News

Newen Connect has added a trio of French comediesto its EFM slate:Cycle Of Time, No Signal!andThe Family Road.

Vinciane Millereau’s Cycle Of Time stars Elsa Zylberstein, Didier Bourdon, Aurore Clément and Dider Flamand and is about a 1950s French family catapulted into 2025 due to a freak accident with their washing machine, forcing them to face a new world dominated by technology and adapt to a new reality.

Olivier Kahn produces for Ugc which is releasing the film in France in October.

Edouard Pluvieux’s No Signal! is about two young step-siblings spending the weekend with their parents in...

Bac Films has scooped up Hélène Merlin’s feature debut “Cassandre,” with the Gallic outfit set to launch international sales at next week’s Unifrance Rendez-Vous in Paris.

Set in a rural idyll during the summer of 1998, the coming-of-age drama casts rising star Billie Blain (“The Animal Kingdom”) opposite screen stalwart Zabou Breitman (“The New Look”), following an adolescent girl as she forges a new sense of self post-puberty.

“In the family’s small manor, her parents and older brother notice that her body has changed,” reads the description. “Fortunately, Cassandre is passionate about horses, and she joins a small riding center for the holidays, where she’s embraced as an odd but endearing character. Here, she discovers a different kind of normal, one that gradually frees her from the family dynamic that threatens to engulf her…”

“We are thrilled to have taken on Hélène Merlin’s debut,” says Bac Films’ Vincent Llobell.

Newen Connect has boarded Pascal Elbé’s Lucky Star, one of four newcomedies the company will launch at Unifrance’s Rendez-Vous in Paris later this month.

Actor/filmmaker Elbé’s fourth feature as a director is set in 1940 France and stars Benoit Poelvoorde as an army deserter who hatches a plan to escape Nazi punishment and protect his wife and sonby pretending his family is Jewish, but ends up being swept into the Resistance.

Elbé also stars in the film with Audrey Lamy, Zabou Breitman and Hugo Becker. It is produced by Yze’s Yann Zanou and Adnp/Quad’s Nicolas Adassovsky.

This is a week where the Super Bowl takes place (on February 11) and a new series about Christian Dior’s post-World War II fashion movement (“The New Look”) also premieres. The bounty of television keeps giving. Also this week: the streaming premiere of “Bottoms,” the end of “La Brea,” a new documentary about Black astronauts (“The Space Race”) and the return of Jon Stewart to “The Daily Show.” Plus so much more! Sounds like it’ll kind of be a momentous week, huh?

On with the television!

“The New Look”

Wednesday, February 14, Apple TV+

Ben Mendelsohn as Christian Dior in “The New Look” (Apple TV+)

This new historical drama focuses on Christian Dior (Ben Mendelsohn), in his post-World War II period when he created the fashion line that unofficially went by The New Look. There are plenty of wonderful actors playing famous historical figures – Juliette Binoche is Coco Chanel, Maisie Williams is Catherine Dior,...

Pair of comedies headline TF1-owned company’s 2024 French-language slate

Newen Connect is heading to Unifrance’s Rendez-Vous with two French-language ensemble comedies, Family Therapy and Start Me Up.

Family Therapy is the fourth feature from Arnaud Lemort. and follows a man with severe anxiety whose therapist decides he cannot stand him, kicks him out of his practice and challenges him to find the woman of his dreams Christian Clavier and Baptiste Lecaplain star with Claire Chust, Cristiana Réali and Rayane Bensetti.

Produced by TF1 Studio and TF1 Films Production with Atelier de Production, Ugc will release the film in...

Bargain, Carthago, Curduroy’ among big winners.

Norwegian political satire Power Play was named best series as the sixth annual Canneseries (April 14-19) came to a close on the Riveria.

The series from Norway’s Nrk was the last of the 10-strong competition titles to screen at the six-day event, but triumphed with the festival’s top prize in addition to the award for best music that jury member and The Police drummer Stewart Copeland called “downright revolutionary”.

Power Play is based on the true story of the bid to become prime minster by pro-abortion ecologist politician Gro Harlem Brundtland in the 1970’s and 1980’s.

Norwegian political satire “Power Play” proved unbeatable at Canneseries, just like its headstrong protagonist, picking up awards for best series and music.

The show, focusing on Norway’s first female Prime Minister, Gro Harlem Brundtland, and starting out in the 1970s, turned out to be a timely proposition, as noted by showrunner Johan Fasting, who co-wrote with Silje Storstein and Kristin Grue.

“It’s hard to persevere in politics, especially for women. We wanted to go behind the scenes of social democracy as well, see how it has dissolved and turned into what we have today. It felt like the right time to look at the mechanisms of power,” he told Variety earlier this week.

While the show delves into local politics, its youthful “punk” attitude and humor, which already drew early comparisons to the works of Armando Iannucci, seems to have paid off, seducing jurors Lior Raz, Zabou Breitman,...

