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His filmography actually dates back to being a script supervisor on masterwork 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, so Romanian filmmaker Alexandru Belc has had the opportunity to witness the burgeoning national cinema and new wave of filmmakers explore contemporary and Ceaușescu era issues in what would have been the early naughts and now it’s his turn to vividly depict the type of pervasive paranoia of life in a communist dictatorship. In Metronom, (selected for Un Certain Regard section of 2022 – where Belc won the Directing Prize) we go back in time to what it looks (and sounds) like when communism and the idea of a different future collide.…...

Lila Aviles received best director in the international competition.

Marie Amachoukeli’s Ama Gloria and Juraj Lerotic’s Safe Place lead the winners of the 40th Jerusalem Film Festival, which handed out 1m Ils in prizes this evening (July 20).

Ama Gloria, which premiered in Critics’ Week at Cannes this year, won the best international film award. The film depicts the last summer between a six-year-old girl and her nanny Gloria, before the latter returns to Cape Verde to care for her own children.

Scroll down for the full list of feature winners

A jury led by Claire Denis and consisting of Whit Stillman,...

Marie Amachoukeli’s Ama Gloria has won the Best International Film Prize at the 40th edition of the Jerusalem Film Festival, running from July 13 to July 26.

The feature, which world premiered as the opening film of Cannes Critics’ Week in May, revolves around a motherless six-year-old girl who travels to Cape Verde to reunite with her longtime nanny.

The jury presided over by Claire Denis, and also figuring Whit Stillman, Florian Zeller, Joana Vicente, and Maria Schrader praised the film’s “extraordinary poignancy, beauty and insight”.

Ama Gloria is produced by Bénédicte Couvreur, the long-time producer of Céline Sciamma and her films Petite Maman and Portrait Of A Lady On Fire.

Other winners in the International Competition include Best Director for Mexico’s Lila Avilés for Berlinale-selected family drama Totem and a Special Mention for the ensemble cast of Argentinian director Rodrigo Moreno’s The Delinquents, which debuted in Un Certain Regard this year.

Jurors include Whit Stillman, Florian Zeller, Maria Schrader, Joana Vicente.

French filmmaker Claire Denis will lead the international competition jury for the 40th Jerusalem Film Festival, which runs from July 13-23.

Denis will be joined by directors Whit Stillman, Florian Zeller and Maria Schrader on the jury, plus Sundance Institute CEO Joana Vicente.

Hungarian director Kornel Mundruczo will preside over the Israeli competition jury. Directors make up the majority of the jurors across the competitive sections, including Jasmila Zbanic, Ali Abbasi, Sebastian Meise, Julian Rosefeldt, Joseph Cedar, Sebastien Lifshitz, Barbara Albert, Alexandru Belc and Manuela Martelli, plus Mathilde Henrot from Locarno Film Festival.

Greenbird Flies To New Owner

Scotland’s Stv Studios has acquired the 15 companies operated by “Lego Masters” company Greenbird Media for £21.4 million ($27.3 million). Israel’s Keshet International acquired 60% of Greenbird five years ago. Stv Studios has now acquired 100% of Greenbird, including Keshet’s stake.

Greenbird founders, Jamie Munro and Stuart Mullin, will join the Stv Studios board in the roles of chief commercial officer and finance and integration director respectively, working alongside COO, Paul Sheehan, and under the leadership of MD, David Mortimer.

The deal boosts the number of labels within Stv Studios from nine to 24. As a result of the acquisition, Stv Studios now has expanded bases in Glasgow and London, as well as offices in Cardiff, Belfast, Brighton and Manchester.

Hit shows made by the producers in Greenbird’s cluster include: “Lego Masters” (Tuesday’s Child for Channel 4/Fox) and “The Hit List” (Tuesday’s Child for BBC One...

Last year’s Un Certain Regard was a vintage year. A trio of films in Return to Seoul, Corsage and Godland could have easily been selected in competition for the Palme. The section gave us the Camera d’Or winner in Riley Keough and Gina Gammell’s War Pony. There were small gems in Saim Sadiq’s Joyland and Alexandru Belc’s Metronom while the big winner (Les Pires) with plenty of heart launched the film careers for Lise Akoka and Romane Gueret. The quality level could be just as solid this year. With the Cannes Premiere section hogging screening times at the Debussy, we don’t see an increase from a 20 film line-up.…...

