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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...

Rising star Benjamin Lavernhe plays the iconic French priest.

Snd has signed deals in key territories for Frederic Tellier’s €15m biopic about a real-life poverty-fighting French priest L’Abbé Pierre: A Century Of Devotion, who founded the Emmaus network of housing shelters.

Rising star Benjamin Lavernhe plays the iconic figure who devoted his life to championing the poor and bringing global awareness to homelessness. The film had its world premiere out of competition in Cannes earlier this year and will hit French theatres via Snd on November 8 on 600 screens.

The film has been bought by A-z in Canada, Palace for Australia and New Zealand,...

September Film and Rival Cineart have snapped up multiple festival titles.

In an early litmus test of the commercial appeal of Official Selection titles, Benelux’s leading arthouse buyers have swept in to each buy a haul.

Pim Hermeling’s September Film, which is celebrating its 15th anniversary this year, snapped up Dry Grasses, La Chimera, Club Zero, Monster, Fallen Leaves and Last Summer at script stage, as well as Salem in Un Certain Regard and Steve McQueen’s Occupied City.

In the market, the company has now picked up Beta Cinema’s One Last Evening which it will both release and look to remake,...

Film stars Raphael Personnaz and Jeanne Balibar.

Paris-based Snd has boarded Anne Fontaine’s Boléro about the birth of the renowned orchestral work from Maurice Ravel, now shooting in France.

Set in the Roaring 1920s, the film stars Raphael Personnaz, known for Our Brothers, Julia(s) and The French Minister, as the composer. Jeanne Balibar, who has appeared in Lost Illusions, Cold War and Grace Of Monaco, plays the Russian dancer-choreographer Ida Rubinstein who commissioned the now legendary music.

Snd, the film arm of France’s M6 group, is on board as co-producer and French distributor and is launching international sales at Cannes.

Catherine Corsini’s Le Retour added to Cannes Competition line-up Photo: UniFrance The bumper edition of this year’s 76th edition of the Cannes Film Festival is growing topsy-like with the addition of 14 further titles to the Official Selection as promised by artistic director Thierry Frémaux during the recent media launch.

Sean Penn was previously at Cannes with Flag Day in 2021 Photo: Courtesy of Cannes Film Festival The Competition will see premieres of Jean-Stépahne Sauvaire’s US thriller Black Flies with Sean Penn, Tye Sheridan, Katherine Waterston, Michael Pitt and Mike Tyson and Catherine Corsini’s Le Retour which brings the total number of Competition with female directors to seven. The Corsini film previously had been withdrawn over allegations of “inappropriate incidents” during the filming but the festival authorities investigated and have now deemed it suitable for inclusion.

Cannes Premier section has three new titles: Amat Escalante’s Lost In The Night,...

The 2023 Cannes Film Festival lineup was officially announced on April 13, but Monday the organization included the last of the entries for competition and non-competition categories, most notably with the addition of Robert Rodriguez’s “Hypnotic,” a science-fiction opus starring Ben Affleck and Alice Braga, in the Midnight section.

Also Read:

Cannes Film Festival Lineup Includes New Films From Wes Anderson, Todd Haynes, Jonathan Glazer

Other high-profile titles include Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire’s “Black Flies”, a NYC-set drama starring Sean Penn, Tye Sheridan and Mike Tyson, Catherine Corsini’s buzzy French film “Le Retour,” and Sahra Mani’s documentary “Bread and Roses,” concerning Afghan women living under Taliban rule.

Below are the 14 new features and shorts that round out the 2023 Cannes Film Festival lineup:

Also Read:

Tribeca 2023: Steve Buscemi, Michael Shannon, Chelsea Peretti and Randall Park Among Participating Filmmakers

Competition

“Black Flies” (Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire)

“Le Retour

“Le Retour” (Catherine Corsini)

Cannes...

Catherine Corsini’s Le Retour has landed a Cannes competition slot after apparent complaints about the filmmaker, while Sean Penn starrer Black Flies by director Jean-Stehane Sauvair will also compete, festival organizers said on Monday.

