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The Larrieu brothers’ Cannes melodrama Jim’s Story has sold to multiple territories as it enjoys a strong opening in its first week in French cinemas for Pyramide Distribution.

Pyramide International has sold the film to Filmin in Spain, Jmh in Switzerland, K-Films in Quebec, Panda in Austria, Paradiso in Benelux, Beta Film in Bulgaria, Falcon in Indonesia, and Nachson in Israel.

After debuting as a Cannes Premiere, Jim’s Story was released on August 14 and has sold 143,016 tickets (approximately €1.1m) in its first week in theatres, a strong opening for an arthouse title particularly during an August holiday week in the country.

The popular French actor working in just about every film genre has been on the Croisette on a couple of occasions but as a filmmaker got his first taste when Sink or Swim (also known as Le grand bain) — a 2018 selection slotted as an Out of Competition item. Six years later we have L’amour Ouf (Beating Hearts) which was was packaged and advertised at last year’s Cannes and moved into production with a huge ensemble of players in May. Gilles Lellouche directs François Civil, Adèle Exarchopoulos, Malik Frikah, Mallory Wanecque, Alain Chabat, Anthony Bajon, Jean-Pascal Zadi, Benoît Poelvoorde, Vincent Lacoste, Élodie Bouchez, Karim Leklou and Raphaël Quenard star.…...

Translating film titles for international markets can be a commercial necessity, but magic is often lost in the process. It’s hard to think of a more perfect name for Gilles Lelouche’s latest movie than “L’amour ouf,” which punchily captures the bruising nature of the love story at its heart. The clue is in the wordplay: If l’amour fou is an affliction of the mind, l’amour ouf tells us the force we’re dealing with is rather more physical, perhaps even painful.

Squint, though, and “Beating Hearts,” the anglophone title that seems sentimental by comparison, suggests not just life but flagellation. It befits a film that contains its fair share of bloody thrashings over the course of some 20 years in the lives of its star-crossed protagonists, whose love is battered at the peak of their relationship by a miscarriage of justice that goes on to change everything — and nothing — between them.

Gilles Lellouche arrived at the Cannes press conference for his Competition title Beating Hearts (L’amour Ouf) on Friday with one of the biggest cast delegations of the festival as its 77th edition entered its final strait.

As well as being joined on the stage by co-stars François Civil and Adèle Exarchopoulos and newcomers Mallory Wanecque and Malik Frikah, actors Jean-Pascal Zadi, Elodie Bouchez, Raphaël Quenard, Vincent Lacoste, Alain Chabat, Karim Leklou and Antony Bajon took up the front row of the press room.

They arrived on the wave of an enthusiastic response from the audience at Thursday night’s world premiere in the Grand Théâtre Lumière, which gave it a 15-minute standing ovation.

The modern Romeo and Juliet tale, which took Lellouche 17 years to bring to the big screen, is the actor and director’s third feature after hit comedy Sink or Swim.

“I take great, great pleasure from directing.

If you took Magnolia, Goodfellas, Boyz n the Hood and perhaps Claude Lelouch’s A Man and a Woman, plugged them all into the latest version of ChatGPT and asked it to spit out a brand new film, you could wind up with something like Gilles Lellouche’s (no relation to Claude) swooning French crime romance, Beating Hearts (L’Amour ouf).

A hodgepodge of movie clichés and overwrought scenes, directed with zero tact and plenty of pounding needle drops, actor-turned-director Lellouche’s third stab at the helm after his rather likeable ensemble comedy, Sink or Swim, is less a disappointment than a serious assault on the viewer’s intelligence. The fact that it premiered in Cannes’ competition, rather than in a sidebar “Première” slot, speaks to the general level of one of the festival’s weakest main slates in recent memory.

Sink or Swim was a major hit in France that grossed $40 million,...

Love, as everyone has long agreed, makes you do crazy things. Silly things, too, and vastly indulgent things, and occasionally even beautiful ones. Gilles Lellouche does all of these, in significant quantities, in his supersized gangster melodrama “Beating Hearts,” which takes the slender plot of innumerable B-movies of the past — as time and crime collaborate to derail the pure-hearted romance between two pretty young things — and blows it up to a dizzily grand scale, complete with widescreen camera gymnastics, daydreamy reality breaks and sporadic swirls of Old Hollywood musical choreography. It’s a mad indulgence, but also one fully attuned to the mindset of its two besotted lead characters: When you fall completely in love for the first (and maybe last) time, doesn’t your life become its own Technicolor epic?

That air of big-swinging, love-drunk bravado will buy Lellouche’s film a lot of goodwill from audiences — particularly those at home in France,...

