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Picture: Netflix Originals coming to Netflix on Valentine’s Day 2025.

Love is in the air on Netflix this Valentine’s Day. With a brand-new season of Love Is Blind to look forward to, Netflix is also adding plenty of romantic movies and TV shows for the most romantic day of the year. Let’s dive into everything coming to Netflix for Valentine’s Day.

You can also search for all the romantic titles on Netflix by using the available sub-categories, and Netflix has also released brand new categories for 2025 (as first reported by Collider):

Category Name Category Code Classic Romantic Dramas 30267 Date Night 81398312 Emotional Films 4136 First-Love Dramas 18988 Human Connections 81271205 LGBTQ Stories 100010 Love is in the Air 81576602 Romantic Bollywood Movies 11310 Romantic Christmas Movies 1394527 Romantic Comedies 5475 Romantic Dramas 1255 Romantic Favorites 502675 Romantic Films 8883 Romantic Korean TV Comedies 1461331 Romantic TV Programmes 26156 Steamy Movies 11781 Steamy Romantic Movies 35800 Swipe Right 81582488 Valentine’s Day Movies 50117 Love Is Blind...

Leading French actors Thierry Lhermitte, François Berléand and Charles Berling will play themselves in Ged Marlon’s theatre comedy Achilles’ Skills (Les Talents d’Achille) which Other Angle Pictures is launching at Unifrance’s Rendez-Vous in Paris market this week.

The film follows the titular Achille who is attempting to stage his latest play and tries to convince his famous friends Lhermitte, Berléand and Berling to star in it by telling them he only has six months to live.

The film is produced by Writerz and is now in post-production. Moonlight will release in France later this year.

Achille’s...

At 91, Costa-Gavras, master of political thrillers like Z (1969) and Missing (1982), switches his vision from geopolitical intrigues to the intimate universality of death in The Last Breath.

Inspired by Régis Debray and Claude Grange’s philosophical treatise, the film is less a narrative and more an intellectual meditation—an invitation to reflect on mortality alongside its aging author. True to form, Costa-Gavras approaches this serious issue with care, incorporating themes of dignity, autonomy, and existential fear into the fabric of modern healthcare.

The film explores the friendship between Fabrice Toussaint, a philosopher, and Dr. Augustin Masset, a palliative care specialist. Through an episodic narrative, the two encounter patients embodying diverse approaches to death: rebellion, tranquility, and denial.

From Charlotte Rampling as an affluent woman demanding control over her death to Angela Molina as a Romany matriarch turning her final moments into a clan celebration, these vignettes explore the human condition with poignancy and intellectual rigor.

Costa-Gavras’ single hyphenated trade name has been synonymous with political thrillers since Z shot from the starting gates in 1969 to win two Oscars and bring the world’s attention to the machinations of the military junta then ruling Greece. Among the numerous films he has made over the ensuing decades, based in France but working also in English, it is the on-brand political films that have been most prominent: State of Siege, Missing, Amen.

Costa-Gavras has, however, other strings to his bow. Witness Last Breath (Le Dernier Souffle), a truly marvelous film, screening in competition in San Sebastian. It’s about dying. Not at the end of a gun barrel, but in the normal course of things, whether the dying person is serenely unafraid, fighting tooth-and-nail to stay alive, or in denial. Based on a book by Regis Debray and Claude Grange, who collaborated with the director in writing the script,...

Five years ago, French writer-director Claude Lelouch returned, for the second time, to the site of his greatest career success with “The Best Years of a Life,” an autumnal sequel to his trend-setting 1966 romance “A Man and a Woman” that felt elegiac in multiple senses — not least since it turned out to be the final onscreen appearance for both its stars, Jean-Louis Trintignant and Anouk Aimée. Anyone who assumed it might be Lelouch’s sign-off, however, was quite mistaken. He’s made three features since, the latest of which, “Finally,” seems fashioned from its title down as a sort of career summation from the 86-year-old filmmaker, but not portentously so. A peculiar, weightless confection that bounces antically between narratives, perspectives, periods and varying grips on reality, it treats even grave mortal matters with near-cartoonish buoyancy.

Premiering out of competition at the Venice Film Festival, accompanying a career-achievement award presentation to Lelouch,...

French director Claude Lelouch first broke out internationally with 1966 romance A Man and a Woman, starring Anouk Aimee and Jean-Louis Trintignant as a widow and widower whose fledgling love story is held back by past personal tragedies.

Nearly 60 years later, the soundtrack by late composer Francis Lai – and in particular its title track, which is often referred to as ‘Chabadabada’ for its catchy refrain – remains as famous, if not more famous, than the Oscar and Cannes Palme d’Or-winning feature

That movie would mark the start of a 52-year, 35-picture collaboration between Lelouch and Lai, which was at the heart of a music-themed masterclass by Lelouch at the Venice Film Festival on Saturday.

The director is at the festival to receive the Cartier Glory To The Filmmaker Award as well as for the premiere of new work Finalement, starring an ensemble cast led by Kad Merad and also featuring Elsa Zylberstain,...

