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French producer Sylvie Pialat will replace Spanish director Rogrigo Sorogoyen as Cannes Critics’ Week president.

“Due to personal circumstances, and much to our regret, Rodrigo Sorogoyen has had to step down as president of the jury for the 63rd Semaine de la Critique,” Critics’ Week said on Saturday (May 11).

The 11th-hour changeover will also see French filmmaker Iris Kaltenback join the jury alongside previously announced members Rwandan actress Eliane Umuhire, Belgian director of photography Virginie Surdej, and Canadian journalist and film critic Ben Croll.

Pialat was originally on the jury, and will now act as the group’s president.

Pialat...

Cannes Critics’ Week has appointed French producer Sylvie Pialat as president of the jury for its upcoming edition after Spanish director Rodrigo Sorogoyen, who was originally announced for the role, was forced to cancel for personal reasons.

French director Iris Kaltenbäck has also been been named as a new jury member. Her first film The Rapture premiered to acclaim in Critics’ Week last year. The drama, starring Hafsia Herzi as a midwife who passes off her best friend’s newborn child as her own, won the Prix Sacd.

Previously announced members of the jury include Rwandan actress Eliane Umuhire (Augure by Baloji, My New Friends, Haven of Grace), Belgian cinematographer Virginie Surdej (The Blue Caftan, Our Mothers, Casablanca Beats), and Canadian film critic and journalist Ben Croll.

Producer Pialat spent the first part of her cinema career collaborating with her husband Maurice Pialat, co-writing the screenplays for a number of...

This year’s edition of the Directors’ Fortnight will begin with Barbie and end with…plastic. Julien Rejl‘s selection committee have lassoed a total of twenty-one features for a slate that will bookend with Sophie Fillières‘ final feature (she passed away shortly after filming) in Ma Vie Ma Gueule which is selected as the section’s opener (Agnès Jaoui’s character’s nickname is that of the plastic doll) and the closing film honors will go to Bloody Oranges director Jean-Christophe Meurisse‘s comedy about a road-trip gone wrong titled Plastic Guns. Adding to the red, white and blue of France, we find high profile items in Patricia Mazuy‘s La Prisonnière De bordeaux (stars Isabelle Huppert and Hafsia Herzi), Caroline Poggi and Jonathan Vinel‘s Eat The Night and Thierry de Peretti‘s À son image.…...

The Cannes Directors’ Fortnight section has unveiled its lineup for the 2024 festival, which will open with This Life of Mine, the final feature from the late French director Sophie Fillières. The drama features Agnès Jaoui as a woman whose identity starts to unravel when she turns 55. Fillières died shortly after wrapping principal photography on the film and her children finished post-production.

There are four U.S. titles in the feature section of the non-competitive sidebar: Tyler Taormina’s Christmas Eve In Miller’s Point, Carson Lund’s Eephus, India Donaldson’s Good One and Gazer from Ryan J. Sloan.

Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point, starring Michael Cera, Elsie Fisher, Francesca Scorsese. Ben Shenkman, Gregg Turkington, Sawyer Spielberg, Maria Dizzia and newcomer Matilda Fleming, follows four generations as they gather for what might be their last Christmas in the family home. Lund, who lensed Christmas Eve, makes his feature debut with Eephus,...

Directors’ Fortnight has unveiled the selection for its 56th edition heavy on films from first-time US filmmakers, South American titles, and talent including Isabelle Huppert, Michael Cera and Agnès Jaoui.

Artistic director Julien Rejl revealed the line-up at a press conference in Paris on Tuesday (April 16) for the Cannes parallel section run by French directors guild the Srf.

Scroll down for the full selection

After undergoing a complete rebranding for last year’s edition complete with new artistic director Rejl and a new more inclusive female-forward name in French to La Quinzaine des Cinéastes, this year’s selection includes eight...

The results of the first Eurimages Project Evaluation Session of 2024 have been unveiled and among the batch of European-based filmmakers to receive some much-appreciated coin we find Tarik Saleh’s Eagles of the Republic, Carla Simon’s Romería, Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value, Agnieszka Holland’s Franz, Amanda Kernell’s The Curse, a Love Story and Hafsia Herzi’s The Last One. For the most part, these projects are expected to move into production as early as this spring and get major film festival premieres starting in 2025. 26 fiction films received coin with five docu projects. Here are the films:

Brave – Marie-Elsa Sgualdo (Switzerland) – €300 000

Desire Lines – Dane Komljen (Serbia) – €120 000

Don’t Let Me Die – Andrei Epure (Romania) – €150 000

Eagles of the Republic – Tarik Saleh (Sweden) – €500 000

Fed Up – Júlia De Paz Solvas (Spain) – €250 000

Finale Allegro – Emanuela Piovano (Italy) – €150 000

Franz – Agnieszka Holland (Poland) – €500 000

God Will Not Help – Hana Jušić (Croatia) – €390 000

Haven of Hope – Seemab...

