News

Back in 2013, French parliament passed a law that allowed gay marriage, also putting gay couples on an equal footing with heterosexual ones regarding the right to adopt children. But, as it usually goes with laws, there is a gap between passing a law and actually applying it in practice. Whenever there is some kind of gap, bureaucracy is the first to step in, maybe even to widen rather than bridge it. That is the situation the heroines of Alice Douard’s debut solo feature, Love Letters, have to deal with.

It is 2014, and no-nonsense nurse Nadia (Monia Chokri) is six months pregnant through IVF that, at least at that moment, was still illegal in France. Her wife, DJ/sound engineer Céline (Ella Rumpf) wants to adopt the daughter they are expecting and therefore she has to go through a certain procedure. Along with a substantial lawyer’s bill, the procedure requires her.

The year is 2014 in freshman director Alice Douard’s lightly comic drama “Love Letters” and French couple Nadia (Monia Chokri) and Céline (Ella Rumpf) are expecting their first child. Nadia is 37, so the duo have decided together that she should be the gestational parent, since, at 32, biology is somewhat more on Céline’s side, and perhaps there will be a future sibling. Perhaps they will take another trip to a Danish sperm bank. Perhaps Céline will carry this unknown theoretical child.

Perhaps, perhaps. This film is, however, firmly rooted in the here and now of these characters, the present moment of Nadia’s pregnancy and the stresses placed on the couple, which are sensitively explored within a warm and humane framework. Douard is clearly a writer-director who likes her characters and doesn’t particularly enjoy torturing them; she’s also been through what they’re going through, having completed the...

Even after winning an Oscar, a Palme d’Or and six Cesar awards with Justine Triet’s “Anatomy of a Fall,” French producer Marie-Ange Luciani isn’t resting on her laurels. The Paris-based producer, who runs the company Les Films de Pierre, still strives to work with emerging filmmakers and newcomers, such as Laura Wandel, whose second feature, “Adam’s Sake,” opened this year’s Cannes Critics Week to warm reviews. She’s also cultivated relationships with established auteurs, such as Robin Campillo, who won Cannes’ 2017 Jury Prize with “Bpm (Beats Per Minute)” and opened Directors’ Fortnight this year with “Enzo,” which he finished after his close friend Laurent Cantet, the helmer of the Palme d’Or winning “The Class,” died before he could finish the drama.

Aside from developing Triet’s follow up to “Anatomy of a Fall,” Luciani is looking ahead at a busy 2026.

She’ll next work...

Our modern world is full of beautiful relationships & romances of all shapes, sizes, colors, connections. This is something we should be celebrating and appreciating – diversity is vitally important and invigorating and meaningful. Alas, there are still people who do not understand that humanity as evolved beyond the simple concept of relationships being between a man & woman. As a lover of cinema, I'm so grateful this art form can tell stories that stir the soul, and show us how beautiful the world really is when we respect and admire and appreciate other relationships. Love Letters is the latest film written & directed by French filmmaker Alice Douard – premiering in the Critics Week sidebar at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival. It's undoubtedly one of the best films of the festival, one of my favorites and a film that I believe will connect with audiences all over the world after its initial unveiling in France.

Evidence of Love: Douard’s Debut Reads Between the Lines of Maternal Affections

While it plays like something of a specific time capsule, Alice Douard’s Love Letters is really about a compounded state of transition, conflating fluctuating cultural realities with one woman’s personal reckoning on the precipice of motherhood. The French language title, Des preuves d’amour, more aptly translates to Proofs of Love, which refers to the written statements its protagonist must collect from friends and family as part of her court dossier to adopt the unborn child of her wife. In essence, these statements are letters addressed to the court but are imbued with reflected expectations proving the capabilities of the subject, a woman who needs to display she is loved by her support group, and therefore has the tools to give love herself.…...

Left-Handed Girl, directed by Shih-Ching Tsou and co-written by filmmaker Sean Baker, has been selected to compete in the 2025 Critics’ Week at the Cannes Film Festival. The Taipei-set family drama is one of seven features included in this year’s lineup for the parallel section, which focuses on first and second works from emerging directors.

