News

France TV Distribution has boarded worldwide rights on a pair of documentary features, “Nuremberg, the Trial of the Century” and “Egypt Decoded: Raiders of the Lost Pharaohs,” in the run up to Sunny Side of the Doc festival in La Rochelle, France.

“Nuremberg, the Trial of the Century,” produced by Banijay-owned Km and Dreamtime, follows over 350 of journalists, writers, and filmmakers who followed the prosecution of 21 high-ranking Nazi officials in November 1945. The docu will show how iconic figures such as Ray D’Addario, John Dos Passos, Martha Gellhorn, Joseph Kessel et Elsa Triolet gathered at the Faber-Castell Castle, which served as press camp during the Nuremberg Trials, to document and report on the horrors of the Holocaust for a year and a half. Over that period, there were debates, friendships, romances and political engagements that unfolded.

(Copyright: Ray d’Addario)

(Copyright: Ray d’Addario)

“Egypt Decoded: Raiders of the Lost Pharaohs,...

“The Party’s Over” is a mostly entertaining satire that follows the escalating conflict between an entitled rich couple, the Trousselards, and the Azizis, the husband and wife they employ (off the books and at less than market rates) to look after their luxurious holiday home. Both families have young adult daughters, near in age, albeit not in circumstance. Compared to a similarly-themed film such as “Parasite,” it lacks the sharpness of plot and empathetic characters that would make it truly memorable. Nonetheless, the piece has a number of things going for it: top actors obviously relishing their roles, some amusing dialogue, a lovely villa location in the south of France and an attractive musical score by Clémence Ducreux that sounds both serious and mocking. Festivals and screening platforms rep the most likely venues outside of French-speaking countries to host the “Party.”

Snobbish, self-important Philippe, a lawyer given to throwing obscure...

The acclaimed French action thriller movie series, Lost Bullet, has released its third and supposedly final entry, Last Bullet, which lives up to the standard of entertaining action spectacle set by its predecessors. While the ingenuity in hard-hitting combat choreography, practical stunts, and streamlined, fast-paced storytelling have been key highlights of the franchise, characterization plays a key role in holding it all together. There is no crazy complexity involved in the character arcs; the intrigue arises from the personalities and decision-making capabilities of the key players, all of whom belong to either side of the law. Most importantly, the trilogy charts the growth of the characters so well that the conclusion of the journey feels satisfying.

Lino, played by Alban Lenoir

French Actor/Stuntman Alban Lenoir started his career as a theater actor before veering to work in several acclaimed action movies like Taken, Aka, and Point Blank to follow...

Directors’ Fortnight has unveiled the selection for its 57th edition running May 14-24 which is heavy on first-time filmmakers and established auteurs including Robin Campillo, Lee Sang-il and Christian Petzold.

Artistic director Julien Rejl revealed the lineup at a press conference in Paris on Tuesday (April 15) for the Cannes parallel section run by French directors guild the Srf.

Scroll down for the full selection

The sidebar will open with Enzo, co-directed by the late Laurent Cantet and Robin Campillo. After Cantet died last year, his longtime friend and collaborator Campillo stepped in to direct the film set and filmed 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,...

Laure Calamy, the Cesar prizewinning star of “My Lover, My Donkey & I,” and “The Count of Monte Cristo” actor Laurent Lafitte lead the ensemble cast of “The Party’s Over,” a satirical comedy which has been boarded by France TV Distribution ahead of the EFM.

Directed by Antony Cordier (“Gaspard at the Wedding”) the movie also stars Ramzy Bedia (“Asterix & Obelix : The Middle Kingdom”), Élodie Bouchez (“Beating Hearts”), Sami Outalbali (“A Tale of Love and Desire”) and Noée Abita (“Sink or Swim”).

This film is produced by Cheyenne Federation, a well-established banner whose credits include Julien Leclercq’s remake of “The Wage of Fear” which was a hit on Netflix.

The movie revolves around Mehdi, 25, who is invited to spend a quiet summer with his girlfriend Garance and his in-laws in the south of France, and sees their trip turn into chaos after a conflict breaks out between Garance’s...

