News

Eye Haïdara (“C’est la vie!”) and Mélanie Laurent (“Inglorious Basterds”) are starring in “Mata,” a high voltage spy thriller directed by Rachel Lang, whose previous film “Our Men” played at Cannes’ Directors Fortnight.

“Mata” has been boarded by Paris-based Indie Sales which will introduce the project to buyers at the European Film Market in Berlin. Warner Bros. will distribute the movie in French theaters while Netflix has picked up local streaming rights.

Now filming, “Mata” also stars Joséphine Japy (“Tapie”) and Raphaël Personnaz (“Boléro”). The movie marks Lang’s third feature, following “Our Men” which was the closing film of Cannes Directors’ Fortnight in 2021, and “Baden Baden” which played at the Berlin Film Festival in 2016.

Haïdara stars as Mata, a French secret agent who gets wounded while on a clandestine operation in Niger and loses track of her colleague Antoine, captured on the spot. “Upon her return, she volunteers for...

Lucas Bernard’s romantic comedy ’In The Sub For Love’ is another new acquisition for French studio.

French studio Gaumont has unveiled a hefty genre-hopping Cannes slate complete with all new acquisitions Gilles de Maistre’s family adventure Moon The Panda, Stéphane Brizé’s romance drama Out Of Season and Lucas Bernard’s romantic comedy In The Sub For Love in addition to a slew of market premieres and official selection festival titles.

New acquisitions

Moon The Panda is the latest film from the master of the human-animal adventure tale Gilles de Maistre following Mia And The White Lion and The Wolf And The Lion.

Orange Studio has signed a two-year distribution deal with the aggregation company Under The Milky Way. The pact will allow the outfit to handle the distribution of titles from Orange Studio’s library across English-speaking territories as well as Latin America on transactional VOD services such as Amazon, PlutoTV, Roku and Tubi.

The first films which are part of the deal are Philipe Lacheau’s “City Hunter,” Olivier Nakache et Eric Toledano’s “Tellement Proches,” Riad Sattouf’s “Beaux gosses,” Bertrand Tavernier’s “Death Watch” (pictured), and Bertrand Blier’s “Going Places.”

“This new partnership with Under The Milky Way will give us the opportunity to increase the international visibility of our films and reach new audiences on VOD services that are currently booming,” said Kristina Zimmermann, managing director of Orange Studio.

Alexis de Rendinger, the co-founder of Under The Milky Way, said this deal with Orange Studio will give...

Orange Studio, the film and TV production and distribution arm of France’s leading telco group, is launching a trio of new projects, “The Nannies,” “The Green Perfume” and “A Cat’s Life,” at the Unifrance Rendez-Vous in Paris.

“The Nannies” (“Les femmes du square”), directed by Julien Rambaldi (“Labor Day”), stars Eye Haïdara (“C’est la Vie”) as Angèle, a young undocumented woman in her thirties who lives on the outskirts of Paris. Threatened by gangsters she conned, Angèle decides to leave her neighborhood and starts working as a nanny for Hélène’s 10-year-old son in a chic Parisian area. Although she’s supposed to keep a low profile, Angèle meets other nannies, some of whom are being taken advantage of, and sets out to help them. Haïdara stars in the film opposite Ahmed Sylla (“The Climb”) and Léa Drucker (“Custody”).

“The Nannies” is produced by Les Films du Kiosque,...

Alban Ivanov and Sabrina Ouazani lead the cast of the filmmaker’s latest opus, an Escazal Films production set to be sold worldwide by TF1 Studio. The French department of Cantal has seen the first clapperboard slammed on Jean-Pierre Améris’ 13th fiction feature film: Les folies fermières. Starring in the cast are Alban Ivanov, Sabrina Ouazani, Michèle Bernier (of the series The Intern), Guy Marchand (recently seen in season 3 of Call My Agent!) and Bérangère Krief. Written by Jean-Pierre Améris, Marion Michau and Jean-Luc Gaget (the winner of 2017’s Best Original Screenplay César for The Together Project who was also...

Maury is best known for his role in hit French show Call My Agent!

Los Angeles-based Altered Innocence has acquired US rights to comedy-drama My Best Part, the directorial debut of actor Nicolas Maury, best known internationally for his role as the highly-strung agent Hervé in hit French show Call My Agent!

Maury directs and stars as an actor who returns home to his difficult mother, played by Nathalie Baye, in the French countryside to lick his wounds after a series of career setbacks and falling out with his dentist boyfriend.

Paris-based sales company Les Films du Losange has also...

The Killers have digitally reissued their 2020 album Imploding the Mirage as a deluxe edition featuring three additional tracks — a pair of new renditions of the LP’s singles as well as the new song “C’est La Vie.”

The latter track is the Killers’ take on the jittery first half of the Talking Heads catalog — a stylistic departure from the rest of Imploding the Mirage — while the other two additions are an acoustic version of the single “Blowback” and a “Wasatch Style”-take on “Caution” that strips that track to vocals,...

French actor and screenwriter Jean-Pierre Bacri died of cancer in Paris on Monday at the age of 69. Bacri’s death was confirmed by his agent, Anne Alvares-Correa, to Afp.

Bacri, whose career started in the 80s, delivered, along with Agnes Jaoui, his wife and lifelong friend, films and plays such as “The Taste of Others” and “Kitchen and Outbuildings,” which gained cult status in France. And he never stopped working. He was celebrated by many different generations of audiences and artists for his sharp humor, sense of observation and uncompromising integrity.

