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A Still From The Count Of Monte-Cristo(Photo Credit –Prime Video)

A French action-adventure film has broken into the top ten most popular movies list on Amazon Prime Video globally, according to FlixPatrol. We’re talking about the widely acclaimed 2024 release, The Count of Monte Cristo, a fresh adaptation of Alexandre Dumas’ classic 1844 novel. Read on to find out what the film is about, how it’s been received by critics and audiences, and where you can watch it online.

What’s The Count of Monte-Cristo All About

Directed by Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de La Patellière, this 1800s-set film tells the gripping story of Edmond Dantès (played by Pierre Niney), a kind-hearted sailor who is falsely accused of treason and thrown into a remote island prison.

During his imprisonment, he forms a bond with a fellow inmate who educates him in various subjects and reveals the secret of a hidden treasure.

Alexandre Dumas’s novel is one of those foundational myths of Western literature, a story of betrayal and retribution so deeply embedded in our cultural consciousness that it feels permanently relevant. The 2024 French adaptation of The Count of Monte Cristo understands this. It leans into the story’s inherent power without apology.

We are reintroduced to Edmond Dantès, a young, successful sailor whose bright future—a captaincy and marriage to his love, Mercédès—is stolen by the bitter jealousy of his rivals, Danglars and Fernand Mondego. Their conspiracy, enabled by the corrupt ambition of prosecutor Gérard de Villefort, sends him not just to prison, but to a place outside of time: the island fortress of the Château d’If.

It is in this crucible of despair that Dantès is reforged. Stripped of his name, his love, and his future, he is reborn through rage and knowledge. When he emerges years later,...

2024's The Count of Monte-Cristo has surged up Prime Video's streaming charts, drawing a wider audience to the latest adaptation. It's still debatable whether that's better than the 2002 film and its perfect casting (which includes Henry Cavill in a supporting role).

The Count of Monte-Cristo has ranked fifth in Prime Video's streaming top 10, as of Aug. 2, per FlixPatrol. The 2024 film is a French-language adaptation of Alexandre Dumas' namesake novel, which depicts how revenge consumes people. The movie is faithful to the setting, plot, and story beats of the original, in its protagonist, Edmond Dantès' (played by Pierre Niney) betrayal, transformation, rise to power, and redemption. Overwhelmingly received by audiences, the film also has a 96% critic's score on Rotten Tomatoes.

Per the official synopsis, The Count of Monte-Cristo revolves around Edmond Dantes, an honest working man who "becomes the target of a sinister plot, and is arrested on his wedding day,...

Many filmmakers who are typically known for their adult fare have branched into children’s films to create something their children could watch, the most notable example being Martin Scorsese, who made Hugo for his daughter Francesca. However, few have gone so far as to make a movie with their children. In a way, this is what French filmmaker Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) has done with the enchanting Maya, Give Me a Title, resulting in a film that is both immensely personal and supremely watchable.

Maya, Give Me a Title Review

Maya, Give Me a Title is a compilation of animated short films created by Gondry based on titles given to him by his young daughter, Maya. Created as an exercise to keep Gondry emotionally close with his daughter even when they are physically apart, the movie serves as a beautiful, poignant ode to the relationship between parent and child.

The 2025 French Open is in full swing, and a ton of superstars are seated to watch the matches!

Celebrities like Natalie Portman, Lily Collins and Charlie McDowell turned out for the men’s final on Sunday (June 8) at Roland Garros in Paris, France.

Stars from film, fashion and the sports world gathered to watch the men’s championship match.

Pharrell Williams and wife Helen Lasichanh, François Civil, Adèle Exarchopoulos, Sacha Abitbol, Clovis Cornillac, Pierre Niney, Natasha Andrews, Natalia Vodianova, Dustin Hoffman, Lisa Gottsegen, Lilou Fogli, Stuart Zebrowski, Lilian Thuram, Kareen Guiock-Thuram, Laurent Lafitte, Kad Merad, Éric Judor, and Cooper Koch were among the attendees.

Laurent Wauquiez, Luka Karabatic, Jeny Priez, Jacques Essebag, Antoine Dupont, Iris Mittenaere, Ana Girardot, Oscar Louveau, Richard Orlinski, Marisa Abela, Jamie Bogyo, Stromae, Coralie Barbier, William Kalubi, Milla Lapidus, Guillaume Canet, Gilles Lellouche, Camille Cottin, and Benjamin Mahon were also in attendance.

