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When Richard Linklater set off to direct “Nouvelle Vague,” a black-and-white tribute to Jean-Luc Godard that charts the making of his debut film “Breathless,” the Oscar-nominated American director spared no details. He recreated the 1959 classic’s Parisian setting, lighthearted mood and three-way chemistry between the two leads and their director – played by Jean Seberg, Jean-Paul Belmondo and Godard lookalikes: Zoey Deutch, Aubry Dullin and Guillaume Marbeck.

While speaking about the film at Biarritz’s Nouvelle Vague Festival where his latest film played on opening night this week, Linklater and “Nouvelle Vague” producer Michele Halberstadt said that everything seen in the film — which had a rapturous world premiere in competition at Cannes — happened in real life. New Wave film buff Linklater did extensive research alongside Halberstadt, who knew Godard well throughout her career in journalism. Halberstadt one point headed Premiere magazine in France before launching her production and distribution company Arp Selection...

Richard Linklater’s “Nouvelle Vague,” a cinematic love letter to the French New Wave which bowed at Cannes, will aptly kick off the third edition of the Biarritz Film Festival, also called Nouvelles Vagues, on June 24.

On the following day, Sofia Coppola, the festival’s guest of honor, will attend a screening of “Virgin Suicides” to celebrate its 25-year anniversary and take part in a masterclass before an audience filled with film students.

Coppola’s presence at the festival reflects the involvement of Chanel, a partner of the festival whose mantra is to shine a spotlight on young talent in front and behind the camera. Chanel hosted a glamorous dinner at the Grand Café du Grand Palais in Paris in honor of the festival on June 3.

Along with Nouvelles Vagues founder and president Jérôme Pulis, general delegate Sandrine Brauer and programming director Lili Hinstin, and Chanel president of fashion Bruno Pavlovsky,...

Exclusive: Richard Linklater’s love letter to the New Wave Nouvelle Vague has sold to more than 20 theatrical distributors worldwide for Goodfellas following its buzzy Cannes premiere, as one of four French majority productions in Competition this year.

They join Paris-based distributor Arp Sélection which will release the film in cinemas in France on October 8 on 500 screens, having produced the film under the banner of Arp Production with Linklater’s Austin-based Detour Film.

The French-language production about the making of Jean-Luc Godard’s 1960s New Wave classic Breathless has sold out in Europe for Paris-based sales company Goodfellas.

It has unveiled deals to Benelux (Cherry Pickers), the UK & Ireland (Altitude), Switzerland (Filmcoopi), Germany, (Plaion), Spain (Elastica Films), Greece (Cinobo), Italy (Lucky Red /Bim), Portugal (Alambique), Scandinavia (TriArt Film), Ex-Yugoslavia (McF Megacom), Romania (Independenta), Baltics (Scanorama) and Cis (Mjm Group).

In the rest of the world, it has been acquired for...

Netflix has acquired US distribution rights to Richard Linklater’s Nouvelle Vague following the film’s debut in Competition at Cannes this month.

Nouvelle Vague follows the production of Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless, the 1960 film that was a key moment in the French New Wave moment.

Netflix had no comment on the size of the deal, which has been reported elsewhere as in the region of $4m.

Linklater’s film stars Guilllaume Marbeck as Godard, with Zoey Deutch as Jean Seberg and Aubry Dullin as Jean-Paul Belmondo, the two stars of Breathless.

The film debuted on Saturday, May 17 in Cannes...

Acclaimed filmmaker Richard Linklater's Nouvelle Vaguefinds a home at Netflix.

Per Variety, Linklater's latest feature film, Nouvelle Vague, has officially been picked up by Netflix. Although this comes as a promising update for fans of the filmmaker's work, it also means that there is no guarantee of any theatrical release for the film apart from the scant two weeks necessary for it to qualify for major industry award nominations.

A retelling of the filming and production of Jean-Luc Godard's 1960 masterpiece Breathless (which itself is considered a pinnacle of the Nouvelle Vague or French New Wave film movement), Nouvelle Vague stars Guillaume Marbeck as the legendary filmmaker. Alongside Marbeck's Godard are Zoey Deutch as the legendary Jean Seberg and Aubry Dullin as Jean-Paul Belmondo. The film was directed by Linklater from a screenplay penned by Holly Gent, Vincent Palmo Jr., Laetita Masson, and Michèle Pétin. During its debut at Cannes,...

Exclusive: Netflix has won out in a tug of war for Richard Linklater’s Breathless homage Nouvelle Vague after its Cannes Film Festival debut in the competition.

We understand the deal has closed for a hefty $4 million, a record domestic outlay for a French-language movie.

This is an interesting one. Breathless is viewed as a cinema classic and Nouvelle Vague a love letter to cinema. Could there be longer theatrical play either in the U.S. or overseas before it hits Netflix? At least domestically, we hear it’s likely to just be the usual awards-qualifying two-week window.

Nouvelle Vague launched to warm words at the Cannes Film Festival two weekends ago. In the right hands, the talk has been that the film could figure in the awards race.

Netflix is coming off an eventful awards season with Spanish-language movie Emilia Pérez, which scored 13 Oscar nominations and two wins. There...

When it comes to getting indie films made, Richard Linklater lives by the golden rule of “fake it until you make it.”

The 5x Oscar nominee recently opened up about the struggles of financing as an indie filmmaker, explaining that they have to “be a cheap hustler” and “have some charm” in order to convince financiers to invest in their work.

“If no one wants to support you, that just means you are not ready yet,” said Linklater at IndieWire‘s Future of Filmmaking Summit at Cannes. “Maybe you don’t have the confidence or something’s not exuding from you that needs to be for people to believe in you, and that’s usually you believing in yourself. You can’t fake that. You have to earn that through your own experience, your own confidence, your own hard work and dedication.”

