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France TV Distribution has boarded worldwide rights on a pair of documentary features, “Nuremberg, the Trial of the Century” and “Egypt Decoded: Raiders of the Lost Pharaohs,” in the run up to Sunny Side of the Doc festival in La Rochelle, France.

“Nuremberg, the Trial of the Century,” produced by Banijay-owned Km and Dreamtime, follows over 350 of journalists, writers, and filmmakers who followed the prosecution of 21 high-ranking Nazi officials in November 1945. The docu will show how iconic figures such as Ray D’Addario, John Dos Passos, Martha Gellhorn, Joseph Kessel et Elsa Triolet gathered at the Faber-Castell Castle, which served as press camp during the Nuremberg Trials, to document and report on the horrors of the Holocaust for a year and a half. Over that period, there were debates, friendships, romances and political engagements that unfolded.

(Copyright: Ray d’Addario)

(Copyright: Ray d’Addario)

“Egypt Decoded: Raiders of the Lost Pharaohs,...

“The Party’s Over” is a mostly entertaining satire that follows the escalating conflict between an entitled rich couple, the Trousselards, and the Azizis, the husband and wife they employ (off the books and at less than market rates) to look after their luxurious holiday home. Both families have young adult daughters, near in age, albeit not in circumstance. Compared to a similarly-themed film such as “Parasite,” it lacks the sharpness of plot and empathetic characters that would make it truly memorable. Nonetheless, the piece has a number of things going for it: top actors obviously relishing their roles, some amusing dialogue, a lovely villa location in the south of France and an attractive musical score by Clémence Ducreux that sounds both serious and mocking. Festivals and screening platforms rep the most likely venues outside of French-speaking countries to host the “Party.”

Snobbish, self-important Philippe, a lawyer given to throwing obscure...

There cannot help but be a tinge of sadness around a film that started shooting with director Laurent Cantet (whose The Class won the Palme d’Or in 2008) and, after he succumbed to cancer, was finished by his friend Robin Campillo (120 Bpm (Beats per Minute), also a Cannes award-winner in 2017).

Chosen for the opening night slot in the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight, it’s an affecting coming-of-age tale about a teenager trying to find his own identity within a claustrophobic family unit and set against the seductive backdrop of the Côte d’Azur. Instead of conforming to the expectations of his bourgeois parents who would prefer a more traditional future for their off-spring, the 16-year-old Enzo (newcomer Eloy Pohu) decides to start a masonry apprenticeship.

This leads to fierce tensions between him and his parents (Élodie Bouchez and Pierfrancesco Favino) as well as his academically inclined older brother (Nathan Japy)...

On the surface, the titular hero of Robin Campillo and Laurent Cantet’s Enzo seems like your fairly average teenager. Handsome, athletic, relatively friendly, but also introverted, stubborn and a bit volatile, he’s the kind of kid who likes to keep to himself but is constantly yearning for connection, especially outside the family unit.

Perhaps Enzo (promising newcomer Eloy Pohu) is a tad too average, which may explain why this subtle French drama seems to meander more than it really does. Beneath the surface, there are, in fact, some major conflicts brewing in Enzo’s life: He’s been waging a quiet war against his bourgeois parents (Pierfrancesco Favino, Elodie Bouchez), rejecting the typical academic route that his older brother (Nathan Japy) has successfully chosen. And he’s also rejecting the heterosexuality that has been foisted upon him, falling gradually in love with an older Ukrainian bricklayer named Vlad...

When a filmmaker takes over directing duties after a movie’s original helmer has passed away, many viewers will be inclined to wonder what could have been if that particular lost voice had stayed involved to the finish line. Having directed only one scene of “Battle Royale II: Requiem,” Kinji Fukasaku was hospitalized due to complications from prostate cancer, dying a few weeks later; his son Kenta Fukasaku, a screenwriter on both “Battle Royale” films, completed the sequel as his directorial debut. Elsewhere, “A.I. Artificial Intelligence” is likely the most famous example of this. Stanley Kubrick reportedly tried handing off his long-gestating sci-fi feature to Steven Spielberg several years before his death, though Spielberg apparently convinced Kubrick to remain as director.