New projects from directors including Agnieszka Holland, Carla Simon, Joachim Trier, Amanda Kernell and Tarik Saleh are among 26 features to receive backing from Eurimages’ in its latest round of co-production funding.

The 26 features – including five documentaries and one animation – have shared a total of €7m funding. Fourteen are to be directed by women.

Polish director Agnieszka Holland’s Franz Kafka biopic Franz received €500,000 ahead of an expected shoot in Czech Republic and Germany next month with newcomer Idan Weiss to play Kafka. Holland’s most recent film Green Border won the special jury prize in competition at Venice in 2023.

Spain’s Carla Simon,...

Last year’s edition of Critics’ Week featured the likes of Ama Gloria, Tiger Stripes and Iris Kaltenbäck’s Le Ravissement — which would become the section’s identifier for the 63rd edition with actress Hafsia Herzi giving us the side-eye. Currently in year three of her mandate, Critics’ Week topper Ava Cahen will likely once again select first-time features only for the competition and will give extra visibility to French cinema with Special Screenings selections to popular industry figures (and France co-productions) perhaps a Céline Sallette’s Niki or a revisit of Jesse Eisenberg with A Real Pain. We don’t know when they’ll unveil the selections but it should be more or less around the second week of April.…...

Roll up, roll up for Part 2 of our Cannes Film Festival preview, this time with a focus on international, mainly non-English-language fare. If you didn’t catch Andreas’ English-language-focused Part 1, check it out.

As the fest basks in the warm glow of the Oscar wins for 2023 Palme d’Or winner Anatomy of a Fall and Grand Jury Prize winner The Zone of Interest, delegate general Thierry Frémaux and his team are furiously tying up the 2024 Official Selection.

With less than four weeks to go until the bulk of the 77th edition (running May 14-25) is revealed at the press conference in Paris on April 11, we’ve rounded up a host of the titles ready and in the running for a splash in either Official Selection or the main parallel sections of Directors’ Fortnight and Critics’ Week.

The registration deadline was March 15, with March 22 the official cut-off for submissions to arrive...

The César Awards are always the biggest night of the year for French cinema, but the massive award season impact of “Anatomy of a Fall” ensured that this year’s event took on additional importance for Oscar watchers around the globe. When the 49th César Awards took place in Paris on Friday night, all eyes were on Justine Triet and her Palme d’Or-winning film.

Predictably, “Anatomy of a Fall” swept many of the night’s biggest categories. In addition to winning the top prize of Best Film, Triet was honored with Best Director and shared Best Screenplay with her partner Arthur Harari. Stars Sandra Hüller and Swann Arlaud also won Best Actress and Best Supporting Actor, respectively.

The night’s other big winner was Thomas Cailley’s “The Animal Kingdom,” which won awards for Cinematography, Visual Effects, Costume Design, and Sound.

Keep reading for a complete list of winners from the 2024 César Awards.

The 49th Cesar Awards, France’s top film honors, have been handed out in Paris, with Justine Triet‘s Oscar contender Anatomy of a Fall emerging as the big winner.

The French courtroom drama — which is competing at the Oscars in five categories — earned the best film prize, best actress for Sandra Hüller, best director for Triet, best original screenplay shared between Triet and co-writer Arthur Harari, and Swann Arlaud took home the best supporting actor trophy.

Hüller won in the best actress category over Oscar winner Marion Cotillard, nominated for Little Girl Blue; Lea Drucker, up for Last Summer; Hafsia Herzi, nominated for The Rapture; and Belgian actress Virginie Efira, nominated for her work in Just the Two of Us.

The other big winner on the night was The Animal Kingdom, French director Thomas Cailley’s follow-up to 2014’s Love at First Fight. Cailley picked up the best cinematography...

