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Olga Photo: Courtesy of Glasgow Film Festival

Olga, streaming free now on All4

Real-life gymnast Anastasia Budiashkina stars as the title character, a 15-year-old sportswoman who moves to Switzerland to train as the 2014 Revolution of Dignity is beginning. As the youngster focuses her efforts on the upcoming European championships, her journalist mother (Tanya Mikhina) becomes caught up in protests in Kyiv’s Maidan Square. Director Elie Grappe offers a taut character study that shows Olga’s determination in her sport alongside the day-to-day challenges of being resident in a new country and the pull of duty to her homeland. The young protagonist and economical storytelling also make this an accessible tale for teenagers of the same age.

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Jennie Kermode writes: In between the days of jingoistic adventure tales about the glory of the British Empire and the later, brutal admonishments of colonialism’s true legacy,...

Industry veteran Dov Kornits has launched the new distribution outfit.

Industry veteran Dov Kornits has launched Australian distribution outfit Screen Inc and unveiled a raft of titles including Cannes Critics’ Week award-winner Olga.

Sydney-based Kornits sold his interest in his former distribution company Pivot Pictures to co-owner Lou Balletti before opening Screen Inc’s doors. He is also publisher of Australian film magazine Filmink and a former head of theatrical for speciality distributor Umbrella Entertainment.

Initial acquisitions include Elie Grappe’s Olga, the gymnastics-themed Swiss drama that won the screenplay award at Cannes Critics’ Week in 2021, and Andrew Ryan’s The Florist,...

Dubai-based sales agent Cercamon has acquired world sales rights excluding Switzerland for Laura Kaehr’s first feature documentary “Becoming Giulia,” which has its world premiere Sept. 23 in the Focus competition at the Zurich Film Festival.

Produced by Point Prod, the outfit behind Elie Grappe’s Cannes Critics’ Week prize winner “Olga,” in partnership with Srg Ssr, the film is an intimate and committed look at the journey of a woman who reclaims her body and herself to return to the stage.

Shot over three years, “Becoming Giulia” opens with prima ballerina Giulia Tonelli returning to the main stage at the Zurich Opera House after an 11-month absence due to her first pregnancy. The film offers a sensitive portrait of an artist at the top of her craft, moving from rehearsals to opening nights to everyday life in the home, even as Tonelli juggles the competing demands of work and family.

The 18th Zurich Film Festival kicks off Sept. 22 with a muscular lineup that includes some of the year’s most anticipated international pics while also putting the spotlight on Swiss and German-language cinema.

In addition to a strong selection of U.S. films, including Oscar-winning writer-director Florian Zeller’s “The Son” and Neil Jordan’s “Marlowe,” Zurich is also honoring Sony Pictures Classics’ Michael Barker and Tom Bernard for their contribution to cinema.

“We are very proud that this year about one-fourth of our program are world or European premieres, which – especially when it comes to American films – are quite hard to get because there’s a lot of competition,” says Zff artistic director Christian Jungen.

Other big titles unspooling in Zurich include Gina Prince-Bythewood’s “The Woman King,” with Viola Davis; Martin McDonagh’s “The Banshees of Inisherin,” starring Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson and Barry Keoghan; and Tobias Lindholm’s “The Good Nurse,...

In its first full-on post-pandemic edition, Locarno roared back into action as an industry hub over Aug. 3-9, smashing attendance records with delegates at industry arm Locarno Pro soaring from 2019’s prior record of 1,040 to 1,300.

That reflects the year-round work of festival artistic director Giona Nazzaro and industry head Markus Duffner at Locarno Pro, building on foundations laid by Nadia Dresti over 2010-19. Sky rocketing attendance also says much about the state of the international film industry as it is is rocked by titanic sea change propelled by global, regional and local streaming platforms. Following, 10 takes on Locarno as its turns its final bend towards Aug. 13’s awards announcement.

Latest Deals

A score or more of new deals announced since Sunday in exclusivity to Variety:

*Germany’s Pluto Film has been in negotiations with several theatrical distributors on Locarno Piazza Grande title “Semret,” ahead of its world premiere on Aug.

French writer-director Elie Grappe’s debut feature, “Olga,” co-written with Raphaëlle Desplechin, uses a unique lens to examine the 2014 Euromaidan Revolution, the protests that rocked Kyiv and sent President Victor Yanukovych into exile.

The “Revolution of Dignity” was a powerful statement of nationality by the Ukrainian people, and while they ousted their corrupt Putin-crony president, the protests also sparked the invasion of Crimea and the Donbas by Russia, and continue to linger politically as the brutal Russian invasion of Ukraine this year has shocked the globe.

With almost surgical precision, Grappe’s film poses the question, “Are sports political?” through the point of view of a Ukrainian teenage gymnast who must flee to Switzerland in order to continue her training.

