News

French comedy-drama The Musicians has landed its first sale in Asia after opening Unifrance’s Rendez-Vous market showcase in January.

Paris-based sales agent Pyramide International has sold Gregory Magne’s upcoming feature to Swallow Wings in Taiwan and is at Filmart in Hong Kong to hold talks with further buyers from across Asia this week.

The film centres on a wealthy woman who brings together four Stradivarius for a unique concert but the egos of the virtuoso musicians make it seem impossible the event will ever happen.

The cast is led by filmmaker and actress Valerie Donzelli, whose Marguerite & Julien screened in Competition at Cannes,...

Pyramide Films has taken on global sales rights for Cagla Zencirci and Guillaume Giovanetti’s Confidante ahead of the film’s world premiere at Berlin Film Festival in the Panorama section.

It is the Turkish-French directing duo’s fourth feature and first since 2018 Locarno prize-winnerSibel. Set in Ankara in 1999, Confidante follows Arzu, a woman working for an erotic call centre. When an earthquake hits Istanbul, a client calls her back begging her to rescue him from the rubble.

It is produced by the filmmakers’ Turkey-based production company ii Films, France’s Les Films du Tambour and 3B Productions, and Luxembourg’s Bidibul Productions.

On the heels of a 2024 box office which saw French movies clinching a near record market share, the Gallic film and TV promotion org Unifrance is expanding its Rendez-Vous With French Cinema, a mini-market gathering local sales agents and 500 international buyers from roughly 40 countries.

The 27th edition of the Paris Rendez-Vous, which is dedicated to French films and TV content, is taking place this year in a new location, at the Pullman Paris Montparnasse, boasting panoramic views of the city of lights. The new space will allow French film and TV companies to be set up in a single location and spark dealmaking activity.

“Three years after our merger with TV France International, it’s great to see everyone under the same banner and in a unique location. It creates a vibrant atmosphere,” says Unifrance’s managing director Daniela Elstner, who previously led the Paris-based sales company Doc & Film International before joining the org.

The Cineuropa folks have unveiled the latest round of Cnc’s advance on receipts projects (eleven in total) and at the top of the list we find the likes of Élie Wajeman, Valérie Donzelli and sophomore features by the next wave of talents in Vincent Le Port and Anaïs Volpé.

Wajeman has been a Cannes regular with all three of his film projects hitting Cannes, he will next work on Le joueur which was co-written with actor Vincent Sornaga. Donzelli, who last premiered Just the Two of Us (2023) in the Cannes Premiere section will once again tackle a book to film project – this time she teamed up with Gilles Marchand for À pied d’œuvre (translates to At Work).…...

French film companies Rectangle Productions and Goodfellas have completed their merger, the two companies unveiled on Friday.

Rectangle, the production house behind San Sebastian opener Emmanuelle and 2021 Venice festival winner Happening, and Vincent Maraval’s Goodfellas, who have handled international sales on such features as Hayao Miyazaki’s Oscar-winning The Boy and The Heron, and Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis, finalized their merger on November 4, 2024. The companies have been collaborating for years, with Goodfellas handling sales on Rectangle productions including Emmanuelle, Valerie Donzelli’s Cannes 2023 film Just the Two of Us, and Charlene Favier’s Oxana, among others.

The merger, the companies said, was “carried out in the interests of all stakeholders” and marked “an important milestone for these long-standing partners.”

Rectangle Productions, under Alice Girard and Edouard Weil, said it will retain its brand, creative independence, attached talent, and all ongoing projects. In a statement, the company said it...

French film companies and long-time collaborators Goodfellas and Rectangle Productions have finalized a merger, which has been in the works since the summer.

The partners said in a statement on Friday that the deal marked “an important milestone” for both parties and “had been carried out in the interests of all stakeholders.”

The merger follows news over the summer, first reported by French trade paper Le Film Français, that Rectangle Productions was in financial difficulty and had filed for judicial reorganisation to keep its activities ticking over while it restructured.

Co-founded in 2003 by Édouard Weil, who was joined in 2012 by Alice Girard, Rectangle Productions has produced 60 films and TV series, including Audrey Diwan’s Golden Lion winner The Happening and her follow-up film Emmanuelle.

The weak performance of the latter film at the French box office has reportedly not helped the company’s financial situation.

Under the deal, Rectangle Productions will retain its brand,...

French sales outfit Ginger & Fed has boarded Fabien Gorgeart’s comedy drama What Is Love? (C’est Quoi l’Amour?) starring Laure Calamy and Vincent Macaigne as a long-divorced couple attempting to annul their Catholic marriage at the Vatican.

Ginger & Fed, the theatrical sales arm of French group Federation run by Sabine Chemaly, will kick off sales for the film at the American Film Market.