Today we feature an exclusive clip of veteran French filmmaker André Téchiné‘s latest oeuvre in My New Friends (aka Les Gens d’à côté) which will be unveiled in the Berlinale’s Panorama section. Formerly going by the title Dans le viseur or La révocation and filmed in late 2022, this drama stars Isabelle Huppert, Hafsia Herzi and Nahuel Perez Biscayart. Huppert plays the role of Lucie who is finds herself in a catch-22 type of situation where her moral linings clash with her ethical beliefs — it goes against her duties as a specialized technical and scientific police officer. Huppert and Herzi would actually re-team shortly after in Patricia Mazuy’s next directing gig, but here, as we see in the clip, we follow Herzi’s character confessing to Huppert’s Lucie that she is up to her neck with her better half not being able to walk in a straight...

Justine Triet’s Oscar-nominated Anatomy of a Fall and Thomas Cailley’s fantasy drama The Animal Kingdom are the front runners for this year’s Cesar Awards, France’s equivalent to the Academy Awards. In nominations announced Wednesday, Anatomy picked up 11 Cesar noms and The Animal Kingdom 12. Both were nominated in the best film and best director categories.

Also nominated for best film are Jean-Baptiste Durand’s Junkyard Dog, All Your Faces from director Jeanne Herry and Cédric Kahn’s The Goldman Case.

France’s official Academy Award contender, Anh Hung Tran’s foodie period drama The Taste of Things, which missed out on an Oscar nom on Tuesday, picked up three Ceasar nominations, but none in the main categories.

German actress Sandra Hüller, a best actress nominee at this year’s Oscars for her starring turn in Anatomy of a Fall, is also up for the Cesar for best actress,...

Thomas Cailley’s fantasy drama The Animal Kingdom topped the nominations for France’s César Awards, which were announced in Paris on Wednesday.

The drama picked up 12 nominations with Justine Triet’s Oscar hopeful Anatomy Of A Fall coming in second with 11 nominations, followed by Jeanne Herry’s All Your Faces, which nine, and The Goldman Case, with eight.

Set in a world where human beings start transmuting into animals, The Animal Kingdom world premiered as the opening film of Cannes Un Certain Regard in 2023 and went on to make $8.5M at the box office last fall.

The Animal Kingdom and Anatomy of a Fall are competing in eight categories spanning Best Film, Director, Original Screenplay, Male Revelation, Editing, Sound, Cinematography and Production Design.

The high nomination count for Herry’s ensemble drama All Your Faces was thanks to the fact it dominated the Supporting Actress category with separate nominations for cast members Leila Bekhti,...

Thomas Cailley’s supernatural drama “The Animal Kingdom” and Justine Triet’s Palme d’Or winner “Anatomy of a Fall” are leading the race at the 49th Cesar Awards with 12 and 11 nominations, respectively.

Triet’s movie, which just garnered an impressive five Oscar nominations, and “The Animal Kingdom,” which opened at Cannes’ Un Certain Regard and won a prize, will vie for top Cesar awards including best director and film.

“The Animal Kingdom” is an ambitious film that marks a departure from France’s cinema tradition of social realism. It’s both a creature-filled dystopia and a father-and-son drama, weaving some contemporary concerns over the future of mankind. It’s produced by Pierre Guyard at Nord Ouest Films and co-produced by Artemis.

“Anatomy of a Fall,” meanwhile stars Sandra Hüller — the German actor nominated for Cesar, Oscar and BAFTA awards — as a novelist who is put on trial following the...

Justine Triet’s Anatomy Of A Fall was named best film of the year at France’s Lumiere Awards on Monday evening.

Triet and co-writer Arthur Harari also took home the best screenplay award and lead Sandra Hüller earned the prize for best actress at the 29th edition of the awards, considered to be France’s version of the Golden Globes and voted on by international correspondents from 36 countries.

The courtroom drama about a woman on trial for her husband’s death in the French Alps was nominated in six categories, but Lumiere voters spread their votes across the board...

Justine Triet’s Anatomy Of A Fall continued its prize-winning run on Monday at France’s 29th Lumière Awards clinching Best Film and Best Screenplay, while its German star Sandra Hüller won Best Actress.

The Lumières fete the best films, performances and technical achievements of French cinema across 13 categories.

The French equivalent of the Golden Globes, they are voted on by the Académie des Lumières which is made up of France-based international journalists representing 36 countries.