XYZ Films has acquired U.S. rights to the classic Cannes Directors’ Fortnight title “The World is Yours” directed by Romain Gavras from StudioCanal and to the TIFF hit film “We Gotta Get Out of This Place,” directed by Simon Hawkins and Zeke Hawkins. The hyper-stylized films are the first titles in a new XYZ initiative to introduce audiences to classic festival hits that cater to cinema fans.

“The World is Yours” premiered at Cannes in 2018 and stars Karim Leklou, Isabelle Adjani, Vincent Cassel and Oulaya Amamra and was co-written by Gavras, Karim Boukercha and Noe Debre. In the film, a mid-level drug dealer (Leklou) dreams of having a new life, but his mother (Adjani) has gambled away his savings. He must take one last job in Spain, but his entourage gets involved: his mother, his ex-con friend, his crush, and possibly The Illuminati.

Meanwhile, “We Gotta Get Out of This Place...

Justine Triet’s Anatomy Of A Fall was named best film of the year at France’s Lumiere Awards on Monday evening.

Triet and co-writer Arthur Harari also took home the best screenplay award and lead Sandra Hüller earned the prize for best actress at the 29th edition of the awards, considered to be France’s version of the Golden Globes and voted on by international correspondents from 36 countries.

The courtroom drama about a woman on trial for her husband’s death in the French Alps was nominated in six categories, but Lumiere voters spread their votes across the board...

Justine Triet’s Anatomy Of A Fall continued its prize-winning run on Monday at France’s 29th Lumière Awards clinching Best Film and Best Screenplay, while its German star Sandra Hüller won Best Actress.

The Lumières fete the best films, performances and technical achievements of French cinema across 13 categories.

The French equivalent of the Golden Globes, they are voted on by the Académie des Lumières which is made up of France-based international journalists representing 36 countries.

In other key prizes, Thomas Cailley won Best Director for Cannes 2023 Un Certain Regard opener The Animal Kingdom, while Arieh Worthalter won Best Actor for his performance in Cédric Khan’s Cannes Directors’ Fortnight opener The Goldman Case.

Triet’s Cannes Palme d’Or winner Anatomy of a Fall, which was nominated in six Lumière categories, is on an award-winning streak.

The movie swept the board at the European Film Awards in Berlin last December...

Stéphan Castang has made his directorial feature debut with the accomplished and entertaining Vincent Must Die. Feeding into our current preoccupations with killer viruses, the breakdown of society and an increase in senseless violence, the film follows Vincent as he tries to elude death’s clutches. Although Vincent Must Die suffers a little from the director teetering between a mess of genres, it is funny and intelligent, and has a great lead in Karim Leklou as the hapless hero.

The premise is simple: Vincent is a successful graphic designer working at a small firm. He’s single, he’s a bit overweight but perfectly presentable, and – judging from the photos in his apartment – he’s popular and sociable. He is your archetypal metropolitan man. But when he makes an ill-judged comment to a new intern, the new kid takes swift and violent umbrage. When another colleague later attacks him with a pen,...

France’s awards season has officially kicked off with Justine Triet’s “Anatomy of a Fall” landing six nominations at the Lumières Awards, including best film and director.

The courtroom drama, which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes, is the season’s frontrunner. The Lumières are voted on by Paris-based correspondents working for foreign outlets across 36 countries.

Sandra Huller, who stars in the film as a German novelist put on trial after her French husband dies mysteriously, is nominated for best actress, while Milo Machado Graner, who plays her astute, low-vision son, is nominated for best male newcomer.

“Anatomy of Fall” has been on a roll, garnering a raft of international prizes at the European Film Awards, Gothams, as well as Los Angeles and the New York Film Critics Circle Awards, along with four Golden Globe nominations for best film, screenplay, actress and foreign film. The movie that was...

Justine Triet’s Anatomy Of A Fall is the frontrunner for France’s Lumiere awards, the country’s answer to the Golden Globes, with 6 nominations, including for best film and best director.

The courtroom drama, starring Sandra Hüller as a writer who may have murdered her husband, won the Palme d’Or in Cannes this year and swept the European Film Awards on the weekend, taking 5 trophies, including best film. Anatomy of Fall, a Neon release in the U.S., has been nominated for 4 Golden Globes.

Tran Anh Hung’s foodie period drama The Taste of Things, which was picked over Anatomy of a Fall as France’s country’s official Oscar contender in the best international feature category, received just one Lumiere nom, for best cinematography.

Another French courtroom drama, Cedric Kahn’s The Goldman Case, picked up 5 Lumiere noms, tying with Thomas Cailley’s sci-fi tale The Animal Kingdom.

The Lumieres are voted on by international correspondents from 36 countries.

Justine Triet’s Palme d’Or winning Anatomy Of A Fall leads the nominations for France’s Lumiere awards, nominated in six categories, including best film and best director.

Cedric Kahn’s courtroom drama The Goldman Case and Thomas Cailley’s The Animal Kingdom, have each received five nominations.

