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The Venice Film Festival has unveiled the lineup of projects for Venice Immersive, the Extended Reality (Xr) section of the event. The program, which will include 63 projects from 25 countries, takes place on the island of Lazzaretto Vecchio from Aug. 29 to Sept. 7.

There are 26 projects in Competition, including 19 world premieres and seven international premieres.

There are 30 projects playing Out of Competition, including the best works that have been released or premiered elsewhere since the last edition of the Venice Film Festival; this section is divided into: Best of Experiences (10 projects), and Best of Worlds (20 projects), created by independent artists on the VRChat social platform, an ecosystem of virtual worlds presented in guided tours.

There are seven projects developed during the Biennale College Cinema – Immersive: one project produced thanks to the grant from this year’s eighth edition, six projects developed within the international workshop of the eighth, seventh, sixth and fifth editions.

The filmmaking duo, whose debut film Gagarine earned the Cannes Label in 2020 and found its way to cinephiles amidst the challenges of the pandemic, have been gradually crafting their next project. Fanny Liatard and Jérémy Trouilh will move into production next spring on Les Yeux Verts — it will be produced by June Films’ Naomi Denamur and Julie Billy (who just completed production on the highly anticipated feature debut by Ariane Labed). Casting is currently underway for what will be another film with young protagonists – the pre-teen and teen demo. We have no idea what the plotline is, but the project was co-written with Guillaume Laurent of Amélie and I Lost My Body fame.…...

Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.

Breaking (Abi Damaris Corbin)

Following on the heels of his impressive turn in Steve McQueen’s Red, White and Blue, John Boyega does noble work in Breaking, directed by Abi Damaris Corbin. Boyega stars as Brian Brown-Easley, the 33-year-old Marine veteran who held a bank hostage in order to get a disability check from the Department of Veterans Affairs he was owed. The amount was eight-hundred and ninety-two dollars. – Dan M. (full review)

Where to Stream: VOD

Destello Bravío (Ainhoa Rodríguez)

In the arid, lunar landscape of Ainhoa Rodríguez’s Destello Bravío, a whole village waits for things to fall apart. We’re in the rural outskirts of Spain’s Extremadura region, a few miles from the border with Portugal, but the...

Mubi has announced its lineup of streaming offerings for next month and amongst the highlights are a Ricky D’Ambrose double bill, including his new film The Cathedral, as well as a trio of films by Maurice Pialat, Gaspar Noé’s Vortex, David Osit’s Mayor, Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master, an expansion of their Tilda Swinton series, and more.

Also including films by Tsai Ming-liang, Sky Hopinka, Nacho Vigalondo, Anton Corbijn, and more check out the lineup below and get 30 days free here.

September 1 – Classical Period, directed by Ted Fendt | Ted Fendt Focus

September 2 – 2 Days in New York, directed by Julie Delpy

September 3 – Timecrimes, directed by Nacho Vigalondo

September 4 – Małni – Towards the Ocean, Towards the Shore, directed by Sky Hopinka

September 6 – Mayor, directed by David Osit

September 7 – Friendship’s Death, directed by Peter Wollen | The One and Only: Tilda Swinton

September 8 – Hideous, directed by Yann Gonzalez | Brief Encounters

September 9 – The Cathedral,...

Exclusive: French industry execs Naomi Denamur and Julie Billy are launching Paris-based independent production company June Films with a bustling film and TV slate. Scroll down for the company’s current lineup.

After meeting at Celluloid Dreams 15 years ago, the duo have been putting together their first slate over the past 18 months and are now making movies with talent including Clémence Poésy (The Tunnel), Ariane Labed (Mary Magdalene) and Hafsia Herzi (Good Mother). The idea is to be director-driven and genre agnostic and the company will leverage the duo’s extensive experience in production and international distribution to elevate the prospects for their projects. Billy previously worked at Haut et Court where she produced more than a dozen films including Cannes 2020 title Gagarine, Jonas Carpignano’s Cannes Directors’ Fortnight movie A Chiara and The Night Eats The World by Dominique Rocher. Denamur is known for her work in international sales and in acquisitions for distribution companies such as Ad Vitam in France and Elastica in Spain. As a producer, the company is largely working on female-fronted French and English-language projects, but the company will also look to do co-productions with foreign directors. Both Denamur and Billy are fluent English speakers. June’s lineup includes five features as lead producer: Hafsia Herzi’s third feature, after Good Mother (Un Certain Regard 2021) and You Deserve A Lover (Critics’ Week 2019), is adapted from La Petite Dernière (The Last One) by Fatima Daas. Shooting is planned for Q2, 2023. The 2021 novel, which generated much conversation in France, charts the travails of a lesbian Muslim woman who grows up in a banlieue [suburb] outside of Paris. She not only encounters institutional racism and misogyny but must also contend with a family which wanted a son instead of a daughter. Amazons, directed by Emma Benestan (Fragiles), is an elevated genre film which will shoot in the ranches and wide open spaces of the Camargue region, exploring the world of bull racing. The three following films are being co-developed with Haut et Court:

Actress Clémence Poésy’s English-language directorial debut, co-written by Georgia Oakley (Blue Jean), is adapted from Anna Hope’s well-received novel Expectation, which was translated into 20 languages. The well-received 2019 novel charts the dreams and disappointments of a group of East London women. The film is a co-production between June, Haut et Court and Andrea Calderwood and Gail Egan’s UK banner Potboiler, whose credits include The Last King Of Scotland and The Constant Gardener.