Both “A.I.” and “Battle Royale II” were dedicated to the men who were once set to bring them to fruition. With “Enzo”, the latest feature directed by Robin Campillo,...

Buyers are finally wise to the fact that Cannes is driving the Oscar race and even the specialized box office. Everyone wants to find the next “Anora,” “The Substance,” “Emilia Perez,” or “Anatomy of a Fall.” And more buyers like Mubi, Metrograph, Sideshow, and other upstarts have emerged to take on the likes of Neon and A24, who come to Cannes armed with several titles already set to debut.

Below, we’ve identified 13 movies looking for homes that could be the next awards breakout, including new films from Lynne Ramsay and Richard Linklater and the debuts of Kristen Stewart and Harris Dickinson.

All titles presented alphabetically.

“The Chronology of Water” (Un Certain Regard)

Director: Kristen Stewart

Stars: Imogen Poots, Thora Birch, Jim Belushi, Tom Sturridge

Buzz: Even if it’s in a sidebar for a first-time director, Kristen Stewart’s debut should be a hot ticket with a lot of...

Laurent Cantet, the beloved French filmmaker who directed 2008 Cannes Palme d’Or winner “The Class,” died in April 2024 of cancer before he could see what would have been his last movie to completion.

That film, “Enzo,” is now directed by his friend of 40-plus years, Robin Campillo, the French director best known for his 2017 Cannes Grand Prize winner “Bpm,” one of the most poignant movies ever made about the HIV/AIDS crisis (and about queer identity in general). It’s a summery coming-of-age affair that you might mistake on its surface for something like “Call Me by Your Name,” but this Cannes Directors’ Fortnight premiere is more about the title character’s inner, class-inflicted conflicts and torments.

The 16-year-old Enzo (discovery Eloy Pohu) defies his moneyed bourgeois family’s expectations and lifestyle — they’re living in a summer villa shut out entirely from the outside world in the South of France,...

A group of more than 350 international actors, directors and producers have signed a letter published on the first day of Cannes condemning the killing of Fatma Hassona, the Palestinian photojournalist and protagonist of the festival-bound documentary “Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk,” in an Israeli airstrike.

The letter, signed by names such as Mark Ruffalo, Guy Pearce, Ralph Fiennes, Melissa Barrera, Yorgos Lanthimos, Javier Bardem, Hannah Einbinder, Pedro Almodóvar, David Cronenberg, Alfonso Cuarón, Mike Leigh, Alex Gibney, Viggo Mortensen, Cynthia Nixon, Tessa Ross and many more, also called out the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences’ for its “lack of support” for “No Other Land” co-director Hamdan Ballal.

Just three weeks after winning the Oscar for the documentary, Ballal was assaulted by settlers and kidnapped by the Israeli army. After being criticized for its silence over the incident, AMPAS eventually publicly apologized. “We are ashamed of such passivity,...

A few days before the start of the Cannes Film Festival, Variety gathered top French producers, distributors and talent, including Dominik Moll, Elodie Bouchez, Justine Triet and Coralie Fargeat at an intimate dinner hosted at the glamorous landmark restaurant Laperouse.

Bouchez, who recently starred in “Beating Hearts,” will be presenting two films at Cannes’ Directors Fortnight, “Enzo,” directed by Robin Campillo and late filmmaker Laurent Cantet, as well as “Classe Moyenne” by Anthony Cordier. The actor was sitting besides Oscar-nominated producer Marie Ange Luciani (“Anatomy of a Fall”) who produced “Enzo” as well as Laura Wandel’s “Adam’s Sake” which will open Critics’ Week; and Alexandra Henochsberg, president of Ad Vitam, which will distribute seven films from the Official Selection in France, including “The Secret Agent” by Kleber Mendonça Filho; “Romeria” by Carla Simón; “La Petite Dernière” by Hafsia Herzi; “Vie Privée,” starring Jodie Foster and directed by Rebecca Zlotowski; and “Enzo,...

Robin Campillo's Enzo will open the section Photo: Mk2 Films The Cannes Directors’ Fortnight will pay homage to one of its favourite directors Laurent Cantet who died last year by screening his last film Enzo in the opening night slot on 14 May. The film has been completed by his friend and collaborator Robin Campillo.