All three films have been nominated in the best film category alongside Catherine Breillat’s Last Summer that earned four nominations and Clément Cogitore’s Son of Ramses with three.

The filmmakers of all five of those titles have also been nominated for best director.

Kathryn Bigelow’s underappreciated “Strange Days” features a line that goes something like “The issue isn’t whether you’re paranoid. The issue is whether you’re paranoid enough.” Although that film is set in 1999, it’s an aphorism that would work equally well in Stéphan Castang’s fun, violent, high-concept “Vincent Must Die,” as a punchy summation of post-pandemic — rather than pre-millennial — nervousness and malaise. Who among us has not gazed in dismay at a world that’s not just increasingly bad-tempered, but seems to hold against each one of us some focused, individual grudge? The times have doubtless always been bad, but they hit (and hit and hit) differently now, like this time, it’s personal.

Vincent is initially not paranoid enough/at all. A bit uninspired, perhaps. Low-level depressed, possibly. And carrying his inevitable thirtysomething disillusionment in a little schlub around the midriff, for sure. But not...

The selection committee will now meet with the films’ producers, sales companies and US distributors.

Justine Triet’s Palme d’Or-winning Anatomy Of A Fall and The Taste Of Things by Cannes’ best director winner Tran Anh Hung have been shortlisted to be France’s entry to the international Oscar category, along with Clement Cogitore’s Sons Of Ramses, Thomas Cailley’s The Animal Kingdom and Denis Imbert’s On The Wandering Paths (Sur Les Chemins Noirs).

The five films were selected by a seven-member committee comprised of the US producer of Coda, Patrick Wachsberger, composer Alexandre Desplat, producer Charles Gillibert...

France has unveiled the five titles in the running to be its entry for Best International Feature Film at the 96th Academy Awards.

The full shortlist is:

Anatomy Of A Fall by Justine Triet The Animal Kingdom by Thomas Cailley Sons of Ramses (Goutte d’Or) by Clement Cogitore (int’l sales, mk2 films) The Taste Of Things (previously The Pot-Au-Feu) by Tràn Anh Hùng On The Wondering Paths by Denis Imbert)

The short list was decided by a selection committee of film professionals on Wednesday in a process overseen by the country’s National Cinema Centre (Cnc).

This year’s committee features former Lionsgate film co-chief Patrick Wachsberger; international sales veterans Sabine Chemaly...

‘Tales Of Taipei’ set as closing film.

The Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival (Tghff) is set to open with a double bill of Chong Keat Aun’s Snow In Midsummer and acclaimed art director Hwarng Wern-ying’s directorial debut Be With Me, with Bowie Tsang-produced omnibus Tales Of Taipei as the closing film.

Both opening films took part in Golden Horse Film Project Promotion project market in 2020 and will have their Asian premieres at Tghff. The world premiere for Snow In Midsummer will be at the Venice Days sidebar of the Venice Film Festival, which begins today.

Malaysian director...

The Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival has announced dual opening night titles, both inspired by faith and local memories, as well as its closing gala presentation.

The festival will open with “Snow in Midsummer,” directed by Chong Keat-aun, a former winner of the Golden Horse Film Awards’ best new director prize with “The Story of Southern Islet,” and “Be With Me,” by Hwarng Wern-ying, who previously won Golden Horse prizes for art direction, costume and makeup.

The festival, which runs Nov. 9-26, will close with the world premiere of “Tales of Taipei,” produced by Bowie Tsang and comprising ten stories by directors from East Asia.

The two opening films were both part of the 2020 Golden Horse Project Promotion, a project matching event. They both have their Asian premiere at the festival.

“Snow in Midsummer” is a story spanning nearly half a century about two generations of females, a troupe master and the Nyonya offspring,...

Have you ever come across a person who, while they may make absolutely zero impact on your day, still has a face you just want to punch? That’s Vincent (Karim Leklou), a passionless, personality-free office worker who is having the worst day. It’s nothing he’s done, really, but for some reason he keeps getting attacked by his co-workers. He makes a bad joke to an intern and gets punched in the mouth, he sits near another and gets stabbed in the arm, and the day has just begun. Director Stéphan Castang’s debut feature finds Vincent on the run from a world full of people who are trying to kill him. There is no rhyme or reason, no inciting incident, just a swarm of violent humanity...

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

In Vincent Must Die (Vincent Doit Mourir), director Stéphan Castang weaves a tale of a man's life turned into a paranoid nightmare. Meet Vincent (Karim Leklou), your average guy working in an office, whose uneventful life takes a shocking turn when he becomes the target of sudden and violent attacks from strangers. To survive, he must navigate this bizarre new world filled with mystery and danger, all while trying to understand the reason behind these brutal assaults.

