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The annual Prix Jean Vigo, typically awarded to a rising French director, recently recognized talents like Sophie Letourneur for Énorme, Axelle Ropert for Petite Solange, and Alice Diop for Saint-Omer. This year, the honor goes to another female filmmaker this time — Louise Courvoisier for her debut film Vingt Dieux (aka Holy Cow), a 2024 Cannes Film Festival selection in the Un Certain Regard section, where it also won the Un Certain Regard Youth Prize. Zeitgeist Films landed the distribution rights and have plans to distribute the film in March of next year. In our review, I mentioned “with a blend of playfulness and sincerity, the film captures the complexities of human desperation, inviting audiences to both admire and despise the multiple missteps – you’ll love to hate him, but miss him if he weren’t there type.”…...

Savory wine, blissful beaches, rugged topography, and an elusive Philippe Katerine who plays Jean-Philippe — we’ve been keeping close tabs on what will be the middle part in Sophie Letourneur‘s proposed vaca-trilogy. Now comes word that (via the Cineuropa folks) that the project will be known as L’Aventura — a wordplay on Michelangelo Antonioni’s masterwork (perhaps one of the main players will disappear here too). Casting is complete (perhaps we’ll get a surprise appearance), and Letourneur will be re-teaming with cinematopgrapher Jonathan Ricquebourg (he was onboard for Voyages en Italie and more recently The Taste of Things) and the bigger news is that the producing team to come onboard are Atelier de Production’s Thomas and Mathieu Verhaeghe – who mostly produced a string of Quentin Dupieux films and other recent fest faves in Puan (last year’s San Sebastian Film Festival) and Dog on Trial and Eat the Night...

The 2024 Cannes Film Festival was officially closed yesterday, on May 25, 2024, as the prizes for the movies and the actors were awarded at the closing ceremony. It was a very exciting and content-filled event, and we have also reported on numerous movies that had their premiere at Cannes, some of which were received well, while others… not so much. But, naturally, everyone wants to know who won and who lost at Cannes, and that is what we are going to report about in this article.

The article will be divided into two main sections. The first one will list all the juries at Cannes, since they are the ones who chose the winners at the film festival, so we think that it is only fair that you know who picked the winners. After that, we are going to list all the winners in each of the categories.

As we have said,...

Obviously it was always going to be Italy. Not Spain. Misadventures that take place in real life are matched by the very creative adventures that take place in our minds (or from the comfort of our beds) in Voyages en Italie — the fifth feature by French filmmaker Sophie Letourneur. A dramedy that follows a straight line until it doesn’t, Letourneur is a filmmaker who is marching to the beat of her own drum and in this specific case rethinks the narrative and the notion of memory. Employing situational humor and chatty banter, if this film feels scrappy — it’s a deliberate, pre-planned, very precise set-up.…...

The first thing which comes to mind to old film fans when they hear a title like Voyages en Italie will be: "Ah, the 1954 Rossellini film with Ingrid Bergman" and they'd be wrong. That film has many names but the closest to this one is Voyage en Italie (note the missing "s"). Voyages en Italie is the new film by Sophie Letourneur, a dryly comical relationship drama which had its world première at the International Film Festival Rotterdam last weekend. In Voyages en Italie we follow Sophie (played by Sophie Letourneur herself) and Jean-Philippe (Philippe Katerine), a French couple. As they are fifty-ish, have stressful jobs and a young son to care for, they are slightly washed out and, according to Sophie, very much...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Voyages en Italie

For her fifth feature film, Sophie Letourneur returns in front of the camera and behind for the Arte France Cinéma and Cnc supported Voyages en Italie. The compact, Rotterdam-selected title finds a French couple (with Philippe Katerine) looking for a relationship hack. The programming team are calling this a zany rom-com. This was shot in early 2022. Her last film in 2019’s Enormous with Marina Foïs (also a Rotterdam selection) won the prestigious Prix Jean-Vigo award.

