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Thierry Frémaux is best known internationally as the long-time head of France’s Cannes Film Festival, which is organized out of its offices in Paris’s trendy Marais neighborhood.

The double-hatted cinema expert is perhaps more in his element in his home city of Lyon, where he is the director of the Institut Lumière, situated on the site of the former mansion and factory of cinema pioneers Auguste and Louis Lumière.

Alongside its late co-founders Bernard Chardère and Bertrand Tavernier, Frémaux has been a driving force behind the expansion of the institute and its activities, including the creation of its classic cinema-focused Lumière Film Festival, which has just wrapped its 15th edition.

Highlights this year included German director Wim Wenders receiving its prestigious Lumière Prize, following in the footsteps of the likes of Clint Eastwood, Martin Scorsese, Jane Campion and Francis Ford Coppola. As part of the honor, the Paris,...

Barbarian Invasion: Arcady Hits the Headlines for Procedural

Recounting a bizarre kidnapping case from 2006 that reflects the continuing cultural mutation of anti-Semitism and the modernized hate crime, Alexandre Arcady’s 24 Days reenacts a cruel and digesting instance eventually projected by the media, where it was titled The Affair of the Gang of Barbarians, as a national outcry to end hate crimes. With authorities initially reluctant to admit the underlying bigotry that spurred the kidnapping, torture, and eventual murder of Ilan Halimi that took place over nearly a month, it appears increasing political pressures only served to limit necessary discussions pertaining to the abductor’s motivations for kidnapping Halimi, namely his Jewishness.

On January 31, 2006, Ilan Halimi (Syrus Shahidi), a cell phone vendor in a Parisian suburb, has a secret rendezvous with a beautiful young woman he’s made a date with. The date is secret because Ilan already has a girlfriend,...

Alexandre Arcady's thriller 24 Days follows the true-life 2006 kidnapping and ransom of Ilan Halimi, a young Jewish man living in Paris. This crime provoked public fears of anti-Semitism in France as the trial of its key perpetrator, Youssouf Fofana, was sensationalized in the press (an eventual 24 conspirators were convicted). Drawing from a memoir about the ordeal written by Halimi's mother, Ruth Halimi, Arcady bypasses the trial and ensuing media frenzy, focusing instead on the protracted hostage negotiations. We don't learn much about Ilan before he disappears, although an opening scene paints him as young, handsome, and a bit babied by his mother. Arcady spends more time with a team of stone-faced detectives and Halimi's stricken family, as they endure excruciating ...

Other festival prize winners include Self Made, Red Leaves and The Decent One.

Gett, the Trial of Vivian Amsalem, by Ronit and Shlomi Elkabetz [pictured], the third part of a trilogy about the painfully, never ending process of an Israeli-style divorce; and Princess, the debut picture of Tali Shalom-Ezer about a girl’s troubled rites of passage in a complicated household, shared the Haggiag Award for Best Israeli Feature at this year’s Jerusalem Film Festival.

Gett, which was first unveiled earlier in Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight, also won the festival’s new audience award.

Gett’s Menashe Noy collected the best actor award while young Shira Hass was crowned best actress for her performance in Princess. Princess was also recognized for best cinematography (Radek Ladzuk) and best music (Ishai Adar). Additional awards went to Self Made (best Script to Shira Geffen, best editing to Nilli Feller), with Bazi Gete’s Red Leaves picked as best first film.

Vanessa Lapa...

Directors are among the high-profile international guests at this year’s festival.

Directors Spike Jonze, Park Chan-wook, Ulrich Seidl, Chantal Akerman and actress Martina Gedeck are among the high-profile international guests due to attend the Jerusalem Film Festival.

The festival said in statement: “Despite the security situation, more than 100 distinguished international guests are on their way to Jerusalem…The Festival’s international guests have expressed their support of the non-cancellation of the Festival and are due to arrive in Jerusalem in the coming days.”

Jonze, who recently won an Academy Award for best original screenplay for his sci-fi romance Her, will give a masterclass following a screening of his Oscar-nominated fantasy comedy Being John Malkovich — which marks its 15th anniversary this year.

It is the first time Jonze, whose father was descended from a German Jewish family, has visited Israel.

Korea’s Park will also give a masterclass and participate in a panel on his country’s cinema...

Here's the fist teaser trailer for {Romain Basset}}'s first feature "Fievre", co-produced by Oh My Gore !. As a reminder, the casting of "Fever" is composed of: -- Catriona MacColl (Lucio Fulci's muse), -- Lilly-Fleur Pointeaux ("Platane" - French TV Show), -- Murray Head (actor - "Sunday Bloody Sunday", Singer - "Say it ain't so", "One Night in Bangkok"), -- Vernon Dobtcheff ("The Spy Who Loved Me", "The Name Of The Rose", "Indiana Jones And The Last Cruisade"), -- Emmanuel Bonami ("Djinns"), -- Fu'ad Ait Aattou ("The Last Mistress", he's the lead role in the next Alexander Arcady movie "Ce Que Le Jour Doit A La Nuit"), -- Joe Sheridan ("The Ninth Gate", "Dangerous Liaisons"); -- Gala Besson ("Romeo And Juliet" stage play), -- Philippe Nahon ("I Stand Alone", "The Crimson...