In other key prizes, Thomas Cailley won Best Director for Cannes 2023 Un Certain Regard opener The Animal Kingdom, while Arieh Worthalter won Best Actor for his performance in Cédric Khan’s Cannes Directors’ Fortnight opener The Goldman Case.

Triet’s Cannes Palme d’Or winner Anatomy of a Fall, which was nominated in six Lumière categories, is on an award-winning streak.

The movie swept the board at the European Film Awards in Berlin last December...

The Berlinale has completed the lineup for its Panorama, Generation, Forum and Forum expanded sections, with new films from Levan Akin and Andre Techine, plus the debut feature of US playwright Annie Baker.

Swedish filmmaker Akin, who scored an international hit in 2019 with And Then We Danced, will open the Panorama strand with Crossing, about two people travelling from Georgia to Istanbul in search of a young transgender woman.

Scroll down for the full list of Panorama, Generation and Forum features

Also among the 31 films in Panorama are My New Friends from French filmmaker Techine, starring Isabelle Hupert, Hafsia Herzi...

Pyramide is also handling the directorial debut of Johanna Pyykkö, former assistant to Joachim Trier.

Paris-based Pyramide International has acquired Emmanuel Mouret’s comedy drama Une Honnête Femme, starring Camille Cottin, Sara Forestier and India Hair.

It will launch the film at next week’s Rendez-Vous in Paris, along with Thierry de Peretti’s drama A Son Image and Johanna Pyykkö’s My Wonderful Stranger.

Une Honnête Femme zooms in on three friends with different views on love – one who has just left a relationship, one who advocates for a relationship without love, and one who sees love as an adventure.

Pyramide is also handling the directorial debut of Johanna Pyykkö, former assistant to Joachim Trier.

Paris-based Pyramide International has acquired Emmanuel Mouret’s comedy drama Une Honnete Femme, starring Camille Cottin, Sara Forestier and India Hair.

It will launch the film at next week’s Rendez-Vous in Paris, along with Thierry de Peretti’s drama A Son Image and Johanna Pyykkö’s My Wonderful Stranger.

Une Honnête Femme zooms in on three friends with different views on love – one who has just left a relationship, one who advocates for a relationship without love, and one who sees love as an adventure.

Pyramide is also handling the directorial debut of Johanna Pyykkö, former assistant to Joachim Trier.

Paris-based Pyramide International has acquired Emmanuel Mouret’s comedy drama Une Honnete Femme, starring Camille Cottin, Sara Forestier and India Hair.

It will launch the film at next week’s Rendez-Vous in Paris, along with Thierry de Peretti’s feature documentary A Son Image and Johanna Pyykkö’s My Wonderful Stranger.

Une Honnête Femme zooms in on three friends with different views on love – one who has just left a relationship, one who advocates for a relationship without love, and one who sees love as an adventure.

The film is about the friendship that develops between two women whose husbands are imprisoned together.

Les Films du Losange has acquired Patricia Mazuy’s drama Les Prisonnières, starring Isabelle Huppert and Hafsia Herzi, and has revealed a first-look picture (above) ahead of the Rendez-Vous with French Cinema taking place next week in Paris.

Huppert and Herzi play two women who develop an unlikely friendship when their husbands are inmates in the same prison.

Les Films du Losange will release the film in France later this year. Les Prisonnières reteams Mazuy with Huppert following The King’s Daughters that premiered...

Arte France Cinéma are throwing their support behind the new projects (which will drop in 2025) from Albert Serra, Hafsia Herzi, Kleber Mendonça Filho and a new project by Tarik Saleh which was flying under the radar. We just reported on Serra moving into English language film with Out Of This World – we can now confirm that filming will take place from June to July in Latvia. Look for casting announcements in the new year.

Herzi’s third feature The Youngest Daughter (which follows in the footsteps of Cannes preemed Tu mérites un amour et Bonne Mère) is now confirmed as a March and April shoot.…...

France’s awards season has officially kicked off with Justine Triet’s “Anatomy of a Fall” landing six nominations at the Lumières Awards, including best film and director.

The courtroom drama, which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes, is the season’s frontrunner. The Lumières are voted on by Paris-based correspondents working for foreign outlets across 36 countries.

Sandra Huller, who stars in the film as a German novelist put on trial after her French husband dies mysteriously, is nominated for best actress, while Milo Machado Graner, who plays her astute, low-vision son, is nominated for best male newcomer.

