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French-speaking Belgium hit a high-water mark at the Cannes Film Festival in May, with 11 Belgian co-productions claiming accolades and acclaim across the Croisette. Alongside Critics’ Week opener “Ghost Trail” and the Cannes jury and best actress prize-winner “Emilia Pérez,” eight of those co-productions received support from Belgium’s Federation Wallonie-Bruxelles, while just as many shared a proud Francophone voice.

At Venice, industry delegates built on that robust show of force, touting home-grown projects like Fabrice Du Welz’s police thriller “Maldoror” and co-productions like Aude Léa Rapin’s sci-fi drama “Planet B” and Marie Losier’s music doc “Peaches Goes Bananas,” while young producers took to the Lido to forge new partnerships beyond the traditional mold.

“We’re trying to diversify as much as possible,” says French-speaking Belgium’s Cinema and Audiovisual Center director Jeanne Brunfaut. “Though we tend to partner with [other Francophone countries], we want to encourage our producers to look further afield,...

Best Friend Forever has dropped the trailer for Marie Losier’s documentary feature “Peaches Goes Bananas.” The feature will have its world premiere at the Venice Days sidebar running alongside the film festival.

The documentary portrays Merrill Nisker — the trailblazing feminist queer icon, musician and producer known as Peaches — off and on stage. It showcases Peaches’ concerts, her bond with her sister Suri and her creative process.

The movie also results from the friendship bond that Losier has forged with Peaches over the years. “There was a special feeling between Marie and I from the moment we met — a comfort, a joy, a creative force, a knowing,” said Peaches in a statement. “Marie’s style is all her own and I love her for that. There are such sacred moments captured on film that I will always cherish, especially since the passing of my sister and my father,” she continued.

Rwandan actress Eliane Umuhire (“Augure by Baloji,” “My New Friends”), French producer Sylvie Pialat (“Timbuktu,” “Staying Vertical”), Belgian cinematographer Virginie Surdej and Canadian film critic, journalist and frequent Variety contributor Ben Croll have been named on the jury for the Critics’ Week section of the Cannes Film Festival.

The four will now join Spanish filmmaker Rodrigo Sorogoyen, who last week was named Critics’ Week jury president, with the group set to choose the sidebar competition’s award winners, including the Grand Prize for best feature film, the French Touch Prize of the Jury, the Louis Roederer Foundation Rising Star award for best actor or actress and the Leitz Ciné Discovery Prize for best short film.

The 2024 Critics Week lineup is set to be unveiled on April 15, four days after the Cannes official selection is announced on April 11.

Last year, Venice Golden Lion-winning “Happening” director Audrey Diwan presided over a Critics...

Spanish director Rodrigo Sorogoyen (Stockholm, The Realm, Madre, The Beasts), who was nominated for the best international film honor at Italy’s David Di Donatello Awards, has been named jury president of this year’s Cannes Critics’ Week, the festival sidebar run by the French film critics union that focuses on first and second features from up-and-coming directors.

In a social media clip shared Friday, Sorogoyen called the jury duty “a great responsibility.”

Rodrigo Sorogoyen sera le Président du Jury de la 63e Semaine de la Critique ! À cette occasion, le réalisateur de "Que Dios nos perdone", "El Reino" ou encore "As Bestas" a un message pour vous.

#sdlc2024 #rodrigosorogoyen #Cannes2024 @semainecannes pic.twitter.com/XOBeKDGmhp

— AlloCiné (@allocine) April 5, 2024

Originally set up by an association of French film critics in 1962, Critics’ Week is the oldest nonofficial Cannes sidebar. The section is credited with discovering some of the biggest names in independent and art house cinema,...

The sister filmmaker tandem behind 17 filles (2011) and Voir du pays (2016) have put a bow on their latest feature film. The Cineuropa folks got the exclusive that Delphine and Muriel Coulin have lassoed Vincent Lindon and Benjamin Voisin (a breakout in Summer of 85) for À la hauteur. Felicita Films’ Marie Guillaumond and Curiosa Films’ Olivier Delbosc are producing the film with Frédéric Noirhomme (his last project Il pleut dans la maison was featured in the Critics’ Week this past May) as cinematographer. Expect this to be in the running for a Cannes showing next year as the Coulins have been there with their first two films — Critics’ Week and Un Certain Regard.…...

Komandarev’s 2017 feature Directions premiered in Un Certain Regard at Cannes.

Heretic has acquired world sales rights to Bulgarian director Stephan Komandarev’s suspense drama Blaga’s Lessons which world premieres next month at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.

Komandarev’s 2017 feature Directions premiered in Un Certain Regard at Cannes. His film The Judgement was Bulgaria’s official entry for the 2016 Oscars, while The World is Big and Salvation Lurks Around the Corner was shortlisted for the Oscar’s best foreign language film category in 2010.

Blaga’s Lessons is the story of a retired, recently widowed teacher, played by Elie Skorcheva,...

Komandarev’s 2017 feature Directions premiered in Un Certain Regard at Cannes.