One of the film's strongest aspects is its playfully dark sense of humor, which lays the foundation for a captivatingly strange world that slowly descends into a more grim and serious tone. Karim Leklou's (A Prophet) portrayal of Vincent embraces the sheepish “beta male” stereotype, thrusting him into the fringes of society without any apparent cause, and he navigates this role with a convincing performance.

“…delivers a unique and twisted narrative, blending dark humor,...

One of the most talked-about films on the 2023 festival circuit, and eagerly received at Fantasia, Vincent Must Die has one of those central concepts that is so strong that one fears there will be nothing else to it. A great pitch is often all it takes to secure box office success. One of the great pleasures of watching it is seeing it defy that expectation again and again, constantly twisting in different directions and finding, in the process, an emotional depth which is something special in itself.

The pitch, then, is this: one day, as graphic designer Vincent (Karim Leklou) is going about his routine activities, people start attacking him. The first time it happens it’s a young intern whom he has been teasing, and it seems as if the kid just snapped under pressure. Despite his injuries, Vincent is sympathetic and doesn’t want to press charges. When another.

Exclusive: Paris-based Goodfellas has unveiled a raft of deals on French genre title Vincent Must Die by Stéphan Castang following its buzzy world premiere in Cannes Critics’ Week in May.

In Europe, it has sold to Benelux (O’Brother), Switzerland and Germany (Ascot Elite), Spain (La Aventura), Greece (Cinobo), Italy (I Wonder), Portugal (Alambique), Scandinavia (Njuta), Bulgaria (Beta Film), Yugoslavia (McF), Hungary (Ads), Romania (Independenta), Poland (Moonshot Company) and Cis (Russian Report).

Outside of Europe, it has been acquired for Turkey (Bir Film), Japan (Pflug), South Korea (Contents Panda) and Taiwan (Av Jet).

As previously announced, a buyers consortium consisting of Flawless, XYZ Films and Tea Shop Productions acquired all English-speaking territories during Cannes, including the North America, the UK and Australian and New Zealand.

The thriller stars Karim Leklou, best known internationally for his role Netflix hit The Stronghold, as a graphic designer who starts coming under attack from...

Arte France Cinéma have come onboard in a co-producer capacity for upcoming projects by Jonathan Millet, veteran Italian filmmaker Francesca Comencini and the Larrieu Bros. All of these projects should premiere on the film fest circuit in 2024.

Arnaud Larrieu and Jean-Marie Larrieu are working on a book to film project titled Le roman de Jim. A 25 year spanning film, production has already begun with the likes of Sara Forestier, Bertrand Belin, Karim Leklou and Sara Giraudeau. Millet’s Les Fantômes (which we reported on back in November) will be the first film to move into production – and it has actors Adam Bessa and Tawfeek Barhom signed on for a July to September film production.…...

Vincent (Karim Leklou) is the kind of man who is so unremarkable that middle age seems destined to render him invisible. He posts sad selfies that make you wonder if he’s ever seen a photograph before. He cracks weird little “jokes” about how the intern at work is late with his coffee, despite being reminded that the intern doesn’t do coffee runs. His girlfriend recently dumped him. The man radiates such a pathetic energy that you just want to give him a hug — or perhaps a book of Civil War trivia to occupy his lonely nights.

So why, then, does everyone who sees him try to kill him? It’s a very good question that “Vincent Must Die” never has to answer.

From the moment we meet Vincent, quite a few people appear to agree that he must die. Everyone from new interns to longtime colleagues and total...

Flawless, XYZ Films and Tea Shop Productions have acquired the Cannes Critics’ Week selection “Vincent Must Die” for all English-speaking territories from Goodfellas.

Flawless, the pioneering film technology company and a leader in the field of visual translation, recently announced it has launched a partnership with XYZ Films and Tea Shop Productions to acquire rights to foreign-language films, converting them to English for distribution in relevant markets.

Directed by Stéphan Castang, “Vincent Must Die” is written by Mathieu Naert, produced by Thierry Lounas and Claire Bonnefoy, and stars Karim Leklou and Vimala Pons. In the film, an ordinary man finds himself fighting for his life after he goes out one day and is mysteriously attacked by random strangers in the street with the intent to kill him.

This is the first film from the production company Wild West. Goodfellas and Capricci joined forces to create Wild West, a production company...

Recently split from his co-worker girlfriend, Vincent (Karim Leklou) is having a bad day at the office. First, a young intern batters him over the head with a laptop, and then Yves from accounting stabs him savagely with a pen. And after a meeting with human resources, the poor guy is left with the curious feeling that, somehow, he deserved it. Even his shrink, who has a print of J.M.W. Turner’s ironic masterpiece “The Fighting Temeraire” on his wall, thinks so, planting further seeds of doubt in Vincent’s mind. “I think you’re looking for attention from those who attack you,” he decides.

