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Angelina Jolie is at the Cannes Film Festival, not with a film in the lineup but with official duties thanks to the festival’s longtime (and glamorous) sponsor, Chopard.

The Oscar winner agreed to serve as this year’s Chopard Godmother, a gig that saw her preside over Friday night’s A-list Trophée Chopard dinner at Carlton Beach and present trophies to an actor and actress anointed as next generational talent by a jury comprised of previous recipients of the esteemed festival honor. This year’s awards went to French actress Marie Colomb and breakout British star Finn Bennett, most recently seen in Alex Garland’s Warfare and opposite Jodie Foster in True Detective: Night Country.

The honors were doled out during what is always a glitzy ceremony attended by Cannes Film Festival president Iris Knobloch, general delegate Thierry Frémaux, Chopard co-president and artistic director Caroline Scheufele, members of the competition jury and A-list guests.

Angelina Jolie presented the 25th Trophée Chopard at a dinner on Carlton Beach on May 16, honoring Marie Colomb and Finn Bennett as rising screen talents. The event, co-hosted by Cannes Film Festival president Iris Knobloch, general delegate Thierry Frémaux and Chopard co-president Caroline Scheufele, brought together jurors, filmmakers and industry figures under a starry Mediterranean sky. Jolie used her platform to highlight the reach of international cinema, its capacity to foster empathy and the urgent need to support storytellers working under threat.

Jolie told attendees—including jury president Juliette Binoche, Halle Berry, Jeremy Strong, Leïla Slimani, Alba Rohrwacher, Quentin Tarantino and Carla Bruni—that films carry audiences far beyond their own experiences. “Through international cinema, we enter private moments, we witness lives at stake on distant front lines,” she said. Referencing My Father Shadow, a drama set against the 1993 Nigerian election crisis premiering at the festival, she added, “Any step...

Oscar winner Angelina Jolie made a special appearance at the Cannes Film Festival on Friday night to present the Trophée Chopard to rising stars Marie Colomb and Finn Bennett. During the glamorous dinner ceremony, Jolie reflected on the power of international cinema to make an impact in times of global turmoil.

“I love international cinema,” Jolie told the star-studded assembly of guests, which included Cannes jury president Juliette Binoche and her fellow jurors, including Halle Berry, Jeremy Strong, Leïla Slimani and Alba Rohrwacher, as well as Quentin Tarantino and Carla Bruni. “We are brought to other lands, into private moments, even on the battlefield, we connect and we empathize. I think of films like ‘My Father Shadow’ [set during the during the 1993 Nigerian election crisis], which is premiering here at Cannes. Anything that is possible to make international cinema more accessible is necessary and welcome.”

“And none of us are naive,” Jolie, whose contributions as a humanitarian are...

Academy Award winner Angelina Jolie will attend the 78th Cannes Film Festival to serve as the godmother of the 25th edition of the Trophée Chopard.

Jolie will present the trophy to rising stars Marie Colomb and Finn Bennett during a ceremony on Carlton Beach on May 16. The presentation will take place during a dinner co-hosted by Cannes Film Festival president Iris Knobloch, general delegate Thierry Frémaux and Chopard co-president and artistic director Caroline Scheufele.

“I am so happy to welcome Angelina Jolie as our Trophée Chopard Godmother,” stated Scheufele. “Her amazing film career and dedication to making a difference in the world make her an ideal role model. I know the rising talents we honor this year will be inspired by her journey and advice.”

Winner of the best supporting actress Oscar for “Girl, Interrupted,” Jolie was most recently seen in Pablo Larraín’s “Maria,” and stars in Alice Winocour’s upcoming bilingual drama “Couture,...

Exclusive: France’s Studio TF1 has taken on international sales rights to Ludovic Bernard’s Scotland-set con artist comedy The Perfect Family (Les Parfait(s)) and to Frédéric Forestier and Antonin Fourlon’s ensemble comedy sequel Open Season 2 (Chasse Gardée 2).

The Paris-based company, which has just rebranded from its former Newen Studios label, will kick off sales for both films at the Cannes Marche.

The Perfect Family, which stars Audrey Fleurot, Ramzy Bedia and Alan Cumming, is about three generations of a family of master scammers on the run from bloodthirsty gangsters who flee to Scotland where they steal the identities of a picture-perfect family.

Newen Connect has added a trio of French comediesto its EFM slate:Cycle Of Time, No Signal!andThe Family Road.

Vinciane Millereau’s Cycle Of Time stars Elsa Zylberstein, Didier Bourdon, Aurore Clément and Dider Flamand and is about a 1950s French family catapulted into 2025 due to a freak accident with their washing machine, forcing them to face a new world dominated by technology and adapt to a new reality.

Olivier Kahn produces for Ugc which is releasing the film in France in October.

Edouard Pluvieux’s No Signal! is about two young step-siblings spending the weekend with their parents in...