Gagarine directors Fanny Liatard and Jérémy Trouilh’s are working with June on a French language feature which is being co-written by Amélie, I Lost My Body and Big Bug writer Guillaume Laurent; and an English-language film with a U.S. producing partner, whose details are being kept under wraps. June’s co-production slate also comprises two features which are due to shoot before year’s end:

Carlo Sironi’s second feature after Sole, produced by Giovanni Pompili, co-producer of Alcarras;

And actress Ariane Labed’s debut feature Sisters, an English-language genre film produced by The Favourite outfit Element Pictures in Ireland. The Souvenir, Mary Magdalene and The Lobster actress Labed directed short Olla which won best first fiction at Clermont-Ferrand in 2020. June is also working on TV projects. The outfit is developing a limited series, adapted from The Mythomaniac Of The Bataclan by Alexander Kauffmann (who will also co-write the series), alongside The Prayer writers Fanny Burdino and Samuel Doux. Developed alongside Studiofact, the series has already generated strong interest from potential buyers. The plot follows a woman who falsely claimed to be a victim of a terrorist attack. Billy and Denamur told us: “June brings together a family of filmmakers we’ve met over the years. We will foster the emergence of new talent, while offering a modern production model. The company aims to protect the vision of its filmmakers, while guiding them in the international market, and our line-up focuses on director-driven cinema which puts forward a diverse range of views of the world.” The continued: “The pandemic has shown that there will always be a need for new content. At a moment when streamers, studios and financiers are seeking exciting European filmmakers, our talent relationships and access to emerging voices put us in an opportune position in the market.”...

Contending with feelings of isolation and loss of community in a realist manner is a vital experience for many people, especially those young adults who feel lost without hope in their ever-changing life circumstances. That’s certainly true for up-and-coming actor Alseni Bathily’s character of the adolescent Youri in the new drama, ‘Gagarine.’ The protagonist is […]

The post Interview: Fanny Liatard and Jérémy Trouilh Talk Gagarine (Exclusive) appeared first on Shockya.com.

Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.

Ambulance (Michael Bay)

The Marvel machine may be the most fortuitous development for Michael Bay. Though the director hasn’t dabbled in the world of superheroes—despite a fondness for a cinematic universe of the robot variety—the homogenized, green-screen wasteland of today’s box-office behemoths has indirectly led to a reappreciation of the director’s schoolboy giddiness for practical effects and continually upping the ante for where he can place a camera. As bombastic and occasionally mind-numbing as his approach may be, there’s distinct poetry to the momentum of a maximalist vision where previs filmmaking vis-a-vis a committee is not only missing from his vocabulary, but a kinetic approach makes such a proposition nigh impossible. With Ambulance, a streamlined spectacle that borrows liberally from Heat,...

Fanny Liatard and Jérémy Trouilh’s remarkable drama Gagarine is one of the best films of 2022. Centered on Youri, a 17-year-old engineer who is likely on the spectrum, and his hyper-fixation on space, we witness his struggles to cope with the abandonment from his mother and the imminent destruction of his apartment complex. As the building empties out entirely, he sets out to transform his home into a spaceship, crafting an escape from the hardships of the world and finding a way to keep his building intact forever. While on this journey of keeping his home alive, he begins a relationship with Diana, a young Romani woman who figures out the way to communicate with him properly. Youri is forced to reckon between the hardships of the real world, and the fragile beauty of his dreams.

Gagarine is an incredibly intimate and compassionate film, one that never makes fun of...

Forget the romanticized versions of Paris and its surrounding areas that often dominate both film and TV — “Gagarine” gets brutally real about the City of Lights.

Although the film’s narrative is a work of fiction, there is a real grounding to it that confronts the issues of displacement working-class and poor people increasingly face. Setting the story at the now-demolished Cité Gagarin housing project on the outskirts of Paris helps accomplish that.

Named for the Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, the first human to journey into outer space, the Gagarine building is a character unto itself. The film’s protagonist Youri (played by Alséni Bathily) even derives his name from the iconic figure. But even though young Youri has dreams of also traveling to space, being poor makes realizing them tough. Co-directors Fanny Liatard and Jérémy Trouilh have professional experience with public policies of displacement and have incorporated that into...

The heroine of Goran Stolevski’s You Won’t Be Alone is a witch, with echoes of vampire and zombie, yes, but mostly with a haunting desire for human connection in 19th century rural Macedonia.

The film’s Sundance premiere got great reviews (see Deadline’s here). It’s 94 Rotten Tomatoes Certified Fresh with critics as Focus Features opens Stolevski’s debut feature on 147 carefully curated screens.

You Won’t Be Alone is subtitled and its narrator, the witch Nevena, grew up alone in a cave with a limited grasp of language.

