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The fourth edition of the Savannah College of Art and Design’s Scad Lacoste Film Festival, running June 26 to 28 in France’s picturesque Provence region, laid on the event’s most ambitious line-up to date.

Unfolding against the backdrop of Scad’s campus in the hilltop village of Lacoste in the Luberon Valley, honorees included actor Toby Jones, director Stephen Frears, screenwriter Christopher Hampton and James Bond and Harry Potter costume designer Jany Temime.

Étoile cast members Yanic Truesdale, Taïs Vinolo and Ivan du Pontavice also made the trip for a screening, chatting to Deadline on the sidelines about the show’s cancellation, as did Laura Piani, director of French rom-com Jane Austen Wrecked My Love Life, which is currently generating nice numbers for Sony Pictures Classics at the Speciality box office in the U.S.

For the past four years, the festival has kicked off the summer term of Scad’s 23-year-old Lacoste campus,...

Disney’s “Lilo & Stitch” retained the top spot at the U.K. and Ireland box office for a third consecutive weekend, earning £3.5 million ($4.7 million) and pushing its cumulative total to £31.1 million ($42 million), according to numbers from Comscore.

Paramount’s “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” held steady in second place with $3.1 million, bringing its total to $29 million after three weekends in release.

The top new release of the frame was “From The World of John Wick: Ballerina,” from Lionsgate U.K.. The Ana de Armas-led spin-off danced its way to a strong $1.9 million debut, landing in third position. Close behind was Black Bear’s “The Salt Path,” which added $1.8 million in its sophomore frame for a robust $5.8 million total.

Sony’s “Karate Kid: Legends” took fifth place with $1.4 million, raising its running cume to $5.6 million. Warner Bros.’ “Final Destination: Bloodlines” followed at sixth with $835,902, now tallying $14.2 million to date.

Exclusive: Toby Jones, Stephen Frears, Christopher Hampton and costume designer Jany Temime have been unveiled as honorees of the Scad Lacoste Film Festival in France’s Provence region later this month.

Organized by the Savannah College of Art and Design (Scad), the festival’s fourth edition will run in the picturesque town in the Luberon Valley from June 26 to 28.

The three-day event gathers film and TV industry professionals related to Scad’s degree programs for acting, film and television, production design, costume design and fashion for a program of screening, talks and networking.

UK Bafta-winning actor Jones – who is known for his diverse repertoire ranging from Captain America and The Hunger Games to the more recent TV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office – will be presented with the Virtuoso Award.

He has chosen Matteo Garrone’s 2015 fantasy horror Tale of Tales – in which he co-starred alongside Salma Hayek, Vincent Cassel...

Camille Rutherford as Agathe, Pablo Pauly as Felix in ‘Jane Austen Wrecked

My Life.’ Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics

A French film about English author Jane Austen? No, a delightful contemporary French comedy, partly in English, about a young French would-be author who admires Jane Austen but who can’t seem to finish any of the novels she herself starts writing. However, an invitation to a writers’ retreat at the Austen family home in England raises hopes that her writer’s block situation could change, as well as the possibility of bigger changes in her quiet life.

With far more emphasis on the comedy side, writer/director Laura Piani has concocted a clever, contemporary, bi-lingual comedy romance centered on Agathe Robinson (a wonderful Camille Rutherford), a young half-French, half-English woman who works in Parisian bookstore that specializes in English literature, where her ease in both French and English a plus.

Agathe (Camille Rutherford), the charming protagonist of Laura Piani’s pleasant romantic comedy Jane Austen Wrecked My Life, dreams of being a writer. A bookseller in Paris, she spends her days roaming the stacks and absorbing the words of literary greats. But like many aspiring authors shy about their talent, Agathe only scribbles in her spare time and refuses to let anyone read her work. When her best friend and colleague Felix (Pablo Pauly) discovers one of her drafts, he submits an application to a prestigious writing residency established in Austen’s name on Agathe’s behalf. Once she’s accepted, her decision to attend changes her life.

With ample charm, Piani fashions a film that is both an ode to the 19th century literary figure and a love letter to writing. Jane Austen Wrecked My Life doesn’t reinvent the rules of the rom-com, but it does find ways...

Disney’s live-action Lilo & Stitch and Paramount/Skydance’s Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning kicked off summer blockbuster season with a record-breaking four-day Memorial Day weekend, securing the top two slots on an estimated $183m and $77.5m, respectively.

Over three days, the dynamic duo earned $145m and $64m. Comscore said the three-day Friday-through-Sunday weekend generated $262m in total, pushing North American box office for theyear to dateto just over $3bn.

All releases combined for $322m, ahead of the previous $314m benchmark set in 2013, whenFast & Furious 6,The Hangover Part III,and Star Trek: Into Darkness fuelled film-going.