A berth for Le Retour in Cannes had been put on hold while festival organizers took note of alleged events that took place during the filming of the French film. Fest organizers had no comment on the addition of Corsini’s film beyond a short announcement.

Le Retour, which stars Virgini Ledoyen, portrays a woman who works for a wealthy Parisian family who offers her the opportunity to take care of their children for a summer in Corsica. That’s an opportunity for her to return with her daughters, Jessica and Farah, to the island they left 15 years earlier in tragic circumstances.

Sauvaire’s paramedic thriller Black Flies also stars Tye Sheridan, Katherine Waterston, Michael Pitt and Mike Tyson.

Two further Competition films, three more in Cannes Premiere.

Cannes has added 14 further films to its Official Selection ahead of next month’s festival, including two more Competition titles.

Jean-Stephane Sauvaire’s Black Flies and Catherine Corsini’s Le Retour take the Competition total up to 21; and increase the record number of films in Competition directed by women to seven.

Black Flies is a US thriller based on Shannon Burke’s 2008 novel of the same name; Sean Penn stars alongside Tye Sheridan, Katherine Waterston, Michael Pitt and Mike Tyson.

Le Retour follows a 40-something woman working for a wealthy Parisian...

We’re now only a few weeks away from the 2023 Cannes Film Festival and with the lineup thus far already announced, the final slate is locking into place with a few more additions. Today, the festival revealed some notable new premieres across various sections, including Lisandro Alonso’s highly-anticipated Eureka, Amat Escalante’s Perdidos en la Noche, Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire’s Black Flies starring Katherine Waterston, Michael Pitt, Sean Penn, Tye Sheridan and Mike Tyson, plus a new short by Pedro Costa.

Check out the newly-added selections below ahead of the festival, taking place May 16-27.

Competition

Black Flies by Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire

Le Retour by Catherine Corsini

Cannes Premiere

Perdidos En LA Noche by Amat Escalante

L’Amour Et Les FORÊTS by Valérie Donzelli

Eureka by Lisandro Alonso

Out Of Competition

L’ABBÉ Pierre – Une Vie De Combats by Frédéric Tellier

Un Certain Regard

Only The River Flows by Wei Shujun...

The 2023 Cannes Film Festival, taking place May 16 — 27, has added an array of new titles to its already eagerly anticipated Official Selection: Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire’s “Black Flies” starring Sean Penn and in competition; Catherine Corsini’s “Le Retour,” upping the lineup’s record total of seven female directors in competition; Amat Escalante’s Mexican drama “Perdidos en la Noche”; and Lisandro Alonso’s thriller “Eureka,” starring Viggo Mortensen and José María Yazpik.

Alonso and Mortensen previously collaborated on 2014’s “Jauja,” which premiered in the festival’s Un Certain Regard and won its top honor, the Fipresci Prize. “Perdidos en la Noche” and “Eureka” will play in the non-competitive Cannes Premiere section.

Additional titles added on Monday include an Out of Competition screening of Frédéric Tellier’s “L’Abbé Pierre – Une Vie de Combats”; Un Certain Regard titles “Only the River Flows” from Wei Shujun and “Une Nuit” from Alex Lutz; Special...

The Cannes Film Festival on Monday announced a raft of new additions to the Official Selection of its 76th edition running May 16-27.

Two new films have been added to the Competition lineup: Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire’s Black Flies and Catherine Corsini’s Le Retour.

Sauvaire’s thriller stars Tye Sheridan opposite Sean Penn as a rookie paramedic paired with a veteran on a drive through New York.

According to local media reports, Corsini’s mother-and-daughters drama Le Retour was to have been announced as the seventh female-directed film in Competition during the main line-up press conference on April 13.

Allegations of inappropriate behaviour on the Corsica-based set – detailed in reports by French newspapers Le Parisien and Libération – forced the festival to put its selection on hold, while it looked into the matter.

Cannes Delegate General Thierry Frémaux is reported to have said that he would not be swayed by rumors.

The...

Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire’s “Black Flies,” starring Sean Penn, and Catherine Corsini’s “Le retour” have been added to the competition lineup of the upcoming 76th Cannes Film Festival. As many as 13 movies have been peppered across several sections, including the Competition, Special Screenings, Un Certain Regard and Out of Competition.

Robert Rodriguez’s “Hypnotic” and Kim Tae-gon’s “Project Silence” are joining the Midnight Screening roster, while Amat Escalante’s Mexican drama “Perdidos en la Noche” and Argentinian helmer Lisandro Alonso’s thriller “Eureka,” starring Viggo Mortensen and José María Yazpik, will bow in Cannes Premiere, a non-competitive section launched in 2021. (Alonso previously won Cannes’ Un Certain Regard with his 2014 movie “Jauja.”) Also slated for Cannes Premiere is Valerie Donzelli’s drama “L’Amour et les forets.”

This year, Un Certain Regard has expanded by two titles, including Chinese director Wei Shujun’s “Only the River Flows” and French director Alex Lutz’s “Une nuit.

The wedding comedy stars Christian Clavier and Sylvie Testud.

Snd has found distribution matches across the globe for Julien Hervé’s wedding comedy Ooh La La!, signing deals in several territories as the title gets its market premiere at EFM.

The feature film arm of France’s M6 broadcasting group has sold the film to Sphere in Canada, to Weltkino for Germany and Austria, to Kinoswiat in Poland, Vertigo in Hungary, Blitz for the Balkans, All Media for Cis and SKeye for in-flight entertainment. The sales follow Snd’s previous deals to Belga in Benelux, Tri Pictures in Spain, Nos...

Chairman and CEO Maxime Saada stresses that film ‘defines’ Canal+.

French media powerhouse Canal+ has pledged to invest €1bn in cinema in the next five years and has showcased its high profile production slate for 2023.

“2023 will be the best year for cinema in Canal+ history,” Canal+ chairman and CEO Maxime Saada declared at a press event in Paris on Wednesday, which focused on the group’s investment in the country’s seventh art.

Saada’s pledge to spend €1bn spend is in line with the group’s previously announced plans to invest €200m per year in film, and includes €20-...

Chairman and CEO Maxime Saada stresses that film ‘defines’ Canal+.

French media powerhouse Canal+ has pledged to invest €1 billion in cinema in the next five years and has showcased its high profile production slate for 2023.

“2023 will be the best year for cinema in Canal+ history,” Canal+ chairman and CEO Maxime Saada declared at a press event in Paris on Wednesday, which focused on the group’s investment in the country’s seventh art.

Saada’s pledge to spend €1 billion spend is in line with the group’s previously announced plans to invest €200m per year in film, and includes €20-...

Woody Allen’s ’Wasp 2022,’ ’Murder Mystery 2’ and Apple TV+’s Benjamin Franklin biopic among the prestige projects to shoot.

Paris enjoyed record levels of production in 2022, with 102 features and 68 series filmed in the city throughout the year.

The French capital saw 7,500 shooting days, up from 2021’s then-record 7,000 shooting days. In 2019, before the pandemic, Paris registered 5,000 days of shooting.

Feature film production dipped slightly from 110 films in 2021, but series were up from 64 the previous year.

Among the major international titles filming in Paris were Woody Allen’s Coup De Chance, rumoured to be the prolific director’s 50th and last film.

French sales company’s titles include ’The Book of Wonders’, ‘The Baby’ and ’The Braid’.

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French sales company Snd has revealed a first look image and fresh production details for Princes Of The Desert, Eric Barbier’s adventure film starring Alexandra Lamy, and has unveiled details of its extensive AFM slate.

Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Mika is behind the soundtrack for Princes of the Desert which was previously titled Tehu. Lamy, whose credits include Rolling To You, replaces the previously announced Charlotte Gainsbourg in the film.

The film, produced by Snd alongside Vertigo Productions, follows a young Berber boy who...

A trio of French films, the melodrama “A Family for 1640 Days,” political thriller “Goliath” and comedy “Adieu Paris,” are set to be released in the U.S. by the New York-based company Distrib Films.