Gist: Sophie decides to head off with Jean-Philippe, just the two of them, in order to save their relationship, which has been engulfed by family life.…...

Following the lineups from Slamdance and Sundance, an early look at 2023 in cinema has come into further focus with the announcement of the competition lineup for the International Film Festival Rotterdam. Taking place January 25 through February 5, the festival will open with Henrik Martin Dahlsbakken’s Munch, an experimental biopic of Norwegian painter Edvard Munch. Along with the Tiger and Big Screen competition, seen below, the festival will also Steve McQueen’s latest artwork Sunshine State, a two-channel video projection.

Check out the lineup below via THR.

Opening Film

Munch, dir. Henrik Martin Dahlsbakken

Tiger Competition

100 Seasons, dir. Giovanni Bucchieri

Gagaland, dir. Teng Yuhan

Geology of Separation, dirs. Yosr Gasmi, Mauro Mazzocchi

Indivision, dir. Leïla Kilani

Letzter Abend, dir. Lukas Nathrath

Mannvirki, dir. Gústav Geir Bollason

Munnel, dir. Visakesa Chandrasekaram

New Strains, dir. Artemis Shaw, Prashanth Kamalakanthan

Notas sobre un verano, dir. Diego Llorente

Numb, dir. Amir Toodehroosta

Nummer achttien, dir.

Munch.International Film Festival Rotterdam have announced the lineup for their 52nd edition, which will take place between January 25 through February 5. The festival will be held in-person for the first time since 2020.Opening FILMMunch (Henrik Martin Dahlsbakken)Tiger COMPETITION100 årstider (Giovanni Bucchieri)Gagaland (Teng Yuhan)Geology of SeparationIndivision (Leïla Kilani)Letzter Abend (Lukas Nathrath)Mannvirki (Gústav Geir Bollason)Munnel (Visakesa Chandrasekaram)New StrainsNotas sobre un verano (Diego Llorente)Numb (Amir Toodehroosta)Nummer achttien (Guido van der Werve)La Palisiada (Philip Sotnychenko)Playland (Georden West)Le spectre de Boko Haram (Cyrielle Raingou)Thiiird (Karim Kassem)three sparks (Naomi Uman)Big Screen COMPETITIONAvant l’effondrementBefore the Buzzards Arrive (Jonás N. Díaz)Copenhagen Does Not Exist (Martin Skovbjerg)Drawing LotsEndless Borders (Abbas Amini)Le formiche di Mida (Edgar Honetschläger)Four Little Adults (Selma Vilhunen)La hembrita (Laura Amelia Guzmán Conde)Joram (Devashish Makhija)Luka (Jessica Woodworth)My Little Nighttime Secret (Natalya Meshchaninova...

Gina Gammell and Riley Keough’s “War Pony,” Charlotte Wells’ “Aftersun” and Agnieszka Smoczyńska’s “The Silent Twins” are among the several female-driven anticipated feature debuts slated for the Deauville American Film Festival’s competition.

Eight titles out of 13 features set to compete at Deauville as first films. “War Pony” world premiered at Un Certain Regard in Cannes and won the Camera d’Or for best debut. “War Pony” is a collaborative experience portraying two young Oglala Lakota men who are torn between traditions and the consumer culture surrounding them. “The Silent Twins,” which also bowed at Un Certain Regard, is a biopic of troubled twin writers June and Jennifer Gibbons starring Letitia Wright and Tamara Lawrance.

“Aftersun,” meanwhile, world premiered at Cannes’ Critics Week where it won the French Touch Prize and was acquired by A24. The melodrama stars Paul Mescal and newcomer Frankie Corio as a young father...