Carlos Alcaraz fought back...

After one of the greatest cinematic acting careers in history, Michael Caine has retired from show business. And now his final performance, in the 2023 British film The Great Escaper, is set to make its U.S. TV debut. PBS' long-running anthology series Masterpiece will air the film this fall. Masterpiece has also acquired the 2024 miniseries adaptation of The Count of Monte Cristo, which stars Sam Claflin in the title role; it will premiere in 2026.

The Great Escaper stars Caine as real-life World War II veteran Bernard Jordan. Living in a nursing home in 2014, he hopes to attend the 70th anniversary ceremony for the D-Day landings in Normandy, but can't get a place on a group tour. Undeterred, he makes a daring escape from the home. The Great Escaper also features the final performance from Oscar-winning actor Glenda Jackson, who died shortly after completing it; she plays Irene, Jordan's wife of sixty years.

Alexandre Mallet-Guy’s Memento has bought Harry Lighton’s sexy romance “Pillion” which is world premiering in Un Certain Regard.

The Paris-based Memento, which is at Cannes with three movies in competition, will release the A24 movie in France. Speaking to Variety, Mallet Guy said, “It’s a gay Bdsm rom-com, and it’s pretty wild.”

“Alexander Skarsgård plays the biker, and Harry Melling, who you might know from ‘Harry Potter,’ plays the submissive. The film is hilarious but also quite disturbing, simply because it’s a romantic comedy set in such a specific, unconventional world. But it really works — it’s surprisingly emotional, and there’s something incredible about seeing two stars take such bold risks,” he added.

Memento’s Cannes competition lineup includes Joachim Trier’s “Sentimental Value,” Jafar Panahi’s “A Simple Accident” and Tarik Saleh’s “Eagles of the Republic,” as well as Laura Wandel’s...

After playing the original masked avenger in the Cesar-winning, smash hit “The Count of Monte Cristo,” Pierre Niney is starring as a charismatic, yet toxic superstar coach in “Guru,” Yann Gozlan’s gripping psychological thriller which Studiocanal will introduce to buyers at the Cannes market this week.

Gozlan, who is presenting his latest film “Dalloway” at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, is reteaming with Niney for the third time, following “An Ideal Man” and “Black Box,” two of Gozlan’s most successful films.

Niney stars in “Guru” opposite Marion Barbeau, Anthony Bajon and Holt McCallany. Along with headlining “Guru,” Niney is also co-producing the movie with Marc-Henri De Busschere via his banner Ninety Films, with Wassim Beji at Wy Productions producing. Studiocanal will release the film in France on Jan. 28 on top of handling international sales on it.

Ahead of the Cannes Film Festival, Niney spoke to Variety about...

At its heart, Maya, Give Me a Title conjures an intercontinental dialogue spun from scissors, tape and childhood wonder. A six-year exchange unfolds as Maya, seated before the camera, offers off-the-cuff titles that Michel Gondry transforms into hour-long stop-motion vignettes. These paper-cut adventures—bookended by live-action interludes—trace a playful surrealism grounded in tactile craft.

Gondry wears both director’s cap and animator’s gloves, while Maya steers the narrative with innocent audacity. Pierre Niney’s voiceover turns each title into a character, lending buoyant personality to scenarios that range from hammock-thieving squirrels to ecological ketchup catastrophes. Jean-Michel Bernard’s score hums with retro-tinged warmth, and Frédéric Junqua’s carefully chosen tracks evoke ’50s-era suspense and joy.

The film’s hybrid format marries childlike spontaneity with seasoned artistry, animating simple cutouts at twelve frames per second yet preserving every fingerprint and pencil stroke. A palette of rich secondary hues enhances the handcrafted universe,...

Exclusive: Italian sales firm Intramovies has boarded world sales rights excluding Israel and Poland on Or Sinai’s Mama, which was selected as a Cannes Special Screenings title in the Official Selection yesterday.

Mama is the only Israeli title in Official Selection at Cannes this year. The Hebrew- and Polish-language film follows Mila, a woman forced to temporarily leave her seaside mansion – and her secret romance – to return to her family in a remote Polish village. But the long-awaited reunion is far from what she imagined.

Adi Bar Yossef produces the film, which is a co-production between her Israeli company Baryo,...

Iranian filmmaker Ashgar Farhadi is readying his first film since 2021’s “A Hero,” and the cast sheet is a who’s who of French Cinema’s greatest talents.