Through Sunday, sales...

Disney’s live-action Lilo & Stitch and Paramount/Skydance’s Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning kicked off summer blockbuster season with a record-breaking four-day Memorial Day weekend, securing the top two slots on an estimated $183m and $77m, respectively.

Over three days, the dynamic duo earned $145m and $63m. Comscore said the three-day Friday-through-Sunday weekend generated $262m in total, pushing North American box office for theyear to dateto just over $3bn.

All releases combined for $322m, ahead of the previous $314m benchmark set in 2013, whenFast & Furious 6,The Hangover Part III,and Star Trek: Into Darkness fuelled film-going.

Through Sunday, sales...

Sony Pictures Classics is out with Jane Austen Wrecked My Life in limited release, Angel Studios’ The Last Rodeo opens wide and A24’s Friendship added screens with few new indies braving the double whammy of live action Lilo & Stitch and Paramount’s Mission: Impossible – Final Reckoning.

The former may have set a Disney record for Memorial Day weekend previews, Deadline reports, while Tom Cruise’s high octane eighth outing as Ethan Hunt may have set a record preview night for a Mission: Impossible.

Jane Austen in her own right “has become a bit of a rock star in the marketplace,” SPC brass rightly noted when the distributor acquired the feature debut by Laura Piani ahead of its TIFF world premiere last year. It’s opening on 61 screens in select markets including Lincoln Square and Angelika Film Center in New York and the AMC Grove and Laemmle Royal in LA.

Many film fans are starved for romantic stories right now, so when a sophisticated romantic comedy comes along, it’s a welcome balm in tough times. French writer Laura Piani had been churning out dark cop procedurals when she realized she wanted to spend her time writing comedies.

What became the charming “Jane Austen Wrecked My Life” took some years to grow into its final form, and even Piani didn’t know she was going to direct it at the start. The film has already opened in France, where it performed well for a small-budget movie starring theater actors. Sony Pictures Classics picked it up for domestic release at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival, and is rolling it out against blockbuster counter-programming like “Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning.” Audiences should delight in it.

The mystery of Jane Austen’s enduring power is at the heart of this comedy,...

Agathe Robinson is beset by two classic problems: horrible writer’s block and a woeful inability to find a good man. No wonder she’s so wild about Jane Austen. But, despite the title of Laura Piani’s fresh romantic comedy “Jane Austen Wrecked My Life,” the heroine of this story isn’t totally at the mercy of the beloved Regency-era author’s work.

Her problems might be classic, and very much like the kind pulled out of “Emma” or “Pride and Prejudice,” but Piani doesn’t push too hard to make Agathe’s (Camille Rutherford) experiences fit firmly inside an Austenian plot, and the result is less outright homage than sprightly companion. That doesn’t stop Agathe from announcing early on that she’s “not living in the right century!”

Though, given what this century has thrown at her, we can hardly argue with such a statement. In Piani’s film,...

With the 20th anniversary re-release of Joe Wright’s Pride & Prejudice adaptation, Jane Austen is having a moment back in the mainstream. That moment is set to continue with the French romantic comedy Jane Austen Wrecked My Life, a film that — despite having very little to do with Austen’s actual literature — feels like the type of film that will absolutely delight fans of the iconic author.

Jane Austen Wrecked My Life Review

Jane Austen Wrecked My Life follows an aspiring writer who, dealing with troubles in her love life in Paris, takes refuge in a writer’s residency in England run by the Jane Austen estate, only for her own romantic exploits to begin to mirror those of the residency’s namesake’s creations. It’s not the first time that there’s been a film with this sort of premise (The Jane Austen Book Club springs to...

As a girl growing up in the modern world, I, like many others, read Jane Austen novels during my formative years. At the time, these novels provided an impossibly romantic view of the world, inspiring me to seek out such romance in my future dating life. It’s safe to say that the world is not (and probably never really has been) as it was in Austen’s writing, but would I go as far as to say she wrecked my life? I mean, honestly? For a little while, probably, but that’s not the point of this story. Laura Piani’s directorial debut rom-com Jane Austen Wrecked My Life will be bursting onto the big screen in the US on May 30. UK residents will have to wait a little while longer, with the movie premiering for Brits a little over a month later on June 13. For anyone who has...

Talk about a diverting way to spend an afternoon. While there may not have been a special edition popcorn bucket in sight or any livestock in attendance, this weekend’s much-anticipated 20th anniversary re-release of Joe Wright’s “Pride & Prejudice” made for a most pleasurable afternoon at the cinema.

And while this writer turned out for a Friday afternoon screening on the Upper West Side — all the better to watch the beloved Jane Austen adaptation alongside a like-minded crowd who simply couldn’t wait for a Saturday or Sunday screening — she was hardly alone in her endeavors.

