News

“Night Call,” a French thriller directed by Michiel Blanchart and set amid Black Lives Matter protests in Belgium, has been sold nearly worldwide by Gaumont which releases the film today in France.

Previously acquired by Magnet Releasing for North American distribution, “Night Call” follows a young locksmith who gets way more than he bargained for after responding to an emergency call that puts him in the crosshairs of a ruthless mob boss.

It marks the feature debut of Blanchart whose live-action short “You’re Dead Hélène” was shortlisted for the 94th Oscars and is now being adapted into an English-language feature produced by Sam Raimi and TriStar Pictures.

U.K. (Vertigo), Spain (A Contracorriente), Italy (102 Distribution), Scandinavia (Nonstop), South Korea (Mediasoft), Latin America (California Filmes), Portugal (Cinemundo), Germany, Austria, German speaking Luxembourg and Switzerland, Poland (Galapagos), India (Pictureworks) and New Caledonia (Trident Import Export).

The movie played on opening night...

A film about fantasies slipping away, Robin Campillo’s semi-autobiographical Red Island begins with a daydream, of a world of miniature buildings and puppet-faced men facing off against a masked girl. The girl is quickly revealed to be a visualization of Fantômette, the heroine of the popular Georges Chaulet book series that bears her name, and a particular obsession of Campillo’s 10-year-old stand-in, Thomas (Charlie Vauselle).

The film unfolds largely around a military base in Madagascar, from 1970 to 1972. It’s a decade after the island country’s independence from France, but various ties to the former colonial power remain in place, with French soldiers staying on their bases and working with the local troops. Perhaps inevitably, the oddly paradoxical Red Island is at once lackadaisical and urgent, relaxed but with a clear eye for how swiftly everything will end for the characters at its center.

Not that Thomas, peering...

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

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

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

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

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

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

Charlie Vauselle as Thomas … Campillo’s screen surrogate. Campillo: 'I wanted to be a film-maker from the age of six. I was obsessed and I really thought it would be easy for me' Photo: Gilles Marchand/Courtesy UniFrance After his triumphant success with 120 Bpm (Beats Per Minute) at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival, when the film about Aids activism in France in the 1990s won the Grand Prix, you might expect Robin Campillo to be nursing a grudge against the festival selectors for shunning his latest foray Red Island last year.

Robin Campillo: 'I felt I owed something to the people of Madagascar who are still waiting for France to recognise this part of their story' Photo: UniFrance Campillo during our encounter as part of the UniFrance Rendez-vous with French Cinema in January, seemed philosophical about his fate. “Apparently the Cannes selectors liked the film. I wrote a note to the...

Gaumont is launching “Night Call,” a high-concept thriller set over the course of a night, directed by rising filmmaker Michiel Blanchart.

Blanchart, who is repped by WME and Itaka Media, previously directed the short film “You’re Dead Hélène,” which was a festival standout and played at Clermont-Ferrand and Sitges, among other festivals. It also made the live action Oscar shortlist last year. Blanchart is set to direct a U.S. feature adaptation of “You’re Dead Hélène,” produced by Sam Raimi.

“Night Call” follows Mady, a student who works as a locksmith by night. He helps Claire get into her apartment and soon realizes that she lied to him about her identity and robbed something that belonged to a dangerous man, Yannick. Mady gets embroiled in a manhunt and will have one night to prove his innocence.

The thriller is set in a Brussels, shaken by demonstrations pitting Black Lives Matter activists against police.

A group of 200 internationally renowned writers, publishers, directors and producers have signed an open letter sounding the alarm over the implications of AI for human creativity.

“Several generative models of language and images have recently appeared in the public and private domains; they are developing at breakneck speed, accessible to all for any task which involves writing and creating,” read the letter, published online on Tuesday.

“These models are shaping a world where, little by little, creation can do without human beings, thereby hastening the automation of many creative and intellectual professions formerly deemed inaccessible to mechanization.”

The letter, initiated by European translation professionals under the banner of “Collective For Human Translation – In Flesh And Blood”, comes amid growing concern about the impact of generative AI technology on professionals working in the creative industries.

Signatories from the literary world included Nobel Prize-winning author Annie Ernaux (Happening) as well as best-selling...

French director Campillo’s first film since 2017’s 120 Bpm.

Curzon has acquired UK-Ireland distribution rights to Red Island, the new film from 120 Bpm (Beats Per Minute) director Robin Campillo.

Morocco-born French director Campillo’s new film will have its world premiere in the official selection at San Sebastian Film Festival later this month. Curzon is working on release plans for the title.

Set on one of the last French army air bases on Madagascar in the 1970s, Red Island follows a 10-year-old boy whose world opens up to a different reality when he is inspired by an intrepid comic book heroine.

A digest of key Swiss industry news announced during the Locarno Film Festival.

Swiss public broadcaster Srg has extended its co-production agreement with the local film industry for another four years and has increased its annual budget by CHF1.5m ($1.7m) to CHF34m ($38m).

The new “Pacte de l’Audiovisuel” co-production agreement between Srg and the local film industry will run from 1 January 2024 until the end of 2027.

The annual budget available in the “Pacte” for co-producing Swiss feature films will increase from $10m (Chf 9m) to $11.45m CHF10m in response to rising costs for film production.

In addition,...

A dramatization of true events, The Night of the 12th mines a particular subgenre of the crime picture, the “Cold Case” (its own Bush-era CBS procedural). The one it rips from headlines occurred on October 12th, 2016, where we find Clara (Lula Cotton Frappier), a happy 21-year-old girl leaving a party by herself in a sleepy suburb of France. Confronted by a masked stranger who, in the flash of an eye, throws embalming liquid and a lit match on her, her promising life is cut short as a charred corpse turns up. Tasked with solving the case are two Grenoble detectives, whose intellectual and experiential might are considered superior to the small town’s police force, and the young-ish Captain Yohan (Bastien Bouillon) and veteran cop Marceau (Bouli Lanners) form a decidedly complementary couple in their affect and appearance.

Two splashy stylistic choices––the inciting incident presented in slow-motion and a superimposition of our cops’ faces,...

A young woman is murdered in this unnerving, fictionalised version of a real case that haunts the police officers unable to solve it

French film-maker Dominik Moll has given us a gripping true-crime procedural, a desolate study of the ubiquity of evil and misogynist violence and the abyss of unknowing into which everyone finds themselves gazing: crime victims, relatives and the police themselves. And crime in the real world is often not bounded by the Agatha Christie conventions of clearcut motives and culprits unmasked.