Lyes Salem, Melanie Thierry, Celeste Brunnquell and Saül Benchetrit round out the cast of the feature, which is shooting now and produced by Petit Film and Deuxième Lign.

Described by Chemaly as“a comedy...

Exclusive: Daniel Auteuil, Virginie Efira, Mathieu Amalric, Vincent Lacoste and Luana Bajrami have been unveiled as supporting cast members in Rebecca Zlotowski’s murder mystery movie Vie Privée starring Jodie Foster.

The production has also unveiled the plotline for the film which follows renowned psychiatrist Lilian Steiner, played by previously-announced Foster, who mounts her own private investigation into the death of one of her patients, whom she is convinced has been murdered.

The supporting cast news and plot reveal comes as filming – running from September 30 to November 22 between Paris and Normandy – enters its third week.

The feature is Zlotowski’s sixth film after 2023 Venice Golden Lion contender Other People’s Children, An Easy Girl, Planetarium, Grand Central and Dear Prudence.

Zlotowski co-wrote the screenplay with Anne Berest, whose credits include Audrey Diwan’s Venice Golden Lion winner Happening and Other People’s Children, as well as long-time collaborator Gaëlle Macé.

The film...

Exclusive: Homecoming and The Beach star Virginie Ledoyen has boarded Channel 5 series The Au Pair opposite David Suchet.

The Cesar-nominated French actress will play a whistleblower in the thriller, whose pivotal role kicks off in the opening scene and spans the rest of the show.

From Pernel Media and MK1 Studios, The Au Pair follows Zoe Dalton (Sally Bretton), who seems to have it all, including successful husband Chris (Kenny Doughty). When she hires an au pair, Sandrine (Ludmilla Makowski), the beguiling young French woman triggers an unsettling shift in the household as instincts and suspicions arise, hinting at hidden agendas.

The show for the Paramount UK network is Poirot icon Suchet’s first TV role for six years and he plays George, Zoe’s diabetic father who moves next door.

Having been Cesar-nominated for 1995’s A Single Girl, Ledoyen achieved international fame opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in The Beach,...

Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.

The Dead Don’t Hurt (Viggo Mortensen)

Though The Dead Don’t Hurt gradually becomes Vivienne’s story as Holger disappears to fight, his presence still defines the film in strange ways. While Mortensen certainly looks younger than 65 and I’m not one of those people who busts out a calculator to determine what is or isn’t an appropriate age-gap relationship, Mortensen casting himself opposite Krieps in the romantic (even action hero) lead role he’s clearly too old for (beyond maybe financing requirements) reeks of ego. Maybe this wouldn’t matter as much if he dramatized these proceedings in a way more compelling than just its interesting conceptual ideas of immigrants in the west going through the passage of time together.

Audrey Diwan is following up her Golden Lion win for “Happening” with an adaptation of Emmanuelle Arsan’s novel “Emmanuelle.”

The sensual thriller centers on a titular woman (Noémie Merlant) whose business trip to Hong Kong awakens an insatiability inside of her. Naomi Watts, Will Sharpe, “Stranger Things” breakout Jamie Campbell Bower, Anthony Wong, and Chacha Huang also co-star.

An official synopsis for the film reads: Emmanuelle is in search of a lost pleasure. She flies alone to Hong Kong, for a business trip. In this sensual world city, she multiplies experiences and meets Kei, a man who never ceases to elude her. Diwan’s film, freely adapted from Arsan’s novel, casts a female gaze on the intimate quest of the woman whose name still evokes one cinema’s most provocative characters.

“Emmanuelle” will open the San Sebastián Film Festival on September 20. The feature is distributed by Pathé.

Chantelouve,...

Break out the tissues. Today, Pathé released the official French trailer and poster for French writer/director Audrey Diwan’s (Happening) upcoming film, Emmanuelle, which will have its World Premiere as the Opening Night film, In Competition, at the San Sebastián Film Festival on the September 20.

The synopsis reads,

“Emmanuelle (Merlant) is in search of a lost pleasure. She flies alone to Hong Kong on a business trip. In this sensual global city, where she initiates numerous encounters, she meets Kei, a man who constantly eludes her.”

Audrey Diwan’s film, freely adapted from Emmanuelle Arsan’s novel, casts a female gaze on the intimate quest of the woman whose name still evokes one cinema’s most provocative characters. The film stars actor-director Noémie Merlant, Naomi Watts (Mulholland Drive), Will Sharpe (The White Lotus), Jamie Campbell Bower (Stranger Things), Chacha Huang, and Anthony Wong (Internal Affairs). Chantelouve, Rectangle Productions and Goodfellas produced the film.

Leading French production company Rectangle Productions, whose credits include Audrey Diwan’s Golden Lion-winning The Happening and upcoming San Sebastian opener Emmanuelle, has started legal proceedings to enter into a potential partnership with finance and sales company Goodfellas, in the latest evidence of consolidation in the European production sector.