A new year means a new New Directors/New Films lineup.

The 2023 festival, presented by the Museum of Modern Art and Film at Lincoln Center, is set to take place from March 29 through April 9 and boasts films from 41 directors. The 52nd edition of the festival kicks off with Savannah Leaf’s A24 drama “Earth Mama” and concludes with Vuk Lungulov-Klotz’s trans coming-of-age story “Mutt.” Both premiered at Sundance to acclaim.

In total, the festival boasts 27 features and 11 short films, with screenings taking place at theaters both at MoMA and Flc. Nations represented range from Argentina to Angola, Nigeria to Ukraine.

“This geographically diverse lineup brings together new directors from all over the world presenting works that make bold and creative statements on everything from identity and family to political repression and postcolonial discourse,” MoMA film curator and 2023 Nd/Nf co-chair La Frances Hui said in a press statement. “The...

Film at Lincoln Center and the Museum of Modern Art have set Savanah Leaf’s Earth Mama and Vuk Lungulov-Klotz’s Sundance Special Jury Award winner Mutt, both debut features, as opening and closing film at the 52st edition of their collaboration, New Directors/New Films, running March 29–April 9 in NYC.

The festival will introduce will showcase 27 features and 11 shorts from 41 directors at theaters in both venues.

Mutt star Lio Mehial was awarded a U.S. Special Jury Award for acting at Sundance Film festival for their portrayal of Feña, a twentysomething trans man contending with an onslaught of aggravation, surprise encounters and emotional choices over the course of a single hectic day in New York City. “We were charmed, seduced, and compelled by this fresh new performer as we watched them navigating the intimate complexities of their everyday life and relationships in his search for acceptance,” the jury citation said.

Often, when embarking on the recent Variety tradition that is this feature — designed to highlight some of the year’s best yet least-Oscar-likely performances — one particular turn will emerge as the poster child. A performance that, for many reasons, really ought to have a shot at Oscar but, being in a language other than English, has little chance. This year, that slot goes to Vicky Krieps who, in Marie Kreutzer’s “Corsage,” does not so much play Empress Elisabeth of Austria (a role previously defined by Romy Schneider in the saccharine “Sissi” trilogy) as entirely reimagine and reclaim her.

Rather like with Mads Mikkelsen in Thomas Vinterberg’s “Another Round,” Krieps has the kind of stateside profile that will help “Corsage” stay in the conversation for the best international feature film Oscar shortlist. But the odds of her getting an individual best actress nod remain far slimmer — a shame, given...

Ulrich Seidl took top honors Saturday for “Rimini” at Spain’s 60th Gijón-Xixón Film Festival, having hit back at German magazine Der Spiegel’s allegations of impropriety and child exploitation on the set of “Sparta,” “Rimini’s” companion piece.

World premiering at the Berlin Festival, “Rimini,” a “riveting, upsetting Ulrich Seidl slow-burn electrified by a stunning central turn,” said Variety, follows washed up crooner Richie Bravo (Michael Thomas) who is suddenly opportune for money by his estranged daughter.

“Sparta” focuses on Richie’s wayward brother, Eward, who buys an abandoned school in Romania’s Transylvania, converting it into a compound called Sparta where he teaches young children self-defence. That provides a chance for him to photograph them in undress.

Also Germany’s biggest news website, Der Spiegel alleged that Seidl did not reveal “Sparta’s” focus on pedophilia to its young non-pro actors, aged 9-16, nor to their guardians, and...

Click here to read the full article.

The American French Film Festival (Tafff) is using cinema to bridge the gap between French and American culture.

Presented by the Franco-American Cultural Fund (Facf), the 26th annual festival returns this year for a second time after a pandemic hiatus in 2020. This year, the festival is committed to not only highlighting the similarities between the two cultures, but also zeroing in on the differences to shine a light on how each culture can better understand the other.

“When you organize conversations in a bicultural setting, it’s always full of surprises, and that’s the point of conversations,” festival deputy director Anouchka van Riel tells The Hollywood Reporter. “And for me, it’s not so much about commonalities, as it is about differences. The tropes, the codes, the stereotypes are very different from one culture to another. It’s a very strange feeling...

Festival runs October 12-23.

