GKIDS

GKIDS is an American film and television distributor. Based in New York City, GKIDS releases mostly international animated films and television series to North American audiences, as well as American films by independent filmmakers. The name is said to be an acronym for "Guerrilla Kids International Distribution Syndicate".

In March 2024, The Boy and the Heron became the company's first theatrical release to win Best Animated Feature Film at the Academy Awards. In October 2024, it was announced GKIDS would be sold to Japanese entertainment company Toho, becoming a subsidiary of the Los Angeles-based Toho International. The deal was completed in 2025.

GKIDS was founded by Eric Beckman in 2008. He previously co-founded and ran the New York International Children's Film Festival. Their first general release was Azur & Asmar, a French film dubbed in English for British and Irish audiences.

The company attained national recognition with the 2010 release of The Secret of Kells, which received a nomination for Best Animated Feature at the 82nd Academy Awards. They also received two more Best Animated Feature nominations at the 84th Academy Awards, Spanish-language Chico and Rita and French-language A Cat in Paris. Both nominations were considered highly surprising by film insiders, beating out such notables as The Adventures of Tintin and Cars 2. This marked the first time that an independent distributor had two films in the Best Animated Feature category in the same year, a decision which Puss in Boots director Chris Miller said indicated the academy's "respect for diversity."

In September 2011, GKIDS announced the acquisition of the North American theatrical distribution rights to the Studio Ghibli library, which were previously held by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment, however, retained the home media distribution rights. GKIDS would later also managed the North American distribution of three new Studio Ghibli films: From Up on Poppy Hill in 2013, The Tale of the Princess Kaguya in 2014, and When Marnie Was There in 2015 as well as the first-time North American releases of Only Yesterday and Ocean Waves in 2016.

On July 17, 2017, it was announced that the North American home media rights to the Ghibli library (with the exception of Grave of the Fireflies and The Wind Rises) had transitioned from Disney to GKIDS, with the distributor announcing plans to begin re-issuing the films beginning in October. The Wind Rises would eventually be reissued by GKIDS on September 2020.

In 2020, partnering with TMS Entertainment, GKIDS handled the American and Canadian release of Lupin III: The First, a 3DCG film adaptation of Monkey Punch's (Kazuhiko Kato) Lupin the Third franchise.

In October 2020, GKIDS announced their license to the Neon Genesis Evangelion TV series, as well as the films Death (True)² and The End of Evangelion for a release in 2021.