Vincent’s “crime” is to make eye contact, and after a further series of interactions — notably with a middle-aged female motorist, who tries to run him down, and, crucially, his upstairs neighbor’s young children — Vincent drops everything and heads to his family’s country home.

’Jim’s Story’ is an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Pierric Bailly.

French filmmaking duo the Larrieu brothers, known for their eccentric comedies are turning to melodrama with Jim’s Story for which Pyramide International has rights and is kicking off sales at the Cannes Market.

Jim’s Story is an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Pierric Bailly and stars Sara Forestier, Sara Giraudeau, Karim Leklou, and Valérie Donzelli, director of Cannes Premiere title Just The Two of Us, alongside Noé Abita.

The film is about a family living in the Jura...

Other titles include Dea Kulumbegashvili’s new film and ’Like A Son’ starring Vincent Lindon.

Goodfellas, the Paris-based sales company formerly known as Wild Bunch International, has unveiled a lively slate of titles ahead of Cannes, including starry period drama The Flood, Dea Kulumbegashvili’s Those Who Find Me, French social drama Like A Son, prison drama Inside, football documentary Napoli 1990, Napoli 2023 and Spanish thriller When The Party’s Over, along with several titles in Cannes’ Official Selection.

The Flood is the second feature from Italian director Gianluca Jodice following The Bad Poet and stars Mélanie Laurent and Guillaume Canet as...

The 2023 Cannes Critics Week lineup has officially been unveiled.

Hot off of the world premiere of first-time filmmaker Charlotte Wells’ Oscar-nominated “Aftersun,” this year’s Critics Week marks seven highly-anticipated feature debuts from directors like Amanda Nell (“Tiger Stripes”) and Jason Yu (“Jam”).

The lineup kicks off with opening night film “Ama Gloria,” directed by French filmmaker Marie Amachoukeli, who previously won Cannes’ Camera d’Or for 2014’s “Party Girl” which Amachoukeli co-directed with Claire Burger and Samuel Theis. (Critics Week allows for both first and second films in its lineup.) “Ama Gloria” centers on six-year-old girl Cléo who copes with her nanny Gloria leaving to return to Cape Verde.

The closing night film is Erwan le Duc’s “La fille de son père,” billed as a “bittersweet comedy about paternity and filiation with a poetic and off-beat angle.” Le Duc previously helmed “Perdrix”; Nahuel Perez Biscayart and Céleste Brunnquell star as father and daughter.

Sidebar devoted to first and second films runs May 17-25.

Cannes Critics’ Week, the sidebar devoted to first and second films, has unveiled the selection for its 62nd edition running May 17-25.

Scroll down for full list of titles

A selection committee led by Ava Cahen, now in her second year in the position, chose 11 titles from 1,000 films screened and seven were selected for the competition.

All of the films in selection are world premieres. Seven are first films that will vie for the Camera d’Or and six are directed by women, including four of the seven films in competition.

Rolling off a successful edition that premiered Charlotte Wells’ celebrated film “Aftersun” with Paul Mescal, Cannes Critics’ Week is back with an international lineup spanning South Korea and Malaysia to France and Jordan, among others.

The Critics’ Week sidebar runs parallel to the Cannes Film Festival, and focuses on first and second films. Under the leadership of artistic director Ava Cahen since last year, the lineup will boast 11 feature films chosen from 1,000 submitted movies.

Out of these 11 movies, seven are feature debuts and six are directed by women. Among them is the opening night film, “Ama Gloria,” directed by French helmer Marie Amachoukeli, who previously won Cannes’ Golden Camera for “Party Girl” which she co-directed with Claire Burger and Samuel Theis.

“Ama Gloria” tells the story of Cléo, a six-year old girl who sees her beloved nanny, Gloria, leave town to return to Cape Verde.

This 62nd edition will wrap...

“The Five Devils” and “For My Country” won the Emerging Filmmaker and Audience Awards at this year’s Rendez-Vous with French Cinema, Unifrance and Film at Lincoln Center announced Thursday.

Hosted at Lincoln Center every year, the annual Rendez-Vous with French Cinema festival screens a variety of films from contemporary French filmmakers. This year’s edition, which ran from March 2-12, hosted screenings for 21 features, including opening film “Revoir Paris” from Alice Winocour, Arnaud Desplechin’s “Brother and Sister,” Louis Garrel’s “The Innocent,” and Quentin Dupieux’s “Smoking Causes Coughing.”

“The Five Devils,” the sophomore film from “Ava” filmmaker Léa Mysius, stars Sally Dramé as Vicky, a young girl with a supernatural talent for reproducing the scent of anyone and anything she encounters. The movie made its world premiere in May 2022 as part of the Cannes Film Festival’s Director’s Fortnight section, where it received positive reviews from critics.

Paris-based sales company beefs up slate ahead of Berlinale market.