French director Claude Lelouch will be celebrated with the Cartier Glory To The Filmmaker Award at the upcoming 81st Venice Film Festival, running from August 28 to September 7.

He follows in the footsteps of Wes Anderson who was last year’s recipient of the award, dedicated to a personality who has made a particularly original contribution to the contemporary film industry.

The award ceremony will take place on September 2 ahead of the world premiere in an Out of Competition screening of Lelouch’s new work Finalement, starring an ensemble cast featuring Kad Merad, Elsa Zylberstain, Michel Boujenah, Sandrine Bonnaire, Barbara Pravi and Françoise Gillard.

One of France’s best loved directors, Lelouch first broke out internationally with his 1966 Oscar and Cannes Palme d’Or-winning romance A Man and a Woman, starring Anouk Aimee and Jean-Louis Trintignant as a widow and widower whose fledgling love story is held back by past personal tragedies.

French director Claude Lelouch (A Man and a Woman, Happy New Year, The Beautiful Story) will be honored at this year’s Venice Film Festival with the Cartier Glory to the Filmmaker Award, a prize dedicated to a “personality who has made a particularly original contribution to the contemporary film industry.”

Lelouch will receive the prize Monday, Sept. 2, at Venice’s Sala Grande ahead of the out-of-competition screening of his latest feature, Finalement, a musical fantasy starring Kad Merad (Welcome to the Sticks, The Chorus). Elsa Zylberstain, Michel Boujenah, Sandrine Bonnaire, Barbara Pravi and Françoise Gillard co-star. The film was produced by Les Films 13 in co-production with France 2 Cinéma and Laurent Dassault Rond-Point. Metropolitan Filmexport is handling international sales.

“Claude Lelouch is one of the top directors of French cinema, an excellent interpreter of its ‘quality,’ albeit alien to its main currents,” said Venice artistic director Alberto Barbera.

At long last, we now have at least one festival premiere set for one of our most-anticipated films of the year. Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Serpent’s Path, a remake of his superb, bad-vibes 1998 thriller that stars Damien Bonnard, Mathieu Amalric, Ko Shibasaki, and Drive My Car‘s Hidetoshi Nishijima, is now set for a premiere as part of San Sebastián Film Festival’s Official Selection.

Taking place September 20-28, the lineup also features the latest from Edward Berger, Gia Coppola, Costa-Gavras, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Mike Leigh, Diego Lerman, Joshua Oppenheimer, and François Ozon. While we could see Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Serpent’s Path pop up at other fall fests, it’s exciting to know it’s finally seeing the light of day.

Check out the full lineup below.

Bound In Heaven

Xin Huo (China)

Country(ies) of production: China

Cast: Ni Ni, You Zhou

This film narrates the poignant tale of a...

Costa-Gavras, the celebrated Franco-Greek master who’s won an Oscar and a Palme d’Or, has teamed with French sales company Playtime for his latest film, “Last Breath.”

Currently in post-production, “Last Breath” boasts a strong international cast led by Denis Podalydès (“Deception”) and Kad Merad (“Welcome to the Sticks”), who star alongside Marilyne Canto (“The Starry Sky Above Me”), Charlotte Rampling (“Dune”), Ángela Molina (“Broken Embraces”), Karin Viard (“Strangers by Night”), Hiam Abbass (“Succession”) and Agathe Bonitzer (“Maria Montessori”).

Costa-Gavras penned the film, based on the book “Le Dernier Souffle” by Régis Debray and Claude Grange. A Cannes regular, Costa-Gavras won the Palme d’Or for “Missing” in 1982, served on the jury in 1976 and won the Jury Prize with his political thriller “Z” which went on to win an Oscar. He has also been feted as guest of honor at Cannes Classics, the selection dedicated to heritage films.

“We...

Snd will kick off sales for marriage thriller at Rendez-Vous in Paris.

Snd has taken on international sales for Anne Le Ny’s psychological thriller Out Of Control (Histoire d’Un Mariage) starring Vanessa Paradis, Omar Sy, José Garcia and Elodie Bouchez, ahead of Unifrance’s Rendez-Vous with French Cinema.

Set in Brittany, the story follows a couple whose marriage is threatened when the husband’s first love returns to town.

It is produced by Bruno Levy’s Move Movie, with Snd releasing in France later this year. Snd is the film arm of France’s M6 Group.

“[Out Of Control] is a...

A record 54 market premieres will be hosted at the Rendez-Vous showcase held by the French film promotion org Unifrance in Paris which will kick off Jan. 16 with the world premiere of Pascal Bonitzer’s “Auction.”

The biggest film market dedicated exclusively to French movies, the Rendez-Vous in Paris will welcome 420 buyers from 50 countries and 47 sales companies. As many as 1,000 professionals have registered for the week-long event. Since Unifrance has now merged with TV France International, the event will also gather 100 TV buyers from 27 countries.