Read More: ‘Luz’ Review: Isabelle Huppert Gets Lost In Flora Lau’s Video Game World [Sundance]

Variety reports that Farhadi’s “Parallel Tales” will star Isabelle Huppert, Virginie Efira, Vincent Cassel, Pierre Niney, and Adam Bessa.

Continue reading ‘Parallel Tales’: Asghar Farhadi’s Next Movie Stars Isabelle Huppert, Virginie Efira, Vincent Cassel, Catherine Denevue & More at The Playlist.

Two-time Oscar-winning Iranian director Asghar Farhadi (A Separation, The Salesman) has cast a who’s who of French stars for his next feature, Parallel Tales.

Gallic A-listers Isabelle Huppert (Elle), Virginie Efira (Benedetta), Vincent Cassel (Black Swan) and Pierre Niney (The Count of Monte-Cristo) are set to headline the French-language feature, alongside Adam Bessa, an up-and-comer nominated for a French César as best newcomer this year for his turn in Jonathan Millet’s Ghost Trail. The film will also feature a cameo from French film legend Catherine Deneuve.

Parallel Tales is set to begin shooting in Paris this fall, marking Farhadi’s first French feature since 2013’s The Past starring Tahar Rahim and Berenice Bejo. The film is being set up as a French-Italian-Belgian coproduction between Alexandre Mallet-Guy’s Memento Production, Andrea Occhipinti’s Lucky Red, and André Logie’s Panache Productions and Gaëtan David’s La Compagnie Cinématographique. U.

While Asghar Farhadi’s first ventures working internationally with the French-set The Past, starring Bérénice Bejo and Tahar Rahim, and the Spanish-language drama Everybody Knows, starring Javier Bardem and Penélope Cruz, didn’t quite Iive up to the Iranian director’s finest works, he’s going to give it another go. Following his Cannes Grand Prix winner A Hero back in 2021, the director has announced his next feature, which will shoot in France and has amassed quite the ensemble.

Variety reports Isabelle Huppert, Virginie Efira, Vincent Cassel, Pierre Niney, and Adam Bessa will star in Parallel Tales, along with an “appearance” by Catherine Deneuve. With production set to begin in Paris this fall, a spring 2026 France release in the works, making it primed for a Cannes Film Festival debut next year.

While no plot details have been unveiled yet, one can expect another dramatically knotty, searing drama from the director,...

Megawatt quintet Isabelle Huppert, Virginie Efira, Vincent Cassel, Pierre Niney and Adam Bessa (plus a bonus appearance by Catherine Deneuve) will populate Asghar Farhadi‘s “Parallel Tales,” — which sees the Iranian filmmaker return to Paris — the lieu of where he shot 2013’s “The Past.” Variety reports that filming on his tenth film will take place in the fall with the hopes of bringing this to Cannes in 2026. We don’t have a logline yet, but this should be full of mental gymnastics like his previous work. Look for this to be a top sales project (Charades and UTA Independent Film Group) on the Croisette next month.…...

Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi has announced his next film, four years after winning the Cannes Grand Prix in 2021. The Oscar-winning director will helm “Parallel Tales,” also known as “Histoires Parallèles,” with Isabelle Huppert and Vincent Cassel starring. Farhadi is set to begin production in Paris in fall 2025, with a release in France planned for spring 2026.

“Parallel Tales,” which will be a French-language film, brings Farhadi back to France after he previously filmed 2013’s “The Past” there. The “Parallel Tales” cast marks the first collaboration between iconic French stars Huppert and Cassel, who will also be joined by Virginie Efira, Pierre Niney, Catherine Deneuve, and “Ghost Trail” breakout Adam Bessa. No other details on the plot are available at this time.

The film will be an official French-Italian-Belgian coproduction between Alexandre Mallet-Guy’s Memento Production in France, Andrea Occhipinti’s Lucky Red in Italy, and André Logie’s Panache Productions...

Asghar Farhadi is set to direct the French-languageParallel Talesin Paris later this year, with a cast led byIsabelle Huppert, Virginie Efira, Vincent Cassel, Pierre Niney and Adam Bessa.

Catherine Deneuve is also set to star.

The film is being produced by Alexandre Mallet-Guy’s Memento Production in France with Andrea Occhipinti’s Lucky Red in Italy, and Andre Logie’s Panache Productions and Gaetan David’s La Compagnie Cinematographique in Belgium.

Anonymous Content will co-produce the film from the US.