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Former Ukrainian national gymnastics team member Anastasiia Budiashkina takes on the title role in her first film performance,...

Director Elie Grappe and co-writer Raphaëlle Desplechin waste no time showing their gymnast drama Olga is about more than the parallel bars. They introduce 15-year-old Ukrainian Olga (Anastasiia Budiashkina) perfecting the maneuvers necessary to advance onto the Jaeger technique—a move she hopes will help the team medal at the forthcoming European championships. She and best friend Sasha (Sabrina Rubtsova) are having fun as the nation’s top two athletes in the sport, their confidence so high that Olga doesn’t even really mind the fact her mother (Tanya Mikhina’s Ilona Budishkina) is going to miss another tournament because of work. The reason is simple: Mom’s online journalism has never been as important as it is right now. Important enough to narrowly avoid being intentionally run off the road.

It jolts us from the comparatively small-scale intrigue of a gymnastics tournament. Rather than train with Sasha in Kyiv,...

An intense portrait of personal obsession — à la “Black Swan” — set at the time of 2013’s Maidan Uprising, “Olga” anticipates so much of the current situation in Ukraine. Elie Grappe’s prescient debut begins and ends in a country whose people united against corruption, successfully ousting Russian-friendly president Viktor Yanukovych, though the story takes place mostly in Switzerland. Even before Vladimir Putin’s unprovoked invasion, “Olga” was an incredibly strong film, but now, the Kino Lorber release should be considered essential viewing for art-house audiences.

If all the bad news from that corner of the world bums you out, give the movie 10 minutes to prove itself. Without spoiling the shock, suffice to say that Olympics-bound gymnast Olga is single-mindedly focused on her sport, practicing the difficult Jaeger move with her coach. But in the ride home with her similarly monomaniacal mother — a high-profile investigative journalist for a newspaper critical of...

‘Bergman Island’, ‘Dashcam’ and ‘Major’ are also set to debut.

After it soared to the top of the UK-Ireland box office last weekend, Top Gun: Maverick is highly likely to hold onto the number one spot after the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee bank holiday weekend, amid a quiet week for new openers.

The chief contender for breaking into the top five among this weekend’s debuts is Top Gun: Maverick’s fellow Cannes premiere Men, which opens at 570 sites for Entertainment Film Distributors – this weekend’s widest new release.

The Directors’ Fortnight title, which is directed by Ex Machina filmmaker Alex Garland,...

‘Bergman Island’, ‘Dascham’ and ‘Major’ are also set to debut.

After it soared to the top of the UK-Ireland box office last weekend, Top Gun: Maverick is highly likely to hold onto the number one spot after the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee bank holiday weekend, amid a quiet week for new openers.

The chief contender for breaking into the top five among this weekend’s debuts is Top Gun: Maverick’s fellow Cannes premiere Men, which opens at 570 sites for Entertainment Film Distributors – this weekend’s widest new release.

The Directors’ Fortnight title, which is directed by Ex Machina filmmaker Alex Garland,...

‘Bergman Island’, ‘Dascham’ and ‘Major’ are also out this weekend.

After it soared to the top of the UK-Ireland box office last weekend, Top Gun: Maverick is highly likely to hold onto the number one spot after the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee bank holiday weekend, amid a quiet week for new openers.

The chief contender for breaking into the top five among this weekend’s debuts is Top Gun: Maverick’s fellow Cannes premiere Men, which opens at 570 sites for Entertainment Film Distributors – this weekend’s widest new release.

The Directors’ Fortnight title, which is directed by Ex Machina filmmaker Alex Garland,...

Olga Trailer — Elie Grappe‘s Olga (2021) movie trailer has been released by Kino Lorber. The Olga trailer stars Anastasiia Budiashkina, Sabrina Rubtsova, and Caterina Barloggio. Crew Raphaëlle Desplechin and Elie Grappe wrote the screenplay for Olga. Pierre Desprats created the music for the film. Lucie Baudinaud crafted the cinematography for the film. Olga Poster Olga Movie Poster Plot [...]

Continue reading: Olga (2021) Movie Trailer: An Exiled Ukrainian Gymnast dreams of joining Switzerland’s National Sports Center...

Fast-rising film production and investment company Logical Pictures has acquired The Jokers Films, a well-respected French distribution company boasting long-term bonds with Bong Joon-ho and Nicolas Winding Refn, among other filmmakers.

Under the deal, The Jokers Films, which is presided over by Manuel Chiche, will be integrated within Logical Pictures. Chiche, a forward-thinking French industry veteran who’s been one of the country’s top distributors for Asian and independent American films, will also become a partner in Logical Pictures while continuing to lead The Jokers Films.