Linklater’s comments come after his latest indie...

Multiple domestic buyers are in the mix to buy Richard Linklater’s Breathless homage, Nouvelle Vague, which launched to warm words at the Cannes Film Festival over the weekend.

We expect a deal to get done in the next 48 hours and it should be at the higher end for a U.S. acquisition of a French-language movie. In the right hands, there’s talk the film could figure in the awards race.

The film reconstructs the story behind Godard’s cinema classic. French actor Guillaume Marbeck portrays Jean-Luc Godard, Zoey Deutch plays Jean Seberg and newcomer Aubry Dullin portrays Jean Paul Belmondo. Characters in the movie include cinema legends Godard, Jean Cocteau, Robert Bresson, Roberto Rossellini, Jean-Pierre Melville, Eric Rohmer, Agnes Varda and Jacques Rivette.

Following the Competition title’s world premiere at Cannes on Saturday, the audience at the Palais gave the movie an 11-minute ovation. Our critic Pete Hammond...

Following its Cannes premiere, Richard Linklater‘s black-and-white tribute to Jean-Luc Godard has released a sneak peek.

In the first teaser for Nouvelle Vague (New Wave), Guillaume Marbeck portrays the French-Swiss filmmaker as he directs his first feature, 1960’s Breathless, in Paris.

Featuring the same warm black-and-white ’60s film aesthetic of the seminal source film, Nouvelle Vague is “told in the style and spirit in which Godard made Breathless,” directed by Linklater from a script by Vince Palmo, Michèle Halberstadt, Laetitia Masson and Holly Gent.

Along with Marbeck as Godard, the cast includes Zoey Deutch as American actress Jean Seberg and Aubry Dullin as her French co-star Jean Paul-Belmondo.

The teaser features shots from Nouvelle Vague, narrated by a woman in French. “A pretty boy. A pretty girl. Paris 1959. A gym. A director. A camera. Film. A producer. An ingénue. Stars. Money,” she says, leading up to the title card.

It’s hard to imagine an American indie movie more suitable for a Cannes red-carpet premiere than Richard Linklater‘s Nouvelle Vague. The maverick director’s black-and-white love letter to the French New Wave premiered to a rapturous response Saturday night inside Cannes’ Palais des Festivals, drawing a 10-minute-plus standing ovation from the black-tie crowd.

“Cinema is magic,” Linklater said as the house lights came up inside the cinema and the applause finally began to dwindle.

The standing ovation even got started before the lights came on as the crowd began clapping in unison for Linklater’s moving tribute to French cinema.

Going into the night, there was considerable anticipation surrounding Linklater’s 23rd feature. The film wasn’t screened for critics in advance of the premiere, as the director was said to prefer that it be seen for the first time on the big screen at its French unveiling.

The official synopsis for Richard Linklater’s Nouvelle Vague describes it as “the story of Godard making Breathless, told in the style and spirit in which Godard made Breathless.”

It’s a catchy pitch but also a bit deceiving. Godard’s 1960 film broke all sorts of narrative and stylistic conventions, writing its own rules about what a movie could do and paving the way for modern cinema as we know it. Linklater’s charming and well-researched homage is much more traditional: Told in a linear fashion, shot with a sizeable crew, featuring actors who look and act like the famous people they’re playing, relying on tons of VFX shots to recreate Paris at the time, it’s a far cry from the style of Godard. And yet it does an impressive job capturing the spirit of the man at work, highlighting what it took — and often didn’t take...

Arp has taken distribution rights in France to Huo Meng’s Berlinale competition title “Living the Land,” which will have its world premiere Friday. World sales agency M-Appeal finalized the deal at the opening of the European Film Market.

Set in 1991, as China is going through sweeping socio-economic changes, “Living the Land” follows 10-year-old Chuang, whose family is caught between the weight of tradition and the pull of progress. A teaser clip of the film was released to Variety today.

Arp has acquired all rights and will release the film theatrically in France. The distributor has been instrumental in introducing Asian cinema to French audiences, bringing acclaimed titles such as Zhang Yimou’s “Raise the Red Lantern” (Venice Silver Lion), “The Story of Qiu Ju” (Venice Golden Lion), “To Live” (Cannes Grand Prize), Chen Kaige’s “Farewell My Concubine” (Cannes Palme d’Or), and Wong Kar-wai’s early films, from...

Cinema Management Group (Cmg) has licensed 4 Cats Pictures’ Spanish box office hit Buffalo Kids to Arp Selection in France.

The animation co-directed by Jesus Garcia Galocha and Pedro Solis opened in Spain on August 14 through Warner Bros. It shot up the charts to rank as the second-highest Spanish film of the year to date on $5.4m and over 775,000 admissions and counting.

Buffalo Kids premiered in the inaugural non-competitive Annecy Presents strand in June and follows two Irish orphans who arrive in New York City by ocean liner in 1886. Gemma Arterton, Alisha Weir, Stephen Graham, and Sean Bean lead the voice cast.

Exclusive: Arp Sélection has acquired French distribution rights for Jiří Mádl’s historical thriller Waves, which was recently announced as the Czech Republic’s entry to the Best International Feature Film category at the 97th Academy Awards.

Set during Prague Spring of 1968, the drama follows a radio station employee who finds himself caught between the secret services and his revolutionary brother as the station broadcasts a confidential recording, forcing him to confront history head-on.

Arp Sélection co-head Michèle Halberstadt said the film appealed to her on a number of levels.