Prime Video France has unveiled its slate of new originals and co-production titles, ranging from series, movies and unscripted shows. These include some sexy, comedic and action-packed titles such as “Culte – 2be3,” Yael Langmann’s series about the famed 1990’s French boys band; “Glamsquad” by Rebecca Zlotowski; Gaumont’s thriller “Carjarkers;” and new comedy format “Liars Club.” The service has also boarded season 2 of “Escort Boys” and war thriller “Dark Hearts,” as well as picked up Nick Cassavetes’ “Marked Men.”

“Glamsquad” is being developed by French filmmaker Rebecca Zlotowski whose latest film “Other People’s Children” competed at the Venice Film Festival in 2022. Co-written by Olivier Nicklaus and produced by Zlotowski’s regular partners at Paris-based Les Films Velvet, “Glamsquad” follows the flamboyant adventures of four young beauty experts with strong personalities who work closely with stars. Zlotowski will direct the series which will take place in Paris and other iconic locations,...

Amazon Prime Video has set the launch date and unveiled art for Mélanie Laurent’s upcoming heist romance “Freedom” (“Libre”) starring Lucas Bravo (“Emily in Paris”).

The movie, which will launch exclusively on Prime Video on Nov. 1 across more than 240 countries, reteams the streamer and the acclaimed actor-turned-filmmaker following “The Mad Women’s Ball” which world premiered at Toronto Film Festival in 2019.

Based on a true story of a renowned French gangster of the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, “Freedom” stars Bravo as Bruno Sulak, a highly charming criminal à la Arsène Lupin who orchestrated daring heists without firing a single shot. The film also charts Sulak’s cat-and-mouse game with George Moréas (Yvan Attal), a tenacious police commissioner, as well as his numerous escapes from prison and relationship with lover Annie, who is played by newcomer Léa Luce Busato.

Thomas Dubois, head of French originals at Amazon Studios, said working...

Michael Douglas, Kyle MacLachlan, Ella Purnell and Daniel Brühl are among the high-caliber stars who will take part in the seventh edition of Canneseries. The robust lineup, unveiled today by Canneseries’ artistic director Albin Lewi at a press conference in Paris, boasts the world premiere of Apple TV+’s “Franklin,” starring Michael Douglas as one of the Founding Fathers, and Disney+’s “Becoming Karl Lagerfeld” with Daniel Brühl as the acid-tongued designer.

“Franklin,” which will also close the event, is directed by industry veteran Tim Van Patten, behind “Boardwalk Empire” and “Games of Thrones.” Douglas won an Emmy for playing Liberace in “Behind the Candelabra.”

MacLachlan and Purnell will be on the ground to present the international premiere of “Fallout,” the much-anticipated Prime Video show that’s based on a massively popular video game. Both will be feted during the 7th edition of the event, picking up the Canal+ Icon...

Pulsar Content has boarded “Mikado,” a heartwarming family film written and directed by Baya Kasmi, who previously directed “Iʼm All Yours” and “The (in)famous Youssef Salem.”

“Mikado” is produced by Karé Production (“The Presidentʼs Wife”) and Films Grand Huit (“Disco Boy”). The film stars Felix Moati (“No Manʼs Land”) alongside Ramzy Bedia (“Donʼt Die Too Hard!”) and Vimala Pons (“Vincent Must Die”), who previously worked with Kasmi.

Pulsar Content will be launching international sales at the European Film Market with an exclusive promo-reel.

The film follows Mikado and Laetitia, who lead an alternative lifestyle aboard a van with their home-schooled children Nuage and Zephir. One day, their van breaks down, forcing them to lead a somewhat “normal” life over summer.

“We immediately fell in love with Bayaʼs script,” said Pulsar Content co-founders Gilles Sousa and Marie Garrett. “It is both heartwarming and heartbreaking at the same time, and a wonderful role for Felix Moati.

Tkt is Belgian director Cicurel’s third feature.