European sales banner Newen Connect has boarded “Haunted Minds,” a psychological thriller directed by Belgian filmmaker Lucas Belvaux (“This Is Our Land”) on the eve of the European Film Market in Berlin.

“‘Haunted Minds” is led by a sexy cast, including Niels Schneider and Ramzy Bedia, who both starred in Xavier Giannoli’s acclaimed limited series “Of Money and Blood.” Deborah François (“Savage State”) and Linh-dan Pham (“Mr. Nobody”) complete the cast.

The movie, which is based on a Belgian novel penned by Belvaux, revolves around a skilled army veteran Skender suffering from Ptsd who’s been estranged from his children and their mother, and is now homeless. “Out of the blue, Max, his former sergeant, approaches him with a life-changing offer, to be the pray of a man. If Skender agrees to the offer, his family will receive a large sum of money upon his death. However, if he survives for one month,...

Homer’s The Iliad and The Odyssey are foundational works of Western literature, yet they are seldom adapted for the screen today. The Iliad was last made into a mainstream Hollywood blockbuster in 2004’s “Troy.” But you must go back to 1954 to find an equivalent for The Odyssey in “Ulysses” starring Kirk Douglas. Since then, The Odyssey has had some notable television adaptations: 1968’s Italian production “Odissea” (with Bekim Fehmiu and Irene Papas), 1997’s American production “The Odyssey” and 2013’s French production “Odysseus”.

Continue reading ‘The Return’ Review: Ralph Fiennes & Juliette Binoche Lead Deeply Satisfying Retelling of Homer’s The Odyssey [TIFF] at The Playlist.

Challengers star Mike Faist and Talk to Me breakout Sophie Wilde have a date with Chopard during this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

The luxury jeweler has selected the actors to receive the prestigious Trophée Chopard, an award doled out since 2001 at the invitation of the house’s Caroline Scheufele as a way to honor cinema’s rising stars. Faist and Wilde will receive the trophies during a glitzy dinner at Carlton Beach on May 17. As previously announced, godmother Demi Moore will take the stage and present the pair with the honors.

The winners are selected by an academy comprising previous winners as well as those who have served as godmothers and godfathers at the ceremony. Winners have included Marion Cotillard, Léa Seydoux, Diane Kruger, Niels Schneider, Florence Pugh, Jessie Buckley, Naomie Ackie and Daryl McCormack.

Faist can currently be seen on screen in Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers opposite Zendaya and Josh O’Connor.

Demi Moore just added another glamorous outing to her Cannes itinerary.

The actress is set to serve as the godmother of the Trophée Chopard ceremony for the luxe jeweler at the Carlton Beach Club on May 17. Created in 2001 by Chopard’s co-president and artistic director Caroline Scheufele, the Trophée Chopard is given annually during the festival “to an actress or actor at the start of their career” as a way to promote the big screen’s next generation and underscore Chopard’s commitment to cinema.

Previous recipients of the honor include Marion Cotillard, Léa Seydoux, Diane Kruger, Niels Schneider, Florence Pugh and Jessie Buckley. Last year, Natalie Portman served in the godmother role and handed trophies to honorees Naomi Ackie and Daryl McCormack. The ceremony is typically an A-list affair as it’s an official dinner of the festival and is a joint invitation of fest president Iris Knobloch, Cannes veteran Thierry Frémaux and Scheufele.

Bill Maher welcomed Katie Couric onto his “Club Random” podcast and passionately defended Woody Allen while the two discussed canceled artists in Hollywood. Maher said “I don’t think he committed that crime” in reference to Dylan Farrow’s molestation allegation against Allen, adding: “There was two police investigations that exonerated him.”

“There’s these actors who won’t work with him anymore and some of them made movies with him are saying, ‘I regret doing that.’ What a bunch of pussies!” Maher said. “First of all, it’s a very improbable crime that they’re accusing him of. Plainly, the other party had motivation and [was] vindictive.”

Maher referenced the HBO documentary “Allen v. Farrow” and said it was all from Mia Farrow’s point of view, alluding that it can’t fully be trusted as an unbiased account of what allegedly happened between Woody Allen and his adopted daughter,...

After a prolific career spanning 58 years and encompassing 50 feature films, Woody Allen finds himself at a crossroads, contemplating whether his latest venture, Coup de chance, will signal the end of his cinematic journey. His latest venture is a comedy-drama thriller film, which he wrote and was released on 27 September 2023 in France.

In an exclusive interview with AirMail, the controversial filmmaker disclosed his uncertainty regarding his future in the industry. "I'm on the fence about it," Allen shared when asked if Coup de chance, an enticing erotic thriller shot in France with French-speaking actors, would mark his cinematic swan song. "I don’t want to have to go out to raise money. I find that a pain in the neck," he admitted, highlighting the challenges of funding independent projects. However, Allen also acknowledged that if a benefactor were to step forward, his myriad of creative ideas might lead him back to the director's chair once again.