“Having been a radio producer for many years, I was personally very touched by the film and how radio always plays an important part in historical upheavals,” she said.

“We at Arp, are very keen to release those kinds of films that bring history to today’s audiences with intelligence and spirit.”

The deal was secured by Paris-based Urban Sales.

France has picked Jacques Audiard’s Mexico-set musical Emilia Perez to represent the country in the best international feature category at the 2025 Academy Awards as it attempts to sing its way to a victory in the category for the first time in more than 30 years.

The primarily Spanish-language song-filled film is about cartel leader Emilia, who enlists an unappreciated lawyer to help fake her death so Emilia can live authentically as her true self.

It won both the Cannes Jury prize for director Audiard and a shared best actress award for its female cast Karla Sofía Gascón, Selena Gomez, Zoe Saldana...

France has selected Jacques Audiard’s Spanish-language musical Emilia Pérez to represent it in the Best International Feature Film category at the 97th Academy Awards.

The drama stars Karla Sofía Gascón as cartel leader Emilia who enlists the help of unappreciated lawyer Rita (Saldana) to help her fake her death so she can live authentically as her true self.

It premiered at Cannes, where it earned its four actresses – Gascón, Saldaña, Selena Gomez, and Adriana Paz – a collective Best Actress award, and also clinched the jury prize.

The film was selected from a short list of four films which also included swashbuckler The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre de La Patellière and Matthieu Delaporte; French-produced Indian drama All We Imagine as Light by Payal Kapadia and Misericordia by Alain Guiraudie.

This year’s revamped selection committee featured sales agent Carole Baraton, producer Nadim Cheikhroua (Four Daughters), Venice Golden Lion...

France’s revamped Oscar committee has selected Jacques Audiard’s exhilarating redemption thriller “Emilia Perez” for the international feature film race. The movie won two major awards at the Cannes Film Festival and earned rave reviews.

“Emilia Perez” stars Karla Sofía Gascón as a fearsome drug lord who embraces her true self as a woman. The Spanish-language film earned one of Cannes’s longest standing ovations and went on to win the Jury Prize (in a jury presided over by Greta Gerwig), on top of a best actress prize for the ensemble cast, including Gascón, Zoe Saldaña, Selena Gomez and Adriana Paz. The movie was bought by Netflix for the U.S. and the U.K. following its Cannes premiere.

Audiard is a revered French auteur who won a Palme d’Or with “Dheepan,” and was previously nominated for a foreign-language Oscar with “A Prophet” starring Tahar Rahim.

Although “Emilia Perez...

Cannes-premiering quartet Emilia Pérez, French box office hit The Count Of Monte Cristo, Misericordia and All We Imagine as Light have made the shortlist for France’s international feature film Oscar submission.

The four films were selected by a recently revamped 11-member selection committee appointed by France’s cultural minister Rachida Dati per a recommendation from national film body Cnc, which announced the selection on Wednesday evening.

Former head of Cannes’ Critics’ Week Charles Tesson presides over the selectors, who include producers Patrick Wachsberger, David Thion and Nadim Cheikhroua, sales agents Carole Baraton of Charades and Kinology’s Gregoire Melin,...

Cannes-premiering quartet Emilia Pérez, French box office hit The Count Of Monte Cristo, Misericordia and All We Imagine as Light have made the shortlist for France’s international feature film Oscar submission.

The four films were selected by a recently revamped 11-member selection committee appointed by France’s cultural minister Rachida Dati per a recommendation from national film body Cnc, which announced the selection on Wednesday evening.

Former head of Cannes’ Critics’ Week Charles Tesson presides over the selectors, who include producers Patrick Wachsberger, David Thion and Nadim Cheikhroua, sales agents Carole Baraton of Charades and Kinology’s Gregoire Melin,...

Cannes-premiering quartet Emilia Pérez, French box office hit The Count Of Monte Cristo, Misericordia and All We Imagine as Light have made the shortlist for France’s international feature film Oscar submission.

The four films were selected by a recently revamped 11-member selection committee appointed by France’s cultural minister Rachida Dati per a recommendation from national film body Cnc, which announced the selection on Wednesday evening.

Former head of Cannes’ Critics’ Week Charles Tesson presides over the selectors, who include producers Patrick Wachsberger, David Thion and Nadim Cheikhroua, sales agents Carole Baraton of Charades and Kinology’s Gregoire Melin,...

France’s Oscar committee has shortlisted four movies, including Jacques Audiard’s redemption thriller “Emilia Perez” and “The Count of Monte Cristo,” an epic adventure film adapted from Alexandre Dumas’ classic, as well as Payal Kapadia‘s “All We Imagine as Light” and Alain Guiraudie’s “Misericordia.”

All four movies word premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. “Emilia Perez” won two major awards, the Jury Prize and a best actress nod for its ensemble female cast, Karla Sofía Gascón, Selena Gomez, Zoe Saldana and Adriana Paz; while “All We Imagine as Light,” a tale of two Mumbai nurses bonding, won the Grand Prize, becoming the first Indian film in 30 years to win the award. Kapadia was also the first Indian female director to compete at Cannes. Guiraudie’s darkly comic and provocative “Misericordia” played at Cannes Premiere and recently screened at Telluride and Toronto, while “The Count of Monte Cristo,...

France has unveiled the four titles in the running to represent it in the Best International Feature Film category at the 97th Academy Awards.

They are:

All We Imagine as Light by Payal Kapadia The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre de La Patellière, Matthieu Delaporte Emilia Pérez by Jacques Audiard Misericordia by Alain Guiraudie

This year’s candidate is being decided by a restructured selection committee – featuring Venice Golden Lion winner Audrey Diwan and Oscar winners, writer, director and producer Florian Zeller and producer Patrick Wachsberger – as...

