News

Other Angle Pictures has boarded international sales on Christine Paillard and Chad Chenouga’s A Smile Doesn’t Lie and will kick off sales in Cannes in May.

The film, whose French title Pourquoi tu souris? means ‘why do you smile?’, follows a man who is always smiling despite life’s hassles. He heads to Bordeaux to start a new life, passes himself off as a migrant and forms an unlikely trio with a humanitarian woman and homeless man who secretly leads them into a questionable situation. It stars Simply Black’s Jean-Pascal Zadi, Emmanuelle Devos and 2023 breakout star Raphael Quenard.

Exclusive: Paris-based sales powerhouse Wild Bunch International (Wbi) has unveiled the bulk of its French slate for the first half of 2023 as it gears up for the Unifrance Rendez-vous in Paris, running January 10-17.

New titles on the slate include Jean-Bernard Marlin’s Marseille gangland-set fantasy Salem about a former gang member who believes his daughter is the only one who can save his community from an apocalyptic curse uttered by a rival gang member in his dying breath.

Salem is Marlin’s second feature after the gritty romance Shéhérazade. That drama, also set against the backdrop of Marseille

, debuted in Cannes in 2018 and went on to win best first film in France’s 2019 César awards as well as most promising actress and actor for its big screen debutants Kenza Fortas and Dylan Robert.

The new film, which is currently in post-production, is co-produced by Bruno Nahon’s Unité and Vatos Locos Productions,...

And here we are with the third part in our top 100 predictions.

Chad Chenouga‘s third feature film Le Principal might be one of those unassuming, perfectly calibrated French dramas that connect with auds — school settings can always land an emotional punch. Starring Roschdy Zem, Yolande Moreau and Marina Hands, this is about parents, students, teachers and one specific principle.

A possible horror offering for the Midnight Madness section, Australian twin brothers Danny & Michael Philippou (aka Racka Racka) lassoed Sophie Wilde to topline a story of a group of friends who discover how to conjure spirits using an ancient embalmed hand.…...