Both Fabien Gorgeart’s “A Family for 1640 Days” (“Une vraie famille”) and Edouard Baer’s “Adieu Paris” are represented in international markets by Le Pacte.

“A Family for 1640 Days,” winner of the top prize at last year’s American French Film Festival, revolves around Simon, a six-year old adopted boy who is about to reunite with his biological father. The movie stars Melanie Thierry (“En therapie”) and Lyes Salem. Distrib Films is planning to release the film in early 2023 and have it play at festivals.

A love letter to the French capital, “Adieu Paris” marks the fourth directorial outing of actor-turned-helmer Baer, who last directed “Ouvert la nuit” in which he starred opposite Audrey Tautou and Sabrina Ouazani.

Wassim Beji, the French producer of “Boite noire,” and Snd have acquired the adaptation rights to iconic French detective novels “Fantomas” and are planning a film and a series based on the franchise.

A ruthless and multi-faceted thief and assassin, Fantomas “was the first occidental super-villain featured in a serialized format, first through comic strips and later in a radio series,” said Beji, adding that “Fantomas” has also been a source of inspiration for some of the greatest artists of the 20th century, including the surrealist poet Guillaume Apollinaire.

Created in 1911 by Marcel Allain and Pierre Souvestre, Fantomas is one of France’s most popular fictional characters, along with Arsene Lupin. Fantomas was first adapted for the big screen by into a silent crime film serial directed by Louis Feuillade for Gaumont in 1913. The property was later adapted into a crime comedy trilogy starring Jean Marais and Louis de Fines...

Jacques Perrin, the French actor best known for starring in Giuseppe Tornatore’s Oscar-winning film “Cinema Paradiso,” has died. He was 80 years old.

“The family has the immense sadness of informing you of the death of filmmaker Jacques Perrin, who died on Thursday, April 21 in Paris. He passed away peacefully,” Perrin’s family announced in a statement sent to news agency Agence France Press.

Perrin got an early start to his career, first appearing on screen in “Gates of the Night” — albeit uncredited — at just five years old. Over the course of his career, Perrin starred in more than 70 films, becoming a fixture in French and Italian cinema.

In 1988, Perrin played adult filmmaker Salvatore in “Cinema Paradiso,” a role that would become one of his most recognizable.

Jacques Perrin was also a prolific director. He helmed “Winged Migration” with Philippe Labro in 2001, with the film going on to notch an...

French actor, director and producer Jacques Perrin, a fixture for decades in both French and Italian cinema — where he was best known for his role in Giuseppe Tornatore’s Oscar-winning “Cinema Paradiso” — has died. He was 80.

“The family has the immense sadness of informing you of the death of filmmaker Jacques Perrin, who died on Thursday, April 21 in Paris. He passed away peacefully,” Perrin’s family announced in a statement sent to news agency Agence France Press by his son, Mathieu Simonet. The cause of death was not specified.

Born in Paris on July 13, 1941, Perrin, starting in the 1950s, starred in more than 70 films and co-directed others, including the Oscar-nominated “Winged Migration” (2001), in tandem with Philippe Labro, about the voyage of migratory birds which used in-flight cameras and was a box office hit.

The soft-spoken thesp had landed his first leading role starring opposite Italy’s Claudia Cardinale in Valerio Zurlini...

Leading the cast are Pierre Niney, Emmanuelle Bercot and Gilles Lellouche. A Single Man production sold by StudioCanal. Revealed with SK1 (nominated for the Best Feature Debut and Best Adaptation César awards in 2016) followed by Through the Fire (1 million tickets sold in France in 2018), Frédéric Tellier began filming his third feature, Goliath on 24 August. The cast of this politically engaged thriller, at the crossroads of environmental issues, politics and lobbying, the result of an investigation into GMOs and pesticides, includes Pierre Niney (in competition in Venice next week in Lovers and on screens in early 2021 in Black Box and Oss 117: Alerte rouge en Afrique noire), Emmanuelle Bercot and Gilles Lellouche (recently nominated for a Best Actor César award for In Safe Hands; in French cinemas on 10 November in Farewell Mr...