France has revealed the 11 members of its newly revamped Oscars selection committee as the country attempts to win its first award in the best international feature category in more than 30 years.

Former head of Cannes’ Critics’ Week Charles Tesson will preside over the group of leading industry figures who include Oscar-winning producer Patrick Wachsberger, Charades co-founder Carole Baraton, Kinology founder Gregoire Melin, filmmakers Audrey Diwan and Florian Zeller, producer and distributor Rosalie Varda, actress Clémence Poesy, Anatomy Of A Fall producer David Thion, distributor, producer and author Michèle Halberstadt of Arp Selection, and Four Daughters producer Nadim Cheikhroua.

France’s...

France’s National Film Board has unveiled its revamped and expanded Oscar committee which is presided over by Charles Tesson, the former artistic director of Cannes’ Critics Week.

Along with Tesson, the committee includes “Emmanuelle” director Audrey Diwan who won Venice’s Golden Lion with “Happening” in 2021; critically acclaimed French playwright, director and producer Florian Zeller (“The Father”); former Lionsgate boss Patrick Wachsberger; international sales veterans Carole Baraton from Charades, and Gregoire Melin from Kinology; powerful French distributor Michèle Halberstadt from Arp Selection; producers Rosalie Varda (“Faces Places”) from Ciné-Tamaris, Nadim Cheikhroua (“Olfa’s Daughters”) and David Thion (“Anatomy of a Fall”) at Les Films Pelléas; and actor Clemence Poesy.

Appointed by France’s culture minister, Rachida Dati, the committee is facing the difficult task of picking the French film that is best suited to give the country its first Oscar win for best international feature in over three decades.

Deepak Rauniyar’s “Pooja, Sir,” which is in the Venice Film Festival’s Horizons strand competition this year, has revealed several territory sales and a first teaser.

The film is inspired by real events which took place in Southern Nepal during the 2015 race protests, involving the Madhesi community. In the film, when two boys are kidnapped in a border town in Nepal, Detective Inspector Pooja is sent from Kathmandu to solve the case. However, upon her arrival, the brewing political unrest and violent protests throw her off course, compelling her to seek help from Mamata, a local Madhesi policewoman. By putting aside systemic discrimination and pushing through everyday misogyny, the women attempt to solve the case.

The cast is led by Asha Magrati and also includes Nepali cinema superstar Dayahang Rai, Nikita Chandak, Reecha Sharma, Bijay Baral, Gaumaya Gurung, Aarti Mandal, Ghanashyam Mishra, Prameshwar Kumar Jha, Pashupati Rai and Niraj Shrestha.

Exclusive: Goodfellas has acquired international rights for French director Gaël Morel’s drama To Live, To Die, To Live Again set against the AIDS epidemic in the early 1990s, ahead of its world premiere in Cannes.

Rising French actors Victor Belmondo, Lou Lampros and Théo Christine co-star as a romantically entwined trio whose youthful dalliance takes them into life-changing territory with the arrival of AIDS. While they expect the worse, the destiny of each character will take an unexpected turn.

Morel has taken inspiration from his own teenage fears around AIDS in the 1990s as well as research he did for a planned documentary on people who caught the virus and were saved at the last minute by the development of effective antiretroviral therapies.

Michèle Halberstadt and Laurent Pétin produced the film under the banner of their Paris-based film company Arp Sélection, which will also distribute the feature in France.

Paris-based distributor Arp Selection has acquired French rights for Paul Schrader’s Oh, Canada ahead of its world premiere in Competition at the Cannes Film Festival in May.

Oscar nominee Schrader wrote and directed the film, which reunites him with Richard Gere some 40 years after their collaboration on American Gigolo, with other members of the cast including Uma Thurman, Michael Imperioli and Jacob Elordi.

Schrader has adapted the drama from late writer Russell Banks’ 2021 novel Foregone, about a renowned documentary maker with secrets from the past. It is Schrader’s second adaptation of a work by Banks, after 1997 mystery thriller Affliction, starring Nick Nolte and Sissy Spacek.

“We’ve been long-time admirers of Paul Schrader’s work and devout readers of Russell Banks’ books,” said Arp Selection head Michèle Halberstadt.

“Oh, Canada is the reunion of two masters, and also a reunion between Paul Schrader and Richard Gere,...

French distributor Arp has picked up all French rights Paul Schrader’s new film Oh, Canada ahead of its world premiere in competition in Cannes next month.

The feature stars Richard Gere, Uma Thurman, Michael Imperioli and Jacob Elordi.

Oh, Canada reunites Schrader with Gere, more than 40 years after their first collaboration on American Gigolo. Adapted from the Russell Banks novel Foregone, Oh, Canada sees Gere playing Leonard Fife, a famed American documentary filmmaker who fled to Canada as a young man to avoid the Vietnam War draft. Dying from cancer, he agrees to give a final interview where he promises to reveals his long-held secrets, speaking in front of his wife (Thurman), a devoted former student (Imperioli), and the film crew.

David Gonzales is the lead producer on Oh, Canada alongside Tiffany Boyle, Luisa Law, Scott Lastaiti and Meghan Hanlon. Arclight Films is handling international sales and WME Independent...

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,...

Paris-based leading distribution company Arp Selection has bought a pair of U.S. indie gems from the fall festival circuit, Shane Atkinson’s feature debut “Laroy” and Sofia Coppola’s “Priscilla.”

“Laroy,” a neo-noir Western comedy with Coen brothers influences, just won three major prizes at the Deauville Film Festival, including the Grand Prize, Audience Award and Critics Prize; while “Priscilla” world premiered at the Venice Film Festival and won best actress for Cailee Spaeny.