“Anatomy of Fall” has been on a roll, garnering a raft of international prizes at the European Film Awards, Gothams, as well as Los Angeles and the New York Film Critics Circle Awards, along with four Golden Globe nominations for best film, screenplay, actress and foreign film. The movie that was...

French-Iranian director Emily Atef’s Mercy received €450,000, the biggest slice of funding

Six projects by women filmmakers including Emily Atef, Hafsia Herzi and Lucile Hadzhihalović have received support from the German-French Funding Commission’s Minitraité co-production fund.

The largest single amount of production funding - €450,000 - was awarded to French-Iranian director Emily Atef’s English-language Mercy, an adaptation of Lara Santoro’s eponymous novel. Set in 1997, it is the story of a friendship between a US correspondent in Kenya and a local woman from the slums joining forces to combat the AIDS crisis in the country.

Earlier this year, Atef...

Justine Triet’s Anatomy Of A Fall is the frontrunner for France’s Lumiere awards, the country’s answer to the Golden Globes, with 6 nominations, including for best film and best director.

The courtroom drama, starring Sandra Hüller as a writer who may have murdered her husband, won the Palme d’Or in Cannes this year and swept the European Film Awards on the weekend, taking 5 trophies, including best film. Anatomy of Fall, a Neon release in the U.S., has been nominated for 4 Golden Globes.

Tran Anh Hung’s foodie period drama The Taste of Things, which was picked over Anatomy of a Fall as France’s country’s official Oscar contender in the best international feature category, received just one Lumiere nom, for best cinematography.

Another French courtroom drama, Cedric Kahn’s The Goldman Case, picked up 5 Lumiere noms, tying with Thomas Cailley’s sci-fi tale The Animal Kingdom.

The Lumieres are voted on by international correspondents from 36 countries.

Justine Triet’s Palme d’Or winning Anatomy Of A Fall leads the nominations for France’s Lumiere awards, nominated in six categories, including best film and best director.

Cedric Kahn’s courtroom drama The Goldman Case and Thomas Cailley’s The Animal Kingdom, have each received five nominations.

All three films have been nominated in the best film category alongside Catherine Breillat’s Last Summer that earned four nominations and Clément Cogitore’s Son of Ramses with three.

The filmmakers of all five of those titles have also been nominated for best director.

"After the alignment, the world will change forever. Everything will start over."...

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

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

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

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

Cannes Critics’ Week, a parallel film festival sidebar selected by the French Syndicate of Cinema Critics, has unveiled its 2023 selection of 11 features, including seven competition titles and four special screenings.

The section focuses on first and second features from emerging directors. The 62nd edition runs alongside the main Cannes festival May 17-25.

This year’s competition lineup includes two Asian horror movies: the Korean horror film Sleep (Jam) from first-time director, and former Bong Joon Ho assistant, Jason Yu, and Tiger Stripes from Malaysian director Amanda Eu. The former features Parasite star Lee Sun-kyun and Train to Busan‘s Jung Yu-mi as newlyweds whose lives descend into horror triggered by the husband’s strange behavior while asleep. Tiger Stripes, which draws inspiration from Southeast Asian folklore, is a coming-of-age tale about a 12-year-old girl whose body starts to change in alarming and horrifying ways as she hits puberty.

Physical changes...

Sidebar devoted to first and second films runs May 17-25.

Cannes Critics’ Week, the sidebar devoted to first and second films, has unveiled the selection for its 62nd edition running May 17-25.

Scroll down for full list of titles

A selection committee led by Ava Cahen, now in her second year in the position, chose 11 titles from 1,000 films screened and seven were selected for the competition.

All of the films in selection are world premieres. Seven are first films that will vie for the Camera d’Or and six are directed by women, including four of the seven films in competition.

Cannes Critics’ Week has announced the selection for its 62nd edition, running from May 17 to 25.

The parallel Cannes section will screen 11 features, seven in competition, and four as special screenings, selected from 1,000 submissions. Scroll down for the full list.

The section, which is overseen by the French Syndicate of Cinema Critics, focuses on first and second features as well as shorts by emerging talents.

Stories of couples, parenthood, family relationships and friendships unfolding against difficult political or societal realities abound in this year’s line-up.

In Competition, Brazilian director Lillah Halla’s Power Alley (Levante) follows a budding teenage volleyball champion who discovers she is pregnant on the eve of an important championship and then comes up against Brazil’s abortion ban.

Blocked in her attempts to seek an illegal termination, the girl’s future seems to be in everyone’s hands but hers, until help comes from an unexpected quarter.

