News

Valerie Donzelli’s anticipated film “At Work” (“A Pied d’Oeuvre”), one of the three French movies set to compete at this year’s Venice, has been boarded by Gregoire Melin’s international sales banner Kinology.

Adapted from Franck Courtès’s autobiographical novel by the same name, “At Work” is headlined by Bastien Bouillon (“The Night of the 12th”), who stars alongside Virginie Ledoyen (“Just the Two of Us”), André Marcon and Marie Rivière.

“At Work” tells the true story of a successful photographer (Bouillon) who gives up everything to devote himself to writing and is confronted with poverty for the first time. “This radical account, blending clarity and self-depreciation, portrays the journey of a man willing to pay the ultimate price for his freedom,” reads the synopsis.

Kinology has acquired worldwide sales to “At Work” and will introduce it to buyers at the Venice Film Festival.

Donzelli described “At...

Dominik Moll, the Cesar-winning French director whose film “Case 137” world premiered in competition at Cannes on Thursday evening, talked about the timeliness of his movie which tackles police misconduct through the prism of a meticulous investigation.

“Case 137” is set during France’s yellow vests protests and centers on a young man who gets injured by by a flash-ball projectile. Léa Drucker, who is also at Cannes with Laura Wandel’s “Adam’s Sake,” stars in “Case 137” as an investigator in the French Igpn (internal affairs) department who is assigned the task of determining who is responsible for the incident.

Moll started working on the project years ago, during the violent Gilets Jaunes protests that rocked the country in 2018 and 2019 as a vehicle to probe divides in French society. Yet, the film wasn’t meant to be a bombshell political thriller as was Ladj Ly’s “Les Miserables” or Romain Gavras’ “Athena,...

In director Dominik Moll’s superb 2022 police thriller, The Night of the 12th, the focus was on French detectives pursuing a vicious killer who was forever out of reach. The closer they came to nabbing him, the more he got away, leaving them to turn in circles year after year during a long, existential quest that left none of them unscathed.

In that movie, the cops were flawed human beings and clearly chauvinistic (there was only one woman on the squad), but they were still the good guys. In Dossier 137, a piercing slow-burn examination of police brutality, the tables have turned and the cops have become the criminals, making us question the very notion of policing in a France racked by social unrest and class division. Made with the same laser-cut precision as his previous work, but with a greater emphasis on procedure than before, Moll’s new thriller...

Investigation of Citizens Above Suspicion: Moll Persists with Police Procedural

Dominik Moll reunites with his usual collaborating scribe Gilles Marchand in Dossier 137, their third genre oriented title in a row following Only the Animals (2019) and their runaway hit The Night of the 12th (2022). Their latest, as the sobering title suggests, is pure police procedural utilizing a fictionalized scenario set during the Yellow Vest Protests in Paris, 2018-2020. A lead performance from Lea Drucker is the highlight in a film most surprising for how standard it feels.

Stephanie (Drucker) is an investigator for the Igpn, a sort of internal affairs unit specifically dealing with crimes allegedly committed by police officers.…...

French-German filmmaker Dominik Moll returned to the Cannes Competition on Thursday with police drama Dossier 137, which received a very enthusiastic eight-minute ovation — where the audience actually was standing.

The applause might have continued, but the people were ushered out of the theater just before the 12-minute mark so it could be cleared for the next screening.

Dominik Moll’s competition film ‘Dossier 137’, a thrilling examination of police investigating corrupt riot officers, received a tremendously enthusiastic 8 minute standing ovation in #Cannes2025 pic.twitter.com/gxq8lD4U5o

— Deadline (@Deadline) May 15, 2025

The film stars Léa Drucker as a police officer working for Internal Affairs who is assigned to a case involving a young man severely wounded during a tense and chaotic demonstration in Paris. While she finds no evidence of illegitimate police violence, the case takes a personal turn when she discovers the victim is from her hometown.

In her review for Deadline,...

Sometimes, the stacks of paper on Inspector Bertrand’s desk pile up so perilously that it look as if she is about to disappear under an avalanche of files; her computer screen is like a retaining wall, with the thin, ferrety inspector burrowed in behind it. Stéphanie Bertrand’s (Léa Drucker) job, which she performs with dogged rigor, is to investigate complaints against police officers. In Dominik Moll’s Dossier 137, we join her in the wake of the 2018 gilets jaunes demonstrations, when 300,000 rural workers, mostly newbies to the rough and tumble of street politics, surged into Paris. Many went home wounded. Bertrand’s files are piling up.

