Actualités

Dilili is an adorable, charmingly unconventional heroine: a 6-year-old Kanak girl from New Caledonia who dresses like Shirley Temple and speaks like royalty. And Paris, glittering with elegant couture and a shiny new Eiffel Tower, never looked more splendid than it did around the turn of the 20th century, when Michel Ocelot’s new computer-animated feature is set. So why does “Dilili in Paris” feel like such a waste of both of these appealing assets?

Ocelot no doubt intends to set some kind of positive example with his latest adventure, the first to take place in the marvelous city he calls home, but about one girl’s fight for respect and gender equality in the early 1900s. It’s a complicated issue with an ugly past, which Ocelot has the courage to acknowledge — the film introduces young Dilili topless, chopping vegetables outside a straw hut in the park while well-dressed...

"We will unravel the mystery of the Male Masters...!" Samuel Goldwyn Films has debuted a new official Us trailer for the French animated film titled Dilili In Paris, which won France's major César Award for Best Animated Film last year. This premiered at the Annecy Film Festival last summer, and is finally arriving in the Us after a year of playing at other festivals all around the world. The film is animated in a distinct style without any shading, only solid colors and certain tracing elements in the characters. In Belle Époque Paris, accompanied by a young scooter deliveryman, little Kanak Dilili investigates mysterious kidnappings of girls. Featuring the voices of Prunelle Charles-Ambron, Enzo Ratsito, and Natalie Dessay as Emma Calvé in the original, French-language version. Though it will also be released with an English dub in the Us (as heard in this trailer). This reminds me a bit of Midnight in Paris,...

In today’s film news roundup, J.K. Simmons’ “I’m Not Here” and French animated movie “Dilili in Paris” get releases and Andrea Friedman nabs a film role.

Acquisitions

Gravitas Ventures has acquired worldwide rights to the J.K. Simmons drama “I’m Not Here” for a March 8 release, Variety has learned exclusively.

The film also stars Sebastian Stan, Maika Monroe, Mandy Moore, and Max Greenfield. It’s directed by Michelle Schumacher, who wrote the film alongside Tony Cummings.

Simmons portrays a man haunted by his past as every object in his home, every sound he hears, reminds him of a specific event in his life as he attempts to move past the pain and forgive his trespassers, and more importantly, forgive himself.

Schumacher said, “Tony and I wanted to explore the idea of understanding one’s life by connecting the dots of meaningful events and viewing them through the lens of quantum mechanics.

Samuel Goldwyn Films has acquired U.S. rights to Michel Ocelot’s animated Dilili in Paris, which is part of Sgf’s plan to expand into distributing more family entertainment films. A 2019 theatrical release is in the works.

Dilili centers on a young girl who becomes caught up in a mystery plot that will take her through the upper reaches and lower depths of Belle Époque-era Paris. In the course of her investigation, she visits incredible places and encounters a series of extraordinary characters, each providing her with clues that will help in her quest to save the women of Paris. Prunelle Charles-Ambron, Enzo Ratsito and Natalie Dessay voice the cast.

Ocelot, whose credits include the animated Kirikou and the Sorceress, Princes and Princesses and Azur & Asmar: The Princes’ Quest, wrote and directed Dilili, which opened the 2018 Annecy animation festival, bowed in French theaters last fall and was nominated for a César Award.