Charades is handling international sales and will introduce the film to buyers at Cannes next month.Bessa was namedaScreenArab Star...

Asghar Farhadi has united a strong cast for his next feature Parallel Tales, with Isabelle Huppert, Virginie Efira, Vincent Cassel, Pierre Niney and Adam Bessa all set to star.

Parallel Tales (French title: Histoires Parallèles) is scheduled to shoot on location in Paris this autumn, and is aiming for a theatrical release in France in spring 2026 via Memento Distribution. French icon Catherine Deneuve will also make an appearance in the film, which is produced by Alexandre Mallet-Guy with Farhadi and David Levine.

The plot has not yet been disclosed. French-language Parallel Tales is a co-production between Mallet-Guy’s Memento Production in France,...

Asghar Farhadi will shoot his next film Parallel Tales in Paris this coming fall, with Isabelle Huppert, Virginie Efira, Vincent Cassel, Pierre Niney and Adam Bessa in the cast.

It is the Oscar-winning Iranian director’s first feature since A Hero, which won the Grand Prix at Cannes in 2021.

Parallel Tales marks Farhadi’s second French-language film after The Past with Tahar Rahim and Berenice Bejo, who won Best Actress award for her performance at Cannes in 2013.

The feature will be produced by Alexandre Mallet-Guy alongside Farhadi and David Levine. Mallet-Guy has worked with Farhadi on all of his films starting with and since The Past, having originally connected with the director as the French distributor of his earlier titles including About Elly and A Separation.

The film is an official French-Italian-Belgian coproduction between Mallet-Guy’s Memento Production in France, Andrea Occhipinti’s Lucky Red in Italy, and André Logie...

Twelve years after making his French-language directorial debut with “The Past,” two-time Oscar-winning Iranian director Asghar Farhadi is set to return to Paris for his next film, “Parallel Tales.”

The film, whose plot remains under wraps, brings together a powerful French cast, including Isabelle Huppert (“Elle”), Virginie Efira (“Benedetta”), Vincent Cassel (“Black Swan”), Pierre Niney (“The Count of Monte Cristo”) and Adam Bessa (“Ghost Trail”). Iconic French actor Catherine Deneuve will also make an appearance in the film.

Produced by long-time collaborator Alexandre Mallet-Guy alongside with Asghar Farhadi and David Levine, the prestige project will be launched by Charades and UTA Independent Film Group at the upcoming Cannes Film Market. Charades will handle international sales, while UTA Independent Film Group will rep U.S. rights. Farhadi is set to begin production on “Parallel Tales” in Paris this fall.

The Iranian director’s most recent film, “A Hero,” earned the Grand...

A French parliamentary investigation into sexual violence has condemned what it called “endemic” abuse in the country’s entertainment industry.

The damning report, details of which were released to French media ahead of the presentation to parliament on Wednesday, is calling for an overhaul in funding and regulations to protect vulnerable actors and minors on set.

“Moral, sexist, and sexual violence in the cultural sector is systemic, endemic, and persistent,” read a conclusion from French MP Sandrine Rousseau, who led the inquiry.

Some of France’s biggest stars, including Juliette Binoche, Jean Dujardin, and Pierre Niney, agreed to testify. The inquiry was launched last October in the wake of allegations by French actress Judith Godrèche who accused veteran directors Jacques Doillon and Benoît Jacquot of raping her when she was 15 and called out the film industry’s inaction in the face of systematic abuse.

The findings follow last week’s...

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

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

Scroll down for the full list of winners

Stars Karla Sofia Gascon and...

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

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

Scroll down for the full list of winners

Stars Karla Sofia Gascon and...

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

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

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

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

Jacques Audiard’s crime musical “Emilia Perez” won a raft of prizes, including best film and director, at the 50th edition of the Cesar Awards, France’s equivalent to the Oscars, on Friday in Paris.

“Emilia Perez” won a total of seven awards out of 12 nominations. While Zoe Saldana and Karla Sofía Gascón were both on hand and nominated for best actress, they lost to Hafsia Herzi, who starred as a prison supervisor in Stéphane Demoustier’s “Borgo.”

Gascón made her first award show appearance at the Cesar Awards ceremony after laying low in the wake of her offensive posts. Although she skipped the press line on the red carpet, Gascón sat on the same row as Audiard and Saldana inside the Olympia theater, but didn’t seat next to them and didn’t seem to be on speaking terms.