Ibiza

He has been steadily building his filmography with 2014’s 40-Love, 2018’s Cléo & Paul and 2019’s The Girl with a Bracelet and we have a feeling that this fourth feature film (which went into production this past May) might have plenty to offer. Stéphane Demoustier enlisted Hafsia Herzi and the less-known Moussa Mansaly for a project that was formerly known as Borgo, and while details are non-existent we’ve come to understand that the island and sun setting are indeed important details to the the film’s core. Ibiza was actually filmed in Corsica. Petit Film and France 3 Cinéma are producing.…...

Portraits trompeurs

Two decades after working together on the Un Certain Regard selected Saint-Cyr (2020), Patricia Mazuy is set to reteam with Isabelle Huppert and the always-convincing Hafsia Herzi on Portraits trompeurs. Production has actually not yet begun but we’re looking at a production start this month or next which means we could see this play year-end fests and a late domestic release. Co-written by François Bégaudeau, Pierre Courrège and Mazuy, the screenplay looks at two women sharing the burden of having their husbands incarcerated and the bound that develops between them. Production will take place in Metz and Strasbourg.…...

To be seen next year in Mektoub, My Love: Canto Due and Stéphane Demoustier’s Ibiza, the always busy Hafsia Herzi leads a quartet of players in a new directorial debut that might be worth keeping tabs on. A short filmmaker and La Fémis grad, Iris Kaltenbäck will have Herzi, Alexis Manenti, Nina Meurisse and Younès Boucif to work with on Le Ravissement. Cineuropa reports that production began this week and will move into mid November. Marianne Productions’ Alice Bloch (The Heroics) and MacT Productions’ Thierry de Clermont-Tonnerre (yes part of the filmmaker family) are producing. Marine Atlan (Summer Scars – read review) is the cinematographer.…...

Late last week we learned that Arte France Cinéma are getting behind four projects – all noteworthy in our books. Patricia Mazuy will direct Isabelle Huppert and Hafsia Herzi in Portraits trompeurs. Emmanuel Finkiel will direct Mélanie Thierry La chambre de Mariana. Walter Salles will adapt Je suis encore là. Payal Kapadia will move into fiction with All We Imagine as Light. Here is a more complete project by project breakdown below:

Portraits trompeurs

Director: Patricia Mazuy

Cast: Isabelle Huppert, Hafsia Herzi.

Production co.: Arp and Picseyes Films

Production Start Date: January 2023

Location(s): Metz, Strasbourg and Ile-de-France

Gist: This tells of an unlikely friendship between two women whose husbands are in prison.…...

Hafsia Herzi will be setting her sights on her third outing as early as next year. We’ve known Herzi as the face of Abdellatif Kechiche’s The Secret of the Grain and in Mark Jackson’s last pair of films in War Story and This Teacher, but she has firmly made her place as a filmmaker with two Cannes Film Festival selected films of You Deserve a Lover (2019) and Bonne Mère (2021).

Currently toplining Stéphane Demoustier’s Ibiza (formerly titled Borgo), and with the status of Patricia Mazuy’s Portraits trompeurs unknown, Herzi recently received some coin for La Petite Dernière (back in March) and will likely be going through some extensive casting to find the film’s lead.…...

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.”...

Venice’s Critics’ Week, Berlinale and Locarno filmmaker Stéphane Demoustier is set to begin production on his fourth feature film which will film in May on the island of Corsica. There appears to have been a change in location as the initial title was “Ibiza.” We’ve yet to get a logline on Borgo but we found out a bit late in the casting process that Hafsia Herzi and the less known Moussa Mansaly will topline the project. Demoustier’s last film the courtroom thriller The Girl with a Bracelet (read review) “offers a surprising amount of jealousy and sexuality lurks beneath the façade of normalcy between two teen girls which makes for gripping melodrama in an oft-acrimonious courtroom drama.”…...

Alpha: Right To Kill Photo: Courtesy of San Sebastian Film Festival Alpha, The Right To Kill, until Tuesday, All4.com

Brillante Mendoza's gritty crime drama plunges us into the world of Rodrigo Dutarte's 'drug war' and police corruption in the Philippines and is well worth catching before it leaves All4's catch-up service. Focusing on cop Moises (Allen Dizon) and his relationship with young, streetwise snitch - or Alpha - Elijah (Elijah Filamor), the plot is driven by a plan to take down a drug kingpin. The plot beats may be familiar from other films but its political commentary is scathing, as is the strong sense of the contrast between Manila's haves and have nots is all its own. Catch it quick before it leaves Channel 4's catch-up service.

