News

Hafsia Herzi’s coming-of-age story La Petite Dernière, about a young woman balancing her faith and family with her ambitions and sexuality, has just wrapped for rising French production outfit June Films; mk2 Films has acquired the buzzy title for international sales.

Newcomer Nadia Melliti stars alongside Return To Seoul’s Park-ji Min with Louis Memmi, Mouna Soualem, and several non-professional actors in an adaptation of Fatima Daas’ novel. It is about the daughter of Algerian immigrants in Paris struggling to reconcile what is expected of her by her family and society and the life she wants for herself.

2024 was a breakout year for horror films from across the globe, the likes of which deserve just as much attention and accolades as any domestic genre achievements.

2024 has been a fascinating year for film. Still reeling from 2023’s SAG-AFTRA and Writers Guild of America strikes and pushed back release dates, movie audiences have continually embraced the safe and soothing nostalgia of franchise fare and superhero cinema. Nearly every film from 2024’s top ten highest-grossing titles are sequels, which is creatively frustrating on some level, but this trend hasn’t impeded the horror genre from making significant cinematic gains.

Horror has seen incredible success in 2024, whether it’s The Substance accruing five major Golden Globe nominations, Terrifier 3 and Smile 2 setting new franchise records, and the critical acclaim of original releases like I Saw the TV Glow, Abigail, and Cuckoo. These domestic horror movies all bring something original to the table,...

BFI London Film Festival (Lff) world premiere and audience award winner Four Mothers has been picked up for distribution in the UK and Ireland by BFI Distribution and Break Out Pictures, respectively.

The release date for cinemas in both territories is set for April 4 2025. The film was acquired directly from the producers. French sales outfit mk2 is selling in other territories.

Irish director and writer Darren Thornton and co-writer, brother Colin Thornton, adapted Gianni Di Gregorio’s Italian 2008 Lff winner Mid-August Lunch into a tale of one Irish son juggling four very different mothers after his friends jet off to...

Film Movement has picked up Emma Benestan’s French-language supernatural horror Animale for North America.

London and Paris-based Film Constellation is handling world sales and has also signed new deals with Cai Chang in Taiwan, Weirdwave in Greece and Ricochet Digital Media for inflight.

The Camargue-set Western stars César-winning Divines actress Oulaya Amamra as a young woman trying to find her way in the male-dominated sport of bullfighting. After a drunken night out strange things begin to happen to her amd the lines between beast and human and dream and reality start to blur.

Animalewas the closing night feature at...

The Brooklyn Horror Film Festival has unveiled its audience and jury award honorees for its 2024 edition, which ran from Oct. 17-24 at Nitehawk Cinema’s Williamsburg and Prospect Park locations.

Taking home the best film and best ensemble awards from the Dark Matter Jury was “Dead Talents Society” from writer-director John Hsu. The comedy horror, starring Bo-lin Chen, Sandrine Pinna and Gingle Wang, follows a ghost who joins a supernatural talent agency in hopes of becoming an urban legend.

Emma Benestan won best director from the Head Trip Jury, which honors films that deviate from the typical horror formula. Her film, “Animale,” follows a young bullfighter who begins noticing disturbing changes after a violent incident in the ring. Cast members include Oulaya Amamra, Damien Rebattel and Vivien Rodriguez.

For the Shorts Jury, Grace Rex’s script for “The Shadow Wrangler” took home best screenplay. Following an audiobook narrator tortured by...

There’s been an exciting influx of female transformation horror films in recent years, such as The First Omen, Smile 2, The Substance, and Titane. All these movies depict harrowing rebirths, but there are also often transferences of power that allow these characters to penetrate worlds that would otherwise be impossible for them. Animale gets to the kernel of this idea through a revelatory body horror story that puts the “bull” in bullseye. Body horror, in particular, is such a potent subgenre, especially when it has something deeper to say and is set in a unique realm, rather than purely celebrating gore and grossness. French filmmaker Emma Benestan creates a film that’s savage, raw, and such a breath of fresh air in what’s become an increasingly crowded corner of horror.

Animale, in many respects, resembles a folktale fantasy horror film that’s as much an allegory as it is a genuine nightmare.