Claude Lelouch on influencing Terrence Malick: "I'm happy that you say so." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

When I spoke with Claude Lelouch at his hotel in New York less than two years ago, he believed that The Best Years Of A Life (Les Plus Belles Années D'Une Vie), starring Jean-Louis Trintignant, Anouk Aimée, and Monica Bellucci would be his last.

Now he has La Vertu Des Impondérables with Elsa Zylberstein (Un + une with Jean Dujardin and Christopher Lambert), Marianne Denicourt, Ary Abittan, and Stéphane De Groodt (Israel Horovitz's My Old Lady) in the works.

Claude Lelouch: "In Un Homme Et Une Femme (A Man And A Woman), when Anouk Aimée arrives at the end on the train platform, she didn't know Jean-Louis Trintignant would be there."

In 1966, Un Homme Et Une Femme won the Cannes Palme d'Or, and in 1967 won the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, and Claude Lelouch took Best Writing,...

After recording its third-highest number in the last 50 years in 2017, French theatrical admissions are on track for a 4% drop this year, with an estimated 201 million sold. In dollar terms, however, the French box office is expected to clock in at about €1.3 billion ($1.5 billion), on par with last year, bolstered by the increase of ticket sales for premium large formats such as Imax, Dolby Cinema and 4Dx.

While fewer Hollywood blockbusters drew in French audiences compared with last year, two domestic films managed to sell more than 5 million tickets (grossing more than $37 million each) and four ranked in the top 10. A pair of French comedies released by Pathé, “Les Tuche 3” and Dany Boon’s “La ch’tite famille,” ranked second and third, behind Disney’s “Incredibles 2,” which took in about $44.5 million.

The other top-grossing French films of 2018 were Gilles Lellouche’s “Sink or Swim” (pictured), a star-driven dramedy about a men’s synchronized swimming team,...

Last week, French filmmaker David Oelhoffen’s latest project, Close Enemies (Frères Enemis) enjoyed its Us premiere at Fantastic Fest 2018. To take a closer look at the crime thriller about the importance of family and the emotional ties that bind, Daily Dead recently caught up with Oelhoffen for an email Q&A in which he discussed the themes he explored throughout Close Enemies, collaborating with his co-writer Jeanne Aptekman as well as the film’s co-stars Matthias Schoenaerts and Reda Kateb, and bringing his Parisian-set story to international audiences.

Can you talk about the inspirations behind the story and your experiences with the writing process as you were working with Jeanne Aptekman?

hoffen: My initial desire was to film criminal life, not to film fantasies of criminal life. I talked with important drug traffickers, thanks to a friend of mine, who is a lawyer. I tried to understand how concretely their lives were organized.

It is time for me to make my peace with the fact that I will not be at Fantastic Fest this year. Last year's fest was one of my favorites ever, fitting for a tenth anniversary, and I would love to go this year. It's just not in the cards, though. It guts me, too. The event continues to grow and change and evolve, and it features one of the greatest programming teams in the business right now. There are films playing at the festival that I'll see in Toronto, and I'm sure I'll catch up with others, but that's not the point. Fantastic Fest is an experience, and an amazing one. If you want to go, you still can. "Daytime Only Badges, Fan Badges, and 2Nd Half Badges for Fantastic Fest 2015 are available for purchase here," today's press release urged. If you can go for the second half, you'll...

One of the greatest genre film festivals in the world (some say the best) has just announced its second wave of titles, including a few titles so anticipated you’ll wish you’re in Austin next month. Below are 35 more films to add to the 23 already announced in the first wave. They include Ridley Scott’s The Martian, Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Lobster, Ben Wheatley’s adaptation of J.G. Ballard’s High-Rise and Jeremy Saulnier’s follow up to Blue Ruin, The Green Room. In addition to the films, Fantastic Fest is also delivering something special this year with a performance from Itchy-o – “a blazing, 32-member aural assault from the darkest depths of Colorado.” Fantastic Fest will also host the World Premiere of Lazer Team, the first feature film from web series gods Rooster Teeth. “This is a big year for genre cinema. We’re exceptionally proud to honor incredible filmmakers...