French-German director Moll has made his considerable name with psychological stealth thrillers, peopled with eccentrics and spiced with peculiar motifs like the persistent rodent in Lemming (2005), the raw eggs quaffed by Sergi Lopez in Harry, He’s Here to Help (2000) or the...

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Hulu is ready with an entertainment-packed May this year. The upcoming month will see the release of the much-anticipated comedy series Adults and the return of Hulu’s one of the most popular series, Nine Perfect Strangers. Just like every month, Hulu is ready to overload you with great content. So, we’re here to tell you about the 10 new movies and TV shows coming to Hulu in May 2025.

Escape (May 3) Credit – Plus M Entertainment

Escape is a South Korean action thriller film directed by Lee Jong-pil from a screenplay co-written by Kwon Seong-hwi and Kim Woo-geun. The 2024 film follows Lim Gyu-nam, a North Korean soldier who defects to South Korea and is soon finds himself being chased by a ruthless North Korean Major. Escape stars Lee Je-hoon, Koo Kyo-hwan, and Hong Xa-bin.

Insidious: The Red Door (May...

Oftentimes, it can feel like if you've seen one action thriller, you've seen them all. The genre often follows the same beats, with the same action set pieces, and the usual results. Night Call, a French-Belgian movie filmed and set in Brussels, has a familiar plot you've come across many times, but thanks to the writing efforts of Michiel Blanchart and Gilles Marchand, with Blanchart also in the directors' chair, Night Calls stands with better efforts due to its relentless high stakes and a believable and sympathetic performance from its lead, Jonathan Feltre. Night Call does nothing new, but it does the standards the right way.

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).…...

Charades has picked up international sales rights to Dominik Moll’s completed thriller Case 137 (Dossier 137), starring Lea Drucker ahead of the Rendez-Vous with French Cinema in Paris in late January.

Set in the internal affairs department of the French national police, Drucker plays an investigator tasked with an incident involving a young man severely wounded during a protest in Paris that takes a personal turn when she discovers the victim is from her hometown.

Moll has co-written the script with Gilles Marchand and the producers are Haut et Court and France 2 Cinema. Backers are Canal+, Ciné+, France Televisions, the Cnc and Creative Europe Media.

“Night Call,” a French thriller directed by Michiel Blanchart and set amid Black Lives Matter protests in Belgium, has been sold nearly worldwide by Gaumont which releases the film today in France.

Previously acquired by Magnet Releasing for North American distribution, “Night Call” follows a young locksmith who gets way more than he bargained for after responding to an emergency call that puts him in the crosshairs of a ruthless mob boss.

It marks the feature debut of Blanchart whose live-action short “You’re Dead Hélène” was shortlisted for the 94th Oscars and is now being adapted into an English-language feature produced by Sam Raimi and TriStar Pictures.

U.K. (Vertigo), Spain (A Contracorriente), Italy (102 Distribution), Scandinavia (Nonstop), South Korea (Mediasoft), Latin America (California Filmes), Portugal (Cinemundo), Germany, Austria, German speaking Luxembourg and Switzerland, Poland (Galapagos), India (Pictureworks) and New Caledonia (Trident Import Export).

The movie played on opening night...

A film about fantasies slipping away, Robin Campillo’s semi-autobiographical Red Island begins with a daydream, of a world of miniature buildings and puppet-faced men facing off against a masked girl. The girl is quickly revealed to be a visualization of Fantômette, the heroine of the popular Georges Chaulet book series that bears her name, and a particular obsession of Campillo’s 10-year-old stand-in, Thomas (Charlie Vauselle).

The film unfolds largely around a military base in Madagascar, from 1970 to 1972. It’s a decade after the island country’s independence from France, but various ties to the former colonial power remain in place, with French soldiers staying on their bases and working with the local troops. Perhaps inevitably, the oddly paradoxical Red Island is at once lackadaisical and urgent, relaxed but with a clear eye for how swiftly everything will end for the characters at its center.

Not that Thomas, peering...

French director Laurent Cantet, who won the Cannes Palme d’Or in 2008 for The Class, has died at the age of 63.

Based on the semi-autobiographical book by writer François Bégaudeau about his experiences working as a literature teacher in an inner city school in Paris, The Class featured a mainly unprofessional cast including the author.

Cantet had been due to shoot his next film Enzo, with Elodie Bouchez and Pierfrancesco Favino in the cast, this August

His second collaboration with Anatomy of a Fall producer Marie-Angle Luciani, after 2021 film Arthur Rambo, it revolved around a teenager who embarks on a mason apprenticeship in the South of France to escape a controlling father.