While Ryan Coogler’s also crowd-pleasing “Sinners” topped the weekend’s box office for its opening and droves of chicken jockey-ing moviegoers are still turning out for “A Minecraft Movie,” Wright’s Keira Knightley- and Matthew Macfadyen-starring gem held its own. The film made an estimated $2.7 million over the weekend,...

A diet of romantic literature is a recipe for disappointment in real life, argues French director Laura Piani with “Jane Austen Wrecked My Life,” about an aspiring writer who’s convinced she was born in the wrong century, if only because she still believes in things like soulmates and courtship. Part homage, part referendum on all those love stories that make it look easy, Piani’s just-jaded-enough alternative fills the regrettable gap left by such feel-good classics as “Four Weddings and a Funeral” and the Austen-inspired “Bridget Jones’s Diary.” Sony Pictures Classics plans a limited release for May 23, going wide a week later.

At a time when practically the entire rom-com genre has gravitated to streaming, this bilingual theatrical offering from Sony Pictures Classics feels like the best kind of throwback. Presented as a lighthearted farce, complete with characters stepping (naked) through the wrong doors and a tense cross-country ride,...

Sony Pictures Classics has unveiled a new theatrical release date for Jane Austen Wrecked My Life.

French writer-director Laura Piani’s romantic comedy will now arrive in select theaters on May 23, 2025. The romantic comedy that bowed at the Toronto Film Festival last year will then go wider nationwide a week later on May 30.

Piani’s feature-length debut had originally been scheduled to arrive in theaters on May 16, where it would have gone head-to-head with the release that weekend of Lionsgate’s Hurry Up Tomorrow starring The Weeknd and Jenna Ortega and New Line’s Final Destination: Bloodlines, the latest chapter in the popular horror franchise.

Jane Austen Wrecked My Life centers on an aspiring author named Agathe, played by Camille Rutherford of Anatomy of a Fall, who finds herself in romantic entanglements straight from the pages of Jane Austen novels. Agathe who works in the legendary Shakespeare & Co. bookshop in Paris and,...

Sony Pictures Classics has pushed back the US release of TIFF 2024 premiere Jane Austen Wrecked My Life by one week to May 23, with nationwide expansion scheduled for May 30.

Laura Piani’s French-language romantic comedy feature starring Camille Rutherford from Anatomy Of A Fall opened in France in January through Paname Distributionand has grossed more than $750,000, drawing more than 100,000 admissions.

Icon Film Distribution will distribute in the UK.

Pablo Pauly, Charlie Anson and Annabelle Lengronne round out the key cast on the story of a Paris bookseller who dreams of being a successful writer and gets caught up in a romantic...

Script development organisation TorinoFilmLab (Tfl) has unveiled the projects and participants for ComedyLab, its annual programme for developing feature film comedies.

Launched last year, ComedyLab pairs directors and scriptwriters with comedians to help develop comedy feature film projects. From a pool of 122 applications from 44 countries, ComedyLab has selected four projects and will pair them with five writers/comedians.

Scroll down for full details of 2025 line-up

The four projects are: The Flowers by Spain’s Francesca Català Margarit and Àlex Maruny; Fruits & Nuts by writer/director Frédérique de Montblanc (Belgium/UK); How To Become A Trophy Wife In 10 Days by Germany...

Women directors have reshaped film with a force that captivates audiences worldwide. Their creative vision ignites screens in both blockbuster arenas and independent circuits. In 2025, female filmmakers are drawing unprecedented attention, with fresh films sparking lively conversations in theaters and on streaming services alike. This year sees directors crafting stories that mirror the energy of classic hits while bringing a modern twist that film enthusiasts relish.

This article shines a light on the rising influence of women behind the camera. The films on display this year burst with character-driven narratives, memorable casts, and innovative production choices that keep viewers on the edge of their seats.

Industry insiders are buzzing about the creative risk-taking and savvy storytelling that these directors bring to every project. From unexpected plot twists to memorable dialogue, their work offers a peek into a dynamic filmmaking scene that has become a favorite subject among movie buffs.

Here,...

Gold Derby's top news stories for March 6, 2025.

Prime Video sets premiere date for Étoile

Étoile, the latest venture from legendary TV producers Amy Sherman-Palladino and Daniel Palladino, is coming to Prime Video on April 24. The French word for "star," Étoile (pronounced "ey-twal") is an eight-episode dance dramedy that's set in both New York and Paris. The plot follows two ballet companies that swap artists in order to survive. The cast of Étoile includes Luke Kirby, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Lou de Laâge, Gideon Glick, David Alvarez, Ivan du Pontavice, Taïs Vinolo, David Haig, Simon Callow, and Yanic Truesdale. This is the third show from the Palladinos after The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and Gilmore Girls — and all three will be honored at the upcoming PaleyFest.