The filmmaker has cast Léa Seydoux and Gaspard Ulliel; the next film by Sophie Letourneur and the feature debut by Emmanuelle Nicot will also be co-produced by the French-German channel. Arte France Cinéma’s (headed up by Olivier Père) first selection committee of 2021 has chosen to get involved in three projects as a co-producer and pre-purchaser. Standing out among them is La bête by Bertrand Bonello, which will be the eighth feature by the filmmaker, following The Pornographer (Cannes Critics’ Week in 2001), On War (Directors’ Fortnight 2008), Tiresia (in competition at Cannes in 2003), House of Tolerance (in competition at Cannes in 2011), Saint Laurent (in competition at Cannes in 2014), Nocturama (in competition at Toronto and at San Sebastian in 2016) and Zombi Child (Directors’ Fortnight 2019). Staged by Les Films du Bélier, La bête will boast a cast including Léa Seydoux and Gaspard Ulliel, and will tell...

MyFrenchFilmFestival, an online film festival dedicated to French movies launched by the promotion org UniFrance, will showcase 33 titles, including a competitive lineup of 10 feature films and 10 shorts.

Set to run Jan. 15 to Feb. 15, the 11th edition of the festival will collaborate with more than 60 platforms around the world to allow movies to be watched across more than 200 territories.

The roster of films selected to compete as part of this year’s MyFrenchFilmFestival includes Sébastien Lifshitz’s “Adolescents,” a documentary exploring the evolving friendship of two young women through the years; Hafsia Herzi’s “You Deserve a Lover,” a drama about a young woman struggling to overcome a breakup; and Frédéric Fonteyne’s “Filles de joie,” a social drama about family women leading double lives to make ends meet.

The rest of the lineup comprises Bruno Merle’s “Felicita,” a family dramedy about an eccentric couple raising a child; Stéphane Batut...

Spring Blossom was one of 15 first features selected by the Cannes Film Festival for its 56-title special 2020 Official Selection.

Paris-based sales company Luxbox has unveiled a new round of deals on French filmmaker Suzanne Lindon’s debut feature Spring Blossom ahead of a special screening in Mexico City this week as part of the Ventana Sur market programme.

New deals include to US (Kimstim), Greece (Strada), Italy (102 Distribution), Japan (Jinjin), Scandinavia, Iceland and the Baltics (Edge) and Taiwan (iFilm).

The film was due to be released by Paname Distribution in France on December 9 but this theatrical launch has been...

Forced to revamp in the wake of Germany’s second coronavirus lockdown in November, the International Filmfest Mannheim-Heidelberg is taking place online this year as Iffmh Expanded with two-thirds of its original lineup accessible to virtual festgoers.

The 69th edition of the festival, which marks the debut of a new team headed by director Sascha Keilholz, includes new and revised sections, among them On the Rise, the international competition that showcases first to third works by outstanding directors.

Curated by head of program Frédéric Jaeger, this year’s On the Rise competition includes such pics as “Una Promessa,” Gianluca and Massimiliano De Serio’s tale of nightmarish exploitation in southern Italy (pictured); Saskia Walker and Ralf Walker’s German free love drama “Come Closer,” in which the directing duo co-star with Devid Striesow (“I’m Off Then”); Igor Polevichko’s Russian thriller “Get it Right”; Sabrina Doyle’s U.S. relationship drama “Lorelei,...

Courtesy of Enormous, the filmmaker joins the ranks of previous auteurs rewarded for originality, while Arnaud and Jean-Marie Larrieu scoop an Honorary Jean Vigo. Intended to pay tribute to filmmakers’ independence of mind, originality and the quality of their work, the 68th Jean Vigo Prize has been awarded to Sophie Letourneur for her film Enormous (unveiled early this year in Rotterdam), "for the unapologetic way in which it overturns clichés, inverts genres and allows comedy to rub shoulders with the documentary form; for its everyday tenderness and its refreshing rawness." The director notably joins the ranks of Jean-Luc Godard, Maurice Pialat, Alain Resnais, Claude Chabrol, Philippe Garrel, Olivier Assayas, Bruno Dumont, Laurent Cantet, Xavier Beauvois, Alain Guiraudie, Mathieu Amalric and last year’s victor Stéphane Batut. It’s the 6th time a woman has won the Jean Vigo Prize, following in the footsteps of Anne Fontaine, Noémie Lvovsky, Patricia Mazuy,...