Cantet studied film at the Institut des Hautes Études Cinématographiques (Idhec) in Paris in the mid-1980s, where his contemporaries were Dominik Moll, Gilles Marchand and Robin Campillo.

They would continue to collaborate on one another’s projects throughout their careers,...

Charlie Vauselle as Thomas … Campillo’s screen surrogate. Campillo: 'I wanted to be a film-maker from the age of six. I was obsessed and I really thought it would be easy for me' Photo: Gilles Marchand/Courtesy UniFrance After his triumphant success with 120 Bpm (Beats Per Minute) at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival, when the film about Aids activism in France in the 1990s won the Grand Prix, you might expect Robin Campillo to be nursing a grudge against the festival selectors for shunning his latest foray Red Island last year.

Robin Campillo: 'I felt I owed something to the people of Madagascar who are still waiting for France to recognise this part of their story' Photo: UniFrance Campillo during our encounter as part of the UniFrance Rendez-vous with French Cinema in January, seemed philosophical about his fate. “Apparently the Cannes selectors liked the film. I wrote a note to the...

Gaumont is launching “Night Call,” a high-concept thriller set over the course of a night, directed by rising filmmaker Michiel Blanchart.

Blanchart, who is repped by WME and Itaka Media, previously directed the short film “You’re Dead Hélène,” which was a festival standout and played at Clermont-Ferrand and Sitges, among other festivals. It also made the live action Oscar shortlist last year. Blanchart is set to direct a U.S. feature adaptation of “You’re Dead Hélène,” produced by Sam Raimi.

“Night Call” follows Mady, a student who works as a locksmith by night. He helps Claire get into her apartment and soon realizes that she lied to him about her identity and robbed something that belonged to a dangerous man, Yannick. Mady gets embroiled in a manhunt and will have one night to prove his innocence.

The thriller is set in a Brussels, shaken by demonstrations pitting Black Lives Matter activists against police.

A group of 200 internationally renowned writers, publishers, directors and producers have signed an open letter sounding the alarm over the implications of AI for human creativity.

“Several generative models of language and images have recently appeared in the public and private domains; they are developing at breakneck speed, accessible to all for any task which involves writing and creating,” read the letter, published online on Tuesday.

“These models are shaping a world where, little by little, creation can do without human beings, thereby hastening the automation of many creative and intellectual professions formerly deemed inaccessible to mechanization.”

The letter, initiated by European translation professionals under the banner of “Collective For Human Translation – In Flesh And Blood”, comes amid growing concern about the impact of generative AI technology on professionals working in the creative industries.

Signatories from the literary world included Nobel Prize-winning author Annie Ernaux (Happening) as well as best-selling...

French director Campillo’s first film since 2017’s 120 Bpm.

Curzon has acquired UK-Ireland distribution rights to Red Island, the new film from 120 Bpm (Beats Per Minute) director Robin Campillo.

Morocco-born French director Campillo’s new film will have its world premiere in the official selection at San Sebastian Film Festival later this month. Curzon is working on release plans for the title.

Set on one of the last French army air bases on Madagascar in the 1970s, Red Island follows a 10-year-old boy whose world opens up to a different reality when he is inspired by an intrepid comic book heroine.

A digest of key Swiss industry news announced during the Locarno Film Festival.

Swiss public broadcaster Srg has extended its co-production agreement with the local film industry for another four years and has increased its annual budget by CHF1.5m ($1.7m) to CHF34m ($38m).

The new “Pacte de l’Audiovisuel” co-production agreement between Srg and the local film industry will run from 1 January 2024 until the end of 2027.

The annual budget available in the “Pacte” for co-producing Swiss feature films will increase from $10m (Chf 9m) to $11.45m CHF10m in response to rising costs for film production.

In addition,...

A dramatization of true events, The Night of the 12th mines a particular subgenre of the crime picture, the “Cold Case” (its own Bush-era CBS procedural). The one it rips from headlines occurred on October 12th, 2016, where we find Clara (Lula Cotton Frappier), a happy 21-year-old girl leaving a party by herself in a sleepy suburb of France. Confronted by a masked stranger who, in the flash of an eye, throws embalming liquid and a lit match on her, her promising life is cut short as a charred corpse turns up. Tasked with solving the case are two Grenoble detectives, whose intellectual and experiential might are considered superior to the small town’s police force, and the young-ish Captain Yohan (Bastien Bouillon) and veteran cop Marceau (Bouli Lanners) form a decidedly complementary couple in their affect and appearance.

