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The US streamer unveils local-language originals and French acquisitions.

Amazon Prime Video has signalled its ambition to work closely with the French film industry by signing a four-year agreement with France’s film industry unions to support independent projects and promote gender and ethnic diversity, and unveiling a slate of original projects and acquisitions.

The signatories to the ground-breaking deal included audio-visual producers union the Uspa, independent producers union, the Spi and author’s rights group the Sacd. Under the terms of the agreement, Prime Video agreed to invest 85 of its financing into local French production and support a “diversity...

Amazon Prime Video has come a long way since launching in France in 2016. The streamer, whose first French film original, “The Mad Women’s Ball,” recently picked up an International Emmy Award, unveiled a landmark deal with French guilds during a posh dinner with industry players and talent in Paris on Wednesday evening (Nov. 30).

On the guest list at the chic Lutetia Hotel was a laundry list of talent that’s in business with Prime Video, including Philippe Lacheau (“Lol”), Franck Gastambide (“Medellin”), Eloise Lang (“La Graine”), Melha Bedia (“Miskina”), Ziad Doueiri (“Coeurs Noirs”), as well as producers Alain Goldman, Pathé Films’ Ardavan Safaee, Mandarin’s Eric Altmayer, CG Cinema’s Charles Gillibert, Metropolitan FilmExport’s Victor Hadida, Newen’s Romain Bessi, and Asasha Group’s Gaspard de Chavagnac, among many others.

Announced by Brigitte Ricou-Bellan, Prime Video’s country manager in France, the four-year deal was signed with the guilds AnimFrance,...

Dujardin stars in comedy-drama Alphonse, written and directed by Nicolas Bedos.

Amazon Prime Video has unveiled a slate of seven new French original productions including projects from Jean Dujardin, Maïmouna Doucouré and Franck Gastambide.

Dujardin stars in comedy-drama Alphonse, written and directed by Nicolas Bedos and produced by Alain Goldman for Montmartre Films. Described as a “sharp-and-witty comedy”, it is based on an original idea by Dujardin and Bedos

Gastambide (creator of TV series Validé) has written and directed action comedy Medellín, about a young YouTuber fascinated by Pablo Escobar who gets kidnapped.

Maïmouna Doucouré follows up Sundance entry Cuties with coming-of-age film Hawa,...

Amazon Prime Video has unveiled seven new shows from the likes of Jean Dujardin, Nicolas Bedos, Franck Gastambide and Maïmouna Doucouré, while recommissioning Celebrity Hunted and Lol: Qui Rit, Sort!. in the region.

The new shows include Academy Award-winning The Artist star Dujardin’s Alphonse, based on an original idea by Dujardin and Bedos and produced by Alain Goldman, who recently signed a deal with Banijay.

The show was positioned by Amazon as a “surprising and funny take on comedy.”

Gastambide’s feature Medellín follows Pablito, a young YouTuber fascinated by Pablo Escobar, who makes his dream come true by flying to the Colombian city to walk in the notorious drug lord’s footsteps. A few days later, a video is posted on social media, showing that Pablito has been kidnapped by a group of dangerous Narcos.

Meanwhile, Federation Entertainment and Yvette Production’s comedy Clasico will be out later...

Amazon Prime in France has unveiled its upcoming slate of director-driven Originals, including ‘Hawa,’ a new movie by “Cuties” director Maimouna Doucouré, Nicolas Bedos’ TV debut “Alphonse” and Franck Gastambide’s “”Medellín.”

“Hawa” follows the coming-of-age tale of a teenage girl who lives with her grandmother and worries she will be removed by social services. She sets off to get adopted by someone she admires more than anything, one of the most powerful woman in the world. “Hawa” is produced by Bien ou Bien Productions.

The movie is currently in post-production and is expected to launch globally on the streamer later this year. As with “Cuties,” Doucouré’s feature debut which won the director prize at Sundance and was acquired by Netflix, “Hawa” will be headlined by first-time actors, including Grammy-winning singer and songwriter Oumou Sangaré, as well as the popular singer Yseult and Sania Halifa.

Doucouré discussed “Hawa” along...

Presented as part of Series Mania’s Coming Next from France showcase, the youth-skewing series “Derby Girl” offers a fast-paced, darkly comic portrait of a disgraced former-figure skater named Lola Bouvier (Chloé Jouannet), who is offered a shot at redemption when she joins a local roller derby league, the Cannibal Unicorns.

Sharing tonal and thematic similarities with films like “I, Tonya” and “Mean Girls,” the stylish online original will air on France Television’s streaming platform Slash later this year, with France TV Distribution handling international sales.

“It offers a new proposal when you compare it to all the standard police and crime series that you see a lot on linear channels,” says France TV Distribution’s Julia Schulte. “We were really interested in proposing something completely different, and with a younger target group as well.”

“As we’ve seen with ‘Sex Education’ or ‘13 Reasons Why,’ youth-focused series attract a wide-appeal,...