Jafar Panahi’s No Bears, Alice Diop’s Saint Omer, and Sergei Loznitsa’s The Natural History Of Destruction are among the international competitions line-up at the 58th Chicago International Film Festival next month.

This year’s competitions include 10 films receiving their North American premiere and 17 getting their US premiere as the entries vie for the festival’s Gold Hugo award in the categories of international feature, international documentary, and new directors.

The festival runs October 12-23. The full international competition line-ups are below.

Playing in International Feature Competition are: The Beasts (Sp-Fr), Rodrigo Sorogoyen, US premiere; Before,...

Indonesian thriller ‘Autobiography’ and Mexican documentary ‘Sanson And Me’ among line-up.

Australia’s Adelaide Film Festival (Oct 19-30) has unveiled its first line-up since shifting from a biennial to an annual event, including 12 titles in competition.

This year’s event comprises 129 films, of which 22 world premieres, from more than 40 countries.

The competition features include Indonesian thriller Autobiography, which scooped a Fipresci prize at the weekend after playing in the Horizons strand of the Venice Film Festival. The debut feature of film critic-turned-director Makbul Mubarak is about a young man who keeps house for a retired general, finding himself torn between...

The festival runs July 21-31.

Alexandru Belc’s Metronom has picked up the award for best international film at the 39th edition of the Jerusalem Film Festival (Jff) this week.

The Romanian film was selected from 11 international titles, which included Park Chan-wook’s Decision To Leave and Mia Hansen-Løve’s One Fine Morning. It centres around a teenage couple spending their last few days together in 1972. Belc also won the best director award when the film played in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard selection earlier this year.

Berlinale managing director Mariette Rissenbeek, Hungarian filmmaker László Nemes and Icelandic director Rúnar Rúnarsson comprised the jury.

International competition titles include ‘Broker’ and ‘Decision To Leave’ from South Korea.

Jerusalem Film Festival (Jff) has revealed the line-up of international competition titles for its 39th edition, which includes several award-winners from this year’s Cannes.

Ten features will compete in the international competition of Jff, which is set to host its 39th edition from July 21-31.

These include Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Broker and Park Chan-wook’s Decision To Leave from South Korea, which respectively picked up best actor for Song Kang-ho and best director for Park. Also selected is Abi Abbasi’s Holy Spider, which saw Zar Amir-Ebrahimi pick up best actress,...

Bogdan George Apetri’s “Miracle” took home the top prize in the Romanian Days competition at the Transilvania Intl. Film Festival, which saw nine first-time directors among the 12 filmmakers competing in the annual showcase of domestic cinema.

It’s the first time such a formidable number of debuts have featured in the competition, offering a snapshot of what the fest’s artistic director Mihai Chirilov describes as a “balanced landscape” of new and established voices in Romania’s celebrated film industry.

It’s been nearly two decades since Cristi Puiu’s “The Death of Mr. Lazarescu” (2005) won the Un Certain Regard Award at the Cannes Film Festival, kickstarting what would come to be known as the Romanian New Wave. Two years later, Cristian Mungiu won the Palme d’Or for his abortion drama “4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days,” cementing the movement’s status and effectively punching the tickets of Mungiu, Puiu...

All the People I’ll Never Be – Davy Chou [Review]

The Blue Caftan – Maryam Touzani

Burning Days – Emin Alper

Butterfly Vision – Maksym Nakonechnyi

Corsage – Marie Kreutzer [Review]

Domingo and the Mist – Ariel Escalante Meza

Father & Soldier – Mathieu Vadepied

Godland – Hlynur Pálmason [Review]

Harka – Lotfy Nathan [Review]

Joyland – Saim Sadiq

Les Pires – Lise Akoka, Romane Gueret [Review] [Interview]

Mediterranean Fever – Maha Haj

Metronom – Alexandru Belc [Review]

Plus que jamais – Emily Atef [Review]

Plan 75 – Chie Hayakawa [Review]

Rodéo – Lola Quivoron [Review]

Sick of Myself – Kristoffer Borgli [Review]

The Silent Twins – Agnieszka Smoczyńska [Review]

The Stranger – Thomas M.…...

Fresh off winning the award for best director in the Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard sidebar, Alexandru Belc returns to his native Romania with “Metronom,” which will receive an open-air screening in the historic Piata Unirii (Unity Square) at the Transilvania Film Festival.

