EXCLUSIVE: Neon has set its domestic theatrical release date for Hirokazu Koreeda’s (Shoplifters) Cannes Competition entry Sheep In The Box.
Pic will will be released on July 24, 2026 in New York and Los Angeles followed by a nationwide rollout.
Palme d’Or winner Koreeda’s latest drama, which grapples with the world of AI, sees a couple welcome a humanoid robot into their home as their son. Starring are Haruka Ayase, Daigo, and Rimu Kuwaki. It is produced by Kaoru Matsuzaki and Megumi Bans and a Gaga and Toho production.
The film’s release follows Neon’s prior collaboration with Koreeda on Broker starring Song Kang Ho (Parasite).
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The synopsis reads: “Two years after losing their son Kakeru, Otone and her husband Kensuke take into their lives a humanoid from a company that rents humanoids to bereaved families as replacements for lost loved ones. The robot looks and behaves exactly like Kakeru, with Otone embracing its arrival as Kensuke struggles to accept it. Living with “him” seems to restore the flow of time within the family, yet gradually exposes the unspoken wounds and lingering regrets each parent carries after the loss. All the while, he begins to slip away to meet other humanoid children, unnoticed by the parents.’
Deadline’s Damon Wise said the following about the film out of Cannes: “Who do the dead belong to? This strange but thoughtful question is incredibly on brand for Japan’s Hirokazu Koreeda, and he explores it in one of his purest, most dreamlike films to date. Built around three extraordinary performances, including one from first-timer Kuwaki Rumi, it’s a light yet somehow very profound study of grief that deals with death in an unusual but surprisingly cathartic way. Inevitably, family life features strongly, as it often does in Koreeda’s movies, but the fantastical elements of the plot make this more of a piece with 1998’s After Life than his recent run from Shoplifters to Monster.”
The film was one of Neon’s large contingent of Cannes titles, which also included Palme d’Or winner Fjord.