Cannes 2020 label film recently played at Toronto and San Sebastian.

Suzanne Lindon, at just 20 years old, was the youngest filmmaker to make it into Cannes’s special 2020 Official Selection this year with her debut feature Spring Blossom.

She both directed and stars in the gentle coming-of-age tale about a Parisian teenager who enters into a platonic love affair with an actor in his 30s.

In the absence of a physical Cannes, the film premiered in Toronto’s Discovery section in early September, before heading to San Sebastian’s New Directors line-up. It is now touring festivals worldwide, stopping off this...

’Spring Blossom’ is being sold by Luxbox.

Curzon has snapped up UK rights to French filmmaker Suzanne Lindon’s debut feature Spring Blossom amid a flurry of deals for the title ahead of its premiere in Toronto’s Discovery section later on Thursday.

Paris-based Luxbox, which is handling international sales, also unveiled fresh deals to Canada (Axia Films), China (Hugo East) and Switzerland (First Hands).

They join previously announced deals to Benelux (Cinéart) and Germany (Mfa+ Filmdistribution). The film will be released by Paname Distribution in France.

Spring Blossom is one of 15 first features selected by the Cannes Film Festival...

Several titles looking to follow in the wake of ‘Tenet’.

France, opening Wednesday September 2

The biggest opener in France this week is Anne Fontaine’s Police, first seen at the Berlinale in February. Released by Studiocanal, the drama (also known as Night Shift) centres on three Parisian police officers – played by Omar Sy, Virginie Efira and Grégory Gadebois – who debate whether to deport an illegal immigrant (Payman Maadi) while transporting him to the airport.

Sophie Letourneur’s Enormous will also receive a wide release through Memento Films Distribution. First screened at the International Film Festival Rotterdam (Iffr) in January, the...

Paris-set tale is debut feature of director and actress Suzanne Lindon.

Paris-based Luxbox has announced the first key territory deals on Cannes 2020 label title Spring Blossom (Seize Printemps), which has just been selected for Toronto’s physical edition in September, and also revealed the English-language trailer.

The work is the debut feature of Suzanne Lindon, who directs and stars in the film. She is the daughter of Cannes Palme d’Or winning actor Vincent Lindon and actress Sandrine Kiberlain.

First sales include to Benelux (Cinéart) and Germany (Mfa+ Filmdistribution). It will be released by Paname Distribution in France.

Lindon plays a precocious teenager,...

It is the debut feature of Suzanne Lindon, daughter of actors Vincent Lindon and Sandrine Kiberlain

Paris-based Luxbox has boarded sales on French director and actress Suzanne Lindon’s debut film Spring Blossom (Seize Printemps), which was announced as part of the Cannes Film Festival’s special 2020 Official Selection on Wednesday.

Lindon, who is the daughter of Cannes Palme d’Or winning actor Vincent Lindon and actress Sandrine Kiberlain, directs and stars in the film.

She plays a precocious teenager, bored by people of her own age, who finds a fleeting soulmate in an older actor, who is also disenchanted with his milieu,...

Paris-based company Indie Sales will head to the Paris-set industry showcase UniFrance Rendez-Vous With French Cinema with five anticipated French movies, including “Welcome to the Jungle” with Catherine Deneuve.

The other titles are the comedies “Enormous” and “Man Up!,” as well as the ecological tale “Fishlove” and the drama “Under the Concrete.” All five films will be having their market premieres at the Rendez-Vous which kicks off Jan. 16.

Co-directed by Hugo Benamozig and David Caiglioli, “Welcome to the Jungle” stars Deneuve as possessive mother and renown ethnologist who sets off to rescue her beloved son, a young and naive anthropology researcher, in the Amazonian jungle. The adventure comedy also stars Vincent Dedienne (“The Rose Maker”), Jonathan Cohen (“Budapest”) and Alice Belaïdi (“Odd Job”).

