News

France’s box office continues to suffer through the start of summer with ticket sales dropping by 23% year on year to a total of 10.9 million admissions (€79.2m*), down from14.1 million admissions (€105.1m) in 2024, according to estimates from the Cnc.

Despite high hopes the box office would kick back into gear starting with the summer months after May saw ticket sales fall by nearly 25% compared to the same month last year, June’s box office results failed to deliver.

Fifty-three new releases opened in France in June including 31 French films and just four US films. The market share of French films...

Fabienne Godet’s French comedy Guess Who Is Calling? starring Denis Podalydès and Aure Atika about a voice impersonator fielding phone calls for a famous writer whose intertwining lives lead to a whirlwind of complications, is selling strongly for The Bureau Sales.

It has been acquired by Weltkino ( Germany and Austria), Agora (Switzerland), O’Brother (Benelux), Tva ( Canada), and Eden (Israel).

A remake deal has been inked in Germany and further discussions are underway in Spain, Italy and other territories.

The film was one of the most-attended market screenings at Unifrance’s January Rendez-vous in Paris according to Unifrance figures,...

French director Jean-Paul Salomé has kicked off production on The Money Maker(L’Affaire Bojarski) about real-life counterfeiter Jan Bojarski, who was nicknamed “the Cézanne of fake money”.

The Bureau Sales has boarded for international sales and will launch the film at the upcoming European Film Market (EFM).

Set in post-Second World War France, the film stars Reda Kateb as Bojarski, a Polish refugee in France who forged near-perfect counterfeit money and eluded police for nearly 15 years. Bastien Bouillon plays a police commissioner who sets off on a high-stakes cat-and-mouse chase to hunt down the sophisticated swindler. Sara Giraudeau and...

French hospitality group Accor, along with champagne house Vranken-Pommery Monopole and banking giant BNP Paribas, are among major French companies coming together to launch a three-year endowment fund to promote French film and TV projects and talents around the world.

Promotional body Unifrance will administer the endowment fund, which is tax deductible for companies, and use it to complement its existing activities and support fresh initiatives. Unifrance declined to reveal the value of the fund.

Accor is the ‘major patron’, with Sofitel and MGallery CEO Maud Bailly presiding over the fund and Unifrance president Gilles Pélission serving as vice-chairman. Unifrance...

Julie Moulier, Lucie Debay and Arnaud Valois star in the filmmaker’s new feature. Le Bureau is producing and selling the film worldwide. Fabienne Godet finished shooting What If Tomorrow (French title: Si demain…) last week, her fifth feature after Burnt Out, My Greatest Escape (selected in the Forum section at the Berlinale in 2009 and nominated for the 2010 César Award for Best Documentary), A Place on Earth (Audience Award winner at MyFrenchFilmFestival in 2015 and for which Benoît Poelvoorde won the Best Actor Magritte Award in 2014) and Our Wonderful Lives (presented this year at Rotterdam). In the cast, Fabienne Godet is reunited with Julie Moulier (excellent in Our Wonderful Lives and previously appreciated in Let the Girls Play and In Bed with Victoria), who is supported by Belgian actress Lucie Debay (winner of the Best Supporting Actress...

Line-up includes the North American premieres of Costa-Gavras’ political thriller Adults In The Room, the Dardenne brothers’ drama Young Ahmed.

The 23rd annual Colcoa French Film Festival in Los Angeles will open on Sept. 23 with the Us premiere of Ladj Ly’s hit Cannes drama Les Misérables.

The line-up includes the North American premieres of Costa-Gavras’ political thriller Adults In The Room, the Dardenne brothers’ drama Young Ahmed, Christophe Honoré’s On A Magical Night, Cédric Klapisch’s Someone, Somewhere, Cédric Kahn’s Happy Birthday, and Marie-Sophie Chambon’s debut feature Stars By The Pound.

Receiving its Us premiere is...

Hugot replaces the outgoing Rym Hachimi.

Clementine Hugot has been appointed as head of sales at The Bureau Sales, the sales arm of Paris and London-based production outfit The Bureau, handling all of its productions.

She replaces Rym Hachimi, who is leaving after 10 years at the company to forge a career in production. Both Hugot and Hachimi will attend the Efm.

Hugot has worked at a wide variety of sales companies, beginning her career at Wide Management, before moving to Bac Films, and then most recently Indie Sales. She was named as one of Screen International’s Future Leaders for...

The Bureau Sales has appointed Clementine Hugot as Head Of Sales. Hugot will head the sales arm of production outfit The Bureau. She steps into the role previously held by Rym Hachimi, who is departing the company after ten years in the role.