Produced by Cannes-based company Adastra Films, the film stars John Magaro as Ray, who decides to kill himself after discovering his wife has been cheating on him. But just before he pulls a trigger, a stranger takes him for a low-rent hitman.

Michele Halberstadt, who presides over Arp Selection with Laurent Pétin, praised “Laroy” for its “wonderful script, pitch-perfect performances and heart.” She said she had a “coup de coeur” for the movie after discovering...

Paris-based distributor Arp Sélection has snapped up the timely Sudanese drama “Goodbye Julia” for French distribution ahead of its Cannes Un Certain Regard premiere next week.

The film, which is Sudanese director Mohamed Kordofani’s feature debut, marks the first feature from Sudan to bow from the Croisette and takes place just before the 2011 secession of South Sudan. In “Goodbye Julia,” two women — one from the North, the other from the South — are brought together by fate in a complex relationship that attempts to reconcile differences between northern and southern Sudanese communities.

in an interview with Variety, Kordofani expressed the hope that his film “Can be the start of a movement for reconciliation between all the Sudanese people” in the war-ravaged country.

The two central roles are played respectively by Eiman Yousif and Sudanese supermodel Siran Riak (pictured above), making her big-screen acting debut. The cast also includes Nazar Goma and Ger Duany,...

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI, and sign up for our weekly email newsletter by clicking here.NEWSNo Bears.Jafar Panahi was released on bail last Friday, two days after starting a hunger strike to protest his seven-month imprisonment. “His next fight is to have the cancellation of his sentence officially recognized,” said Michèle Halberstadt, his French distributor. “He’s outside, he’s free, and this is already great.”Recommended VIEWINGPersonal Problems.Maya Cade of the Black Film Archive has chosen 28 films for the 28 days of Black History Month in the US and compiled online streaming links for each. The lineup includes films by Saundra Sharp, Bill Gunn, and many others.Filmmaker Jane Schoenbrun (We're All Going to the World's Fair)'s A Self-Induced Hallucination, their archival documentary about the Slenderman, is available for free on Vimeo. For more on the project,...

Cj strikes French deal for South Korean action film.

South Korea’s Cj Entertainment has sold Cannes Midnight Screenings title The Merciless to French distributor Arp, which will release the film throughout France on June 28.

Directed by Byun Sung-hyun (Whatcha Wearin’), The Merciless stars Seol Gyeong-gu (a.k.a. Sul Kyung-gu, Cold Eyes) as a gangster plotting to take over a criminal organisation who teams up with a fearless newbie in prison, played by boy band Ze:a member Yim Si-wan (The Attorney).

“The Merciless is a very tense thriller, a very clever script, expertly directed, with strong characters, great gunfights and many unexpected twists. We hope that in France, fans of thriller, action and pure entertainment will be as thrilled as we were watching the film,” said Michèle Halberstadt, Arp head of acquisitions.

Arp previously distributed other Korean titles such as Kim Jee-woon’s The Good, The Bad, The Weird and I Saw The Devil, as well as...

Exclusive: Upcoming horror follows a woman who attempts to bring back her dead father through a Ouija ritual.

Film Factory has licensed French rights to [Rec] director Paco Plaza’s upcoming horror film Veronica.

Arp Selection will distribute the story which producer Apache Films claims to be based on the only unexplained supernatural case in the annals of the Spanish police.

Sony has earmarked an autumn release in Spain on Veronica, about a young woman who must protect her younger brother and sister after she attempts to bring back the spirit of their dead father through a Ouija ritual.

Ana Torrent will star with Leticia Dolera, Consuelo Trujillo and newcomer Sandra Escacena in the lead role.

Enrique López-Lavigne from Apache Films serves as producer. Film Factory chief Vicente Canales brokered the deal with Michèle Halberstadt and Laurent Petin for Arp Selection.

“We’re glad to have closed this deal with such a good company as Arp Selection and to...

Michael O’Shea’s debut to world premiere next week at Cannes Film Festival.

French distributor Arp has acquired Michael O’Shea’s drama-horror The Transfiguration from Protagonist Pictures, a week before its world premiere at Cannes in Un Certain Regard.

The film stars newcomer Eric Ruffin alongside Chloe Levine, who made her film debut in Hilary Brougher thriller Innocence (2014) and has been cast in the next season of Netflix’s House Of Cards.

Producer is Susan Leber, whose credits include Sundance winner Down To The Bone directed by Debra Granik and Ti West’s first feature The Roost. She was also supervising producer on Gillian Robespierre’s comedy hit Obvious Child.

O’Shea both wrote and directed this New York story of love, loss and obsession. The story centres on a teenage outsider (Ruffin) who takes refuge from bullies in the apartment he shares with his older brother. To escape his solitude, he immerses...

The Toronto International Film Festival is celebrating its 40th anniversary this September. Tiff has become the most important international film festival in North America. It is a festival for the people of Toronto as well as for the film professionals who gather here for the first big event on the yearly film circuit of festivals and markets which culminates in May with the greatest film festival/ market of all, the Cannes International Film Festival and Marché.

Tiff’s red carpet Galas kick off the Academy Award Oscar Campaigns. The most important film distributors, international sales agents, producers, financiers, agents and festival programmers come to do business, buying and selling the newest of world cinema available at any festival. They gather and meet at the Hyatt which is where festival headquarters, the marketplace and conferences are held. The Hyatt itself is just around the corner from the multiplex where most of the movies are screened for the industry. Public screenings are around the city. Buyers also attend them because the Canadian public loves movies and offers a good sense of how the movies will be received publicly.