This year the Grégoire Melin’s Kinology can do no wrong – they nabbed the best real-estate on the Croisette and reminded us that Harmony Korine’s Spring Breakers will surely be much talked about upon release and they’re sprinkled out a little bit everywhere else on the Croisette from the Main Comp with Cosmopolis, the Directors’ Fortnight with opening film from Gondry (The We and the I) and a Special Screening status in the Critics’ Week for Alice Winocour’s debut, Augustine (see pic of actress Soko above). Here is the other European titles they have in store.

Cosmopolis by David Cronenberg

30° Color by Lucien Jean-baptiste

Augustine by Alice Winocour

Days Of Grace (Dias De Gracia) by Everardo Gout

Emergo by Carles Torrens

Fly Me To The Moon (Le Plan Parfait) by Pascal Chaumeil

Land Of The Bears by Guillaume Vincent

Low Profile (Je Me Suis Fait Tout Petit...

We recently dropped the news that Lilly-Fleur Pointeaux and Gala Besson were the newest lovely ladies added to the cast of Romain Basset's French horror film Fever (Fievre). Today co-production company Oh My Gore! has announced the rest of the cast.

Joining the also previously announced Catriona MacColl and Emmanuel Bonami, the official cast of Fever includes: Murray Head (actor - Sunday Bloody Sunday, singer - Say it Ain't So, One Night in Bangkok), Vernon Dobtcheff (The Spy Who Loved Me, The Name of the Rose, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade), Fu'ad Ait Aattou (The Last Mistress, he's also the lead in the next Alexander Arcady film Ce Que Le Jour Doit A La Nuit), Joe Sheridan (The Ninth Gate, Dangerous Liaisons) and Philippe Nahon (I Stand Alone, The Crimson Rivers, War Horse). Those players bring some pretty impressive resumes to Fever, which takes place in the world of lucid dreams.

Marvel Studios' "Iron Man 2," this year's opening summer tentpole, lit up the foreign theatrical circuit with a five-day overseas launch bagging $100.165 million from 6,825 sites in 53 markets for a sparkling per-screen average of $14,676.

Distributor Paramount Pictures International says the sequel to 2008's Marvel original starring Robert Downey Jr. and Gwyneth Paltrow finished No. 1 in 52 of the opening territories, beating "Iron Man's" opening overall numbers by 26% in local currencies. (It missed reaching the top spot in Colombia.)

Paramount said "Iron Man 2" beat the original's openings in every market "on a local currency like for like basis."

The U.K. opening round furnished $11.6 million from 521 venues (excluding $1.4 million in preview grosses). In Korea, the opening launch generated $10.8 million from 855 situations, 79% ahead of the comparable "Iron Man" figure.

Australia produced $8.8 million from 473 screens, exceeding the "Iron Man" opening in the market by 52%, while France came up with $9.96 million from 722 locations, more...

PARIS -- French films will take over Israeli screens at the Tel Aviv French Film Festival, set to kick off Tuesday, Gallic film promotion organization Unifrance said Friday.

Some 15 French films will be screened for the public, four of which have already been snagged by Israeli distributors: Valeria Bruni Tedeschi's "Actresses", Abdellatif Kechiche's Cesar-winning "The Secret of the Grain", Cedric Klapisch's "Paris" and Luc Jacquet's animated "The Fox and the Child".

Directors Alexandre Arcady, Diane Kurys and Laetitia Masson will screen their most recent title, "Can You Keep a Secret?" "Sagan" and "Guilty", respectively.

Other notable titles set to screen at the five-day fest include Olivier Marchal's "MR73", Florent Emilio Siri's "Intimate Enemies" and Christophe Honore's "Love Songs".

PARIS -- French actor and TV personality Antoine de Caunes will be master of ceremonies at next month's Cesar awards, France's film academy, L'Academie des Arts et Techniques du Cinema, said Wednesday.

De Caunes will replace actress-writer-director Valerie Lemercier, who hosted the ceremony for the past two years.

The change in hosts was based on a desire to vary the event's presenter by bringing in a new face every couple of years, and not because of any issues with Lemercier, organizers said.

De Caunes returns to the coveted role he previously held in 1996 and in 1999.

The comedian, actor and writer rose to fame in the U.K. with popular BBC 2 series "Rapido" and Channel 4's "Eurotrash".

The actor will next be seen on the big screen in Alexandre Arcady's "Tu Peux Garder Un Secret?" (Can You Keep a Secret?), set for a May release in Gaul, and is currently in production on "C'est l'histoire d'un mec" (It's the story of a man), about the candidacy of Coluche at the French presidential elections in 1981.