Two splashy stylistic choices––the inciting incident presented in slow-motion and a superimposition of our cops’ faces,...

A young woman is murdered in this unnerving, fictionalised version of a real case that haunts the police officers unable to solve it

French film-maker Dominik Moll has given us a gripping true-crime procedural, a desolate study of the ubiquity of evil and misogynist violence and the abyss of unknowing into which everyone finds themselves gazing: crime victims, relatives and the police themselves. And crime in the real world is often not bounded by the Agatha Christie conventions of clearcut motives and culprits unmasked.

Moll and screenwriter Gilles Marchand have fictionalised a real case recounted by the French author Pauline Guéna in her 2020 eyewitness reportage book 18.3: Une Année à la Pj, for which she was embedded for a year with France’s Police Judiciaire (equivalent to the UK’s Cid); 18.3 being that part of the French penal code which governs their existence. On a certain ominous night in 2016, a...

Dominik Moll’s investigative drama earns awards in Paris for best film, director, adapted screenplay and more.

Dominik Moll’s investigative drama The Night Of The 12th enjoyed a big night at France’s 48th annual César Awards, picking up six awards including best film of the year at a starry ceremony at Paris concert hall l’Olympia on Friday night.

The film, which started the night on 10 nominations, prevailed in a competitive category alongside Louis Garrel’s crime-infused romantic comedy The Innocent, Cédric Klapisch’s dance drama Rise, Albert Serra’s political thriller Pacifiction, and Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi’s coming-of-age tale Forever Young.

Hollywood star power enlivens the Césars in Paris last night Photo: Academie des Césars

Director Dominik Moll had to wait 22 years to bag his second César, as Best Director for The Night Of The 12th, a thriller which delves into issues of gender and violence. It was a major winner in last night’s César awards, France’s answer to the Oscars, also winning the award for Best Film. Bouli Lanners and Bastien Bouillon, as two cops trying to solve a gruesome murder, received actor nods as Best Supporting Actor and Best Male Newcomer respectively.

Written in tandem with his frequent collaborator Gilles Marchand the pair were also rewarded with best adapted screenplay from the novel by Pauline Guéna. The last time Moll received the Best Director César was in 2001 for another thriller, Harry, He's Here To Help.

Happy nights: Virginie Emir named Best Actress in the Césars Photo: Academie...

The 46th César Awards, France’s top film honors, have been handed out in Paris, with Dominik Moll’s crime thriller The Night of the 12th winning the best picture trophy.

Moll’s The Night of the 12th, which premiered in Cannes last year, scored 10 César noms coming into the awards show, just behind Louis Garrel’s The Innocent, which picked up 11 nominations. Moll also won for best director, and Bouli Lanners earned the best supporting actor trophy for his performance in The Night of the 12th.

Cédric Klapisch’s Rise, about a ballet dancer (Marion Barbeau) who, after an injury, seeks a new future in contemporary dance, was up for 9 Césars, as was Albert Serra’s Pacifiction, a thriller featuring Benoît Magimel as a morally-challenged Haut-Commissaire on an island in French Polynesia.

Valeria Bruni Tedeschi’s dramedy Forever Young, Cedric Jimenez’s terrorism drama November, Eric Gravel’s family...

Good cop, bad cop: Bastien Bouillon, left, and Bouli Lanners in Dominik Moll’s The Night Of The 12th Photo: Picturehouse Entertainment As a man of two countries - Germany and France - you could be forgiven for thinking that director Dominik Moll who shot to prominence 22 years ago with the psychological shocker Harry He’s Here to Help, might harbour a split personality.

Not a bit of it - he seems remarkably grounded and feels much more French than German. At this precise moment he’s feeling rather pleased with himself that his most recent brooding investigative thriller The Night Of The 12th has been a runaway success in France and also has been selling well around the globe, and will feature as part of Glasgow Film Festival next month.

Written in tandem with his frequent collaborator Gilles Marchand whom he met decades ago at film school in Paris,...

Vazaha (Les Blancs)

Forget about the numerous title changes, it appears that it took a little bit more time with detours due to the pandemic and dipping into different seasons and locations for Robin Campillo to put together his fourth feature. The Cannes-winning filmmaker for 2017’s Bpm (Beats Per Minute), filming would have taken place in July of ’21 in France with Nadia Tereszkiewicz and Quim Gutiérrez toplining. Titled Vazaha (Les Blancs), the international title is Vazaha, The Strangers – but we expect that to change. This was written along with Gilles Marchand.