Headed by Frédéric Fiore, Logical Pictures was founded in 2016 as a financial and co-production banner and has now expanded into different entertainment fields through key investments in banners such as Pulsar Content, Marie Garrett and Gilles Sousa’s sales company whose recent titles include Elie Grappe’s “Olga” and Stephen Fingleton’s “Nightride;” Loveboat, an advertising and branded content outfit; Black Mic Mac,...

Ten percent of proceeds to be donated to Direct Relief in Ukraine.

Kino Lorber has acquired all North American distribution rights to Elie Grappe’s Cannes Critics’ Week 2021 selection and Ukrainian gymnast drama Olga.

The distributor plans a theatrical release on June 24, with 10 of proceeds to be donated to Direct Relief in Ukraine.

Olga stars former Ukrainian national team gymnast Anastasiia Budiashkina in her first film role as Olga, a talented teenage Ukrainian gymnast exiled in Switzerland, dreaming of Olympic gold and trying to fit in with her new team in her new home when her family in Ukraine becomes involved in the Maidan Revolution.

Kino Lorber has acquired all North American distribution rights to Elie Grappe’s Ukrainian gymnast drama “Olga,” which world premiered at Cannes Critics’ Week last year and won a prize. Kino Lorber is planning a theatrical release on June 24, with 10 of proceeds to be donated to Direct Relief in Ukraine.

Grappe’s debut feature, “Olga” stars former Ukrainian National Team gymnast Anastasia Budiashkina in her first film role. The film, which was produced by Tom Dercourt and Jean Marc Fröhle, revolves around Olga, a talented teenage Ukrainian gymnast exiled in Switzerland and trying to fit in with her new team in her new home.

As Olga prepares for the European Championships, the Ukrainian people back home in Kyiv rise up in what has become known as the Maidan Revolution, suddenly involving everyone she cares about. Meanwhile, her mother, an investigative journalist, challenges the brutal Yanukovich regime. The film weaves documentary footage from the 2013 uprising.

Joint initiative between Ukca, Event Cinema Association and Powster.

The UK cinema exhibition sector is banding together to launch Cinemas for Ukraine, a fundraising appeal for counterparts and others affected by the war in Ukraine.

It is a joint initiative between the UK Cinema Association (Ukca), Event Cinema Association and digital agency Powster, and has been developed in discussion with the Union of Cinema Theatres of Ukraine, a trade body representing cinema operators in the war-afflicted territory.

The initiative was launched today at the Ukca’s 2022 conference in London, with an initial £5,000 target. The scheme is being promoted to the cinema sector,...

Strong opening for ‘The Worst Person In The World’.

RankFilm (distributor)Three-day gross (Mar 25-27)Total gross to date Week 1. The Batman (Warner Bros) £1.7m £35.6m 4 2. Ambulance (Universal) £520,999 £520,999 1 3. Rrr (Dreamz Entertainment) £411,891 £650,204 1 4. Uncharted (Sony) £349,000 £23.2m 7 5. The Nan Movie (Warner Bros) £289,502 £1.1m 2

Gbp to Usd conversion rate: 1.31

Dreamz Entertainment’s action drama Rrr started in third place at the UK-Ireland box office this weekend, recording the highest opening weekend for an Indian film in the past two years.

Having taken £238,313 from previews on Thursday, the film followed up with a £411,891 weekend. Playing in just 150 locations, it brought in £2,746 per site – an outstanding...

‘The Nan Movie’, ‘Hive’, ‘X’ also opening.

eOne’s UK sports comedy The Phantom of the Open tees off at the UK-Ireland box office this weekend, in a bumper weekend with 17 new releases.

Directed by Craig Roberts, The Phantom Of The Open debuted at the BFI London Film Festival in October last year. The film tells the true story of Maurice Flitcroft, an aspiring golfer of limited talent, who managed to gain entry to the British Open Gold Championship Qualifying in 1976 only to shoot the worst round in the event’s history. It will open in 629 locations - the fourth-biggest...

Films from Ukraine are taking on additional resonance at the current moment, with the ongoing Russian invasion of the country, from documentaries like Sundance winner A House Made Of Splinters - about children impacted from the previous conflict in Donbass - to this drama from Elie Grappe, which is being preview-screened at a number of cinemas across the UK from March 18 with profits going to the Disasters Emergency Committee. The star of the film Anastasia Budiashkina - who is a gymnast in real life - fled the country's under-fire Kharkiv herself in recent days for Poland.

The idea of being exiled and of politics having a knock-on impact well outside the confines of parliaments and protests are key elements of Grappe's drama that considers these ideas through the life of young gymnast Olga (Budiashkina), who has moved to Switzerland to train just as the 2014 Revolution of Dignity...

As well as causing a humanitarian and geopolitical crisis, the seismic fall-out of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24 has reverberated across the film industry locally and globally. The effects, insiders tell Variety, will be felt for decades. In terms of distribution, they may even be permanent.