Paris-based sales company Pyramide International has boarded Anna Novion’s Le Théorème de Marguerite and Marie Garel-Weiss’s Sur La Branche and will kick off pre-sales for the French dramas at the upcoming EFM.

Novion’s Le Théorème de Marguerite stars Ella Rumpf as the titular character, a brilliant mathematics student at France’s top university the Ecole Normale Supérieure. On the day of her thesis presentation, a mistake shakes up all the certainty in her planned-out life and she decides to quit everything and start afresh.

Rumpf notably starred...

Unifrance and Film at Lincoln Center have unveiled the lineup for the 28th edition of Rendez-Vous With French Cinema, an annual celebration of contemporary French filmmaking. The event will take place March 2–12.

It kicks off with a screening of Alice Winocour’s “Revoir Paris,” which stars Virginie Efira as a translator named Mia, who survived a mass shooting in a Paris restaurant and is unable to resume life as usual. In an effort to regain a sense of normalcy, Mia returns repeatedly to the site of the shooting, forming bonds with her fellow survivors. Efira is best known for her star turn in Paul Verhoeven’s “Benedetta.”

“It is a such a pleasure to open this year’s edition with the French critical and box-office hit ‘Revoir Paris’ in the presence of director Alice Winocour and actress Virginie Efira, who just received our French Cinema Award in Paris,” said Daniela Elstner,...

Pyramide International has boarded “Last Summer,” an erotic thriller by daring French director Catherine Breillat, which is being produced by Sbs Productions, the leading French banner behind Paul Verhoeven’s Oscar nominated “Elle.”

“Last Summer” boasts a strong cast led by Léa Drucker (“Custody”), Olivier Rabourdin (“Benedetta”), Clotilde Courau (“In The Shadow of Women”) and newcomer Samuel Kircher.

The Paris-based company, whose sales team is headed by Agathe Mauruc, is teasing the project with a three-minute promo at the Unifrance Rendez-vous taking place in Paris this week.

Drucker stars as Anne, a brilliant lawyer who lives happily in Paris with her husband Pierre and their 6- and 8-year-old daughters. One day, Theo, 17, Pierre’s son from a previous marriage, moves in with them. Anne is unsettled by Theo’s presence and gradually engages in a passionate relationship with him, putting her career and family life in danger.

A master at...

Exclusive: Paris-based sales powerhouse Wild Bunch International (Wbi) has unveiled the bulk of its French slate for the first half of 2023 as it gears up for the Unifrance Rendez-vous in Paris, running January 10-17.

New titles on the slate include Jean-Bernard Marlin’s Marseille gangland-set fantasy Salem about a former gang member who believes his daughter is the only one who can save his community from an apocalyptic curse uttered by a rival gang member in his dying breath.

Salem is Marlin’s second feature after the gritty romance Shéhérazade. That drama, also set against the backdrop of Marseille

, debuted in Cannes in 2018 and went on to win best first film in France’s 2019 César awards as well as most promising actress and actor for its big screen debutants Kenza Fortas and Dylan Robert.

The new film, which is currently in post-production, is co-produced by Bruno Nahon’s Unité and Vatos Locos Productions,...

“Candy is better in France,” says a small boy to his brother in a flashback scene in For My Country (Pour La France), Rachid Hami’s personal drama premiering in Horizons at the Venice Film Festival. The boy’s Algerian family is considering moving to France, and his simplistic response sums up his innocent, optimistic view of his new home. But — as we have already discovered — France will bring tragedy to the family in this moving account based on Hami’s memories of his late younger brother.

As a young adult, Aïssa (Shaïn Boumedine) has enlisted in the prestigious military academy of Saint-Cyr, dreaming of serving the country he has become devoted to: France. But Aïssa dies during a fresher hazing initiation that takes place in freezing water.

His elder brother Ismaël (Karim Leklou) tries to comfort their distraught mother Nadia (Lubna Azabal) and to help her navigate the changing attitudes of officials,...

MK2 Films has unveiled a clip of Rachid Hami’s “For My Country,” a politically minded family drama which will world premiere at the Venice Film Festival in the Horizons section.

A personal movie, “For My Country” is based on the life of Hami, whose brother tragically died in a French military school during a hazing rite.

Produced by Mizar Films, the searing drama tells the story of Aissa, a brilliant young officer of Algerian origin who dies during a fresher initiation ritual at the prestigious French military academy of Saint-Cyr. Refusing to take responsibility for his death, the French army insists to have Aissa buried in the Muslim plot of a suburban cemetery instead of the military one. Appalled by the obvious discrimination, Aissa’s older brother, Ismael, brings the family together to reclaim justice for Aissa.

Hami wrote in his director’s statement that he grew up feeling...

The event celebrated up-and-coming talent.