Moll and screenwriter Gilles Marchand have fictionalised a real case recounted by the French author Pauline Guéna in her 2020 eyewitness reportage book 18.3: Une Année à la Pj, for which she was embedded for a year with France’s Police Judiciaire (equivalent to the UK’s Cid); 18.3 being that part of the French penal code which governs their existence. On a certain ominous night in 2016, a...

Dominik Moll’s investigative drama earns awards in Paris for best film, director, adapted screenplay and more.

Dominik Moll’s investigative drama The Night Of The 12th enjoyed a big night at France’s 48th annual César Awards, picking up six awards including best film of the year at a starry ceremony at Paris concert hall l’Olympia on Friday night.

The film, which started the night on 10 nominations, prevailed in a competitive category alongside Louis Garrel’s crime-infused romantic comedy The Innocent, Cédric Klapisch’s dance drama Rise, Albert Serra’s political thriller Pacifiction, and Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi’s coming-of-age tale Forever Young.

Hollywood star power enlivens the Césars in Paris last night Photo: Academie des Césars

Director Dominik Moll had to wait 22 years to bag his second César, as Best Director for The Night Of The 12th, a thriller which delves into issues of gender and violence. It was a major winner in last night’s César awards, France’s answer to the Oscars, also winning the award for Best Film. Bouli Lanners and Bastien Bouillon, as two cops trying to solve a gruesome murder, received actor nods as Best Supporting Actor and Best Male Newcomer respectively.

Written in tandem with his frequent collaborator Gilles Marchand the pair were also rewarded with best adapted screenplay from the novel by Pauline Guéna. The last time Moll received the Best Director César was in 2001 for another thriller, Harry, He's Here To Help.

Happy nights: Virginie Emir named Best Actress in the Césars Photo: Academie...

The 46th César Awards, France’s top film honors, have been handed out in Paris, with Dominik Moll’s crime thriller The Night of the 12th winning the best picture trophy.

Moll’s The Night of the 12th, which premiered in Cannes last year, scored 10 César noms coming into the awards show, just behind Louis Garrel’s The Innocent, which picked up 11 nominations. Moll also won for best director, and Bouli Lanners earned the best supporting actor trophy for his performance in The Night of the 12th.

Cédric Klapisch’s Rise, about a ballet dancer (Marion Barbeau) who, after an injury, seeks a new future in contemporary dance, was up for 9 Césars, as was Albert Serra’s Pacifiction, a thriller featuring Benoît Magimel as a morally-challenged Haut-Commissaire on an island in French Polynesia.

Valeria Bruni Tedeschi’s dramedy Forever Young, Cedric Jimenez’s terrorism drama November, Eric Gravel’s family...

Good cop, bad cop: Bastien Bouillon, left, and Bouli Lanners in Dominik Moll’s The Night Of The 12th Photo: Picturehouse Entertainment As a man of two countries - Germany and France - you could be forgiven for thinking that director Dominik Moll who shot to prominence 22 years ago with the psychological shocker Harry He’s Here to Help, might harbour a split personality.

Not a bit of it - he seems remarkably grounded and feels much more French than German. At this precise moment he’s feeling rather pleased with himself that his most recent brooding investigative thriller The Night Of The 12th has been a runaway success in France and also has been selling well around the globe, and will feature as part of Glasgow Film Festival next month.

Written in tandem with his frequent collaborator Gilles Marchand whom he met decades ago at film school in Paris,...

Vazaha (Les Blancs)

Forget about the numerous title changes, it appears that it took a little bit more time with detours due to the pandemic and dipping into different seasons and locations for Robin Campillo to put together his fourth feature. The Cannes-winning filmmaker for 2017’s Bpm (Beats Per Minute), filming would have taken place in July of ’21 in France with Nadia Tereszkiewicz and Quim Gutiérrez toplining. Titled Vazaha (Les Blancs), the international title is Vazaha, The Strangers – but we expect that to change. This was written along with Gilles Marchand.

Gist: At the beginning of the 70s, in Madagascar, a few armed forces and their families live in one of the last French military bases abroad, a relic of the ending French colonial empire.…...

Dominik Moll’s The Night of The 12th has won best film at the 28th edition of France’s Lumière Awards in Paris on Monday evening.

The investigative drama, which was nominated in six categories, also won Best Screenplay.

The film, which debuted in the Cannes Film Festival’s non-competitive Cannes Première section, stars Bastien Bouillon as a police detective who becomes obsessed with a case involving a complex female murder victim.

Best director went to Albert Serra for French Polynesia-set drama Pacification. The feature also clinched two other prizes: Best Actor for Benoît Magimal and Best Cinematography for Artur Tort.

Virginie Efira won Best Actress for her performance in Rebecca Zlotowski’s Other People’s Children about the challenge of navigating the stepmother role.

Nadia Tereszkiewicz won Best Female Revelation for her performance in Forever Young and Dimitri Doré, Best Male Revelation for Bruno Reidal.

Alice Diop clinched best documentary category for We,...

Pacifiction star Benoit Magimel wins best actor award for third time.

Dominik Moll’s investigative drama The Night Of The 12th (La Nuit Du 12) was named best film and also won the best screenplay prize at the 28th edition of France’s Lumiere Awards at a ceremony at Paris’ Forum des Images on Monday evening.

The film shared the spotlight with Albert Serra’s tropical thriller Pacifiction which earned Serra the best director award and a best actor prize for the film’s star Benoit Magimel.

It was a record win for Magimel who becomes the third actor in Lumière...

’Saint Omer’, ‘Other People’s Children’ and ’Pacifiction’ also receive multiple nods.

Dominik Moll’s police procedural The Night Of The 12th tops the nominations for the 28th annual Lumière Awards.

France’s version of The Golden Globes, the Lumière Awards are voted on by international correspondents from 36 countries.

The Night Of The 12th leads with six nominations, just ahead of Albert Serra’s political thriller Pacifiction with five. Rebecca Zlotowski’s Other People’s Children and Alice Diop’s Saint Omer tie on four nods each. The films will vie for the Best Film prize alongside Alice Winocour’s Paris Memories.