Tsou, who previously collaborated with Baker on Take Out, Tangerine, Starlet, The Florida Project, and Red Rocket, directs the film solo. Baker also co-edited the project while overseeing the awards run for his film Anora, which won Best Picture, Best Director, and three other Oscars earlier this year.

Left-Handed Girl follows a single mother and her two daughters as they navigate the complexities of life in the Taiwanese capital. Janel Tsai, an actress and model based in Taiwan, leads the cast. The film blends social realism with a focus on working-class life, continuing themes explored...

The 64th Cannes Critics’ Week will open with Adam’s Interest by Belgian director Laura Wandel and close with Dandelion’s Odyssey, the animated feature debut by Japanese filmmaker Momoko Seto. This year’s edition, which runs May 14–22, includes seven feature films in competition and four presented out of competition.

Wandel’s new film follows a young mother, a malnourished child, and a hospital nurse, played by Anamaria Vartolomei and Léa Drucker. Shot with handheld camerawork, Adam’s Interest marks Wandel’s return after Playground, her 2021 feature that portrayed schoolyard bullying with stark realism. The film will screen as a special presentation.

Among the films selected for competition is Left-Handed Girl, the first solo feature by Taiwanese director Shih-Ching Tsou. Set in Taipei, the film centers on a single mother and her two daughters attempting to rebuild their lives. Sean Baker, known for The Florida Project and Tangerine, co-wrote, produced,...

The Cannes Critics’ Week 2025 selection boasts Best Picture winner Sean Baker’s latest project.

Baker collaborates once more with his “Take Out” co-director and co-writer Shih-Ching Tsou, who makes her directorial debut with “Left-Handed Girl.” Tsou also produced Baker’s “Tangerine” (which she starred in) and “The Florida Project,” and executive-produced “Starlet.” Now, “Left-Handed Girl” incorporates Baker’s social-realist approach with the Taipei-set tragicomedy “Left-Handed Girl,” which follows a single mother and her two daughters building a new life in the Taiwanese capital. Baker cowrites, edits, and produces the film.

“The film was edited by Sean. It’s true that there’s a connection, I’m not going to hide it, and I don’t think Shih-Ching Tsou will either,” Cannes Critics’ Week artistic director Ava Cahen told Deadline. “It’s a bit reminiscent of ‘Tangerine’ and ‘The Florida Project,’ for the way it captures reality, with a form of wonder,...

Seven films will compete in the 2025 International Critics Week section at the Cannes Film Festival, Critics Week organizers announced on Monday morning.

The films, all from first- and second-time directors, include “Left-Handed Girl” a family film set in Taipei, directed by Shih-Ching and produced and co-edited by reigning Palme d’Or and Oscar Best Picture winner Sean Baker. Baker was working on the film during the awards campaign for his film “Anora.”

The competing features come from Spain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Taiwan, Thailand, Singapore, Germany, the United States and the United Kingdom.

Critics Week, or La Semaine de la Critique, also announced four special screenings, including “L’intérêt d’Adam” (“Adam’s Sake”) from director Laura Wandel, which will serve as the sidebar’s opening-night film.

Critics Week, which celebrated its 60th anniversary in 2021, is an independent sidebar section in Cannes. It was the section that brought the Cannes debuts of Guillermo del Toro,...

Following last week’s unveiling of the Cannes 2025 lineup, the first sidebar slate has been unveiled with the Cannes Critics’ Week lineup. Particularly of note is the Opening Night film, Laura Wandel’s Playground follow-up Adam’s Interest starring Anamaria Vartolomei and Léa Drucker, as well as Shih-Ching Tsou’s Left-Handed Girl, co-wrote and edited by Sean Baker, and Pauline Loquès’ Théodore Pellerin-led Nino.

See the lineup below via Screen Daily and learn more about each film in the lineup here.