Rectangle said the aim of the legal initiative is “to preserve the integrity of the Rectangle brand and its production savoir-faire, while resolving its current financial difficulties, notably linked to the Covid impact”.

Company founder Edouard Weil told Screen the measures are “technical” as the company continues “advanced discussions” with Goodfellas.

When Blanche (Virginie Efira) and Gregoire (Melvil Poupaud) serendipitously meet at a summer house party, they fall into the kind of seemingly perfect love that you’d never believe was possible unless you had experienced it yourself. She’s a French literature teacher who has grown tired of waiting for her soulmate to arrive, and he’s the tall, handsome stranger who just so happens to be ready to discuss Camus and Molière for hours on end. They laugh at the same jokes, have earth-shattering sex, and create the kind of shared language that forms when a couple shares their most intimate experiences. It isn’t long before a summer of love leads to an engagement ring and a baby on the way.

The elegance with which “Just the Two of Us” director Valérie Donzelli shoots their whirlwind romance only makes it more jarring when, 20 minutes into the film, we...

A seemingly blissful union rapidly crumbles in Valérie Donzelli’s Just the Two of Us, a domestic abuse-drama presented as a harrowing-if-simplified psychological thriller from which escape seems near-hopeless. It’s impossible for Virginie Efira and Melvil Poupaud to give a bad performance; this drama certainly doesn’t break the streak. Yet Donzelli and Audrey Diwan’s black-and-white, overworked script is missing the kind of nuance each lead exudes in their physicality as they navigate a suffocating relationship where the smallest action or word can unleash a monster.

As one might expect, the monster in this case is Grégoire (Poupaud), a suave charmer who first romances Rose at a party. Blinded by love, she excuses some warning signs: Grégoire leaving with no explanation after their first night together and a dig at his general distaste for bangs when she sports them. After an unexpected pregnancy, the two get married and jet off to the countryside,...

The romantic thriller, “Just The Two Of Us”, directed by Valerie Donzelli, stars Virginie Efira and Melvil Poupaud, opening June 14, 2024 in a limited theatrical release:

“…when ‘Blanche’ (Efira) meets ‘Gregoire’ (Poupaud) at a party her twin sister ‘Rose’ drags her to, she thinks she has found ‘the one’.

“The ties that bind them grow quickly, and a passionate affair ensues. Rose has serious reservations about Gregoire, but against her better judgment, they decide to marry and move in together…”

Click the images to enlarge…...

Music Box Films has bought domestic rights to “In the Summers,” a coming-of-age tale from writer-director Alessandra Lacorazza Samudio which won Sundance’s grand jury prize and directing award in the U.S. dramatic competition.

A directorial debut, “In the Summers” tells the story of two daughters navigating a turbulent but loving father during yearly visits to his home in Las Cruces, New Mexico. The Latin-American family portrait is headlined by Grammy Award-winning Puerto Rican rapper, songwriter, and actor René Pérez Joglar (known in the music industry as Residente), who plays the divorced father, while the two siblings, Violeta and Eva, are played at different ages by several rising actors, including Sasha Calle (“The Flash”) and Lío Mehiel (“Mutt”). The cast is completed by Leslie Grace (“In the Heights”) and Emma Ramos (“New Amsterdam”).

The critically lauded movie will have its New York premiere in June at the Tribeca Film Festival,...

Mallory Wanecque, the breakout actor of “The Worst Ones” who headlines Cannes competition title “Beating Hearts,” is starring alongside Sami Bouajila (“Through the Fire”) in “Vultures,” a thriller directed by Peter Dourountzis (“Rascal”).

Produced by Mediawan-owned 24-25 Films (“Black Box”), “Vultures” is represented internationally by Ginger & Fed, the new international film sales arm of Federation Studios headed by former TF1 Studio boss Sabine Chemaly. The cast is completed by Sami Bouajila (“Through the Fire”), Jean-Pierre Darroussin (“All Your Faces”), Pierre Lottin (“The Night of the 12th”) and Valerie Donzelli (“Declaration of War”).

“Vultures” will be delivered during the second quarter of 2025. Bouajila stars as Samuel, a journalist who partners with his intern daughter Ava to cover the brutal murder of a young girl that lead them to a male supremacist group headed by the enigmatic Nemesis. The movie marks Dourountzis’ follow-up to “Rascal,” an edgy film starring Pierre Deladonchamps as an outsider-turned-killer.

As VIP visitors walk into the Dior Suite at the Majestic Hotel, they are met with images of the sun and a large lion sculpture made of shells in the lobby. Overlooking the Palais and its magnificent red carpet where the energy is electric this year — such as at the Furiosa world premiere, which received a seven-minute standing ovation — Dior’s beauty suite will be doing makeup for celebrities throughout the festival, getting them glammed up for their daytime photo calls and nighttime premieres.