“After returning last year with a post-pandemic edition, we’re back to normal with over 400 buyers — and we even have new buyers from Quebec and Africa, along with about 15 Latin American distributors,” said Gilles Renouard, Unifrance’s co-managing director.

More than 80 completed movies will screen at the Rendez-Vous, 54 of which have never been shown at an international festival or market. Renouard says the large roster of...

Juliette Binoche, Marion Cotillard and Jacques Audiard are among 500 French cinema professionals to have signed an open letter in support of a silent march for peace in Paris this Sunday.

The initiative – created in response to the Israel-Hamas conflict and its ongoing reverberations around the world – is being spearheaded by the newly launched Une Autre Voix (Another Voice) collective.

“This fratricidal war affects us all, and regardless of our reasons or affinities on each side of the wall, we want it to cease and that both peoples finally live in peace,” reads the letter.

“This is why we are organizing a silent, united, humanist and peaceful march that will open with a single long white banner. No political claims nor slogans. White flags, white handkerchiefs are welcome.”

Belgian-Moroccan actress Lubna Azabal presides over the Une Autre Voix collective which also features French...

The French pay-TV giant also announced a surprise film festival-focused channel.

French pay-tv powerhouse Canal Plus unveiled its autumn line-up in Paris this week and announced a new channel devoted to films from well-known directors selected at global festivals called Canal+ Cinema(s) that will launch on September 1 alongside Canal+ Box Office.

The latter will feature primarily blockbusters from the US majors in addition to crowd-pleasing local fare, capitalising on themedia chronology that allows Canal+ to air films six months after their theatrical release, a major leg up compared to fellow streamers inlcuding Netflix and Prime Video that have to wait 15-17 months.

Claude Lelouch, the Oscar-winning director of “A Man and a Woman,” is getting ready to direct “Finalement…,” his next film which he says will be a sort of sequel to his BAFTA-nominated film “Happy New Year” and “L’aventure, l’aventure.” The lighthearted movie will reteam Lelouch with Metropolitan FilmExport which is co-producing with Lelouch’s banner Les Films 13, and will distribute in France.

Scored by popular French singer Ibrahim Maalouf, “Finalement…” will boast a large ensemble cast of French stars, including Kad Merad (“Baron Noir”), Elsa Zylberstein (“Simone”), Sandrine Bonnaire, Raphael Mezrahi, Michel Boujenah and Barbara Pravi.

Merad will play a powerful lawyer who sees his life take an unexpected turn after a health issue removes his ability to lie and forces him to speak without any filter. Merad’s character embarks on a road trip across France, from Paris to the Normandie, to the Mont St Michel, Avignon...

To mark the release of The Big Hit on 12th September, we’ve been given 3 copies to give away on DVD.

Etienne (Kad Merad), an often out of work but endearing actor, runs a theatre workshop in a prison, where he brings together an unlikely troupe of prisoners to stage Samuel Beckett’s famous play Waiting for Godot. When he is allowed to take the colourful band of convicts on a tour outside of prison, Etienne finally has the chance to thrive.

Please note: This competition is open to UK residents only

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The Small Print

Open to UK residents only The competition will close 19th September 2022 at 23.59 GMT The winner will be picked at random from entries received No cash alternative is available Please note prizes may be delayed due to Covid-19 To coincide with Gdpr regulations, competition entry information will not be stored once the competition...

Sea, quiet and sun. A holidaymaker on his paddleboard. In a few minutes, this idyllic picture is shattered: the man is knocked off his board into the water, and is then devoured by a shark.

Almost 50 years since Steven Spielberg’s “Jaws” brought terror to the New England beach town of Amity Island, a shark has appeared on the other side of the ocean to cause panic among French vacationers heading for the Atlantic coast.

“Year of the Shark,” which premiered this week at 21st Neuchatel Intl. Fantastic Film Festival, ahead of its release in France on Aug. 3, is neither a remake of “Jaws,” nor a pastiche of the genre, explain the directors, French twins Ludovic and Zoran Boukherma, who are 30 years old.

The Boukherma twins are well-aware that the arrival of the first shark film ever to be made in France, with a five-star cast, is creating a great...

Universal’s “Jurassic World: Dominion” stayed atop the U.K. and Ireland box office for the second weekend in a row with £5.7 million (7 million) for a total of £21.7 million, according to numbers released by Comscore.

In its fourth weekend, Paramount’s Tom Cruise vehicle “Top Gun: Maverick” collected a lofty £4.2 million in second place to soar to £57.3 million.

Disney’s Toy Story franchise film “Lightyear” debuted in third place with £3.7 million, while Lionsgate’s critically acclaimed “Good Luck To You, Leo Grande” debuted in fourth position with £238,640.

Rounding off the top five was Disney’s “Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness” in its seventh weekend for a total of £41.8 million.

Coming up, Trafalgar Releasing’s music documentary “George Michael Freedom Uncut” gets a mid-week Wednesday, June 22 release. The same day, Universal is opening “The Black Phone,” starring Ethan Hawke, at some 300 locations.

The big release on Friday, June 24 is...

