News

In His Shadow (Le Roi des Ombres) is a thriller movie written and directed by Marc Fouchard starring Kaaris and Alassane Diong.

An original thriller because of its protagonist and which tells us the story of two brothers very much in the Goodfellas vein: style, sense of rhythm and balancedly imbalanced narrative.

About the Film

Surprising and very well directed, one of those films that know how to attract attention due to its narrative style and its good script, which is delivered through a voice-over and tells us a story of the kind that is worth being told and that knows how to recount, defend and develop it.

This time we go to France, perhaps less elegant, but also a reality, much like Little Italy in New York that we have heard so much about. It’s no coincidence, In His Shadow wants to look like a different Scorsese, maybe...

Kévin Mischel in Out Of This World Photo: Bulldog Film Distribution

Marc Fouchard’s Out Of This World (Hors Du Monde) is one of those films which will blow you away when you first see it, and which you will hesitate to watch ever again. It’s the story of Léo (Kévin Mischel), a shy, emotionally damaged man who seems constantly uncomfortable with the world around him. He finds relief only in composing music, and in killing, which gives him inspiration – but this is very much unlike most serial killer films. There is no glamour, no sense of power, no sexual titillation – just sadness and brokenness. When Léo meets a young deaf woman, Amélie (Aurélia Poirier), who is a dancer and listens to his music by pressing her face against the door of his taxi, he is intrigued by her, and a tentative relationship begins – but can he control his compulsions?...

The psychotic male with a poetic side is an old saw, but director Marc Fouchard brings some original and freshly disturbing touches to it

This artfully made, borderline-despicable French drama revolves around Leo (Kévin Mischel), a brooding, lonely taxi driver with cheekbones sharp as dressmaker’s shears, a secret talent for musical composition, romantic longings for pretty dancer Amélie (Aurélia Poirier) and the uncontrollable urge to kill women. Whether he actually does that or not isn’t clear at first, since scenes where he murders one woman turn out to be fantasies … or are they?

In a way, this film seems to not care either way because it’s essentially much more interested in Leo and his mental anguish: anguish that is seeded by a former chanteuse mother (Dominique Frot) who beat him when he was little. The whole handsome-tragic-murderer shtick is one we’ve seen before in an assortment of films,...

French hub confirms €200m investment in French series and features this year.

Netflix France has given a taster of the 25 original French series and films due to be launched on the platform this year at a press event in Paris on Thursday (March 10) and revealed a further 20 titles are in production.

The French hub, which officially opened on the eve of the Covid-19 pandemic in January 2020, also confirmed it would be investing €200m in French content this year.

The Paris team announced two new French feature projects, the presidential election comedy En Place and Le Roi Des Ombres, a family...

Netflix today provided a taste of its slate of original French productions coming up in 2022, which includes 25 new titles for launch this year and 20 projects currently in production. The slate, selected and developed by the Netflix France creative team, reps a total investment of more than 200M euros ($221M) across 2022. The streamer recently signed a deal with the French industry in which it committed to producing at least 10 local films per year, investing about 40M euros ($45M).

Among the projects highlighted during a presentation in Paris today was Romain Gavras’ formerly untitled feature, which is now called Athena. An immersive and modern tragedy, it stars Dali Benssalah, Sami Slimane, Anthony Bajon and is co-written with Oscar nominee Ladj Ly (Les Misérables) and Elias Belkeddar. The logline reads: In the space of a few hours following the tragic death of their younger brother in troubling circumstances, the men’s lives will tip over into chaos.

Netflix unveiled its 2022 slate of 25 French Originals, as well as projects including the second and third opus of its action movie “Lost Bullet,” and “En Place,” a comedy series created by Jean-Pascal Zadi (“Tout simplement Noir”) and Francois Uzan.

The company said it will invest more than €200 million ($220 million) in 2022 in France. Out of these 25 titles, there are about 10 series, and approximately eight films.

The streamers’ French presentation was hosted at the Comedy Club in Paris to tease “Standing-Up,” a series following aspiring stand-up comedians directed by Fanny Herrero, the creator of “Call My Agent.” Herrero attended the press conference along with key Netflix executives in Europe, including Damien Couvreur, Sara May and Gaelle Mareschi.

Besides “Standing Up,” Netflix’s anticipated highlights for 2022 including Romain Gavras’s “Athena,” an immersive and modern tragedy played by Dali Benssalah, Sami Slimane, Anthony Bajon and co-written by Ladj Ly (“Les Miserables”); as well as “Rhythm + Flow France,...

European Film Promotion, a network of 37 film promotion bodies from across the continent, is gathering 29 European sales companies from nine nations under the Europe! Umbrella at the virtual edition of the Hong Kong Intl. Film & TV Market (FilMart).