Gist: At the beginning of the 70s, in Madagascar, a few armed forces and their families live in one of the last French military bases abroad, a relic of the ending French colonial empire.…...

Dominik Moll’s The Night of The 12th has won best film at the 28th edition of France’s Lumière Awards in Paris on Monday evening.

The investigative drama, which was nominated in six categories, also won Best Screenplay.

The film, which debuted in the Cannes Film Festival’s non-competitive Cannes Première section, stars Bastien Bouillon as a police detective who becomes obsessed with a case involving a complex female murder victim.

Best director went to Albert Serra for French Polynesia-set drama Pacification. The feature also clinched two other prizes: Best Actor for Benoît Magimal and Best Cinematography for Artur Tort.

Virginie Efira won Best Actress for her performance in Rebecca Zlotowski’s Other People’s Children about the challenge of navigating the stepmother role.

Nadia Tereszkiewicz won Best Female Revelation for her performance in Forever Young and Dimitri Doré, Best Male Revelation for Bruno Reidal.

Alice Diop clinched best documentary category for We,...

Pacifiction star Benoit Magimel wins best actor award for third time.

Dominik Moll’s investigative drama The Night Of The 12th (La Nuit Du 12) was named best film and also won the best screenplay prize at the 28th edition of France’s Lumiere Awards at a ceremony at Paris’ Forum des Images on Monday evening.

The film shared the spotlight with Albert Serra’s tropical thriller Pacifiction which earned Serra the best director award and a best actor prize for the film’s star Benoit Magimel.

It was a record win for Magimel who becomes the third actor in Lumière...

’Saint Omer’, ‘Other People’s Children’ and ’Pacifiction’ also receive multiple nods.

Dominik Moll’s police procedural The Night Of The 12th tops the nominations for the 28th annual Lumière Awards.

France’s version of The Golden Globes, the Lumière Awards are voted on by international correspondents from 36 countries.

The Night Of The 12th leads with six nominations, just ahead of Albert Serra’s political thriller Pacifiction with five. Rebecca Zlotowski’s Other People’s Children and Alice Diop’s Saint Omer tie on four nods each. The films will vie for the Best Film prize alongside Alice Winocour’s Paris Memories.

Dominik Moll’s The Night of The 12th, which world premiered in Cannes in May, has topped the nominations for the 28th edition of France’s Lumière Awards.

The awards are voted on by members of the international press corp hailing from 36 countries based in France.

The Night Of The 12th was nominated in six categories including best film, director and screenplay. The film debuted in the Cannes Film Festival’s non competitive Cannes Première section.

The investigative drama is Moll’s seventh feature. It stars Bastien Bouillon, with support from Bouli Lanners, as a police detective who becomes obsessed with a case involving a complex female murder victim.

Other multi-nominated titles include Albert Serra’s French Polynesia-set drama Pacification five nominations.

Four films received four nominations each: Alice Diop’s Saint-Omer; Rebecca Zlotowski’s Other People’s Children; Louis Garrel’s The Innocent and Gaspar Noé’s Vortex.

Diop,...

Trailer

Oscar nominee Sally Hawkins can be heard narrating “The Smeds and the Smoos,” the upcoming BBC adaptation of the book of the same name by beloved children’s writer Julia Donaldson and illustrator Axel Scheffler, in a new trailer released today.

A loose re-telling of Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet,” the charming adaptation, from Magic Light Pictures, “The Smeds and the Smoos” also features the voices of “Bridgerton’s” Adjoa Andoh and comedian Bill Bailey (“Black Books”) as well as Meera Syal (“Roar”), Rob Brydon (“Gavin and Stacey”), Ashna Rabheru (“Sex Education”) and Daniel Ezra (“All American”).

It will air in the U.K. on Christmas Day.

Check out the trailer below:

Commission

A biopic of one of the U.K.’s most famous soccer siblings, Justin and John Fashanu, has been set at U.K. broadcaster ITV. Justin, who became Britain’s first Black soccer star to command £1 million,...

Raft of sales for police procedural following Cannes Premiere debut.

Memento International has sold Dominik Moll’s The Night Of The 12th to a slew of territories, including the US and the UK, following its debut in Cannes’ Premiere section.

Film Movement has acquired the title in North America, while Picturehouse Entertainment has picked it up for the UK and Ireland.