Woody Allen’s Coup de Chance starts appropriately with a random encounter and finishes with an out-of-nowhere intervention. But what lies in between those moments of chance is tightly scripted and purposeful, with barely a scene or line out of place. The film is at once among Allen’s most economical works and one of his most free-spirited.

When Alain (Niels Schneider), a fiction writer, runs into Fanny (Lou de Laâge) on a Parisian street near the art auction house where the latter works, it’s a seemingly fleeting moment. Fanny seems charmed but not overly impacted by this encounter with Alain, a passing acquaintance from their time at the Lycée Français in New York. Slightly restless in her marriage to Jean (Melvil Poupaud), a financier whose one-percenter friends describe her as a “trophy wife,” Fanny sees no harm in reconnecting with Alain. You can imagine where this might go.

New York, March 28, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Woody Allen’s newest film is set for release in select theaters across the United States on April 5, 2024. Coup De Chance, a romantic thriller shot entirely in French and starring an acclaimed international cast including Lou de Laâge (International Emmy winner. The Mad Women’s Ball), Valérie Lemercier, (The Visitors), Melvil Poupaud, (Eric Rohmer’s A Tale of Summer), and Niels Schneider (Heartbeats, How I Killed My Mother) is Allen’s 50th film as director.

A sensation when it debuted at the Venice Film Festival, Coup De Chance has received glowing reviews during its international release across Europe and Asia with comparisons to some of Allen’s most acclaimed masterpieces including Blue Jasmine, Match Point, Vicky Cristina Barcelona and Midnight in Paris.

In English, the title means “stroke of luck,” and the film centers around the central role of chance and luck in our lives. Fanny (de Laâge) and Jean (Poupaud,...

Woody Allen’s Coup de Chance premiered at the Venice International Film Festival last September, and THR reports that MPI Media Group will release the movie in the U.S. on April 5th, followed by a Digital/VOD release on April 12th.

The film is Woody Allen’s 50th theatrically released movie and has already made the rounds in many European markets. The official synopsis reads: “Fanny and Jean have everything of the ideal couple: fulfilled in their professional life, they live in a magnificent apartment in the beautiful districts of Paris and seem to be in love as on the first day. But when Fanny crosses, by chance, Alain, a former high school friend, she is immediately capsized. They see each other again very quickly and get closer and closer.” The film stars Lou de Laâge (The Mad Woman’s Ball) as Fanny, Niels Schneider (Sybil) as Alain and...

Woody Allen’s latest film “Coup de Chance,” his 50th feature, is getting a U.S. release. The movie will be distributed by MPI Media Group, the company that has released Allen’s latest few films ever since allegations resurfaced that he sexually abused his adopted daughter Dylan Farrow.

“Coup de Chance” will open at the Quad Cinema in New York City on April 5 (other venues will be confirmed at a later date), followed by a VOD and digital release on April 12.

MPI Media Group previously released “A Rainy Day in New York” (2020) and “Rifkin’s Festival” (2022) in the U.S. “Rainy Day” was originally meant to be released through Allen’s deal with Amazon Studios, but Amazon ultimately canceled the deal when the abuse allegations resurfaced. (Allen won a legal settlement against Amazon.) Allen has been a persona-non-grata in Hollywood, but he’s continued to make movies in Europe.

“Coup de Chance...

Controversial director Woody Allen’s 50th film “Coup de Chance” is coming to U.S. theaters. MPI Media Group will release the movie on April 5 for North American markets, with a digital/VOD release on April 12.

The film, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival in September, drew both protests and an enthusiastic two-and-a-half minute standing ovation.

U.S. theatrical distributors have generally avoided Allen since the #MeToo movement resurfaced Dylan Farrow’s allegations of child molestation against him, and actors like Rebecca Hall, Timothée Chalamet and Greta Gerwig have expressed regret over working with him.

“Coup de Chance,” which translates to “stroke of luck,” stars Valerie Lemercier, Niels Schneider, Lou de Laage, Elsa Zylberstein and Melvil Poupaud in a tale of murder and intrigue that follows a beautiful couple living in Paris whose lives change when a former flame re-enters their orbit.

Variety’s chief film critic Owen Gleiberman...

Last week, The Hollywood Reporter reported that cinephiles were sharing “samizdat” links to Woody Allen’s latest film Coup de Chance from a French-to-Dutch-to-English translation, and New Yorkers were attending clandestine screenings at an East Village bar/event space. Today, THR can exclusively report that those who wish to see the 88-year-old’s latest project, which debuted at the Venice Film Festival in early September to (mostly) positive reviews, can do so without slinking around or needing secret codes.

MPI Media Group will release the picture, Allen’s 50th theatrically released feature film as a director, for North American markets on April 5, 2024. A digital/VOD release will follow on April 12.

The movie, shot in France in French, stars Lou de Laâge (Respire, The Mad Woman’s Ball) as a self-aware trophy wife who reconnects with an old chum from the Lycée Français in New York, played by Niels Schneider (Heartbeats,...