Sarah Michelle Gellar, Joey Soloway and Morfydd Clark will be honored this year as part of Canneseries 2023, the French TV festival that runs alongside international television market MIPTV.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Wolf Pack star Gellar will receive this year’s Canal+ Icon Award for her life’s work. Clark, best known for playing Galadriel on Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings series, will be honored with the Canneseries rising star award. Soloway, the Emmy-winning creator of Amazon’s Transparent, will receive this year’s commitment award, which honors social engagement by creatives in the TV industry.

Canneseries on Tuesday also unveiled its competition jury for the 2023 event, with Fauda creator Lior Raz heading up the five-person group, alongside Lupin actress Shirine Boutella, Good Luck to You, Leo Grande and Bad Sisters actor Daryl McCormack, Emmy-nominated composer (and Police drummer) Stewart Copeland and French actress Zabou Breitman (24 Days,...

World premieres of Prime Video’s Rachel Weisz-starrer “Dead Ringers,” Paramount+’s “Fatal Attraction, with Lizzy Caplan, and Joshua Jackson, and Netflix’s awaited French bio “Tapie” pack out a 6th Canneseries which boasts its biggest U.S. presence yet, with titles from nearly all the major global streamers.

They join Apple TV+’s already-announced “Silo,” another world premiere. Paramount+ will also be represented by Korean smash hit “Bargain.”

In all, the main Competition features seven world premieres, Lewi said at a Paris lineup presentation on Tuesday.

Israel and Scandinavia have a prominent presence as ever at Canneseries. The selection also takes in, however, its first South African title in Competition, “Spinners,” admired at the London Screenings.

Adding star wattage, Sarah Michelle Gellar will pick up the Canal+ Icon Award, Joey Soloway, creator of Amazon Studios’ “Transparent” and producer of “Six Foot Under,” receives a Commitment Award. Canneseries’ Rising...

French seller will also market premiere ’Magnificat’ and ’All Because Of The Cat’.

Orange Studio will unveil exclusive first footage from Léa Domenach’s Bernadette starring Catherine Deneuve as former French first lady Bernadette Chirac and from Philippe Lefebvre’s star-powered comedy New Beginnings at the Unifrance Rendez-Vous in Paris this week.

Set to be released via Warner Bros. France later in 2023, Bernadette has been one of the French film world’s buzziest titles in recent months since the legendary Deneuve took on the role.

The film follows a fictionalised Bernadette Chirac as she navigates stepping out of the shadows of her husband,...

When “Summit of the Gods” director Patrick Imbert graduated from France’s Les Gobelins school of animation in the late 1990s, he entered an industry still looking for its right footing.

“The market and industry was not as developed as it is today,” Imbert tells Variety. “There were much fewer projects because there were much fewer screens. We did pre-production in Paris and sent most of the production work overseas. You couldn’t imagine becoming a film director or a character designer or anything so prestigious. You were happy enough to simply make your living by drawing, hoping to work on cool projects. That was our vision of animation.”

Suffice it to say, France’s animation ecosystem has grown by leaps and bounds over the following decades. Buoyed by advances in digital software that cut down production costs, staffed by a workforce from a growing number of training programs and...

Broadcasting

Channel 4 and Sky in the U.K. have extended their pre-existing, long-term commercial partnership in a new multi-year agreement which, according to the companies, will facilitate greater opportunity for collaboration, commercial growth and innovation as broadcasting evolves going forward.

Under the terms of the new deal, Sky customers will have access to even more Channel 4 content as more than 1000 hours of All 4 — Channel 4’s VoD platform — exclusives are integrated into Sky’s current and future TV products. Channel 4 will benefit from under the new terms by opening avenues to new digital ad revenue streams which can support its Future4 strategy.

“When we set out our Future4 strategy last year, we made clear that securing strategic distribution partnerships would be a vital part of ensuring we can maximize our reach and impact with viewers in a digital age, grow our revenues and compete more effectively for the future,” said Alex Mahon,...

Jasmila Zbanic wins the Crystal Arrow and the Audience Award, The Whaler Boy scoops the Grand Prize, Mendonza and Natasa Stork are named best actors while the Cineuropa prize goes to Shorta. It’s a double victory at the 12th Les Arcs Film Festival (whose one-off online edition will continue until 26 December) for Quo Vadis, Aida?, by Bosnian director Jasmila Zbanic, which not only walked away with the 2020 Crystal Arrow for Best Film, as decided upon by a jury helmed by the French director and actress Zabou Breitman, but also won big with the Audience Award. Unveiled in competition at the Venice Film Festival, Quo Vadis, Aida? was produced by Bosnian firm Deblokda alongside Austrian groups Coop99 and Orf, Romanian outfit Digital Cube, Poland’s Extreme Emotions, Paris-based Indie Prod, the Netherlands’ N279 Entertainment, German firm Razor Film, Norway’s Tordenfilm and Turkey’s Trt. International sales are steered by Parisian group.