Pigeon Shrine FrightFest, the UK’s leading genre film festival, is back with a thrilling Halloween special, returning to the Odeon Luxe West End in Leicester Square on November 1 and 2, 2024. Following the spectacular celebration of its 25th anniversary in August, the festival promises another adrenaline-fuelled weekend with a selection of nine new genre films from around the world.

This year’s line-up features premieres from six countries, representing an exciting variety of cinematic talent from Europe, North America, South America, and Asia. Festival-goers will have the opportunity to experience each film twice, as both screens at the Odeon Luxe will be taken over by FrightFest’s special Halloween showcase.

Opening the event is the UK premiere of Magpie, directed by Sam Yates. This tense psychological thriller stars Daisy Ridley, who will be in attendance alongside her husband, actor Tom Bateman. The film explores the unraveling of a family as Ridley’s character,...

Barry Keoghan and Christopher Abbott in ‘Bring Them Down’ (Photo Courtesy of Fantastic Fest)

Bring Them Down starring Christopher Abbott, Barry Keoghan, Colm Meaney, and Nora-Jane Noone was named Best Picture at the 2024 Fantastic Fest held September 19-26 in Austin, TX. The annual festival spotlights the best in horror, fantasy, sci-fi, and action. Screenings at the popular festival have included the world or US premieres of critically acclaimed films including Smile, Frankenweenie, Parasite, Jojo Rabbit, John Wick, and There Will Be Blood.

“Our jurors faced the formidable challenge of selecting winners from a remarkable array of stories, each representing different cultures and perspectives. Their task was not easy, but it truly reflects what Fantastic Fest is all about: embracing the richness of global cinema and the shared human experiences that unite us all,” stated Annick Mahnert, Director of Programming for Fantastic Fest.

“Main Competition” Features

Best Picture: Bring Them Down,...

Larry Fessenden’s career in horror films will be honored at the 2024 Brooklyn Horror Film Festival (Bhff).

The indie filmmaker, who launched his career with a Frankenstein story in 1991’s “No Telling,” will be celebrated with the Leviathan Award to mark his cinematic achievements. A special screening of Fessenden’s 1996 film “Habit” will also be part of the ceremony. Fessenden will participate in a Q&a with Bhff alum Jenn Wexler.

The Leviathan Award, Brooklyn Horror’s first and only tribute award, was created in 2023 to honor the luminaries of horror and acknowledge their monstrous contributions to the genre.

Fessenden is credited by the festival for being an “irreplaceable” voice in filmmaking. Fessenden is the founder of Glass Eye Pix, which has sustained indie horror in New York for three decades and counting.

“Larry Fessenden is exactly the kind of trailblazing and enduring artist we want to celebrate, one whose...

The Brooklyn Horror Film Festival (Bhff) announced today the full program for its 2024 incarnation, running October 17-24 with all screenings held at Nitehawk Cinema’s Williamsburg and Prospect Park locations. Audiences are in for an unworldly lineup of films and events, including a special screening of Larry Fessenden’s Habit with the Leviathan Award Ceremony, honoring his film career, hypes the press release.

In addition, Bloody Disgusting’s Screambox Original Series “Tales From the Void” will be screening alongside Joe Begos’s newest grindhouse horror Jimmy & Stiggs!

Here are the full deets…

The Opening Night film is the NY premiere of Dead Mail from directors Joe DeBoer and Kyle McConaghy. The 2024 festival boasts the North American Premieres of exciting new films: Tiago Teixeira’s unsettling body horror film Custom; a new documentary on horror at the turn of the millennium from Phillip Escott and Sarah Appleton, Generation Terror; and New...