Competition

A Useful Ghost (Thai-Fr-Sing-Ger)

Dir. Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke

Kika (Belg-Fr)

Dir. Alexe Poukine

Sleepless City (Sp-Fr)

Dir. Guillermo Galoe

Nino (Fr)

Dir. Pauline Loquès

Reedland (Neth-Belg)

Dir. Sven Bresser

Imago (Fr-Belg)

Dir. Déni Oumar Pitsaev

Left-Handed Girl (Taiwan-Fr-us-uk)

Dir. Shih-Ching Tsou

Special screenings

Adam’s Interest (Belg-Fr) – Opening Film

Dir. Laura Wandel

Baise-en-Ville (Fr)

Dir. Martin Jauvat

Love Letters (Fr)

Dir. Alice Douard

Dandelion’s Odyssey (Fr-Belg) – Closing Film

Dir.

The Cannes Critics’ Week, the festival sidebar focusing on directors’ first and second features, unveiled its 2025 lineup Monday.

Competition highlights include Left-Handed Girl, the solo directorial debut of Taiwanese filmmaker Shih-Ching Tsou, known for her long-standing collaboration with Anora director Sean Baker (Tsou co-directed 2004’s Take Out and was a producer on Baker’s Tangerine, The Florida Project and Red Rocket). Baker co-wrote and edited the Taipei-set urban melodrama, which centers on a single mother and her two daughters navigating life on the margins of the Taiwanese capital.

Also debuting in Critics’ Week is Thai director Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke with A Useful Ghost, a surrealist take on motherhood in which a woman reincarnates as a vacuum cleaner. Thai actress Mai Davika Hoorne leads the cast.

European features in competition include Pauline Loquès’ Nino, starring fast-rising Quebecois actor Théodore Pellerin (Lurker) as a young man adrift in the city after losing his...

Cannes Critics’ Week, the festival sidebar spotlighting first and second features, has revealed the 11 competition and special screenings titles for its 64th edition running May 14-22.

Scroll down for full list of titles

Seven films will vie for four top prizes in competition, awarded by a jury helmed by Spanish filmmaker Rodrigo Sorogoyen. Five of those are first films that will compete for the Camera d’Or. Six films in the line-up are directed by women.

Ava Cahen, now in her fourth year as artistic director, told Screen this year’s selection is “a daring combination of films with panache that celebrates new voices.

Cannes Critics’ Week has unveiled the lineup of its 64th edition, which will be dominated by French and Belgian movies, kicking off with Laura Wandel’s tense social drama “Adam’s Interest.”

“Adam’s Interest” marks Wandel’s follow up to “Playground,” which won a Cannes’ Un Certain Regard prize in 2021. The film takes place in the pediatric unit of hospital and follows a distraught mother, her son and the nurse who look after them. “Adam’s Interest” stars two of France’s biggest stars, Léa Drucker (“Custody”) and Anamaria Vartolomei (“Happening”).

Curated by artistic director Ava Cahen and her selection committee, the lineup spans 11 feature films, six of which are directed by women. As many as 1,000 films from 102 countries were submitted to this year’s Critics’ Week. The selection is dedicated to first and second features, running alongside the Cannes Film Festival.

Some of the most anticipated films in the lineup include “Left-Handed Girl,...

Belgian director Laura Wandel’s child custody drama Adam’s Interest, starring Anamaria Vartolomei and Léa Drucker, will open the 64th Cannes Critics’ Week, which unveiled its 2025 selection today.

The second feature from Wandal after gritty childhood bullying drama Playground, the handheld camera-shot feature follows three characters in a paediatric ward: a helpless mother (Vartolomei), her malnourished son, and a nurse (Drucker).

The film, which premieres out of competition, is one of 11 first and second feature films, seven in competition, selected out of 1,000 submitted film for the upcoming edition running from May 14 to 22.

Another 13 short films selected from 2,340 submissions will be announced on April 17.