For the second year running the annual event has been moved online because of the coronavirus pandemic. This year’s edition, which is taking place from March 15-18, features a host of hot titles fresh off the recently concluded Berlin Film Festival, repped by leading European sales agents such as Germany’s Beta Cinema, Spain’s Latido Films, and Denmark’s LevelK.

Among the movies on offer are “I’m Your Man,” from Emmy Award-winning director Maria Schrader (“Unorthodox”), and “Next Door,” the directorial debut of German star Daniel Brühl, which both premiered in competition in Berlin, and are being sold by Beta. Other buzz titles include Maria Speth’s documentary “Mr. Bachmann and His Class,...

Following hot on the heels of the recently wrapped Berlin Film Festival, this year’s online edition of the Hong Kong Intl. Film & TV Market (FilMart) will include a host of buzzy titles and award winners gathered under the Europe! Umbrella, which brings together 29 European sales agents in a virtual pavilion organized by European Film Promotion (Efp).

Beta Cinema will be presenting two Berlin competition titles which already closed a flurry of deals during the European Film Market. Emmy Award-winning director Maria Schrader’s (“Unorthodox”) wry romcom “I’m Your Man” (pictured), starring Dan Stevens (“Downton Abbey”), Maren Eggert and Sandra Hueller (“Toni Erdmann”), earned stellar reviews and a leading performance Silver Bear for Eggert. The company is also repping the dark comedy “Next Door,” the directorial debut of German star Daniel Brühl, who plays a version of himself in the film.

Also with two Berlinale competition selections on offer, Films Boutique...

Marc Fouchard's bleakly compelling tale of obsession and violence has the distinction of being the finest piece of filmmaking in 2021's Glasgow Film Festival Frightfest selection and a film that you are unlikely ever to want to watch again as long as you live. It's an elegant example of cinematic portraiture but the picture it paints is of a man you really won't want to know.

If it's painful to watch Léo (Kévin Mischel), it's also painful to be him. He's so ill at ease in the world that he has retreated from it emotionally to a place where he can barely communicate with others, the chat he offers in his work as a taxi driver purely performative and shallow. The only time he seems to feel any satisfaction is when he is composing music (ethereal work created by Pascal Boudet and Cyesm), but his inspiration comes at a high.

The organisers of Arrow Video FrightFest Glasgow have announced that, despite continuing Covid-19 restrictions, the festival will return Digitally this year to present a virtual six-pack of tasty titles; an extravaganza of the dark arts that will leave you stirred, shaken and shocked.

There will be six online presentations, including the UK premiere of Kyle Rankin’s controversial high school siege drama Run Hide Fight, starring Isabel May as a fiercely independent student taking on a quartet of invading shooters, and the UK premiere of Out Of This World (Hors Du Monde), a disturbing, compelling study of obsession from brilliant new French director Marc Fouchard. It boasts a stunning performance by Kevin Mischel as a mentally-challenged musician turned Uber driver. A few years back Here Comes Hell, a Black & White mystery thriller, was a FrightFest Glasgow sensation, and The Woman With Leopard Shoes (LA Femme Aux Chaussures Leopard) is another...

The French sales agent has added Marc Fouchard’s film, which won the Grand Prix at the Cognac Crime Film Festival, to its line-up and will unveil it online at the 23rd Rendez-Vous with French Cinema. Specialising in "elevated genre", French international sales agent Reel Suspects managed to get through 2020, a complicated year for us all on account of the health crisis. Indeed, it inked some great deals for the thriller Ropes by Spaniard José Luis Montesinos and a real revelation in the Venice International Film Critics’ Week, the intense, warped Lithuanian war film The Flood Won’t Come by Armenian director Marat Sargsyan, among other movies. In addition, Matteo Lovadina’s team is about to play another trump card with Out of This World by Marc Fouchard, which will have its market premiere at the 23rd Rendez-Vous with French Cinema in Paris, an event that, in a change to the usual.

Ten live-action shorts out of 137 qualified films will vie for an Oscar nomination.

Frontrunners:

“Graffiti,” Lluis Quilez, director (Participant Media, Euphoria Productions and Ainur Films)

“Nocturne in Black,” Jimmy Keyrouz, director (Columbia University)

“Timecode,” Juanjo Giménez, director (Nadir Films)

“The Way of Tea (Les Frémissements du Thé),” Marc Fouchard, director, and Matthieu Devillers, producer (Existenz, BlackBox and P904)

“Sing” (“Mindenki”),” Kristof Deák, director (Meteor Filmstudio)

Contenders:

“Bon Voyage,” Marc Wilkins, director, and Joël Jent, producer (Dschoint Ventschr Filmproduction)

“Ennemis Intérieurs,” Sélim Azzazi, director (Qualia Films)

“La Femme et le Tgv,” Timo von Gunten, director (arbel gmbh)

“The Rifle, the Jackal, the Wolf and the Boy,” Oualid Mouaness, director (Tricycle Logic)

“Silent Nights,” Aske Bang, director, and Kim Magnusson, producer (M & M Productions)

Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Sign up for our Email Newsletters here.

