The Sundance Institute announced on Wednesday that Masaaki Yuasa and Science SARU‘s Lu over the wall anime film will screen at the Sundance Film Festival, which is being held from January 18-28. The Utah festival will screen the film in its Kids section.

Sundance Institute describes the story:

Kai is a lonely teenage boy who lives in a small fishing village. One day, he meets and befriends Lu, a fun-loving mermaid whose singing is hypnotic to all who hear it. But the townspeople have always thought that mermaids bring disaster…

Yuasa directed the film and penned the film alongside Reiko Yoshida. Eunyoung Choi served as the film’s producer.

Lu over the wall opened in Japan on May 19, and won the top “Cristal for a Feature Film” award at the Annecy International Film Festival in June. The film also won the Silver Prize for the “Best Animated Feature Film” audience award at Montreal’s Fantasia International Film Festival in August.

Thanks to Daniel Zelter for the news tip.

[Via Dark Horizons]