After Cantet’s death Campillo stepped in and finished shoot at La Ciotat in the South of France. The narrative follows the tale of a 16-year-old boy who breaks out from his bourgeois family and starts an apprenticeship as a stonemason. He also meets and starts a relationship with a Ukrainian colleague who turns his world upside down.

The two young leads are played by newcomers Eloy Pohu and Maksym Slivinskyi who are joined in the cast by established names Elodie Bouchez and Piefrancesco Favino.

Sorry, Baby Photo: Courtesy of Sundance Institute

In an effusive...

Directors’ Fortnight has unveiled the selection for its 57th edition running May 14-24 which is heavy on first-time filmmakers and established auteurs including Robin Campillo, Lee Sang-il and Christian Petzold.

Artistic director Julien Rejl revealed the lineup at a press conference in Paris on Tuesday (April 15) for the Cannes parallel section run by French directors guild the Srf.

Scroll down for the full selection

The sidebar will open with Enzo, co-directed by the late Laurent Cantet and Robin Campillo. After Cantet died last year, his longtime friend and collaborator Campillo stepped in to direct the film set and filmed in...

Directors’ Fortnight, the independent selection running alongside the Cannes Film Festival, has unveiled an eclectic lineup for its 57th edition, which will showcase Christian Petzold’s “Miroirs No.3,” Eva Victor’s “Sorry, Baby,” Robin Campillo’s “Enzo” and Lloyd Lee Choi’s “Lucky Lu.”

Curated by Julien Rejl, Directors’ Fortnight will open with “Enzo,” a film directed by Robin Campillo (“Bpm Beats Per Minute).” Campillo stepped in at the helm after Laurent Cantet, his longtime friend and collaborator, died in April. Cantet and Campillo had previously collaborated on the script of the Palme d’Or-winning “The Class.”

Produced by Marie-Ange Luciani (“Anatomy of a Fall”) at Les Films de Pierre, “Enzo” is set in Marseille and follows the journey of a young apprentice mason, Enzo, who befriends a Ukrainian colleague who gives him a glimpse of a new horizon. The film stars newcomers Eloy Pohu and Maksym Slivinskyi, alongside Élodie Bouchez and Pierfrancesco Favino.

Directors’ Fortnight will open its 57th edition next month with Enzo, written and developed by late Cannes d’Or winner Laurent Cantet before his death last April and directed by friend and collaborator Robin Campillo.

The film is among 18 features announced Tuesday for the 2025 lineup of the Cannes Film Festival parallel section — overseen by the French Directors Guild (Société des Réalisateurs de Films) — at a press conference in Paris on Tuesday.

Big-screen debutant Eloy Pohu stars as the 16-year-old protagonist Enzo, who defies his bourgeois family’s expectations by starting a masonry apprenticeship, which brings him into contact with charismatic Ukrainian workmate Vlad (Maksym Slivinskyi). Elodie Bouchez and Pierfrancesco Favino also feature in the cast.

“It’s a magnificent tale of adolescence focused on the character of an elusive young man,” said Directors’ Fortnight artistic director Julien Rejl. “It’s a film that moved us deeply, and I felt there...

Jacques Audiard’sEmilia Pérez was named best French film of the year at the 50th César awards on Friday night (February 28), taking home seven awards from 12 nominations.

The Mexico-set musical crime thriller that won the jury prize and shared best actress award at Cannes Film Festival last May also earned a best director and adapted screenplay prize for Audiard and awards for cinematography, original music, visual effects, and sound. The film has sold some 1.2million tickets at the French box office since its August 2014 release for Pathé.

Scroll down for the full list of winners

Stars Karla Sofia Gascon and...

Jacques Audiard’sEmilia Pérez was named best French film of the year at the 50th César awards on Friday night (February 28), taking home seven awards from 12 nominations.

The Mexico-set musical crime thriller that won the jury prize and shared best actress award at Cannes Film Festival last May also earned a best director and adapted screenplay prize for Audiard and awards for cinematography, original music, visual effects, and sound. The film has sold some 1.2million tickets at the French box office since its August 2014 release for Pathé.

Scroll down for the full list of winners

Stars Karla Sofia Gascon and...