Russia’s designation as a pariah state has seen major film festivals such as Venice and Cannes bar the presence of Russian government agencies and state-backed content at their events, while global companies and studios including Disney and WarnerMedia have paused all activities in the country.

Inevitably, these restrictions have also impacted Russian filmmakers who are critical of their country’s president, Vladimir Putin — and the sales agents and distributors handling their movies.

France-based Pulsar Content represents “The Execution,” Lado Kvataniva’s Russian thriller, which world premiered at Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas. Last month, it was pulled from the Glasgow Film Festival.

Anastasia Budiashkina is excellent as a young athlete exiled during the 2014 revolution in this moving drama released to raise funds for Ukrainian refugees

Events have lent an explosive new significance to this prophetic movie about the agony of exile from debut director Elie Grappe, which showed at Cannes last year and is now being released in UK cinemas to raise money for Ukrainian refugees. It concerns Olga, a dedicated teenage Ukrainian gymnast, excellently played by the real-life Ukrainian gymnast Anastasia Budiashkina, who herself last week arrived in Poland after escaping Kharkiv.

In the movie, Olga leaves her homeland for Switzerland during the 2014 Maidan revolution to compete for the Swiss team during the European championships in Stuttgart. Her widowed mother was able to get her out to safety because Olga’s dad was Swiss, and she herself is being threatened by the state for her work as an investigative journalist uncovering corruption during the pro-Russian presidency.

606 Distribution and the BFI have partnered to organize a series of preview charity screenings of Elie Grappe’s Cannes winning film “Olga.”

From each ticket sold, a donation will be made to support Ukraine via the Disasters Emergency Committee.

The film, about a young female Ukrainian gymnast forced to train in exile, had its U.K. premiere at the Glasgow Film Festival earlier this week.

The preview screenings will be taking place in over 200 cinemas from March 18, with more cinemas joining the initiative each day. Participating cinemas include Cineworld, Curzon, Everyman, Odeon and Picturehouse chains, as well as the independent venues which make up the members and lead organizations of the BFI Film Audience Network. The previews are also supported by the UK Cinema Association.

Set in 2013, Olga tells the story of a 15-year-old Ukrainian gymnast training for the European Championship in preparation for the Olympics, who is forced...

Undeterred by the pandemic, the wheels of Switzerland’s film production machine kept on spinning in 2021, churning out the meticulously made multicultural co-productions the country is known for that scored slots at top festivals.

Works by young directors such as Elie Grappe, whose coming-of-age drama “Olga” launched at Cannes; Niccolò Castelli’s terrorism-themed “Atlas,” which bowed at Locarno; and also the VR project “Caves” by Carlos Isabel Garcìa, which premiered at Venice; provided a preamble to the exceptionally strong Swiss presence at this year’s Berlinale.

Berlin sees a record-breaking two competition slots filled by new works from established Swiss directors, Ursula Meier’s “The Line” and Michael Koch’s “A Piece of Sky,” plus several more Swiss titles in other sections.

“In the worst year ever we shot three productions back-to-back during the pandemic; somehow we got used to it,” says Oscar-nominated Max Karli (“My Life as a Zucchini...

Exclusive: Elie Grappe, the French writer-director whose feature directorial debut Olga has been selected as Switzerland’s entry for the Best International Feature Film Oscar, has signed with CAA for representation.

Grappe’s film starring Anastasiia Budiashkina follows a 15-year-old Ukrainian gymnast exiled in Switzerland, who is working to secure a place at the country’s National Sports Center. It made its world premiere this year as part of the Critics’s Week section of the Cannes Film Festival, there winning the Society of Dramatic Authors and Composers Prize. His debut feature has subsequently traveled to a number of other international festivals, where it has picked up additional awards.

Grappe studied classical music at the Lyon National Conservatory for 10 years, then studying cinema at the Ecole Cantonale d’Art de Lausanne. As part of the curriculum, he directed the film Répétition and his graduation short film, Suspendu, seeing both selected...

Emmanuel Mouret’s “Love Affair(s),” Samir Guesmi’s “Ibrahim” and Elie Wajeman’s “Night Doctor” won top prizes at Colcoa, the French film and TV festival.

The festival, which marked its 25th edition, wrapped at the DGA on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles on Nov. 7. It was attended by 14,000 people.

The festival, programmed by Francois Truffart, is organized by the Franco-American Cultural Fund, a collaboration between the Directors Guild of America (DGA), the Motion Picture Association (MPA), The Writers Guild of America West (Wgaw) and France’s Society of Authors, Composers and Publishers of Music (Sacem).

Colcoa shifted its spring dates to the fall in 2019 as the DGA was being renovated and is now ideally positioned at the start of the awards season in the U.S. The awards ceremony took place at the Sacem headquarters near Paris in the presence of many honorees, notably Guesmi and “Love Affair(s)” producer Frédéric Niedermayer,...

Colcoa Classics to stage Bertrand Tavernier tribute.