Nevena (Sara Klimoska) is freed from her cave by a hideously deformed evil spirit called the Wolf-Eatress, or Old Maid Maria (Anamaria Marinca), who grows increasingly vengeful as they wander the mountainside and...

Cohen Media Group Gagarine Directed by Fanny Liatard and Jérémy Trouilh Written by Fanny Liatard, Jérémy Trouilh and Benjamin Charbit Starring Alseni Bathily, Lyna Khoudri Finnegan Oldfield, Jamil McCraven (Nocturama), Farida Rahouadj and Denis Lavant Opens on Friday, April 1 in theaters in New York, Los Angeles and other top …

The post Gagarine by Fanny Liatard & Jérémy Trouilh – Opens April 1st NY+LA appeared first on Horror News | Hnn.

This year’s ceremony was uncharacteristically devoid of controversy after politically-charged editions in 2020 and 2021.

Xavier Giannoli’s costume drama Lost Illusions was the big winner at the 47th Cesar awards of France’s Academy of Cinema and Arts and Sciences on Friday evening (25), winning best film, adapted screenplay, costume and supporting actor among others.

The adaptation of Honoré de Balzac’s19th-century novel premiered in competition at Venice last year. It was the frontrunner at the nomination stage, making it into 15 of the 24 César categories.

The other big winner of the evening was Leos Carax’s English-language musical Annette. Carax won best director,...

We have only just settled into the genial rhythms of Gabriel Martins’ “Mars One,” meeting one by one the loving, yearning family of four at its heart when, like capable, brassy matriarch Tércia (Rejane Faria), we get a shock to the system. Sitting at a lunch counter, Tércia is trying to ignore the ranting of a homeless man behind her. “Brazil is not for amateurs!” he bellows, and she shifts, more irritated than alarmed, until the man pulls out a bomb. The other diners flee, but Tércia remains rooted in horror as it explodes.

That this apparent terrorist attack is actually just a particularly nasty prank being pulled by a TV crew, is immediately revealed, though Tércia remains traumatized even when her family laugh off her experience at dinner that night. And the fake-out can’t help but feel a little similar to Martins’ film in its entirety: Despite a...

It’s all “Happening.”

France’s Lumière Awards proved a colossal evening for Audrey Diwan’s festival favorite “Happening,” which took home both best film and best actress wins on Jan. 17. The abortion drama previously won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival and was later acquired by IFC Films.

Set in 1963 France, “Happening” focuses on a promising young student (Anamaria Vartolome) who risks prison to terminate an unwanted pregnancy that threatens her academic future. Venice Film Festival jury president Bong Joon Ho deemed the Golden Lion win for the film an “unanimous decision” among voters.

“Happening” beat out Leos Carax’s “Annette,” Emmanuelle Bercot’s “Living,” Xavier Giannoli’s “Lost Illusions,” and Arthur Harari’s “Onoda: 10,000 Nights in the Jungle” to win Best Film at the Lumière Awards, which are selected by France-based members of the foreign press.

Carax won best director for musical drama “Annette,” starring Marion Cotillard and Adam Driver.

Audrey Diwan’s “Happening” won best film and actress for Anamaria Vartolome at France’s Lumière Awards on Monday evening.

“Happening,” which won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival and was acquired by IFC Films, beat out Leos Carax’s “Annette,” Emmanuelle Bercot’s “Living,” Xavier Giannoli’s “Lost Illusions” and Arthur Harari’s “Onoda: 10,000 Nights in the Jungle.”

Julia Ducournau’s Cannes’ Palme d’Or winning “Titane” was surprisingly snubbed from the best film and director categories. The daring movie won the female newcomer prize which was picked up by Agathe Rousselle. The Lumiere Awards are meant to be selected by France-based members of the foreign press, as are the Golden Globes.

Carax, meanwhile, won best director with “Annette,” a musical drama with Marion Cotillard and Adam Driver. The movie also won best cinematography for Caroline Champetier and best music for Sparks. “Annette” previously earned Carax...

Venice Golden Lion winner Happening won best film and best actress prizes

Audrey Diwan’s Venice Golden Lion winner Happening won best film at the 27th edition of France’s Lumière Awards on Monday evening, while its star Anamaria Vartolomei was awarded the best actress prize.

Adapted from French writer Annie Ernaux’s 2019 semi-autobiographical work, Happening recounts a gifted literature student’s struggle to get an abortion in 1964, 11 years before abortion was legalised in France in 1975.

It marks a first lead role for Vartolomei, whose previous credits include How To Be A Good Wife and The Royal Exchange. Vartolomei is...

Thanks to glamorous Paris-set shows like “Lupin” and “Emily in Paris” topping Netflix charts — and daring French female directors Julia Ducournau (“Titane”) and Audrey Diwan (“Happening”) winning top prizes at the Cannes and Venice film festivals — France drew more eyeballs worldwide in 2021 than it has in years. A groundbreaking agreement with global streamers to invest up to €300 million ($333 million) in French content looks to continue that trend. And building on all that momentum, the government is splashing soft money to help French creatives and locations conquer international markets, with a focus on the U.S.