International television festival Series Mania unveiled its 2024 lineup Wednesday, with an impressive slate of world premieres that will grace the screens of Lille, France for the event running March 19-21.

Peacock’s Australia-set family drama Apples Never Fall, featuring Nyad Oscar nominee Annette Bening and Jurassic Park veteran Sam Neill as a dysfunctional couple, will screen in competition at year’s fest, as will MGM+’s Hotel Cocaine, from Narcos showrunner Chris Brancato, a crime thriller featuring The Shield star Michael Chiklis and set in the booming cocaine scene in Miami in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

So Long Marianne, a Canadian-Norwegian co-production from Crave and Norway’s Nrk, will also get its first screening in Lille. The series stars Oppenheimer supporting actor Alex Wolff as legendary singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen in a story of his turbulent relationship with Norwegian writer Marianne Ihlen (played by The Last Kingdom‘s Thea Sofie Loch Næss...

Updated with latest: The Venice Film Festival began August 30 with opening-night movie Comandante, an Italian World War II drama, kicking off a lineup for the venerable fest’s 80th edition that includes world premieres of Michael Mann’s Ferrari, Bradley Cooper’s Maestro, Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla, Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things, David Fincher’s The Killer, Ava DuVernay’s Origins, and new films from lightning-rod directors Roman Polanski, Woody Allen and Luc Besson.

Deadline is on the ground to watch all the key films. Below is a compilation of our reviews from the fest, which last year awarded Laura Poitras’ documentary All The Beauty and the Bloodshed its Golden Lion for best film.

Click on the film titles below to read the reviews in full, and keep checking back as we add more movies throughout the fest, which runs through September 9.

Adagio

Section: Competition

Director: Stefano Sollima

Cast: Pierfrancesco Favino,...

Tempting though it is to pen this review in the voice and style of Mort Rifkin, the most indelible Woody Allen character in years, the embattled New York-born director deserves a fairer shake––maybe a fair trial, if we could say. In this early-2020s era of a gradual pushback against MeToo morality, Allen actually found himself, with Coup de Chance, enjoying a high-ish-profile Venice premiere earlier this week on the verge of a legitimate comeback. A new Variety interview hinted at a path for resuming work in his former production model, an absolute pick of American A-listers again if (perhaps) just one of them scabs. But do we want this? Isn’t it all still enveloped in a kind of discomfort?

Making a very natural transition into classy Francophone cinema, here he has the choice of a potential royal flush of French stars. Coup de Chance is rather pleasurable...

Welcome to Global Breakouts, Deadline’s strand in which, each fortnight, we shine a spotlight on the TV shows and films killing it in their local territories. The industry is as globalized as it’s ever been, but breakout hits are appearing in pockets of the world all the time and it can be hard to keep track. So we’re going to do the hard work for you.

This week we head to the Venice Film Festival to check out French director Xavier Giannoli’s international crime thriller Of Money and Blood, which world premiered in its official selection on August 31 to a buzzy reception.

Name: Of Money and Blood

Country: France

Network: Canal+

Distributor: Studiocanal

Where can I watch: Canal+ in France from October

For fans of: Michael Mann’s The Insider, Martin Scorsese’s Wall Street, Oliver Stone’s JFK, Steven Soderbergh’s Traffic

French writer-director Xavier...

Woody Allen's latest movie, Coup de Chance, received a five-minute ovation at the Venice International Film Festival, despite past controversies. Allen expressed a desire to make another film in New York if he receives financing and creative freedom. Allen has become a divisive figure following allegations made against him by his daughter, Dylan Farrow

Divisive filmmaker Woody Allen returns to Venice. Sixteen years have passed since the now 87-year-old filmmaker journeyed to the Venice International Film Festival back in 2007 (following several controversies). Nevertheless, those in attendance at this year's event responded favorably to his new movie, Coup de Chance. And the writer/director’s latest big-screen effort received a five-minute ovation. Check out the footage below courtesy of Deadline's X account, formerly Twitter:

Woody Allen stunned by the enthusiastic response to Coup de Chance at #Venezia80 which received a 5-minute ovation pic.twitter.com/vjRd2FSYLV — Deadline Hollywood...

“Coup de Chance” bowed at the 2023 Venice Film Festival on Monday, September 4. Written and directed by Woody Allen, it’s the filmmaker’s 50th feature and the first shot entirely in the French language with English subtitles. The 87-year-old Allen was controversially on hand to attend the screening in person, drawing a small group of protestors on site due to longstanding but never substantiated child sexual abuse allegations made by his daughter Dylan Farrow. The audience in attendance at the world premiere warmly embraced the feature and its writer-director with a reported three-minute ovation upon its conclusion.

Premiering out of competition at the festival, the film was shot in Paris and features an all-French cast. A twisty tale of murder, “Coup de Chance” stars Lou de Laage and Melvil Poupaud as Fanny and Jean, described as “an ideal couple who have everything. Fulfilled in their professional life, they live in...