“Enormous” is wacky romantic comedy directed by Sophie Letourneur and starring Marina Foïs (“Polisse”) as a world-renowned pianist whose pregnancy turns into a nightmare. Foïs stars opposite...

‘A Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood’ to close the festival, which runs January 22 to February 2.

João Nuno Pinto’s Mosquito is to open the 49th International Film Festival Rotterdam, which has unveiled its full line-up of competition titles.

Scroll down for full list of titles

Mosquito follows a 17-year-old Portuguese recruit who gets lost in the African wilderness in 1917 and marks the second feature from Portuguese director Pinto following 2010’s América. It will also compete in Iffr’s Big Screen Competition.

The festival will close with Marielle Heller’s A Beautiful Day In The Neighbourhood, starring Tom Hanks as Us icon Fred Rogers.

My Mexican BretzelThe titles for the 49th International Film Festival Rotterdam are being announced in anticipation of the event running January 22 – February 2, 2020. We will update the program as new films are revealed.

Tiger COMPETITIONEl año del descubrimiento (Luis López Carrasco)Beasts Clawing at Straws (Kim Yonghoon)The Cloud in Her Room (Zheng Lu Xinyuan)Desterro (Maria Clara Escobar)Drama Girl (Vincent Boy Kars)La fortaleza (Jorge Thielen Armand)Kala azar (Janis Rafa)Nasir (Arun Karthick)Piedra sola (Alejandro Telemaco Tarraf)Si yo fuera el invierno mismo (Jazmín López)

Bright Future COMPETITIONBabai (Artem Aisagaliev)Chaco (Diego Mondaca)Los fantasmas (Sebastián Lojo)Fellwechselzeit (Sabrina Mertens)For the Time Being (Salka Tiziana)I Blame Society (Gillian Wallace Horvat)Moving On (Yoon Dan-bi)My Mexican Bretzel (Nuria Giménez Lorang)Ofrenda (Juan María Mónaco Cagni)Panquiaco (Ana Elena Tejera)A Rifle and a Bag (Isabella Rinaldi / Cristina Hanes / Arya Rothe)Sebastian jumps über Geländer (Ceylan-Alejandro...

New Cnc report provides lowdown on budgets, pay and box office for female-directed films in France.

Female directors accounted for 23.3% of feature films shot in France in 2017, according to a new report by the Cnc looking at every aspect of female representation in the country’s film and TV industry between 2008 and 2017.

The comprehensive 122-page study, released to coincide with International Women’s Day on March 8, is a joint study between France’s National Cinema Centre and Audiens, the body which manages compulsory social security payments for film and TV professionals

The study showedt between 2008 to 2017, the number of films...

Paris-based international sales executive Florencia Gil has joined the staff of the French company Indie Sales, where she will handle key territories together with the outfit’s co-founder and CEO, Nicolas Eschbach, as well as marketing.

Gil is joining Indie Sales from Loco Films, where she headed international sales for four years. Originally from Brazil, where she built an early career in theater as a director and producer, Gil took part part at Femis’ Atelier Ludwigsburg-Paris, and UCLA Producer’s Program.

“We are thrilled to welcome Florencia in our young and dynamic team. Her creative and international profile as well as her knowledge of the market are a great addition to the company, that keeps growing,” said Eschbach.

Gil said that after four years working on launching Loco Films, where (she) handled all aspects of sales and acquisitions, she is looked forward to taking on this “tailor-made position, focusing on sales and marketing.

Paris-based company Indie Sales has acquired the coming-of-age drama “A Colony” which will be making its international premiere at the Berlin Film Festival in the generation section.

“A Colony” marks the feature debut of Geneviève Dulude-De Celles, whose short film “The Cut” won a prize at Sundance in 2014.

Set in Sorel Tracy, a Quebec town, at the end of summer, “A Colony” follows Mylia, a timid 12-year-old who must leave her little sister and native countryside to enter high school. Lost in this new environment, she meets Jacinthe, who introduces her to teenage rituals and absurdities, and Jimmy, a fierce young native from the neighboring reservation whom encourages her to cross boundaries, and ultimately form her personal identity.