A curmudgeonly actor helps prisoners put on a production of Waiting for Godot in Emmanuel Courcol’s predictable drama

This French comedy drama progresses along predictable, sentimental and somewhat implausible lines for the most part, improves with a sudden bolt of realism, but then goes hideously slushy in the final stretch with a contrived, manipulative denouement. Apparently it is based on real events that happened in Sweden in the mid-1980s, but the final product still stinks of script doctoring fashioned in order to shape the story into the sort of sanded-down pap that appeals to fans of obvious social-comment cinema.

Protagonist and de facto white saviour Étienne Carboni (Kad Merad) is a curmudgeonly actor, usually of the comic variety, who takes a job teaching drama to male inmates in a high-security prison. Of course, at first the motley crew of prisoners who show up for class just want to...

Snd has boarded “The Braid,” an adaptation of Laetitia Colombani’s bestseller which is currently shooting in Italy, Canada and India with Kim Raver (“Grey’s Anatomy”), Fotini Peluso (“Romanzo famigliare”) and Mia Maelzer (“Beyond the Clouds”).

Colombani is directing the film based on her book which sold more than two million copies worldwide and was translated in 40 languages. Olivier Delbosc’s Curiosa Films, whose credits include Claire Denis’s “Stars at Noon” and “Lost Illusions,” and Marc Missonnier’s Moana Films (“The Odyssey””) are producing the movie with Snd, Canada’s Forum Films and Italy’s Indigo Film co-producing. Snd will handle worldwide sales and French distribution. MK2 Mile End is set to handle Canadian distribution.

The movie opens in India, where Smita (Maelzer) dreams of giving her young daughter an education and will go to any length to make that happen, including leaving behind all she knows in search of a better future.

Kad Merad, Fatsah Bouyahmed and Oulaya Amamra lead the cast of the French adaptation of The Distinguished Citizen, produced by Axel Films. Having kicked off on 5 March in Morocco, filming on Citoyen d'honneur, the 5th feature film by Mohamed Hamidi (discovered in 2013 via Homeland and nominated for the 2016 European Film Award for Best Comedy thanks to One Man and His Cow) is set to wrap in the Paris region tomorrow. Shining bright in the cast are Kad Merad, Fatsah Bouyahmed (who led the cast of One Man and His Cow), Oulaya Amamra (who bagged the Best New Hope César and...

Two French films, Emmanuel Courcol’s The Big Hit, and the hand-drawn Josep, have won the 2020 European Film Awards for best comedy and best animated film, respectively.

In The Big Hit, French star Kad Merad (Welcome to the Sticks) plays a past-his-prime actor who attempts to give drama lessons to a group of prisoners staging a version of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot.

The film premiered at the special, three-day Special Cannes 202o film festival, held in October after the coronavirus pandemic forced the regular 2020 event, planned for May, to cancel.

Josep, the feature debut of editorial journalist Aurélien Froment. better known as award-winning ...

Two French films, Emmanuel Courcol’s The Big Hit, and the hand-drawn Josep, have won the 2020 European Film Awards for best comedy and best animated film, respectively.

In The Big Hit, French star Kad Merad (Welcome to the Sticks) plays a past-his-prime actor who attempts to give drama lessons to a group of prisoners staging a version of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot.

The film premiered at the special, three-day Special Cannes 202o film festival, held in October after the coronavirus pandemic forced the regular 2020 event, planned for May, to cancel.

Josep, the feature debut of editorial journalist Aurélien Froment. better known as award-winning ...

A trio of laffers — from France, Spain, and Finland —have been nominated for this year’s European Film Awards in the best European comedy category.

The European Film Academy announced its 2020 nominees for best Euro comedy on Tuesday, naming a final shortlist containing Emmanuel Courcol’s The Big Hit, Aritz Moreno’s The Advantages of Traveling By Train, and Ladies of Steel from Finish director Pamela Tola.

Kad Merad, of Welcome to the Sticks fame, stars in The Big Hit as a once-famous actor down on his luck who decides to give drama lessons to prisoners in an attempt to stage Samuel ...

A trio of laffers — from France, Spain, and Finland —have been nominated for this year’s European Film Awards in the best European comedy category.

The European Film Academy announced its 2020 nominees for best Euro comedy on Tuesday, naming a final shortlist containing Emmanuel Courcol’s The Big Hit, Aritz Moreno’s The Advantages of Traveling By Train, and Ladies of Steel from Finish director Pamela Tola.

Kad Merad, of Welcome to the Sticks fame, stars in The Big Hit as a once-famous actor down on his luck who decides to give drama lessons to prisoners in an attempt to stage Samuel ...

It may have been cancelled this year due to the coronavirus but after seeing Venice and San Sebastian host successful film festivals this fall, Cannes is getting in on the action by hosting a three-day film event in October.

Running Tuesday 27th to Thursday 29th at the Palais, the event will feature four films from the 2020 Cannes Official Selection, and is being organised in collaboration with the Cannes City Council.