Paris-based sales and co-production company Other Angle, who just launched a US venture, will co-produce and handle international sales for Solange Cicurel’s high school harassment drama Tkt and has taken on sales for female-driven police comedy Sirens.

Screen can reveal a first look image of Tkt. The film is Belgian director Cicurel’s third feature following comedies Don’t Tell Her and Isn’t She Lovely. Tkt tackles a heavier topic, namely bullying in schools. It follows a 16-year-old girl in the hospital in a coma who takes a trip through...

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...

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...

Franck Gastambide’s 2023 French action-comedy Medellin is what you need if you want to kick back and enjoy some physical comedy but are also looking for a no-brainer action movie. This Fast & Furious knock-off, coming all the way from France, stars Franck Gastambide, Ramzy Bedia, Anouar Toubali, and also Mike Tyson in a guest appearance. While Mike’s name should be enough to go check out the movie, here’s a detailed breakdown of Medellin and all you need to know about it.

Spoilers Ahead

Why Do The Frenchmen Go To Colombia?

In France, mechanic Stan is contacted by his adoptive brother Reda, the local tough guy who runs a boxing dojo. Things have gone stupendously wrong because Reda’s brother Brahim’s obsession with the Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar has gotten him into a world of trouble. Brahim used to dress and style himself like the Narcos on social media,...

One of the ways in which filmmakers can catch the attention of modern audiences is by revolving their inciting incidents around an exciting trend or momentous occasion that is currently happening in real life. Using this marketing strategy, directors and producers not only benefit from any pre-release buzz they procure but also have the added benefit of picking up steam from highlighted real-world topics of that time. Following along the lines of this year’s Missing and 2020’s Spree, a new film that will be released next month puts a high-octane and action-packed twist on the life of a social media influencer.

Created by French actor and director Franck Gastambide and featuring one of the greatest heavyweight boxers of all time, Mike Tyson, Medellin will be about a very popular streamer who goes by the name Pablito who is suddenly kidnapped in the streets of Colombia by the well known...

"Yours is better. It has a sight." Amazon has revealed an official trailer for Medellín, a film by French actor / director Franck Gastambide. It's available for streaming on Prime Video worldwide in June, for anyone interested in it. To save his younger brother from a dangerous cartel in Medellín, Reda (played by Ramzy Bedia) has a plan that is as simple as it is completely insane: Assemble a team and plan a raid in Colombia. But this crazy adventure will spiral out of control when he decides to kidnap the cartel leader's son in order to exchange him for his brother’s life. Sounds like the kind of wacky comedy concept that Hollywood usually comes up with, but this is from France! The cast includes Anouar Toubali, Brahim Bouhlel, Raymond Cruz, and Essined Aponte, with a special appearance from Mike Tyson. You might be thinking–wait, Tyson in this? But...

Paris-based outfit releases first look image from Jérémy Clapin’s Meanwhile On Earth.

Paris-based Charades has sold Laurent Tirard’s Oh My Goodness! (Juste Ciel!) to a slew of territories and will kick off sales on several all-new titles at Unifrance’s annual Rendez-Vous in Paris including Jérémy Clapin’s Meanwhile On Earth.

Charades will host the first market screening for buyers of Oh My Goodness! after selling the anticipated title from veteran filmmaker Tirard to Prokino in Germany, Selecta Vision in Spain, I Wonder in Italy, Cineart in Benelux, Praesens in Switzerland, Thim Films in Austria, Ads in Hungary,...

Have you seen Netflix’s new high-octane, action-packed thriller Lost Bullet 2? If not —Go see it! It’s one of the best action movies Netflix has ever released. Large format goodness — Shot on Red Monstro 8K by cinematographer Morgan S. Dalibert. If John Wick and F&f made a collab…

BTS of Lost Bullet 2: Source – Netflix Lost Bullet (Balle Perdue) series

Lost Bullet (French: Balle perdue) is a 2020 French action thriller film directed by Guillaume Pierret, written by Guillaume Pierret, Alban Lenoir, and Kamel Guemra, and starring Alban Lenoir, Nicolas Duvauchelle, and Ramzy Bedia. Lenoir the main star, is a former stuntman himself. The sequel, Lost Bullet 2, was released by Netflix on November 10, 2022, and a third film has been announced. Every chapter is like a feature regarding length (about 90 minutes of runtime). Lost Bullet is proof that French filmmakers know how to make extraordinary action movies. In fact,...