It’s hard to believe that we are a month away from what is possibly the best genre film festival in North America! After announcing a Kurt Russell included first wave, we get a wave that probably includes all the films I have the most interest in. The French remake of what I consider is one of Mario Bava’s best films, Rabid Dogs is included. Along with Jeremy Saulnier’s follow up from Blue Ruin, Green Room where Patrick Stewart plays a Neo-Nazi club owner, Ridley Scott’s The Martian, Ben Wheatley’s adaptation of High-Rise and the horror film that has some chilling buzz, The Witch, are all included. Check out the full listing below and wait with anticipation for our coverage of the festival!

Fantastic Fest is excited to announce the second wave of programming featuring the Us Premiere of Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Lobster as the opening night film.

Austin, TX – Wednesday, August 26, 2015 — Fantastic Fest is excited to announce the second wave of programming featuring the Us Premiere of Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Lobster as the opening night film. Lanthimos will be in attendance to share his wonderfully surreal examination of human connections. Joining The Lobster is a dazzling array of the year’s most anticipated genre films from heavyweight directors including Ridley Scott’s sci-fi epic The Martian, Ben Wheatley’s High-rise and Jeremy Saulnier’s Green Room. Fantastic Fest will also host the World Premiere of Lazer Team, the first feature film from web series gods Rooster Teeth. Lazer Team director Matt Hullum and cast members Burnie Burns, Alan Ritchson, Colton Dunn, Michael Jones, and Gavin Free will be in attendance to celebrate the highly anticipated sci-fi comedy and join Fantastic Fest’s official opening night party, presented by Rooster Teeth. “This is a big year for genre cinema.

Cannibalistic skyscraper tribes, a punk band forced to fight for survival, and 17th century-set supernatural happenings will grace the big screen this fall at Fantastic Fest 2015, as High-Rise, Green Room (co-starring Patrick Stewart), and The Witch are among the films announced in the festival's second wave of programming.

Taking place September 24th–October 1st at the Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar theater in Austin, TX, Fantastic Fest 2015 celebrates an abundance of titles spanning multiple genres (as well as those that don't fit into one specific genre). Stay tuned to Daily Dead for the upcoming final wave of Fantastic Fest 2015 programming, and to read about the first wave of the festival's programming, visit:

http://dailydead.com/fantastic-fest-2015-first-wave-includes-bone-tomahawk-the-invitation/

Press Release: Austin, TX - Wednesday, August 26, 2015 - Fantastic Fest is excited to announce the second wave of programming featuring the Us Premiere of Yorgos Lanthimos' The Lobster as the opening night film.

Other winners at the French film festival in La include Alix Delaporte’s The Last Hammer Blow and documentary Steak (R)evolution.

Clovis Cornillac’s Blind Date has picked up the audience award at the Colcoa French Film Festival (April 20-28) in Los Angeles.

The romantic comedy, which also stars director Cornillac alongside Mélanie Bernier, received its world premiere at the Los Angeles festival ahead of its May 6 release in France.

Alix Delaporte’s The Last Hammer Blow earned the Colcoa Lafca Critics Award following its North American premiere.

Once In A Lifetime directed by Marie-Castille Mention-Schaar won both the Critics Special Prize and the Audience Special Prize.

The Best Documentary Award went to Steak (R)evolution by Frank Ribière and will be released in the Us by Kino Lorber.

The distributor also handles the First Feature Award winner SK1 by Frédéric Tellier.

The Colcoa Coming Soon Award went to Samba by Eric Toledano and Olivier Nakache, which...

The Franco-American Cultural Fund on Tuesday announced the line-up for 19th Colcoa French Film Festival, set to run in West Hollywood from April 20-28.

The event will kick off with the North American Premiere of Yann Gozlan’s thriller A Perfect Man (pictured) starring Pierre Niney and Ana Girardot and close with a yet-to-be-announced feature and the international premiere of Erick Zonca’s television competition selection White Soldier.