Helga Stephenson was Executive Director of the Festival from 1986 to 1996.

When she began many things in our world were changing - the financial crash of 1987, AIDS, Tiananmen Square in China, the Gulf War, genocides in Bosnia and Rwanda. Films were exploring new meanings for modern values. Native voices were just being heard, Latin American filmmakers were just emerging…

She is also founder and co-chair of the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival (https://ff.hrw.org/about).

She has been CEO of the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television since May 26, 2011. Her aim at the Academy is to make the Genies and the TV awards (the equivalents of the Oscars and Emmys in the U.S.) achieve the status of being engraved in the minds of every Canadian.

Did you always know you wanted to be in film?

Generationally, film was the major art form for sure. When at McGill University (Bachelor of Arts, 1969), I went to Robert Lantos’s Erotic Film Festival. We came from a generation where if it flickered on the screen, it was fabulous.

Films in the 70s both in and out of Hollywood were bursting on the screen. It was good-bye to Doris Day and hello “Bonnie and Clyde”. The screen was responding most strongly to my generation.

But there was no way then to make a living from film and so I became a PR person specializing in the arts, “a girl job” which got my foot in door.

My entry into film and TV was in 1976. Before that I was a fan. The world of film was almost exclusively male.

How did you break in?

I got there in spite of being a woman.

I moved to Toronto in the fall of 1976 from Havana where I had been teaching English in Cuso, the Canadian version of the Peace Corp.

I started an independent PR company called Sro with Maureen O’Donnell and Bob Ramsay and by our third year we were the PR company that took care of the Festival. We started the Fest’s first receptions at Cannes.

I volunteered to fundraise for the Festival and in 1982 I became Director of Communications.

At that time the classics divisions of the studios started up and women began getting jobs at the studios -- Linda Beath, Carol Greene, Mj Pekos, Donna Gigliotti. This was in the late 70s, early 80s …they were known in Cannes as “The Pink Mafia”. The numbers of women in business on Croisette in Cannes grew yearly: Aline Perry, Carole Myer, Claudie Cheval, Michele Halberstadt. No longer were they confined to PR and assistant positions or “D girls” like Marcia Nasitir who was already a veteran when we began. 20th Century Fox hired Sydney Levine, the first woman in international distribution in 1975. Agencies also began hiring women where earlier Sue Mengers and Ina Bernstein were the only female agents.

For Toronto, it was a very big leap for the Board to hire a woman. There were big arguments; it didn’t want a woman; it didn’t see how a publicity girl could jump out of the box even though she had negotiated most the deals with Hollywood.

How did they finally hire you?

I had a quite few advocates; people admired my work and they liked me. They were just not used to the idea of women in leadership positions. I had to be patient. Mounting an attack would not work. After they hired me, there was no looking back.

How did you feel throughout this? Did you feel inferior to men?

I never felt inferior; sometimes I felt locked out but I managed a style that that allowed them to allow me into the conversation.

How did you do this?

My style was very direct, even gruff, like the men.

How has it changed today?

40 years later in Canada, the business is predominately female. All three major TV networks are now run by women (Bell Media, Shaw Media and CBC). At my meetings with networks there may be 20 people in a room - mostly women. The whole market place has changed. Even banks concentrate on women, or on gays. It’s not through goodness of heart but by profit motives.

There is a huge cadre of female producers - very successful ones.

Where are the men?

I don’t know, in wealth management maybe.

How did this happen?

It seemed sudden. When I returned to the industry after raising my child,

I was shocked to see the cultural workplace was predominately women. Of course it is not perfect and to be exclusively female would be no good.

All the “culture” organizations are non-profit and encourage diversity rather than white male dominance across the board. Big corporate sponsors and networks are mostly women today in leadership positions.

I never expected to see this change happen so fast.

What were your biggest challenges in moving ahead in your career?

Balance between life and work is always very tricky especially as a single mother. I tipped toward my child and left the industry to care for her.

When I was not doing too much I brought Human Rights Watch to Canada to appease my conscience. This was 10 years ago. I wanted to feel I was doing my part to make the world a better place. I needed to know I was doing something.

What motivated you to start the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival?

They wanted to do a Film Festival, so I chaired it and found that it went back to my roots in Cuso.

Can you tell us more about it?

In the films we covered four or five years ago there was a spate of migrant films. It was so clear and obvious that what is happening today was coming. If people had been paying attention, today’s horrible situation could have been avoided. U.S. and Europe today look like a gated community.

Everyone came here for a better life. The entire continent was founded by immigrants…not anymore. This post-colonial mess all is based on anti-immigration sentiment of the current powers.

Then I became involved with establishing Reykjavik Film Festival because I was Icelandic. Joni Sigivattson the Hollywood producer suggested me for the role. Reykjavik is another film festival run by a woman.

How does it happen you are Icelandic? I thought you were Quebecoise.

I was born and raised in Montreal. My great grandmother divorced my great grandfather and came to Canada with my grandfather.

What about today’s women in the film industry both in the creative and business sides?

In film, males remain dominant.

There is still more to go on creative side than on the business side. Women directors are not where they should be, but they’re climbing.

Today there is an interesting study of Women in Media in Canada. Kay Armitrage (a former programmer of Tiff and an academic) has statistics which are not rosy.

But, a woman runs Telefilm Canada, and a woman is chair of the biggest bank. There are lots of women in very important positions in and out of the cultural sector.

Is the Academy taking any action on affirmative action or women’s parity?

It already has a predominately female staff. The Board is 60-40 male-female. It offers lots of professional seminars for and by women.

What about Tiff?