This Teacher, w4free.com

I was quite surprised to discover this tense indie gem lurking on free...

The Hamptons Intl. Film Festival will open with the world premiere of Matthew Heineman’s “The First Wave” on Oct. 7 and buzzy titles including Pablo Larrain’s “Spencer” as the Saturday centerpiece film and Jane Campion’s “The Power of the Dog” in the additional spotlight selection. The in-person festival ends Oct. 13 with Wes Anderson’s “French Dispatch.” The festival takes place in the Hamptons on the Eastern End of Long Island, N.Y. from Oct. 7-13. Masks and proof of vaccination are required in theaters.

Spotlight Titles

Newly announced Spotlight titles include the East Coast premiere of Joe Wright’s “Cyrano,” Maggie Gyllenhaal’s directorial feature debut of “The Lost Daughter,” Academy Award-winning director Pedro Almodóvar’s “Parallel Mothers,” Rebecca Hall’s directorial debut “Passing” and Campion’s “The Power of the Dog.”

Signature Programs

As part of the Signature Programs, the Conflict and Resolution section will include Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s “Flee,...

TitaneIN COMPETITIONPalme d’Or: Titane (Julia Ducournau) (Read our review)Grand Prix ex aequo: A Hero (Asgar Farhadi)Grand Prix ex aequo: Compartment No. 6 (Juho Kuosmanen)Jury Prize ex aequo: Ahed's Knee (Nadav Lapid) (Read our review)Jury Prize ex aequo: Memoria (Apichatpong Weerasethakul) (Read our review)Best Director: Leos Carax (Annette)Best Actor: Caleb Landry-Jones (Nitram)Best Actress: Renate Reinsve (The Worst Person in the World)Best Screenplay: Ryûsuke Hamaguchi and Takamasa Oe (Drive My Car) (Read our review)Unclenching the FistsUN Certain REGARDGrand Prize: Unclenching the Fists (Kira Kovalenko) (Read our review)Ensemble Prize: Bonne Mere (Hafsia Herzi)Jury Prize: Great Freedom (Sebastian Meise)Courage: La Civil (Teodora Ana Mihai)Originality: Lamb (Valdimar Jóhannsson)Jury Special Mention: Prayers for the Stolen (Tatiana Huezo)Directors' FORTNIGHTEuropa Cinemas Cannes Label for Best European Film: A Chiara (Jonas Carpignano)Sacd Prize: Magnetic Beats (Vincent Maël Cardona)A ChiaraCAMERA D'ORMurina (Antoneta Alamat Kusijanovic...

Spike Lee jumped the gun, announcing Palme d’Or winner “Titane” before the other prizes at the Cannes Film Festival awards. The unplanned goof could have robbed the awards of their usual suspense, but instead, created a thrillingly unpredictable energy as presenters and attendees alike tried to imagine how to get the train back on track and what the jury president might do next … while holding their breath for the festival’s second-ever female Palme d’Or winner to accept her prize.

With “Titane,” French director Julia Ducournau (“Raw”) delivers a radical horror vision — a portrait of a serial killer impregnated by a car who disguises her gender and goes incognito as a lonely fireman’s long-lost son — sure to make waves as it rolls out in the wider world.

Turns out, the run-of-show slip was the first of many surprises, which included two ties. When it came time for Ducournau to accept her prize,...

The final full day of screenings at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival ended with a statistic, which was delivered by Cannes General Delegate Thierry Fremaux on the stage of the Salle Debussy just before midnight on Friday:

Over the first 11 days of the festival and the thousands of Covid-19 tests administered on the premises each day, 70 people tested positive for the virus. For Fremaux and the festival, the stat – slightly more than the three-positive-tests-per-day estimate made earlier – was still one to celebrate, suggesting that the scaled-down Cannes managed to navigate a difficult time without turning into a superspreader event.

Of course, Fremaux’s announcement preceded the screening of Gaspar Noe’s “Vortex,” a movie about aging, illness and death, which perhaps made it a tricky moment to be celebrating all the negative tests.

The prize parade

According to the awards that have been handed out in Cannes, the festival’s top...