“Emilia Pérez” won Best Film from the French 2025 César Awards, a major win for the Netflix film ahead of the Oscars. Jacques Audiard’s movie had earned 13 Oscar nominations but then fell out of frontrunner status.

The film also won both Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay for Jacques Audiard, though Zoe Saldaña, who has dominated the awards circuit all year, lost in an upset to Hafsia Herzi for the film “Borgo.” Saldaña though was nominated alongside Karla Sofía Gascón in the Best Actress category, and not in Best Supporting Actress.

In all, “Emilia Pérez” took home seven Césars out of 12 nominations, including Best Visual Effects, Best Sound, Best Original Music, and Best Cinematography. “The Count of Monte Cristo,” a new version of the Dumas revenge tale, led all nominees with 14, and it won two.

While the Césars this year largely did not resemble the Oscars, a few others won...

Jacques Audiard’s Oscar contender Emilia Pérez was the big winner at the 50th César Awards, France’s equivalent of the Oscars, taking best film and best director among multiple honors.

Audiard won best director and best adapted screenplay for Emilia Pérez, and the film also took honors for best sound, best cinematography, best visual effects and best original music.

But Emilia Pérez star Karla Sofía Gascón, who walked the red carpet at the Paris gala, returning to the spotlight for the first time since the eruption of the controversy surrounding her offensive resurfaced tweets, lost out in the best actress race to Hafsia Herzi, who won for her role as a female prison guard in Stéphane Demoustier’s drama Borgo.

Gascón, who is Spanish, skipped Spain’s national film awards, the Goyas, earlier this month following the backlash over her past social media posts. Netflix removed the actress, the...

Laure Calamy, the Cesar prizewinning star of “My Lover, My Donkey & I,” and “The Count of Monte Cristo” actor Laurent Lafitte lead the ensemble cast of “The Party’s Over,” a satirical comedy which has been boarded by France TV Distribution ahead of the EFM.

Directed by Antony Cordier (“Gaspard at the Wedding”) the movie also stars Ramzy Bedia (“Asterix & Obelix : The Middle Kingdom”), Élodie Bouchez (“Beating Hearts”), Sami Outalbali (“A Tale of Love and Desire”) and Noée Abita (“Sink or Swim”).

This film is produced by Cheyenne Federation, a well-established banner whose credits include Julien Leclercq’s remake of “The Wage of Fear” which was a hit on Netflix.

The movie revolves around Mehdi, 25, who is invited to spend a quiet summer with his girlfriend Garance and his in-laws in the south of France, and sees their trip turn into chaos after a conflict breaks out between Garance’s...

The Count of Monte Cristo, Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de La Patellière’s retelling of the classic French revenge tale, is the front-runner for this year’s César Awards, scoring 14 nominations, including in the best film and best directing categories.

The period drama, starring Pierre Niney, beat out Jacques Audiard’s Oscar frontrunner Emilia Pérez, which got 12 noms, and Beating Hearts, Gilles Lellouche’s contemporary reimagining of Romeo and Juliet featuring François Civil and Adèle Exarchopoulos, which earned 13 nominations.

Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de la Patelliere’s lavish adaptation of Alexandre Dumas’ classic was the biggest French box office hit of last year, drawing close to 10 million viewers for a $40 million local take. Globally, the film has grossed more than $75 million.

Sean Baker’s Palme d’Or winner, and Oscar contender, Anora, is up for the Cesar for best foreign film, against Academy Award hopefuls including Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance,...

Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre De La Patelliere’s epic literary adaptation The Count Of Monte-Cristo leads the nominations for France’s Cesar Awards with 14.

There were also strong showings from Gilles Lellouche’s Beating Hearts with 13 and Jacques Audiard’s Oscar and Bafta-nominated Emilia Perez with 12.

Scroll down for the full list of nominations

The Count Of Monte-Cristo and Emilia Perez are in the running for best film alongside Boris Lojkine’s Souleymane’s Story, Alain Guiraudie’s Misericordia and Emmanuel Courcol’s The Marching Band.

All of the films nominated for best film had their world premiere at the...

The Count of Monte Cristo has topped the nominations for France’s prestigious César awards, followed by Beating Hearts and Oscar frontrunner Emilia Pérez.