Bacri’s popularity could be observed through the success of most films he headlined. His most recent roles include “C’est la vie,” a 2017 comedy-drama directed by Olivier Nakache and Éric Toledano, and “Place Publique,” which he co-wrote with Jaoui, who directed. Together with Jaoui, Bacri created and often starred in films which explored human nature and relationships through dark humor.

Gaumont has come on board “Fantasies,” a sex-themed French comedy headlined by Monica Bellucci (“Spectre”), Carole Bouquet (“For Your Eyes Only”) and Karine Viard (“Famille Belier”).

Directed by David and Stephane Foenkinos, the omnibus film follows six couples and revolves around their intimate lives and fantasies, from role-playing to exhibitionism and abstinence.

Besides Bellucci, Bouquet and Viard, the film stars Suzanne Clément (“Mommy”), Jean-Paul Rouve (“C’est la Vie!”), Joséphine Japy (“Love at Second Sight”), Denis Podalydès (“An Officer and a Spy”), Céline Sallette (“The Returned”), Nicolas Bedos (“Mr & Mrs Adelman”), Ramzy Bedia (“Lost Bullet”), Alice Taglioni (“Claire Darling”), Joséphine de Meaux (“Dheepan”) and William Lebghil (“C’est la Vie!”)

“Fantasies” is in post-production and will be released in France by Gaumont during the second semester of 2021. Gaumont is handling international sales on the movie and will introduce it to buyers at the American Film Market, which kicks off Monday.

“With its glamorous cast,...

Former Cnc and Arte chief Véronique Cayla promises transparency, democracy and gender equality.

Véronique Cayla and Eric Toledano have been voted president and vice president of France’s Academy of Cinema Arts and Techniques for a two-year term, in the body’s first democratic, gender-equal election of its governing board.

The French film industry is hoping their election will mark the end of a torrid period for the troubled body which went into meltdown earlier this year amid growing criticisms over its lack of transparency, gender equality and inclusion.

Cayla has wide experience of France’s film and TV world...

Kareem Ali doles out music at a torrid pace: He has released seven albums in the last 18 months, a mix of reverent deep house tracks and more potent, pointed grooves, questing science fiction and pressing political commentary. While it’s more common than ever for artists to jettison songs like old sheets during spring cleaning, Ali’s data-dump feels considered and locked in; listening to his albums back to back to back is at once soothing and captivating.

“The producer Knxwledge did an interview one time, and he was saying...

Longtime Gaumont sales chief Cecile Gaget is joining Euro producer-financier Anton as President of International Production and Distribution from October 1, 2020.

Gaget most recently served as Gaumont’s Head of International Production and Distribution, overseeing international acquisitions, English and local-language productions and foreign remakes. She also set up the company’s U.S. film division.

In her new role at Anton, the French pro will work closely with Anton founder Sebastien Raybaud and the Anton team to expand the company’s film production and distribution arm.

During her 10-year tenure at Gaumont, Gaget acquired the U.S. remake rights to the iconic Korean zombie hit Train to Busan set up at New Line. She handled sales on hit features including The Intouchables, C’est La Vie, and The Specials from directors Éric Toledano and Olivier Nakache. She also oversaw sales and distribution on Nicolas Winding Refn’s films Only God Forgives, starring Ryan Gosling,...

Jade Springer, Léa Drucker and Philippe Katerine star in this new Aurora Films production, set to be sold by mk2 Films and coming courtesy of the same director as The Apple of My Eye. Since 26 February, Axelle Ropert has been shooting Petite Solange, her 4th feature film following on from The Wolberg Family (unveiled in Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight 2009), Miss and the Doctors (2013) and The Apple of my Eye (a Locarno competitor in 2016). Starring in the cast of the film is the young actress Jade Springer, alongside Léa Drucker and Philippe Katerine.Written by the director (who also co-wrote Mrs. Hyde, Tip Top and France by...

Justin Kelly’s “Jeremiah Terminator LeRoy,” the closing-night film at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival, occupies a difficult slot at the mammoth festival. Tiff’s closing-night films typically don’t go on to enjoy significant commercial or critical success, more often destined for quick obscurity in the U.S. market.

Last year’s closing film, for instance, was the French comedy “C’est La Vie!” Before that, “The Edge of Seventeen” and “Mr. Right” at least made a little noise at the box office, “A Little Chaos” and “Life of Crime” less so.

But there’s good news and bad news for “Jeremiah Terminator LeRoy,” which stars Laura Dern and Kristen Stewart and had its first press screening on Monday in advance of Saturday’s closing-night gala.

Also Read: 'If Beale Street Could Talk' Review: Barry Jenkins Delivers Stunning Romance With Aftertaste of Injustice

The good news is that current...

Films from Olivier Nakache and Éric Toledano, Alexandros Avranas and Diego Lerman added to competition line-up.

Further competition titles for the 2017 San Sebastian Film Festival (22-30 September) have been announced, including The Disaster Artist.

Written, directed and starring James Franco, the project tells the story of Tommy Wiseau’s infamous cult film The Room. It will also appear at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Other titles competing for the Golden Shell include Diego Lerman’s A Sort Of Family (Una Especie De Familia); Love Me Not from Alexandros Avranas; Barbara Albert’s Mademoiselle Paradis; and The Lion Sleeps Tonight from Nobuhiro Suwa.

Olivier Nakache and Éric Toledano’s C’est La Vie!, Ivana Mladenovic’s Soldiers. Story From Ferentari and Matt Porterfield’s Sollers Point have also been announced.

Alexandros Avranas won the best director Silver Lion at Venice for Miss Violence in 2013. Diego Lerman’s Suddenly won the Silver Leopard at the Locarno Festival in 2002.

Nakache...