Natalie Portman, Charlize Theron, Johnny Depp, Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson (the face of the Dior Homme fragrance) have all visited the suite in past years. For the opening ceremony on May 14, Belgian actress Emilie Dequenne, French actress and comedian Camille Cottin and French actress Valerie Donzelli were all made up by Dior.

The marriage of fashion and film, especially at festivals like these, is symbiotic.

French writer-director Sophie Fillières, who tragically died last year from cancer at the age of 58, was no stranger to depicting manic situations on screen.

Her genre of choice was comedy, and in films like Gentille (2005), Pardon My French (2009) and When Margaux Meets Margaux (2018), she used the prism of humor to portray women going through major personal crises, whether involving their turbulent love lives or the excorcism of their own inner demons. Fillières’ chatty, messy, offbeat movies played like darker Parisian takes on the films of Woody Allen, and they would inspire a generation of younger female auteurs like Justine Triet, whose Oscar-winning Anatomy of a Fall Fillières played a small role in.

A major personal crisis is what guides the director’s final feature, This Life of Mine (Ma Vie Ma Gueule), which stars Agnès Jaoui as a writer combatting her mental illness with plenty of wit and a fair amount of gravitas.

Agnès Jaoui in This Life Of Mine to be screened as the opening film in the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight Photo: The Party Film Sales Sophie Fillières who died last year at the age of 58, left behind a 'very intimate self-portrait, to which Agnès Jaoui lends body and soul' Photo: Photo Unifrance A respected French female filmmaker who died last year, will have her final film This Life of Mine screened in the opening slot on May 15 of the 77th edition of the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight.

Sophie Fillières managed to shoot the film last summer before her untimely death at the age of 58. The film titled in French Ma Vie, Ma Gueule, was finished by members of her family who include her partner, the filmmaker Pascal Bonitzer.

The film follows a middle-aged woman who travels to the Scottish Highlands to escape the harsh realities of her life and stars Agnès Jaoui,...

The 77th edition of Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight will kick off with “This Life of Mine,” a dramedy directed by Sophie Fillières, a renowned French filmmaker who died last year. Presented posthumously, the film is headlined by French stars including Agnès Jaoui, Philippe Katerine and Valérie Donzelli. The independent selection, which has recently gone through a rebranding and is now spearheaded by artistic director Julien Rejl, will close with another French film, Jean-Christophe Meurisse’s “Plastic Guns,” an offbeat crime comedy headlined by popular actor Jonathan Cohen.

The lineup includes as many as four U.S. features, three of which are feature debuts, including India Donaldson’s coming-of-age film”Good One” which premiered at Sundance and garnered solid reviews. Set in upstate New York, “Good One” follows 17-year-old Sam as she joins her father and his oldest friend, Matt, on their annual backpacking trip in the Catskill Mountains. “Good One” has...

Directors’ Fortnight has unveiled the selection for its 56th edition heavy on films from first-time US filmmakers, South American titles, and talent including Isabelle Huppert, Michael Cera and Agnès Jaoui.

Artistic director Julien Rejl revealed the line-up at a press conference in Paris on Tuesday (April 16) for the Cannes parallel section run by French directors guild the Srf.

Scroll down for the full selection

After undergoing a complete rebranding for last year’s edition complete with new artistic director Rejl and a new more inclusive female-forward name in French to La Quinzaine des Cinéastes, this year’s selection includes eight...

Richard Linklater’s Nouvelle Vague, which reconstructs the genesis and filming of Breathless by Jean-Luc Godard, is among the recipients of the first round of Cnc’s ‘avance sur recettes’ (advance on receipts) grants of 2024.

The film, the first entirely in French from US director Linklater, is now in production in Paris. It is being produced by Paris-based Arp Productions and stars Zooey Deutsch as American Breathless star Jean Seberg.

Vince Palmo, Holly Gent, Michèle Halberstadt, and Laetitia Masson join Linklater as co-writers.

The Cnc’s refundable grant is broken into three categories. Asr 1 gives funds to directors’ first films,...

Anatomy Of A Fall was named best French film of the year at the 49th annual César awards, among six prizes for Justine Triet’s film during an evening dominated by female solidarity that saw actress Judith Godrèche set the tone with a #MeToo-motivated speech.

Scroll down for full list of winners

Anatomy Of A Fall also earned prizes for best director for Triet, best actress for Sandra Hüller, best original screenplay for Triet and Arthur Harari, best supporting actor for Swann Arlaud and best editing for Laurent Senechal.

Triet’s best director prize made her the first female filmmaker...