“A Colony” previously won six awards in Quebec, including the best film and audience awards at the Quebec City Film. Festival.

Martin Gondre, Indie Sales’ head of marketing and festivals, said “A...

’Knocked Up’ is the fourth feature from director Sophie Letourneur.

Paris-based Indie Sales has acquired international rights to both Sophie Letourneur’s comedy Knocked Up and Benjamin Parent’s coming-of-age tale Little Man ahead of the five-day Unifrance Rendez-vous with French Cinema in Paris, which kicks-off on Thursday (Jan 17).

Knocked Up (Enorme) stars Marina Foïs as a world-renowned pianist who travels the world with her husband, coach and agent, played by Jonathan Cohen.

After witnessing the birth of a baby on a transatlantic flight, the husband becomes broody and secretly tampers with his wife’s birth control pills. To her horror,...

Cinéast(e)s and Action! French & American Women Filmmakers with Deborah Kampmeier, Rebecca Zlotowski, Axelle Ropert, Stacie Passon, Julie Gayet, Isabelle Giordano, Ry Russo-Young, Katell Quillévéré and Justine Triet at the French Institute Alliance Française in New York Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze On International Women’s Day at the French Institute Alliance Française in New York, "not a filmmaker" Julie Gayet presented Cinéast(e)s: Women Filmmakers she made with Mathieu Busson. Directors interviewed include Agnès Varda, Mia Hansen-Løve, Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, Josiane Balasko, Julie Delpy, Lola Doillon, Sophie Letourneur, Lisa Azuelos, Rebecca Zlotowski, and Katell Quillévéré.

Rendez-Vous with French Cinema in New York filmmakers participating in the panel discussion moderated by Isabelle Giordano, executive director of uniFrance films, were Justine Triet, Axelle Ropert, Rebecca Zlotowski, Katell Quillévéré along with Us directors, Stacie Passon, Deborah Kampmeier, and Ry Russo-Young.

President of the French Institute Alliance Française Marie-Monique Steckel welcomed the participants.

Sophie Letourneur's sexy, playful romp "Les coquillettes" is getting a one week release next week at the MoMA in New York, from July 17-23.  MoMA is teaming up with Tangerine Entertainment, the production company for female directors started by industry veterans Amy Hobby and Anne Hubbell.   The film, which screened at MoMA and Film Society of Lincoln Center's New Directors/New Films festival, is getting compared to the work of "Girls" creator Lena Dunham, and the trailer shows off the casual dialogue and outlandish actions that fill up Letourner's film.  The film's lead, Sophie, has a film at Locarno, but all she and her friends can focus on is having fun and pursuing men. Here's the world premiere of the film's English-subtitled trailer:...

A feisty trifle charting the misadventures of three French women looking for romance or distraction among the open-for-suggestions film-industry fellows at the Locarno Film Festival, Sophie Letourneur's brief comedy is distinguished by bristling comic performances, from both the women and their quarry, especially in a too-long public makeout embarrassment between Camille Genaud and one guy that her character—named Camille, just as Letourneur's is Sophie and Carole Le Page's is Carole—doesn't want to seem too into. "I'm sorry I frenched you," she says later, according to the subtitles, which is something of a revelation: The French use the verb "to french"? Their comic but usually not hilarious travails are flashed back to from a stagey present, where the women reminisce abo...

The Museum of Modern Art and the Film Society of Lincoln Center will present the 42nd edition of New Directors/New Films from March 20-31 in New York. The festival will screen 25 features (19 narrative, six documentary) and 17 short films, representing 24 countries.

Matías Piñeiro's Viola, Shane Carruth's Upstream Color, Shannon Plumb's Towheads, Sarah Polley's Stories We Tell, Daniel Hoesl's Soldate Jeannette and Rachid Djaïdani's Rengaine are films to look out for on the conflicts from within and the contentions from without.