Competition

Competition seven titles include Taiwanese director Shih-Ching Tsou’s Taipei-set urban melodrama Left-Handed Girl. It marks a first solo feature for Tsou, a long-time collaborator of Sean Baker, who co-wrote and edited the work.

The tragicomedy follows the odyssey of a single mother and her...

Exclusive: Pulsar Content has board worldwide sales on U.S. directorial duo Justin Powell and David Charbonier’s horror feature Push for a European Film Market rollout next month.

The deal was brokered with UTA which boarded U.S sales rights ahead of the movie’s well received premiere at the Sitges Film Festival last October.

The tense home invasion horror thriller stars Alicia Sanz as a pregnant realtor preparing for an open house at a property with a dark past.

When a sadistic killer (Raúl Castillo) posing as a potential client shows up, Natalie goes into premature labor and must find a way to escape before she gives birth.

“Justin and David have already shown their great talent to create jumpscares and keep the audience on the edge and we are delighted to present their new film to the market,” Pulsar Content said in a statement. The Paris-based company...

“The Musician and The Whale,” a cinematic documentary revolving around the encounter between renowned electro musician Rone and a whale, has been boarded by Paris-sales company Pulsar Content ahead of the EFM in Berlin.

Valentin Paoli’s feature debut, “The Musician and The Whale” hails from the producers of “Ailo’s Journey.” It follows Rone, who’s best known for scoring Jacques Audiard’s “Paris, 13th District” and (La)Horde’s “Room With a View,” as he embarks on a journey to meet a whale and create music for it. In the middle of the ocean, they engage in a unique conversation that will deeply change Rone’s life.

Shot between the Reunion Island, France’s Brittany and Paris, “The Musician and The Whale” came about after some sailors noticed that Rone’s music attracted cetaceans to come play close to their boats. While participating in the doc, Rone is...

Pulsar Content has unveiled a first-look image forLove Letters, Alice Douard’s debut feature about modern motherhood, starring Ella Rumpf, Monia Chokri and Noémie Lvovsky.

It is starting sales on the film at the Rendez-Vous with French Cinema in Paris this month.

Set in 2014 Paris after France legalised same-sex marriage, the film is about a woman whose partner is about to give birth to the couple’s first child. As she sets out to prove to authorities she will be a good mother in order to officially adopt the baby, she comes to terms with what it means to be a ‘good’ mother.

The 49th Cesar Awards, France’s top film honors, have been handed out in Paris, with Justine Triet‘s Oscar contender Anatomy of a Fall emerging as the big winner.

The French courtroom drama — which is competing at the Oscars in five categories — earned the best film prize, best actress for Sandra Hüller, best director for Triet, best original screenplay shared between Triet and co-writer Arthur Harari, and Swann Arlaud took home the best supporting actor trophy.

Hüller won in the best actress category over Oscar winner Marion Cotillard, nominated for Little Girl Blue; Lea Drucker, up for Last Summer; Hafsia Herzi, nominated for The Rapture; and Belgian actress Virginie Efira, nominated for her work in Just the Two of Us.

The other big winner on the night was The Animal Kingdom, French director Thomas Cailley’s follow-up to 2014’s Love at First Fight. Cailley picked up the best cinematography...

Prizes to Bulgaria, China and Canada as Clermont Ferrand International Short Film Festival draws to a close.Scroll down for full list of winners

This year’s Clermont Ferrand International Short Film Festival has wrapped with an outlook that juxtaposes the gloomy with the optimistic.

During the closing night ceremony of the world’s biggest shorts festival, Jean-Claude Saurel - the president of organiser Sauve qui peut le Court Métrage - took the opportunity to lament the continuing cuts in budgets for French culture and cultural organisations and urged people to help protest against the current policies of the French administration.

However, with audiences for the festival at approximately 160,000 (up more than 5,000 from the previous year), there was still a sense of cautious celebration for the state of short film in France and beyond.

The festival’s International Grand Prix went to Bulgarian/German co-production Pride, Pavel Vesnakov’s powerfully acted story about a retired grandfather who finds...