Unifrance and Screen International held a dinner to celebrate up-and-coming French talent on May 25 at Le Studio, Cannes. 

Back in January, 10 filmmakers and actors were selected by international journalists Lisa Nesselson (Screen International), Fabien Lemercier (Cineuropa), Elsa Keslassy (Variety) and Jordan Mintzer (The Hollywood Reporter) as the most audacious, diverse, fresh and committed new French talents to watch in 2022.

Take a look at a selection of photos from the evening above.

The selected 10 are:

Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet (director) Alice Diop (writer/director) Arthur Harari (actor/filmmaker) Karim Leklou (actor) Déborah Lukumuena (actor) Rabah Nait Oufella (actor...

Notebook is covering the Cannes Film Festival with an ongoing correspondence between critics Leonardo Goi and Lawrence Garcia, and editor Daniel Kasman.Son of Ramses.Dear Lawrence and Leo, I’m glad to read you, Lawrence, on Claire Denis’s Stars at Noon. Reactions to the film here seem to be muted, but I loved it: Leave behind any idea that this is a robust production of an English-language thriller, and instead embrace way the great French impressionist and master elliptician skims the bare surface of the genres that provide the film’s framework, in order to evoke the tenuous limbos—national, mortal, romantic—of its sweaty, horny imperialist couple. The film feels like it was a fly-by-night, catch-as-catch-can shoot, with images and drama caught quickly and on the go. Yes, this means that many opportunities, particularly of the Nicaraguan context from Denis Johnson’s source novel, are lost, which...

Revered Algerian actor Ahmed Benaissa died on Friday after a long illness, according to the Algerian Ministry of Culture. He was 78.

Benaissa’s latest film, Clement Cogitore’s “Sons of Ramses,” (“Goutte d’Or”) in which he had a key role, playing Ramses’s (Karim Leklou) father, is premiering at Cannes on Friday, as a special screening in the Critics’ Week strand of the festival.

“I am deeply saddened at the sudden passing of Ahmed Benaissa,” Cogitore said. “The film would not exist without him and words can’t express our sorrow at premiering the film in Cannes today.”

“Sons Of Ramses” is produced by Jean-Christophe Reymond for Kazak Productions. It is distributed in France by Diaphana Distribution. MK2 is handling international sales.

A statement released by Kazak, MK2, Diaphana and Karim Leklou said: “We have learned of the sudden death of comedian Ahmed Benaissa. All our heartfelt thoughts go...

MK2 Films, the company behind six films playing at Cannes including Leonor Serraille’s competition title “Mother and Son,” has acquired French and international rights on the Raoul Peck catalogue from Velvet Film.

MK2 Films will start selling the library of films during the Cannes Film Festival. The Raoul Peck collection comprises documentary and fiction, including the HBO documentary series “Exterminate All the Brutes” which earned Peck a DGA Awards nomination.

The collection also includes “I Am Not Your Negro,” the Oscar-nominated, BAFTA-winning documentary narrated by Samuel L. Jackson, as well as the powerful “Lumumba: Death of a Prophet,” the restored, 4K version of which played at Cannes Classics last year. The doc is a historical investigation weaving Peck’s childhood memories and a tribute to a leading figure of modern African heritage.

MK2 Films will also now represent Peck’s “Haitian films,” a mini-collection comprising three fiction films and a documentary,...

MK2 Films, which is presenting six movies at the Cannes Film Festival, will be attending the market with a pair of hot new titles, French director Justine Triet’s “Anatomy of a Fall” and Israeli helmer Maya Dreifuss’s “Highway 65.”

“Anatomy of a Fall” stars Sandra Hüller, the critically acclaimed German actor of “Toni Erdmann,” as an enigmatic German novelist who is arrested after the mysterious death of her husband at their chalet in the French Alps. The court case examines every aspect of the relationship she had with her husband, while her visually impaired son is called to testify as a witness.

The movie will re-team MK2 Films with Triet, whose latest film “Sybil” competed at Cannes. Fionnuala Jamison, MK2 Films’s managing director, described the film as a “Hitchcockian tale of suspense.” “We were hooked on the script, the complexities of Sandra’s character, and its original premise...

Clement Cogitore’s “Sons Of Ramses” (“Goutte d’Or”) will have its world premiere in Cannes as a special screening in the Critics’ Week strand of the festival.

The film follows Ramses, a skilful clairvoyant in the multicultural Parisian district of La Goutte d’Or. When a gang of fearless kids start terrorizing the locals, the balance of his thriving business and of the whole neighborhood is disturbed. Until one day, when Ramses has a real vision.

The cast includes Karim Leklou (“The World is Yours”), Malik Zidi (“Oxygen”), Elsa Wolliaston (“Victoria”), Jawad Outouia, Elyes Dkhissi, Yilin Yang (“Three Times Nothing”) and Loubna Abidar (“Much Loved”).