The film has made it into 14 categories in the nominations, which were announced in Paris on Wednesday morning. Beating Hearts clinched 13, followed by Emiia Pérez with 12.

Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de la Patelliere’s lavish and fast-paced adaptation of Alexandre Dumas’ classic novel starring Pierre Niney was one of France’s top performing movies at the local box office in 2024, drawing close to 10M spectators and its top international export.

Gilles Lellouche’s modern Romeo and Juliet tale Beating Hearts – co-starring François Civil and Adèle Exarchopoulos – has also performed well at home, drawing more than five million spectators.

The 12 nominations for Jacques Audiard’s Cannes Jury prize-winning musical film Emilia Pérez continue its buzzy awards season run which has seen it clinch four Golden Globes and...

Mk2 Films has taken on international sales rights for Frenchdrama Enzodirected by Robin Campillo, who stepped in todirect the feature after his friend and the film’s co-writer Laurent Cantet died unexpectedly in April of last year.

Anatomy Of A Fall producer Marie-Ange Luciani of Les Films de Pierre produces the film shot in and set in La Ciotat in the south of France. It follows a 16-year-old boy who defies his bourgeois family’s expectations by starting a masonry apprenticeship where he meets a charismatic Ukrainian colleague who shakes up his world. Newcomers Eloy Pohu and Maksym Slivinskyi star...

Vanessa Paradis – you’ve definitely heard of her. From the catchy Joe le Taxi to her timeless elegance in fashion, she’s been a star since just 14. In 2025, she’s still commanding the stage in music, fashion, and film. Truly, Paradis still reigns over all.

Vanessa Paradis in Noce Blanche (English: White Wedding) (Credits: Les Films du Losange)

The actress is not slowing down anytime soon, strutting the runway and gracing magazine covers with ease. And let’s not forget, the woman’s got style. Her career has taken her from chart-topping singles to big-screen roles, and she still manages to juggle life, love, and family in between.

Despite being Johnny Depp’s ex-girlfriend and mother to his kids, she’s carved out a path that’s uniquely hers. But what’s her secret? The answer might surprise you. We’re diving into the legacy she’s building for the...

In 2011, French thesps Omar Sy and Anne Le Ny co-starred in the comedy hit “Untouchable.” Now, the two are reunited in the domestic thriller “Out of Control,” with “Lupin” star Sy in one of the leading roles next to Elodie Bouchez, José Garcia and Vanessa Paradis, while Le Ny serves as director and Axella Cachman’s co-writer.

“There was a real bond and warmth between us then, which was easy to revive 13 years later,” says Le Ny, who shared the screen time with Matt Damon in “Stillwater” and earned her first writing/helming kudos for her breakthrough movie “Those Who Remain” (2008).

Her seventh pic as helmer, “Out of Control (“Dis moi juste que tu m’aimes”) world premieres at the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival official competition on Nov. 16, is being produced by Move Movie’s Bruno Levy, in co-production with Sy’s production company Korokoro, France 2 Cinéma and La Compagnie Cinématographique & Panache Productions,...

Barbara Schulz’s Treasure Hunters: On The Tracks Of Khufu, a Frenchtake on Indiana Jonesstarring Fabrice Luchini, has been bought by a slew of territories for distribution.

France’s Snd has sold the family adventure film to Germany, Austria and Italy (Plaion), Spain (Flins y Piniculas),Canada (Tva Films),Switzerland (Pathé),Benelux (Athena),Poland (Monolith), Hungary (Ads Filmek),Ukraine and the Baltics (Volga), Balkans (Blitz),Taiwan (Cai Chang), and India and Southeast Asia (Viswass Films).

Treasure Hunters: On The Tracks Of Khufu is the directorial debut of French actress Schulz. Luchini stars as an archaeologist with unorthodox methods who joins...

The Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (known as PÖFF) has unveiled the full lineup of its flagship Official Selection, whose 18 features from 23 countries will compete for the coveted €20,000 Grand Prix.

They include 11 world premieres. The jury is helmed by acclaimed German director Christoph Hochhäusler.