While promoting his 50th – and quite possibly, last — movie Coup de Chance at the Venice Film Festival, Woody Allen weighed in on cancel culture, the #MeToo Movement, and whether any woman has ever complained about his behavior on set.

“I said years ago that I should have been a poster boy [for the #MeToo movement] and they got all excited about that,” Allen, 87, told Variety in an interview before Sunday’s premiere of the French language film that he wrote and directed. “I’ve made 50 films. I’ve always had very good parts for women, always had women in the crew, always paid them the exact same amount that we paid men, worked with hundreds of actresses, and never, ever had a single complaint from any of them at any point. Not a single one ever said, ‘Working with him, he was mean or he was harassing.’ That’s just not been an issue.

Woody Allen’s 50th film as a director, Coup de Chance, got an enthusiastic reception Monday night at its Venice Film Festival premiere. The 87-year-old filmmaker was cheered to his feet as the credits came down on his French thriller, which co-stars Lou de Laage, Valerie Lemercier, Melvil Poupaud and Niels Schneider. The warm standing ovation lasted five minutes, with Allen and his cast waving and bowing from the grand balcony of Venice’s Sala Grande cinema.

Outside the theater earlier in the evening the situation was very different, however. A group of protesters demonstrated against what they called the “rape culture” of the Venice festival and marched past the cinema’s entrance just as Allen was walking down the red carpet. The protestors, which numbered about 20 people, shouted slogans including “no rape culture” and “we are speaking for those without a voice against the director rapists.” The Venice Film...

Woody Allen received a three-minute standing ovation at the Venice premiere of “Coup de Chance” on Monday night, which would have gone on longer had the filmmaker not started to exit. After two minutes and 30 seconds of sustained applause once the film finished, Allen began to make his way toward the door, cutting the standing ovation short. The filmmaker looked visibly moved during the reaction and at one point took out a tissue.

Allen was greeted in the theater by a standing ovation before the movie even screened as fans tried to catch video of him. The reception was the same on the red carpet, with fans cheering him on enthusiastically — however, just outside the carpet a group of protesters walked by. According to social media posts, the protesters removed their shirts and handed out sheets of paper encouraging the fest to “turn the spotlight off of rapists.”

“This year...

Woody Allen’s Coup de Chance premiered at the Venice Film Festival on Monday. The film, which was directed and written by Allen himself, received a five-minute ovation from the audience.

Coup de Chance centers around Fanny and Jean who look like the ideal married couple—they’re both professionally accomplished, they live in a gorgeous apartment in an exclusive neighborhood of Paris, and they seem to be in love just as much as they were when they first met. But when Fanny accidentally bumps into Alain, a former high school classmate, she’s swept off her feet. They soon see each other again and get closer and closer.

Woody Allen stunned by the enthusiastic response to Coup de Chance at #Venezia80 which received a 5-minute ovation pic.twitter.com/vjRd2FSYLV

— Deadline Hollywood (@Deadline) September 4, 2023

Allen’s fiftieth movie stars Lou de Laâge, Valérie Lemercier, Melvil Poupaud, Niels Schneider,...

We are told to judge the art rather than the artist, but sometimes the artist makes this difficult. Woody Allen still carries loud freight – the freight of someone who was accused by his daughter, Dylan Farrow, of child sexual abuse. People will argue that none of the above matters, that he has been convicted of no crime, that only what is onscreen counts. And so we try to watch Coup de Chance, an adequate seriocomic immorality tale that had its world premiere Monday at the Venice Film Festival, with eyes and minds wide open.

An affluent partner to a much younger spouse finds himself in a sentimental bind. So tight is this knot that he must resort to extra-legal solutions in order to extricate himself so he calls up a hoodlum acquaintance and nervously requests a meeting “in the usual spot.” Were this the 1980s, the rich man might have been played by Martin Landau; a decade later, the thug on the other end of the line could have resembled Tony Sirico. In 2023’s “Coup de Chance,” that usual spot happens to be on the banks of the Seine, just below Pont-Neuf.

Marking the director’s French-language debut (if hardly his first trip to Paris), Woody Allen’s 50th feature, “Coup de Chance,” proves that every now and then, much can be gained in translation. And though the film hardly treads new ground, it nevertheless gamely reshuffles many of Allen’s pet-obsessions and stock...

If you’re looking for an inviolable law of cinema, the Venice Film Festival just confirmed an ironically delightful one. It is this: Murder agrees with Woody Allen. We already knew that, of course. We knew it from “Crimes and Misdemeanors,” a drama that was shocking when it came out in 1989 — and if you see it today, it’s still shocking, because the theme of the movie isn’t just that ordinary people commit murder (we see that in movies every day). It’s that they seem disturbingly ordinary even as they’re doing it, which is a bit scary. Martin Landau, as a mild bourgeois ophthalmologist who hires someone to kill off his mistress, seemed to be playing the squirmy essence of every amateur criminal, and the fact that he got away with it was the unsettling part. It made you think: How many people like that are out there?...