Amazon Prime Video has come a long way since launching in France in 2016. The streamer, whose first French film original, “The Mad Women’s Ball,” recently picked up an International Emmy Award, unveiled a landmark deal with French guilds during a posh dinner with industry players and talent in Paris on Wednesday evening (Nov. 30).

On the guest list at the chic Lutetia Hotel was a laundry list of talent that’s in business with Prime Video, including Philippe Lacheau (“Lol”), Franck Gastambide (“Medellin”), Eloise Lang (“La Graine”), Melha Bedia (“Miskina”), Ziad Doueiri (“Coeurs Noirs”), as well as producers Alain Goldman, Pathé Films’ Ardavan Safaee, Mandarin’s Eric Altmayer, CG Cinema’s Charles Gillibert, Metropolitan FilmExport’s Victor Hadida, Newen’s Romain Bessi, and Asasha Group’s Gaspard de Chavagnac, among many others.

Announced by Brigitte Ricou-Bellan, Prime Video’s country manager in France, the four-year deal was signed with the guilds AnimFrance,...

The tragic death of Gaspard Ulliel, the beloved French star of “It’s Only the End of the World” and Marvel’s upcoming “Moon Knight” series, while he was skiing in the French Alps on Jan. 19 has been ruled accidental following an investigation for manslaughter conducted by authorities in Albertville, France.

The 37 year-old actor, who died of a brain injury at the hospital in Grenoble, was skiing on an intermediate slope under a clear weather in the La Rosière resort located in the Alps when he collided with a skier while making a left turn at around 4 p.m., according to a statement released by the Savoie prosecutor in Albertville.

Both Ulliel and the other person were skiing at normal speeds when the collision occurred, and they both fell on the ground. The other skier, a 40-year old Lithuanian man who was questioned by authorities as a witness, was unharmed and wore a helmet.

Pathe is relocating Guillaume Canet’s live-action movie “Asterix & Obelix” to France, instead of China where it was initially planned to shoot last year, and couldn’t do so due to the pandemic. Swedish soccer star Zlatan Ibrahimovic has joined the cast.

Now titled “Asterix & Obelix, the Middle Kingdom,” the movie is budgeted at 60 million Euros and marks the next installment of the blockbuster French comic book franchise. The pic is being produced by the French banners Les Enfants Terribles and Tresor Films, with Pathe co-producing and handling French distribution rights and international sales.

Pathe has already enlisted a flurry of buyers, including Netflix for several undisclosed territories, Leonine in Germany, Unicorn for CSI and Baltics, Blitz for ex Yugoslavia, Kinoswiat for Poland, and Rosebud 21 for Greece. Pathe will distribute in France and Switzerland.

The shoot will start April 12 with a stellar cast. Alongside Ibrahimovic, the cast includes Marion Cotillard,...

Pathé has finalized cast for Asterix & Obelix: The Middle Kingdom (previously known as Asterix & Obelix: Silk Road), the upcoming fifth live action film from the beloved children’s franchise.

Cameras are set to roll this spring, with cast including Guillaume Canet as Asterix, Gilles Lellouche as Obelix (it’s the first time in the five-film French-language franchise that Gerard Depardieu won’t portray Obelix), Vincent Cassel as Cesar, Marion Cotillard as Cleopatra and Jonathan Cohen as Finalthesis. Also starring are Ramzy Bedia, Julie Chen, Linh-Dan Pham, Pierre Richard, and in his feature debut, soccer star Zlatan Ibrahimovic as Oneofus.

Philippe Mechelen and Julien Hervé wrote the screenplay, and Guillaume Canet is also directing. Project is produced by Trésor Films, Pathé Films and Les Enfants Terribles. The score will come from French musician Matthieu Chedid. The initial plan was to shoot in China but production will take place in France and Morocco.