Tiina Lokk, the founder and director of the festival, said “the Official Selection Competition has it all! There’s a psycho-thriller that approaches horror, a psychological family drama, and sci-fi genre is represented. The selection is broad, and so is the range of countries. We’re not trying to highlight a certain theme or a particular region, we are free in our choices,” she noted.

Emphasizing the various topics covered, Lokk cites old age, the end of life and euthanasia “perhaps due to the influence of Covid,” domestic violence and war, “not tackled in the traditional form” but rather via psychological dramas.

“Last year there were...

"Thinking of you meant worrying about you..." Studiocanal has revealed an official trailer for a French epic romance film titled Beating Hearts, featuring English subtitles so everyone can hear what they're saying. This premiered at the end of the 2024 Cannes Film Festival earlier this year, with mostly negative and a few positive reviews. The decade-spanning love story thriller is about a boy and girl who fall for each other as teens. But he's a criminal and gets locked up – hoping to find her years later. Local rebellious teen Clotaire falls for his schoolmate Jackie, but gang violence leads him down a darker path. After years apart, the star-crossed lovers discover every path they've taken leads them back together. Does it? Adèle Exarchopoulos & François Civil star as the older versions of Jackie & Clotaire. It also stars Mallory Wanecque & Malik Frikah as teens, Jean-Pascal Zadi, Benoît Poelvoorde, Alain Chabat, Élodie Bouchez, Vincent Lacoste,...

The passing of the torch was confirmed around Cannes, and rather than what might have been an August shoot, Les Films de Pierre producer Marie-Ange Luciani and filmmaker Robin Campillo are moving full steam ahead on Enzo – the project that Laurent Cantet has been prepping before his passing. Cineuropa confirms that the film will move into production this month with youngsters Eloy Pohu and Maksym Slivinskyi heading the drama along with supporting players Pierfrancesco Favino and Elodie Bouchez. The project was co-written by long-time friends Campillo and Cantet will be filming in La Ciotat (southern tip port city of France) and Toulon with cinematographer Jeanne Lapoirie on board.…...

The popular French actor working in just about every film genre has been on the Croisette on a couple of occasions but as a filmmaker got his first taste when Sink or Swim (also known as Le grand bain) — a 2018 selection slotted as an Out of Competition item. Six years later we have L’amour Ouf (Beating Hearts) which was was packaged and advertised at last year’s Cannes and moved into production with a huge ensemble of players in May. Gilles Lellouche directs François Civil, Adèle Exarchopoulos, Malik Frikah, Mallory Wanecque, Alain Chabat, Anthony Bajon, Jean-Pascal Zadi, Benoît Poelvoorde, Vincent Lacoste, Élodie Bouchez, Karim Leklou and Raphaël Quenard star.…...

Gilles Lellouche arrived at the Cannes press conference for his Competition title Beating Hearts (L’amour Ouf) on Friday with one of the biggest cast delegations of the festival as its 77th edition entered its final strait.

As well as being joined on the stage by co-stars François Civil and Adèle Exarchopoulos and newcomers Mallory Wanecque and Malik Frikah, actors Jean-Pascal Zadi, Elodie Bouchez, Raphaël Quenard, Vincent Lacoste, Alain Chabat, Karim Leklou and Antony Bajon took up the front row of the press room.

They arrived on the wave of an enthusiastic response from the audience at Thursday night’s world premiere in the Grand Théâtre Lumière, which gave it a 15-minute standing ovation.

The modern Romeo and Juliet tale, which took Lellouche 17 years to bring to the big screen, is the actor and director’s third feature after hit comedy Sink or Swim.

“I take great, great pleasure from directing.

This evening the Cannes Film Festival welcomed another world premiere of an ambitious French title with Beating Hearts (L’Amour Ouf). Gilles Lellouche’s competition entry from Studiocanal was greeted with a 15-minute standing ovation inside the Grand Théâtre Lumière.

The modern Romeo and Juliet tale co-stars François Civil, who featured as D’Artagnan in last year’s Three Musketeers reboot, and Blue is the Warmest Color’s Adèle Exarchopoulos. The pair play former childhood sweethearts from different sides of the tracks.

Having gone their separate ways when the boy gets caught up in gang violence and lands in jail on trumped-up murder charges, the couple reconnects against the odds years later.