Dominik Moll’s The Night of The 12th, which world premiered in Cannes in May, has topped the nominations for the 28th edition of France’s Lumière Awards.

The awards are voted on by members of the international press corp hailing from 36 countries based in France.

The Night Of The 12th was nominated in six categories including best film, director and screenplay. The film debuted in the Cannes Film Festival’s non competitive Cannes Première section.

The investigative drama is Moll’s seventh feature. It stars Bastien Bouillon, with support from Bouli Lanners, as a police detective who becomes obsessed with a case involving a complex female murder victim.

Other multi-nominated titles include Albert Serra’s French Polynesia-set drama Pacification five nominations.

Four films received four nominations each: Alice Diop’s Saint-Omer; Rebecca Zlotowski’s Other People’s Children; Louis Garrel’s The Innocent and Gaspar Noé’s Vortex.

Diop,...

Trailer

Oscar nominee Sally Hawkins can be heard narrating “The Smeds and the Smoos,” the upcoming BBC adaptation of the book of the same name by beloved children’s writer Julia Donaldson and illustrator Axel Scheffler, in a new trailer released today.

A loose re-telling of Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet,” the charming adaptation, from Magic Light Pictures, “The Smeds and the Smoos” also features the voices of “Bridgerton’s” Adjoa Andoh and comedian Bill Bailey (“Black Books”) as well as Meera Syal (“Roar”), Rob Brydon (“Gavin and Stacey”), Ashna Rabheru (“Sex Education”) and Daniel Ezra (“All American”).

It will air in the U.K. on Christmas Day.

Check out the trailer below:

Commission

A biopic of one of the U.K.’s most famous soccer siblings, Justin and John Fashanu, has been set at U.K. broadcaster ITV. Justin, who became Britain’s first Black soccer star to command £1 million,...

Raft of sales for police procedural following Cannes Premiere debut.

Memento International has sold Dominik Moll’s The Night Of The 12th to a slew of territories, including the US and the UK, following its debut in Cannes’ Premiere section.

Film Movement has acquired the title in North America, while Picturehouse Entertainment has picked it up for the UK and Ireland.

Night Of The 12th has also sold to Australia and New Zealand (Potential Films), Latin America (Impacto), Taiwan (Swallow Wings), Poland (Aurora), the Baltics (A-one Films) and Israel (Lev Cinema).

The sales are the latest in a raft of...

French director Dominik Moll’s seventh feature debuts in the Cannes Premiere section.

Memento International has unveiled first deals for French director Dominik Moll’s Night Of The 12th ahead of its debut in Official Selection’s Cannes Premiere section.

In Europe, it has sold to Italy (Teodora), Spain (Filmin), Greece (Cinobo), ex-Yugoslavia (McF Megacom), Bulgaria (Beta Films) and Ascot Elite has acquired rights for Austria, Germany and Switzerland.

The title is also generating interest in Asia with deals for Japan (Tohokushinsha Film Corporation) and Indonesia (Pt Falcon).

Paris-based Haut et Court, which produced the film, distributes in France. Brussel-based...

École de l’air

We thought there might be an outside chance that this might shore up in 2021 – but we were dead wrong as it appears that production might have taken place in several locations and over the course of more than one season/backdrop with shooting days as far back as July and as recent as this past December. Robin Campillo‘s highly anticipated fourth feature comes five years after his Cannes-winning Bpm (Beats Per Minute) in 2017. Starring Quim Gutiérrez, Nadia Tereszkiewicz, Charlie Vauselle, Sophie Guillemin, Hugues Delamarliere, David Serero, Luna Carpiaux, Mathis Piberne and Sacha Cosar-Accaoui, École de l’air was written by Campillo and filmmaker Gilles Marchand and is produced by Les Films de Pierre’s Marie-Ange Luciani while cinematographer Jeanne Lapoirie Bpm (Beats Per Minute) lens.…...

Only The Animals (Seules les bêtes) Cohen Media Group Reviewed for Shockya.com & BigAppleReviews.net linked from Rotten Tomatoes by: Harvey Karten Director: Dominik Moll Writer: Dominik Moll, Gilles Marchand. Adapted from Colin Niel’s novel ‘Seules les bêtes’ Cast: Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, Denis Ménochet Laure Calamy, Damien Bonnard, Nadia Tereszkiewicz, Guy Roger “Bibisse” N’drin Screened at: […]

The post Only The Animals Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.

Catfish People: Moll Returns to the Ripple Effects of Identity Issues

In the early 2000s, German born Dominik Moll was a fast-rising director of contemporary French cinema thanks to the success of his sophomore film, the well-received thriller With a Friend Like Harry… (2000), followed by the enigmatic Lemming (2005). Diverging into literary adaptation with 2011’s The Monk and then light comedy in 2016’s News from Planet Mars, Moll reunites with scribe Gilles Marchand for another identity-razing thriller, Only the Animals (Seules les bêtes), adapted from a novel by Colin Niel. If Simenon had lived into the technological age, his narratives might have turned to similar dramatic catalysts as employed here in this disconsolate thriller masquerading as a melodrama, clicking together its pieces to a puzzle neatly, efficiently, and with more than its fair share of human developmental dysfunction to define it.…...

Elodie Polo-Ackermann, who runs the Mediawan-owned Paris-based banner Imagissime, has become one of Europe’s key documentary producers since delivering “Who Killed Little Gregory?,” a different kind of true crime series which marked Netflix’s first documentary original in France.

“Who Killed Little Gregory?” was directed by Gilles Marchand, a critically acclaimed screenwriter and director whose credits include the Cannes title “Who Killed Bambi?” and “L’autre monde.” With his cinematic approach to the genre, Marchand was able to cast a new light on the infamous cold case revolving around the mysterious murder of 4-year old Grégory Villemin in 1984. The company recently launched its second Netflix docu, “The Women and the Murderer,” a female take on the 1990s serial killer Guy Georges, co-written and co-directed by Mona Achache (“The Hedgehog”) and Patricia Tourancheau.

Imagissime is now developing two human interest documentary series which have an international resonance: “Un si long...

True love story co-stars French actress Marina Foïs opposite rising French-Afghan actor Seear Kohi.

Brussels-based Best Friend Forever (Bff) has boarded Calais-set love story A Change Of Heart about a National Front supporter who falls in love with an Iranian teacher who is trying to get across the English Channel to the UK.