The ceremony’s emcee, French actor Jean-Pascal Zadi, tried to...

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...

Of all the directors who made the jump from music videos to feature-directing during MTV’s ’90s peak, Michel Gondry is the sole name whose work hasn’t been able to fully escape from the shadow of early pop promos. His hyper-stylized clips for artists ranging from Daft Punk to the White Stripes revealed a fondness for tactile meticulousness, shorts with an elaborate design where you could often feel the artist’s hand bringing them to life––in some cases quite literally seeing his hands shape the design. Aside from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind––a perfect narrative vehicle for his sensibility due to how its protagonist’s warped memories allowed the director to briskly jump from one visual conceit to the next––Gondry’s films have only ever recaptured this spirit in short bursts, if at all. You’d probably be forgiven for not knowing he directed the...

About three-quarters of the way through Michel Gondry’s brief, brimming, inspired and liberating new movie, the narrator pauses a tale involving hammock-stealing squirrels to ask, “Where can this story be going?” By this point in the deliriously straight-faced lunacy of Maya, Give Me a Title, the answer is clear: It can be going anywhere. And that’s a good thing.

Maya is Gondry’s daughter and his creative partner in a long-distance project that they shared for six years, beginning when she was 4, and now distilled into this effervescent hourlong feature. Communicating with Maya by phone and computer across many miles, the Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind director devised an inventive way to stay close: His little girl would be the concept person, called upon to concoct a title for a movie adventure in which she’d star, and Papa would, over the next two to six weeks,...

by Nathaniel R

Pierre Niney as "The Count of Monte Cristo" © Pathe

Since we've always loved French cinema, we follow along with the César Awards each year. Historical adventure The Count of Monte Cristo leads the pack with an astounding 14 nominations. Curiously the second most nominated film, Beating Hearts (13 nods) a romantic drama spanning 20 years, is Not up for Best Film. It premiered at Cannes to some negative reviews before an October theatrical release. Among the nomination leaders the Oscar-bound trans cartel musical Emilia Pérez (12 nominations) came in third.

Let's look at the fields and discuss and jot down which films we'll have to watch out for in 2025 as they make their way across the ocean...

Exclusive: Deva Cassel (Netflix’s The Leopard), Julien De Saint Jean (The Count Of Monte Cristo) and Romain Duris (Heartbreaker) are set to co-star in a contemporary, French-language version of Gaston Leroux’s classic Paris-set novel The Phantom of the Opera, aimed at a young adult audience and taking its cue from the Twilight franchise.

Snd, the film production, distribution and sales arm of French commercial free-to-air broadcaster M6, is co-producing and selling the ambitious project and will launch pre-sales at the EFM with a sizzle.

Alexandre Castagnetti is set to direct from a screenplay co-written with Camille Fontaine ( Coco Before Chanel).

Opéra Garnier

Filming will begin this summer at the world famous Palais Garnier opera house, or Opéra Garnier, in Paris, against the backdrop of its theatre, backstage areas, domed roof and subterranean vaulted cistern, sometimes referred to as its lake.

No fewer than 14 César nominations for The Count Of Monte Cristo starring Pierre Niney Photo: UniFrance

The denizens of France’s Academie des Césars (the equivalent of the Oscars or the BAFTAs) have voted for box office winners in their choices to go forward for Best Film, including the costume drama from the novel by Alexandre Dumas, The Count Of Monte Cristo, Jacques Audiard’s Mexican drugs cartel musical Emilia Pérez, and Emmanuel Courcol’s The Marching Band. Two more edgy titles, Souleymane’s Story and Miséricordia also have best picture nods in the contenders announced today.

Epic crime romance Beating Hearts scored 13 César nominations Photo: UniFrance

The Count Of Monte Cristo, which had a lacklustre performance in the recent Lumière Awards (bestowed by the foreign press working in France), trumped all-comers in the Césars with 14 nominations, while Gilles Lellouche’s epic crime romance Beating Hearts came a close second...

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

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

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

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

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

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

Scroll down for the full list of nominations

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jacques Audiard’s musical film Emilia Pérez swept the 30th edition of France’s Lumière Awards on Monday evening, winning Best Film, Director and Screenplay as well Actress for Karla Sofia Gascón and Music for Camille and Clément Ducol.

The wins add further steam to the Cannes Jury Prize winner’s awards season run following its quadruple Golden Globes triumph and European Film Awards victory, where it also clinched Best Film, Director, Screenplay and Actress for Gascón.