Amazon Prime Video France today published details of its upcoming slate of productions, including four new originals:

Greek Salad is a contemporary sequel to the movie trilogy L’Auberge Espagnole (Pot Luck), 20 years after the originals. It follows the lives of Tom and Mia (the children of Xavier and Wendy from L’Auberge Espagnole) as they embark on a new adventure in Athens. The eight episode series is created by Cédric Klapisch, with Lola Doillon and Antoine Garceau (Call my Agent). The show will be co-produced by Bruno Levy for Ce Qui Me Meut and will launch exclusively on Prime Video in 2022.

Flashback is the second Amazon original movie produced in France. This one is a time travel comedy starring comedian Caroline Vigneaux, with Sophia Aram, Suzanne Clément, Lison Daniel, Gad Elmaleh, Lannick Gautry, Emy Ltr, Florent Peyre and Sylvie Testud. It is produced by Alain Goldman for Legende Films and...

New slate includes projects spearhead by filmmaker Cédric Klapisch and Ballsy Girl actress Melha Bedia.

Amazon Prime Video has unveiled a new slate of French original productions, including Cédric Klapisch’s drama Greek Salad, a spin-off of his 2002 hit feature Pot Luck (L’Auberge Espagnole), about a group of students from across Europe living in a flat in Barcelona together.

The new series follows the lives of the children of two of the original characters as they embark on a new adventure in Athens.

Kaplisch has created the eight-episode drama with Lola Doillon and Antoine Garceau, who both took credits (like...

Amazon Prime Video France has unveiled a slate of originals, including Cedric Klapisch’s “Greek Salad” — a series sequel to the “L’Auberge Espanole” trilogy — Melanie Laurent’s “Le Bal des Folles,” as well as live sports such as the tennis tournament Roland Garros, and adaptations of popular unscripted formats such as “Lol” and “Celebrity Hunted.” All titles will roll out on the streaming service later this year.

The programs were presented during a virtual press conference on Monday hosted by Georgia Brown, director of European Originals; Jennifer Salke, head of Amazon Studios; Thomas Dubois, head of French Amazon Originals at Amazon Studios, Isabelle Bertrand, head of content for Amazon Prime Video France; and Alex Green, managing director of sport at Amazon Prime Video.

“Greek Salad” will be set in Athens, Greece, and follow the children of Xavier and Wendy, who were played by Romain Duris and Kelly Reilly, respectively,...

French production and sales arm will unveil four new films at the EFM.

France’s Orange Studio will kick off sales this EFM on French director Sophie Boudre’s intergenerational comedy-drama Schoolmates!, the latest production from Paris-based Vendôme Production, the company behind La Famille Bélier and English-language remake Coda.

Based on a true story, popular comedy actress Alice Pol co-stars as a village school headmistress whose school burns down forcing her to move her classroom into a local retirement home. Cohabitation between the children and seniors will not be easy. Jonathan Zaccaï and veteran French pop icon Eddy Mitchell also top the cast.

Gaumont has come on board “Fantasies,” a sex-themed French comedy headlined by Monica Bellucci (“Spectre”), Carole Bouquet (“For Your Eyes Only”) and Karine Viard (“Famille Belier”).

Directed by David and Stephane Foenkinos, the omnibus film follows six couples and revolves around their intimate lives and fantasies, from role-playing to exhibitionism and abstinence.

Besides Bellucci, Bouquet and Viard, the film stars Suzanne Clément (“Mommy”), Jean-Paul Rouve (“C’est la Vie!”), Joséphine Japy (“Love at Second Sight”), Denis Podalydès (“An Officer and a Spy”), Céline Sallette (“The Returned”), Nicolas Bedos (“Mr & Mrs Adelman”), Ramzy Bedia (“Lost Bullet”), Alice Taglioni (“Claire Darling”), Joséphine de Meaux (“Dheepan”) and William Lebghil (“C’est la Vie!”)