The North American Premiere of Emmanuel Carrère’s Cannes Directors’ Fortnight opener Between Two Worlds starring Juliette Binoche will open the in-person 25th Colcoa French film and series festival on November 1.

The event runs until November 7 and will screen 55 films and series at the DGA Theatre in Hollywood with a Colcoa Classics tribute to Bertrand Tavernier.

The closing films are Xavier Giannoli’s recent Venice Film Festival Lost Illusions and Arthur Harari’s 2021 Cannes Un Certain Regard opener Onoda, 10,000 Nights In The Jungle.

The feature line-up includes Leyla Bouzid’s A Tale Of Love And Desire...

Emmanuel Carrère’s Ouistreham (Between Two Worlds) has been set as the opening film of the 25th Colcoa French Film and Series Festival. The anniversary edition of the City of Lights, City of Angels fest kicks off on November 1 with the Juliette Binoche-starrer that opened Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes last July before winning the Audience Award at San Sebastian. Cohen Media Group releases in the U.S. in 2022.

Colcoa is running as a live week-long event taking place at the DGA Theater Complex from November 1-7. This year’s edition is dedicated to late filmmaker Bertrand Tavernier and will pay homage to him in the Classics section. The full program will include 55 films and series, as well as 19 shorts. Thirty of the films will compete for the Colcoa Cinema Awards and the Colcoa High School Screenings program will also return, welcoming 3,000 high school students from across Southern California.

Two...

Jury prizes returned this year following a hiatus in 2020 due to the pandemic.

Prize money totalling €125,000 was handed out to 10 films screening in this year’s Filmfest Hamburg (September 30-October 9), which saw jury prizes return following a hiatus in 2020 due to the pandemic.

On Friday evening (October 8) at Hamburg’s producer awards, the jury comprising producer Martina Haubrich and directors Julian Pörksen and Arman T. Riahi presented the producers award for German cinema productions, worth €25,000, to Jonas Weydemann of Weydemann Bros for Sabrina Sarabi’s No One’s With The Calves, which had been screened in the Grosse Freiheit section.

Sarabi...

Swiss productions and co-productions are on the rise, driven in part by federal and regional funders that offer attractive opportunities for domestic and international filmmakers.

Quickly recovering from the impact of the pandemic, the local film industry has gotten off to another strong year with local films and international co-productions.

Elie Grappe’s Swiss-Ukrainian-French title “Olga” premiered at this year’s Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes, while unspooling in Locarno were Lorenz Merz’s “Soul of a Beast” and Swiss-international co-productions like Stefan Jäger’s “Monte Verita” and Laurent Geslin’s nature documentary “Lynx.” Venice saw such Swiss co-productions as “Ariaferma,” by Italian helmer Leonardo Di Costanzo, and Bolivian director Kiro Russo’s “El Gran Movimiento.” And opening this year’s Zurich Film Festival (Zff) was Michael Steiner’s Swiss-German Taliban thriller “And Tomorrow We Will Be Dead.”

The upswing in Swiss cinema is due in no small part to Zurich as a film location,...

Submissions from Cambodia, Ecuador, Morocco, Poland and Switzerland have been announced so far.

Entries for the 2022 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.

Scroll down for profiles of each Oscar entry

Submissions from Cambodia, Ecuador, Morocco, Poland and Switzerland have been announced so far.

The 94th Academy Awards will take place on March 1, 2022 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. This is the first time since 2018 that the ceremony will take place in March, having moved to avoid conflicting with the Winter Olympics.

The eligibility rules remain the same: an international...

TitaneIN COMPETITIONPalme d’Or: Titane (Julia Ducournau) (Read our review)Grand Prix ex aequo: A Hero (Asgar Farhadi)Grand Prix ex aequo: Compartment No. 6 (Juho Kuosmanen)Jury Prize ex aequo: Ahed's Knee (Nadav Lapid) (Read our review)Jury Prize ex aequo: Memoria (Apichatpong Weerasethakul) (Read our review)Best Director: Leos Carax (Annette)Best Actor: Caleb Landry-Jones (Nitram)Best Actress: Renate Reinsve (The Worst Person in the World)Best Screenplay: Ryûsuke Hamaguchi and Takamasa Oe (Drive My Car) (Read our review)Unclenching the FistsUN Certain REGARDGrand Prize: Unclenching the Fists (Kira Kovalenko) (Read our review)Ensemble Prize: Bonne Mere (Hafsia Herzi)Jury Prize: Great Freedom (Sebastian Meise)Courage: La Civil (Teodora Ana Mihai)Originality: Lamb (Valdimar Jóhannsson)Jury Special Mention: Prayers for the Stolen (Tatiana Huezo)Directors' FORTNIGHTEuropa Cinemas Cannes Label for Best European Film: A Chiara (Jonas Carpignano)Sacd Prize: Magnetic Beats (Vincent Maël Cardona)A ChiaraCAMERA D'ORMurina (Antoneta Alamat Kusijanovic...