Let’s address the elephant in the room first: Woody Allen hasn’t made a great film in years. Opinions vary enormously, of course, on which one was the last top-notch effort: Some would go to bat for, say Blue Jasmine (2013), while others defend Match Point (2005). Many others reckon that Husbands and Wives (1992) was the last gasp of greatness before it all started going bumpily downhill.

And of course there are those, especially among younger filmgoers who didn’t grow up with Allen as a kind of mascot for American East Coast Jewish identity, who just don’t get what the fuss was ever about — and/or why the olds so want to defend someone who has been accused by his daughter Dylan Farrow of sexual abuse, even if charges were never brought against him.

Oh yeah, that’s another elephant, isn’t it?

That last controversy may not put...

Woody Allen takes aim at cancel culture as he explains why he is entertaining retirement in a new interview.

The acclaimed film director spoke to Variety and called cancel culture "silly" while claiming he has been unaffected by the social phenomena. He said, "I feel if you’re going to be canceled, this is the culture to be canceled by. I just find that all so silly. I don’t think about it. I don’t know what it means to be canceled. I know that over the years everything has been the same for me. I make my movies. What has changed is the presentation of the films. You know, I work and it’s the same routine for me. I write the script, raise the money, make the film, shoot it, edit it, it comes out. The difference is not is not from cancel culture. The difference is...

Woody Allen met the international press at the Venice Film Festival on Monday to support his 50th film as a director, Coup de Chance. Premiering out of competition, Coup de Chance is about the important role chance and luck play in our lives. It is Allen’s first feature told entirely in French, with a cast of all French stars, including Lou de Laage, Valerie Lemercier, Melvil Poupaud and Niels Schneider.

Early in the Venice press conference, Allen was asked to reflect on the role luck — or the absence of it — has played in his own life.

“I’ve been very, very lucky my whole life,” Allen said. “I had two loving parents. I have good friends. I have a wonderful wife and marriage and children — and I’ve never been in the hospital. I’ve never had anything terrible happen to me.”

He continued: “And I’ve had — over...

The standing-room-only press conference for Woody Allen’s “Coup de Chance” was held Monday afternoon at the Venice Film Festival, with the director making a rare public appearance to promote the French-language thriller. It premieres out of competition on the Lido this evening.

As with Allen’s 2020 “Rifkin’s Festival,” “Coup de Chance” is a European production; Allen has not shot a film in his hometown since 2019’s “A Rainy Day in New York,” starring Timothee Chalamet and Selena Gomez. Amazon Studios pulled that film from release following the resurgence of sexual abuse allegations against Allen stemming from his adopted daughter Dylan Farrow in 1992. Support for Allen now largely comes from abroad and at European festivals.

There were no prohibitions on any kinds of questions being asked by the journalists in attendance, but none asked Allen anything controversial.

When asked if he would make another film in New York, Allen said,...

Woody Allen was given a rapturous reception as he hit the Venice Film Festival on Monday with his 50th film, the French-language thriller Coup de Chance which premieres Out Of Competition this evening.

The journalists in the press conference broke out into spontaneous applause as the 87-year-old director walked into the room.

“I have been very, very lucky. I have been lucky my whole life. I had two loving parents and good friends. I have a wonderful wife and marriage, two children… When I started making films all the people chose to emphasize what I was able to do well… they were generous,” Allen said of his life and career.

It is Allen’s first A-list festival appearance since premiering Café Society in Cannes in 2016, with the director withdrawing from the limelight amid repeated public sexual assault allegations by adoptive daughter Dylan Farrow, which he has denied.

Allen was last...

Xavier Giannoli is one of those rare French directors who has a stronger relationship with the Venice Film Festival than Cannes back home.

He has competed for Venice’s Golden Lion three times in the last decade with Superstar (2012), Marguerite (2015) and the sumptuous Honoré de Balzac adaptation Lost Illusions (2021).

The filmmaker is back for a fourth time this year playing Out of Competition with his first-ever drama series, the international thriller Of Money And Blood. All 12 episodes will world premiere in a marathon screening on Thursday, with further seances at the back end of the festival.

Liberally adapted from the eponymous book by investigative journalist Fabrice Arfi, the series delves into a real-life, carbon credit tax scam, which swindled the French state of at least $1.7 billion, in an operation that came to be known as the “fraud of the century” when it came to trial in 2018.

Related: Venice Film Festival...

Among the ten competition films selected for TIFF’s prestige Platform programme, Héléna Klotz makes her long-awaited return to features with Spirit of Ecstasy (aka La Vénus d’argent). Starring Claire Pommet (the singer goes by the name of Pomme) in her debut, we also find Niels Schneider, Sofiane Zermani, Anna Mouglalis, Grégoire Colin and Denis Ménochet among the cast. Les Films du bélier’s Justin Taurand produced the film. We have your first looks with a couple of exclusive clips. The film is set to have its world premiere on September 11th.