In the streaming era, where language barriers and borders are more permeable, creatives are becoming go-to ambassadors, as evidenced recently by French President Emmanuel Macron’s massive investment scheme, France 2030, which looks to revitalize the country’s industrial sectors, including the film and audiovisual industries. One initiative stemming from the mandate, which targets €600 million for culture,...

Emmanuel Mouret’s “Love Affair(s),” Samir Guesmi’s “Ibrahim” and Elie Wajeman’s “Night Doctor” won top prizes at Colcoa, the French film and TV festival.

The festival, which marked its 25th edition, wrapped at the DGA on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles on Nov. 7. It was attended by 14,000 people.

The festival, programmed by Francois Truffart, is organized by the Franco-American Cultural Fund, a collaboration between the Directors Guild of America (DGA), the Motion Picture Association (MPA), The Writers Guild of America West (Wgaw) and France’s Society of Authors, Composers and Publishers of Music (Sacem).

Colcoa shifted its spring dates to the fall in 2019 as the DGA was being renovated and is now ideally positioned at the start of the awards season in the U.S. The awards ceremony took place at the Sacem headquarters near Paris in the presence of many honorees, notably Guesmi and “Love Affair(s)” producer Frédéric Niedermayer,...

Emmanuel Carrère’s Ouistreham (Between Two Worlds) has been set as the opening film of the 25th Colcoa French Film and Series Festival. The anniversary edition of the City of Lights, City of Angels fest kicks off on November 1 with the Juliette Binoche-starrer that opened Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes last July before winning the Audience Award at San Sebastian. Cohen Media Group releases in the U.S. in 2022.

Colcoa is running as a live week-long event taking place at the DGA Theater Complex from November 1-7. This year’s edition is dedicated to late filmmaker Bertrand Tavernier and will pay homage to him in the Classics section. The full program will include 55 films and series, as well as 19 shorts. Thirty of the films will compete for the Colcoa Cinema Awards and the Colcoa High School Screenings program will also return, welcoming 3,000 high school students from across Southern California.

Two...

This mesmerising debut about a teenager looking to fix up his Paris estate passes up the usual angry social-realism in favour of something more celestial

We are used to seeing Paris’s tough banlieues filmed with a kind of blistering verité. Think of La Haine and Ladj Ly’s recent Les Misérables – angry films about the pressure cooker caused by poverty, police racism, underfunding and official neglect. Now with their mesmerising debut, Fanny Liatard and Jérémy Trouilh bring something different to the suburbs. The pair filmed this poetic movie, with its streak of magical realism, in Cité Gagarine, a redbrick housing estate on the outskirts of Paris, just before it was demolished in 2019. Built in 1961, it was named after Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space. Which might explain why this is a movie looking up at the stars.

It opens with actual footage of Gagarin visiting in the early 60s,...

It was a week of holdovers as Disney titles “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” and “Free Guy” continued their reign over the U.K. and Ireland box office.

“Shang-Chi” retained the top spot with a weekend gross of £2.32 million ($3.26 million) and has now has a cumulative total of £15.8 million in its third week of release, per numbers provided by Comscore.

“Free Guy” was the runner up with £677,000 and has collected £15.3 million in six weeks.

A pair of Universal titles brought up the third and fourth positions at the box office. “Respect” collected £377,395 in its second weekend for a cumulative total of £1.1 million while “Candyman,” took £323,350 over its fourth weekend for a total of £4.3 million.

Rounding off the top five was “Paw Patrol: The Movie” with £263,167 over its sixth weekend for a total of £7.6 million.

The summer hits continued to score at the box office. “Jungle Cruise” now has a total of £12.2 million,...

This story about Cannes’ 2020 selection first appeared in TheWrap’s special digital Cannes magazine.

Last year, Cannes announced a list of 62 new feature films as its official selection for 2020, a year in which the festival itself didn’t take place. Bearing the prestigious imprimatur of the festival, the movies had a variety of releases. Here are some of the ones with the highest profiles since being singled out by Cannes.

“The French Dispatch” / Searchlight Pictures

Faithful

“DNA,” Maïwenn

Premiered at the Deauville Film Festival in September 2020, released by Netflix in the U.S. in December and in France in May.

“True Mothers,” Naomi Kawase

Screened at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2020; submitted as Japan’s entry in the Oscars’ Best International Feature Film category.

“Peninsula,” Yeon Sang-Ho

Released theatrically in South Korea in July 2020 and in the U.S. (as Train to Busan Presents: Peninsula) in August.

“Another Round,...

Kaouther Ben Hania: “It’s basically that the Faust legend is our daily bread.”

Kaouther Ben Hania’s gripping The Man Who Sold His Skin (Oscar-nominated for Best International Feature Film), shot by Christopher Aoun (Nadine Labaki’s Capernaum) with a score from Amin Bouhafa (Abderrahmane Sissako’s Timbuktu and Fanny Liatard and Jérémy Trouilh’s Gagarine with Evgueni Galperine and Sacha Galperine), stars Yahya Mahayni, Dea Liane, Koen De Bouw, and Monica Bellucci.