Alice Pol, Eddy Mitchell, Miou-Miou, Pablo Pauly, Gustave Kervern, Sarah Stern, Pascale Arbillot and Zabou Breitman star in Nicolas Pleskof’s first feature, a Kazak production sold by Bac Films. Nicolas Pleskof has been shooting his first feature film Murder Party since 26 November. A comedy thriller, the filmmaker’s debut work boasts a cast composed of Alice Pol, Eddy Mitchell, Miou-Miou, Pablo Pauly (nominated for the Best New Hope César as well as the Lumières Revelation award in 2018 for Step by Step; touring French cinemas next year in Garder ton nom), Gustave Kervern (at his best...

Chokri’s debut feature A Brother’s Love premiered in Cannes Un Certain Regard in 2019.

Bac Films International is launching sales on Canadian actress/filmmaker Monia Chokri’s #MeToo-era comedy drama Babysitter at next week’s AFM.

The film successfully wrapped in Quebec in October, just as the Canadian province went into partial lockdown due to a second wave of Covid-19 cases.

It is Chokri’s second feature after A Brother’s Love, which opened Cannes Un Certain Regard in 2019 and shared the jury’s Coup de Coeur prize with The Climb.

Patrick Hivon, who also co-starred in A Brother’s Love, plays...

Annecy 2020 Online’s first wave of special programming for its world-class French animation festival (June 15-30) will include making of sessions, previews, and works-in-progress. The biggest news is that indie feature “Animal Crackers,” which premiered at Annecy in 2017, returns as a making of program, having been acquired by streamer Netflix.

The CG children’s fantasy, directed by Tony Bancroft (“Mulan”) and Scott Christan Sava, concerns a magical box of cookies coming to the rescue of a rundown circus. It contains voice work by John Krasinski and Emily Blunt, and boasts the work of character designer Carter Goodrich (“Ice Age”).

Netflix is also bringing a work-in-progress presentation of “The Cuphead Show!” series for 2021, adapted from retro-style video game by showrunners Dave Wasson (“Mickey Mouse”) and Cosmo Segurson (“SpongeBob Squarepants”). Drawing on the classic ’30s rubber hose animation style of Disney and Fleischer, the comedy follows the misadventures of the impulsive Cuphead and his naive brother,...

France’s Series Mania, one of Europe’s biggest TV festivals, has been canceled following new French government coronavirus health restrictions.

“Series Mania attracts 80,000 festival attendees and 3,000 industry professionals every year. Given the French government’s ban of meetings of over 1,000 people and numerous restrictions on the travel of French and international delegates, we’ve decided to cancel the event,” Series Mania president Rodolphe Belmer announced Wednesday.

“It is with great sadness that we have had to make this difficult decision. However, our utmost concern is for the safety and well-being of our valued clients, guests, and staff who have invested so much time these past few months,” said Laurence Herszberg, founder and general director of Series Mania.

“I would also like to thank every creator, talent, producer, and broadcaster who have trusted us since the beginning. To our audiences, professionals, politicians, and industry leaders, we will be back stronger...

Bordeaux, France — French directors Zabou Breitman and Éléa Gobbé-Mévellec, Belgian distributor Lumière and French production outfit Xilam won Tributes Awards at this year’s Cartoon Movie, Europe’s biggest animated feature co-production and sales forum which closed today in the French port city of Bordeaux.

Breitman and Gobbé-Mévellec’s “The Swallows Of Kabul,” which world premiered at the Cannes Festival’s Un Certain Regard last year, is produced by Les Armateurs in co-production with Melusine Prods. and Close Up Films. The 2D watercolor-style animation adapts the bestselling book from Yasmina Khadra offering a touching “fresco” of life under Taliban rule in the Afghan capital through the intertwined stories of two couples. It marks the fifth feature of actress-director Breitman and the her first animated title and for animator Gobbé-Mévellec her debut feature. “Kabul” is sold by Paris’ Celluloid Dreams.

Nominees for the Direction Tribute Award also included Spain’s Sergio Pablos...

The organizers of Series Mania have said the international TV drama event will go ahead in France this month, despite the coronavirus threat.

Set to take place from March 20-28 in the northeastern French city of Lille, Series Mania said it didn’t fall into the category of gatherings of more than 5,000 people in a confined space that were forbidden by the French government over the weekend.

In a briefing note titled, ‘The Series Mania Festival And Forum Will Go Ahead,’ the event said: “Given the audience capacities and attendance figures for festival locations, including movie theaters, the Nouveau Siècle auditorium, Lille Grand Palais, the Tri Postal, and so on, all events comprising the Series Mania Festival and Forum will be going ahead as planned.”

Series Mania added that hygiene and information measures would be put in place, including the provision of hand sanitizers across all festival locations, and...

Paris — “Narcos” showrunner Chris Brancato and “Godfather of Harlem” star Giancarlo Esposito, actors Carole Bouquet and Zabou Breitman, and the cast and crew behind the Canal Plus series “The Bureau” will be among the many guest of honor at this year’s Series Mania, which will kick off its 11th edition on March 20.