Related stories2017 Oscar Predictions: Best Animated Short2017 Oscar Predictions: Best...

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced the 10 live-action shorts that will move forward in the voting process for the 89th Academy Awards. The shortlist was pared down from the 137 films that originally qualified, and the final nominees will be named along with all other categories on January 24. Find the full list below, with trailers where available.

Read More: ‘Working Stiff’: Exclusive Doc NYC Short Documentary Finds Creative Expression in the Everyday Grind — Watch

“Bon Voyage,” Marc Wilkins, director, and Joël Jent, producer (Dschoint Ventschr Filmproduction)

“Ennemis Intérieurs,” Sélim Azzazi, director (Qualia Films)

“Graffiti,” Lluis Quilez, director (Participant Media, Euphoria Productions and Ainur Films)

“La Femme et le Tgv,” Timo von Gunten, director (arbel gmbh)

“Nocturne in Black,” Jimmy Keyrouz, director (Columbia University)

Read More: ‘The Escape’: Clive Owen Returns as The Driver in Neill Blomkamp’s New BMW Short Film — Watch

“The Rifle, the Jackal,...

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced the 10 shortlist finalists or a Best Live Action Feature nomination this afternoon and the theme is “global.” A recurring trend in this category, a majority of the entries are from overseas. The Academy revealed that 137 entries qualified for consideration.

The shortlist is as follows:

“Bon Voyage,” Marc Wilkins, director, and Joël Jent, producer (Dschoint Ventschr Filmproduction)

“Ennemis Intérieurs,” Sélim Azzazi, director (Qualia Films)

“Graffiti,” Lluis Quilez, director (Participant Media, Euphoria Productions and Ainur Films)

“La Femme et le Tgv,” Timo von Gunten, director (arbel gmbh)

“Nocturne in Black,” Jimmy Keyrouz, director (Columbia University)

“The Rifle, the Jackal, the Wolf and the Boy,” Oualid Mouaness, director (Tricycle Logic)

“Silent Nights,” Aske Bang, director, and Kim Magnusson, producer (M & M Productions)

“Sing (Mindenki),” Kristof Deák, director (Meteor Filmstudio)

“Timecode,” Juanjo Giménez, director (Nadir Films)

“The Way of Tea (Les Frémissements du Thé),” Marc Fouchard,...

Ridley Scott’s upcoming instalment in the sci-fi series will open on May 19, 2017 – three months earlier than originally scheduled by Fox.

Studio executives had set an August 19, 2017, date for Alien: Covenant but the first poster reveals the new date, as well as the familiar alien head bathed in shadow beneath the legend, ‘Run’.

Noomi Rapace reprises her role in the follow-up to 2012’s Prometheus alongside Michael Fassbender as the android David.

Joining the cast are Billy Crudup, Katherine Waterston, Danny McBride, Demián Bichir, and Amy Seimetz.

The Academy Of Motion Picture Arts And Sciences announced on Wednesday that ten live-action short films will advance in the voting process for the 89th Academy Awards from a submissions pool of 137. Nominations are announced on January 24, 2017. The ten are, in alphabetic order: Bon Voyage, Marc Wilkins; Ennemis Intérieurs, Sélim Azzazi; Graffiti, Lluis Quilez; La Femme et le Tgv, Timo von Gunten; Nocturne In Black, Jimmy Keyrouz; The Rifle...

Festival brass hailed a record turnout for the renowned event and honoured a range of international filmmakers at the awards ceremony on Sunday night.

All in all 330 shorts were culled from more than 3,000 submissions and screened throughout the festival, which ran from June 16-22 and awarded more than $115,000 in prizes including $20,000 in cash awards.

“It’s been a spectacular success on all fronts for ShortFest this year, with a uniformly ecstatic response from audience and filmmakers alike for the screenings, the panels and seminars and the special events the festival mounted,” said festival director Darryl Macdonald.

“With record numbers of attendees and filmmakers, the festival lived up to its growing reputation as one of the most important events of its kind in the world.”

Select 2015 Palm Springs International ShortFest award winners appear below. For the full list click here.

Jury Awards

Best Of Festival Award

Carry On (Esel, pictured) (Austria), Rafael Haider

Winner received $5,000 cash prize courtesy...