety's critic Guy Lodge offered a precise calibration: "The humor and storytelling can be likened to 'South Park' in their senseless, fast-moving escalation toward absurdity, and the broadly cartoonish animation style – clean lines, popping eyes, flat expanses of color in '80s mall-decor shades of pink, lilac and spearmint – is a running reminder of just how seriously to take the whole enterprise."

Directors Nguyen and Athané, both Gobelins graduates, co-wrote the screenplay with Simon Balteaux and Brice Chevillard. Their combined credits include "The Summit of the Gods," "Ernest & Celestine," "The Big Bad Fox and Other Tales," "The Swallows of Kabul," "The Rabbi's Cat" and "The Red Turtle" — a resume built on prestige French animation rather than satire.

David Alric and Arthur Delabays produced for Paris-based adult animation studio Bobbypills, whose credits include James Gunn's DC Studios series "Creature Commandos," the Netflix-Ubisoft collaboration "Captain Laserhawk: A Blood Dragon Remix" and the Netflix titles "Crisis Jung" and "Vermin." Umedia ("The Count of Monte Cristo," "The Night of the Zoocalypse") co-produced, with backing from Eurimages, the CNC's Avance sur recettes, the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, the Charente department and the Réunion region.

Global Constellation itself is new: the company formed in 2025 by combining London's Film Constellation with Munich-based Global Screen, making "Jim Queen" one of its early tests as a sales outfit.

What does this change for the film?

The Busan sales convert a Cannes curiosity into a genuinely global release — more than twenty territories, a Taiwanese theatrical date on Oct. 23, an HBO window in Eastern Europe and a South Korean deal pending. What remains unsold is the market that matters most: the U.S. offers are still under review, and the 2027 release date leaves a long gap between buzz and box office.