France, Belgium
2026 | 91 min. | Animation

AJ, a reserved high school student in Los Angeles, spends his days drawing and skateboarding with his friends. Kristen, an energetic surfer, finds joy and freedom in the ocean. When they meet, curiosity evolves into deep love: Kristen teaches AJ to surf and shares its historical connection to Hawaiian culture. As their relationship grows closer – and through devastating events – AJ is inspired to preserve their connection by drawing their story. A coming-of-age animated drama immersed in surf culture, IN WAVES explores the excitement of young love, the thrill of discovering one’s passion, and the heartbreak of saying goodbye.

Directed by: Phuong Mai Nguyen
Written by: Fanny Burdino, Samuel Doux
Produced by: Priscilla Bertin, Judith Nora, Nick Shumaker, Hugo Deghilage, Vincent Tavier, Arnauld Boulard
Editing: Roberto Fernandez
Original Score: Oklou, ROB
Sound: Emmanuel de Boissieu, Frederic Demolder, Franco Piscopo
Visual Effects: Paul Szajner, Laure Le Sidaner, Hugo Copt-Bignon, Thomas Liao
Animation: Juliette Cousin, Alix Penon, Neil Ingle-Lai, Robby Cottard
Casting: René Veilleux
Voice Cast: Will Sharpe (AJ), Stephanie Hsu, Johnny Young (Eon / AJ's dad), Alejandro Antonio Ruiz (Francisco), Griffin Puatu (Jeff), Jacki Jing (Yvette)

Statement of the director:
When I read the book, I was hooked by the love story and the philosophy of surfing connected with the notion of grief. AJ's resilience and Kristen's courage really moved me; reading it had a quasi-therapeutic effect. Also, it's a first love and coming-of-age story where friends and family were really connected. I wanted to make a film that highlights the tenderness and the resilience in this couple and their group of friends. In spite of tragedy, I wanted the film to convey through the characters an urgency to live and to believe in the future.
I was just getting started on the project when I met AJ. He shared numerous photos and videos, which helped me get a better grasp of Kristen's presence and her personality. Later, I went to Los Angeles, and I explored the real-life locations from the story: his high school, Kristen's house, the beaches where they used to surf. I also got to meet his parents, his cousin Eon, and Jeff, Kristen's brother. I even surfed with AJ! I shared this rich material with the storyboard, character design, and animation teams, and that's where we found the expressions, the gestures, and the behaviors needed to recreate characters as true to their humanity as possible, and fully realised.
When I started drawing for the film, I was like, "Okay, I have to do something that is my own graphic style and what I really want to do." As I worked on the drawings, I realised that what I liked the most about capturing the ocean was the colour and the light; they added a sensory dimension to the image. So I decided to explore a universe that would be colourful and textured, offering my own interpretation of the waves. The story is based in California, and California has a very specific light. In the movie, you can really feel the warm sun, and the spaces where the story is taking place. Another aspect that I really like is the waves and the water. There's transparency, a type of texture that can be revealed when you draw it. Like, you can change the colours, and the water is a reflection of the sky, and also it can be a reflection of somebody's emotions. We experimented quite a bit with colourful atmospheres. At the beginning of the story, to convey this idea of first love and youth, the colours are very bright and shimmering. Then as we approach the end of Kristen's life, the light turns progressively white and the settings seem to lose their vividness. Eventually, we move towards more muted and murkier tones; the waves seem choppy, as if representing the turmoil AJ is experiencing.
That being said, I couldn't set aside the expressiveness of AJ's art, which seemed essential if I wanted to convey his point of view. As they were writing the screenplay, Fanny Burdino and Samuel Doux developed AJ's character: his strong connection to drawing, his desire to become an artist, and his need to tell his own story through his images. This approach allowed me to include AJ's drawings in the very heart of the film, the graphic novel becoming a story within the story.
When we talk about surfing, I think it's important to speak about where it comes from. While making this film, I learned that there's something very spiritual about surfing in Hawaii. There's something about surfing as a culture that helps surfers to connect to nature; a symbolic way of saying the surf and the waves represent the cycle of life and death. In that way, we can feel very connected to that whole aspect of life, and how the characters deal with the illness of a person that is something that they cannot really control. I think to surf is to confront something bigger than yourself. And a way to be humble in the face of nature and to accept events as they unfold.
I really wanted to preserve Kristen's image, and to make sure that she would be remembered as a radiant and vibrant young woman. In the photos and videos, she was always making faces, dancing, running with her prosthetic leg, and smiling widely. She gave off a luminous energy, an infectious joie de vivre, and it's that light we wanted to capture in the film. Since AJ and Kristen are of Filipino origin, I also wanted to represent the South East Asian community in the film. Hearing bits of conversation in Tagalog helps ground these characters, who come from immigrant backgrounds but are deeply rooted in American culture.
On a more symbolic level, I wanted Kristen to personify the ocean, right down to her colours and her clothing. Her character also contrasts with AJ's, who is more introverted and quiet. Kristen becomes the one who pulls him up: She teaches him to love surfing, the ocean, and, more broadly, life.

Production:
Netflix
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