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Rolling off French critical and commercial hit “The Marching Band,” Playtime is reteaming with filmmaker Emmanuel Courcol for his next film, “Greenland.” The family drama headlined by two of France’s biggest stars, Sandrine Kiberlain (“The Divine Sarah Bernhardt”) and Benoit Magimel (“The Taste of Things”).

Freely adapted from Valentine Goby’s bestseller “Banquises,” the film takes place in the aftermath of a young girl’s disappearance during a trip to Norway. “Three years later, her passport resurfaces in Greenland. Without telling anyone, Manon, her 17-year-old sister, embarks on a quest to solve the mystery of her disappearance. Torn between the hope of finding their first daughter and the fear of losing their second, Carine and Laurent, though separated, set off together for Greenland,” according to the synopisis.

The movie is produced by Marc Bordure at Agat Films, whose credits include “The Great Arch” and “The Marching Band.” Co-producers are...

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...

Agat Films – Ex Nihilio’s Muriel Meynard was named producer of the year at France’s Academy of Film Arts & Sciences’ Daniel Toscan du Plantier Prize ceremony held on February 17 in Paris.

The prize is awarded to the French film producer who has made the greatest impact over the past year.

Meynard has been with the Agat Films – Ex Nihilio producing collective since 2006. Her recent credits include Louise Courvoisier’sHoly Cow,Cesar-nominated documentaryMadame Hoffmanand Roberto Minervini’s The Other Side.

Upcoming films include Michel Leclerc’sNot All Men But…and Stéphane Demoustier’sThe Great Arch.

Agat Films – Ex Nihilo...

Agat Films – Ex Nihilio’s Muriel Meynard was named producer of the year at the 18th annual edition of France’s Academy of Film Arts & Sciences’ Daniel Toscan du Plantier Prize ceremony held on February 17 in Paris.

The prize is awarded to the French film producer who has made the greatest impact over the past year.

Meynard has been with the Agat Films – Ex Nihilio producing collective since 2006. Her r;ecent credits include Louise Courvoisier’sHoly Cow,2025 Cesar-nominated documentaryMadame Hoffman,and Roberto Minervini’sThe Other Side.

Upcoming films include Michel Leclerc’sNot All Men But…and Stéphane Demoustier’sThe Great Arch.

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,...

“The Count of Monte Cristo,” a three-hour epic adventure adapted from Alexandre Dumas’s literary classic, is leading the race at the Cesar Awards, France’s equivalent to the Oscars, with a whooping 14 nominations. “Beating Hearts,” Gilles Lellouche’s sprawling crime romance, follows shortly with 13 nominations.

A favorite in the Oscar race, Jacques Audiard’s “Emilia Perez” is nominated for 12 Cesar Awards, including best film and actress for Karla Sofía Gascón and Zoe Saldana. The French awards show has highlighted international performers before, notably Kristen Stewart, who won a Cesar nod in 2015 for her supporting role in Olivier Assayas’ “Cloud of Sils Maria.”

It’s worth noting that the two Cesar frontrunners — “The Count of Monte Cristo” and “Beating Hearts” — were also France’s second and third highest grossing local films in 2024. Both movies are produced by Mediawan-owned banners, Chapter 2 and Chi-Fou-Mi (the latter produced “Beating Hearts...

French featureThe Marching Band, about an orchestra conductor who discovers he has a brother who plays the trombone in a local band, has out-performed the opening of Universal Pictures’ Wicked at the French box office.

Diaphana’s feelgood drama held at second in its second week on release with 342,700 admissions (an estimated* gross of €2.5m), compared to Wicked’s 290,000 admissions (€2.14m) in its opening week.

Disney’s Moana 2 took the top spot in its second week in cinemas with 1.65 million tickets sold to reach 4 million total, the seventh best-performing film of the year.

Directed by Emmanuel Courcol, and starring Benjamin Lavernhe and Pierre Lottin,...

Paris production house Agat Films – Ex Nihilo, which has six films in Cannes, is now in various stages of production on six more titles including Robert Guedigian’s drama Stealing Angel, starring Ariane Ascaride and Jean-Paul Darroussin that is in post. Playtime is handling sales.

Agat Films- Ex Nihilo are separate entities operating under the same banner. “We are a house of auteur cinema,” said producer Nicolas Blanc. “We are at the service of auteurs – we like what they think, what they say and how they say it.”

International titles in the works include Thierry Machado’s Inuit -language Yura,...

The film is about two brothers who discover each other later in life and bond over a love of music.

Playtime has scooped international sales to Emmanuel Courcol’s social comedyThe Marching Band starring Benjamin Lavernhe, whose credits include L’Abbé-Pierre: A Century Of Devotion and Jeanne Du Barry.

Produced by Agat Films and now in post, the €6.5m film follows a successful orchestra conductor with discovers he was adopted and has a younger brother. Pierre Lottin co-stars.

The film is produced by Marc Bordure and Robert Guédiguian’s prolific Agat Films of Godard by Godard, Amore Mio and Holly,...

The film is about two brothers who discover each other later in life and bond over a love of music.