Spike Lee jumped the gun, announcing Palme d’Or winner “Titane” before the other prizes at the Cannes Film Festival awards. The unplanned goof could have robbed the awards of their usual suspense, but instead, created a thrillingly unpredictable energy as presenters and attendees alike tried to imagine how to get the train back on track and what the jury president might do next … while holding their breath for the festival’s second-ever female Palme d’Or winner to accept her prize.

With “Titane,” French director Julia Ducournau (“Raw”) delivers a radical horror vision — a portrait of a serial killer impregnated by a car who disguises her gender and goes incognito as a lonely fireman’s long-lost son — sure to make waves as it rolls out in the wider world.

Turns out, the run-of-show slip was the first of many surprises, which included two ties. When it came time for Ducournau to accept her prize,...

The final full day of screenings at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival ended with a statistic, which was delivered by Cannes General Delegate Thierry Fremaux on the stage of the Salle Debussy just before midnight on Friday:

Over the first 11 days of the festival and the thousands of Covid-19 tests administered on the premises each day, 70 people tested positive for the virus. For Fremaux and the festival, the stat – slightly more than the three-positive-tests-per-day estimate made earlier – was still one to celebrate, suggesting that the scaled-down Cannes managed to navigate a difficult time without turning into a superspreader event.

Of course, Fremaux’s announcement preceded the screening of Gaspar Noe’s “Vortex,” a movie about aging, illness and death, which perhaps made it a tricky moment to be celebrating all the negative tests.

The prize parade

According to the awards that have been handed out in Cannes, the festival’s top...

Prizes are beginning to roll in here at the Cannes Film Festival ahead of the main closing ceremony on Saturday night. Parallel section Critics’ Week, celebrating its 60th edition, is up first with Egyptian filmmaker Omar El Zohairi’s Feathers awarded the Nespresso Grand Prize. The surrealist story sees a magic trick gone awry at a children’s birthday party with the authoritative father of the family turned into a chicken. Critics’ Week is devoted to first and second features, and Feathers, as a debut feature, is also eligible for the Camera d’Or (which will be announced on Saturday during the main awards ceremony).

Former Palme d’Or winner Cristian Mungui chaired the Critics’ Week jury for its 60th anniversary this year. The panel also awarded the Louis Roederer Foundation Rising Star Award to Sandra Melissa Torres in Amparo by Simón Mesa Soto. She plays a single mother struggling...

Omar El Zohairy’s comedy-drama “Feathers” has won the Nespresso Grand Prize at Critics’ Week, the Cannes Film Festival’s strand dedicated to first and second films.

Set in contemporary Egypt, “Feathers” follows the journey of a woman with three children whose idealist husband is turned into a chicken by a magician in a magic-trick gone awry. El Zohairy used over 30 real chickens in the production with the assistance of an animal trainer. It was produced by Still Moving (France), and co-produced by Film Clinic (Egypt), Lagoonie Film Production (Egypt), Kepler Film (The Netherlands) and Heretic (Greece).

Meanwhile, the Louis Roederer Foundation Rising Star Award went to Sandra Melissa Torres for her performance in Simón Mesa Soto’s “Amparo,” about a working-class mother desperately attempting to save her son from military conscription in Colombia.

The Grand Prize and Rising Star awards were given by the jury which was presided over...

The 60th edition marks film critic Charles Tesson’s last year at the helm.

Egyptian director Omar El Zohairy’s surreal tragi-comedy Feathers has scooped the €15,000 grand prize at the 60th edition of Cannes’ Critics’ Week.

It is the debut feature of El Zohairy who cut his teeth working as an assistant director to Youssef Chahine and Yousry Nasrallah.

The story revolves around a family liberated from the control of a tyrannical patriarch after he is turned into a chicken during a magic show. Juliette Lepoutre and Pierre Menahem at France’s Still Moving lead produced in co-production with Cairo-based Film Clinic,...

Past winners of the first feature prize include Jim Jarmusch, Mira Nair, Naomi Kawase, Steve McQueen, Houda Benyamina and Lukas Dhont.

The Cannes Film Festival has named French actress Mélanie Thierry as jury president for the 2021 Caméra d’Or award reserved for all first features premiering across Official Selection and the parallel sections of Directors’ Fortnight and Critics’ Week.

”Nothing is as fragile or as miraculous as a first movie. This testifies to the courage and the faith of all the directors who, after such a long period of seclusion, succeeded in providing us with a window on the outside world,...

Timur Bekmambetov, the Russian writer-director-producer behind such pics as 2004’s “Night Watch” and 2008’s “Wanted,” has just started shooting his latest production, the English-language sci-fi thriller “Resurrected” in L.A. with Dave Davis.