Connections to the auction scene with Cary Grant in Alfred Hitchcock’s North By Northwest, Kim Novak sitting in the museum in Vertigo, Jean-Pierre Léaud’s white lie in François Truffaut's The 400 Blows, Faust, peacocks, and the “long journey in preparation” for writer/director Kaouther Ben Hania, all came up in the first part of our in-depth conversation on Tunisia’s Oscar submission The Man Who Sold His Skin.

Kaouther Ben Hania on...

The 13th edition will take place online from 16-25 April, and will include two new international competition awards for documentary and fiction films, as well as a pitching event for new projects. The Dutch international human rights film festival Movies That Matter has announced that it is launching two new competition prizes and an industry programme for its 13th edition, set to take place online from 16-25 April: the Grand Jury Documentary Award, made possible by Dutch public broadcaster Bnnvara, and the Grand Jury Fiction Award. For each prize, worth €5,000, eight films have been selected from across the festival’s programme strands. The fiction strand includes Philippe Lacôte's Night of the Kings (France/Ivory Coast/Canada/Senegal), Bosnian director Jasmila Žbanić's Quo Vadis, Aida?, Kaweh Modiri's Mitra (Netherlands/Germany/Denmark), Serbian helmer Ivan Ikić's Oasis, Fanny Liatard and Jérémy Trouilh's Gagarin (France), Nir Bergman's Here We Are...

Zita Hanrot and Sami Bouajila in Farid Bentoumi’s toxic Red Soil (Rouge)

During the 2021 UniFrance and Film at Lincoln Center’s Rendez-Vous with French Cinema there were two virtual live panels. How Music Makes the Film (with composers Jean-Benoît Dunckel of François Ozon’s Summer Of 85; Evgueni Galperine of Fanny Liatard and Jérémy Trouilh’s Gagarine; Nicolas Weil and Sylvain Ohrel of Charlène Favier’s Slalom; Aska Matsumiya (Aska) of Crystal Moselle’s Skate Kitchen, and Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch of Sarah Gavron’s Rocks).

Melvil Poupaud and Benjamin Voisin in François Ozon’s cool Summer Of 85 (Eté 85)

The Vive la Résistance panel had directors Farid Bentoumi on his Red Soil (Rouge); Reinaldo Marcus Green on Monsters And Men; Kitty Green on The Assistant, and Fanny Liatard and Jérémy Trouilh, moderated by Maddie Whittle.

At the César Awards on March 12, Filippo Meneghetti’s Oscar-shortlisted Two Of Us (Deux), starring...

A common trend amongst autistic people is the desire to escape, to exist outside of ourselves and transport into another realm. There is this consistent appeal and magnetism to the idea of going to space, of floating amongst the void where there is no weight or sound to overwhelm or trigger you. While the realities of space are terrifying and dangerous, there is something about its endless possibilities that inspires that desire for so many of us throughout our lives, a fixation that we can devote all our knowledge and passions towards. In our reality, autistic people experience discrimination and a lack of proper support throughout the world, especially if they’re poor or a person of color. There is little state assistance for autistic people, a societal lack of knowledge about what being autistic actually means, and explicit hatred from ableists. While being autistic is often beautiful and not...

Idea is a solution to the problem of closed cinemas and no physical events.

Hotels will host screening rooms and red carpets for local residents as part of the 26th Vilnius International Film Festival, which is taking place from March 18 – April 24 this year.

The Lithuanian festival has partnered with six of the city’s hotels for what it describes as “the full festival experience”, including red carpets and step-and-repeat marketing boards in communal areas; and films playing in hotel rooms that will have been transformed into screening rooms.

There will also be goody bags and special decorations in the hotel rooms,...

On 12 April, 1961, Klushino-born pilot Yuri Gagarin became the first human being to travel into space. Despite all the rivalries of the cold war, he would become an inspiration for people all around the world. Set in a real life French housing project which bears his name, Fanny Liatard and Jérémy Trouilh's magical realist fable follows a teenage boy named Youri (played by newcomer Alseni Bathily) who is cared for by the wider community after his troubled mother abandons him. When the estate is scheduled to be demolished, Youri doesn't want to leave, but scavenges among the empty apartments, corridors and elevator shafts, building his own capsule in an attempt to escape from a world which seems to have no place for him.

A modern fairy tale set among the poor and outcast on the fringes of Parisian society, Gagarine balances its strange beauty with scenes showing the casual brutality.

François Ozon’s Summer of ’85 (Été ’85) screens in New York’s Rendez-Vous with French Cinema Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze UniFrance and Film at Lincoln Center announced the 26th Rendez-Vous with French Cinema line-up of 18 feature films and free Special Events. Opening the festival is Sébastien Lifshitz’s Little Girl (Petite Fille) with eight-year-old Sasha. Other highlights include François Ozon’s Summer of ’85 (Été ’85), starring Benjamin Voisin and Valeria Bruni Tedeschi (music by The Cure); Suzanne Lindon’s Spring Blossom (Seize printemps) with Lindon opposite Arnaud Valois; Nicole Garcia’s Lovers (Amants), starring Stacy Martin, Pierre Niney, and Benoît Magimel; Hélier Cisterne’s Faithful (De nos frères blessés) starring Vicky Krieps and Vincent Lacoste; Quentin Reynaud’s Final Set (Cinquième) set with Kristin Scott Thomas, Ana Girardot, and Alex Lutz, and Fanny Liatard and Jérémy Trouilh’s Gagarin (Gagarine) with Jamil McCraven, Lyna Khoudri, and a cameo by Denis Lavant.