Heretic has acquired world sales rights to Bulgarian director Stephan Komandarev’s suspense drama Blaga’s Lessons which world premieres next month at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.

Komandarev’s 2017 feature Directions premiered in Un Certain Regard at Cannes. His film The Judgement was Bulgaria’s official entry for the 2016 Oscars, while The World is Big and Salvation Lurks Around the Corner was shortlisted for the Oscar’s best foreign language film category in 2010.

Blaga’s Lessons is the story of a retired, recently widowed teacher, played by Elie Skorcheva,...

Anatomy of a Fall (Justine Triet).COMPETITIONPalme d’Or: Anatomy of a Fall (Justine Triet) (Read our review)Grand Prix: The Zone of Interest (Jonathan Glazer) (Read our review)Best Director: Tran Anh Hùng (Pot-au-Feu) Jury Prize: Fallen Leaves (Aki Kaurismäki)Best Screenplay: Yuji Sakamoto (Monster)Best Actress: Merve Dizdar (About Dry Grasses)Best Actor: Kôji Yakusho (Perfect Days) Short Film Award: 27 (Flóra Anna Buda)Short Film Special Mention: Intrusion (Gunnur Martinsdóttir Schlūter)How to Have Sex (Molly Manning Walker).Un Certain REGARDGrand Prize: How to Have Sex (Molly Manning Walker)New Voice Prize: Omen (Baloji)Ensemble Prize: The Buriti Flower (João Salaviza and Renée Nader Messora) (Read our review)Freedom Prize: Goodbye Julia (Mohamed Kordofani)Jury Prize: Hounds (Kamal Lazraq)Directing Prize: Asmae El Moudir (The Mother of All Lies) Directors' FORTNIGHTEuropa Cinemas Cannes Label for Best European Film: Creatura (Elena Martín)Sacd Prize: A Prince (Pierre Creton) (Read...

Purdey Lombet and Mackenzy Lombet in Critics’ Week award-winner It’s Raining in the House. Paloma Sermon-Daï: 'The narrative of the film allowed me to put more of myself in the story. It is a mix of my adolescence and the adolescence of the two actors' Photo: Courtesy of Cannes Critics' Week So far she hasn’t strayed far from her roots. Emerging director Paloma Sermon-Daï grew up in Sclayn in Belgium, situated in the Ardennes hills and by the River Meuse.

Her first end-of-course short film Makenzy, about her brother’s struggle with addiction, and her award-winning documentary Petit Samedi were both shot in the area where she grew up. In the short she followed the childhood of the characters, in the second it was their adult selves and now in her first fiction It’s Raining In The House (Il Pleut Dans La Maison) she wanted to explore their adolescence.

Purdey Lombet and Mackenzy Lombet in Critics’ Week award-winner It’s Raining in the House. Paloma Sermon-Daï: 'The narrative of the film allowed me to put more of myself in the story. It is a mix of my adolescence and the adolescence of the two actors' Photo: Courtesy of Cannes Critics' Week So far she hasn’t strayed far from her roots. Emerging director Paloma Sermon-Daï grew up in Sclayn in Belgium, situated in the Ardennes hills and by the River Meuse.

Her first end-of-course short film Makenzy, about her brother’s struggle with addiction, and her award-winning documentary Petit Samedi were both shot in the area where she grew up. In the short she followed the childhood of the characters, in the second it was their adult selves and now in her first fiction It’s Raining In The House (Il Pleut Dans La Maison) she wanted to explore their adolescence.

First feature by director Amanda Nell Eu won the top prize in Cannes Critics’ Week Photo: Courtesy of Cannes Critics' Week In the first of the main prizes to be awarded at the 76th edition of the Cannes Film Festival, the Critics’ Week jury have selected Tiger Stripes, the first feature by Malaysian director Amanda Nell Eu, for the Grand Prize of the Semaine de la critique devoted to first or second films.

The narrative revolves around a 12-year-old girl who discovers a terrifying secret about her body which she has to embrace to allow herself to be free.

The French Touch Jury Award sent to Belgian director Paloma Sermon-Daï’s It’s Raining in the House, about adolescence through the relationship of a brother and sister in a dysfunctional family.

Paloma Sermon-Daï won The French Touch jury award It’s Raining in the House Photo: Courtesy of Cannes Critics' Week The...

Tiger Stripes, the feature debut of Malaysian director Amanda Nell Eu has won the prize for best feature of the 2023 Cannes Critics’ Week.

The film, one of The Hollywood Reporter‘s Hidden Gem picks from the festival sidebars this year, stars first-time actress Zafreen Zairizal as Zaffan, a rebellious and carefree 12-year-old who finds herself in the awkward position of being the first girl in class to get her period. Embarrassed and confused, and bullied by her classmate, Zaffan finds her body is changing in other, more horrifying, ways and she is faced with the decision of whether to submit to society’s shaming or embrace her true monstrous self.

As a feature debut, Tiger Stripes is also up for Cannes’ Camera d’Or prize for best first film.

