France’s revamped Oscar committee has selected Jacques Audiard’s exhilarating redemption thriller “Emilia Perez” for the international feature film race. The movie won two major awards at the Cannes Film Festival and earned rave reviews. “Emilia Perez” stars Karla Sofía Gascón as a fearsome drug lord who embraces her true self as a woman. The Spanish-language film earned […]

Production has begun on “Merteuila,” a new French original series for Max adapted from Pierre Choderlos de Laclos’ 18th century classic novel “Dangerous Liaisons.” Directed by by Jessica Palud and created by Jean-Baptiste Delfaon, the show stars Anamaria Vartolomei (playing Isabelle de Merteuil), Diane Kruger (Madame de Rosemonde), Vincent Lacoste (Vicomte de Valmont) and Lucas […]

French film group MK2 (“Anatomy of a Fall”), a family-owned company operating an independent cinema circuit in France and Spain, reached a milestone with the theatrical performance of “Kaizen,” a documentary film about 22-year old YouTube star Inoxtag which sold an estimated 350,000 tickets from 1,000 screenings in a single day. The two-and-a-half-hour inspirational documentary […]

Mipjunior will shine a spotlight on the blockbuster Miraculous franchise with a keynote hosted by Andy Yeatman, the recently appointed CEO of U.S. and global operations for Miraculous Corp. The new banner, Miraculous Corp, is a joint venture between Mediawan, the European production and distribution group spearheaded by Pierre-Antoine Capton, and Zag, the animation studio […]

The American French Film Festival (previously called COLCOA) is back with a bang after being canceled last year due to the WGA and SAG/AFTRA strikes. The 28th edition of the festival will play two of the year’s most buzzed-about French movies, Jacques Audiard’s redemption thriller “Emilia Pérez” and epic adventure film “The Count of Monte […]

France’s Oscars committee has shortlisted four movies, including Jacques Audiard’s redemption thriller “Emilia Perez” and “The Count of Monte Cristo,” an epic adventure film adapted from Alexandre Dumas’ classic, as well as Payal Kapadia’s “All We Imagine as Light” and Alain Guiraudie’s “Misericordia.” All four movies word premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. “Emilia Perez” […]

Yes Studios is partnering up with Paramount’s Ananey Studios on “The Lost City: 101 Days in Captivity,” a new three-part documentary series revolving around the true story of four young Israelis who were kidnapped while on a trip to South America in 2003. The series, which will premiere on Yes Docu on Sept. 19, was […]

French studio Pathé has seen its marketing and programming strategy pay off with “The Count of Monte Cristo,” an epic adventure film adapted from Alexandre Dumas’ classic which struck box office gold in France during a competitive summer marked by the Olympics. Helmed by Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de la Patellière (“The Three Musketeers”), the sweeping three-hour movie […]

France’s National Film Board has unveiled its revamped and expanded Oscar committee which is presided over by Charles Tesson, the former artistic director of Cannes’ Critics Week. Along with Tesson, the committee includes “Emmanuelle” director Audrey Diwan who won Venice’s Golden Lion with “Happening” in 2021; critically acclaimed French playwright, director and producer Florian Zeller […]

International sales outfit LevelK has secured deals for “Mr. K,” Tallullah H. Schwab’s surreal drama which world premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in the competitive Platform section. The film stars Crispin Glover as a traveling magician who finds himself trapped in a Kafka-esque nightmare and is unable to leave the hotel where he’s staying. […]

“Journey to the End of the Night,” a literary masterpiece penned by controversial French author Louis-Ferdinand Céline, is being adapted for the big screen by Joann Sfar (“The Rabbi’s Cat,” “Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life”) and Thomas Bidegain (“A Prophet,” “Emilia Pérez”). Well-established producers Aton Soumache (“The Little Prince”) and Alain Attal (“Beating Hearts”) are developing […]

MK2 Films has tapped Vanessa Saal, the former managing director at Protagonist Pictures, as executive consultant and U.K. lead. The key strategic hire underscores the company’s ambitions to scale up co-productions and acquisitions, including with English language projects. Based in London, Saal will work alongside the company’s co-CEO Nathanael Karmitz and managing director Fionnuala Jamison. […]

Paris-based Loco Films has boarded “Paying For It,” Canadian helmer Sook-Yin Lee (“Octavio is Dead!”)’s adaptation of Chester Brown’s best-selling graphic novel. The movie is world premiering at Toronto Film Festival in the competitive Platform section. Co-written by Lee and Joanne Sarazen (“Backspot,” “Tammy’s Always Dying”), the live action movie stars Dan Beirne (“Twentieth Century,” […]

This year’s Venice Film Festival lineup was not only the starriest in recent history, it was also the steamiest. Literally and figuratively. Aside from the brutal heatwave that plagued festivalgoers, the roster was filled with sexually charged movies, ranging from “Babygirl,” starring Nicole Kidman, to Luca Guadagnino’s “Queer” with Daniel Craig. Elsewhere in the festival […]

Paris-based sales and distribution company Les Films du Losange has boarded “Resurrection,” a sci-fi detective movie directed by Chinese director Bi Gan, whose 2018 film “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” played at Cannes. Headlined by Chinese-language stars Jackson Yee (“Better Days”) and Shu Qi (“The Assassin”), the movie recently wrapped the second part of its shooting […]

Metrograph Pictures has acquired North American rights to Neo Sora’s narrative debut “Happyend,” a dystopian portrait of rebellious youth fighting for a better future. Sora’s fiction feature debut, “Happyend” had its world premiere at Venice Film Festival in the Horizons section and will go on to play at Toronto, Busan and New York Film Festival. […]

Pulsar Content has boarded “A Survivor’s Tale,” produced by KG Prods. (“Custody”), the banner founded by Costa Gavras and Michèle Ray-Gavras. The movie is headlined by Salomé Dewaels, the star of Xavier Giannoli’s Venice competition film “Lost Illusions.” Directed by Belgian filmmaker Micha Wald, ”A Survivor’s Tale” is based on the true story of Marguerite […]

Memento Distribution (“Cairo Confidential”) has nabbed French rights to “The New Year That Never Came,” a film directed by Bogdan Muresanu which is world premiering at the Venice Film Festival. The tragi-comedy is set in 1989, at the end Nicolae Ceaușescu’s regime, and follows multiple protagonists on the verge of a nervous breakdown, including an aspiring […]

French-American actor and director Julie Delpy has tackled culture clash in comedies before in ”Two Days in Paris” and “Two Days in New York,” but it’s never been as poignant as in “Meet the Barbarians,” where she explores the journey of a Syrian family who find refuge in a village in Northern France. The movie, […]