Michel Gondry’s Maya, Give Me a Title opens January 15

Michel Gondry’s animation Maya, Give Me a Title opens January 15 with dubbed and subtitled prints, offering a playful, family-friendly love letter to cinema.

After drawing attention at the 49th São Paulo International Film Festival, within the 2nd Mostrinha program, MAYA, GIVE ME A TITLE opens in Brazilian theaters on January 15. The new feature by Oscar-winning French filmmaker Michel Gondry, known for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, arrives in Portuguese-dubbed and subtitled versions, distributed by Filmes da Mostra.

At the Berlin International Film Festival, the animation won the Crystal Bear in the Generation sidebar. Running 62 minutes and rated for all audiences, the film leans into Gondry’s trademark inventiveness while speaking to kids and adults through a playful celebration of cinema itself.

A father-daughter collaboration

The story grows out of a collaboration between Gondry and his daughter, Maya Gondry. Living in different countries, they keep close through a nightly ritual: he asks, “Maya, give me a title,” and turns her suggestion into an animated short where she becomes the hero.

From that setup, Maya jumps through adventures that play with film genres such as action and disaster movies. Even so, the tone stays light, guided by humor and fantasy for a broad family audience.

“I had this idea that she would introduce the titles. The first time her mother filmed her with the phone camera, Maya said: ‘For the next project, we’ll have Maya and the Earthquake.’ She was three years old. We decided to keep the same concepts over time,” the filmmaker said in an interview.

Gondry also notes that animation offers creative freedom that live-action often cannot, because character and story develop at the same time. In his view, knowing Maya’s personality helped him build the narrative around her.

“When you make a feature film (live-action), you have the script with the character described. You don’t want the actor to follow the script word for word, because it will sound forced and there won’t be much transformation. But you also don’t want to change the script too much to fit the actor’s personality. So they need to meet in the middle. That doesn’t happen in animation, because you create the character at the same time as you create the story. Luckily, I have Maya, and I know what she’s like, her personality, so I created the story around her.”

Cast and reception

In the original version, Pierre Niney narrates, while Maya Gondry and Miriam Matejovsky appear as themselves. In Brazil, the dubbed cast features Camilo Schaden, Lara Alves and Milú Müller.

Since its Berlin premiere, the film has earned strong notices. The Hollywood Reporter wrote that Gondry expands his eclectic filmography with a refreshing fantasy, while Dirty Movies called it an emotional and inspiring creation likely to make both adults and children smile.

OFFICIAL TRAILER: https://vimeo.com/1142144447/9f968f7994

Service

MAYA, GIVE ME A TITLE

Release date: January 15

Country and year: France, 2024

Running time: 62 min

Rating: All audiences

Director and screenplay: Michel Gondry

Original cast: Pierre Niney, Maya Gondry and Miriam Matejovsky

Brazilian dubbed cast: Camilo Schaden, Lara Alves and Milú Müller

Producer: Georges Bermann

Cinematography: Laurent Brunet

Editing: J. Logan Alexander, Elise Fievet, Jake Schwartz

Distribution: Filmes da Mostra

Photo: Divulgação