Returning to the north-eastern French city of Lille, Series Mania will once again offer a broad cross-section of international scripted dramas, with a selection culled from 25 different countries including Chile, Peru, Niger, Senegal and South Korea, alongside high profile productions from the U.S., the U.K. and France.

Among the 38 productions world premiering in Lille, the BBC/Tvnz literary adaption “The Luminaries,” with Eva Green, will play as opening series while the closer remains unannounced.

Once again, Netflix makes a strong showing this year. Beyond bringing the cast and crew of their Paris-set drama “The Eddy,...

The filmmaker jury of the online festival organised by UniFrance has crowned Sébastien Marnier’s feature film its winner, whilst the international press recognised The Swallows of Kabul . Whilst the audience awards of the online festival organised by UniFrance and running 16 January to 16 February, MyFrenchFilmFestival, won’t be announced until the close of this 10th edition of the event (read our news), the Filmmakers’ Jury and that of the international press have already delivered their verdicts. School’s Out by Sébastien Marnier found favour with the Filmmakers’ Jury, presided over by American director Ira Sachs and composed of his fellow countryman Brady Corbet, Czech director Michaela Pavlatova, Guatemala’s Jayro Bustamante and French actress Agathe Bonitzer. The film walks away with 15,000 euros. The vote of the international press jury, meanwhile, in the category of feature films, went to the animated title The Swallows of Kabul by Zabou Breitman and Éléa...

By any measure, it’s been a great year for animation. From “Frozen 2” and “Toy Story 4” bringing in huge box-office numbers in the U.S. to “Ne Zha” becoming the top-grossing Chinese animated film with more than $700 million gross to 32 official entries in the best animated feature category for the 2020 Oscars, animated stories flexed their muscles.

But those animated films are also vehicles for filmmakers to tell diverse, challenging and unexpected stories of all kinds throughout the world. Whether their films are fantasy or even historical fiction, the storytellers are drawn to the medium.

“Animation makes it easier for the audience to believe in the world we created, they might think was a fantasy world but we show them that it is not,” writes Salvador Simo in an email with Variety about his film “Buñuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles.”

The animated feature takes us through the...

Fox Searchlight Pictures and Celluloid Dreams have joined forces to co-distribute Benh Zeitlin’s “Wendy” which is set to world premiere at Sundance.

The movie, which will be released in the U.S. on Feb. 28 by Fox Searchlight Pictures, tells wildly reimagined story of Peter Pan through the eyes of Wendy, who finds herself lost on a mysterious island where aging and time have come unglued. Wendy must fight to save her family, her freedom, and the joyous spirit of youth from the deadly peril of growing up. Headlined by newcomer Devin France, the film was produced by Becky Glupczynski, Dan Janvey, Paul Mezey and Josh Penn.

“We are looking forward to working closely with (Celluloid Dreams’s) Hengameh Panahi and Charlotte Mickie on the international distribution plans for Benh Zeitlin’s incredible second film,” said Rebecca Kearey, Searchlight International president.

Zeitlin is best known for his critically acclaimed coming-of-drama...

Guillaume Nicloux’s “To the Ends of the World,” Erwan Le Duc’s “The Bare Necessity” and Caroline Poggi & Jonathan Vinel’s “Jessica Forever” are among the ten French and French-language films set to compete at the 10th edition of MyFrenchFilmFestival, the online film showcase created by UniFrance.

Ira Sachs, the American director whose latest film “Frankie” competed at Cannes, will preside over the international jury which will comprise of the French actress Agathe Bonitzer (“Isadora’s Children”), Guatemaltec director Jayro Bustamante (“Ixcanul”), American actor-turned-director Brady Corbet (“Vox Lux”), Belgian director Judith Davis (“My Revolution”) and Czech director Michaela Pavlatova (“My Sunny Maad”). The other jury is made up of members of the international press.

“To the Ends of the World,” which world premiered at Cannes Directors’ Fortnight last year, stars Gaspard Ulliel (“Saint Laurent”) as a young French soldier in Indochina, in 1945, who survives a brutal massacre in which...

An acclaimed French director who has also been acting since age four, Zabou Breitman made her first animated feature with 2020 awards contender The Swallows of Kabul—a film that came about, and was crafted, in an unusual and unexpected way.

Set in a Taliban-occupied Kabul in the summer of 1998, the drama centers on young lovers Mohsen and Zunaira, who work to preserve their relationship amidst a backdrop of perpetual violence and misery, until a senseless act on the part of Mohsen changes their lives forever. Screening in the Un Certain Regard section of Cannes, the film is based on a novel by Algerian author Yasmina Khadra, though it wasn’t the book that brought Breitman to the project.

“A young producer had the script from the book made already and thought to make, I think, a real action movie, but then thought it would be better to have an animation film.

Cannes Jury Prize winner is also France’s submission to the Oscars this year.