Alexandre Moors’ Blue Caprice will open the festival at MoMA on March 20. A new component this year is a mid-festival screening at the Vw Performance Dome at MoMA PS1, in Long Island City, on March 26, of Sophie Letourneur’s Les Coquillettes. Found-footage documentary, Our Nixon, directed by Penny Lane will close the film festival at the Film Society’s Walter Reade Theater on March 31.

Here are six standouts.

The 17th edition of the International Film Festival of Kerala (Iffk) has announced its lineup. The festival will run from 7th to 14th December, 2012 in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.

Some of the highlights of the lineup are festival favourites of the year Amour, Chitrangada, Samhita, The Sapphires, Drapchi, Miss Lovely, Me and You, Celluloid Man, and Baandhon.

Fourteen films will screen in the Competition section while seven contemporary films will be screened in “Indian Cinema Now” section.

Complete list of films:

Competition Films

Fourteen feature films from Asia, Africa and Latin America will compete for the coveted “Suvarna Chakoram” (Golden Crow Pheasant) and other awards.

Always Brando by Ridha Behi (Tunisia)

Inheritors of the Earth by T V Chandran (India)

A Terminal Trust by by Masayuki Suo (Japan)

Shutter by Joy Mathew (India)

Today by Alain Gomis (Senegal-France)

The Repentant by Merzak Allouache (Algeria)

Sta. Niña by Manny Palo (Philippines)

Present Tense...

While Cannes’ Quinzaine struggles to reframe its identity, its former artistic director Olivier Père continues to impress in his new job at the Locarno Film Festival. On Wednesday, he and his programming team unveiled a lineup that is absolutely salivatory, a who’s who for high-minded cinephiles. Perhaps most impressive of all, he has managed to once again nudge the festival’s selection aesthetic even deeper into esoteric ‘experimental’ territory without seeming all that radical. More than any other festival, Locarno is the home for the edgy projects that are too sophisticated for Cannes, whose cold shoulder to avant-garde narrative filmmaking becomes more glaring with each passing year. Check out the complete line-up at the bottom of this page.

In their International Competition, in which films compete for the increasingly prestigious Golden Leopard, we have a collaboration between João Pedro Rodrigues and his partner João Rui Guerra da Mata called...

Olivier Assayas' Carlos (the 5 1/2 long verison) and Xavier Beauvois' Cannes winner Of Gods and Men would appear to be the frontrunners in this year's 8 nominated films for the Louis-Delluc prize. The annual Best French Film award that commenced operations back in 1937, when Jean Renoir's Les Bas-fonds claimed the inaugural prize will announce the winners for Best Film and Best First Film on December 17th. Best Feature Noms: Carlos - Olivier Assayas The Ghost Writer - Roman Polanski Mysteries of Lisbon - Raoul Ruiz Of Gods and Men - Xavier Beauvois On Tour - Mathieu Amalric The Princess of Montpensier - Bertrand Tavernier White Material - Claire Denis Young Girls in Black - Jean-Paul Civeyrac Delluc prize for first-time director: A Violent Poison - Katell Quillevere An Ordinary Execution - Marc Dugain Belle Epine - Rebecca Zlotowski Domaine - Patric Chiha Gainsbourg - Joann Sfar La Vie au Ranch...

In Sophie Letourneur's unassumingly fantastic debut, Chicks (French title being the more elegant La Vie au Ranch, which means Life at the Ranch), a gaggle of directionless 20-something young ladies traipse through their Parisian, smoky, beer-goggled and boy-crazy lives for 92 minutes of film-time. Through the cinema-vérité shooting style, effortlessly natural performances, and time-skip-aheads near the end, Letourneur effectively leaves you feeling like you've seen feminine youth itself encompassed within that hour-and-a-half--or at least her version of it.