Night Of The 12th has also sold to Australia and New Zealand (Potential Films), Latin America (Impacto), Taiwan (Swallow Wings), Poland (Aurora), the Baltics (A-one Films) and Israel (Lev Cinema).

The sales are the latest in a raft of...

French director Dominik Moll’s seventh feature debuts in the Cannes Premiere section.

Memento International has unveiled first deals for French director Dominik Moll’s Night Of The 12th ahead of its debut in Official Selection’s Cannes Premiere section.

In Europe, it has sold to Italy (Teodora), Spain (Filmin), Greece (Cinobo), ex-Yugoslavia (McF Megacom), Bulgaria (Beta Films) and Ascot Elite has acquired rights for Austria, Germany and Switzerland.

The title is also generating interest in Asia with deals for Japan (Tohokushinsha Film Corporation) and Indonesia (Pt Falcon).

Paris-based Haut et Court, which produced the film, distributes in France. Brussel-based...

École de l’air

We thought there might be an outside chance that this might shore up in 2021 – but we were dead wrong as it appears that production might have taken place in several locations and over the course of more than one season/backdrop with shooting days as far back as July and as recent as this past December. Robin Campillo‘s highly anticipated fourth feature comes five years after his Cannes-winning Bpm (Beats Per Minute) in 2017. Starring Quim Gutiérrez, Nadia Tereszkiewicz, Charlie Vauselle, Sophie Guillemin, Hugues Delamarliere, David Serero, Luna Carpiaux, Mathis Piberne and Sacha Cosar-Accaoui, École de l’air was written by Campillo and filmmaker Gilles Marchand and is produced by Les Films de Pierre’s Marie-Ange Luciani while cinematographer Jeanne Lapoirie Bpm (Beats Per Minute) lens.…...

Only The Animals (Seules les bêtes) Cohen Media Group Reviewed for Shockya.com & BigAppleReviews.net linked from Rotten Tomatoes by: Harvey Karten Director: Dominik Moll Writer: Dominik Moll, Gilles Marchand. Adapted from Colin Niel’s novel ‘Seules les bêtes’ Cast: Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, Denis Ménochet Laure Calamy, Damien Bonnard, Nadia Tereszkiewicz, Guy Roger “Bibisse” N’drin Screened at: […]

The post Only The Animals Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.

Catfish People: Moll Returns to the Ripple Effects of Identity Issues

In the early 2000s, German born Dominik Moll was a fast-rising director of contemporary French cinema thanks to the success of his sophomore film, the well-received thriller With a Friend Like Harry… (2000), followed by the enigmatic Lemming (2005). Diverging into literary adaptation with 2011’s The Monk and then light comedy in 2016’s News from Planet Mars, Moll reunites with scribe Gilles Marchand for another identity-razing thriller, Only the Animals (Seules les bêtes), adapted from a novel by Colin Niel. If Simenon had lived into the technological age, his narratives might have turned to similar dramatic catalysts as employed here in this disconsolate thriller masquerading as a melodrama, clicking together its pieces to a puzzle neatly, efficiently, and with more than its fair share of human developmental dysfunction to define it.…...

Elodie Polo-Ackermann, who runs the Mediawan-owned Paris-based banner Imagissime, has become one of Europe’s key documentary producers since delivering “Who Killed Little Gregory?,” a different kind of true crime series which marked Netflix’s first documentary original in France.

“Who Killed Little Gregory?” was directed by Gilles Marchand, a critically acclaimed screenwriter and director whose credits include the Cannes title “Who Killed Bambi?” and “L’autre monde.” With his cinematic approach to the genre, Marchand was able to cast a new light on the infamous cold case revolving around the mysterious murder of 4-year old Grégory Villemin in 1984. The company recently launched its second Netflix docu, “The Women and the Murderer,” a female take on the 1990s serial killer Guy Georges, co-written and co-directed by Mona Achache (“The Hedgehog”) and Patricia Tourancheau.

Imagissime is now developing two human interest documentary series which have an international resonance: “Un si long...

True love story co-stars French actress Marina Foïs opposite rising French-Afghan actor Seear Kohi.

Brussels-based Best Friend Forever (Bff) has boarded Calais-set love story A Change Of Heart about a National Front supporter who falls in love with an Iranian teacher who is trying to get across the English Channel to the UK.

The French-language feature is the directorial debut of actor Jérémie Elkaim. He is best known internationally for his performance in Valérie Donzelli’s Declaration Of War and has also worked with the likes of Sébastien Lifshitz, Bertrand Bonello, Gilles Marchand, Catherine Corsini or Benoît Jacquot.