Ladj Ly’s debut feature and Cannes Jury Prize winner Les Misérables, revolving around social tensions in a tough Paris suburb, is the frontrunner in the 25th edition of France’s Lumière awards this year, with seven nominations.

The awards which are voted on by some 130 international correspondents hailing from 40 countries are France’s equivalent of the Golden Globes.

Les Misérables has been nominated for best film, director, screenplay, cinematography, first film and twice in the best new actor section for two of its cast members,...

Marco Bellocchio’s “The Traitor,” Roman Polanski’s “An Officer and a Spy” and Pedro Almodóvar’s “Pain and Glory” lead the race for the 32nd European Film Awards with four nominations apiece in the major categories. The awards, voted on by more than 3,600 members of the European Film Academy, will be presented at the awards ceremony on Dec. 7 in Berlin.

Céline Sciamma’s “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” and Yorgos Lanthimos’ “The Favourite” followed with three nominations in the top categories each, while Ladj Ly’s “Les Misérables” and Nora Fingscheidt’s “System Crasher” were both short-listed in two major categories.

“The Favourite” picked up an additional nomination in the comedy category, while “Les Misérables” received a further nomination in the Discovery section for newcomers.

A single nomination each went to “A White, White Day,” “And Then We Danced,” “Beanpole,” “Gundermann” and “Queen of Hearts.”

Competing for best documentary are “For Sama,...

The venerable sales company changed its strategy before Berlin.

Celluloid Dreams has unveiled a slew of deals on its Venice competition titles The Painted Bird and Babyteeth and Cannes selection The Swallows Of Kabul, in a sign that the rationalised, targeted sales and acquisition strategy it adopted earlier this year is yielding results.

Panahi announced in February that she and company vice-president Charlotte Mickie were rationalising Celluloid Dreams’s operations and rethinking the way they did sales to take a more targeted approach.

“Our strategy, to acquire films selectively for theatrical potential and maximise results, has proven to be a winner for us,...

Netflix’s “I Lost My Body,” the existential adventure about a severed hand, won the Grand Prize award at the third annual Animation Is Film Festival, held last weekend at the Tcl Chinese 6 Theater in Hollywood. The Cannes Nespresso Grand Prize winner from French director Jérémy Clapin beat out GKids’ “Weathering With You,” the popular Japanese climate-change romance from “Your Name” director Makoto Shinkai, which shared the Audience award with “The Swallows of Kabul” (from French directors Zabou Breitman and Elea Gobbe-Mevellec) about love and horror during Taliban occupation.

In addition, Romanian director Anca Damian’s hear-tugger “Marona’s Fantastic Tale” (GKids) earned the special jury prize for visual impact, exploring the memories of a mixed-breed Labrador with its various owners in a daring assortment of animated techniques.

The Aif win for “I Lost My Body,” the adult-themed, boldly graphic mystery about overcoming pain and suffering, means that the streamer...

“I Lost My Body,” the curious story of a disembodied hand searching to reunite with its body, won the grand prize at the Animation is Film Festival, held Oct. 18-20 in Los Angeles. The audience prize was split between two films, Makoto Shinkai’s “Weathering With You” and “The Swallows of Kabul” by Zabou Breitman and Elea Gobbe-Mevellec.

Netflix acquired the worldwide rights to “I Lost My Body,” directed by Jérémy Clapin, after the film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May. The French film — which bested its live-action competition to win the top prize in Critics’ Week at Cannes — screened in its original language at Animation Is Film. Netflix has also prepared an English dub featuring the voices of Dev Patel, Alia Shawkat and George Wendt, which will be available to Netflix subscribers on Nov. 29, two weeks after the French version receives its Oscar-qualifying run on Nov. 15.

“The...

Buñuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles, I Lost My Body, Marona's Fantastic Tale and The Swallows of Kabul are vying for the European Animated Feature Film award. The European Film Awards have announced the nominations for the award category European Animated Feature Film 2019. The nominations were determined by a committee comprised of Efa Board Deputy Chairman Antonio Saura (Spain), Efa Board Member Graziella Bildesheim (Italy) and producer Paul Young (Ireland) as well as, representing Cartoon, the European Association of Animation Film, film critic Stéphane Dreyfus (France), producer Kristine Mi Knudsen (Germany) and director Janno Põldma (Estonia). The nominees are: European Animated Feature FilmBuñuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles - Salvador Simó (Spain/Netherlands)I Lost My Body - Jérémy Clapin (France)Marona's Fantastic Tale - Anca Damian (Romania/France/Belgium)The Swallows of Kabul - Zabou Breitman, Éléa Gobbé-Mévellec (France/Luxembourg/Switzerland) The nominated films will soon be...

