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Laurent Cantet, the French director who won the Palme d’Or at Cannes Film Festival in 2008 for his film “The Class,” has died. He was 63.

A spokesperson for Cantet’s agency, Ubba, confirmed to Variety that he died on Thursday morning of an illness.

“The Class” is based on the novel of the same name by François Bégaudeau and is a semi-autobiographical account of his experience as a teacher in the 20th arrondissement of Paris. Bégaudeau also starred in the film. “The Class” received a unanimous vote for the Palme d’Or at Cannes, making it the first French film to do so since 1987. The movie also earned an Oscar nomination for best foreign language film.

After studying at the Institut des Hautes Études Cinématographiques in Paris and working in television, Cantet released his first feature film, “Human Resources,” in 1999. It followed a management trainee as he starts a job at his father’s factory.

French director Laurent Cantet, who won the Cannes Palme d’Or in 2008 for The Class, has died at the age of 63.

Based on the semi-autobiographical book by writer François Bégaudeau about his experiences working as a literature teacher in an inner city school in Paris, The Class featured a mainly unprofessional cast including the author.

Cantet had been due to shoot his next film Enzo, with Elodie Bouchez and Pierfrancesco Favino in the cast, this August

His second collaboration with Anatomy of a Fall producer Marie-Angle Luciani, after 2021 film Arthur Rambo, it revolved around a teenager who embarks on a mason apprenticeship in the South of France to escape a controlling father.

Cantet studied film at the Institut des Hautes Études Cinématographiques (Idhec) in Paris in the mid-1980s, where his contemporaries were Dominik Moll, Gilles Marchand and Robin Campillo.

They would continue to collaborate on one another’s projects throughout their careers,...

The 30th Sarajevo Film Festival will pay tribute to Palestinian director Elia Suleiman in recognition of his “outstanding contribution to the art of film.” The filmmaker will be presented with the Honorary Heart of Sarajevo Award and honored with a retrospective of his selected works in the festival’s “Tribute to” program.

Suleiman was a guest at Sarajevo in 2019, where his film “It Must Be Heaven” was screened in the Open Air program. The film had received the special jury mention at Cannes the same year. He also served as the president of the jury at Sarajevo in 2016, and was a guest at the festival in 2013.

Jovan Marjanović, the festival’s director, said Suleiman’s “universal language of cinema speaks to fundamental human values and emotions: fear and hope, home and homeland.”

He added, “With his trademark wit, humor and profound insight, he navigates the complexities of our existence, shedding...

The European Film Academy will honor Palestinian auteur Elia Suleiman with its European Achievement in World Cinema Award.

The Paris-based Suleiman, whose most recent work “It Must Be Heaven” premiered in 2019 at Cannes, is the first Palestinian director to win this prestigious prize.

Suleiman will be an honorary guest at the 35th European Film Awards ceremony to be held on Dec. 10 in Reykjavik.

Born in Nazareth, Suleiman started his career in New York where in the early 1990s he shot two short films, “Introduction to the End of an Argument” and “Homage by Assassination” which won several prizes.

Suleiman’s debut feature film, “Chronicle of a Disappearance,” on the loss of national identity in Israel’s Arab population, won the first film prize at the 1996 Venice Film Festival. In 2002, his “Divine Intervention” won the jury prize and the Fipresci Intl. Critics Prize of the Cannes Film Festival, as well as...

Arthur Rambo

Originally pegged as a 2020 hopeful, Palme d’Or winner Laurent Cantet might be part of a huge wave of former winners competing in 2021’s Cannes edition. For his eighth feature, Arthur Rambo, produced by Marie-Ange Luciani and lensed by Pierre Milon, Cantet recruits Bpm actor Antoine Reinartz, Rabah Nait Oufella and Sofian Khammes for his leads. Cantet won the Palme d’Or in 2008 for The Class and returned to Cannes in Un Certain Regard as part of the omnibus 7 Days in Havana in 2012 and again to the sidebar in 2017 with his last feature, The Workshop.…...

The European Producers Club unveiled its Covid-19 recovery manifesto in San Sebastian.

The European Producers Club (Epc) unveiled its an ambitious wishlist of industry support measures during the online European Film Forum, presented by Creative Europe at the San Sebastian International Film Festival in Spain on Tuesday (September 22).

Spanish producer Álvaro Longoria of Morena Films, who is president of the European Producers Club, unveiled the group’s Covid recovery manifesto.

He called for support at the European level, especially during the pandemic. “We at the European Producers Club believe that the European authorities and the European Commission have to take...

The European Producers Club unveiled its Covid-19 recovery manifesto in San Sebastian.

The European Producers Club (Epc) unveiled its an ambitious wishlist of industry support measures during the online European Film Forum, presented by Creative Europe at the San Sebastian International Film Festival in Spain on Tuesday (September 22).

Spanish producer Álvaro Longoria of Morena Films, who is president of the European Producers Club, unveiled the group’s Covid recovery manifesto.

He called for support at the European level, especially during the pandemic. “We at the European Producers Club believe that the European authorities and the European Commission have to take...

Benicio Del Toro has been named president of the jury for Un Certain Regard in Cannes.

Hailing him as “not only a film lover but a brilliant actor,” the Cannes Film Festival said Wednesday that Del Toro was “an artist who knows no boundaries” and a performer who “throws himself like no other into his roles.” He won a supporting actor Oscar in 2001 for his performance in Steven Soderbergh’s “Traffic.”

Del Toro succeeds Uma Thurman in presiding over the jury for Un Certain Regard, the sidebar at Cannes that focuses on films with unusual themes or storytelling techniques. About 20 works compete in the section.

Del Toro has had a long association with Cannes. He served on the main competition jury eight years ago, which awarded the Palme d’Or to Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s “Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives.” In 2008, Del Toro won the best...