In Waves
TL;DR: A French-Belgian-Vietnamese animated romance about a Los Angeles teenager and a surfer navigating love and illness. Premieres on Netflix December 11, 2026, in both French and English. 91 minutes. Based on a true story from AJ Dungo's graphic memoir.
What you're actually watching
AJ is seventeen, shy, a bit adrift in Los Angeles. He meets Kristen — a surfer, magnetic, the kind of person who makes the ocean look like home. They fall into each other the way teenagers do, through shared silences and the rhythm of the waves. Then Kristen gets sick. The film doesn't flinch from that. It stays close to the water, to the small rituals that keep them both anchored, to the friends who show up without being asked.
Adapted from AJ Dungo's autobiographical graphic memoir, this isn't a tearjerker dressed up as art. It's a grief story wearing a love story's clothes. Director Phuong Mai Nguyen's animated feature debut premiered at Cannes Critics' Week 2026 — the opening-night slot, which matters. That's where festival selectors place debuts they believe will define careers.
The runtime is tight. Ninety-one minutes. Nguyen trusts you to feel what's happening without being told. That's a rare instinct in animated features, especially ones built around romance.
The visual language: why the water matters
Here's what struck me most about In Waves — it's not the romance, it's the surfing.
The animation captures water with an almost meditative attention. Each wave rendered with the kind of care that suggests the filmmakers understood surfing as something spiritual, not just a sport. That specificity is everything. It's what separates a film like this from a dozen other animated coming-of-age stories where you could swap the setting and lose nothing.
Early festival reactions drew comparisons to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and Klaus for visual ambition. But tonally? Closer to Persepolis or The Breadwinner — animation used not to soften reality but to render it more precisely. There's a scene where AJ watches Kristen paddle out, knowing what we know by that point, and it's the kind of quiet gut-punch that stays with you for days.
The performances carry genuine vulnerability. Rio Vega's AJ in the French version isn't articulate about his own feelings (which is accurate — that's what being seventeen actually feels like). He's hesitant. A little lost. The kind of character you don't always get in animated features.
Where this film came from
In Waves is a France–Belgium–Vietnam co-production. That international pedigree — Silex Films, Panique!, Charades, France 3 Cinéma, Anonymous Content, and Gao Shan Pictures all had a hand in it — shows in the visual sensibility. It doesn't look like typical European arthouse animation. Doesn't feel like a Hollywood product either. It occupies its own space.
Phuong Mai Nguyen directed. First animated feature. She adapted Dungo's graphic memoir with evident care for its autobiographical weight — which matters because this story is real. The illness is real. The grief is real.
The film premiered as Cannes Critics' Week's opening title in 2026, then screened at Annecy, the world's preeminent animation festival. Netflix acquired it there, signaling they saw crossover appeal beyond the festival circuit. That December 11, 2026 release date is when it hits the platform globally.
Who's in it (and why casting matters here)
French version:
- Rio Vega as AJ
- Lyna Khoudri as Kristen
- Paul Kircher in a supporting role
English dub (Netflix international release):
- Will Sharpe as AJ
- Stephanie Hsu as Kristen
That's not random casting. Sharpe brought quiet precision to The White Lotus. Hsu brought emotional depth to Everything Everywhere All at Once. Netflix clearly wanted this to land with the same audience that made those titles matter. People who care about performance over spectacle.
Movie OTT tracks both versions' availability — you can check which dub is available in your region before December 11 hits.
Should you watch it?
If you came up on Persepolis. If you wept at The Breadwinner. If you think animation can do things live-action simply can't — In Waves is for you.
It's also for anyone who's loved someone through illness and felt the strange way time compresses around that experience. The way ordinary moments become sacred. How a paddle out can break your heart.
Not a film for every mood. But for the right evening, on the right day, it's exactly the kind of thing that reminds you why cinema matters.
Where to stream it
Netflix — December 11, 2026, both French original and English dub.
Check the where-to-watch widget at the top of this page for current availability in your country. Movie OTT aggregates listings across services so you're not hunting through five apps to figure out which platform has it. One place. Current info. No guessing.
FAQ
Where can I watch In Waves? Netflix, December 11, 2026. Both the original French and English dub. Use the where-to-watch tool on this page for regional availability.
Is this based on a true story? Yes. Adapted from AJ Dungo's autobiographical graphic memoir. The core story — including Kristen's illness — comes from Dungo's actual life, though it's been adapted for animation.
Who directed it? Phuong Mai Nguyen. First animated feature. The film premiered at Cannes Critics' Week 2026.
How long is it? 91 minutes. Deliberately tight. No fat.
What's it rated / is it family-friendly? The verified facts don't specify a rating, but content-wise: it deals with illness and grief, so it's geared toward older teens and adults. Not a kids' film, though not graphically intense either.
Early reviews — is it actually good? Festival reactions have been broadly positive. Specific aggregated scores hadn't been widely published at the time of writing, but trade coverage (including Netflix's own promotion) has been strong. Letterboxd discussions lean positive. Worth your time if the premise connects with you.
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Movie OTT will keep this updated as the film lands on additional platforms or regions beyond Netflix's December 11 release. Worth checking back if you're in a market where availability rolls out in waves (pun intended).
