Animated Fantasy ‘Dandelion’s Odyssey’ Set as Closing Film of Cannes Critic’s Week

The official feature films selection of the 64th Semaine de la Critique (Critic’s Week), taking place May 14-22 in Cannes, have been announced. While live-action films dominated the long-métrage lineup, one animated breakthrough has been honored with its assignment as Closing Film of the festival. This year’s program will present 11 features (seven in competition and four special screenings), selected from 1,000 submissions.

The so-elevated title is Dandelion’s Odyssey (French title: Planètes), the first animated feature from Japanese director Momoko Seto. This adventurous ecological fable with a sci-fi twist will make its World Premiere at Critic’s Week.

Synopsis: Dendelion, Baraban, Léonto and Taraxa — four dandelion achenes that survive from a series of nuclear explosions destroying Earth — are propelled into the cosmos. After crash-landing on an unknown planet, they set out in search of soil where their species might survive. However, they must face countless obstacles: the elements, fauna, flora, the climate.

The film is a non-dialog piece in photoreal CGI produced by Miyu Productions (France) and Ecce Films (France), in co-production with Umedia (Belgium), Arte France Cinema, CNRS (France) and Reepost (France/Belgium). Seto directs, and wrote the screenplay with Alain Layrac. Production design is by Nils Dupré. Producers are Emmanuel-Alain Raynal, Pierre Baussaron and Emmanuel Chaumet.

French distribution is through Gebeka Films; Indie Sales is handling worldwide sales.

Seto (born 1980 in Japan) studied at the Lycée Français of Tokyo before attending the Fine Arts College of Marseille and Le Fresnoy National Studio of Contemporary Arts in France. She began her career making short fiction films and documentaries for the CNRS (National Centre of Scientific Research). She then delved into creating hybrid mix-genre films, such as the award-winning experimental animated shorts Planet Sigma and Planet Z, and her photoreal animated “seafood porn” shorts  including Octopus Love Affair and Prawns Orgy.

See the full list of Critic’s Week 2025 feature film selections at semainedelacritique.com. The short film selections will be announced April 17.