The expanded nine-day event will showcase a record 68 films, of which three are world premieres, seven international premieres, 14 North American or Us Premieres and 16 West Coast premieres.

The feature category includes the world premiere of Clovis Cornillac’s rom-com Blind Date and the international premieres of Emmanuel Mouret’s rom-com Caprice and Elodie Namer’s The Tournament.

Colcoa will celebrate the 10th anniversary of its Film Noir Series with Jean Dujardin’s new film The Connection directed by Cédric Jimenez, Frédéric Tellier’s SK1 and Next Time, I’ll Aim...

SK1 (L’Affaire SK1) director Frédéric Tellier with David Cronenberg's Videodrome at the IFC Center Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Frédéric Tellier’s intense thriller SK1 (L’Affaire SK1) stars Raphaël Personnaz, Nathalie Baye, Olivier Gourmet, Michel Vuillermoz and Adama Niane. SK1, named for the first serial killer identified through DNA analysis in France, is based on journalist Patricia Tourancheau’s book about the case, Guy Georges: La Traque.

Frédéric spoke with me about his upcoming project with SK1 producer Julien Madon, how Bertrand Tavernier's L.627 and Henri Verneuil's Mélodie En Sous-Sol (Any Number Can Win), starring Jean Gabin and Alain Delon, play a detective role, finding his Guy Georges, the nature of evil and the response of the inspectors involved in the case when they saw the film.

Raphaël Personnaz as Charlie Olivier Gourmet as Bougon: "They need this kind of relief, these bubbles of oxygen sometimes."

Baye is Maître Frédérique Pons,...

Frédéric Tellier’s SK1 (L’affaire SK1) star Nathalie Baye having a Boyhood moment Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Having worked with some of the best directors on both sides of the Atlantic - starting with Robert Wise and including François Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Maurice Pialat, Claude Chabrol, Bertrand Tavernier, Steven Spielberg and even Guillaume Canet - Nathalie Baye comes to the 20th Anniversary of Rendez-Vous with French Cinema in New York with Frédéric Tellier’s intense thriller SK1 (L’Affaire SK1), co-starring Raphaël Personnaz and Olivier Gourmet.

Convicted murderer Guy Georges (Adama Niane), known as the "Beast of Bastille" due to his 11th arrondissement hunting ground, brutally raped and killed seven women over a period of years in the 1990s before a complicated investigation led to his arrest.

Baye is Maître Frédérique Pons, the lawyer who agreed to represent the man nobody wanted to defend. She "doesn't believe in the Devil,...

Wild Life (Vie sauvage) director Cédric Kahn Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

The night after the Us premiere of Benoît Jacquot's 3 Hearts (3 Coeurs) starring Charlotte Gainsbourg, Chiara Mastroianni and Benoît Poelvoorde, I met up with Wild Life (Vie Sauvage) director Cédric Kahn for a conversation on his film, starring Mathieu Kassovitz and Céline Sallette. The suspense of Robert Bresson's Pickpocket mixes with Alfred Hitchcock's North By Northwest and turns into a "paranoiac world". Working with Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne, choices and his role in Axelle Ropert's Miss And The Doctors came up.

20th Anniversary of Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at the IFC Center

Nathalie Baye, Frédéric Tellier - SK1 (L’Affaire SK1); Mélanie Laurent - Breathe (Respire); Christophe Honoré - Métamorphoses; Cédric Jimenez - The Connection (La French) with Gilles Lellouche and writer Audrey Diwan; and Abd Al Malik - May Allah Bless France (Qu’Allah Bénisse La France!

Charlotte Gainsbourg and Chiara Mastroianni in Benoît Jacquot's uncoupled 3 Hearts (3 Coeurs), also starring Benoît Poelvoorde

Anne-Dominique Toussaint’s Parisian Galerie Cinema comes to New York with an exhibition featuring photos by Cédric Klapisch, Atiq Rahimi, Edward Lachman, Agnès Godard, James Franco, Vincent Perez, Kate Barry, Harry Gruyaert and Raymond Depardon as a special event of the 20th Anniversary of Rendez-Vous with French Cinema.