Cannes Film Festival chiefs Pierre Lescure and Thierry Fremaux have named the six titles that will comprise its inaugural ‘Film Week’ at Hong Kong’s K11 Musea in November (12-17). They include three from this year’s Cannes competition: Young Ahmed, which won best director, Portrait Of A Lady On Fire, which took best screenplay, and Marco Bellocchio’s The Traitor. Screening from the Un Certain Regard section are The Invisible Life Of Euridice Gusmão, which won the sidebar’s top prize, The Climb, which took the jury’s Coup de Cœur prize; and On A Magical Night, which took the best performance award for Chiara Mastroianni. The Hong Kong event will also feature masterclasses with Young Ahmed directors Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, Cannes director Thierry Fremaux, who will talk about the works of the Lumiere brothers, and a third as-yet unannounced guest.

Rakuten TV, the European VOD service owned by Japanese retailer Rakuten,...

Winners set to be announced in Berlin on December 7.

The European Film Awards (Efa) has unveiled the four features that will compete for the animation prize.

Buñuel In The Labyrinth Of The Turtles; I Lost My Body; Marona’s Fantastic Tale; and The Swallows of Kabul are all in the running for European Animated Feature Film 2019.

The winners will be revealed at an awards ceremony on December 7 in Berlin.

Salvador Simó’s Buñuel In The Labyrinth Of The Turtles has already picked up several festival awards including the jury prize at the Annecy International Animation Festival in June.

The film,...

The third Animation Is Film Festival has set “Weathering With You” as its opening film on Oct. 18 at the Tcl Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.

“Weathering With You” is set in Japan during exceptionally rainy weather and tells the story of a high school boy who befriends an orphan girl who appears to be able to manipulate the weather. It’s been chosen as Japan’s entry for best international feature film at the 92nd Academy Awards. Director Makoto Shinkai and producer Genki Kawamura are expected to be in attendance.

Closing the festival on Oct. 20 will be France’s “I Lost My Body,” with director Jeremy Clapin and producer Marc du Pontavice in attendance. The film screened at the International Critics Week section at the Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Nespresso Grand Prize.

The festival will present 10 feature films in competition, vying for grand prize, special jury prize, and audiences award.

“Venice is becoming an interesting rendezvous,” said industry head Pascal Diot.

The fourth edition of the Venice Production Bridge promises to be the biggest yet. Some 2,500 industry delegates are slated to attend the Italian festival’s industry strand which runs from August 29 to September 3.

“That’s 200 more than last year at the same date,” said Pascal Diot, head of the Venice Production Bridge. “[Venice] is becoming an interesting rendezvous.”

He pointed to the significant number of Chinese companies attending this year. They include delegates from organisations as diverse as Alibaba, the China Film Coproduction Corporation and media giant Xinhuanet.

Together with...

The animated feature by Zabou Breitman and Eléa Gobbé-Mévellec has taken home the Award for Best Film, while Papicha scooped three prizes. The animated feature The Swallows of Kabul by France’s Zabou Breitman and Eléa Gobbé-Mévellec, which was unveiled in Un Certain Regard at Cannes, has come out on top at the 12th Angoulême Francophone Film Festival, taking home the Diamond Valois for Best Film handed out by the jury chaired by British actress Jacqueline Bisset. Also singled out in the Best Film Score category (thanks to the work of Alexis Rault), this production by Les Armateurs together with Arte France Cinéma, Luxembourg’s Melusine Productions, Switzerland’s Close Up Films and Rts, and Monaco-based outfit Knm, is being sold internationally by Celluloid Dreams and will be released in French theatres on 4 September by Memento Films Distribution.The winners’ list of the Charente-based festival also shone a lot of the limelight on.

Manora's Fantastic TaleA fluffy stick figure in Don Hertzfeldt’s introduction for The Animation Show (2003) plaintively asks, “What’s Animation?”—and what follows in this brilliant short is a staging of the magic and power of animation, its contrarian tendencies towards cuteness and violence, and its delightful defiance of accepted (realist) categories and definitions. While it may seem a bit obvious to ask this question, the problem of “what’s animation” continues to resonate deeply in contemporary film culture. This has been especially true this year with a controversial pick for the Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard section, Lorenzo Mattotti’s The Bears Famous Invasion of Sicily. Was it too perverse, too demented, or too shoddy to be shown in the festival? No, it seemed too “childish,” provoking some critics to ask how it could be relevant for adults or appropriate for a “serious” film festival. Such rigorous...

The long-awaited, graphically rich, 2D watercolor-style animation “The Swallows Of Kabul” from French helmers Zabou Breitman and Eléa Gobbé-Mévellec provides an involving adaptation of Yasmina Khadra’s elegant literary fiction. The book, an international bestseller about life under Taliban control in the Afghan capital, highlighted a dangerous act of humanity during a grim and violent time via the stories of two couples whose fates become intertwined through death, imprisonment, and remarkable self-sacrifice. This supplies the core plot of the film, with the action condensed into a tight 81 minutes. Purists may object that the prestige production takes some liberties with novel, but on the whole, the inventions by screenplay writers Sébastien Tavel, Patricia Mortagne, and co-helmer Breitman feel dramatically and poetically right.