Playtime has scooped international sales to Emmanuel Courcol’s social comedyThe Marching Band starring Benjamin Lavernhe, whose credits include L’Abbé-Pierre: A Century Of Devotion and Jeanne Du Barry.

Produced by Agat Films and now in post, the €6.5m film follows a successful orchestra conductor with discovers he was adopted and has a younger brother. Pierre Lottin co-stars.

The film is produced by Marc Bordure and Robert Guédiguian’s prolific Agat Films of Godard by Godard, Amore Mio and Holly,...

Playtime will launch sales on Emmanuel Courcol’s new social comedy The Marching Band, about two brothers separated by fate and reunited by music, at the upcoming Unifrance Rendez-vous in Paris next week.

The €6.5M production, which is currently in post-production, is actor-director-screenwriter Courcol’s third theatrical feature after Ceasefire and The Big Hit.

Benjamin Lavernhe, seen recently in Maïwenn’s Jeanne du Barry, stars as successful orchestra conductor Thibaut Désormeaux, who is hoping his sister is a compatible bone marrow donor to treat a rapidly progressing leukaemia.

His DNA results reveal instead that he is adopted. On confronting his mother, he discovers he has a younger brother, played by Pierre Lottin, who was raised in more modest conditions and is now a factory worker.

This brother shares his musical talent and is a member of the local marching band. Thibault decides to nurture this gift and help his brother...

It is Kaadan’s second feature after The Day I Lost My Shadow, which won Venice’s Luigi De Laurentiis Award for best first film in 2018.

Cairo-based film company Mad Solutions has acquired Middle East and North Africa distribution rights for Syrian director Soudade Kaadan’s upcoming drama Nezouh, set against the backdrop of Syria’s civil conflict.

The film, which is sold internationally by mk2 films, is in post-production and is expected to world premiere at a festival later this year. Mad Solutions has released a first image for the film as it nears completion.

It is Kaadan’s...

MK2 Films, the banner behind Joachim Trier’s Oscar-nominated “The Worst Person in the World,” has boarded “Nezouh,” from Syrian director Soudade Kaadan.

The drama, set against the backdrop of the conflict in Damascus, marks Kaadan’s follow up to her 2018 feature debut, “The Day I Lost My Shadow,” which won the Lion of the Future prize at Venice. Her 2019 short “Aziza,” meanwhile, won the Sundance Grand Jury Prize.

Co-financed by BFI, which awarded National Lottery funding, and Film4, “Nezouh” is an allegorical tale of female emancipation.

The movie follows 14-year-old Zeina and her family, whose lives are shaken after a bomb rips a giant hole in the roof of their building, exposing them to the outside world. One day, a young boy living nearby lowers a rope through the opening and Zeina discovers her first taste of freedom. Whilst her father is determined to stay in his home and not become a refugee,...

Hollywood-based Chinese film financier Peter Luo and Oscar-winning producer Donna Gigliotti (“Shakespeare in Love”) have boarded upcoming female-led Syrian war drama “Nezouh,” directed by Soudade Kaadan, whose debut “The Day I Lost My Shadow” won the 2018 Venice Film Festival’s Lion of the Future.

“Nezouh,” which is Kaadan’s followup to “Shadow,” is set against the backdrop of the Syrian conflict in Damascus where a young woman named Zena and her family reside in a zone that is about to be bombed. Her father takes the firm stance to stay home. With little time left, Zena and her mother Hara face a very tough decision.

Kaadan’s new film was shot in Turkey, produced by Kaadan, Yu-Fai Suen, and Marc Bordure (“Gloria Mundi”), and lensed by ace French cinematographer Hélène Louvart.

“Nezouh,” which is being presented to distributors and festival programmers at the Cairo Film Festival’s Cairo Film Connection co-production market,...

Juliette Schrameck, the former managing director of MK2 Films (“Portrait of a Lady on Fire”), will be joining the well-established French production company Agat Films starting Sept. 1.

Schrameck, who stepped down from MK2 Films in April after a 10-year tenure, will be partner and producer at Agat Films.

While at MK2 Films, Schrameck co-produced many prestige projects from renowned auteurs, notably Pawel Pawlikowski ‘s Oscar-nominated “Cold War,” as well as films by Jia Zhang Ke and Joachim Trier. During Schrameck’s run, the company also had five films in competition at Cannes two years in a row in 2018 and 2019, including Celine Sciamma’s “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” and Mati Diop’s “Atlantics.”

At Agat Films, Schrameck will be aiming to tap into her deep knowledge of world cinema, relationships with auteurs and knowledge of the international market to give Agat Films a more global footprint. She will be...

New production is in the vein of My Sweet Pepperland which premiered in Cannes Un Certain Regard in 2013.

Paris-based The Party Film Sales has boarded world sales on Iraqi-Kurdish filmmaker Hiner Saleem’s upcoming drama Goodnight, Soldier.

Set in contemporary Kurdistan, it revolves around a young couple who have overcome their families’ hatred for one another but find themselves facing another challenge when the husband is rendered impotent after being shot at the front.

The Party Film Sales has released a first image for the film [pictured] which is currently in post-production.

Saleem, who lives between France and his native Iraqi Kurdistan,...