The Bling Ring director Sofia Coppola, Julianne Moore during the filming of Todd Haynes's Far From Heaven, and Vincent Perez's Cyrano De Bergerac co-star Gérard Depardieu will be among the portraits on display at the Cultural Services of the French Embassy.

Sofia Coppola by Kate Barry © Galerie Cinema

Nathalie Baye, Guillaume Canet, Cédric Kahn, Christophe Honoré, Celine Sallette, Mélanie Laurent, Abd Al Malik, Frédéric Tellier, Armel Hostiou, Thomas Cailley, Stéphane Demoustier, Cédric Anger, Alain Chabat, Claire Burger, Cédric Jimenez, Lucie Borleteau and Ariane Lebed...

Annual event set to showcase 90 French productions, 48 of them market premieres.

Unifrance’s annual Rendez-vous with French Cinema in Paris will kick-off as planned on Thursday (Jan 15), a week after a series of terrorist attacks, in which 17 people were killed, rocked the capital.

France remains on high alert after the shooting of 12 people at the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, by two radicalised brothers offended by its cartoon depictions of the Islamic prophet Mohammed; the shooting of a police woman and the slaughter of four people at a kosher supermarket in the east of the city.

The French government announced on Monday that it was deploying 10,000 troops to protect vulnerable sites across the country — including Jewish schools and neighbourhoods – amid news that security forces believed at least six members of the terrorist cell that plotted the attacks may still be at large.

Charlie Hebdo’s surviving staff have responded to the attack with a new edition of the...

Annual event set to showcase 90 French productions, 48 of them market premieres.

Unifrance’s annual Rendez-vous with French Cinema in Paris will kick-off as planned on Thursday (Jan 15), a week after a series of terrorist attacks, in which 17 people were killed, rocked the capital.

France remains on high alert after the shooting of 12 people at the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, by two radicalised brothers offended by its cartoon depictions of the Islamic prophet Mohammed; the shooting of a police woman and the slaughter of four people at a kosher supermarket in the east of the city.

The French government announced on Monday that it was deploying 10,000 troops to protect vulnerable sites across the country — including Jewish schools and neighbourhoods – amid news that security forces believed at least six members of the terrorist cell that plotted the attacks may still be at large.

Charlie Hebdo’s surviving staff have responded to the attack with a new edition of the...

2Nd Update, Tuesday 3:21 Am Pt: Actuals have been reported from most of the studios, with very few discrepancies amongst the major titles. The Top 5 remain the same as projected on Sunday, save for a tie-break between Exodus: Gods And Kings and China’s Miss Granny with the latter landing at No. 4 and the former at No. 5 on the international chart. There are also more markets reporting on The Imitation Game which added $6.6M for a $41.8M cume.

Figures have been updated throughout the below for those films as well as: Night At The Museum: Secret Of The Tomb, Taken 3, The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies, Penguins Of Madagascar, Big Hero 6, Seventh Son, Into The Woods, Ouija, Honig Im Kopf, Unbroken, The Theory Of Everything, American Sniper, Dumb And Dumber To, Let’s Be Cops, The Water Diviner, Boyhood, Horrible Bosses 2, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1, Birdman and Gone Girl.

Endemol Studios has signed a deal with French fiction producers Tetra Media Studio and Macondo to adapt the French political-themed, character-driven hit series Les Hommes De L’Ombre for U.S. television. Les Hommes De L’Ombre was created by Dan Frank (co-writer of Carlos), Frédéric Tellier, Charline de Lépine, Emmanuel Daucé and stars Nathalie Baye, Bruno Wolkowich and Gregory Fitoussi. The political thriller pulls the audience into the center of a tension-filled campaign between two political communications advisors who will do anything to see their candidate win. The acquisition builds further momentum for Endemol with the recent primetime series pick up for Red Widow at ABC and a pilot order for Low Winter Sun at AMC – both Endemol-scripted adaptations. Les Hommes De L’Ombre will be adapted for the U.S. by Endemol Studios under the working title Kingmakers.