The general public will be able to access the event, which will also host Competition short films and the Cinéfondation school films. There will be Palme d’or for the shorts as well as the Cinéfondation prizes.

The event will open with Un Triomphe (The Big Hit!) by Emmanuel Courcol and with Kad Merad, in the presence of the film crew and with the participation of Memento Films, and will conclude with the preview of Bruno Podalydès’ Les Deux Alfred...

The Cannes Film Festival may have been canceled this year, but organizers still plan to honor the 2020 Official Selection via a three-day event.

The Palais des Festivals will host a ‘Special Cannes’ event, which runs Oct. 27-29 and will feature four films from this year’s Official Selection, as well as in-competition short films and the Cinéfondation’s school films. The event will be open to the public. Meanwhile, a jury will award the Palme d’Or for short films and the Cinéfondation prizes.

“The collection of four films from the Official Selection, the short film competition, the film school competition, and the dinners and meetings epitomize the happiness we’ll all feel to be together in Cannes in October,” said festival director Thierry Frémaux. “The films of the Official Selection are currently playing to cinemagoers in France, in Europe and throughout the world. It’s a great sign to...

Four features from the special 2020 Official selection will screen to the public.

The Cannes Film Festival, which was forced to cancel its 2020 edition in May due to the Covid-19 pandemic, has announced it will hold a special three-day physical event in Cannes from October 27-29

The festival also officially confirmed its intention to go ahead with its 74th edition in Cannes from May 11 to 21 2021.

October’s initiative will be a public focused event. It will preview four features from Cannes’s special 2020 Official Selection, which was announced back in June, as well as the short films selected in Competition and the Cinéfondation student film collection.

Miranda July’s Sundance title “Kajillionaire,” featuring Evan Rachel Wood and Debra Winger, and Josephine Decker’s Sundance winner “Shirley,” starring Elisabeth Moss, are amongst the first 10 galas announced by the Zurich Film Festival on Friday.

The galas also include Emmanuel Courcol’s Cannes official selection “The Big Hit,” starring Kad Merad (“Baron Noir”); Michael Dweck, Gregory Kershaw’s Sundance title “The Truffle Hunters”; and Uberto Pasolini’s “Nowhere Special,” that is up for a Horizons award at Venice.

There are a pair of homegrown world premieres – “Zurcher Tagebuch,” where Zurich director Stefan Haupt takes the audience through the changes in his hometown since 1961; and Rolf Lyssy’s “Eden für jeden,” a feel-good comedy that shows the allotment garden as a mirror of multicultural Switzerland.

Further titles include Ryan White’s docu-thriller “Assassins”; Ariel Winograd’s “The Heist of the Century”; and Michel Franco’s “New Order.”

The festival states that “despite the pandemic,...

Both films screened in Cannes virtual market at the end of June.

Paris-based mk2 films has unveiled first deals on its Cannes 2020 label titles The Big Hit and Here We Are, which it screened in the recent virtual edition of the Marché du Film at the end of June.

French director Emmanuel Courcol’s comedy The Big Hit has sold to Benelux (Paradiso Filmed Entertainment), Italy (Teodora Film), Scandinavia (NonStop Entertainment), Spain (Caramel Films), Switzerland (Filmcoopi), Poland (Galapagos Films) and Portugal (Nos Lusomundo).

In the rest of the world, deals have been done for Cis (Russian Word Vision), Brazil (Imovision...

Kad Merad, star of Dany Boon’s “Welcome to the Sticks,” the highest-grossing film of all time in France, will star in Stéphane Berthomieux’s “Playback,” which has been picked up for international sales by Paris-based Luxbox.

Produced by director Mathieu Demy, whose credits include Salma Hayek-starrer “Americano” and TV series “The Bureau,” “Playback,” the fiction feature debut of documentarian Berthomieux. Pic co-stars Déborah François, star of Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne’s Palme d’Or winning “The Child,” and Geraldine Chaplin.

Variety has also had exclusive access to the film’s poster.

Co-written by Demy and Berthomieux, “Playback” begins on the day of Dean Martin’s death, when Daniel, a French crooner, decides to sell his vintage American car to go to Los Angeles for the funeral of his idol. Witnessing the demolition of Las Vegas’ Sands Hotel — the ultimate symbol of his Dean Martin-esque fantasy — Daniel kills off his beloved crooner persona,...

The project is filming and set for a 2020 delivery.

Paris-based mk2 films will kick off sales this Afm on Emmanuel Courcol’s French comedy The Big Hit starring Kad Merad as a struggling actor, running theatre workshops in a local prison, who takes a rag-tag troupe of convicts on tour with a performance of Samuel Beckett’s famous play Waiting for Godot.

Agat Films is lead producing with actor-director Dany Boon on board as a co-producer through his company Les Productions du Ch’timi. Memento Films has taken French rights.

Merad, who is best known internationally for his role in...