The French-language feature is the directorial debut of actor Jérémie Elkaim. He is best known internationally for his performance in Valérie Donzelli’s Declaration Of War and has also worked with the likes of Sébastien Lifshitz, Bertrand Bonello, Gilles Marchand, Catherine Corsini or Benoît Jacquot.

Based on...

Top executives from the US and Europe gathered in Zurich.

The Zurich Summit, organised in the first weekend of the 16th Zurich Film Festival in Switzerland, brought together experts including CAA’s Roeg Sutherland, director Yann Demange, Pulse Films founder Thomas Benski, Film I Vast’s CEO Mikael Fellenius, Totem Films partner Agathe Valentin, Srg director general Gilles Marchand, Anton’s Cecile Gaget and Berlinale head Carlo Chatrian for the first in-person event of its kind during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Under the title Kick-Starting a New Era, the topics under discussion including the changing financing landscape, the rise of local-language content,...

Diego Buñuel, the former head of documentaries at Canal Plus and Netflix in Emea, has joined the French public broadcaster France Televisions as head of programming.

Starting on June 22, Buñuel will be spearheading the programming for the group which is presided by Delphine Ernotte and comprises six free-to-air channels.

“(Buñuel)’s vision (and) track record will be assets for France Televisions and for French TV,” said Takis Candilis, the second-in-command at the French pubcaster.

Currently being reformed as part of France’s audiovisual law, the pubcaster has been aiming to lure younger audiences in recent years with ambitious original programming like “Call My Agent!.” The group has also become popular with talk shows, in addition to documentaries, youth programming and even sports. The pubcaster has rights to the tennis tournament Roland-Garros, as well as the Olympic Games, among other major sports events.

Buñuel will be replacing Nathalie Darrigrand who stepped...

Dominik Moll’s thriller charts an unhappily married woman’s terrifying fate and her mysterious connections to five other people

Twenty years ago, director Dominik Moll made a splash at Cannes with his black-comic psychological shocker Harry, Un Ami Qui Vous Veut Du Bien, starring the incomparably disturbing Sergi López – a film with the kind of delicious cruelty and sophistication that somehow only the French can produce. Its title over here was inelegantly rendered as Harry, He’s Here to Help, although I made a doomed attempt to popularise my own version: Harry Wants to Be Your Friend. After that, Moll had a number of credits, but nothing to live up to that picture, which promised us a film-maker with the style of Claude Chabrol.

But now Moll has given us this audacious, witty and absorbing mystery thriller, a tale of adultery and amour fou with a gamey touch of...

The French institution will also throw its weight behind films coming courtesy of Léonor Serraille, Sylvie Verheyde, Mathias Gokalp and Sylvain Desclous. Five projects were selected during the 1st 2020 session of the Cnc’s second advance on receipts committee. Standing tall amongst them is École de l’air, which will be Robin Campillo’s fourth feature film after They Came Back (discovered in Venice 2004 in the Orizzonti line-up), Eastern Boys and Bpm. Written by the director and Gilles Marchand, the story of this new opus takes us to Madagascar during the late 60s-early 1970s, where soldiers are living out the final carefree years of colonialism on a French army air base....

The heavyweight speakers included Rena Ronson, Carole Scotia and Rose Garnett.

The one-day Zurich Summit gathered top executives from the Us and Europe and Asia to discuss industry changes including the rise of the platforms, and the growth in popularity of local-language content at the Dolder Grand on Saturday, September 28.

New this year was a series of intimate roundtables which enabled rising talents to meet established international executives including UTA’s Alex Brunner, CAA’s Roeg Sutherland, Rocket Science’s Thorsten Schumacher, and producer Kim Magnusson, in a private setting.

A creative highlight was a preview clip of Farmageddon, also screening at Zurich Film Festival.

Human foibles are the true culprits in Only the Animals (Seules les bêtes), a new thriller from French writer-director Dominik Moll (With a Friend Like Harry…) that opened up this year's Venice Days sidebar. Spreading a murder mystery across two continents and chopping it up into a Rashomon-style narrative, the film can be a bit low on suspense in places but remains intriguing enough to keep you guessing till the last twist. Art houses looking for upscale genre fare could give this well-structured whodunit a look.

Adapting Colin Niel’s novel with his regular co-writer Gilles Marchand, Moll ...

Human foibles are the true culprits in Only the Animals (Seules les bêtes), a new thriller from French writer-director Dominik Moll (With a Friend Like Harry…) that opened up this year's Venice Days sidebar. Spreading a murder mystery across two continents and chopping it up into a Rashomon-style narrative, the film can be a bit low on suspense in places but remains intriguing enough to keep you guessing till the last twist. Art houses looking for upscale genre fare could give this well-structured whodunit a look.

Adapting Colin Niel’s novel with his regular co-writer Gilles Marchand, Moll ...

Lagardere Studios’ production label Imagissime is developing several internationally-driven documentaries, including “Living Under the Third Reich” and “The Rise of Modern Cooking.”

“The Rise of Modern Cooking,” which has been commissioned by Franco-German network Arte, as well as Belgian and Canadian broadcasters, pays homage to Auguste Escoffier — the restaurateur and culinary writer who modernized traditional French cooking methods. The documentary, directed by Olivier Julien, mixies archival, animated, and live-action footage.

The doc will start shooting soon. Elodie Polo Ackermann, the founder and president of Imagissime, said she aimed at creating an edgy, fun documentary that could lure young audiences. Polo Ackermann, who previously worked at Doc en Stock and Film en Stock on programs such Olivier Assayas’ “Carlos,” said she strived to deliver documentaries boasting sharply-written scripts.

“The line between fiction and documentary is blurrier than ever today so we’re looking to enlist authors who work in fiction and...

Netflix is sending executive Diego Bunuel to the U.K. to oversee original factual programming out of its soon-to-open new London office, part of the the streaming giant’s increased emphasis on localizing its lineup of shows. Bunuel, who will relocate from Los Angeles, will commission original documentaries for Europe.

Netflix makes most of its programming decisions from L.A., but is expected to install content executives in its regional bases as part of its ramped-up localization effort. Bunuel, who has been with Netflix for about three months, was previously head of factual producer Explorer and is a former head of documentary at French pay-tv operator Canal Plus. A Netflix spokesman confirmed that Bunuel would be based in the British capital as director of original documentaries.