The César Awards are always the biggest night of the year for French cinema, but the massive award season impact of “Anatomy of a Fall” ensured that this year’s event took on additional importance for Oscar watchers around the globe. When the 49th César Awards took place in Paris on Friday night, all eyes were on Justine Triet and her Palme d’Or-winning film.

Predictably, “Anatomy of a Fall” swept many of the night’s biggest categories. In addition to winning the top prize of Best Film, Triet was honored with Best Director and shared Best Screenplay with her partner Arthur Harari. Stars Sandra Hüller and Swann Arlaud also won Best Actress and Best Supporting Actor, respectively.

The night’s other big winner was Thomas Cailley’s “The Animal Kingdom,” which won awards for Cinematography, Visual Effects, Costume Design, and Sound.

Keep reading for a complete list of winners from the 2024 César Awards.

The 49th Cesar Awards, France’s top film honors, have been handed out in Paris, with Justine Triet‘s Oscar contender Anatomy of a Fall emerging as the big winner.

The French courtroom drama — which is competing at the Oscars in five categories — earned the best film prize, best actress for Sandra Hüller, best director for Triet, best original screenplay shared between Triet and co-writer Arthur Harari, and Swann Arlaud took home the best supporting actor trophy.

Hüller won in the best actress category over Oscar winner Marion Cotillard, nominated for Little Girl Blue; Lea Drucker, up for Last Summer; Hafsia Herzi, nominated for The Rapture; and Belgian actress Virginie Efira, nominated for her work in Just the Two of Us.

The other big winner on the night was The Animal Kingdom, French director Thomas Cailley’s follow-up to 2014’s Love at First Fight. Cailley picked up the best cinematography...

Justine Triet became the second female filmmaker in the Cesar Award’s 49-year history to win the best director trophy for “Anatomy of a Fall,” which also won best film, original screenplay, actress for Sandra Huller, supporting actor for Swann Arlaud and editing at the French film industry’s big night. Thomas Cailley’s supernatural drama “The Animal Kingdom” also dominated the race, picking up a raft of prizes, including cinematography, costumes, visual effects and music. The ceremony unfolded at the Olympia Theater in Paris on Friday evening and aired lived on Canal+.

Triet’s movie, which is vying for five Oscars, stars Hüller as a novelist who is put on trial following the mysterious death of her husband at their remote chalet. The movie is produced by Marie-Ange Luciani at Les Films de Pierre and David Thion at Les Films Pelleas.

Triet dedicated her best film award to all women,...

Unifrance and Film at Lincoln Center have unveiled the lineup for the 29th Rendez-Vous with French Cinema, a festival celebrating contemporary French film running from Feb. 29-March 10.

Thomas Cailley’s “The Animal Kingdom” will screen as the 2024 Opening Night Selection in its New York premiere. The film, which was nominated for 12 Cesar Awards, tells the story of an infection that mutates humans into animal hybrids.

“It is a great honor to open this year’s edition with the French critical and box-office hit ‘The Animal Kingdom’ with director Thomas Cailley in attendance,” said Daniela Elstner, executive director of Unifrance.

Elstner continued, “This remarkable film along with this year’s selection is a great example of the vitality and diversity of French cinema today. A mix of new and established filmmakers together with the stellar presence of actress Marion Cotillard indeed make for a rich 29th edition of this year’s Rendez-Vous With French Cinema.

Thomas Cailley’s sci-fi thriller The Animal Kingdom and Justin Triet’s Oscar-nominated courtroom drama Anatomy Of A Fall rose to the top of the nominations at France’s Cesar awards.

The Animal Kingdom, a supernatural twist on a father-son drama that first premiered at Cannes’ Un Certain Regard, has been nominated for 12 awards including best film and will vie in that category against the five-time Academy-award nominated, Palme d’Or-winning Anatomy Of A Fall with 11 nominations, alongside Cédric Kahn’s The Goldman Case, Jeanne Herry’s All Your Faces and Jean-Baptiste Durand’s Junkyard Dogs.

Cailley, Triet, Kahn and...

Justine Triet’s Oscar-nominated Anatomy of a Fall and Thomas Cailley’s fantasy drama The Animal Kingdom are the front runners for this year’s Cesar Awards, France’s equivalent to the Academy Awards. In nominations announced Wednesday, Anatomy picked up 11 Cesar noms and The Animal Kingdom 12. Both were nominated in the best film and best director categories.

Also nominated for best film are Jean-Baptiste Durand’s Junkyard Dog, All Your Faces from director Jeanne Herry and Cédric Kahn’s The Goldman Case.

France’s official Academy Award contender, Anh Hung Tran’s foodie period drama The Taste of Things, which missed out on an Oscar nom on Tuesday, picked up three Ceasar nominations, but none in the main categories.