The Festival was great from day one. Linda Beath brought in the cadre of programmers – the best in world. It was the Festival of Festivals. It did not care about status of the film, but it did have world premiers. Classics divisions of the major studios and then video buyers came for the best films in the world and they loved the great audiences who made big hits so it became a great vehicle for testing the market. It became the gateway for foreign films to the U.S. niche market. That activity surged in spite of Tiff not wanting to have a market. The Market started in spite of itself and markets demand fresh product.

It is still not a formal market, but to appeal to the public, industry and press, it became more important to get the newer films.

The rapidity of information and reactions have created a new reality today. Now because of social media and the internet, it’s best to show films never seen anywhere before. Tiff still shows films that are not necessarily world premieres but obviously gives preference to WPs. And it still shows the best films in the world as it has always done. This is the key to its success over the years.

I notice about 20% of the directors are women at this year’s Festival.

There are Chinese, Hong Kong, Taiwanese, Japanese, Palestinian, Tunisian and Lebanese; Natalie Portman’s directorial debut is an Israel-u.S. coproduction. She’s one of nine U.S. directors. France has six, Canada five, Australia four, India three, U.K. three, Israel and Austria have two Turkey, Mexico, Brazil, Greece, Ukraine, Ethiopia, Norway, Sweden, New Zealand, and Pakistan have one women-directed film each.

I don’t know yet which films I favor; I’ll have to see them.

There are also In-Depth Conversations with Julianne Moore, Salma Hayek, Sarah Silverman. This year’s Industry Conference includes a series of "no-holds-barred" conversations about gender in the media to cover topics such as "Financing Female-Led Films" and "Uncovering Unconscious Bias"...

Exclusive: New Europe Film Sales secures deals for Benelux, Greece, Taiwan.

Jan Naszewski’s Warsaw-based sales outfit New Europe Film Sales has announced that Grímur Hákonarson’s Icelandic Un Certain Regard film Rams (Hrútar) has already been picked up by distributors in Benelux (Imagine), Greece (Ama Films) and Taiwan (Maison Motion).

Just prior to the festival, French rights were sold to Michèle Halberstadt and Laurent Pétin’s Arp Selection.

New Europe Film Sales is also reporting strong interest for the film from Scandinavia, German-speaking Europe, Asia and Us and the agent expects to sign more deals in the first days of the Cannes Marche.

Rams is a story about two brothers from a remote Icelandic farming valley, who haven’t spoken in 40 years and now have to come together in order to save what’s dearest to them – their sheep.

Hákonarson’s short film Slavek the Shit previously screened in Cinefondation. Rams’ director...

Exclusive: Icelandic film to receive world premiere in Un Certain Regard competition at the Cannes Film Festival.

Jan Naszewski’s Warsaw-based sales outfit New Europe Film Sales has picked up Grímur Hákonarson’s film Rams (Hrútar).

The Icelandic title will be receive its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival (May 13-24), as part of the Un Certain Regard competition.

New Europe has already closed a first deal for the film, selling all French rights for Rams to distributor Arp Sélection.

Rams centres on two brothers from a remote Icelandic farming valley, who haven’t spoken in 40 years but reunite to save what’s dearest to them – their sheep.

Produced by Grímar Jónsson from Netop Film (Iceland), in coproduction with Jacob Jarek and Ditte Milsted’s Profile Pictures (Denmark) and in association with Film Farms (Norway) and Aeroplan Film (Poland), the film has been getting industry attention for some time after successful work in progress screenings in Les...

School teams with Arp Selection for award; Cameron Bailey, Alberto Barbera among jury.

A $500,000 film fund for first-time filmmakers has been launched in Israel for graduates of Jerusalem’s Sam Spiegel Film School.

The school has teamed up with French producer and distributor Arp Selection to invest $100,000 in one feature project a year for five years. Both partners will contribute $50,000 a year, with Arp taking French distribution rights to the project.

The winning script will be selected by an international jury comprised of Cameron Bailey, artistic director of the Toronto International Film Festival, Alberto Barbera, director of the Venice Film Festival, Michèle Halberstadt of Arp Sélection, France), and Renen Schorr, founding director of the Sam Spiegel Film School, in the first year.

They will announce their decision on March 24, 2015, as part of the School’s Silver Jubilee celebrations.

“Initiating a platform like this for our alumni is an exciting and special moment for us,” said Schorr...

Meanwhile, Swedish director Daniel Fridell has signed on to Van Gogh biopic.French name their Price

Canadian outfit Filmoption International has sold Harold Crooks’ corporate tax avoidance doc The Price We Pay to Arp for distribution in France.

The deal was negotiated by Andrew Noble and Alexandra Wermester of Filmoption and Laurent Pétin and Michèle Halberstadt of Arp.

Red Army marches north

Edge Entertainment has picked up Gabe Polsky’s hockey documentary Red Army for Nordic territories from Wild Bunch.

The deal includes rights in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland and Iceland. Sony will distribute in Us, Canada, Central Europe and Asia.

Van Gogh biopic gets director

Swedish director Daniel Fridell (Swedish Beauty) has been set to direct English-language Vincent Van Gogh biopic Van Gogh for production outfit Kalliope Films.

Rutger Hauer is executive producing the film, which has been written by Kira Madallo Sesay of Kalliope who will produce alongside Emiel Pijnaker.

Montreal and Toronto-based Filmoption International has licensed French rights on The Price We Pay to Arp following the Toronto world premiere last week (September 5).

Harold Crooks’ documentary exposes big business tax avoidance.

Andrew Noble and Alexandra Wermester of Filmoption International brokered the deal with Laurent Pétin and Michèle Halberstadt of Arp.

The Price We Pay will open in France in 2015.