The action unfolds in 1998 (as opposed to the novel’s 2001), shortly after the fundamentalist Taliban have come to power. Historian Mohsen (voiced by Swann Arlaud) and artist Zunaira (Zita Hanrot...

Cannes — “The Swallows of Kabul” marks a new step forward for co-directors Zabou Breitman and Eléa Gobbé-Mévellec. A leading figure of French film and theatre, Breitman had never worked in animation before, so she teamed with up-and-coming talent Gobbé-Mévellec to bring this bittersweet tale of Taliban oppression and artistic resistance to life. Following its Un Certain Regard premiere, the film will play Annecy next month.

When the producers bought the rights to the source text, they originally planned to develop the project for live action. What caused that idea to change

Zabou Breitman: There were practical reasons, in terms of locations and feasibility, but it also made sense for this specific narrative. It’s a very tough story, really close to tragedy, and animation could not only make the narrative more digestible, it could allow us to go further and be more expressive. You can express a lot with animation,...

"Aren't we all already long dead?" Celluloid Dreams has debuted the first full trailer for French animated film The Swallows of Kabul, adapted from Algerian writer Yasmina Khadra's tragic tale capturing life in Kabul in 1998. The film is set to premiere at the Cannes Film Festival coming up this month, and will then play at the Annecy Film Festival also in France. The emotional story follows two couples whose lives become intertwined: "one young and liberal, whose lives are at risk under the strictures of Taliban rule, the other older and more conservative." The film has been in development for over five years, animated in France and produced by Les Armateurs, co-directed by Zabou Breitman & Eléa Gobbé-Mévellec. Featuring the voices of Hiam Abbass as Mussarat, Simon Abkarian as Atiq, Zita Hanrot as Zunaira, and Swann Arlaud as Mohsen. This looks gorgeous and heartbreaking, a tough story to watch but...

The production is lead produced by Les Armateurs, the Paris-based animation house behind Belleville rendez-vous.

Screen can exclusively reveal the first English-language subtitled trailer for Zabou Breitman and Eléa Gobbé Mévellec’s feature-length animation of The Swallows Of Kabul ahead of its premiere in Un Certain Regard at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

The work is adapted from Algerian writer Yasmina Khadra’s tragic tale capturing life in Kabul in 1998, at the height of the conservative Taliban rule.

The emotional tale revolves around two couples whose lives become intertwined: one young and liberal, whose lives are at risk under the strictures of Taliban rule,...

After some hestitation if Quentin Tarantino would finish Once Upon a Time in Hollywood in time for a Cannes premiere, the festival announced today that his 1969-set film would officially be ready to have its world bow there. Set to screen in 35mm, it clocks in at 2 hours and 45 minutes, but it’s not the longest film added to the competition line-up. The festival will also premiere Abdellatif Kechiche’s sequel Mektoub, My Love: Intermezzo, which runs a whopping four hours.

It’s also not the only Tarantino update we got this week. Speaking to /Film about his re-edited Netflix version of The Hateful Eight, he revealed that his rumored director’s cut of the Django Unchained is a reality and it’s coming sooner than we thought. “I’ve actually cut a director’s cut of Django. That’s about like three hours and 15 minutes, or three hours and 20 minutes,...

Earlier in the week, the lineup for this year’s Cannes Film Festival was revealed. Every year, this announcement is hotly anticipated, as it’s one of the signifiers that we’re going to soon get some looks at potential Academy Award players. 2019 will be no exception, as a handful of possible contenders are poised to launch in France next month at the 72nd incarnation of the event. From May 14th until May 25th, the South of France will be home to some of cinema’s finest offerings, that much goes without saying. Some will be Oscar hopefuls, some will be flops, but all will contribute to getting us even more excited for the rest of the cinematic year. Cannes looks to premiere some very interesting titles this year. Some of the highest profile offerings include The Dead Don’t Die from Jim Jarmusch, which will open the festival, Frankie from Ira Sachs,...

Algerian Mounia Meddour makes her feature debut with Papicha, about a teenager trying to live a normal life in the troubles Photo: Unifrance Although the official Cannes Competition received most of the attention at yesterday’s (18 April) media launch of the programme in Paris, the sidebar Un Certain Regard section is as strong and diverse as ever.

So far there are 15 titles in the selection, with eight feature film debuts, which will compete for the Camera d’Or prize and seven films by women directors, including an animated title The Swallows of Kabul by Zabou Breitman and Eléa Gobbe-Mevellec, based on the novel by Yasmina Khadra.

Animation The Swallows of Kabul by Zabou Breitman and Eléa Gobbe-Mevellec Photo: Unifrance Although not expected to be back in Cannes quite as quickly Christophe Honoré returns with Room 212, which only finished shooting last month. He has gathered together a diverse cast of Chiara Mastrioanni,...