Further cast includes Raphaël Quenard, Benoît Poelvoorde, Elodie Bouchez, Vincent Lacoste, Alain Chabat and Jean-Pascal Zadi.

The film is adapted from Irish writer Neville Thompson’s 1997 novel Jackie Loves Johnser Ok? which unfolded against the backdrop of Dublin’s tough...

Dwayne Johnson is scheduled to descend on the Croisette for a buyers presentation to promote A24’s The Smashing Machine that Screen understands will take place on Tuesday (May 14).

The studio is producing and financing Benny Safdie’s biopic of the turbulent life of Mma fighter Mark Kerr and has high hopes for the project that sees it reunite with its Uncut Gems co-director.

Johnson’s appearance on the Croisette recalls pre-Covid years when A-listers frequently attended Cannes to meet buyers.

The Smashing Machine marks a step up in terms of scale for A24. Furthermore, industry sources regard it as...

Roschdy Zem, Sandrine Kiberlain and Elodie Bouchez have signed to star in Unchained, a prison-set dance feature to be directed by France’s Valerie Muller and choreographed by Angelin Preljocaj. Le Pacte is handling international sales.

Muller and Preljocaj previously collaborated on 2016 ballet drama Polina that screened in Venice’s Giornate degli Autori.

Zem will play an international renowned choreographer who launches a dance workshop in prison and guides inmates to break free of the chains binding them through dance as they seek redemption among their families outside the prison walls.

Unchained is being produced by Nicolas Mauvernay’s Mizar Films.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

France’s Urban Distribution has shut its doors, the latest independent distributor to fold due to struggling ticket sales following the closure of Rezo Films’ distribution arm in March.

Urban Group’s thriving international sales and production divisions Urban Sales and Urban Factory will continue to operate, but its distribution arm, founded in 2011 by Frédéric Corvez and Mathieu Piazza, was officially liquidated on March 21.

Corvez confirmed the closure to Screen, explaining, “Over the years, we’ve seen our work come up against more and more obstacles” and citing the pandemic as an event that “undoubtedly transformed the industry”.

He described...

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

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

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

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

Anatomy of a Fall French producer Marie-Ange Luciani put in a flying appearance at the Berlinale this week with Claire Burger’s coming-of-age drama Langue Étrangère which received a warm reception in competition.

With the Berlin premiere taking place the day after the Baftas in London (where Anatomy of a Fall won Best Screenplay) and eight days before the January 27 voting deadline for this year’s Academy Awards, Luciani was also in the thick of the awards campaign.

She co-produced the Oscar hopeful with David Thion at Les Films Pelléas under the banner of her Paris-based banner Les Films de Pierre, the company created by Yves Saint Laurent’s long-time business and life partner Pierre Bergé which she acquired on his death in 2018.

New production Langue Étrangère is a bittersweet coming-of-age tale starring Lilith Grasmug as French teenager Fanny who travels to Germany on language exchange trip. Her German counterpart...

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

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

Cailley, Triet, Kahn and...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Exclusive: New York-based Distrib Films has acquired U.S. rights for French-language road movie Amore Mio and dramatic comedy Spare Keys for theatrical release in the coming months.

Spare Keys (Fifi) is the directorial debut of filmmaking duo Jeanne Aslan and Paul Saintillan.

The coming-of-age comedy drama follows a teenager who gets the keys to a wealthy friend’s empty house to escape her chaotic family over the summer, only to discover her friend’s older brother was planning to stay there on his own too.

Céleste Brunnquell (Origin of Evil, In Treatment) and Quentin Dolmaire (My Golden Days, Synonyms) co-star.

The movie made its mark at the San Sebastian Film Festival in 2022 where it won best film in the New Directors Competition. It drew 50,000 spectators in France for indie distributor New Story last summer.

Amore Mio, which is billed as a French modern take on Thelma & Louise, is...

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

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

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

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

“[Out Of Control] is a...

