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From Sept. 25 to Oct. 2, the 20th edition of Mexico’s Monterrey Film Festival will screen nearly 100 films, culled from world-class festivals, including Cannes, Sundance, Tribeca and SXSW. The festival will stage Mexican, Latin American and world premieres of fiction and documentary features, many by first-time film directors. Below are 10 outstanding titles:

“The Blue Star,” Javier Macipe, Spain, Argentina (Mexican premiere)

An Ibero-American co-production between Fernando Bovaira’s Mod Producciones of Spain (“Biutiful”), Macipe’s El Pez Amarillo, Cimarrón (“Society of the Snow”) and Prisma, Argentina, the 90s-set film centers on Mauricio, a famous Spanish rock musician who decides to travel across Latin America in a bid to reconnect with his roots. He meets Don Carlos, an aging musician who’s struggling despite having composed some of his country’s most famous folk songs. Carlos, like a musical Master Miyagi, takes in the visitor, and together they form a quirky, Quixote-like duo destined for commercial failure.

French true crime broke barriers this year when the non-fiction miniseries “Unsuspected” premiered at Series Mania.

Such a showcase is rare for a factual program, but then, “Unsuspected” is a no common doc. Bringing together a pair of filmmakers with respective backgrounds in narrative features and investigative reporting, the four-part inquiry into a maddening 1970s cold case mixes archival accounts with textured recreations, making for a project that defies easy categorization.

“Clearly, the boundaries are becoming blurred,” says France TV Distribution’s Julia Schulte. “Is this fiction? Is this a documentary? It’s hard to say – and we’re getting to a powerful place where those lines are harder to draw. However, what’s abundantly clear is that the series is very, very entertaining.”

Produced by Imagissime boss Elodie Polo Ackermann – the creative exec behind Netflix breakout “Who Killed Little Gregory?” – the Series Mania selected miniseries accented a spellbinding storytelling...

The Locarno International Film Festival in Switzerland has unveiled an eclectic lineup for its 77th edition, taking place Aug. 7-17. The fest will screen 225 total films, including 104 world premieres, five international premieres and some debut features, including new films from such directors as Hong Sang-soo, Spanish actress Paz Vega and Radu Jude. Gianluca Jodice’s Le Déluge, starring Mélanie Laurent and Guillaume Canet, will also world premiere and open the fest, with Locarno on Wednesday unveiling that the two French stars will receive the Excellence Award Davide Campari on the fest’s opening night.

Beyond new fare, some of this season’s film festival favorites and classics will screen in Locarno’s main Piazza Grande section, taking place on the town’s main square set up with 8,000 seats. Films to be screened include Cannes hits such as Laetitia Dosch’s Dog on Trial, Mohammad Rasoulof’s The Seed of the Sacred Fig,...

The BBC has acquired the rights to a new French crime thriller, Sambre – Anatomy of a Crime. The series, based on true events, recounts the story of a serial rapist who evaded capture for three decades. Oscar-winning filmmaker Jean-Xavier de Lestrade, known for his work on The Staircase and Laetitia, directs this six-part series. […]

BBC Acquires Gripping French True Crime Thriller: Sambre – Anatomy of a Crime...

The BBC has acquired French crime thriller Sambre – Anatomy of a Crime, which follows the true story of one of France’s most prolific sexual predators.

The six-part series looks at a string of sexual assaults in northern France in the late 1980s, along the same road by the Sambre river. As the police fail to get to grip with the extent of the attacks or make a connection between cases, it is only 30 years later when a culprit is caught.

Jean-Xavier de Lestrade, the Oscar-winning filmmaker behind docuseries The Staircase and the drama Laetitia, recounts the legal case of a serial rapist. The cast includes Alix Poisson (The Returned, Six Women), Clémence Poesy (The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, Tenet), Olivier Gourmet (Oussekine, La Promesse), Noémie Lvovsky (Camille Rewinds, Farewell, My Queen), Jonathan Turnbull (Soldiers) and Pauline Parigot (Soldiers, Hpi).

The show follows the progression of the investigation and its...

The BBC has picked up Jean-Xavier de Lestrade’s TV thriller Sambre – Anatomy of a Crime.

Starring Alix Poisson and Clémence Poesy, the series is based on true events and follows the extraordinary legal case of a serial rapist who attacked women across three decades in the same location. The France Télévisions thriller came fresh off the back of the smash success of French movie Anatomy of a Fall.

Produced by Federation Studios, Sambre starts in Northern France in the late 1980s, where women are being sexually assaulted along the same road by the Sambre river, with attacks taking place early mornings and in a similar style. The justice system is overwhelmed by the accumulating cases. It will take 30 years to catch a man, who never stopped attacking women and is responsible for at least 54 cases of rape or sexual assault,...

Switzerland is set to take center stage at the 2024 Cannes Film Market, with the Alpine nation picked as this year’s country of honor at the Marché du Film, which runs May 14-22 alongside the Cannes Film Festival.

National film promotion group Swiss Films, together with the Swiss Federal Office of Culture and Swiss public broadcaster Srg Ssr, will host a series of events highlighting Switzerland’s cinema culture and the opportunities the country offers for international producers. Switzerland will also host the opening night market party on May 15 (fingers crossed they’re serving fondue).

