Sony Pictures to Release Mamoru Hosoda’s Scarlet in December

Sony Pictures has announced that Scarlet, the new film from Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Mamoru Hosoda, is coming exclusively to movie theatres on December 12, 2025.

Hosoda is known for the short films that made up Digimon: The Movie (2000), The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (2006), and Summer Wars (2009). He was nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Animated Feature Film category at the 91st Academy Awards for his eighth film, Mirai (2018). His most recent film is Belle, which was released in 2021.

Sony Pictures is co-producing and co-financing the highly anticipated new animated film with Studio CHIZU and Nippon TV. Sony Pictures will distribute Scarlet globally, with Toho distributing the film theatrically in Japan.

The film’s producers include Yuichiro Saito (Studio CHIZU), Toshimi Tanio (Nippon TV), and Nozomu Takahashi (Studio CHIZU).

Scarlet tells the story of a brave princess who transcends time and space. Princess Scarlett, whose father was killed and whose revenge failed, wakes up in the “Land of the Dead.” In this world filled with madness, if she does not exact revenge on her nemesis and reach the “Endless Place,” she will become “nothing” and disappear.

An adventure beyond imagination. An endless battle. A fateful encounter that transcends time and space. Will Scarlett be able to find a way to live at the end of this endless journey?

“I came up with this piece around March 2022,” said Mamoru Hosoda about the Sony Pictures release. “In 2021, there was a COVID-19 pandemic, and it seemed like the world was united against the virus. However, in 2022, as it was coming to an end, wars broke out all over the world, and it felt like the world had suddenly taken a turn for the worse.

“Every day, we see on the news how what we thought was normal is crumbling. I was shocked to realize that my own life, the world I live in, and the peace we have today are all extremely fragile.”

Hosoda continued: “People all over the world are searching for answers to the question of how to live in a world that is not peaceful. I don’t know if there is an answer or not, but everyone is desperately searching for answers to how to resolve conflicts and how we can live in peace. If I were to make a film now, I thought I should make a film that confronts the earnest feelings of all those people, and that’s where the idea for ‘Endless Scarlet’ came from.

“Looking at the events happening in the world, I feel that deep resentment and desire for revenge are born one after another. If you take revenge, there will be retaliation. The chain never ends. You have to get out of that loop somewhere, but it’s not something that can be easily broken out of.

“If the protagonist in the movie is cornered in a situation where he has no choice but to take revenge, or if we were cornered, what actions should we take? Even if we know in our heads that we have to break the loop of revenge, is it emotionally possible to do so? I felt like I was confronted with a challenge. So I decided to make a ‘revenge story.'”