Guest of...

Though the U.S. specialty theatrical market remains stagnant for the foreseeable future, two of the leading buyers of international art-house fare want to send a message to their French partners: We’re still here, and we’re looking to pick up.

“As a very bullish, supportive and embracing distributor we’ll continue to acquire films,” says Charles S. Cohen, whose Cohen Media Group remains the foremost distributor of French cinema in the U.S. “We’re committed,” he adds, “[but] we’re frustrated, just like everyone else.”

Over the past year, Cohen Media Group – which also owns art-house chains Landmark Theaters in the U.S. and Curzon in the U.K. – has had to sit on a number of French titles while waiting for theaters in New York and Los Angeles to reopen, but has still continued to buy.

In June, it picked up Fanny Liatard and Jérémy Trouilh’s...

UK festival recently moved online-only due to virus crisis.

The Glasgow Film Festival (Gff) has revealed the programme for its 2021 edition (Feb 24-March 7), which includes several award-winning festival favourites and a focus on South Korea.

The 17th edition of Gff, which recently announced it would shift online-only due to the ongoing virus crisis, includes six world premieres, two European premieres and 49 UK premieres – around a third of the event’s usual programme of 180 titles.

However, Gff co-directors Allison Gardner and Allan Hunter said the reduced number of slots had forced them to raise the bar for selection and produce a stronger programme as a result.

The festival’s 44th edition runs online (due to the pandemic) Jan 29-Feb 8.

The Goteborg Film Festival has unveiled its slimmed-down lineup of 70 films from 39 countries (compared to the usual size of about 400 films); the festival’s 44th edition runs online (due to the pandemic) Jan 29-Feb 8.

Goteborg will open with the Swedish premiere of Zaida Bergroth’s Tove, a biopic of Finnish artist and Moomins creator Tove Jansson; and will close with the European premiere of Frida Kempff’s Knocking, an unnerving psychological drama about a woman hearing strange noises in her new house. Knocking premieres at Sundance and is sold by Bankside.

Rolling off a strong year for Scandinavian filmmaking, the virtual 44rd edition of the Goteborg Film Festival will kick off with Zaida Bergroth’s “Tove,” which will compete alongside Thomas Vinterberg’s “Another Round” and Ninja Thyberg’s “Pleasure,” among other Nordic pics.

Telling the story of one of Finland’s most beloved and inspiring artists, “Tove” broke box office records in Finland last year in spite of the pandemic, and now ranks as the highest grossing Finnish film in the last 40 years.

“Tove,” which is also Finland’s Oscar candidate, will be one of the seven films vying for the Dragon Award Best Nordic Film. The lineup comprises “Another Round,” one of the most prominent titles in Cannes 2020’s official selection, and “Pleasure,” which is set to world premiere at Sundance, as well as Ronnie Sandahl’s “Tigers,” Lisa Jespersen’s “Persona Non Grata,” Itonje Søimer Guttormsen’s “Gritt...

After a year that tested their limits and redefined landscapes, leaders in France’s entertainment industry share thoughts on their top achievements, the pandemic’s long-term impact and what’s on the horizon for them in 2021.

Thierry Fremaux

Director, Cannes Film Festival / Director, Institut Lumiere

What is the single thing — material or otherwise — getting you through the pandemic? The love of cinema. And the love of those who love cinema, for whom we tried to survive. Also, the new albums from Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen.

What was your greatest achievement in 2020? A book about judo. When I was young, I was into films and judo. Without cinemas, I went back to judo.

What do you think will be the long-term impact of the pandemic on the industry? The acceleration and urgency in proving that cinema is a singular art — and a precious one. Like movie theaters.

Who would you...

When Jane Fonda opened that envelope and called Bong Joon-ho and his team to the stage, we really should have known. The Oscars were not supposed to get it right, it was too perfect. From a moment like that there was nowhere to go but down, way down.

The rest of 2020 turned out to be quite a historic dumpster fire. As much as you think you’ve gotten used to it by now, the bleak news updates, the sight of cities on lockdown or trainfuls of masked passengers still strike me as dizzyingly surreal sometimes. Like waking up inside an elaborate Terry Gilliam production.

As with most other cultural sites, cinemas were first in line to be shuttered for being non-essential. From an epidemiological perspective it’s hard to argue against this. In every other regard, however, film proved even more essential in a pandemic. How else do you see the world beyond the confinement,...

It’s been 25 years since “La Haine” made the banlieue a staple of French cinema. On the back of Mathieu Kassovitz’s cinematic Molotov cocktail, movies such as “Girlhood,” “Divines,” “Cuties” and “Les Miserables” have made the concrete jungles on the outskirts of Paris a haven for cineastes. But none of them are quite like Fanny Liatard and Jérémy Trouilh’s remarkable “Gagarine,” which mixes French social realism with Latin American magical realism before adding a dose of stardust from space movie classics, “Solaris,” “2001” and “Star Wars.”