Netflix will move into a new Central London headquarters near Oxford Circus in the next few months, and Bunuel will work from there as part of the existing team.

Netflix rolled out the red carpet at Rome’s Villa Miani on Wednesday to unveil new projects and expound on its international ambitions. CEO Reed Hastings and Cco Ted Sarandos made brief appearances high above the Eternal City introducing a series of panels and announcements that revealed details of such upcoming offerings as a continuation of the Peabody Award winning true crime mini The Staircase; a documentary about the November 2013 Paris Attacks; a Julian Fellowes-penned origins of soccer drama; German event series The Wave; Idris Elba-starrer Turn Up Charlie; its first Italian original film; and still more.

In 2018, Netflix is nearly doubling the number of produced shows and investment since 2017 overseas. It has over 35,000 people working on local productions and this year, says subscribers will have access to over 100 projects in 16 languages from 16 countries, including for the first time the Middle East and Africa.

The service said it is committed to local-language shows,...

Actors Cary Elwes and Jake Busey will join the “Stranger Things” cast in the show’s third season, Netflix announced Wednesday.

Elwes, known for “The Princess Bride,” will play a character named Mayor Kline, while Busey, from “Starship Troopers,” will play Bruce.

Mayor Kline is being described by Netflix promotional materials as “handsome, slick, and sleazy.” “Your classic ’80s politician – more concerned with his own image than with the people of the small town he governs.” The Bruce character played by Busey is “a journalist for the The Hawkins Post, with questionable morals and a sick sense of humor.”

Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos made the new casting announcement at Netflix’s See What’s Next event in Rome, where the streaming giant announced a slew of new productions from Europe and elsewhere around the world.

As previously announced, Maya Hawke will be one of the new leads in “Stranger Things,...

This is not Moroccan-born French filmmaker Robin Campillo's first time at the Cannes Film Festival rodeo. The writer, director and editor was involved with Gilles Marchand's Who Killed Bambi? (2003), and 2008's The Class, which he not only wrote and edited but which also won the Palme d'Or for helmer Laurent Cantet. This year sees Campillo making his first appearance in competition for a film he directed (and also wrote, but did not edit). It arrives with a lot of…...

French writer-director Gilles Marchand broke out onto the scene back in 2000 with the clever comic thriller With a Friend Like Harry…, which he wrote for Dominik Moll. He followed it up with his well-received directorial debut Who Killed Bambi?, and has since penned several genre-benders for Moll and other filmmakers – including Cedric Kahn’s excellent Simenon adaptation Red Lights – while taking a second stab behind the helm with the shaky virtual reality thriller Black Heaven.

In his third directorial outing, Into the Forest (Dans la foret), Marchand offers up a mélange of family psychodrama and supernatural storytelling with...

Houda Benyamina [pictured], Jessica Hausner and Rebecca Daly among directors due to attend the festival.

The Les Arcs European Film Festival will champion female filmmakers at its eighth edition unfolding in the heart of the French Alps Dec 10-17.

A sidebar titled The New Women of Cinema will screen features by 10 female directors including Houda Benyamina’s Caméra d’Or-winning Divines, Rebecca Daly’s Mammal and Rachel Lang’s Baden Baden.

Older titles such as Jessica Hausner’s Lourdes, Agnes Kocsis’ Fresh Air and Nanouk Leopold’s Brownian Movement are also included in the line-up

The initiative is an extension of the festival’s Femme de Cinema award introduced in 2013, the recipients of which have included Bosnian director Jamila Zbanic and Poland’s Małgorzata Szumowska.

Alongside the screenings, there will also be a presentation on a specially-commissioned study of emerging female directors, as well as round-tables and a master-class by one of the attending female directors.

The programme...

Houda Benyamina [pictured], Jessica Hausner and Rebecca Daly among directors due to attend the festival.

The Les Arcs European Film Festival will champion female filmmakers at its eighth edition unfolding in the heart of the French Alps Dec 10-17.

A sidebar titled The New Women of Cinema will screen features by 10 female directors including Houda Benyamina’s Caméra d’Or-winning Divines, Rebecca Daly’s Mammal and Rachel Lang’s Baden Baden.

Older titles such as Jessica Hausner’s Lourdes, Agnes Kocsis’ Fresh Air and Nanouk Leopold’s Brownian Movement are also included in the line-up

The initiative is an extension of the festival’s Femme de Cinema award introduced in 2013, the recipients of which have included Bosnian director Jamila Zbanic and Poland’s Małgorzata Szumowska.

Alongside the screenings, there will also be a presentation on a specially-commissioned study of emerging female directors, as well as round-tables and a master-class by one of the attending female directors.

The programme...

Exclusive: Company also reveals more details about Claire Denis’s High Life and will show fresh footage of Emir Kusturica’s On The Milky Road.

Wild Bunch will kick-off sales on an authorised, no-holds-barred documentary about legendary Italian porn star Rocco Siffredi at the upcoming Efm.

Simply entitled Rocco, the documentary features a candid interview with the star in which he speaks about his true life, touching on his early career, fame and life with his wife of 20 years, Rosa Caracciolo, who he co-starred with in Tarzan X: Shame Of Jane- before they married and went on to have two children together.

Sometimes referred to as the “Italian stallion”, Siffredi has appeared in more than 1,500 films over his 30-year career and also dabbled briefly in the French arthouse cinema world, appearing in Catherine Breillat’s Romance and Anatomy Of Hell.

The film also follows Siffredi’s recent decision to quit the porn business for good, shortly after appearing...

News From the Planet Mars

Director: Dominik Moll

Writers: Dominik Moll, Gilles Marchand

Cesar award winner Dominik Moll is back with his fifth film, News From the Planet Mars. Twice competing for the Palme d’Or (with his most notable work With a Friend Like Harry in 2005, and with the underrated Lemming in 2005), Moll tends to take five or six years between projects, with his adaptation of Matthew Gregory Lewis’ 1796 Gothic novel The Monk treated to an underwhelming response in 2011 despite starring Vincent Cassel. Reuniting with his regular scribe Gilles Marchand, Moll tries his hand at existential comedy with a tale about a stressed out dad and divorcé working as an executive of an It company and headed towards a mid-life crisis, a situation insisted by the arrival of a new, insane co-worker.