The movie is currently on six of the 10 announced category shortlists for the 97th the Academy Awards and nominated in 11 categories for the 2025 Baftas film awards.

Further awards seasons hopefuls also featured in the Lumière prizes, with Mati Diop’s Berlinale Golden Bear winner Dahomey – which made it into Best International Feature Film (for Senegal) and Documentary Academy Award shortlists – won Best Documentary.

Latvian director Gints Zilbalodis’s Flow – which is also on...

Movies from around the world shone brightly in 2024, showing how great storytelling speaks to audiences everywhere. From the sun-drenched streets of Mexico to the neon-lit lanes of Tokyo, filmmakers created rich stories that left viewers spellbound. The year’s releases opened windows into worlds both familiar and fantastical, packed with heart-stopping drama, laugh-out-loud humor, and jaw-dropping images.

2024 brought an astonishing range of films. A French musical challenged conventions about gender and identity. A Latvian animated odyssey merged visual splendor with emotional depth. These films earned acclaim from audiences while collecting awards at Cannes, Berlin, and Venice, sparking passionate discussions along the way.

Our selection process for the top 10 focused on several key elements: critical reception, festival recognition, audience response, and distinctive creative vision. Each film carved its own place in cinema history. The selections include an underground political drama filmed secretly in Iran and a comedic exploration through Brooklyn’s grittier corners.

The Annecy animated film festival will this year honor French film iconoclast Michel Gondry.

Annecy will present the director of The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Silence of Sleep, and Be Kind Rewind with an honorary Crystal award for lifetime achievement. It will mark the first time Gondry has attended Annecy, the world’s largest animation film festival.

Gondry has used forms of stop-motion animation in his live-action features, as well as in numerous music videos — famously in Björk’s Human Behaviour, but to date has only directed two full-length animated films: The hand-drawn animated documentary Is the Man Who Is Tall Happy?: An Animated Conversation with Noam Chomsky (2013), and the upcoming feature Maya, donne-moi un titre (Maya, Give Me a Title), which will have its international premiere at the Berlin film festival next month, screening in the Generation Kplus sidebar. The film is described by Gondry...

Bille August-directed TV series “The Count of Monte Cristo,” featuring an international cast led by Sam Claflin (“Peaky Blinders”) is reaping stellar ratings in Italy, scoring on average a whopping 26% primetime share on the country’s state broadcaster Rai.

The first episode of August’s high-end adaptation of the Alexandre Dumas classic, which the two-time Palme d’Or winning director of “Pelle the Conqueror” and “Smilla’s Sense Of Snow” shot in Paris, Torino, Rome and Malta, drew more than 5 million viewers Monday on Rai’s Rai-1 flagship station, reaching peaks of more than 32% of the country’s total TV audience and marking Rai’s best ratings for a TV series in nearly a year.

Claflin stars as young sailor Edmond Dantes who is falsely accused of treason and is imprisoned without trial in the Château d’If, a grim island fortress off Marseille before escaping to seek revenge.

French movies had a banner 2024 on home turf with a 44% market share at the French box office, which broke a 15-year record; meanwhile, Gallic films saw a 11% year-on-year drop in international revenues, according to figures unveiled by the National Film Board (Cnc) and Unifrance during the Rendez-Vous in Paris market on Monday.

During the first 50 weeks of 2024, French movies generated 222.8 million euros ($227.2 million) from 33.4 million admissions outside France. Taking into account tickets sales during the second half of December, Unifrance anticipates the final box office for international will be closer to 38 million admissions and 250 million euros ($255.2 million) in revenues.

While it doesn’t represent France in the Oscar race, “The Count of Monte-Cristo,” a three-hour epic adventure film adapted from Alexandre Dumas’ classic, ranks as the biggest French film export in 2024.

The movie, produced by Dimitri Rassam’s Mediawan-owned banner Chapter 2 and sold internationally by Pathé, has grossed an...

Happy tunes at the French box office: The Musicians to open UniFrance Rendez-Vous with French Cinema in Pari Photo: UniFrance As denizens of the French film industry gather in Paris this week for the annual UniFrance Rendez-Vous with French Cinema the omens are brighter than they have been for many a year.

The last 12 months have seen two diverse successes – the feel-good comedy A Little Something Extra, directed by comedian Artus, with a cast of non-professional actors with disabilities and the epic swashbuckler The Count of Monte Christo, based on the Alexandre Dumas classic and directed by Alexandre de La Patellière and Matthieu Delaporte with a dashing star turn from Pierre Niney. Among others both are being heavily touted for Lumière and César awards.