In the first clip we have the pairing of Pommet as Jeanne Francoeur and Schneider (who was featured in Klotz’s debut 2012 film) who clearly have a past (were they old flames) with Francoeur having undergone some fundamental personal changes – breaking away from forces that keep her close at bay.…...

The 50th movie from controversial filmmaker Woody Allen is a thriller that was shot in French and will be making its world premiere at the Venice International Film Festival, which is set to run from August 30th through September 9th. The film is called Coup de Chance (or Stroke of Luck), and an English-subtitled trailer can be seen in the embed above.

Allen has described Coup de Chance as a “poisonous romantic thriller” and spiritual successor to his popular 2005 psychological thriller Match Point. This one has the following synopsis: Fanny and Jean have everything of the ideal couple: fulfilled in their professional life, they live in a magnificent apartment in the beautiful districts of Paris and seem to be in love as on the first day. But when Fanny crosses, by chance, Alain, a former high school friend, she is immediately capsized. They see each other again very quickly and get closer and closer.

It was expected that the Venice Film Festival would program two films from controversy-courting directors this year, Roman Polanski’s “The Palace” and Woody Allen’s “Coup de Chance,” already predicted for the event running August 30 through September 9. And what’s also expected is the inevitable mix of backlash and appreciation for including the auteurs, who in European countries fare better than in the United States and often comfortably find distribution for new work. Polanski has admitted to, and been accused of, sexual abuse throughout his career and forgiven by his victim Samantha Greiner in the years since he was arrested and charged for raping her when she was 13 in 1977. Allen has denied abusing Dylan Farrow in 1992 and was not charged with a crime.

In an interview with Variety discussing this year’s Venice lineup, festival director Alberto Barbera reaffirmed his commitment to presenting their new films, saying he does...

The 2023 Venice Film Festival will boast the premieres of new movies from an array of top filmmakers, including Sofia Coppola, David Fincher, and Bradley Cooper. It’s also decided to offer a platform to some more controversial directors, with both Woody Allen and Roman Polanski securing out-of-competition premieres for their new pictures.

Polanski’s new film, The Palace, has been described as a black comedy set at a luxury hotel in the Swiss Alps. Its cast primarily comprises European actors, though both Mickey Rourke and Monty Python’s John Cleese will appear in the film.

You can pre-set your Twitter (er, X?) alerts to outrage.

The 80th Venice Film Festival unveiled an impressive and — SAG-AFTRA and Wag strike-permitting — star-studded lineup on Tuesday, that should draw international critics and press in droves to the Lido again this year.

But controversy will also again be part of the 2023 Biennale, thanks to a selection of movies from directors nearly as well known for their scandals as for their films.

Roman Polanski new feature, The Palace, scored an out-of-competition slot, as did Coup de Chance, the latest feature from Woody Allen. And Luc Besson will premiere his new feature, DogMan, in competition in Venice. All three filmmakers have been the focus of abuse allegations and, in the wake of #MeToo, the targets of online attacks and cancellation campaigns. Though Polanski, who fled the U.S. in 1978 after being convicted of sexually assaulting a teen girl, is the only one...

Venice Film Festival artistic director Alberto Barbera has shown once again that he is not scared to court controversy.

The festival head has given Roman Polanski a safe festival berth for his new movie The Palace at Venice, in a selection that is likely to spark debate alongside the inclusion of Woody Allen’s Coeur de Chance.

They are among 12 films due to play Out of Competition at the 80th edition running August 30 to September 9.

Barbera told Italian journalists in a Q&a after the main lineup announcement that Polanski, who turns 90 in August, will not make the trip to the Lido, while Woody is down to attend.

Related: Venice Is Still Hopeful That Its Red Carpet Will Be Full Of Stars If Movies Such As ‘Ferrari’, ‘Priscilla’ & More Are Granted SAG-AFTRA Interim Agreements

The Palace will still make for a starry red carpet with its ensemble cast featuring Oliver Masucci,...

The 15th Psarokokalo International Short Film Festival continues faithful to the path it has set until today and, from July 2 to 14, opens its eyes to a cinema worth discovering!! This year's Psarokokalo returns with a multitude of tributes, events, and surprises, aspiring to arouse the interest of cinephiles in Greece for another year.

In its established international competition section, which this year includes 94 selected short films from 34 countries, Psarokokalo turns its attention to new creators as well as to those familiar to the Greek public such as Efira Virginie, Niels Schneider, Joseph Wilson, Nadav Lapid. While in the national competition section, it offers a selection of new emerging talents from Greece and Cyprus and is the main program that promotes the festival around the world.

Of particular interest is the dedication to the environment and architecture, innovative, ambitious, diverse, and impressive focus on channeling constructive collective action and providing a cross-cutting analysis of politics,...