The Mid-Century Modern trailer introduces three gay besties

Max Mutchnick and David Kohan, the Emmy-winning creators of Will & Grace, are back with a new TV sitcom centered...

Whether it be Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, or any of the other numerous titles from her extensive catalogue, author Jane Austenhas time and time again given us impossible standards to look to for love. Even though her books came out more than 200 years ago, Austen’s writings continue to captivate us in a way that other genre authors have been unable to do. And, if you ask the Austen fan in your life about what they’re looking for in a romantic partner, it’s likely they’ll name at least one or two traits held by the characters in the writer’s books. But, if you were to ask the main character in Laura Piani’s feature-length debut, Jane Austen Wrecked My Life, you might get more than an ear-full, as the film centers around one woman’s dating plight that eventually turns into something...

Icon Film Distribution has acquired UK-Ireland rights to French director Laura Piani’s romantic comedy Jane Austen Wrecked My Life from The Bureau Sales.

The English and French-language film set between Paris and the UK stars Anatomy Of A Fall’s Camille Rutherford as an aspiring French writer at the Jane Austen Writers’ Residency in England where life and literature collide as she attempts to finish her novel and get her sentimental life back on track.

Already scooped by Sony Pictures Classics in Toronto for a North America, Latin America, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and worldwide airlines, the film...

Roger Durling can’t conceal his excitement for the 40th edition of the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.

The Sbiff director sees the need for a celebration of art as Los Angeles, 90 minutes or so to the south of Santa Barbara, begins to recover from devastating wildfires that destroyed large areas of the county.

“It gives you a sense of togetherness, a sense of community, and that’s what we need right now. I have always found that in the most difficult times in my life, film festivals and films have always been a beacon,” Durling says.

Sbiff and Direct Relief are partnering in a response to the wildfires as well, accepting donations for relief and putting up a $100,000 matching grant. “We’re going to be printing limited edition 40th anniversary T-shirts, and then all the funds from the merchandise will go towards the Direct Relief fund,” he says.

This...

The 40th Santa Barbara International Film Festival has announced its entire program which includes 32 World Premieres and 74 U.S. Premieres from 60 countries. The fest will open on February 4, 2025 with the US premiere of Jane Austin Wrecked My Life and will close on February 15 with the US premiere of A Missing Part. Considering the ongoing tragedy of the Los Angeles wildfires this year’s festival is dedicated to L.A. to raise funds in partnership with Direct Relief.

“As the tragic events in our sister city of Los Angeles were unfolding, we debated about moving forward with Sbiff,” said Roger Durling, Executive Director of the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. “Film has always been a conduit for comfort and renewal, and film festivals play a vital role in fostering a sense of connection. Festivals build community, and create an outlet for the process of feelings. In light of this, it became...

The 2025 Santa Barbara International Film Festival has announced the lineup for its 40th anniversary event, with 52 percent of the films directed by women. The 12-day extravaganza will raise funds for Los Angeles wildfire relief to help the community that has been devastated by the deadly infernos.

Sbiff will run from Feb. 4 to Feb. 15 — that’s one day longer than usual in honor of its four-decade mark. The festival will showcase movies from 60 different countries, including 33 world premieres and 74 United States premieres, and a majority come from female directors. In addition, there will be tributes to talented artisans, panel discussions, and free community education and outreach programs.

“As the tragic events in our sister city of Los Angeles were unfolding, we debated about moving forward with Sbiff,” said Roger Durling, Sbiff executive director. “Film has always been a conduit for comfort and renewal, and film festivals play a vital role in fostering a sense of connection.

The question comes up whenever we publish this list: Why only studio movies? Isn’t this IndieWire?

But here’s the thinking: For most moviegoers and for many filmmakers, helming a studio-backed film is the pinnacle of a career, or at least the pinnacle of visibility. Getting the chance to helm a studio feature is, of course, not the golden ticket for any director. It’s not the end-all, be-all. It may not even be a goal for many filmmakers.

By looking at this portion of the release calendar (and all the box office bucks that come with it), we can get a sense of who Hollywood is letting into its most rarefied spaces. And that matters.

As we’ve too often discovered in the making of this list, that landscape isn’t really changing. While the most recent USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative study does not quite show a decline in inclusion,...

Laura Piani, the director of Jane Austen’s Wrecked My Life, takes us into a world where the echoes of literary history meet the harsh realities of modern life. The film is set in the beautiful Parisian bookstore Shakespeare & Co., where we meet Agathe, a bookseller in her 30s caught in the web of her romantic dreams and writing goals.

Piani tries to make a tapestry that pays homage to Austen while also dealing with the existential absurdities of modern love with a narrative that jumps between silly comedy and serious introspection.

