Sony Pictures Classics has picked up all rights in North and Latin America, as well as for India and Southeast Asian TV, to Iron Boy, a hand-painted animated feature from French director Louis Clichy.

The film, about an 11-year-old boy growing up in rural France, had its world premiere in Cannes Un Certain Regard sidebar. It is Clichy’s first film as a solo director, after many years working as an animator for Pixar on such features as WALL-E and Up.

The film follows Christophe, an 11-year-old boy living with his strict and distant father on the family farm. Christophe has a balance problem. He tends to lean and topple over without warning. A doctor prescribes an iron corset that he needs to wear to keep himself upright. Unable to work for his father, Christophe discovers a new passion for music and life beyond the farm, in the form of a new friend. But it is not clear if the corset will really fix what is out of balance in Christophe’s life.

“Coming into Cannes, we knew the film would be well received, but its success exceeded even our expectations both in terms of sales and reviews from the international press,” said Nicolas Brigaud-Robert, Co-CEO of Playtime, who brokered the deal. “It feels only natural that Iron Boy has found a home in the U.S. with SPC. Over the years, we built a strong working relationship with Tom (Bernard), Michael (Barker), and Dylan (Leiner). They are not only exceptional distributors, admittedly among the very best in the industry, but also people of great sensitivity and taste. They will take this film very far.”

Iron Boy was co-written by Clichy and Franck Salomé. The voice cast includes Gary Clichy, Rod Paradot, Brune Moulin, Dimitri Colas, Aurélie Vassort, Alexandre Astier and Jean-Pascal Zadi, with animation by Chloë Aubert.

Céline Vanlint and Nicolas de Rosanbo produced the film for Eddy Cinéma in co-production with Fabrice Delville and Christophe Toulemonde for Beside Production, and Agathe Sofer and Alexandre Astier for Regular Production, together with France 3 Cinéma, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Cinéma and RTBF.

The deal was negotiated between Sony Pictures Classics and Playtime, on behalf of the filmmakers.