Unclenching The Fists Photo: Courtesy of Cannes Film Festival The Russian filmmaker Kira Kovalenko’s Unclenching The Fists has won the top accolade in Un Certain Regard, the sidebar section of the Cannes Festival focused this year on emerging film-makers.

The drama, which is set in a former mining town in Russia’s southern region of North Ossetia, tells the story of a young woman trying to break free from her family’s grip.

Kovalenko, who wrote and directed the film, was unable to attend the awards ceremony in person as she is on set for another film.

La Civil Photo: Courtesy of Cannes Film Festival The Icelandic horror-comedy hybrid Lamb, received a special jury prize for originality. The remaining three awards were presented to female-directed films, with French actor-turned-filmmaker Hafsia Herzi’s Marseille-set family drama Good Mother winning a prize for best ensemble performance. Rumanian director Teodora Ana Mihai...

The jury was headed by UK director Andrea Arnold.

Russian director Kira Kovalenko’s family drama Unclenching The Fists has won the top prize of Cannes Un Certain Regard 2021.

Kovalenko’s second feaure following 2016’s Sofichka is handled internationally by Wild Bunch.

The jury prize went to Sebastian Miese’s Great Freedom, a love story that tracks the persecution of homosexuality in Germany over the decades following the Second World War. It is the Austrian director’s second film following Still Life and is sold by The Match Factory.

The ensemble prize was awarded to French director Hafsia Herzi’s...

“Unclenching The Fists,” a Russian drama directed by Kira Kovalenko, won the top prize in the Un Certain Regard sidebar competition at Cannes. And shortly after the awards were announced, the UK streamer and distributor Mubi acquired all North American rights to the film, an individual with knowledge told TheWrap.

Mubi has been on a buying spree out of the festival — earlier in the week, the distributor acquired another Un Certain Regard prize winner, “Great Freedom,” as well as “Lingui, The Sacred Bonds” from the main competition. Mubi also picked up the UK, Ireland, Latin America and India rights to “Unclenching the Fists.”

Awards for the Un Certain Regard were announced Friday in a ceremony at the Debussy Theatre at Cannes.

Andrea Arnold, who was also at the festival behind her documentary “Cow,” was president of the Un Certain Regard jury. She led a jury that included director Mounia Meddour,...

Cannes — At a banner ceremony for female filmmakers, Russian writer-director Kira Kovalenko’s sophomore feature “Unclenching the Fists” won the top prize for best film in the Un Certain Regard section at the Cannes Film Festival this evening.

The film, a powerful study of a young woman attempting to assert her independence in a North Ossetian mining town with a bitter legacy of violence, was one of four female-directed features to take awards from a jury headed by British director Andrea Arnold — a Cannes veteran whose first documentary, “Cow,” was unveiled in Cannes Premieres this year.

Arnold cited the “explosion of originality, physicality and feeling” in Kovalenko’s film as their primary motivation for awarding it the top prize. Shortly after the ceremony, it was announced that Mubi had picked up Kovalenko’s film for distribution in North America, the U.K. and other territories.

Arnold is noted for her...

Kira Kovalenko’s Russian drama Unclenching The Fists won the Grand Prize in Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard sidebar this year.

The film is produced by Ukranian-Russian super-producer Alexander Rodnyansky with Sergey Melkumov. Set in a former mining town in North Ossetia, the pic follows a young woman who struggles to escape the stifling hold of the family she loves as much as she rejects. Mubi has taken rights to the pic for North America, UK and Ireland, Latin America and India, the streamer said on Twitter.

Elsewhere, the jury led by British filmmaker Andrea Arnold awarded its Jury Prize to Sebastian Meise’s Austrian movie Great Freedom. Mubi also bought that movie, which is set in post-war Germany and tells the story of a man who is imprisoned time and time again for being homosexual, here in Cannes.

The Ensemble Prize went to Hafsia Herzi’s Bonne Mere.

News comes as Lea Seydoux tests positive in Paris, casting doubt on Cannes attendance.

Cannes Film Festival director Thierry Frémaux has denounced “silly” rumours of Covid spread at the festival, claiming that “there is no Cannes cluster”.

Speaking before a screening of Hafsia Herzi’s Un Certain Regard title Bonne Mere at 2pm on Saturday July 10, Frémaux read a statement to the audience in which he said there were no positive tests at all at the festival on Friday July 9.

Frémaux provided data on the number of tests given and cases contracted at the festival. He also sought to reassure...