Agathe’s quest is not just a search for a romantic partner but also a deeper search for self amidst the clamor of social expectations. In the middle of England, at a writer’s residency with a lot of Austen history, the main character faces the gap between her idealized ideas of love and the unsettling facts of her single life.

The Marrakech Film Festival, which opened Friday with Justin Kurzel’s timely thriller “The Order,” has more than 70 films in its lineup, which, as is customary, mixes known titles and fresh fare.

“The Order” is part of the event’s gala screenings that also comprise French-Moroccan auteur Nabil Ayouch’s feminist musical drama “Everybody Loves Touda,” Walter Salles’ “I’m Still Here” and Mohammad Rasoulof’s “The Seed of the Sacred Fig,” all of which will be accompanied by their directors.

The 14-title competition dedicated to first and second works includes Moroccan director Saïd Hamich Benlarbi’s melodrama “Across the Sea,” about North African exiles in Marseilles, and Hind Meddeb’s doc “Sudan, Remember Us,” which pays homage to Sudanese people and culture by chronicling their 2019 revolution. “Sudan, Remember Us” is among films supported by the fest’s Atlas Workshops industry initiative, aimed at fostering and supporting the emergence of a new generation of Moroccan,...

The Marrakech Film Festival unveiled its 2024 lineup on Thursday and set that Luca Guadagnino would replace Thomas Vinterberg as its jury president. The other jury members will be Andrew Garfield, Jacob Elordi, Virginie Efira, and Ali Abbasi. Vinterberg “had to excuse himself for family reasons,” festival organizers said.

The Marrakech fest on Thursday also unveiled the lineup for its competition, 11th Continent, and Moroccan Panorama sections, as well as gala and special screenings. In the competition, 14 films will compete for the Étoile d’Or, or Golden Star.

The 21st edition of the fest in Morocco will also honor Sean Penn, David Cronenberg and, posthumously, pay homage to Moroccan star Naïma Elmcherqui. The Marrakech fest takes place Nov. 29-Dec. 7.

Check out the full lineup for the 2024 edition below.

Competition

Across The Sea (LA Mer Au Loin)

by Saïd Hamich Benlarbi / France, Morocco, Belgium

with Ayoub Gretaa, Anna Mouglalis, Grégoire Colin, Omar Boulakirba,...

Justin Kurzel’s political thriller The Order starring Jude Law will open the 21st Marrakech International Film Festival in the presence of the director and producer Stuart Ford later this month.

The film is among seven films that will be showcased as gala screenings at the Moroccan film festival, which unveiled its line-up on Thursday.

The galas also feature a trio of Best International Feature Film Oscar entries, Nabil Ayouch’s Everybody Loves Touda (Morocco), Walter Salles’s I’m Still Here (Brazil) and Mohammad Rasoulof’s The Seed of the Sacred Fig (Germany), all of which will screen in the presence of their directors.

The festival will screen 70 features from 32 countries across sections spanning the Official Competition, Gala Screenings, Special Screenings, the 11th Continent, the Moroccan Panorama, Cinema for Young Audiences & Families, and films shown as part of the Tributes program.

The 14 first and second films in competition include French...

Marrakech International Film Festival has unveiled the full line-up for its 21st edition which will open with Justin Kurzel’s crime thriller The Order onNovember 29 and run to December 7.

Kurzel’s debut featureSnowtownwon thefestival’s jury prize in 2011, and the filmmaker returned in 2022 to serve on the jury.

This year’s jury will be presided over by Italian filmmaker Luca Guadagnino, replacing Thomas Vinterberg, and will award the Étoile d’Or for best film to one of 14 first- and second-time features in the international competition.

In total, the festival will screen 70 films from 32 countries, including 14 documentaries, 12 Moroccan titles, nine world...

France’s Les Arcs Film Festival has unveiled the line-up for its 16th edition of its mountaintop movie marathon, taking place from December 14-21, 2024.

Eight European films will vie for the festival’s Crystal Arrow awards.

They include Rich Peppiatt’s Kneecap, a comedy about titular west Belfast hip-hop trio that is Ireland’s entry for the best international feature Oscar race and leads the Bifa 2024 nominations, Runar Runarsson’s Icelandic drama When the Light Breaks that opened this year’s Cannes Un Certain Regard, and Kurdwin Ayub’s Moon about a former Austrian martial arts master hired to train...

Measured against recent Toronto Film Festivals, business at TIFF 2024, which wrapped on September 15, was average.