Based on...

Top executives from the US and Europe gathered in Zurich.

The Zurich Summit, organised in the first weekend of the 16th Zurich Film Festival in Switzerland, brought together experts including CAA’s Roeg Sutherland, director Yann Demange, Pulse Films founder Thomas Benski, Film I Vast’s CEO Mikael Fellenius, Totem Films partner Agathe Valentin, Srg director general Gilles Marchand, Anton’s Cecile Gaget and Berlinale head Carlo Chatrian for the first in-person event of its kind during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Under the title Kick-Starting a New Era, the topics under discussion including the changing financing landscape, the rise of local-language content,...

Diego Buñuel, the former head of documentaries at Canal Plus and Netflix in Emea, has joined the French public broadcaster France Televisions as head of programming.

Starting on June 22, Buñuel will be spearheading the programming for the group which is presided by Delphine Ernotte and comprises six free-to-air channels.

“(Buñuel)’s vision (and) track record will be assets for France Televisions and for French TV,” said Takis Candilis, the second-in-command at the French pubcaster.

Currently being reformed as part of France’s audiovisual law, the pubcaster has been aiming to lure younger audiences in recent years with ambitious original programming like “Call My Agent!.” The group has also become popular with talk shows, in addition to documentaries, youth programming and even sports. The pubcaster has rights to the tennis tournament Roland-Garros, as well as the Olympic Games, among other major sports events.

Buñuel will be replacing Nathalie Darrigrand who stepped...

Dominik Moll’s thriller charts an unhappily married woman’s terrifying fate and her mysterious connections to five other people

Twenty years ago, director Dominik Moll made a splash at Cannes with his black-comic psychological shocker Harry, Un Ami Qui Vous Veut Du Bien, starring the incomparably disturbing Sergi López – a film with the kind of delicious cruelty and sophistication that somehow only the French can produce. Its title over here was inelegantly rendered as Harry, He’s Here to Help, although I made a doomed attempt to popularise my own version: Harry Wants to Be Your Friend. After that, Moll had a number of credits, but nothing to live up to that picture, which promised us a film-maker with the style of Claude Chabrol.

But now Moll has given us this audacious, witty and absorbing mystery thriller, a tale of adultery and amour fou with a gamey touch of...

The French institution will also throw its weight behind films coming courtesy of Léonor Serraille, Sylvie Verheyde, Mathias Gokalp and Sylvain Desclous. Five projects were selected during the 1st 2020 session of the Cnc’s second advance on receipts committee. Standing tall amongst them is École de l’air, which will be Robin Campillo’s fourth feature film after They Came Back (discovered in Venice 2004 in the Orizzonti line-up), Eastern Boys and Bpm. Written by the director and Gilles Marchand, the story of this new opus takes us to Madagascar during the late 60s-early 1970s, where soldiers are living out the final carefree years of colonialism on a French army air base....

The heavyweight speakers included Rena Ronson, Carole Scotia and Rose Garnett.

The one-day Zurich Summit gathered top executives from the Us and Europe and Asia to discuss industry changes including the rise of the platforms, and the growth in popularity of local-language content at the Dolder Grand on Saturday, September 28.

New this year was a series of intimate roundtables which enabled rising talents to meet established international executives including UTA’s Alex Brunner, CAA’s Roeg Sutherland, Rocket Science’s Thorsten Schumacher, and producer Kim Magnusson, in a private setting.

A creative highlight was a preview clip of Farmageddon, also screening at Zurich Film Festival.

Human foibles are the true culprits in Only the Animals (Seules les bêtes), a new thriller from French writer-director Dominik Moll (With a Friend Like Harry…) that opened up this year's Venice Days sidebar. Spreading a murder mystery across two continents and chopping it up into a Rashomon-style narrative, the film can be a bit low on suspense in places but remains intriguing enough to keep you guessing till the last twist. Art houses looking for upscale genre fare could give this well-structured whodunit a look.

Adapting Colin Niel’s novel with his regular co-writer Gilles Marchand, Moll ...

Human foibles are the true culprits in Only the Animals (Seules les bêtes), a new thriller from French writer-director Dominik Moll (With a Friend Like Harry…) that opened up this year's Venice Days sidebar. Spreading a murder mystery across two continents and chopping it up into a Rashomon-style narrative, the film can be a bit low on suspense in places but remains intriguing enough to keep you guessing till the last twist. Art houses looking for upscale genre fare could give this well-structured whodunit a look.