Figures released by the Cnc (the national film body) indicate that almost half the tickets sold last year at the French box office were for French...

A new movie adaptation of The Count of Monte Cristo is making its way into U.S. markets. The film already premiered in Los Angeles and New York theaters last month and expands to more than 15 top U.S. markets today. The film, based on the novel by French writer Alexandre Dumas, currently has a 98% Certified Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Now, Collider is delighted to reveal an exclusive clip of the new adaptation. The clip contains the inciting incident of the movie, where Edmond Dante's (Pierre Niney) wedding to Mercédès Herrera (Anaïs Demoustier) is interrupted by a warrant for his arrest on order of the king. Edmond is carted away, promising to return. Those familiar with the novel or another adaptation know it will take 14 years for Edmond to make good on that promise.

The Count of Monte Cristo, written and directed by Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de La Patellière, has achieved the highest Rotten Tomatoes score for a historical adaptation of Alexandre Dumas' titular novel from 1844. Starring Pierre Niney as Edmond Dantès, the film brings Dumas' iconic tale of betrayal and vengeance to life. The story follows the adventures of Dantès, a sailor wrongfully imprisoned at the behest of a malicious conspiracy. After 14 years of captivity, he escapes, uncovers a hidden treasure, and assumes the identity of the Count of Monte Cristo to exact revenge on those who wronged him.

The 2024 adaptation of The Count of Monte Cristo has shattered expectations by securing a 98% critics' score and 91% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, making it the best-rated adaptation of the story. Over a dozen adaptations, including beloved films and miniseries, have brought The Count of Monte Cristo to screens for decades, but Delaporte and Patellière version’s rich storytelling,...

After surging back from the pandemic with a 16% growth in 2023, France’s box office continued to grow in 2024 with €1.36 billion ($1.41 billion) grossed from 183.1 million admissions sold, a 0.5% year-on rise, according to Comscore and the National Film Board (Cnc).

While the increase may appear modest, it nevertheless solidifies France as Europe’s healthiest theatrical market, and one that shows the biggest signs of post-covid recovery even in a year that saw the country host the Olympic Games. Elsewhere in Europe, ticket sales dipped in 2024, per Comscore France.

The market share of French movies reached 44.4% compared to 36.7% for American movies, according to the Cnc, which notes that “it’s one of the highest level for local releases ever recorded.”

A wide-ranging duo of French movies beat Hollywood heavyweights to take the first two slots of this year’s box office chart: “A Little Something Extra” (“Un p’tit truc en plus”), a...

Brandy Corbet’s The Brutalist from A24 hammered its way into theaters this weekend with one of the best limited openings of 2024 (no. 3 after Anora and Kinds of Kindness). It sold out nearly 30 showtimes in New York and Los Angeles for a gross of $266.8k on four screens for a per screen opening of $66.7k.

The majority of audiences were under 35 and almost half heard about the film via Letterboxd as the online film-centric social network continues to be a defining force for indie word-of-mouth in the post-Covid era.

Corbet’s third feature centers on Adrien Brody’s László Toth, a Brutalist architect from Hungary attempting to rebuild his life in postwar America. Initially forced to toil in poverty, Toth soon wins a contract that will change the course of the next 30 years of his life.

The sweeping film premiered in Venice where Corbet won Best Director and has built throughout the fall season.

Fewer new openings but important ones for the indie world as the year soon to close welcomes the trio of Brady Corbet’s much-nominated The Brutalist with Adrien Brody, Pedro Almodovar’s first English outing The Room Next Door starring Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton, and a new rendition of revenge thriller The Count Of Monte Cristo. All three are starting in limited release.

Aardman Animations’ latest, Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl, is a lighter note in a handful of theaters ahead of its Netflix debut.

The Brutalist opens in four theaters in New York and LA with 70mm and Imax special engagements including Q&a’s with Corbet, co-writer Monda Fastvold and cinematographer Lol Crawley, notable for using large format VistaVision cameras in the film, which expands in January.

Corbet’s third feature centers on László Toth (Brody) a Brutalist architect...

The Count Of Monte Cristo is a classic novel that has been adapted many times for the screen, and though many might remember the title from assigned reading in high school, this new French take on the story is quite different. Of course, The Count of Monte Cristo hits the beats of revenge that are vital to the story, but it isn't afraid to use the narrative by Alexandre Dumas as a jumping-off point rather than a strict guideline. With a budget of over $46 million, this addition to the book's storied history is an epic worth committing to.