There was one big studio deal: Paramount Pictures snatching up worldwide rights outside of Germany-speaking Europe for Tim Fehlbaum’s September 5, a newsroom thriller on the 1972 Munich Olympics terrorist attacks, which is already being touted a major awards contender. There were a handful of indie pickups, with A24 nabbing Brady Corbet’s buzzy period epic The Brutalist and Andrew DeYoung’s bro-com Friendship starring Tim Robinson and Paul Rudd, and Samuel Goldwyn Films taking North American rights to Nick Hamm’s Medieval actioner William Tell starring Claes Bang. And there was a major streaming acquisition as Hulu snatched up TIFF opener Nutcrackers, a family comedy from David Gordon Green featuring Ben Stiller.

There were also a few deals inked ahead of the festival, with Sony Pictures Classics scooping up key world rights to Laura Piani...

The Bureau Sales has closed multiple sales on French romantic comedy and Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) Centrepiece selection Jane Austen Wrecked My Life .

Sony Pictures Classics swooped on North America and select territories earlier in the festival.

Writer/director Laura Piani’s debut feature has sold to Australia and New Zealand (Hi Gloss Entertainment), Germany, Austria and Switzerland (Splendid Film), Scandinavia (Scanbox), Spain (La Aventura Cine), Greece (Cinobo), Benelux (Vertigo Films Distribution) and Cis (Provzglyad).

Sony Pictures Classics acquired rights last week for North America, Latin America, the Middle East, Eastern Europe and worldwide airlines on the modern riff...

US buyers have not been in an adventurous mood as the last few markets will attest. However hope springs eternal and acquisitions teams will be on the hunt at Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) to bulk up pipelines following the Hollywood strikes of 2023.

How theatrical buyers fare against streamers remains to be seen. Financiers and sales agents, many of whom are avowed fans of the theatrical experience, must recoup.

The lure of a worldwide deal with a platform can be hard to resist, and while the North American summer box office rallied well and there are lucrative opportunities for the right theatrical releases,...

“Jane Austen Wrecked My Life,” a bookish romantic comedy from first-time French director Laura Piani, sold to Sony Pictures Classics ahead of its Sept. 9 world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, the distributor announced Tuesday.

Sony Pictures Classics acquired all rights to the indie feature in North America, Latin America, the Middle East, Eastern Europe and worldwide airlines.

“We are thrilled to see this film entrusted to Sony Pictures Classics, a studio with a rich history of bringing Jane Austen’s world to life on screen,” The Bureau Sales, who negotiated the deal with SPC, said in a statement. “Their extensive experience with such stories ensures that Laura Piani’s debut will be handled with the utmost care and expertise. We look forward to the film’s journey and are confident that it will be a worthy addition to SPC’s distinguished legacy.”

“I am incredibly excited to partner...

Sony Pictures Classics has acquired North America and multiple territories on imminent Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) world premiere Jane Austen Wrecked My Life

Laura Piani’s Centrepiece selection premieres on Monday after Friday’s press and industry screening and has also gone to Sony Pictures Classics in Latin America, the Middle East, Eastern Europe and worldwide airlines.

Camille Rutherford from Anatomy Of A Fall stars alongside Pablo Pauly, Charlie Anson and Annabelle Lengronne as a hopelessly clumsy yet charming single woman working at a bookstore in Paris who gets invited to the Jane Austen Writers’ Residency in England.

Gabrielle Dumon served as producer.

Sony Pictures Classics has swooped in to acquire key world rights to Laura Piani’s debut feature Jane Austen Wrecked My Life ahead of a Sept. 9 world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival.

The U.S. specialty distributor will release the romantic comedy from France in North America, Latin America, the Middle East and Eastern Europe. Jane Austen Wrecked My Life, about an aspiring author, Agathe, who finds herself in romantic entanglements straight from the pages of Jane Austen novels, stars Camille Rutherford, Pablo Pauly, Charlie Anson and Annabelle Lengronne.

“We are thrilled to see this film entrusted to Sony Pictures Classics, a studio with a rich history of bringing Jane Austen’s world to life on screen. Their extensive experience with such stories ensures that Laura Piani’s debut will be handled with the utmost care and expertise. We look forward to the film’s journey and are confident...

Sony Pictures Classics has acquired rights to “Jane Austen Wrecked My Life” ahead of its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.

The studio will distribute the film in North America, Latin America, the Middle East, Eastern Europe and on worldwide airlines.

Laura Piani wrote and directed “Jane Austen Wrecked My Life,” which stars Camille Rutherford (“Anatomy of a Fall”), Pablo Pauly (“Three Nights a Week”), Charlie Anson (“Downton Abbey”) and Annabelle Lengronne (“Mother and Son”). The film is about Agathe, a desperately single woman who dreams of experiencing love akin to those in novels like ‘Persuasion,” “Sense and Sensibility” and “Pride and Prejudice.” She dreams of becoming a writer but instead spends her days selling books at Shakespeare & Company in Paris. After she’s invited to the Jane Austen Writers’ Residency in England, she confronts her insecurities to finally fulfill her ambition of becoming a novelist and...