Cast: Francois Damiens, Veerle Baetens, Lea Drucker, Vincent Macaigne, Michel Aumont

Production Co./Producers: Diaphana Films’ Michel Saint-Jean,...

Dans la forêt

Director: Gilles Marchand

Writers: Gilles Marchand, Dominik Moll

French director Gilles Marchand is better known as a screenwriter, usually collaborating with director Dominik Moll (he wrote Moll’s latest project, News From Planet Mars, which also appears on our list). But 2016 sees Marchand unveil is third feature, Dans la forêt (In the Forest), concerning two preadolescent boys as they visit their father in Stockholm for the holidays. Except dad wants to bring the boys to a secluded hut in the woods, perhaps without an intention of returning. The basic synopsis of this thriller has shades of Andrey Zvagintsev’s 2003 debut, The Return, but we expect something a bit more outlandish from Marchand.

Cast: Jeremie Elkaim, Timothe Vom Dorp, Theo Van de Voorde

Production Co.: Les Films de Francoise, Gotafilm

U.S. Distributor: Rights available Tbd (domestic/international)

Release Date: Marchand’s previous features both showed up at Cannes,...

Exclusive: Slate also includes new films by Alain Guiraudie and Raymond Depardon.

Wild Bunch will launch a new biopic of legendary sculptor Auguste Rodin at Unifrance’s January event Rendez-vous with French Cinema in Paris.

Vincent Lindon (The Measure Of A Man) will star in the film entitled Rodin, which will shoot in 2016 for a 2017 release to coincide with the centenary of the sculptor’s death in November 1917.

French director Jacques Doillon (Love Battles) will direct from his own screenplay.

It is Lindon’s first major role since his Palme d’Or-winning performance in social drama The Measure Of A Man at Cannes last May.

Casting is currently underway for the role of Rodin’s tragic collaborator and lover Camille Claudel and his long-suffering, life-long companion Rose Beuret.

The picture will start as Rodin turns 40 and enters one of the most productive periods of his artistic career in which he created works such as The Thinker and The...

Former UK and Ireland production executive talks growing international ties and incoming projects at Swedish funding body.

Veteran UK and Ireland production executive Simon Perry has been settled in Goteborg for eight months as head of production at Film Vast (formerly Film i Vast), the regional film fund of Western Sweden.

Perry, who worked at British Screen and the Irish Film Board before heading Ace in Paris, replaced Swedish producer Jessica Ask, who joined production outfit Anagram Film & TV.

Film Vast has an annual budget of $11.5m (Sek 93m) and is the largest public funder in the country after the Swedish Film Institute (Sfi).

“My being here helps the balance between Swedish projects and international projects,” Perry told Screen.

“I have more reach into the international market than my predecessor. The international side of the work has been going well.”

Several notable projects from the UK are headed to work in the region.

“A very interesting...

The Cannes Film festival was an exceptional edition for French films this year. A focus on the rising generation of French actors and directors that have been highlighted in Cannes and will most certainly be the stars of tomorrow was compiled by Unifrance chief Isabelle Giordano.

They are a force to be reckoned with. Unifrance films is ready to bet that you will certainly hear about these ten talented people. They represent the French cinema of today and will soon be on the screens worldwide.

Emmanuelle Bercot

An actress and a director, Emmanuelle Bercot began by enrolling at the Cours Florent drama school and taking dancing lessons after her baccalaureate. She graduated from Femis in 1998, after winning the Prix du Jury at the Cannes Film Festival for her short film "Les Vacances," in 1997. After her first few roles in the films of Jean-François Richet and Michel Deville, her career as an actress took off when Claude Miller gave her one of the main roles in "La Classe de neige" (1998). The following year, she made the headlines with the medium-length film she directed called "La Puce," presented in the selection of Un Certain Regard at Cannes. This film tells of the love affair between a 35-year-old man and a 14-year-old girl, played by Isild Le Besco.

Her first feature-length film, "Clément" (2001), is about the life of a troubled woman who has one adventure after another with various men until she meets a 14-yearold boy. Her second film, "Backstage" (2004), continues to explore teenage angst through a relationship between a hit singer and a young obsessional fan. She earned her first critical and public acclaim with "On My Way" (2013), the third film written by the director for Catherine Deneuve, in which the star plays a woman who has decided to leave everything behind and hit the road in France.

She was indisputably the most talked about person during the Cannes Film Festival 2015, both as an actress and a director. Thierry Frémaux surprised everyone by announcing that "Standing Tall," Emmanuelle Bercot’s fourth feature-length film would open the 68th Cannes Film Festival. Emmanuelle Bercot says that she has rediscovered the social fiber of her beginnings with this tale of juvenile delinquency. After the enthusiastic and unanimous reception of her film, she won the Best Actress Award for her role as a woman under the influence of love in the film "Mon Roi" by Maïwenn, with whom she co-wrote the script for "Polisse," which won the Prix du Jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 2012

Thomas Bidegain

Thomas Bidegain may well be one of the best known French screenwriters in the profession today, but it took him ten years to achieve this status. His career path in film is anything but ordinary. He started out in the 1990s by distributing and producing independent American films: "Ice Storm" by Ang Lee and "Chasing Sleep" by Michael Walker. He came back to France and joined MK2 where he became director of distribution. In 1999, he returned to production for "Why Not." In 2007, he told the story of his attempt to stop smoking in "Arrêter de fumer tue," a personal diary that was turned into a documentary, then a book.

In the meantime, he began screenwriting and worked on several projects. In 2009, he wrote the screenplay for Jacques Audiard’s film, "A Prophet," alongside Nicolas Peufaillit and Abdel Raouf Dafri, which won the Grand Prix du Jury in 2009. He participated in Audiard’s next film, "Rust and Bone" and "Our Children" by Joachim Lafosse. He was also the co-writer for "Saint Laurent" by Bertrand Bonello. Winning a César for the best original script and a César for the best adaptation, he presented "Cowboys" at the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs in Cannes this year, his first film as a director. He is also co-writer of "Ni le ciel ni la terre" by Clément Cogitore, presented during the Semaine de la Critique, as well as co-writer of the script for Jacques Audiard’s latest film, "Dheepan," which won the Palme d’Or.