In addition to the Swiss productions and co-productions screening at this year’s festival — which include Konstantin Bojanov’s The Shameless and Laetitia Dosch’s Who Let the Dog Bite? in Un Certain Regard and Elena López Riera’s short film Las Novias Del Sur in Critics’ Week — Swiss-made productions will be highlighted across the Marché’s 2024 program.

Gaumont, the powerhouse behind “Narcos,” “Lupin” and “Barbarians,” has boarded “Le Prince,” a period mystery thriller series written by Charles den Tex and Paul de Vrijer (“Hunter Street”).

Currently in development, “Le Prince” will be produced by Gaumont, as well as Stories By, a label launched by France TV Distribution, and Dutch producers Paradise Media.

The six-part series will be driven by a strong female character and will be inspired by the true story of the disappearance of Louis le Prince, the inventor of the first ever motion picture camera.

“Le Prince” unfolds in France, in the late 19th century, a few years before the invention of cinema. Le Prince was a French artist who is believed to have been the first person to shoot a moving picture sequence, years before the Lumière brothers and Thomas Edison. Le Prince mysteriously vanished in 1890 shortly before a planned public demonstration of his camera in the U.

The fifth edition will see the TV festival return to its original springtime slot to run alongside MipTV.

French Oscar-winning director Xavier De Lestrade’s investigative thriller The Inside Game, Seeds Of Wrath and Danish bio-series The Dreamer – Becoming Karen Blixen are among the 10 new series selected for competition in the upcoming edition of French TV festival Canneseries (April 1-6).

The fifth edition sees the event return its traditional springtime slot coinciding with the MipTV content market (April 4-6), after the festival moved to September in 2021 due to the Covid-pandemic.

Political thriller The Inside Game, Seeds Of Wrath stars Alix Poisson...

This weekly feature is in addition to TVLine’s daily What to Watch listings and monthly guide to What’s on Streaming.

With nearly 500 scripted shows now airing across broadcast, cable and streaming, it’s easy to forget that a favorite comedy is returning, or that the new “prestige drama” you anticipated is about to debut. So consider this our reminder to set your DVR, order a Season Pass, pop a fresh Memorex into the Vcr… however it is you roll.

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PBS will Call the Midwife this fall, when Season 10 premieres on Sunday, Oct. 3 at 8/7c. Following the Nov. 14 season finale, a celebratory compilation episode, titled “Special Delivery,” will air on Sunday, Nov. 21.

The upcoming season “opens in the year 1966 at a trying time for the midwives,” reads the official synopsis. “But there is excitement too as the women’s rights movement intensifies. With Trixie’s help, Sister Julienne is determined to steer Nonnatus House out of its financial quandary. Dr. Turner deals with an array of difficult cases, including a former soldier involved in nuclear test explosions.”

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Laetitia, the first French series to premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, is heading to HBO.

The premium cabler has acquired the North American linear and streaming rights to the six-part limited series from The Staircase and Murder on a Sunday Morning director Jean-Xavier de Lestrade. Watch the first trailer above.

The series follows the disappearance of eighteen year old Laetitia, played by Sophie Breyer, and the repercussions that follow her twin sister Jessica, played by Marie Colomb.

Based on Ivan Jablonka’s book, the series is written by Antoine Lacomblez and written and directed by de Lestrade. It is produced by Cpb Films, France Télévisions, Be-Films/ Rtbf and Pictanovo and is distributed by France TV Distribution. It is exec produced by Jean Labib and produced by Judith Louis and Christophe Louis.

Launching on Monday August 30 and based on true events, it looks at the the disappearance of a teenage girl in western France.

After being caught in successive regulatory delays for nearly two years, France’s new streaming service Salto finally launched at the start of November, right in time for a second national lockdown due to the pandemic.

In an ironic twist of fate, Salto, a joint initiative between TF1, France Télévisions and M6, came out in France right when Netflix chose the country to test a new linear channel. So, how will Salto carve itself a niche in a competitive market like France where Netflix boasts about 9 million subscribers, and where a string of other streamers, and pay TV channels co-exist? Thomas Follin, general director of Salto, spoke to Variety about the positioning, strategy and ambitions of Salto. Follin declined, however, to disclose the service’s yearly budget for acquisitions and originals.

First off, how would you describe Salto as a service?

It’s a subscription-based service priced at €6.99 [$8.27] per month that offers 10,000 hours of programs,...

France’s legal system is scrutinized after a teenage girl is murdered in the first trailer for “Laetitia” from director Jean-Xavier de Lestrade, who is known for “The Staircase” and “Murder on a Sunday Morning.”

In the trailer, 18-year-old Laetitia goes missing, and it becomes clear quickly that something has gone horribly wrong. When lifelong criminal Tony Meilhon is arrested, the legal system is questioned when scrutiny arises of how a man like that could have been walking the streets freely.

The details of the crime develop, drawing the attention of politicians and the national media. The film is based the book “Laetitia,” or “End of Men,” by Ivan Jablonka, based on true events.

Also Read: 'The Staircase' Director on Whether an Owl Could've Led to Kathleen Peterson's Death

“Laetitia” has distribution in France and is up for acquisition at the Sundance Film Festival, which will start this week in Park City,...