Sony Pictures Classics has acquired all rights to Laura Piani’s Jane Austen Wrecked My Life ahead of the pic’s world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.

SPC took rights in North America, Latin America, the Middle East, Eastern Europe as well as worldwide airlines. The movie will debut at TIFF on Monday, September 9.

In the film, written by Piani, Agathe (Camille Rutherford), hopelessly clumsy yet charming and full of contradictions, finds herself in desperate singlehood. Her dream is to experience love akin to a Jane Austen novel and her ultimate aspiration is to become a writer. Instead, she spends her days selling books in the legendary bookshop Shakespeare & Company in Paris. Invited to the Jane Austen Writers’ Residency in England, she must confront her insecurities to finally fulfill her ambition of becoming a novelist and put an end to wasting her sentimental life.

Pic also stars...

The 49th edition of the Toronto Film Festival continues to announce more movies, with the festival on Tuesday unveiled its 2024 Centrepiece lineup that features 43 titles from filmmakers representing 41 countries. TIFF runs September 5-15 under its new sponsorship with Rogers.

In total, the list includes 18 world premieres from Algeria, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, France, Germany, Indonesia, Nigeria, Panama, Philippines, Poland, Singapore, Spain and the U.S..

The section is a reflection of TIFF’s spirit of providing an elevated platform for international cinema, acclaimed titles from festivals around the globe, premieres from Canadian and international talents, and the latest work from influential filmmakers.

Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof, who made it to Cannes this past year with The Seed of the Sacred Fig after fleeing his home country, is at TIFF with not one but two movies. He’ll have The Seed of the Sacred Fig, but also a title he wrote,...

Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) has unveiled the 43 features selection for the Centrepiece programme including world premieres for Algerian director Merzak Allouache’s feuding matriarchs comedy Front Row and Laura Piani’s romantic comedy Jane Austen Wrecked My Life.

Taking their place in the global cinema showcase alongside the latest work from 41 countries are features that have already impressed at festivals, such as Mohammad Rasoulof’s Cannes award winner The Seed Of The Sacred Fig, and Steven Soderbergh’s Sundance selection Presence.

The 18 world premieres include Iranian filmmaker Ali Samadi Ahadi’s human rights drama Seven Days written by Rasoulof,...

A drama about an Iranian human rights activist and a documentary about the hacking of queer indie pop duo Tegan and Sara are among the films that have been added to the lineup of the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival, which unveiled its Centrepiece section on Tuesday to kick off a second week of programming announcements.

The 43 films come from filmmakers representing 41 countries, with 18 of the titles receiving their world premieres at TIFF. Those premieres include “Seven Days,” a film about an imprisoned Iranian activist directed by Ali Samadi Ahadi and written by Mohammad Rasoulof, a filmmaker who was himself sentenced to flogging and prison by Iranian authorities; “Jane Austen Wrecked My Life,” a romantic comedy from French writer-director Laura Piani; “The Legend of the Vagabond Queen of Lagos,” a debut from the Nigerian filmmaking group known as the Agbajowo Collective; and Erin Lee Carr’s “Fanatical: The Catfishing of Tegan and Sara,...

The 2024 Toronto International Film Festival has revealed its Centrepiece program lineup, with 43 films from 41 countries. The selections include 18 world premieres plus an array of festival favorites and winners from Cannes (“The Seed of the Sacred Fig“), Sundance (“Presence“), and more recently the 2024 Venice Film Festival (“April”). This year’s festival runs Thursday, September 5 through Sunday, September 15.

Per TIFF, Centrepiece honors “and celebrates global cinematic achievements, inviting audiences to immerse themselves in a dynamic array of contemporary films. The programme is a reflection of TIFF’s commitment to providing an elevated platform for international cinema, acclaimed titles from festivals around the globe, highly anticipated premieres from Canadian and international talents, and the latest work of influential filmmaking luminaries.”

The 2024 Centrepiece selection has been programmed by Jason Anderson, Kelly Boutsalis, Diana Cadavid, Robyn Citizen, Giovanna Fulvi, Nataleah Hunter-Young, June Kim, Dorota Lech, Jason Ryle, and Norm Wilner.

Per the festival, “Notable world premieres include ‘Front Row,...

Steven Soderbergh’s spooky ghost story Presence — starring Lucy Liu, Chris Sullivan and newcomer Callina Liang — will receive its international premiere as part of the Centerpiece sidebar at the 2024 Toronto Film Festival.

Soderbergh first screened Presence at Sundance earlier this year, some 35 years after the debut of his breakout film, Sex, Lies and Videotape, in Park City. In all, TIFF’s Centerpiece section, previously known as Contemporary World Cinema, unveiled 43 films from 41 countries on Tuesday.