Adapting Colin Niel’s novel with his regular co-writer Gilles Marchand, Moll ...

Lagardere Studios’ production label Imagissime is developing several internationally-driven documentaries, including “Living Under the Third Reich” and “The Rise of Modern Cooking.”

“The Rise of Modern Cooking,” which has been commissioned by Franco-German network Arte, as well as Belgian and Canadian broadcasters, pays homage to Auguste Escoffier — the restaurateur and culinary writer who modernized traditional French cooking methods. The documentary, directed by Olivier Julien, mixies archival, animated, and live-action footage.

The doc will start shooting soon. Elodie Polo Ackermann, the founder and president of Imagissime, said she aimed at creating an edgy, fun documentary that could lure young audiences. Polo Ackermann, who previously worked at Doc en Stock and Film en Stock on programs such Olivier Assayas’ “Carlos,” said she strived to deliver documentaries boasting sharply-written scripts.

“The line between fiction and documentary is blurrier than ever today so we’re looking to enlist authors who work in fiction and...

Netflix is sending executive Diego Bunuel to the U.K. to oversee original factual programming out of its soon-to-open new London office, part of the the streaming giant’s increased emphasis on localizing its lineup of shows. Bunuel, who will relocate from Los Angeles, will commission original documentaries for Europe.

Netflix makes most of its programming decisions from L.A., but is expected to install content executives in its regional bases as part of its ramped-up localization effort. Bunuel, who has been with Netflix for about three months, was previously head of factual producer Explorer and is a former head of documentary at French pay-tv operator Canal Plus. A Netflix spokesman confirmed that Bunuel would be based in the British capital as director of original documentaries.

Netflix will move into a new Central London headquarters near Oxford Circus in the next few months, and Bunuel will work from there as part of the existing team.

Netflix rolled out the red carpet at Rome’s Villa Miani on Wednesday to unveil new projects and expound on its international ambitions. CEO Reed Hastings and Cco Ted Sarandos made brief appearances high above the Eternal City introducing a series of panels and announcements that revealed details of such upcoming offerings as a continuation of the Peabody Award winning true crime mini The Staircase; a documentary about the November 2013 Paris Attacks; a Julian Fellowes-penned origins of soccer drama; German event series The Wave; Idris Elba-starrer Turn Up Charlie; its first Italian original film; and still more.

In 2018, Netflix is nearly doubling the number of produced shows and investment since 2017 overseas. It has over 35,000 people working on local productions and this year, says subscribers will have access to over 100 projects in 16 languages from 16 countries, including for the first time the Middle East and Africa.

The service said it is committed to local-language shows,...

Actors Cary Elwes and Jake Busey will join the “Stranger Things” cast in the show’s third season, Netflix announced Wednesday.

Elwes, known for “The Princess Bride,” will play a character named Mayor Kline, while Busey, from “Starship Troopers,” will play Bruce.

Mayor Kline is being described by Netflix promotional materials as “handsome, slick, and sleazy.” “Your classic ’80s politician – more concerned with his own image than with the people of the small town he governs.” The Bruce character played by Busey is “a journalist for the The Hawkins Post, with questionable morals and a sick sense of humor.”

Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos made the new casting announcement at Netflix’s See What’s Next event in Rome, where the streaming giant announced a slew of new productions from Europe and elsewhere around the world.

As previously announced, Maya Hawke will be one of the new leads in “Stranger Things,...

This is not Moroccan-born French filmmaker Robin Campillo's first time at the Cannes Film Festival rodeo. The writer, director and editor was involved with Gilles Marchand's Who Killed Bambi? (2003), and 2008's The Class, which he not only wrote and edited but which also won the Palme d'Or for helmer Laurent Cantet. This year sees Campillo making his first appearance in competition for a film he directed (and also wrote, but did not edit). It arrives with a lot of…...

French writer-director Gilles Marchand broke out onto the scene back in 2000 with the clever comic thriller With a Friend Like Harry…, which he wrote for Dominik Moll. He followed it up with his well-received directorial debut Who Killed Bambi?, and has since penned several genre-benders for Moll and other filmmakers – including Cedric Kahn’s excellent Simenon adaptation Red Lights – while taking a second stab behind the helm with the shaky virtual reality thriller Black Heaven.

In his third directorial outing, Into the Forest (Dans la foret), Marchand offers up a mélange of family psychodrama and supernatural storytelling with...