News

Race-against-time social drama “Full Time” (À plein temps), which won the best actress prize for “Call My Agent” star Laure Calamy and the best director award for Eric Gravel in the Horizons section of the Venice Film Festival, has scored multiple territory deals for Brussels-based sales company Be For Films.

The territories sold on the French-language film are Benelux (Athena Films), Switzerland (Xenix Filmdistribution), Italy (I Wonder), Spain (Festival Films), Greece (Cinobo), Norway (Arthaus), Canada (Axia Films), Australia/New Zealand (Palace Entertainment), China (Huanxi), Taiwan (Hooray Films), South Korea (Choix Pictures), and Indonesia (Falcon).

Discussions are ongoing with buyers in the U.S., the U.K., Japan, Israel and Poland.

Haut et Court will release the film in France on March 9.

Pamela Leu, the film’s sales agent at Be For Films, said: “After the premiere on the Lido, I was thrilled to discover with emotion so many people could...

The first clapperboard is set to slam at the end of April on this movie which is directed by Thierry Binisti, steered by Ts Productions and sold by Be For Films. 29 April will see Thierry Binisti commence filming on his 3rd fiction feature film Le Prix du passage. Mostly known for A Bottle In The Gaza Sea, the director has assembled a cast composed of Alice Isaaz, Adam Bessa (seen in Blessed and hitting screens this year in Haute couture) and Belgium’s Catherine Salée (nominated for the Best Supporting Role Magritte in 2013, 2014, 2015 and...

“I think both sides are to blame,” says Tal, a French-Israeli teenager early in Thierry Binisti’s newly topical 2011 film A Bottle in the Gaza Sea. Equal parts coming-of-age drama and political critique, the film takes up Tal’s statement regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, teases it out and then ultimately rejects it as another naïve platitude about the ongoing Mideast struggle.>> - Anthony Kaufman...

“I think both sides are to blame,” says Tal, a French-Israeli teenager early in Thierry Binisti’s newly topical 2011 film A Bottle in the Gaza Sea. Equal parts coming-of-age drama and political critique, the film takes up Tal’s statement regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, teases it out and then ultimately rejects it as another naïve platitude about the ongoing Mideast struggle.>> - Anthony Kaufman...

Professional footballer-turned-actor named jury president of this year’s Dinard British Film Festival.

Eric Cantona, former professional footballer and actor, has been confirmed as the jury president of this year’s Dinard British Film Festival (Oct 2-6) held in Brittany, France.

After winning a role in Le Bonheur est dans le pré, directed by Étienne Chatiliez, he retired from football in 1997 to pursue a career in film.

In 1998, he appeared in Shekhar Kapur’s Oscar-winning Elizabeth. His other credits include The Over-Eater (L’Outremangeur) by director Thierry Binisti and he also starred opposite Isabelle Adjani in De Force from director Frank Henry. Cantona then crossed over into English language films with his role in Ken Loach’s Palme d’Or nominated Looking for Eric in 2009.

He will next appear in French drama You and the Night (Les Rencontres d’après minuit), directed by Yann Gonzalez.

The festival, which celebrates its 24th anniversary this year, focusses on new...

The fourth edition of My French Film Festival has been set for January 17 through February 17, 2014. This year's edition of the worldwide online fest, which saw 750,000 registrants from 189 countries streaming the fest's selection of 10 competition films, three non-competition and 10 short films (all French, naturellement), has announced its five winners. The five award-winning film will be shown on Air France for six months starting this summer:Public Prize: A Bottle in the Gaza Sea, directed by Thierry Binisti (feature) International Director’s Prize (jury composed of Emanuele Crialese, Lucrecia Martel and Wang Xiaoshuai, presided by Michel Hazanavicius): Leader-Sheep, directed by Christian Rouaud (feature) International Press Prize (jury composed of Corless Kleron (Sight & Sound, UK), Cristina Piccino (Il Manifesto, Italy), Dennis Lim (Moving Image Source, USA), Diego Batlle (La Nacion, Argentina), Julie Rigg (freelance, Australia), Laisa Yusipova...

Film Movement has acquired North American rights to the French/Israeli drama "A Bottle in the Gaza Sea," directed by Thierry Binisti. The film is an adaptation of Valerie Zennati's award-winning novel of the same name. Film Movement will release it theatrically later this year. Here's the synopsis per Film Movement: Tal is a 17-year-old Frenchwoman who has settled in Jerusalem with her family. She writes a letter expressing her refusal to accept that only hatred can reign between Israelis and Palestinians. She slips the letter into a bottle, and her brother throws it into the sea near Gaza, where he is carrying out his military service. A few weeks later, Tal receives an e-mail response from a mysterious “Gazaman,” a young Palestinian named Naïm. And thus begins a turbulent but tender long-distance friendship between two young people that are separated by a history they are trying both to understand and change.

A Bottle in the Gaza Sea

Directed by Thierry Binisti

Written by Thierry Binisti and Valérie Zenatti

France/Canada/Israel, 2011

Friends who want to stay friends don’t discuss religion or politics. Contentious and divisive, discussions about these hot topic issues tend to lead to fiery debates, with interlockers entrenched in their predisposed ideologies. Verbal disputes that stem from these discussions tend to take focus away from, and overshadow, the genuine friendship underneath, and no case is more exemplary than in A Bottle in the Gaza Sea.

In Israel, a French expatriate, named Tal (Agathe Bonitzer), is irreversibly changed when she experiences a terrorist attack at her local café. In search of peace and understanding, she places a message of good will into an empty bottle, and has her brother, an Israeli soldier, throw it into the Gaza Sea.

NaÏm (Mahmud Shalaby), a teenager living in Palestine, receives the message,...

Toronto – Canadian government coin for local indie production continues to flow.

Telefilm Canada, Ottawa's film financier, on Friday said it will hand out more than $25 million in funding to French-language movies over the current year through the Canada Feature Film Fund.

And the Ontario Media Development Corp., which hands out film tax credits to Canadian and Hollywood producers shooting locally, on Friday named Pinewood Toronto Studios chairman Paul Bronfman and four other industry players to its board of directors.

The latest round of financing from Telefilm Canada has seen $7 million going into six Quebec films, including "Bashir Lazhar," the latest feature from Writer-director Philippe Falardeau ("Congorama").

Based on the stage play by Evelyne de la Cheneliere, "Bashir Lazhar" portrays an Algerian refugee to Quebec who replaces a school-teacher who hanged herself, only to be faced at school by a group of traumatized pupils and Canadian immigration hurdles.

Luc Dery and Kim McCraw will produce,...