“Gagarine” was a Cannes Official Selection label, unveiling at the Marché du Film Online, where it was a buzz title for Totem Films, selling out around the planet. The Haut et Court production is currently playing in competition at the Cairo Film Festival.

The film is a skillful blend of reality and fiction, making use of archive material and an exciting young French...

Oscar-winning playwright and screenwriter Christopher Hampton feted with Ciff’s Golden Pyramid Lifetime Achievement prize.

A streamlined edition of the Cairo International Film Festival (Ciff) kicked off on Wednesday evening with a special video message of solidarity and support for the event and its director Mohamed Hefzy from the heads of the Berlin, Cannes and Venice film festivals.

“I wish I was there with you tonight attending the opening ceremony,” said Venice Film Festival director Alberto Barbera, who was one of the few A-list festival directors able to hold a physical edition this year. “We need cinema and we need to show it is alive.

Filippo Meneghetti’s feature debut “Two of Us” will represent France in the race for the best international feature film award at the Oscars.

“Two of Us” was selected over Maiwenn’s “DNA,” François Ozon’s “Summer 85,” Fanny Liatard and Jérémy Trouilh’s “Gagarine” and Maïmouna Doucouré’s “Cuties” which were short-listed.

“Two of Us” was released in France on Feb. 12 and was represented in international markets by The Party Film Sales. Magnolia Pictures acquired North American rights to the film and is planning to release it on Feb. 5.

The films follows two older women, played by Barbara Sukowa and Martine Chevallier, who live across the hall from each other in the same apartment building but have kept their romance hidden for decades.

The film held its world premiere as part of the Toronto International Film Festival’s Discovery program. Mark Keizer said in his review for Variety that the...

France’s Oscar selection committee has chosen comedy/drama Two Of Us as its submission to the International Feature Film category at the 2021 Academy Awards. From director Filippo Meneghetti, the feature debut world premiered in the Discovery section of Toronto last year and was released in France in early 2020 via Sophie Dulac Distribution. Magnolia has U.S. rights and is releasing on February 5, 2021. Other festival play has included London, Macau and Palm Springs.

The story centers on retirees Nina (Barbara Sukowa) and Madeleine (Martine Chevallier) who have hidden their deep and passionate love for many decades. Everybody, including Madeline’s family, thinks they are simply neighbors. When an unforeseen crisis turns their relationship upside down, Madeline’s daughter (Léa Drucker) begins to gradually unravel the truth between them.

Two Of Us (aka Deux in French) is produced by Paprika Films with The Party Film Sales on international rights.

Deliberations today...

France’s Oscar selection committee today set a shortlist of five films that are in contention to be the country’s official submission to the International Feature Film category at the 2021 Academy Awards. Among the titles is Cuties, the Sundance award-winning debut drama from Maïmouna Doucouré that was well-received in France when it released this summer, but also was collaterally involved in an online backlash spurred by Netflix’s early marketing campaign.

Bac Films released Cuties in France while Netflix began rollout elsewhere on September 9. The story follows Amy, an 11-year-old girl who joins a group of dancers named “The Cuties” at school, and who rapidly grows aware of her burgeoning femininity — upsetting her mother and her values.

A poster released by Netflix at the same time as the French theatrical rollout, in a bid to begin promoting the movie ahead of its streaming debut, provoked a furious online backlash...

Nominations for feature film and documentary up from five to six.

The nominations for the 2020 European Film Awards have been unveiled, with the size of two key categories extended as a result of the virus crisis.

The categories for best feature and best documentary have each been increased from five to six to offer more exposure to titles and artists impacted by cinema closures and release delays during the pandemic.

Scroll down for full list of nominees

The films nominated in the best European Film category are Thomas Vinterberg’s Another Round, Berhan Qurbani’s Berlin Alexanderplatz, Jan Komasa’s Corpus Christi,...

Films by Nermin Hamzagic, Fanny Liatard & Jérémy Trouilh, Halina Reijn, Jurgis Matulevičius, Zoé Wittock and Carlo Sironi vie for the European Discovery - Prix Fipresci award. The European Film Awards have announced the nominees for the European Discovery 2020 – Prix Fipresci, an award presented to a director for a first full-length feature film. This year’s nominations were determined by a committee comprised of Efa Board Members Valérie Delpierre (Spain) and Anita Juka (Croatia), curator Giona A Nazzaro (Italy) as well as film critics Marta Bałaga (Finland/Poland), Andrei Plakhov (Russia) and Frédéric Ponsard (France), all three as representatives of the Fipresci (International Federation of Film Critics). The nominees are: Full Moon - Nermin Hamzagic (Bosnia & Herzegovina)Gagarin - Fanny Liatard & Jérémy Trouilh (France)Instinct - Halina Reijn (Netherlands)Isaac - Jurgis Matulevičius (Lithuania)Jumbo - Zoé Wittock (France/Belgium/Luxembourg)Sole - Carlo Sironi (Italy/Poland) The nominated films will soon be made available on.