Tax avoidance documentary, currently showing at Toronto, scores France deal.

Canadian outfit Filmoption International has sold Harold Crooks’ corporate tax avoidance doc The Price We Pay to Arp for distribution in France.

The deal was negotiated by Andrew Noble and Alexandra Wermester of Filmoption and Laurent Pétin and Michèle Halberstadt of Arp.

“We are very excited to have made this deal,” said Arp’s Halberstadt. “Harold Crooks’ documentary is a deeply important and essential film that is timely. We see it as urgent viewing for audiences all around the world. ”

The film had its world premiere in Toronto.​...

Deckert Distribution sells Martti Helde’s debut feature to Arp.

Leipzig-based sales company Deckert Distribution has sold Estonian feature In The Crosswind to Arp for France.

Martti Helde’s feature has its international premiere in Toronto’s Contemporary World Cinema programme.

Helde’s inspiration for the film was a diary he found by a young woman who was separated from her husband and child during Stalin’s mass deportation to Siberia in 1941.

“I first heard of the project at a documentary pitch in Riga, Latvia,” said Heino Deckert, managing director of Deckert Distribution.

“Since then it has not only evolved into a feature film in which Martti so ingeniously visualises the main character’s state of mind, but the subject of Soviet-style aggression has become very topical recently. In The Crosswind is a great addition to our slate and I’m very glad that Arp has picked up the film ahead of Tiff.”

Deckert negotiated...

Other winners include Ivan Marinovic, Amikam Kovner and Assaf Snir.

Ethiopian-born, Israeli filmmaker Alamork Marsha’s Fig Tree, based on her experiences as a child in war-torn Addis Ababa in 1991, has won the $50,000 top prize at the pitching event of Sam Spiegel school’s Jerusalem International Film Lab.

It was an apt choice as fighting escalated between Israel and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip, some 70 kilometres down the road, where more than 160 inhabitants have died in Israeli air strikes over the past six days, launched in response to a barrage of rocket attacks on Israel. (In fact air sirens were heard in Jerusalem just 15 minutes before the awards were announced.)

In her pitch, Marsha revealed how Fig Tree was inspired by her childhood, living with her grandmother on the outskirts of the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa during the civil war and her Jewish family’s decision to move to Israel. She said one...

The festival is laying on a packed programme of film industry events this year, headlined by the Jerusalem Pitch Point meeting.

The meeting revolves around a central pitching event on July 14, open to both industry professionals, film students and the public, aimed at connecting Israeli filmmakers with international partners on their upcoming projects.

Participants this year include celebrated experimental director Nina Menkes, established filmmakers Nir Bergman and Dina Zvi Riklis and up and coming director Eitan Gafny, whose Lebanon-set zombie picture debut Cannon Fodder has sold well internationally.

For the first time, the event will also screen a selection of Israeli works-in-progress to selected industry professionals, including Madame Yankelova’s Fine Literature Club, the feature debut of Guilhad Emilio Schenker, whose 2010 short Lavan screened in more than 70 festivals and won numerous prizes.

The projects will compete for a trio of prizes meted out by France’s National Cinema Centre, Franco-German broadcaster...

Ritesh Batra

Lunchbox director Ritesh Batra is one of the thirteen participants of the Jerusalem International Film Lab who will compete for production prizes worth $80,000 at a pitching event during the upcoming Jerusalem Film Festival.

Batra participated in the seven-month lab, that included two residential workshops in Jerusalem, with his second feature project titled “Photograph”.

The lab closes with a pitching event that runs parallel to the Jerusalem Film Festival where the finalized scripts are presented before a panel of international jury members. This year, the closing events will take place between July 9-13, 2014.

After the pitching event, the jury awards production prizes totaling in $80,000 in an award ceremony.

The Jury this year headed by French producer and distributor Michèle Halberstadt consists of Manfred Schmidt (Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung GmbH, Germany), Katriel Schory (Israel Film Fund), Rémi Burah (Arte France Cinema), Charles Tesson (Cannes Critics’ Week), Sonja Heinen (Berlinale Co-Production Market) and German director Pia Marais.

Ritesh Batra, Talya Lavie, Nora Martirosyan among entrants.

Graduates of the Jerusalem International Film Lab 3rd edition will compete for $80,000 in production prizes at a pitching event at the Jerusalem International Film Festival.

Aspiring directors and producers will present 13 full-length film projects to a panel of jurists and industry.

Competing filmmakers include Talya Lavie (Israel), whose her first feature Zero Motivation won the two awards at the Tribeca Film Festival, Ritesh Batra (India), whose his first feature The Lunchbox premiered last year in Cannes Critics’ Week; Nora Martirosyan (Armenia), who won the Arte International Prize in Cannes’ Atelier (2014), and Ása Hjörleifsdóttir (Iceland), who received the Vff Talent Highlight Pitch Awards at the 2014 Berlinale.

The jury, headed by Michele Halberstadt of Arp, comprises Manfred Schmidt (executive director of the Mdm, Germany), Katriel Schory (executive director of the Israel Film Fund), Charles Tesson (artistic director of the Cannes Critics’ Week), Rémi Burah (Deputy CEO of Arte France Cinéma), [link...

Mathieu Kassovitz and Juliette Binoche are teaming for Sylvie Testud's directorial debut, the dramedy "La Vie d'une auto" reports Variety.

The $6.5 million pic follows a young mother on the verge of a divorce, trying to save her marriage. Testud penned the script based on the novel by Frederique Deghelt.

Michele Halberstadt, Emmanuel Jacquelin and Laurent Petin are producing. Shooting kicks off in April in Paris, Belgium and Luxembourg.