Kad Merad, Marina Hands, Laurent Stocker, Patrick Pineau and Sofian Khammes star. An Agat Films production sold by mk2. Filming is set to begin on 22 October for Un Triomphe (translation: A Triumph), Emmanuel Courcol’s second feature after Ceasefire (unveiled on the Piazza Grande at Locarno in 2016). The cast includes Kad Merad, Marina Hands, Laurent Stocker (winner of the Best Newcomer César award in 2008 for Hunting and Gathering; appreciated in Miss and the Doctors,...

Update, Writethru: France’s biggest movie awards night has drawn to a close with Custody (Jusqu’à La Garde) crowned Best Picture. Originally screened in Venice and Toronto in 2017, it’s a story of domestic abuse that stars Denis Ménochet and Léa Drucker, the latter won Best Actress tonight. Jacques Audiard’s The Sisters Brothers also scored multiple recognition including Best Director.

While some of tonight’s winners in Paris were expected — during a ceremony that is forever laborious — it was a major shock to see an In Memoriam segment minus two incredibly important figures. Where was Michel Le Grand? And why was Samuel Hadida not remembered in a first segment, but the added later in the telecast? Franchement?

In any case, below is a rundown of

Previous: France’s Académie des Arts et Techniques du Cinéma is handing out its César Awards tonight in Paris. Nominations for the local...

France’s Académie des Arts et Techniques du Cinéma unveiled its nominations for the César Awards this morning in Paris. The races for the country’s Oscar equivalent are led by Xavier Legrand’s feature debut Jusqu’à La Garde (Custody) and Gilles Lellouche’s Le Grand Bain (Sink Or Swim) with 10 mentions each. They are followed by Jacques Audiard’s English-language western, The Sisters Brothers, and Pierre Salvadori’s En Liberté! (The Trouble With You) with nine a piece. All four are in the Best Picture and Director categories.

There’s a noticeably lighter edge to the nominations this year with Le Grand Bain a sort of Full Monty à la française that sees a group of middle-aged men form a synchronized swimming team. The movie debuted out of competition in Cannes and became the 3rd highest grossing local title of 2018 with over 5M tickets sold.

Also out of Cannes,...

French actor-turned-director Gilles Lellouche’s “Sink or Swim” and Xavier Legrand’s feature debut “Custody” lead the race for this year’s Cesar Awards, France’s equivalent of the Oscars, with 10 nominations each, including best picture and best director.

“Sink or Swim” (“Le Grand Bain” in France), a star-driven dramedy about a men’s synchronized swimming team, world-premiered at Cannes out of competition and was released by Studiocanal. The ensemble film, which was one of the highest-grossing French films in 2018, picked up multiple nominations in the best supporting actor and actress categories, for Jean-Hugues Anglade, Philippe Katerine, Leila Bekhti and Virginie Efira.

“Custody” follows a boy named Julien (Thomas Gioria), who is forced by a court ruling to split his time between his mother (Léa Drucker) and estranged father (Denis Ménochet), whom he regards as a violent monster, amid his parents’ bitter divorce. “Custody” world-premiered in competition at the Venice Film Festival,...

Gaumont is reteaming with “The Intouchables” and “C’est La Vie” production banner Quad on Mohamed Hamidi (“One Man and His Cow”)’s concept company “Queens of The Field.”

The movie is set in a small rural town which is on the verge of losing its funding along with its field. The threat leads the town women to join forces and launch a football crew in order to defend their city. But in a community where football has always been considered a men’s sport, the women’s team turns the town upside down.

“Queens of The Field” is headlined by a strong French cast, including Kad Merad (“Little Nicholas”), Alban Ivanov (“Sink or Swim”), Sabrina Ouazani (“Taxi 5”) and Céline Sallette (“The Returned”).

Hamidi previously directed “One Man and His Cow,” which grossed over $10 million and was nominated for a European Film Award in 2016.

Gaumont described the film...

Lovable yet easily irritable French comic star Kad Merad has lined up a string of hits (Welcome to the Sticks, The Chorus) and misses (Bangkok, We Have a Problem!, F.B.I. Frog Butthead Investigators) over the past decade, with each new summer bringing a new broad studio comedy for him to headline. This year is no exception, with Merad playing the lead role in the fun if facile Looking For Teddy, a caper about two complete strangers who join forces to find a missing stuffed animal. (Note: The original title, Le Doudou, is the word French kids use to describe such toys. For ...

Lovable yet easily irritable French comic star Kad Merad has lined up a string of hits (Welcome to the Sticks, The Chorus) and misses (Bangkok, We Have a Problem!, F.B.I. Frog Butthead Investigators) over the past decade, with each new summer bringing a new broad studio comedy for him to headline. This year is no exception, with Merad playing the lead role in the fun if facile Looking For Teddy, a caper about two complete strangers who join forces to find a missing stuffed animal. (Note: The original title, Le Doudou, is the word French kids use to describe such toys. For ...

Cannes — Studiocanal, Europe’s biggest TV-film production-distribution-sales company, owned by Vivendi’s Canal Plus Group, has closed international sales on Danish family relationship drama “Ride Upon the Storm,” a flagship title in Studiocanal’s drive into high-end European drama series.