The Brooklyn Horror Film Festival has announced their lineup of features, shorts and events for this year's festival, happening from October 17th through 24th at Nitehawk Cinema's Williamsburg and Prospect Park locations.    Joe DeBoer and Kyle McConaghy's Dead Mail will open this year's festival. James Ashcroft's The Rule of Jenny Pen starring Geoffrey Rush and John Lithgow is the Closing Night Film. Emma Benestan's festival circuit hit, Animale, will be the festival's centerpiece film.   Larry Fessenden will be honored with this year's Leviathan Award, the ceremony features a screening of their film, Habit. Other festival circuit standouts include Rita, Timestalker, Black Eyed Susan, The Dead Thing, Sayara and The Soul Eater.    And chalk up a win for the home team today as our own Izzy...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

The Brooklyn Horror Film Festival Announces Full 2024 Program: "The Brooklyn Horror Film Festival (Bhff) announces today the full program for its 2024 incarnation, running October 17-24 with all screenings held at Nitehawk Cinema’s Williamsburg and Prospect Park locations. Audiences are in for an unworldly lineup of films and events, including a special screening of Larry Fessenden’s Habit with the Leviathan Award Ceremony, honoring his film career.

The Opening Night film is the NY premiere of Dead Mail from directors Joe DeBoer and Kyle McConaghy. The 2024 festival boasts the North American Premieres of exciting new films: Tiago Teixeira’s unsettling body horror film Custom; a new documentary on horror at the turn of the millennium from Phillip Escott and Sarah Appleton, Generation Terror; and New Zealand director Sasha Rainbow’s film Grafted.

The festival will feature the world premieres of Izzy Lee's first feature, House Of Ashes; the atmospheric ghost story,...

The Brooklyn Horror Film Festival has unveiled the lineup for its 2024 edition, which runs from Oct. 17-24. All films will be screened at Nitehawk Cinema’s Williamsburg and Prospect Park locations.

Opening with Joe DeBoer and Kyle McConaghy’s crime thriller “Dead Mail,” Bhff will feature the North American premieres of Tiago Teixeira’s erotic body horror “Custom,” Phillip Escott and Sarah Appleton’s late ’90s horror documentary “Generation Terror” and Sasha Rainbow’s “Grafted” starring Jess Hong.

Films receiving their world premieres at Bhff include Izzy Lee’s directorial debut “House of Ashes,” the queer science fiction adventure “Psychonaut” and “Lilly Lives Alone” starring Jeffrey Combs.

“Fear in Focus” is set to return for Bhff 2024, with this year’s rendition centering around horror films from Spain. The sidebar program will feature a 35mm screening of “The Blood Spattered Bride” and a showing of the Spanish version of “Dracula” with...

London- and Paris-based production, finance and sales company Film Constellation has added new sales for Cannes Critics’ Week supernatural horror “Animale” by Emma Benestan, ahead of its North American premiere at Fantastic Fest later this month.

“Animale” sold to Scandinavia (Edge Entertainment), Cis (Nashe Kino), the Czech and Slovak republics (Film Europe), Brazil (Belas Artes), and Indonesia (Falcon Pt), adding to the previously announced territories which include Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy (Plaion), Spain (Filmin), Portugal (Nos Lusomundo), former Yugoslavia (McF Megacom), and Middle East and North Africa (Falcon).

Wild Bunch Distribution will release the film in French theaters nationwide on Nov. 27, with O’Brother releasing in Belgium on Dec. 18.

After its world premiere as closing film of the Cannes Critics’ Week, the film has been selected in some of the world’s foremost genre festivals including Fantastic Fest, Sitges Film Festival, MOTELx, and Neuchâtel Intl. Fantastic Film Festival to name a few.

Exclusive: The L.A.-based Screamfest Horror Film Festival has unveiled the first wave lineup for its 24th edition, taking place at the Tcl Chinese Theatre in Hollywood from October 8-17.

Among the films to look out for at this year’s festival are two produced for Hulu by WorthenBrooks (formerly 20th Digital Studio), on which we were first to report: Screamfest alum Brandon Espy’s Mr. Crocket and Justin Harding’s Carved, both of which will premiere on Hulu later this year.

A supernatural horror film starring Jerrika Hinton and Elvis Nolasco, Mr. Crocket follows Summer Beverly (Hinton) as she embarks on a chilling journey to rescue her son from a sinister children’s show host with otherworldly powers. Starring Peyton Elizabeth Lee, Carved is a fun romp centered on a group of survivors trapped in a Halloween village battle with a sentient, vengeful pumpkin.

In addition to Carved,...