Titles from Bosnia & Herzegovina, Lithuania, and Italy also selected.

Cannes 2020 official selection title Gagarine, and Halina Reijn’s Dutch thriller Instinct are two of the six titles nominated for the European Discovery 2020 Prix Fipresci.

The prize is presented annually as part of the European Film Awards (Efa) to a director for a first full-length feature film.

Written and directed by Fanny Liatard and Jérémy Trouilh, and co-written by Benjamin Charbit, Gagarine is about a teenager who fights to save his home town – named after Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin – from demolition. France’s Totem Films sold US rights to Cohen Media Group...

The European Film Academy (Efa) has unveiled the five nominees for this year’s European Discovery award, the best first-film prize presented as part of the Academy’s European Film Awards.

The nominees are some of the best-reviewed films to come out of Europe recently, including Instinct, from Dutch actress-turned-director Halina Reijin, which features Game of Thrones star Carice van Houten, and Aladdin’s Marwan Kenzari; Zoé Wittock’s Belgium feature Jumbo, about a shy woman who falls in love with an amusement park ride; and Gagarine, a French drama from first-timers Fanny Liatard and Jérémy Trouilh, which was one of the stand-out hits ...

The European Film Academy (Efa) has unveiled the five nominees for this year’s European Discovery award, the best first-film prize presented as part of the Academy’s European Film Awards.

The nominees are some of the best-reviewed films to come out of Europe recently, including Instinct, from Dutch actress-turned-director Halina Reijin, which features Game of Thrones star Carice van Houten, and Aladdin’s Marwan Kenzari; Zoé Wittock’s Belgium feature Jumbo, about a shy woman who falls in love with an amusement park ride; and Gagarine, a French drama from first-timers Fanny Liatard and Jérémy Trouilh, which was one of the stand-out hits ...

‘Gagarine’ duo Fanny Liatard and Jérémy Trouilh win best director award.

Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese’s This Is Not A Burial, It’s A Resurrection has won the Golden Athena for best film at the Athens International Film Festival in Greece.

Along with the top award, which includes a cash prize of €2,000, the film picked up the newly-created Europa Film Festivals Award at the ceremony on Sunday (October 4).

This Is Not A Burial… was shot entirely in the director’s native Lesotho and centres on an 80-year-old widow who finds new purpose when her village is threatened with forced resettlement. It...

The short answer is strong local films and major state subsidies.

Mourir Peut Attendre, which translates as ‘Dying Can Wait’ is the French title for the James Bond film No Time To Die, and unexpectedly apt.

As in the rest of the world, French exhibitors had high hopes for the new Bond title as the only major US production left on the release calendar for this autumn, as they battle to stay afloat in the face of historically low admissions and a lack of crowd-drawing blockbusters.

The move of the Bond film to April 2021 is a huge blow but unlike...

Some 14,000 cinema-goers attended physical screenings across hybrid 10-day event.

Nearly 14,000 cinema-goers attended screenings during the 10 days of this year’s Filmfest Hamburg, which came to a close with the German premiere of Chloé Zhao’s Golden Lion winner Nomadland on Sunday October 4.

A total of 13,690 admissions were posted across the Filmfest’s five cinema venues, which corresponds to almost a third of the previous year’s attendance. Festival director Albert Wiederspiel declared himself “very pleased” with this result, since each cinema could only have a maximum seating capacity of 30% and the festival programme had been reduced by almost half of...

Paris-based sales company Totem Films has boarded Lovisa Siren’s new film “Sagres,” a dynamic European road movie.

“Sagres,” which has just gone into production, follows two sisters and a teenage daughter who travel from Stockholm, Sweden, to the picturesque cliffs of Sagres, Portugal — located in the southwestern most part of Europe, known as “The End of the World.”

Maya, the younger sister, is a free-spirited, half-failing musician who has left her son in Portugal with her mother, while older sibling Nilo is a control freak in a sexless marriage. When the sisters’ mother phones up to say she’s sick, the pair — joined by Nilo’s rambunctious teenage daughter Laura — embarks on a road trip through Europe to reunite in Sagres, culminating in a tragicomic reunion no one expected.

“Sagres” marks Siren’s feature debut. Her 2014 film “Pussy Have the Power” picked up the Best Short Award at the Goteberg Film Festival.

For its sixteenth edition, the Zff has decided to shine a light on women directors and on a promising, young generation of French and Swiss filmmakers. With no less than 23 world premieres on the agenda, the Zurich Film Festival is once again confirming its determination to introduce audiences to all things new in the world of film. This edition’s Covid-compatible programme, unspooling on the Limmat, boasts no less than 165 films hailing from 47 countries: 23 world premieres (many of which are of European works), 11 international premieres and 4 European premieres. And the crucial point in all this? Over half the films selected for the Festival’s competitions are coming courtesy of women directors. France finds itself very widely represented this year, not just in the competitive section dedicated to full-length fiction where two French productions can be found - the directorial duo Fanny Liatard and Jérémy Trouilh’s first...