Louise Bourgoin

Louise Bourgoin attended the Ecole des Beaux Arts for five years, during which she began her career as a model. After she graduated from art school in 2004, she radically changed direction and became a presenter on cable TV. She was Miss Météo in Le Grand Journal on Canal + from 2006 to 2008. Her slot became essential viewing and attracted a wide audience, including the attention of the film industry.

She began her acting career in "The Girl from Monaco" by Anne Fontaine, and her performance earned her a César nomination for Most Promising Actress. This recognition led to a whole series of roles and launched her career in film. She headed the bill of several films in 2010 ("White as Snow" by Christophe Blanc, "Sweet Valentine" by Emma Luchini, and "Black Heaven" by Gilles Marchand). The same year, Luc Besson selected her for the leading role in "The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec."

Since then, Louise Bourgoin has played in film after film, and has taken her first steps in the international scene with her part in the American film "The Love Punch" by Joel Hopkins. She attracted attention at the Cannes Film Festival this year with her unusual role in Laurent Larivière’s first film, "I Am a Soldier," presented at Un Certain Regard.

Anaïs Demoustier

Her passion for acting started at a very young age and rapidly pushed her to take drama classes. She auditioned, when still a teenager, and got her first role alongside Isabelle Huppert in "Time of the Wolf" by Michael Haneke. After this, her career was launched and she played in a series of films among which "L’Année suivante" by Isabelle Czajka, "Hellphone" by James Huth, "The Beautiful Person" by Christophe Honoré, "Sois sage" by Juliette Garcias, "Sweet Evil" by Olivier Coussemacq, "Dear Prudene" by Rebecca Zlotowski, "Snows of Kilimanjaro" by Robert Guédiguian, "Thérèse Desqueyroux" by Claude Miller, "Quai d’Orsay" by Bertrand Tavernier, "Paris Follies" by Marc Fitoussi, etc.

A filmography rich of 30 films for an actress who isn’t 30 years old yet. In 2014, the press talked about the blooming of Anaïs Demoustier because her face and poise became essential to cinema. Present in "Bird People" by Pascale Ferran, "Caprices" by Emmanuel Mouret, "À trois on y va" by Jérôme Bonnell and "The New Girlfriend" by François Ozon, she is Marguerite in the last Valérie Donzelli’s film, "Marguerite et Julien" screened in Official selection in Cannes.

Louis Garrel

The son of actress Brigitte Sy and the director Philippe Garrel, he began his career in film thanks to his father, who started filming him at the age of six in "Emergency Kisses," alongside his mother and his grandfather, Maurice Garrel. He went onto study drama at the Conservatoire National d’Art Dramatique. He made his real cinema debut in 2001 in the film "Ceci est mon corps" by Rodolphe Marconi. Two years later, he played opposite Michael Pitt and the future Bond girl, Eva Green, in "The Dreamers" by Bernardo Bertolucci.

He then starred in another of his father’s films, "Regular Lovers". His performance earned him the César for the Most Promising Actor in 2005. Since then, he has played alongside the greatest, such as Isabelle Huppert in "Ma mère" by Christophe Honoré. This marked the beginning of a long collaboration between the filmmaker and the actor. They worked together in the film "In Paris" with Romain Duris, then in 2007 in "Love Songs" with Ludivine Sagnier, in "The Beautiful Person" with Léa Seydoux, in "Making Plans" for Lena with Chiara Mostroianni and, finally, in " Beloved" with Catherine Deneuve. He also topped the bill with Valéria Bruni Tedeschi in "Actresses," whom he worked with again in 2013 in "A Castle in Italy."

In 2010, he directed a short film, "The Little Tailor," in which he directed Léa Seydoux. He performed once again in one of his father’s films, "A Burning Hot Summer," followed by "Jealousy." In 2014, he starred in Bertrand Bonello’s film "Saint Laurent," a role which led to another César nomination, but this time in the best supporting role category. His first feature-length film, "Two Friends," presented at a Certain Regard, was applauded by the critics. He also starred in "Mon Roi," Maïwenn’s fourth feature-length film, alongside Emmanuelle and Vincent Cassel, presented as part of the official selection.

Guillaume Gouix

After studying at the Conservatoire in Marseille and the Ecole Régionale d’Acteur de Cannes, Guillaume Gouix began his career in television. He played the male lead in "The Lion Cubs," by Claire Doyon, in 2003. Noted for his performance, especially the highly physical aspect of it and his intense gaze, he then played a series of supporting roles as a young hoodlum in "Les Mauvais joueurs" by Frédéric Balekdjian and in "Chacun sa nuit," by Jean-Marc Barr and Pascal Arnold. He featured in the 2007 war film "Intimate Enemies" by Florent Emilio Siri, thus confirming his taste for complex characters.

The following year, he was applauded for his performance in the film "Behind the Walls" by Christian Faure. In 2010, he starred in "22 Bullets" by Richard Berry and in 2011, he established his reputation with roles in "Nobody Else But You" by Gérald Hustache-Mathieu, "Et soudain, tout le monde me manque" by Jennifer Devoldere, and "Jimmy Rivière," Teddy Lussi-Modeste’s film debut.

He also appeared in "Midnight in Paris" by Woody Allen. He more recently starred in "Attila Marcel," by Sylvain Chomet, in which he played the lead role, in "French Women" by Audrey Dana, and "The Connection" by Cédric Jimenez with Jean Dujardin and Gilles Lelouche. He performed in three films presented at Cannes this year ("Les Anarchistes" by Elie Wajeman, which opened the Semaine de la Critique, "La Vie en grand" by Mathieu Vadepied, which closed the week, and in "Enragés" by Eric Hannezo, screened at the Cinéma de la Plage). He also directed his first short film "Alexis Ivanovitch, vous êtes mon héros" in 2011 and will soon start on a feature-length film, which is currently being written. He will be topping the bill in 2015 with "Braqueurs," a thriller by Julien Leclercq.

Ariane Labed

Born in Greece to French parents, Ariane Labed has always navigated between her two countries. She studied drama at the University of Provence and began her acting career treading the boards. After setting up a company combining dance and theater, Ariane Labed returned to live in Greece where she played at the National Theater of Athens. 2010 was the year of her first film, "Attenberg," directed by Athiná-Rachél Tsangári. "Alps" by Yorgos Lanthi-mos, the following year, confirmed the talent of this strangely charming actress. Two years later, she starred in "Before Midnight" by Richard Linklater where she played the role of Anna. The follow-up to "Before Sunrise" and "Before Sunset," this third part of the saga was a great success, making Labed known to a wider audience.