After studying at Le Fresnoy (France’s National Studio for Contemporary Arts), Cogitore developed his artistic practice between the spaces of cinema and contemporary art. In 2015, his first feature film, “The Wakhan Front” was selected at the Cannes Critics’ Week, where it won the...

Cahen discusses love of American indie cinema, choice of Korean police thriller Next Sohee as closing film and being section’s youngest-ever artistic director.

Cannes Critics’ Week’s new artistic director Ava Cahen unveiled her inaugural selection earlier this week, for the 61st edition of the parallel section running May 18-26.

It will showcase an eclectic French and international line-up of 11 features, seven of them in competition, and another 13 shorts, kicking off with US actor Jesse Eisenberg’s directorial debut When You Finish Saving The World and closing with Korean female police detective thriller Next Sohee.

At 36, Cahen is the...

Maya Vanderbeque makes an amazing debut as seven-year-old Nora, who tells on the boys bullying her brother with nightmarish consequences

Laura Wandel’s debut feature was Belgium’s official submission for the Oscars: a kid’s-eye-view nightmare of playground bullying impossible to watch without a sick, jittery feeling of rage and dread. The original French title is “Un Monde” – “A World” – and the playground is a universe of fear which we all edit out of our adult memories.

A rather amazing seven-year-old newcomer called Maya Vanderbeque stars as Nora, seen mostly in extreme, searching closeup. Just the opening shot of her crying face supplies pretty much enough emotional charge to power the whole film. Nora is just starting school, and her sobbing mini-drama-queen distress at the school gates discomforts her dad (Karim Leklou) and especially her older brother Abel (Günter Duret), a wannabe tough guy who doesn’t want his...

Finn Wolfhard and Julianne Moore make the sparks fly in Cannes Critics’ Week opening choice When You Finish Saving the World Photo: A24 The first selection by Ava Cahen, the new supremo of the Cannes Critics’ Week (La Semaine de la critique), reveals there are seven first features in the selection for the 61st edition.

Actor Jesse Eisenberg receives the privileged first place with his first film as a director When You Finish Saving The World starring Julianne Moore and Finn Wolfhard about a volatile mother-son relationship.

The closing film will be Next Sohee (Da-eum-so-hee), described as a feminist thriller, a second directorial outing for Korean director Jung July.

A quartet of French directors will be present with Alma Viva by the Franco-portuguese Cristèle Alves Meira (set in a strange and isolated village); Nos cérémonies by Simon Rieth about a respected and influential medium with Karim Leklou; and Tout le...

Critics’ Week, the sidebar dedicated to first and second films running alongside the Cannes Film Festival, will be kicking off with Jesse Eisenberg’s feature debut “When You Finish Saving the World” and showcase four female-directed movies.

Selected out of 1100 submitted movies, the full roster includes 11 feature films, seven of which will compete and four will play as special screenings.

“When You Finish Saving the World,” which is headlined by Julianne Moore and Finn Wolfhard, revolves around the relationship between a politically-engaged mother and her fame-obsessed teenage son, who is also a burgeoning musician. The A24 movie is based on Eisenberg’s 2020 audio drama of the same name and was part of the Sundance 2022 selection.

“We already adored Eisenberg as an actor and discovered him as a true auteur with this film that’s both tender and contemporary and exposes a generational gap between a mother and her son,” said Ava Cahen,...

Jesse Eisenberg’s directorial debut ’When You Finish Saving The World’ will open the section focused on first and second films.

Cannes Critics’ Week, the parallel section focused on first and second films, has unveiled the line-up for its 61st edition, running May 18-26.

The section will showcase 11 features, seven of them in competition, and another 13 shorts.

It is the first selection piloted by incoming Critics’ Week artistic director Ava Cahen, since taking over the reins from Charles Tesson, who stepped down at the end of last year’s 60th edition after 10 years at the helm.

At 36, she is the...

Cedric Jimenez’s action thriller “The Stronghold” won the Cesar Award which was voted on by nearly 2,000 students from French high schools in France, the U.K., Mayotte and Japan.

The Studiocanal film, which was produced by Hugo Sélignac at Chi-Fou-Mi Productions, a Mediawan company, was nominated for seven Cesar Awards, including best film and two actor nods. Both Jimenez and Selignac were honored at the ceremony which was attended by the Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer and Veronique Cayla, the president of the Cesar Academy.

Headlined by a French cast comprising Gilles Lellouche, Francois Civil, Karim Leklou, Adele Exarchopoulos (“Blue Is the Warmest Color”) and Kenza Fortas, “The Stronghold” is inspired by a true story and follows a police brigade in a crime-ridden neighborhood of Marseille.

After world premiering at the Cannes Film Festival, the film was released in French theaters by Studiocanal and became one of 2021’s rare local box office hits,...