Primarily revolving around three college students and best friends--Pam, Manon, and Lola--Chicks kicks off with them stumbling around a party at their nearly-communal apartment, nicknamed The Ranch, calling for each other in the mass of their darkly-lit peers and stopping only to flirt with boys (and other girls), or slurp up homemade alcoholic concoctions. Eventually they pour out onto the streets of Paris, gabbing and shuffling along the stone sidewalks in dangerously unstable heels.

In Sophie Letourneur's unassumingly fantastic debut, Chicks (French title being the more elegant La Vie au Ranch, which means Life at the Ranch), a gaggle of directionless 20-something young ladies traipse through their Parisian, smoky, beer-goggled and boy-crazy lives for 92 minutes of film-time. Through the cinema-vérité shooting style, effortlessly natural performances, and time-skip-aheads near the end, Letourneur effectively leaves you feeling like you've seen feminine youth itself encompassed within that hour-and-a-half--or at least her version of it.

Primarily revolving around three college students and best friends--Pam, Manon, and Lola--Chicks kicks off with them stumbling around a party at their nearly-communal apartment, nicknamed The Ranch, calling for each other in the mass of their darkly-lit peers and stopping only to flirt with boys (and other girls), or slurp up homemade alcoholic concoctions. Eventually they pour out onto the streets of Paris, gabbing and shuffling along the stone sidewalks in dangerously unstable heels.

Repertory theaters on the coasts are truly offering a window onto the world this spring, with Jia Zhangke and Bong Joon-ho retrospectives, as well as New French Cinema in New York, "Freebie and the Bean," "Killer Klowns from Outer Space" and Jason Reitman's favorite films invade Los Angeles, and the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin is offering a fond farewell to the video cassette. But consider this a hello to seeing classics, oddities and rarities on the big screen over the next few months.

Cities: [New York] [Los Angeles] [Austin] More Spring Preview: [Theatrical Calendar]

[Anywhere But a Movie Theater]

New York

92YTribeca

Is there a more energetic way to start the spring than with a screening of Russ Meyer's "Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!" (Feb. 20, with editors Rumsey Taylor, Leo Goldsmith and Jenny Jediny in attendance)? Perhaps not, but it's only the start of an exciting spring season at the 92YTribeca Screening Room, which will present several special events over the next few months.

Before going into my Women Directors Tracking which I have vowed to continue until women reach a parity with men in the film business and Latino Directors groove, I want to thank Howard Feinstein for watching the most obscure films of Rotterdam to find the jewels! Scratching Below the Surface for Some Rotterdam Fest Gems - indieWIRE. Kudos! I wish I could have seen these!

Howard spotted this one: "A young woman named Rusudan Pirveli brought to the 'Bright Future' section Susa, another story of hard financial times. 'The Lost Generation' is represented here by the absent father of an adolescent boy, who, working for his mother, sells bootleg vodka in bottles. Sadly, he lives under the delusion that dad’s return would ease his and his mom’s hardship. Like Koguashvili, Pirveli eschews unnecessary authorial intervention: Both directors understand all too well that they are living amidst powerful,...

Berlin -- The East and the Far East are in focus at this year's Rotterdam International Film Festival, which unveiled its competition lineup Thursday. Of the 15 titles vying for Rotterdam's Tiger Awards, more than half are from Eastern Europe and Asia.

Japan has two contenders: Tsubota Yoshifumi's "Miyoko," a biopic based on the Manga artist Abe Shinichi and his wife Miyoko and "Autumn Adagio" from first-timer Inoue Tsuki, which focuses on the life of a middle-aged nun.

Anocha Suwichakornpong, whose short "Graceland" (2006) was the first Thai film included in Cannes' official selection, makes her feature debut in competition at Rotterdam with "Mundane History," a drama about a family dealing with their wheelchair-bound son. Scwichakornpong will also attend Rotterdam's CineMart, chasing funds for his next project "By the Time it Gets Dark."

Other Asian entries in Rotterdam this year include minimalist drama "Sun Spots" from China's Yang Heng and "My Daughter,...