In 2014, she played a young sailor in "Fidelio, Alice’s Odyssey," who is torn between faithfulness and her desire to live her life. Winning the best actress award at the Locarno Film Festival and nominated for a César, the French actress gives a brilliant performance in Lucie Borleteau’s first feature-length film. She joined Yorgos Lanthimos in Cannes in 2015, where he won the Prix du Jury for his film "The Lobster."

Vincent Macaigne

Vincent Macaigne is the leading light in young French cinema. He joined the Conservatoire National Supérieur d’Art Dramatique in Paris in 1999, appearing on stage and assuming the role of director. His free adaptations of the great classics of literature and drama earned him public and critical acclaim. He directed "The Idiot" by Dostoïevski and presented "Au moins j’aurai laissé un beau cadavre in Avignon," inspired by Hamlet. He also rapidly made a name for himself in demanding art-house films. In 2001, he was seen for the first time in "Replay" by Catherine Corsini. In 2007, he starred in "On War" by Bertrand Bonello and in 2010, in "A Burning Hot Summer" by Philippe Garrel.

Since 2011, Vincent Macaigne’s presence in short, medium and full-length films has gradually increased. Faithful to his directors, he has starred in several of their films. As is the case with his friend Guillaume Brac, who directed him in "Le Naufragé," "Tonnerre" and "Un monde sans femmes." He was awarded the Grand Prix and the Prix Télérama at the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival, and the Prix Lutin for Best Actor in this film. Under the direction of Vincent Mariette, he played in "Les Lézards" then "Fool Circle." In 2013, we find the funny and touching thirty-something in "La fille du 14 juillet" by Antonin Peretjatko, "Age of Panic" by Justine Triet, and "2 Autumns, 3 Winters" by Sébastien Betbeder.

He was discovered by the general public at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival. Considered a figurehead of the revival of French cinema, Vincent has drawn the attention of the Cahiers du Cinéma, and even the British newspaper The Observer, which referred to him as the “new Gérard Depardieu”. In 2011, he directed "What We’ll Leave Behind," a very well-received medium-length film which won the Grand Prix at the Clermont-Ferrand Festival. He also starred in Mia Hansen-løve’s 2014 film "Eden." He plays one of the main roles in the actor Louis Garrel’s first feature-length film, "Two Friends," presented during the Semaine de la Critique. He also featured in his 2011 film, La Règle de trois.

Vimala Pons

From the Conservatoire National Supérieur d’Art Dramatique, where she attended drama classes even though she wanted to be a screenwriter, to circus tents, Vimala Pons is an acrobat in all senses of the word. The 29-year-old actress has established her physical and poetic presence in French art-house films. She began her career in film with Albert Dupontel in "Enfermés dehors" in 2006. She then starred in "Eden Log" by Franck Vestiel in 2007, then in "Granny’s Funeral" by Bruno Podalydès in 2012.

Since then, we have seen her cross France in a little blue dress in "La Fille du 14 juillet," (she plays the girl) by Antonin Peretjatko, and changing into a lioness in "Métamorphoses," by Christophe Honoré. The impetuous muse of French independent film, Vimala Pons played in "Vincent" by Thomas Salvador this year. The actress has made a name for herself in 2015, in particular with "Comme un avion" by Bruno Podalydès, "Je suis à vous tout de suite" by Baya Kasmi, "La vie très privée de Monsieur Sim" by Michel Leclerc, and "L’Ombre des femmes" by Philippe Garrel (presented at the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs this year in Cannes). She has also begun an international career, with a leading role in Paul Verhoeven’s latest film, "Elle."

Alice Winocour

The director Alice Winocour started out at Femis. After going into law, she returned to film and won three prizes for her short film "Kitchen: Prix TV5" for the best French-language short film, best international short film and the Silver Bear at the Festival of Nations (Ebensee). For "Magic Paris," she was awarded the jury prize at the St. Petersburg International Documentary, Short Film and Animated Film Festival.

She continued her career by writing the script for the film "Ordinary," by Vladimir Perisic. At the Cannes Film Festival 2012, Alice Winocour made a marked entry in the international arena with a film by a woman about women and the unchanging way of looking at them. In the film "Augustine," we are told the story of a professor and his patient, played by Vincent Lindon and Soko respectively. In 2015, she brought out her second feature-length film, "Maryland," which was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 68th Cannes Film Festival. She is also the co-writer of "Mustang," by Denis Gamze Ergüven, presented at the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs.

Child 44 director Daniél Espinosa is to helm a new adptation of period epic The Emigrants for Scandinavian major Svensk Filindustri.

Details of the project were announced at the annual press conference held in Cannes by Swedish regional fund Film Väst.

The Emigrants tells the story of Kristina and her husband Karl-Oskar, who emigrate from Sweden to America in the 1850s. Determined to flee poverty, religious persecution, and social oppression, they head across the Atlantic in search of a better life.

An earlier adaptation of EspinoVilhelm Moberg’s acclaimed novel was made in 1971 by revered director Jan Troell that was nominated for five Academy Awards and won a Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film.

The Emigrants will be scripted by Petter Skavlan (Kon Tiki.) It is to be produced by Fredrik Wikström Nicastro at Svensk Filmindustri, and co-produced by Film Väst. Shooting is scheduled to begin in 2017, in the Västra Götaland region of western Sweden.

Another...

German born, French filmmaker Dominik Moll has blasted off onto his fifth feature film, News from Planet Mars. Starring François Damiens (Tip Top), Vincent Macaigne and Léa Drucker, Cineuropa’s Fabien Lemercier reports shooting has begun on the mostly Paris-based project and will continue filming into May. Diaphana Films’ Michel Saint-Jean is producing.

Gist: Co-written by Gilles Marchand and Moll, Philippe Mars (François Damiens) is a reasonable man in an unreasonable world. He’s trying to be a good father, a kind ex-husband, a nice colleague, an understanding sibling… But the planets have not been exactly aligned in his favor lately. With his son turning into a hardcore vegan, his daughter into a pathological overachiever and his sister selling oversized paintings of their naked parents, it seems to our ever-so prudent Philippe that everyone around him is starting to behave more and more erratically… When his colleague (who also accidentally...