There’s world premieres for Marcelle Lunam’s rom com Addition, starring Teresa Palmer and Joe Dempsie; Erin Lee Carr’s documentary Fanatical: The Catfishing of Tegan and Sara, a Hulu title about the Canadian pop duo falling victim to identity theft; French director Laura Piani’s Jane Austen Wrecked My Life, with a Frederick Wiseman cameo; Sofia Bohdanowicz’s Measures for a Funeral, written by actor Derah Campbell; and Algerian director Merzak Allouache’s Front Row,...

Turin-based script development organisation TorinoFilmLab (Tfl) has unveiled the first projects and participants for ComedyLab, its new annual programme for developing feature film comedies.

ComedyLab pairs directors and scriptwriters with comedians to help develop comedy feature film projects. From 89 applications, ComedyLab has selected four projects and will pair them with four writers/comedians.

The four projects are: Bootleg by writer/director Reem Morsi (Egypt); Honeyjoon by writer/director Lilian T. Mehrel (USA); The Last Queen by writer/director Stefano La Rosa (Italy) together with the co-writer/director Luca Renucci (Italy); and Midlife by writer/director Alex Sobolev (Ukraine).

They will...

Tfl has also unveiled the 10 writers picked for the inaugural edition of its SeriesLab – Talents scheme.

The TorinoFilmLab (Tfl) has unveiled the 20 new projects selected for its 2022 ScriptLab, and the 10 writers picked for the inaugural edition of its SeriesLab – Talents scheme.

The ScriptLab is a nine-month scriptwriting programme involving feature films at an early stage of development. This year’s iteration focused on comedies, with eight of the 20 projects written by women.

Composed of two week-long residential workshops, one in Turin and one in Finland, as well as three online modules, the ScriptLab also feeds in to TorinoFilmLab annual industry event the Tfl Meeting.

Colcoa, the L.A.-based French film and series festival, has unveiled the television section of its upcoming 25th anniversary edition.

“In Treatment,” Eric Toledano and Olivier Nakache’s French adaptation of the original Israeli series “BeTipul”; Julie Delpy’s series debut “On The Verge”; and “Germinal,” the 19th century-set ambitious period series adapted from Emile Zola’s masterpiece created by Julien Lilti (“Hippocrate”) are among the nine TV titles set to have their North American premiere at Colcoa.

The other series set to compete at Colcoa include “High Intellectual Potential” starring Audrey Fleurot (“Spiral”) as an intractable cleaning lady-turned-ace detective and “Nona and her Daughters,” co-written and directed by Valerie Donzelli (“Declaration of War”).

Set to take place Nov. 1-7 at the DGA, the festival will showcase 12 programs, including seven series, four TV movies and one documentary. The section is being backed by Titrafilm and has enlisted some of France’s top companies,...

Indie titles hoping to capitalise on blockbuster absence.

UK-Ireland, opening Friday August 14

Picturehouse Entertainment heads the new titles this weekend with Shannon Murphy’s Australian comedy-drama Babyteeth in 140 locations.

The debut feature of theatre and TV drama director Murphy played in Competition at Venice last year, where Toby Wallace won the Marcello Mastroianni award for emerging actor/actress. It most recently won the top prize at the 19th Transylvania International Film Festival last weekend.

Adapted by Rita Kalnejais from her stage play of the same name, the film centres on Milla (Eliza Scanlen), a seriously ill teenager, who falls in...

The Art of Crime (season 2)

Created by Pierre-Yves Mora, Angele Herry

Broadcaster: France 2

Production: Gaumont

A detective teams with an art historian on mysteries of French heritage.

Sales: Gaumont

Balthazar

Written by Clothilde Jamin, Clelia Constantine

Cast: Tomer Sisley, Helene de Fougerolles

Broadcaster: TF1

Production: Beaubourg Audiovisuel

The cop series follows a handsome and cheeky forensic physician working with a policewoman to solve complex crimes.

Eden

Directed by Dominique Moll, created by Edward Berger, Nele Mueller-Stoefen, Marianne Wendt

Cast: Sylvie Testud

Broadcasters: Arte , Ard

Production: Atlantique Productions, Lupa Film

A small ship carrying refugees goes ashore on a Greek beach causing chaos among tourists, but also transforming some lives.

Sales: Lagardere Studios Distribution

Hippocrates

Written, created by Thomas Lilti, Anais Carpita, Claude Le Pape et Julien Liti, and inspired by Lilti’s movie “Hippocrates,” which played at Cannes’ Critics’ Week in 2014.

Cast: Louise Bourgoin, Alice Belaidi

Broadcaster: Canal Plus

Production:...