Roughly a month before Venice Film Festival’s 2023 lineup announcement, the buzz around the competition is heating up with several star-studded films by heavyweight directors in the mix, including Pablo Larrain (“El Conde”), Michael Mann (“Ferrari“), Sofia Coppola (“Priscilla“), Yorgos Lanthimos (“Poor Things”) and Michel Franco (“Memory”).

These titles are believed to have been officially invited to the Lido in competition, according to sources.

Larraín’s follow-up to “Spencer,” “El Conde” depicts dictator Augusto Pinochet as a Vampire with a cast led by Chilean star Alfredo Castro.

Another film with a genre element, Lanthimos’ “Poor Things” is a surrealist science-fiction romance based on an adaptation of Alasdair Grey’s novel of the same name, and starring Emma Stone as Belle Baxter, a Frankenstein-like woman who is brought back to life after her brain is replaced with that of her unborn child. Stone stars opposite Willem Dafoe, Mark Ruffalo, Christopher Abbott and Margaret Qualley.

Natalie Portman will team with luxury jewelry Chopard during the upcoming Cannes Film Festival to serve as Godmother for its Trophée Chopard ceremony.

Created in 2001 by Chopord’s co-president and artistic director Caroline Scheufele, the Trophée Chopard is given annually during the festival “to an actress or actor at the start of their career” as a way to promote the big screen’s next generation and underscore Chopard’s commitment to cinema. Previous recipients of the honor include Marion Cotillard, Léa Seydoux, Diane Kruger, Niels Schneider, Florence Pugh and Jessie Buckley.

This year’s Trophée Chopard will be handed over on May 19 during the 76th Cannes Festival during an exclusive dinner with an invite carrying the names of festival president Iris Knobloch, festival director Thierry Frémaux and Scheufele.

“Natalie Portman is a cinema legend whom I have always admired, not only for her immense talent as an actress, but also...

Woody Allen’s “Coup de Chance,” the controversial filmmaker’s 50th movie, has found a French distributor. Metropolitan FilmExport, one of country’s biggest independent distributors, has come on board to release the movie in France.

The release date has not yet been set, but sources close to the film say it could world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival.

Metropolitan FilmExport has never handled a movie directed by Allen before as it typically focuses on commercial U.S. movies such as the “Hunger Games” franchise and “Evil Dead Rises.”

While Allen’s movies have also always been widely popular in France, his previous film “Rifkin’s Festival” sold under 100,000 tickets for Apollo Films after world premiering at the San Sebastian Festival. It was the director’s worst B.O. performance in France. Budgeted in the $20-million range, “Coup de Chance” was a pricey acquisition that not many French distributors could afford to gamble on.

Melvil Poupaud and Marion Cotillard in Arnaud Desplechin’s Brother And Sister (Frère Et Sœur) screening in Unifrance and Film at Lincoln Center’s Rendez-Vous with French Cinema Photo: Shanna Besson/Why Not Productions

In the first instalment with Melvil Poupaud (who is being honoured at the French Institute in New York next month) we discuss the dark side of Arnaud Desplechin’s Brother And Sister (Frère Et Sœur), Mathieu Amalric in A Christmas Tale and Kings And Queens, Mia Hansen-Løve’s One Fine Morning, a touch of François Ozon’s By The Grace Of God, James Joyce’s The Dead, Eric Rohmer’s A Summer’s Tale, and Woody Allen’s Coup De Chance with Lou de Laâge, Niels Schneider and Valérie Lemercier.

Melvil Poupaud with Anne-Katrin Titze: “I always understood that the most gratifying thing when you’re an actor is when a great director such as Eric Rohmer...

The independent film business is again showing signs of rude health as the global film industry struggles to recover post-pandemic. Sundance is often taken as the pace-setter, and distribution deals were plentiful this year, with seven- and eight-figure sales for the likes of Theater Camp (to Searchlight for an estimated 8 million), Flora and Son (Apple TV+, 20 million) and Fair Play (Netflix, 20 million), just the biggest of around a dozen 2023 Park City pickups. But Berlin’s European Film Market will be the industry’s true acid test.

“Sundance is more U.S.-focused in general,” says Alice Laffillé, vp sales at FilmNation, which did the Apple TV+ deal for Flora and Son. “There are always some big, splashy deals with streamers and U.S. buyers like Neon, A24 or Magnolia. Berlin is the first real international market, where we see where things stand.”

Berlin deals, which often involve the entire world,...

Paris-based sales company beefs up slate ahead of Berlinale market.

Paris-based sales company Pyramide International has boarded Anna Novion’s Le Théorème de Marguerite and Marie Garel-Weiss’s Sur La Branche and will kick off pre-sales for the French dramas at the upcoming EFM.

Novion’s Le Théorème de Marguerite stars Ella Rumpf as the titular character, a brilliant mathematics student at France’s top university the Ecole Normale Supérieure. On the day of her thesis presentation, a mistake shakes up all the certainty in her planned-out life and she decides to quit everything and start afresh.

Rumpf notably starred...