Adam Price’s follow-up to “Borgen,” “Ride Upon the Storm,” starring Lars Mikkelsen (“House of Cards”), has been acquired by a broad gamut of TV operators from South African pay TV network M-Net Africa, to public broadcasters such as Tvnz for New Zealand and Rte Eire, as well as Sbs Australia, which has a strong line in foreign-language series.

Further buyers include Lumière Benelux, Rtvs Slovakia, Nc+ in Poland; and Lrt Lithuania. Studiocanal sold the drama to Telefonica’s Movistar + in Spain; upscale European broadcaster Arte has rights to French and German-speaking Europe. Danish pubcaster Dr, which lead-produced the drama with Arte France and Sam le Français, aired “Ride Upon the Storm” from September.

Some 40 French companies will participate in Paris showcase.

Source: Alain Guizard

The Red Collar

Jean Becker’s WW1 drama The Red Collar will open Unifrance’s 20th Rendez-vous with French Cinema in Paris, running Jan 18-22, 2018, its international sales agent FranceTV Distribution (Ftd) has announced.

The Wwi drama, adapted from the 2014 novel by Jean-Christophe Rufin, resolves around the interrogation of a decorated war hero who has fallen from grace after staging a strange, anti-war protest using his medal.

Nicolas Duvauchelle plays the disgraced soldier opposite François Cluzet as a corrupt judge who is charged with the task of interrogating the young man. French-Belgian actress Sophie Verbeek plays the fallen hero’s lover. Above and below, Screen can reveal the two first look images from the film.

The production is one of the first titles to be completed on the slate of FranceTV Distribution’s new feature film division following its launch at the 2017 Paris Rendez-vous.

Other upcoming titles...

Some 40 French companies will participate in Paris showcase.

Source: Alain Guizard

The Red Collar

Jean Becker’s WW1 drama The Red Collar will open Unifrance’s 20th Rendez-vous with French Cinema in Paris, running Jan 18-22, 2018, its international sales agent FranceTV Distribution (Ftd) has announced.

The Wwi drama, adapted from the 2014 novel by Jean-Christophe Rufin, resolves around the interrogation of a decorated war hero who has fallen from grace after staging a strange, anti-war protest using his medal.

Nicolas Duvauchelle plays the disgraced soldier opposite François Cluzet as a corrupt judge who is charged with the task of interrogating the young man. French-Belgian actress Sophie Verbeek plays the fallen hero’s lover. Above and below, Screen can reveal the two first look images from the film.

The production is one of the first titles to be completed on the slate of FranceTV Distribution’s new feature film division following its launch at the 2017 Paris Rendez-vous.

Some 40 French companies will participate in Paris showcase.

Source: Alain Guizard

The Red Collar

Jean Becker’s WW1 drama The Red Collar will open Unifrance’s 20th Rendez-vous with French Cinema in Paris, running Jan 18-22, 2018, its international sales agent FranceTV Distribution (Ftd) has announced.

The Wwi drama, adapted from the 2014 novel by Jean-Christophe Rufin, resolves around the interrogation of a decorated war hero who has fallen from grace after staging a strange, anti-war protest using his medal.

Nicolas Duvauchelle plays the disgraced soldier opposite François Cluzet as a corrupt judge who is charged with the task of interrogating the young man. French-Belgian actress Sophie Verbeek plays the fallen hero’s lover.

The production is one of the first titles to be completed on the slate of FranceTV Distribution’s new feature film division following its launch at the 2017 Paris Rendez-vous.

Other upcoming titles on its slate include Xabi Molia’s Comme Des Rois,...

Some 40 French companies will participate in Paris showcase.

Source: Alain Guizard

The Red Collar

Jean Becker’s WW1 drama The Red Collar will open Unifrance’s 20th Rendez-vous with French Cinema in Paris, running Jan 18-22, 2018, its international sales agent FranceTV Distribution (Ftd) has announced.

The Wwi drama, adapted from the 2014 novel by Jean-Christophe Rufin, resolves around the interrogation of a decorated war hero who has fallen from grace after staging a strange, anti-war protest using his medal.

Nicolas Duvauchelle plays the disgraced soldier opposite François Cluzet as a corrupt judge who is charged with the task of interrogating the young man. French-Belgian actress Sophie Verbeek plays the fallen hero’s lover.

The production is one of the first titles to be completed on the slate of FranceTV Distribution’s new feature film division following its launch at the 2017 Paris Rendez-vous.

Other upcoming titles on its slate include Xabi Molia’s Comme Des Rois, starring Kad Merad as a con...

Exclusive: Gaumont unveils first pre-sales as film goes into production

Gaumont has officially kicked off sales on new comedy A Man In A Hurry, starring Fabrice Luchini as a successful and eloquently persuasive businessman who is struck down by a stroke, opposite Leila Bekhti as a speech therapist.