Both Hugot and Hachimi will attend Efm on behalf of the company. Hugot has previously worked at Wide Management, Bac Films, and most recently Indie Sales.

Bertrand Faivre of The Bureau said, “Rym Hachimi has been pivotal in growing The Bureau Sales. She has been a fantastic member of the team and the whole company will be sad to see her leave. We wish her the very best on her next adventure. At the same time we are excited for Clementine to join us, bringing her own ideas, and leading the company as we continue to grow.”

Hugot added, “I am nothing more than excited to board...

Title is first-ever Dutch film to be selected for the World Cinema Dramatic Competition at Sundance.

The world premiere of Dirty God by Dutch filmmaker Sacha Polak will open the 2019 edition of International Film Festival Rotterdam (Iffr) on Jan 23.

Polak is the first Dutch director to be selected for the World Cinema Dramatic Competition at Sundance, where it will screen following its Rotterdam premiere.

The film revolves around a young woman (a debut role for Vicky Knight) dealing with motherhood in contemporary London. Producers are the UK’s Mike Elliott of Emu Films with Belgium’s A Private View and Dutch outfit Viking.

World premieres include Simone Kostova’s debut feature ’Thirty’.

The International Film Festival Rotterdam (Iffr) has unveiled the first 26 titles to be confirmed for its 48th edition, running Jan 23-Feb 3, 2019.

The early selections include hotly-tipped foreign-language Oscar contender Capernaum by Lebanese director Nadine Labaki, Claire Denis’s space thriller High Life and Jia Zhangke’s epic melodrama Ash Is Purest White.

First world premieres include German filmmaker Simona Kostova’s debut feature Thirty (Dreissig), capturing the lives of a group of friends living in Berlin over the course of 24 hours.

Fabienne Godet’s drama Our Wonderful Lives will get its...

World premieres include Simone Kostova’s debut feature ’Thirty’.

The International Film Festival Rotterdam (Iffr) has unveiled the first 26 titles to be confirmed for its 48th edition, running Jan 23-Feb 3, 2019.

The early selections include hotly-tipped foreign-language Oscar contender Capernaum by Lebanese director Nadine Labaki, Claire Denis’s space thriller High Life and Jia Zhangke’s epic melodrama Ash Is Purest White.

First world premieres include German filmmaker Simona Kostova’s debut feature Thirty (Dreissig), capturing the lives of a group of friends living in Berlin over the course of 24 hours.

Fabienne Godet’s drama Our Wonderful Lives will get its...

While You Were Peeping: Godet’s Elegy Brimming with Belabored Emotion

With his sophomore directorial effort, Fabienne Godet’s A Place on Earth (Une place sur la Terre) once again places Belgian actor Benoît Poelvoorde in the midst of a doomed romantic entanglement. Surprisingly, the generally comedic thespian excels at these melancholy, brooding types, as evidenced by recent stints in Jean-Pierre Ameris’ Romantics Anonymous (2010) and Benoit Jacquot’s Three Hearts (2014). As an uninspired photographer, Poelvoorde’s equally forlorn here, though he’s on the less dramatic end of the comparable occupationally challenged protagonist featured in Godet’s first feature, Burnt Out (2005). However, the film’s dramatic conflict inevitably ends up feeling a bit forced, the emotionally unstable natures of its romantic leads vaguely administered, which casts an extemporaneous pallor over the script that should leave us feeling as devastated as the roiling soundtrack and sweeping visuals urge.

A struggling photographer,...

Outside of the highly anticipated Rust & Bone from helmer Jacques Audiard, Celluloid Dreams is much more immersed in the market aspect of Cannes this year. Headed by Hengameh Panahi, Celluloid Dreams brings to some noteworthy Cannes this year, but outside of that doesn’t have anything to front. The Rambler, The Side Effect are noteworthy projects worth keeping tabs on, while Dormant Beauty starring the just Isabelle Huppert who is on some Cannes auteur bucket list drive and Dan Algrant’s debut Greetings from Tim Buckley (see pic above) should be top tier items drawing plenty of buyer interest.

City State (Borgriki) by Olaf De Fleur Johannesson

Dead Mine by Steven Sheil

Rust & Bone (De Rouille Et D’Os) by Jacques Audiard

A Place On Earth by Fabienne Godet

Bald Mountain by Heitor Dhalia

City State 2: Brave Men’S Blood by Olaf De Fleur Johannesson

Detachment by Tony Kaye...