German actress Sandra Hüller, a best actress nominee at this year’s Oscars for her starring turn in Anatomy of a Fall, is also up for the Cesar for best actress,...

Thomas Cailley’s fantasy drama The Animal Kingdom topped the nominations for France’s César Awards, which were announced in Paris on Wednesday.

The drama picked up 12 nominations with Justine Triet’s Oscar hopeful Anatomy Of A Fall coming in second with 11 nominations, followed by Jeanne Herry’s All Your Faces, which nine, and The Goldman Case, with eight.

Set in a world where human beings start transmuting into animals, The Animal Kingdom world premiered as the opening film of Cannes Un Certain Regard in 2023 and went on to make $8.5M at the box office last fall.

The Animal Kingdom and Anatomy of a Fall are competing in eight categories spanning Best Film, Director, Original Screenplay, Male Revelation, Editing, Sound, Cinematography and Production Design.

The high nomination count for Herry’s ensemble drama All Your Faces was thanks to the fact it dominated the Supporting Actress category with separate nominations for cast members Leila Bekhti,...

Thomas Cailley’s supernatural drama “The Animal Kingdom” and Justine Triet’s Palme d’Or winner “Anatomy of a Fall” are leading the race at the 49th Cesar Awards with 12 and 11 nominations, respectively.

Triet’s movie, which just garnered an impressive five Oscar nominations, and “The Animal Kingdom,” which opened at Cannes’ Un Certain Regard and won a prize, will vie for top Cesar awards including best director and film.

“The Animal Kingdom” is an ambitious film that marks a departure from France’s cinema tradition of social realism. It’s both a creature-filled dystopia and a father-and-son drama, weaving some contemporary concerns over the future of mankind. It’s produced by Pierre Guyard at Nord Ouest Films and co-produced by Artemis.

“Anatomy of a Fall,” meanwhile stars Sandra Hüller — the German actor nominated for Cesar, Oscar and BAFTA awards — as a novelist who is put on trial following the...

Actor and filmmaker Valérie Donzelli will reteam with her “Just the Two of Us” co-writer Audrey Diwan – a Golden Lion winner with “Happening” – to pen “The Infinite Present Ends,” a literary adaption that Donzelli is slated to direct.

Based on a fictionalized 2015 memoir from psychiatric nurse Mary Dorsan, the text embeds within a teenage psychiatric ward over the course of a year, teasing out the complex bonds, challenges, frustrations and unexpected moments of grace shared between patients and caregivers. Though unflinching in its evocations of violence, the project’s central theme is that of sentimental education, per Donzelli.

“These social workers must find ways to love these children that are not their own,” Donzelli tells Variety. “They must find the right and constructive outlets for that love, so we want to explore this idea of education within the various forms of affection we give.”

Produced by Rectangle Productions, the project...

A week after being appointed culture minister and slammed by an avalanche of criticism, famed politician Rachida Dati has officially entered the ring.

Dati went off-script and delivered an unfiltered speech — starting with “I’m not asking you to love me, what I want is to convince you” — to a room full of film and TV players on Thursday evening during a ceremony honoring actor Melvil Poupaud, who received the French Cinema Award.

While on stage, Dati said she will strive to democratize culture during her tenure.

“Culture in schools and civic sense go hand-in-hand. When you look at schools in certain areas which are ridden with problems, you’ll notice that it’s often places where culture has taken a backseat,” she said. Dati also spoke about her own relationship with culture, admitting she saw a movie in a cinema for the first time at the age of 21 but...

Flanked on either side by members of the country’s political and cultural elite, actor Melvil Poupaud claimed the French Cinema Award at a ceremony held at France’s Ministry of Culture on Thursday.

Awarded by publicly-funded film promotional organization Unifrance, the French Cinema prize is meant to honor those filmmakers, actors and producers that have helped Gallic cinema resonate on the global stage. Previous winners include Virginie Efira, Juliette Binoche, and Olivier Assayas.

Reflecting on his four decades in front of the lens – a winding path that kicked off at age 10 with a key role in Raúl Ruiz’s 1983 fantasy “City of Pirates,” and has since paired the star with local auteurs Justine Triet, Arnaud Desplechin, and Francois Ozon, as well global standouts like James Ivory, Xavier Dolan and the Wachowskis – Poupaud spoke in earnest and self-effacing terms about his winding career.

“Right from the start, I thought that...

Paris-based sales company is kicking off sales for the projects at Unifrance’s Rendez-Vous in Paris this week

Paris-based sales company The Party has added an eclectic blend of new titles to its 2024 line-up including Sophie Fillières’ posthumous This Life of Mine, Oscar nominated Four Daughters director Kaouther Ben Hania’s next film and a Franco-Vietnamese musical comedy.