Deals tied up in the first two days of the market include to Switzerland (Jmh), Cinéart (Benelux), Canada (Az Films), Israel (Shoval) and Poland (Kinowiat). The production, which begins shooting this month, reunites Bekhti with filmmaker Hervé Mimran, who previously directed the actress in the 2012 film New York about a friends reunion in the Us.

Luchini, who was feted with best actor in Venice for his performance as a feared but personally awkward magistrate in Courted, will play Alain, a once powerful captain of industry, with little time for friends and family, who is recovering from a stroke.

Once a great orator, he is no longer...

Exclusive: Kill Your Friends, Return to Sender among pick-ups.

Ascot Elite has acquired a trio of films for German-speaking Europe including UK thriller Kill Your Friends from Altitude.

Nicholas Hoult, James Corden and Rosanna Arquette star in the thriller about an A&R man working at the height of the Britpop music craze who goes to extremes in order to find his next hit.

The outfit also acquired thriller Return to Sender from Voltage for German-speaking Europe including all Switzerland.

Rosamund Pike and Nick Nolte are among the cast of the film in which a nurse living in a small town goes on a blind date with a man who is not all he seems.

Ascot has also taken all rights in German-speaking Europe, excluding Switzerland, for the French comedy Bis from Europacorp.

Kad Merad and Franck Dubosc star in the comedy about two friends, unsatisfied with their current lives, who accidentally...

Exclusive: New films by David Cronenberg, Quentin Dupieux and Lone Scherfig are among the titles acquired by German distributors at this year’s Afm.

Christian Meinke’s Mfa+ has picked up David Cronenberg’s Maps To The Stars, starring Robert Pattinson, Julianne Moore and John Cusack, and Tobias Lindholm’s thriller A Hijacking (Kapringen), about a Danish cargo ship hijacked by Somali pirates.

Mfa+ has also picked up producer/actor Vincent Grashaw’s feature debut Coldwater, which premiered at this year’s SXSW festival and won the audience award for best feature at Prague’s Fresh Film Festival.

Munich-based Tiberius Film came back from Santa Monica with another three titles in its luggage along with the films it had picked up at the beginning of the market.

New pick-ups included cult director Quentin Dupieux’s latest feature Wrong Cops, starring shock rocker Marylin Manson, Twin Peaks’ Grace Zabriskie alongside Steve Little, Eric Judor and [link...

DVD Release Date: Sept. 17, 2013

Price: DVD $24.98

Studio: Anchor Bay/The Weinstein Company

A battle royale is brewing in War of the Buttons.

Based on Louis Pergaud’s best-selling 1912 novel, La Guerre des boutons, the French family adventure film War of the Buttons stars actor/filmmaker Guillaume Canet (Love Me If You Dare), Laetitia Casta (Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life), Kad Merad (Welcome to the Sticks) and newcomers Jean Texler and Ilona Bachelier.

Set in France during World War II, War of the Buttons tells the tale of two rival groups of kids from neighboring villages. Pre-teen rebel Lebrac (Texier) leads a spirited group of kids in a pint-sized “war” where the victory comes from capturing the enemies’ buttons, belts, and laces – forcing them to return home ragged to face their mothers’ reprimand. When Violette (Bachelier), a young Jewish girl, comes to town to hide from the Nazis, Lebrac befriends her and...

Those Who Love Me Can Catch the Train Wreck: Thompson’s Latest Flat, Overstuffed

Familial relationships and transportation, two favorite themes of writer/director Daniele Thompson, figure heavily in her latest feature, It Happened in Saint Tropez, a breezy situational comedy that suffers from a hokey forced charm, beginning with its misleading English title translation (the original title, Des gens qui s’embrassent should be something along the lines of People Who Embrace). A cousin in tone to something like Anne Fontaine’s 2009 bauble headed The Girl From Monaco, it unfortunately fails to match the effervescent enchantment of some of Thompson’s past titles, like her lovely 2006 film, Avenue Montaigne.

Noga (Lou de Laage) is a young cellist living in New York with her intense musician parents, Irene (Valerie Bonneton) and Zef (Eric Elmosnino). Familial drama rears its head in their isolated universe by the upcoming wedding of Zef’s...

Hollywood's annual French film festival, Col•Coa (City of Lights, City of Angels), has released the complete features lineup today as a follow-up to last week's reveal of the short films. The festival runs from April 15-22 and will include 38 features and 19 new shorts. The festival will open with "It Happened in Saint-Tropez", the new comedy directed by Danièle Thompson which was co-written by Thompson and Christopher Thompson. The film is centered on a family who have to host a funeral and marriage on the same day, brewing up domestic conflicts while opening the door for forgiveness and love. The film stars Kad Merad, Monica Bellucci, Lou de Laâge and Eric Elmosnino. Read below for the full feature lineup in alphabetical order: 11.6 / 11.6 Directed by: Philippe Godeau Written by: Philippe Godeau, Agnès De Sacy A Few Hours Of Spring / Quelques heures de printemps Directed by: Stéphane Brizé Written by: Stéphane Brizé,...