The French sales/production company is supplying this year's Cannes fest with a trio of titles, but you might find me doing cartwheels more for a project that hasn't even began lensing in Marjane Satrapi's Waiting for Azrael. - The French sales/production company is supplying this year's Cannes fest with a trio of titles, but you might find me doing cartwheels more for a project that hasn't even began lensing in Marjane Satrapi's Waiting for Azrael. Red, white and green helmer Daniele Luchetti returns to the French festival for the umpteenth time with La Nostra Vita (see pic above) and Takeshi Kitano will break decibel levels with Outrage --- the film's trailer says it all. Celluloid Dreams' is also repping something for doc enthusiasts and tourists who love Paris: Fred Wiseman's Crazy Horse. If I Want To Whistle I Whistle by Florin Serban - Completed La Nostra Vita...

The French sales/production company is supplying this year's Cannes fest with a trio of titles, but you might find me doing cartwheels more for a project that hasn't even began lensing in Marjane Satrapi's Waiting for Azrael. Red, white and green helmer Daniele Luchetti returns to the French festival for the umpteenth time with La Nostra Vita (see pic above) and Takeshi Kitano will break decibel levels with Outrage --- the film's trailer says it all. Celluloid Dreams' is also repping something for doc enthusiasts and tourists who love Paris: Fred Wiseman's Crazy Horse. If I Want To Whistle I Whistle by Florin Serban - Completed La Nostra Vita by Daniele Luchetti - Completed Outrage by Takeshi Kitano - Completed REVOLUCIÓN by Carlos Reygadas - Completed We Are The Night by Dennis Gansel - Post-Production A Prophet (Un Prophete) by Jacques Audiard - Completed Apart Together (Tuan Yuan...

Every year in Toronto, the Hot Docs Film Festival [1] manages to assemble an exciting assortment of top-notch documentary films from around the world. This year was certainly no different, and a number of the movies have already picked up distribution deals and are well on their way to gaining mainstream attention. However, there are always plenty of diamonds in the rough as well, amazing films that sadly may never find the audience they deserve. So which upcoming documentaries are hits and which are near-misses? Read on for our full report from the 2009 Hot Docs Festival! Best Worst Movie When he was 11 years old, Michael Paul Stephenson was cast in a low budget horror movie called Troll 2. He, along with many of the other actors, thought that it would be their ticket to big time acting careers, but were shocked to find out afterward that the final product was a complete disaster.

Berlin -- Richard Loncraine's "My One and Only," a '50s-era comedy starring Renee Zellweger and Kevin Bacon, was squeezed into the competition lineup for this year's Berlin International Film Festival, barely a week before the event kicks off.

Zellweger plays a glamorous single mom on the hunt for a rich man to foot the bill for her and her sons' lifestyle. Produced by Merv Griffith Entertainment and Ray Gun Prods., "My One and Only" will have its world premiere in Berlin. Essential Entertainment is handling international sales.

Berlin also added Lone Scherfig's Sundance favorite "An Education" with Peter Sarsgaard, Alfred Molina and Emma Thompson and Davis Guggenheim's music documentary "It Might Get Loud" for its Berlinale Special Galas, ensuring the films will get the red carpet treatment without any of the pressure of competition.

All three films should give an added boost of star power to...

Cologne, Germany -- The Berlinale's avant-garde sidebar Forum has completed its lineup, adding new political documentaries from the likes of Hans-Christian Schmid, Simone Bitton and Thomas Heise.

Bitton follows up her Sundance award winner "Wall" (2004) with another documentary focused on the conflict in the Middle East. "Rachel" takes up the story of U.S. peace activist Rachel Corrie, who was killed in 2003 while trying to prevent the destruction of houses in the Gaza Strip.

Schmid, whose drama "Storm" will screen in competition in Berlin, has a Forum entry with the doc "The Wonderful Life of Laundry," a look at the lives of Polish workers who launder the dirty linen trucked across the border from Berlin luxury hotels. Heise's new documentary, "Material" is also set in Berlin and features previously unreleased footage of events surrounding the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.

Other nonfiction entries at the 2009 Forum include Thai documentary "Citizen Juling,...

MADRID -- Lee Daniels' directorial debut Shadowboxer, Fabienne Godet's Burnt Out, Byambasuren Davva's The Cave of the Yellow Dog will compete with 21 other films for the €90,000 ($95,000) Altadis New Director Award at the 53rd San Sebastian International Film Festival, organizers said Friday. Nineteen films announced Friday will screen in the Zabaltegi-Free Zone section, while five films previously announced as part of the Official Section, will also compete for the New Director Award. The lineup copies the Official Section's emphasis on Europe, including three Spanish titles, but also a smattering of exotic co-productions like the Iranian-Italian co-production The Forbidden Chapter, directed by Fariborz Kamkari.