“Fantasies” is in post-production and will be released in France by Gaumont during the second semester of 2021. Gaumont is handling international sales on the movie and will introduce it to buyers at the American Film Market, which kicks off Monday.

“With its glamorous cast,...

Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche's South Terminal (2019) is exclusively showing on Mubi in the Viewfinder series.My name is Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche, and South Terminal is my sixth film. A film which blurs the tracks, which has no borders. Neither place nor time are clearly defined. Is it the Algeria of yesterday? The France of today, the Europe or even the world of tomorrow? The chaos generated by the contemporary economic order is accompanied by authoritarian drifts which do not concern only Algeria or France. The return of reactionary mechanisms all over the world proves this. South Terminal was filmed in the south of France exclusively, in Nîmes, Istres, Miramas and Grasse, however it carries ramifications from the colonial campaigns, through the war of independence up to the dark years that Algeria experienced in the 90s. This allowed us to transpose Algerian history elsewhere, to explode the frameworks and thus to reveal the violent,...

Ramzy Bedia is captivating as a charismatic doctor in this French-Algerian drama about a country descending into chaos

French-Algerian film-maker Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche sends us a dispatch from a civil war with Terminal Sud, an intriguing, somewhat abstract drama about a country descending into chaos. The facts on the ground here seem to tally with the Algerian civil war of the 90s, the so called “black decade” that claimed more than 100,000 lives. But the film was mostly shot in southern France, and Ameur-Zaïmeche doesn’t hide contemporary details such as mobiles and new-model SUVs. He has said in interviews that the point is to make it universal: this could happen any time, anywhere. The approach isn’t entirely convincing, and the unfocused sense of time and place is a bit distracting and frustrating at times. But there is real power to many of the scenes.

The fourth series of Call My Agent will close the festival.

Dutch actresses Halina Reijn and Carice van Houten’s new drama Red Light and UK supernatural comedy horror tale Truth Seekers are among 10 upcoming series due to compete in the third edition of Canneseries which is taking place as a hybrid event from October 9 to 14.

The annual television festival was originally set to run last April alongside Miptv until the content market cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The festival was rescheduled for October to run alongside MIPCOM instead, which has since moved online due to ongoing health concerns around the virus.

Close-Up is a feature that spotlights films now playing on Mubi. Jeanne Balibar's Wonders in the Suburbs, which is receiving an exclusive global online premiere on Mubi, is showing from August 19 2020 in Mubi's Debuts series.

In 2009, Pedro Costa took a brief detour from his haunted, incantatory studies of Lisbon’s Fontainhas district to produce Ne change rien, a stark black-and-white documentary profile of actress Jeanne Balibar’s performances as a singer. A self-styled jazz chanteuse in the Jacques Brel mold, Balibar perhaps gave us a deeper insight into her art-pop origins when she starred in Barbara (2017), Mathieu Amalric’s biopic of the legendary singer-songwriter and French cultural icon. All of this, together with her work with such Cannes / Cahiers mainstays as Jacques Rivette, Arnaud Desplechin, Guillaume Nicloux, and (in the upcoming Memoria) Apichatpong Weerasethakul, would suggest that Balibar epitomizes effortless urban sophistication.So the last thing one might expect...

The new film currently being shot by Mabrouk El Mechri - a Les Films du Kiosque production sold by Gaumont – gathers together a cast composed of Sabrina Ouazani, Ramzy Bedia and Eye Haïdara. Having kicked off on 8 June, filming on Kung Fu Zohra by Mabrouk El Mechri is now set to wrap on 31 July at the Épinay Studios. This will be the filmmaker’s 4th feature film following on from Virgil (2005), Jcvd (2008) and the American work The Cold Light of Day (2012). Also the focus of much acclaim for the series Maison close and Nox, the director is uniting the likes of Sabrina Ouazani, popular actor Ramzy Bedia (at his best in South Terminal and Vandal, among other works,...

