A new animated film has entered the Oscar race.
Independent Film Company (formerly branded IFC) and Sapan Studio have acquired North American rights to “Tangles,” the hand-drawn animated feature and directorial debut of Leah Nelson, and will mount an Oscar-qualifying theatrical run before year’s end, Variety can exclusively reveal.
IFC will open the film in select theaters later this year, ahead of a wider theatrical expansion in early 2027 — planting the deeply personal drama squarely in this season’s best animated feature race.
“Tangles” had its world premiere at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival as an Official Selection Special Screening — where it drew a lengthy standing ovation — and will make its North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in Sept., where it screens as part of the Centerpiece program. The pickup extends a fertile run for IFC in animation. The distributor — whose recent slate includes the Oscar-nominated stop-motion feature “Memoir of a Snail” — has become a reliable home for the adult-driven, handcrafted films now pushing their way into a best animated feature race long dominated by the major studios.
Adapted by Nelson, Trev Renney and Sarah Leavitt from Leavitt’s acclaimed graphic memoir “Tangles: A Story About Alzheimer’s, My Mother and Me,” the film tells its story through expressive, predominantly black-and-white animation. It is a poignant and unexpectedly funny portrait of a family navigating profound change, tracing the toll of early-onset Alzheimer’s alongside the more universal bonds between parents and children, the identities we build away from home and the humor and resilience that endure as memory begins to slip.