The Party is kicking off sales at Unifrance’s Rendez-Vous in Paris this week for Fillières’ seventh feature, the comedy drama This Life Of Mine.

Fillières died in July 2023, at age 58, shortly after completing filming - sending shockwaves through the French film industry.

For all its many, many faults, 2023 was a banner year for international films. The awards season buzz for global gems like Justine Triet’s French courtroom thriller Anatomy of a Fall (released by Neon stateside), Jonathan Glazer’s German-language Holocaust drama Zone of Interest (A24), Hayao Miyazaki’s Japanese anime The Boy and the Heron (GKids), and J.A. Bayona’s Spanish-language real-life survival tale Society of the Snow (Netflix) only scratches the surface.

Among the many many other foreign highlights from last year are Mubi’s Fallen Leaves and How to Have Sex — the first a laconic triumph by Finnish film master Aki Kaurismäki, the latter a stunning debut by Brit first-timer Molly Manning Walker — Sony Pictures Classics’ The Teachers’ Lounge, a German school drama from director Ilker Çatak and Iranian drama Shayda from director Noora Niasari; Agnieszka Holland’s harrowing The Green Border, about Poland’s treatment of would-be...

Melvil Poupaud, an actor in Francois Ozon’s “By the Grace of God” and Maiwenn’s “Jeanne du Barry,” will receive the French Cinema Award from Unifrance, the French promotion organization.

The ceremony will be held on Jan. 18 at the Culture Ministry during the Rendez-Vous With French Cinema market. The French Cinema Award was created in 2016 to honor actors, filmmakers and producers who have contributed to making French cinema shine abroad. Past recipients include actor Juliette Binoche, director Olivier Assayas and producers Aton Soumache and Dimitri Rassam, among others.

Poupaud started his career as a child actor in the 1980 and has worked with auteurs such as Raoul Ruiz, Eric Rohmer, James Ivory and Ozon, with whom he has made four movies. His latest film directed by Ozon, “By the Grace of God,” won the Silver Bear in Berlin and earned him a Cesar nomination for best actor. He also worked with several well-established female directors,...

Noémie Merlant plays the titular role in the erotic drama based on a script co-written by Diwan and Rebecca Zlotowski.

Naomi Watts and Will Sharpe have rounded out the cast of Audrey Diwan’s English-language feature Emmanuelle that has just wrapped production in Paris. Pathé will release the film in France and France Télévisions has pre-bought the film for local TV broadcast.

Emmanuelle is Diwan’s first English-language feature from Venice Golden Lion-winning Happening director Diwan also features Jamie Campbell Bower, Chacha Huang and Anthony Wong in supporting roles. Shooting started in October and took place in Hong Kong and Paris.

Like writers penning their memoirs, making movies about making movies is a rite of passage for many a director. Fellini famously did it with 8 ½, Truffaut with Day for Night, Godard with Contempt and Fassbinder with Beware of a Holy Whore. More recently, Tarantino gave us Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Spielberg The Fabelmans, Michel Hazavanicius made Final Cut and Damien Chazelle, Babylon.

Almost all behind-the-scenes movies share the same theme: Filmmaking is tough, high-stress work that weighs heavily on everyone involved, especially the directors themselves. That’s certainly one of the main takeaways from Cédric Kahn’s very French variation on the subject, Making Of, which premiered out of competition in Venice.

Kahn is both an actor (he played the douchey Gallic lover in Pawel Pawikowski’s Cold War) and talented director, with a series of strong features under his belt that include hard-hitting thrillers like L’Ennui,...

§tElise Girard directs her third film about a woman mourning her husband in Kyoto while on her book tour.

Indie Sales has unveiled the new trailer for Elise Girard’s romantic drama Sidonie In Japan starring Isabelle Huppert and has signed deals in Germany, Switzerland and Italy ahead of the film’s premiere at Giornate degli Autori in Venice.

Out of the Box will release the film in Switzerland and Majestic Filmverleih is handling German distribution, joining the film’s French distributor Art House Films and Italy’s Academy Two.

Sidonie in Japan stars Huppert as a French writer mourning...

Sales to kick off this week in Venice.

France TV Distribution has boarded Sylvain Desclous’ sensual French thriller The Victoria System (Le Système Victoria) and will kick off sales in Venice.

Based on popular French author Eric Reinhardt’s best-selling novel of the same name, Desclous’ third fiction feature is currently in production and stars Damien Bonnard and Jeanne Balibar, who also shared the screen in Ladj Ly’s Oscar-nominated debut feature Les Misérables.

The passion-filled story of power, sex and capitalism follows a man (Bonnard) overseeing the construction of the highest tower ever built in France whose life is...