Last month, the 2024 edition of the Neuchâtel International Fantastic Film Festival ended, so normally by now we'd have finished our coverage. But the review for Emma Benestan's Animale, internationally distributed as Animal, lived rent-free in my brain for weeks, while I tried to get a handle on what I wanted to tell while taking care not to reveal too much. It was one of the best films at the festival, a closing title at the Critics Choices in Cannes this year and the opening title at Neuchâtel. It is also one of those rare films in which you feel yourself transported to the region where the story takes place, in this case the Camargue in the South-East of France. So why the reluctance and...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

The eighteenth edition of the genre festival Fantastic Fest is set to be held at the Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar in Austin, Texas from September 19th – 26th (badges are available now at FantasticFest.com), and this year the festival is going to feature 28 World Premieres, 23 International and North American Premieres, and 15 U.S. Premieres that are “guaranteed to delight and surprise you, complemented by jaw-dropping events and spectacular special guests.” Among the films in the lineup, which you can look over below, are the Alexandre Aja / Halle Berry horror film Never Let Go, the supernatural slasher sequel Terrifier 3, the Rosemary’s Baby prequel Apartment 7A, and much more.

Festival Director Lisa Dreyer had this to say: “The Fantastic Fest team is absolutely elated about this year’s festival. We can’t wait to share the very best new films from around the world and enjoy our sensational events together this September.

Fantastic Fest 2024, celebrating their 19th edition from September 19 – September 26, 2024 at Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar in Austin, TX, has unveiled its lineup. Highlights include the U.S. premiere of Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Cloud, Alexandre Aja’s Never Let Go, Nacho Vigalondo’s Daniela Forever, Sean Baker’s Anora, the world premiere of Terrifier 3, and much more.

“The Fantastic Fest team is absolutely elated about this year’s festival. We can’t wait to share the very best new films from around the world and enjoy our sensational events together this September,” says Festival Director Lisa Dreyer. “We’re also honored to be joined by a number of notable guests, and welcome our Fantastic Fest family back to Austin to celebrate cinema, whether it’s your 1st time or 19th!”

See the features lineup below.

Aj Goes To The Dog Park (Burnt Ends Selection)

USA, 2024

World Premiere, 79 min

Director – Toby Jones...

The 2024 Fantastic Fest lineup is ushering in spooky season.

IndieWire can announce the full program for the 19th edition of the beloved genre festival. This year, the festival features 28 World Premieres, 23 International and North American Premieres, and 15 U.S. Premieres, including the highly-anticipated releases of “Rosemary’s Baby” prequel “Apartment 7A” and “Terrifier 3.”

Fantastic Fest will take place at the Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar in Austin, TX, from September 19 through 26. The festival will open with the world premiere of “The Rule of Jenny Pen,” which stars Geoffrey Rush stars as a judge that encounters a bizarre nursing home resident (John Lithgow) who is hellbent on terrorizing the patients.

The Opening Night gala will include “Terrifier 3” and Lionsgate’s horror psychological thriller “Never Let Go” starring Halle Berry and produced by 21 Laps. The film is directed by Alexandre Aja and is a classic home invasion thriller with a supernatural twist.

Fantastic Fest is nearly here.

One of the very best, most underrated film festivals of the year, which takes place annually at a single movie theater in Austin, Texas (that’d be the Alamo Drafthouse on South Lamar), returns on Sept. 19. And ahead of the genre film festival, we’ve got the full lineup, which includes 28 world premieres, 23 international and North American premieres, and 15 U.S. premieres. (You can see the full list below.)

Among the movies playing at Fantastic Fest are “Never Let Go,” the new supernatural thriller from Alexandre Aja and actress Halle Berry; “Apartment 7A,” the “Rosemary’s Baby” prequel from Paramount; the Palme d’Or-winning thriller “Anora” from Sean Baker; A24’s bizarro “A Different Man;” and DreamWorks Animation’s beautiful, touching “The Wild Robot.” Other animated offerings include “Memoir of a Snail” from “Mary and Max” filmmaker Adam Elliot, and “Spermageddon” from “Violent Night” filmmaker Tommy Wirkola.

Fantastic Fest, the country’s largest genre film festival, has unveiled the feature lineup for its 19th edition, taking place at the Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar in Austin, TX, from September 19th- 26th.