The target of a sinister plot, young Edmond Dantès is arrested on his wedding day for a crime he did not commit. After fourteen years in the island prison of Château d’If, he manages a daring escape. Now rich beyond his dreams, he assumes the identity of the Count of Monte...

French fantasist Michel Gondry (The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Science of Sleep). will return to Berlin with his latest animated feature, Maya, donne-moi un titre (Maya, Give Me a Title), screening in the Generation Kplus sidebar of the 2025 Berlin International Film Festival. Described by Gondry as a “stop-motion love letter to his daughter Maya” the film features the voices of Maya Gondry and French star Pierre Niney. It will have its international premiere in Berlin.

Berlin unveiled the first eight features and seven short films for its Generation Kplus and 14plus sections on Tuesday. They include 10 world premieres and range from minimalist chamber plays to opulent dance films. The festival will announce the full Generations lineups in early January. The 75th Berlin International Film Festival runs Feb. 13-23, 2025.

Here are the 2025 Generation titles unveiled so far:

A natureza das coisas invisíveis (The Nature of Invisible Things | Die...

The Belin Film Festival has unveiled its Panorama lineup, including new works by Denis Côté, Ira Sachs, Michel Gondry and Shatara Michelle Ford, among others.

Sachs’ movie, “Peter Hujar’s Day,” stars Ben Wishaw and Rebecca Hall. Set for an international premiere in Berlin, the film portrays a 1974 conversation between photographer Peter Hujar and his friend Linda Rosenkrantz, set against the backdrop of the New York art scene of the time.

Côté’s film, “Paul,” is a documentary about a man struggling with depression and social anxiety who found refuge in serving women who invite him to clean their homes.

Gondry’s “Maya, Give Me a Title” is described by the festival as a “stop-motion love letter to his daughter Maya brings to life a poetic and amusing journey that invites you to dream and laugh.” It features the voice of “The Count of Monte-Cristo” star Pierre Niney.

Ford’s “Dreams in Nightmares,...

“The Count of Monte Cristo” is the new France-produced, live-action feature adaptation of the classic novel by Alexandre Dumas, directed by Alexandre de La Patellière & Matthieu Delaporte, starring Pierre Niney as ‘Edmond’, Anaïs Demoustier as ‘Mercédès’, Bastien Bouillon, Anamaria Vartolomei, Laurent Lafitte and Julien De Saint, releasing December 20, 2024 in theaters:

"...in early 19th century France, 'Edmond Dantes' is betrayed, framed and falsely jailed. But while on a prison island, he befriends a fellow inmate who educates him...

"...and tells him where to find a 'fortune'.

"Following his escape Dantes re-emerges as a wealthy man in Paris society...

"...primed to take revenge…

“…against the corrupt government law-makers who tried to destroy his life, love and freedom...”

Click the images to enlarge...

Jacques Audiard’s musical film Emilia Pérez is the frontrunner at the nomination stage for the 30th edition of France’s Lumière awards.

The prizes, which are regarded as the French equivalent of the Golden Globes, will be voted on by members of the international press hailing from 38 countries this year.

They cover 13 categories spanning film, direction, screenplay, actress, actor, female revelation, male revelation, first film, animation, documentary, international co-production, cinematography and music.

Audiard’s Cannes Jury Prize winner Emilia Pérez has clinched six nominations, followed by Boris Lojkine’s Souleymane’s Story, which won the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize this year, and Alain Guiraudie’s Misericordia, with five nominations each.

Other frontrunners with four nominations each, include François Ozon’s When Fall Is Coming and Jonathan Millet’s Ghost Trail.

The winners will be announced in a ceremony at the Forum des images in Paris on January 20, 2025.

The full...

Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Perez has topped the nominations for France’s Lumière Awards.

The French-made, Spanish-language film earned six nominations for best film, director, screenplay, cinematography, music and actress for Karla Sofía Gascón in her starring role as the titular transitioning Mexican drug lord.

The Lumière nominations cap a strong week for Emilia Perez, which garnered 10 nominations for the 2025 Golden Globes,and was the big winner at the European Film Awards with five prizes.

Scroll down for full list of nominees

Boris Lojkine’s Souleymane’s Story, which tracks the daily life of an undocumented Guinean asylum seeker in Paris,...