Berlin-based sales agent M-Appeal has sold “Evil Does Not Exist,” which will world premiere in Competition at the Venice Film Festival, to France, Italy and Spain. The film is directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi, whose “Drive My Car” won the Oscar for International Film, was Oscar nominated for Best Picture, and earned him Oscar nominations for Directing and Adapted Screenplay last year.

“Drive My Car” premiered in Cannes Competition in 2021, winning four prizes including Best Screenplay.

Hamaguchi’s “Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy,” which also premiered in 2021, won the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize at the Berlinale.

“Evil Does Not Exist” has been co-acquired by Tucker and Teodora for Italian distribution. Tucker is specialized in Asian cinema and it handled “Drive My Car” and “Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy,” and achieved great theatrical successes with those. Teodora is the distributor of prestigious art house films, such as recent Palme d’Or...

The Cineuropa folks confirm that production on Sophie Fillières‘ seventh feature film is now complete (production took place in Scotland) – which means we’ll be aiming for a 2024 major film festival release. Fillières has been to Berlinale, Locarno and TIFF with her previous features. Among the cast in Ma vie ma gueule we find Agnès Jaoui, Philippe Katerine, Édouard Sulpice, Angelina Woreth, Emmanuel Salinger and filmmaker-actress Valérie Donzelli. Mother to actress Agathe Bonitzer, Fillières’ last film was La belle et la belle which starred Bonitzer, Sandrine Kiberlain and Melvil Poupaud.

Here is the synopsis from the Cineuropa folks:

This revolves around Barberie Bichette who’s also known as Barbie, and much to her dismay, she might have been beautiful, loved, a good mother to her children, a trustworthy colleague and a great lover, but now her life can be sombre, brutal, and often absurd, and it feels very strange for...

Ticket sales dropped 10.8% in June year on year to 10m and were down 12.8% compared to the 2017-2019 average.

The French box office struggled to keep up the momentum of its April and May bounceback to pre-pandemic ticket sales in June, but continues to show signs of a slow, but steady comeback in the first six months of the year.

According to figures from the Cnc, ticket sales dropped 10.8% in June year on year to 10m and were down 12.8% compared to the 2017-2019 average. June’s drop is especially notable since every month from January through May saw ticket sales surpass...

On the face of it, Grégoire is the kind of husband that makes many a woman wish hers would shape up a bit. He’s tall, strong and stylish, with a job in banking that comfortably pays the bills, and the sculpted good looks of, well, the actor Melvil Poupaud — who plays him with enough upfront charm to cover a slight chill at the edges. All that, and he dotes on his wife Blanche (Virginie Efira), insisting on a degree of togetherness that makes clear his fidelity. Those observing more closely, however, may have other concerns: Why is he constantly calling her at work? Why does she never go out with friends? That he’s a psychotic abuser isn’t played as a surprise twist in Valérie Donzelli’s nervy, finely acted domestic thriller “Just the Two of Us” — even as it dabbles in genre tropes, the film presents an all-too-unremarkable reality for many women.

Cannes opener Jeanne du Barry was crowned top French film for the month.

The French box office continues to maintain the momentum of its return to pre-pandemic ticket sale levels with admissions reaching 14.26 million in May, up 27.6% year on year and stable (up 0.9%) with the 2017-2019 average.

Since the start of the year, French cinemas have seen 82.38m admissions according to figures from state film organisation the Cnc. Ticket sales for the first five months of the year are up 33% compared to the same period in 2022, but still 11.6% down from the pre-pandemic 2017-2019 average. The upward swing is hopeful, however,...

Launching out of Cannes Premiere, Valerie Donzelli’s “Just the Two of Us” is a feverish psychological thriller about a woman brought deeper and deeper into a toxic relationship. And if Donzelli had always intended to make the project ever since reading the source novel back in 2014, the lockdowns of 2020 helped push certain elements to the front of her mind.

“It’s really the story of a woman trapped under glass,” Donzelli tells Variety. “She’s confined with her husband, isolated and unable to see anyone, cut off from the world. I really wanted to explore how this hold makes you more and more disconnected from life.”

Written by Donzelli and Audrey Diwan, and starring Virginie Efira in a dual role as identical twins, – and produced by Rectangle Productions and sold by Goodfellas – this jangly tale of emotional abuse follows a woman separated from her family, moved to the other side of the country,...

The letter targets “the political positions displayed by the Cannes Festival” in particular.

More than 123 French actors and actresses have signed an open letter denouncing sexual harassment in the French film industry, calling it “a dysfunctional system that crushes and annihilates”.

On the same day that Cannes welcomed Maïwenn’s Jeanne Du Barry and its star Johnny Depp, and just ahead of the premiere of Catherine Corsini’s Homecoming in competition, the letter targets “the political positions displayed by the Cannes Festival” in particular. “By rolling out the red carpet to men and women who assault, the festival sends the...