Featuring 28 World Premieres, 23 International and North American Premieres, and 15 U.S. Premieres, the fest opens with the world premiere of James Ashcroft’s The Rule of Jenny Pen, a new thriller starring John Lithgow and Geoffrey Rush. Lionsgate’s horror thriller Never Let Go will be presented during the opening night gala, with director Alexandre Aja, star Halle Berry and the team from 21 Laps in attendance. Meanwhile, opening night will also feature the world premiere of Terrifier 3, the latest film in Damien Leone’s horror franchise, centered on the horrifying Art the Clown.

Other notable titles set to screen include Amazon MGM Studios and Blumhouse Television’s House of Spoils, starring Ariana DeBose; Shudder’s V/H/S/Beyond...

Sitges, one of the biggest genre events of the year, will be here before we know it. The massive genre film festival takes over Catalonia, Spain, for eleven days in October, bringing together some of the best titles from the year and hopefully introduce some new favorites towards the end of the year.   New films are coming from the likes of Kiyoshi Kurosowa (Cloud), Jean Luc Herbulot (Zero), Adilkhan Yerzhanov (Steppenwolf), Damien Leone (Terrifier 3) and Quentin Dupieux (The Second Act). Other films that have been tearing up the circuit include Cuckoo, Azrael, The Devil's Bath, Exhuma and Animale.    We get new docs from Alexandre O. Philippe (78/52), about The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and one form Ry Levey (Out in the Ring) about boutique home video labels,...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Roaring towards its 23rd edition, the Neuchatel Intl. Fantastic Film Festival (Nifff) built its reputation as a haven for outré fare, pulling in a reliable (and renewable) youth crowd eager for wild thrills and hard-to-source Asian titles, while becoming a fixture on the horror festival circuit as a lakeside home-away-from-home for a stable of filmmakers who return year and again.

For the past half-decade or so, the Swiss showcase has also branched outward, welcoming new faces and diverse voices into the mix, all while pairing a more expansive vision of fantasy and with an intersectional programing remit that explores sociological questions through genre – or, if you will, that sees in fantasy a more crystalline reflection of the wider world.

“Fantasy is the cinema of the margins, the cinema of the forbidden,” says Nifff director Pierre-Yves Walder. “It is the tool that underrepresented or minority communities use to tell their own stories,...

Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Film Foundation has announced that Mohammed Al-Turki is stepping down as its CEO to focus on personal projects and his career as an independent film producer and businessman.

The body, which was created in the wake of Saudi Arabia’s lifting in late 2017 of its cinema ban, oversees the Jeddah-set Red Sea International Film Festival and is also charged with helping to build a cinema ecosystem in the country.

Under Al Turki’s watch, the foundation held the first three editions of the Rsiff and supported 250 projects from Saudi, Mena and Africa and Asia.

The foundation said the search for a successor was underway and that in the interim, former Red Sea Film Foundation board member Mohammed Asseri was stepping in as acting CEO.

Shivani Pandya Malhotra remains in place as managing director of the foundation and Al-Turki will continue to support the leadership team in an advisory role.

From Jekyll and Hyde to the Wolfman, to much more recent twists on atavistic transformations, the concept of shape-shifting has always been a popular one in fiction — with storytellers turning the dial up or down on the potential social commentary therein, according to taste and preference. In “Animale,” the closing film of this year’s Cannes Critics’ Week section, director Emma Benestan is rather more interested in the interpersonal dynamics navigated by 22-year-old female bull-runner Nejma (Oulaya Amamra) than in really savouring some promising horror implications. She gives Dr. Jekyll center stage, as it were, rather than getting too involved with Mr. Hyde.

Nejma works at a ranch in Camargue, France, where bulls are raised to compete in the arena for baying crowds of exhilarated spectators. It is a traditionally masculine environment: From the bulls to the men who wrangle them, the emphasis is on displays of physical strength and ferocity.

Federico Luis’ Simon Of The Mountain won the Cannes Critics’ Week Grand Prize on Wednesday night (May 22).

