Sightlines · reception
How In Waves was received
2026 · Phuong Mai Nguyen · In Waves on Sightlines
The arc
It arrived in May 2026 as a Cannes history-maker — the first animated film ever to open Critics' Week — rode that buzz into Annecy's main competition, and got scooped up by Netflix out of the festival. Too new for a reappraisal arc; right now it's still in its honeymoon.
What’s debated
The early split: is it a gorgeously drawn gut-punch or just a very pretty version of a story you've seen before — critics swooned over the Hockney-bright animation while some (IndieWire among them) found the tearjerker beats overly familiar.
Its footprint
It inherited the built-in following of AJ Dungo's 2019 graphic memoir — a book-club and comic-shop staple famous for making readers cry in public — and the film is already being passed around with the same warning label: bring tissues.
Where it stands
A brand-new entry in the 'animation for adults that will wreck you' shelf — the Cannes pedigree plus the Netflix release has it pegged as a future Letterboxd four-star weeper rather than a niche festival curio.
Did you know? Though it's set in California with American characters, the film was originally voiced in French (Nguyen is a Gobelins-trained French animator); Will Sharpe and Stephanie Hsu lead the English-language version.
Named by the director
- David Hockney — Nguyen said the painter was her first reference on the project — warm, colorful compositions that still speak of loneliness and sadness, exactly how she wanted to draw a sun-drenched LA around a sad story.