Up-and-coming Russian director Egor Baranov, whose credits include the Russian B.O. hit trilogy “Gogol” and Netflix’s “Sparta” series, is directing the film. Bekmanbetov is producing “Resurrected” with Maria Zatulovskaya through the banner Bazelevs, with David Meadeb at Logical Pictures, in association with Aleksandr Fomin at Pulsar Content, the sales banner launched by Gilles Sousa and Marie Garrett.

The film is being made using Bekmanbetov’s pioneering Screenlife storytelling and technology, revolving solely around the screen activity of characters who are seen through their digital devices. Bekmanbetov previously delivered several hit films in this Screenlife format, notably “Searching” which was released worldwide by Sony, as well as the “Unfriended” franchise released by BlumHouse and Universal, and “Profile,...

Pulsar Content has secured worldwide sales on “Nightride” a Belfast-set thriller from BAFTA-nominated helmer Stephen Fingleton (“The Survivalist”), starring Moe Dunford and Joana Ribeiro (“The Man Who Killed Don Quixote”).

Shot in one take over an action-packed night, “Nightride” is laced with dry humor and follows a smalltime dealer, Budge, as he tries to pull one last deal with cash borrowed from a dangerous loan shark. When the handover goes terribly wrong, Budge finds himself in a race against the clock to get a hold of his missing product and find a new buyer before the loan shark tracks him down.

Now in post, the high-concept film is produced by Silk Mass, Village Films and Logical Pictures, and written by Irish scribe Ben Conway (“Hunter’s Fall”). It marks Fingleton’s sophomore feature, following his critically acclaimed debut “The Survivalist,” a post-apocalyptic thriller which was nominated for a BAFTA and won prizes at Tribeca,...

The lineup for the 2021 Cannes Critics’ Week (La Semaine de la Critique) has been announced. See also the full lineup of the Official Selection.Opening FILMRobust (Constance Meyer): When his right-hand man and only mate has to go away for a few weeks, Georges – an ageing film star – is given a substitute, Aïssa. The disillusioned actor and the young female security guard forge a special relationship.COMPETITIONAmparo (Simón Mesa Soto): Colombia 1998, Amparo, a single mother, struggles to free her teenage son after he is drafted by the army and assigned to a war zone. She is thrown into a race against time in a society ruled by men, corruption and violence.Feathers (Omar El Zohairy): When a magician’s trick goes wrong at the six-year-old Mando’s birthday party, an avalanche of coincidental absurdities befalls the boy’s family.The Gravedigger’s Wife (Khadar Ayderus Ahmed):...

The Cannes Film Festival’s parallel Critics’ Week section is celebrating its 60th anniversary in 2021 with a lineup that is heavy on French talent and nonexistent when it comes to U.S. filmmakers. This year’s Critics’ Week selection includes 13 world premieres, seven of them in competition. As always, Critics’ Week is made of up first and-second time directorial efforts. The selection committee says it received 1,620 short films and watched 1,000 features in 2021. The lineup was selected by Critics’ Week artistic director Charles Tesson and his committee. Each section of the Critics’ Week lineup is made up of about 30 percent of films directed by women.

“The competition is very international and showcases films with many different styles and topics,” Tesson said in a statement (via Variety). “Many films tackle relationships, friendships, family bonds — especially mothers with their children, loved ones we lost, or fighting to get back into our lives.”

Critics...

With most of the main Cannes Film Festival lineup now confirmed, it’s now time for the sidebars to be unveiled. First up is the lineup for the Critics Week aka Semaine de la Critique. A spotlight on new filmmakers, in recent years they’ve featured works by Julia Ducournau (who now has a film in competition this year with Titane), Hlynur Pálmason, Oliver Laxe, Agnieszka Smoczyńska, Jonas Carpignano, Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy, Ritesh Batra, and more.

This year’s slate is full of a new class of emerging filmmakers, with the opening selection, Constance Meyer’s Robuste starring Gérard Depardieu and Déborah Lukumuena, the Adèle Exarchopoulos-led Zero Fucks Given by Julie Lecoustre & Emmanuel Marre, and more. The jury this year is headed by Cristian Mungiu.

Check out the lineup below and see more about each film at the links here.

Opening Film

“Robuste,” Constance Meyer

Special Screenings

“Anaïs in Love,...

The Cannes Film Festival’s parallel Critics’ Week section has unveiled its lineup for the 60th edition, which will run from July 7-15. There are seven feature films in competition, each of which is a debut meaning they are all eligible for the Camera d’Or. Romanian filmmaker and former Palme d’Or winner Cristian Mungiu is president of this year’s jury which will award the Nespresso Grand Prize, The Louis Roederer Foundation Rising Star Award and the Leitz Cine Discovery Prize for short film. Scroll down for the full list of films.