The Argentinian first feature is a coming-of-age story about a boy with a disability wrestling through life. Luxbox is handling international sales for the film produced by Argentina’s 20/20 in coproduction with Chile’s Planta, Uruguay’s Mother Superior and Los Angeles and Mexico City-based Twelve Thirty Media.

The jury prize went to US director Constance Tsang’s first feature Blue Sun Palace about Chinese immigrants living in Queens. Charades is handling international sales and WME has North American rights to the film...

Argentinian director Federico Luis’s first film Simon of the Mountain has won the Grand Prize at the 63rd edition of Cannes Critics’ Week.

The coming-of-age tale stars rising Argentinian actor, singer and song writer Lorenzo Ferro as a young man grappling with the challenges of a mental disorder.

It is produced by Patricio Alvarez Casado at Argentinian production house 20/20 in coproduction with Fernando Bascuñan at Chilean company Planta, Ignacio Cucucovich’s Uruguayan company Mother Superior and L.A. and Mexico City based producer Carlos Rincones at Twelve Thirty Media, with Luxbox handling international sales.

In other key prizes, U.S.-Chinese filmmaker Constance Tsang’s won the French Touch Prize of the Jury for first feature Blue Sun Palace, a bittersweet chronicle of the tumultuous destiny of Chinese immigrants living in Queens.

It is produced by Eli Raskin at Field Trip Media and Tony Yang at Big Buddha Productions,...

Toro Toro Toro: Amamra Grabs the Bull By the Horns in Transformative Role

For those who champion the bull in Spain’s electrifying yet antiquated tradition of the running of the bulls, there’s a fresh perspective awaiting in a genre-blending narrative that redefines and realigns the boundaries between genders and species. Departing from her beginnings in young adult romantic comedy with Fragile (2021), French-Algerian filmmaker Emma Benestan reunites with Oulaya Amamra for their third collaboration—a sophomore film that exudes a Cocteau-esque spirit with hints of whac-a-mole horror genre elements. An exploration of crossed boundaries and crossing over, Animale is reminiscent of last year’s Le Règne animal and especially Julia Ducournau’s Raw, despite embracing what is a familiar, well-trodden path, we find a fresh take on violence as redemption and salvation.…...

Midsommar producer Patrik Andersson, Infinity Pool SFX artist Dan Martin and All Quiet On The Western Front sound editor/designer Frank Kruse are among the first wave of contributors to the inaugural UK Next Wave Genre Lab.

The Lab is run by UK sales firm Film Constellation, French production and consultancy company Tatino Films and development and packaging event Maskoon Fantastic Lab.

Hoard producer Andy Starke, Pelican Blood producer Verena Grafe-Hoft and Piggy filmmaker Carlota Pereda are also among the group of international contributors, mentors and tutors, with further participants to be announced soon.

The Lab will be led by...

The anarchic spirit of Julia Ducournau’s Palme d’Or winner Titane lives on in Emma Benestan’s Critics’ Week closer Animale, the genre-busting debut of a director who cites Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Kathryn Bigelow’s Near Dark, and the naturalist films of Chloé Zhao as influences. More surprisingly, she also credits Abdellatif Kechiche, since her first break was as assistant editor on his 2013 Palme d’Or winner Blue Is the Warmest Color.

Emma Benestan

Benestan — who would later take a full-blown editor credit on Kechiche’s 2017 feature Mektoub, My Love — was then finishing her studies at France’s prestigious La Fémis film school, but observing Kechiche’s directorial style, and witnessing his penchant for mixing professional and amateur actors, was an education in itself. “It’s the way he marries professionals and amateurs that gives his films a certain spontaneity,” she explains. “I’d been taught the director had to control everything,...

The world premiere of Agathe Riedinger’s Wild Diamond in Cannes Competition is the only one by a first-time filmmaker and heralds Riedinger as part of a new wave of French female directors to arrive en force on the Croisette.

The film explores western society’s obsession with beauty and fame and the omnipresence of social media through the story of a 19 year-old girl who sets out to earn a spot on a reality TV show.

Also in Competitoin is France-born Coralie Fargeat’s second feature The Substance. The body horror is produced by the UK’s Working Title Films and stars Demi Moore,...

A first clip has been unveiled for Emma Benestan’s “Animale,” which closes the Cannes Film Festival’s Critics’ Week strand this year.