Venice 2021 Golden Lion winner Audrey Diwan (Happening) headed up the 2023 Critics’ Week jury. The French Touch Prize of the Jury, which...

With the Cannes Film Festival heading towards its conclusion on Saturday, the first awards are starting to trickle out. Sidebar Critics’ Week, which is devoted to first and second features, closed this evening, honoring Amanda Nell Eu’s debut Tiger Stripes with its Grand Prize. (Scroll down for the full list of winners).

Tiger Stripes, which is also eligible for the Camera d’Or which will be handed out on Saturday, is a coming-of-age story that explores teenage rebellion in a stifling society through the tale of a 12-year-old girl whose body starts to change at an alarming and horrifying rate as she hits puberty. Fearing she will be labeled a monster, she tries to conceal her changed appearance until one day she decides she no longer wants to hide away.

The French Touch Prize of the Jury went to Il Pleut Dans la Maison (It’s Raining in the House) by Paloma Sermon-Daï.

“Tiger Stripes,” the debut feature of Malaysian director Amanda Nell Eu, won the Grand Prize at Cannes’ Critics’ Week, the Cannes sidebar dedicated to first or second films. The prize was awarded by a jury presided over by Audrey Diwan, the Venice prizewinning director of “Happening.”

The French Touch Jury Award went to Belgian director Paloma Sermon-Daï’s “It’s Raining in the House,” a film about adolescence, while the Revelation prize from the Louis Roederer Foundation was handed out to Jovan Ginic, the actor of Vladimir Perisic’s “Lost Country.” The Sacd prize, meanwhile, went to “The Rapture” by Iris Kaltenbäck.

“Tiger Stripes” tells the story of Zaffan, a 12 year-old girl who discovers a terrifying secret about her body. Ostracized by her community, Zaffan fights back, learning that in order to be free she must embrace the body she feared, emerging as a proud, strong woman.

The film stars Zafreen Zairizal,...

Amanda Nell Eu’s debut feature wins sidebar’s €10,000 grand prize.

Malaysian director Amanda Nell Eu’s art horror Tiger Stripes won the top €10,000 grand prize of the 62nd edition of Cannes’ Critics Week sidebar.

Nell Eu’s debut feature explores themes of metamorphosis and rebellion in her film about a teenage girl whose body begins to morph at an alarming rate as she learns to embrace her true self. The film is a multi-territory co-production between Malaysia, Taiwan, Singapore, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Indonesia and Qatar.

Screen’s review said the film “truly growls in its depiction of the...

Baby the Rain Must Fall: Life Imitates Art in Serman-Daï’s Narrative Debut

There’s a literalness in It’s Raining In The House (Il pleut dans la maison) within the film’s opening moments which highlights her narrative approach. A mixture of reverence gleaned from her own reality, Paloma Serman-Daï’s method feels more akin to something like hyperrealism, or auto-fiction, giving us an actual stream of rain transgressing the roof of the ramshackle apartment inhabited by its main characters. Following her 2020 documentary Petit Samedi, which charted her brother’s struggle with addiction, she casts her real half-brother and sister in her narrative debut which charts one transitional summer as they’re thrust prematurely into adulthood.…...

“This is a big screen movie and that’s what we made, as you’ll see.”

Martin Scorsese came on stage during Paramount’s CinemaCon presentation on Thursday to introduce the first-ever look at Paramount Pictures and Apple Original Films’ Killers Of The Flower Moon with the official trailer.

The three-and-a-half hour 1920s-set crime epic was suitably epic in scale and follows the true-life investigation into serial murders of Osage Nation members in Oklahoma that led to the birth of the FBI.

The footage was gritty, violent and featured grand sets. DiCaprio and De Niro play opportunists who want to exploit the oil-wealthy Osage people.

Fiction debut of Belgian director Paloma Sermon-Daï has also sealed French distribution.

Athens-based Heretic has acquired world sales rights to Belgian director Paloma Sermon-Daï’s fiction debut It’s Raining In The House (Il Pleut Dans La Maison) which world premieres in Cannes’ Critics’ Week.

Heretic has previously collaborated with Sermon-Daï, handling sales for her documentary Petit Samedi which world premiered at the Berlinale Forum in 2020.

French distributor Condor has picked up French rights to It’s Raining In The House, after previously collaborating with the film’s co-producer Kidam on 2021 Critics Week’ title Zero Fucks Given. Recent titles distributed by Condor...

It is the fiction debut of Belgian director Paloma Sermon-Daï.

Athens-based Heretic has acquired world sales rights to Belgian director Paloma Sermon-Daï’s fiction debut It’s Raining In The House (Il Pleut Dans La Maison) which world premieres in Cannes’ Critics’ Week.

Heretic has previously collaborated with Sermon-Daï, handling sales for her documentary Petit Samedi which world premiered at the Berlinale Forum in 2020.

French distributor Condor has picked up French rights to It’s Raining In The House, after previously collaborating with the film’s co-producer Kidam on 2021 Critics Week’ title Zero Fucks Given. Recent titles distributed by Condor in France include Aftersun and Joyland.