Sony Pictures Classics will release four-time Academy Award® nominee and BAFTA winner Sylvain Chomet’s (The Triplets of Belleville, The Illusionist, Paris; je t’aime, The Old Lady and the Pigeons) forthcoming English language film The Magnificent Life of Marcel Pagnol, based on the exceptional life of the legendary author Marcel Pagnol.

Based in 1955, Chomet’s film follows 60-year-old Marcel Pagnol, one of the most prolific artists of the 20th century, with 150 million books sold worldwide and translated into more than 50 languages, a well-known and acclaimed playwright and filmmaker. When the editor-in-chief of ELLE Magazine commissions a weekly column about the acclaimed playwright and filmmaker’s childhood, he sees this as a great opportunity to go back to his artistic roots: writing. Realizing his memory is failing him and deeply affected by the disappointing results of his last two plays, Pagnol starts doubting his ability to pursue his work. That is until Little Marcel – the young boy he used to be – appears to him as if by magic. Together, they will explore Marcel Pagnol’s incredible life and bring back to life his most cherished encounters and memories.  With Chomet at the helm, this animated film will take the viewer on an adventure through France, from Paris to Pagnol’s hometown of Provence, during half a century of epic history that has built our modern world.

“The Magnificent Life of Marcel Pagnol is a film about the extraordinary history of cinema and the beginning of talking movies. Pagnol is the link between film, literature and theatre. I am proud to be able to tell this extraordinary adventure, of which we are all heirs, and which Sony Pictures Classics as my partner will travel all over the world,” said Sylvain Chomet.

Two of Chomet’s previous films, The Triplets of Belleville and The Illusionist, were also distributed by Sony Pictures Classics.