The film is set in the Camargue region of the south of France, where daring youths participate in the local tradition of bull running. Only one woman, 22-year-old Nejma, takes her place in the arena. Taunting and evading the animals with increasing boldness, Nejma seeks to prove herself the equal of the men – inside and outside of the arena. But both situations put Nejma at risk, as a different threat looms over the community of riders: a bull is on the loose and young men are being killed. The film is designed as a supernatural fable that blends with the classic body horror, and the revenge thriller.

After several shorts and a documentary, “Animale” is Benestan’s second fiction feature after the acclaimed “Fragile” aka “Hard Shell, Soft Shell...

Cannes parallel section Critics’ Week opens Wednesday with French director Jonathan Millet’s psychological manhunt thriller Ghost Trail (Les Fantômes), starring Adam Bessa as man in in pursuit of a faceless, former torturer.

Running from May 15 to 23, the compact line-up will showcase 11 first and second works features by emerging directors, seven in competition, as well as 13 short films.

Deadline caught up with Artistic Director Ava Cahen on the eve of the 63rd edition.

Deadline: You’re on your third selection as Critics’ Week artistic director. How was it this year?

Ava Cahen: We always put the counters back to zero. So everything felt new, even if it’s my third year. We received a few more films than normal and screened 1,050 features. It’s hard when you’ve only got 11 slots. Obviously there were a lot more than 11 films that we would have liked to have welcomed. There was a lot of discussion.

European production and sales studio Vuelta Group has bought German producer Telepool from Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith’s Westbrook.

The deal, struck through Vuelta subsidiary SquareOne, will see a combined business operating under the SquareOne banner. SquareOne and Vuelta Group Germany CEO Al Munteanu will lead the banner, with Michael Heyd serving as CFO and COO.

Financial terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, but the combined group will boast a library of over 1,200 titles such as Drive, Intouchables, Olympus Has Fallen, Transporter 3 and the recently released One Life. It will form part of the growing Vuelta Group, which in July last year we revealed had formed through the acquisitions of SquareOne, Paris-based international sales firm Playtime Group and Nordic distributor-producer Scanbox.

Vuelta Group Chairman Jeromt Levy, who launched the group with $50M backing from an unnamed U.S. private equity firm, announced the news today along with Munteanu.

German distributor-producer SquareOne Entertainment, part of rising European film studio Vuelta Group, has acquired German film and TV production, distribution and licensing company Telepool, which was owned by Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith’s Westbrook.

The news was announced Wednesday by Vuelta Group chairman Jerome Levy and CEO of SquareOne and Vuelta Group Germany Al Munteanu.

Munteanu will spearhead the newly combined entity under the SquareOne banner with Michael Heyd serving as CFO/COO.

The newly combined SquareOne entity will boast a library consisting of over 1,200 titles such as “Drive,” “Intouchables,” “The Olympus Has Fallen,” “The Hitman’s Bodyguard,” “Imitation Game,” “Lone Survivor,” “Book Club,” “Transporter 3,” “King Richard,” “Maurice the Tomcat” and the recently released “One Life” among others.

“For over 60 years, Telepool has been one of the leading global content houses and we are proud of the work we did with the company,” said Westbrook CEO Kosaku Yada.

London- and Paris-based production, finance and sales outfit Film Constellation has boarded international sales on Titus Kaphar’s drama “Exhibiting Forgiveness.”

The film received strong reviews after its January premiere at Sundance in the U.S. Dramatic Competition section, and was picked up for North American distribution by Roadside Attractions, with plans for a wide theatrical release in the fall and awards campaign.

Film Constellation will screen the film for buyers in Cannes.

In the film, an artist finds his path to success derailed by an unexpected visit from his estranged father, a troubled man desperate to reconcile. Together, they learn that forgetting may be harder than forgiving.

The directorial debut of visual artist Kaphar, “Exhibiting Forgiveness” stars André Holland, Andra Day, John Earl Jelks and Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor.

Variety’s Owen Gleiberman gave the film a positive review, describing it as “a forceful drama free of feel-good fakery” and praising Holland’s performance as “fierce,...