Playtime, a Paris-based sales, production and equity investment company, has picked up “Chopin, a Sonata in Paris,” an ambitious biopic of famed composer and pianist Frédéric Chopin hailing from Poland’s leading production banner Akson Studio (“Katyń,” “Warsaw 44”). Budgeted at $17.5 million, the movie reteams producer-director Michał Kwieciński with the rising Polish actor of “Filip,” […]

The European Film Awards is set to make its debut in Southwestern Europe in January 2027, when its 39th edition will be hosted in Athens. The award show, which were first presented in Berlin in 1988 to promote and support the European film industry, previously took place in London, Paris, Rome, Barcelona, Warsaw, Copenhagen, Tallinn, Malta, […]

Jean-Marie Le Pen, the founder of France’s far-right party Front National, has died. He was 96. His family confirmed the news in a statement sent to the AFP and said he died “surrounded by his loved ones.” One of France’s best known and most controversial political figures, Le Pen led the Front National Party from […]

In an awards season where the race still seems to be fairly wide open, one film is gaining more traction than most as the finish line wobbles into view over the horizon. “Emilia Perez” wasn’t talked about as an Oscar hopeful after it first bowed at the Cannes Film Festival, but eight months on and Jacques […]

The anticipated sixth season of “Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir,” the Paris-set blockbuster animated superhero series, is set to world premiere in the U.S. on Jan. 25. The new season will bow on Disney Channel and Disney XD with episodes airing in simulcast at 11am ET/PT, while the international rollouts will begin during the first quarter […]

After surging back from the pandemic with a 16% growth in 2023, France’s box office continued to grow in 2024 with €1.36 billion ($1.41 billion) grossed from 183.1 million admissions sold, a 0.5% year-on rise, according to Comscore and the National Film Board (CNC). While the increase may appear modest, it nevertheless solidifies France as […]

After slowly returning to production in the wake of a restructuring, EuropaCorp, the company founded by “The Professional” director Luc Besson, is now fully back in action with several French and international films in the pipeline. These include the Snoop Dogg sci-fi movie “The Last Man,” and “Disorder,” a thriller starring Dylan Sprayberry (Teen Wolf”) […]

One of France’s most critically lauded producers of the last decade with movies such as Audrey Diwan’s Golden Lion prizewinner “Happening,” Edouard Weil has sold his Paris-based production company Rectangle Productions to sales company Goodfellas after filing for bankruptcy in June. Goodfellas, the thriving sales company co-founded by Vincent Maraval, is a longtime collaborator of […]

Highlighting the power of local stories, Italy’s box office has been taken by storm by “The Boy With Pink Pants,” Margherita Ferri’s intimate film telling the harrowing true tale of a 15-year-old boy who took his own life after enduring bullying at school and online. Produced and fully financed by Tarak Ben Ammar’s Eagle Pictures, […]

French pay TV giant Canal+, which is behind “Paddington” producer Studiocanal, has officially split from parent company Vivendi in time for its 40-year anniversary. Making its debut solo on the London stock exchange on Monday, Canal+ enlisted a homegrown executive, Amandine Ferré — who has been at the company for 15 years and was most recently based in […]

Snoop Dogg will star in and co-produce Luc Besson’s next movie, an original sci-fi movie titled “The Last Man.” Although the post-apocalyptic plot is under wrap, it may be connected in some ways to Dogg’s 2009 song “Last Man Standing.” The project is penned by Luc Besson, who successfully dived in science-fiction with the 1997 […]

Pulsar Content has nabbed worldwide sales on “Two Women,” a Canadian sexy comedy which is slated to world premiere at Sundance. Directed by Chloé Robichaud, “Two Women” is written by critically acclaimed playwright Catherine Léger based on her own play, “Home Deliveries,” which is itself a modern adaptation of Claude Fournier’s 1970 comedy “Two Women […]

Shudder, AMC Networks’ premium streaming service has bought “The Ugly Stepsister,” a sinister twist on the classic Cinderella story, ahead of the film’s world premiere at Sundance. The movie, which is slated to open the Midnight Section in Park City, was picked up by Shudder for North American, U.K., and ANZ rights. Memento International represents […]