The Cannes 2019 lineup has officially been revealed. We've been hearing certain titles that were rumored to appear at this year's prestigious festival, but movie buffs all around the world have been waiting to hear what surprises were in store for this year's edition. We now know for sure that Jim Jarmusch's zombie movie The Dead Don't Die, which feature a huge ensemble that includes Bill Murray and Adam Driver, will officially be unveiled to the world as the opening night selection. Elsewhere, the Elton John biopic Rocketman will make its debut at the festival in France ahead of its theatrical rollout.

There are a few key takeaways with the overall lineup. Some of the major movies that will be featured at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival include Terrence Malick's German-language wartime drama A Hidden Life, Bong Joon ho's Parasite and Pedro Almodovar's Pain and Glory. These are amongst the...

The 2019 Cannes Film Festival announced its official lineup of films on Thursday, April 18. The 72nd annual event is one of the most prestigious showcases for films from around the world, and this year’s selections include familiar festival names like Terrence Malick, Pedro Almodovar, Ken Loach and the Dardenne brothers. But what about women? Last year, 82 women, including Cannes jury president Cate Blanchett, protested the fest’s gender inequality. Women are better represented in 2019, but is it enough? Scroll down for the full list of titles.

There are 13 films from female directors scheduled for the festival, but only four out of the 19 films in competition for the Palme d’Or (21%) are by women: “Atlantique” by Mati Diop, “Little Joe” by Jessica Hausner, “Portrait of a Young Lady on Fire” by Celine Sciamma and “Sibyl” by Justine Triet. Despite making up less than a quarter of the competition, that actually ties...

Kantemir Balagov will be returning to the section that he made waves in with his fascinating debut film (Closeness), Croisette acolytes Bruno Dumont and Christophe Honoré will have a sense of familiarity and female filmmakers Monia Chokri (A Brother’s Life), Danielle Lessovitz (Port Authority) and Annie Silverstein (Bull) will be competing for the Camera d’Or (for Best First Feature) are among the fifteen (not yet complete) selected filmmakers that make up the 2019 edition of the Un Certain Regard section.

“Invisible Life,” Karim Aïnouz

“Beanpole,” Kantemir Balagov

“The Swallows of Kabul,” Zabou Breitman & Eléa Gobé Mévellec

“A Brother’s Life,” Monia Chokri

“The Climb,” Michael Covino

“Joan of Arc,” Bruno Dumont

“A Sun That Never Sets,” Olivier Laxe

“Room 212,” Christophe Honoré

“Port Authority,” Danielle Lessovitz

“Papicha,” Mounia Meddour

“Adam,” Maryam Touzani

“Zhuo Ren Mi Mi,” Midi Z

“Liberte,” Albert Serra

“Bull,” Annie Silverstein

“Summer of Changsha,” Zu Feng

“Evge,...

The 72nd Cannes Film Festival will get underway next month and today Thierry Frémaux has unveiled the lineup. Some festival alums will return, including Terrence Malick, who last came to Cannes with his Palme d’Or winner The Tree of Life and will now debut his three-hour-long A Hidden Life (formerly known as Radegund). Also returning is Jim Jarmusch, Dardennes, Bong Joon-ho, Arnaud Desplechin, Pedro Almodóvar, Corneliu Porumboiu, Ken Loach, Marco Bellocchio, Kleber Mendonça Filho, and Xavier Dolan.

In competition this year are a number of highly-anticipated from up-and-coming directors as well, including Jessica Hausner’s Amour Fou follow-up Little Joe and Mati Diop’s directorial debut Atlantics. Diao Yinan will also bring his new drama The Wild Goose Lake to competition, along with Ira Sachs’ Isabelle Huppert-led Frankie and Céline Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire.

In other sections, Bruno Dumont’s sequel Jeanne, Olivier Laxe...

The 2019 Cannes Film Festival has announced the majority of its official lineup, including films set to debut in sections such as Competition, Un Certain Regard, Out of Competition, Special Screenings, and Midnight Screenings. The lineup was announced this morning during a press conference. One thing to note is that additions to the lineup will most likely happen in the coming days. The lineup being announced this morning is the majority of the 2019 slate.

One film already confirmed for the festival is Jim Jarmusch’s “The Dead Don’t Die,” which has been selected to open Cannes 2019 on May 14. The movie is a zombie comedy starring Adam Driver, Bill Murray, and Chloe Sevigny as police officers who must protect their small town from the undead. “The Dead Don’t Die” will be in competition at Cannes, bringing Jarmusch back to the Palme d’Or race after “Paterson” in 2016. Other Jarmusch efforts...

The line-up includes films by Terrence Malick, Ken Loach, Céline Sciamma and Bong Joon-ho.

The Official Selection of the Cannes Film Festival has been announced.

Festival President Pierre Lescure and General Delegate Thierry Frémaux revealed the line-up at a press conference in Paris which was live-streamed on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. More films will be added closer to the festival.

The selection includes films by Terrence Malick, Ken Loach, Céline Sciamma, Xavier Dolan and Bong Joon-ho. Four of the 19 Competition titles are directed by women.

Fremaux said that Quentin Tarantino’s new film Once Upon A Time In Hollywood is not ready,...