I Was a Teenage Vampire: Rouzet Insists the Family That Slays Together Stays Together

For her narrative feature debut, En attendant la nuit (For Night Will Come), Céline Rouzet jumps into a growing trend of vampiric coming of age narratives, a familiar if satisfactorily brooding exercise about a family who believes they can control the chaos of their child’s violent condition. Employing Elodie Bouchez as a devoted matriarch, Rouzet builds on the inevitable tension inspired by this dysfunctional clan doomed to lose control in this bid to overcome nature by nurture, for, as the title implies, darkness is destined to descend upon them.…...

Among the four (at last count) vampire-related titles to surface on the Lido this year we find the Orizzonti selected En attendant la nuit (For Night Will Come) — the sophomore feature by Céline Rouzet stars Mathias Legoût-Hammond, Elodie Bouchez, Jean-Charles Clichet, Céleste Brunnquell and Laly Mercier. We’ve got a quartet of clips to debut here and it gives us a sense of one family’s balancing act to contain the secret from infancy but also the pains of growing up with the need to quench one’s thirst.…...

"Why are they after me like that?" "They can't stand what you represent." Goldwyn Films has released an official US trailer for Simone: Woman of the Century, a French biopic about a woman named Simone Veil. She passed away in 2017 at the age of 89, but during her time she was a French magistrate, Holocaust survivor, and politician who served as Health Minister, and President of the European Parliament from 1979 to 1982, the first woman to hold that office. "One of the prominent women in France in the 20th Century." The film explores her life, as a leading politician, human rights campaigner, and feminist -- through a series of non-chronological memories. Similar to the Bob Dylan film I'm Not There; this one is from the director of La Vie en Rose. "An intimate and epic portrait of an extraordinary woman who eminently challenged and transformed her era." The French film stars Elsa Zylberstein as Simone Veil,...

Samuel Goldwyn Films has unveiled the trailer for “Simone: Woman of the Century,” a biopic of Simone Veil, an Auschwitz survivor who became health minister of France and championed the 1975 law that legalized abortion in France.

Directed by Olivier Dahan, best-known for his Oscar-winning Edith Piaf biopic “La Vie en Rose,” “Simone” boasts powerful performances by Elsa Zylberstein and Rebecca Marder. The key cast is completed by Elodie Bouchez, Sylvie Testud and Olivier Gourmet.

The film was a box office hit in France, where it was released by Warner Bros and ranked as 2022’s third highest-grossing French-language hit with over 2.5 million tickets sold. Samuel Goldwyn Films is planning to release the film in U.S. theaters, opening in New York and Los Angeles on Aug. 18, followed by a wider rollout.

Since starring in “Simone,” Zylberstein has set up two production banners in France and the U.S. and is actively...

In fashion, credits are everything.

This week in Cannes, French fashion house Saint Laurent graduated beyond “who are you wearing?” to “who made that movie?” courtesy of the world premiere of Pedro Almodovar’s gay Western Strange Way of Life starring Ethan Hawke and Pedro Pascal.

Because credits are crucial, now is the time to point out that not only is the 30-minute gay Western presented by the house, Saint Laurent received associate producer credit while creative director Anthony Vaccarello served as the costume designer for the 1910-set pic.

Strange Way of Life stars Ethan Hawke and Pedro Pascal, wearing the green jacket similar to the one from Bend of the River.

There’s one more: The collaboration serves as the official debut of Saint Laurent Prods., an expansion that gives the house bragging rights as the first brand fully invested in producing films. Per official intel from Saint Laurent,...

Alain Attal and Hugo Selignac have formed a producing duo known for delivering original, starry French films that probe uneasy subjects that earn B.O. gold and critical laurels. Attal is in Cannes with Un Certain Regard title “Rosalie,” while Selignac has “Omar à la Fraise” in Critics’ Week.

The pair is now about to hit a new milestone in 2024, starting with Gilles Lellouche’s epic romance drama “L’Amour Ouf,” which boasts a budget of €32 million ($34 million) and marks Studiocanal’s biggest investment in a French-language film to date. They also have “And Their Children After Them,” an adaptation of Nicolas Mathieu’s Goncourt Prize-winning novel to be directed by Ludovic and Zoran Boukherma (“Teddy”), which has been boarded by Warner Bros. France and HBO Max and France Televisions, the first French movie to bring together these three partners.

“L’Amour Ouf” also marks the first film co-acquired by Canal Plus,...