Les Films du Kiosque, the Paris-based production company behind Nicolas Bedos’ Cannes-premiering “La Belle Epoque” and Netflix’ hit original “Family Business,” is set to reteam with Bedos on “Masquarade,” and will produce Mabrouk El Mechri’s “Kung Fu Zohra.”

El Mechri’s film follows Zohra, a young cashier from the suburbs who is being physically abused by her violent husband Omar. Zohra is trying everything she can to shelter her 6-year-old child and sets off to learn how to defend herself. Her life changes after she crosses paths with Chang Sue, a kung fu master who runs the municipal gymnasium. Set to start shooting in March, the film will star Sabrina Ouazani, Ramzy Bedia and Eye Haïdara.

Gaumont has come on board to acquire French distribution and international sales rights to the film.

François Kraus and Denis Pineau-Valencienne founded Les Films du Kiosque. Kraus told Variety that “Kung Fu...

Under the new leadership of industry veteran Kristina Zimmermann, Orange Studio, the film/TV division of the French telco group Orange, is launching three new projects at Berlin’s European Film Market: “Last Film Show,” “Old Fashioned” and “Love Song for Tough Guys.”

Directed by Pan Nalin (“Samsara”), “Last Film Show” follows Samay, a 9-year-old boy living with his family in a remote village in India. One day, he discovers films and is instantly mesmerized. Against his father’s wishes, he returns to the cinema day after day and sets off to become a filmmaker at all costs.

“It’s a personal film for Pan Nalin as it’s inspired by his own life, and it has a beautiful cinematography, because Pan Nalin is also a talented photographer,” said Zimmermann, who joined Orange Studio last July after working for nearly three decades at Canal Plus Group. “‘Last Film Show’ is...

Film plays in Toronto’s Contemporary World Cinema programme after Locarno premiere.

UK sales agent Reason8 has picked up world rights, excluding France, to Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche’s South Terminal (Terminal Sud), which premiered at Locarno this year and will have its North American bow in Toronto’s Contemporary World Cinema programme.

The French and Arabic language feature is set in an unnamed country during a conflict and follows a doctor who is kidnapped to care for a rebel leader and becomes a target for the army.

Ramzy Bedia plays the doctor. The project is Ameur-Zaïmeche’s sixth feature after titles including Story Of Judas,...

The director also stars among the cast of this Single Man production distributed by Ugc, alongside Vanessa Paradis, François Damiens, Ramzy Bedia, JoeyStarr, Bouli Lanners and Valeria Bruni Tedeschi. The final days of filming are underway for Cette musique ne joue pour personne, the 7th feature film by Samuel Benchetrit whose previous works include Janis & John (2003), I Always Wanted to be a Gangster, Macadam Stories (the focus of a special screening in Cannes in 2015) and Dog (presented in Locarno’s Piazza Grande in 2017). The cast stars the director himself, alongside Vanessa Paradis (nominated for the 2000 Best Actress César award for Girl on the Bridge and at her best in Heartbreaker and Knife + Heart among others), Belgium’s François...

Cinemagoers have become accustomed to the idea of faceless movie serial killers thanks to the bemasked likes of Jason Voorhees, Michael Myers, Leatherface, and the assorted knife-wielding maniacs of the Scream franchise. But the new film Rubber (which is currently available on VOD and hits theaters on April 1) features a murderer who is also lacking arms, legs, and a body. In fact, the movie’s villain is a discarded car tire that, for reasons which are never even remotely explained, comes to life in the California desert and starts making people’s heads explode with his psychokinetic powers. (We know...

Best known for directing Marion Cotillard to worldwide fame and an Oscar win in "La Vie En Rose," director Olivier Dahan has lined up his project and unlike his latest effort--the largely forgotten country music drama "My Own Love Song" which is heading straight-to-dvd--he's getting out of the music world and stepping into sports instead. Tout Le Cine reports that an ensemble cast including José Garcia, Gad Elmaleh (who will be seen in Woody Allen's "Midnight In Paris"), Ramzy Bedia, Franck Dubosc, Omar Sy, Joey Starr and Jean-Pierre Marielle have been assembled for the soccer comedy "Les Seigneurs." The film…...