The section will open with Gérard Depardieu-starrer Robuste (Robust) from Constance Meyer (the first time since 2004 that a film directed by a French woman has opening-night honors). Closing the proceedings is Tunisian filmmaker Leyla Bouzid with Une Histoire D’Amour Et De Désir (A Tale of Love and Desire). Among the Special Screenings is...

Critics’ Week, the Cannes Film Festival parallel strand dedicated to first and second films, follows the official selection’s lead in announcing an expanded lineup after taking a year off.

The 2021 program — which marks the sidebar’s 60th edition — will feature 13 world premieres, seven of them in competition, chosen from nearly 1,000 films by Charles Tesson, artistic director, and his committee. The lineup is heavy on French talent, with no American directors in the mix.

Constance Meyer’s “Robust” (previously titled “Misfit”), a drama-comedy starring Gérard Depardieu and Déborah Lukumuena (“Divines”), will open the 2021 edition of Critics’ Week. Set in contemporary Paris, “Robust” stars Depardieu as a lonely film star in decline, who forms an unexpected bond with Aïssa, a semi-pro wrestler earning a living as a security officer.

Leyla Bouzid’s “A Tale of Love and Desire” will close the edition and will also be part of the Special Screenings section,...

Parallel section will showcase 13 first and second features and 10 short films.

Cannes Critics’ Week 2021 has unveiled the line-up of its 60th edition, following last year’s hiatus due to the pandemic, running July 7 to 15 alongside the Cannes Film Festival.

It will showcase 13 features, seven of them in competition, as well as 10 short films.

French director Constance Meyer’s debut feature Robust, co-starring Gérard Depardieu opposite Divines discovery Déborah Lukumuena will open the section on July 7. Depardieu plays an ageing actor star in decline who hires Lukumuena’s character, a semi-professional wrestler, as a bodyguard at short notice. The seemingly disparate...

Pulsar Content has come on board “Olga,” Elie Grappe’s coming-of-age tale set in the competitive world of youth athletics, seen through the eyes of an Ukrainian gymnast living in exile in Switzerland.

The film follows Olga, a talented and passionate 15-year-old Ukrainian gymnast who does her best to fit into the national team. As Olga prepares for the European Championship, the Euromaidan revolt erupts in Kiev in 2013, involving those closest to her, and shakes up everything in her life.

“Olga” was written by Grappe and Raphaëlle Desplechin, whose screenwriting credits include “Nos Batailles” and “Curiosa.” Now in post, the movie is produced by Tom Dercourt at Cinema Defacto in France and Jean-Marc Frohle at Point Prod in Switzerland.

Pulsar Content will launch pre-sales this week at UniFrance’s virtual Rendez-Vous market with the script, and will unveil a promo at Berlin’s virtual European Film Market. “It’s a...

Lyon-born filmmaker Elie Grappe should be anxiously awaiting the world premiere of his first feature “Olga,” but like so many other filmmakers was forced to put everything on hold when the Covid-19 pandemic ground production around the world to a halt. Instead, this year his unfinished film will participate with a host of other similarly postponed projects in Locarno’s The Films After Tomorrow sidebar for films stuck in stasis, waiting to be finished when post-covid production is once again possible.

Co-written with Raphaëlle Desplechin, “Olga” participated at Emergence 2018 and Atelier Grand Nord 2019. It is produced by Point Prod, which has, since launching in 2006, played a major part in development and production of Swiss film and TV projects, including 2016’s “Miséricorde” and last year’s “Tambour,” one of the country’s largest local box office hits. Additional financing comes from Canal Plus and Rts as well as backing by the Office Fédéral de la Culture,...

Like most film festivals this year, Locarno Film Festival will not be moving ahead as usual. However, they’ve found inventive ways to both celebrate filmmakers they’ve long admired and present films physically and digitally. After announcing a new initiative to support new films by Lucrecia Martel, Lisandro Alonso, Lav Diaz, Wang Bing, Miguel Gomes, and more, they’ve asked this class of talented directors to select their favorite films in Locarno history.

A Journey in the Festival’s History is devoted to Locarno’s 73-year history of showing the best in international cinema. Made up of twenty films, a selection will screen online for those in Switzerland as well as Mubi internationally. On August 5-15, they will also screen in person at Locarno’s theaters.

Lili Hinstin, Artistic Director of the Locarno Film Festival, said, “It would be an impossible task to present a review of the history...

Films by Roberto Rossellini, Chantel Akerman and Marguerite Duras feature in selection.

The Locarno Film Festival has unveiled the selection of 20 classic film titles that will be showcased in its A Journey In The Festival’s History sidebar as part of its special hybrid edition running August 5 to 15.

The line-up is part of the festival’s ’Locarno 2020 – For the Future of Films’ edition which was created after it was forced to cancel its 73rd edition due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The titles have been selected by the directors taking part in its festival’s exceptional The Films After Tomorrow initiative...