A coming-of-age story about a young woman grown disillusioned with her first love, the ‘70s-set period drama reflects the difficult choices Romanians were forced to make under communist leader Nicolae Ceaușescu, whose gradual clampdown on civil liberties led to a wider unraveling of the social fabric. Variety’s Jessica Kiang wrote that Belc’s incisive feature deftly explores “how insidiously even the young – those most inclined toward rebellion and optimistic self-expression in any society – can be made to fall in step with authoritarianism’s joyless, frogmarching beat.”

Though “Metronom” marks his fiction feature directorial debut, Belc cut his teeth as a script supervisor and assistant...

It is 1972, in Bucharest. Ceaușescu has been in power for seven years, and the fabric of ordinary life has been steeped long enough in his regime’s corrosively oppressive mandate that it has begun to fray. Yet against this backdrop of gathering gloom, bright, fresh first love is blossoming. This is already a fertile setup for an atmospheric, doomed romance, but Alexandru Belc’s slow, stylish, richly imagined feature debut is much more than a Romanian riff on Romeo and Juliet. A metronome keeps time for musicians; “Metronom” describes how insidiously even the young — those most inclined toward rebellion and optimistic self-expression in any society — can be made to fall in step with authoritarianism’s joyless, frogmarching beat.

With this story of individual relationships stressed by systemic fearmongering, writer-director Belc — who previously worked with Cristian Mungiu and Corneliu Porumboiu, and picked up the directing award in this year’s Un...

Triangle of SadnessCOMPETITIONPalme d’Or: Triangle of Sadness (Ruben Östlund) (Read our review)Grand Prix ex aequo: Close (Lukas Dhont)Grand Prix ex aequo: Stars at Noon (Claire Denis) (Read our review)Jury Prize ex aequo: The Eight Mountains (Charlotte Vandermeersch, Felix Van Groeningen)Jury Prize ex aequo: Eo (Jerzy Skolimowski) (Read our review)75th Anniversary Prize: Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne (Tori and Lokita) (Read our review)Best Director: Park Chan-wook (Decision to Leave) (Read our review)Best Actor: Song Kang-ho (Broker)Best Actress: Zahra Amir-Ebrahimi (Holy Spider)Best Screenplay: Tarik Saleh (Boy From Heaven)The Worst OnesUN Certain REGARDGrand Prize: The Worst Ones (Lise Akoka, Romane Gueret)Ensemble Prize: Jury Prize: Joyland (Saim Sadiq)Jury Special Mention: Best Director: Alexandru Belc (Metronome)Best Performance: Vicky Krieps (Corsage) and Adam Bessa (Harka) (Read our review)Screenplay: Mediterranean Fever (Maha Haj)Coup de Coeur Award: Rodeo (Lola Quivoron)The MountainDIRECTORS' FORTNIGHTEuropa...

Other prize winners in the section include Joyland, Metronom and Mediterranean Fever.

The Worst Ones, from French directors Lise Akoka and Romane Gueret, has won the top prize in the Un Certain Regard section of this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

Also awarded honours by the section’s jury were Joyland, Metronom and Mediterranean Fever.

The Worst Ones (Les Pires) is the debut feature from Akoka and Gueret, who also wrote the script with Elénore Gurrey. The story of a group of young people recruited for a film shoot, the film was produced by Frédéric Jouve and Marine Alaric for Les Films Velvet.

The Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard sidebar handed out its prizes tonight with top honors going to Lise Akoka and Romane Gueret’s The Worst Ones (Les Pires). The Jury Prize was awarded to Saim Sadig’s Joyland, the first Pakistani movie ever in official selection at Cannes.

The Worst Ones is a drama about a film within a film that sees a crew hit a working class French town. Deadline’s review said it hit “with thought-provoking and sometimes darkly funny results.”

Joyland for its part, centers on a married man who falls for a trans woman. Deadline called it an “atmospheric” title that “explores a whole family, presenting a picture of a clan torn between modernity and tradition in contemporary Lahore.”

Meanwhile, as had been expected, Vicky Krieps took the Best Actor award for her performance in Marie Kreutzer’s Corsage. She shared the honor with Adam Bessa from Harka.

“The Worst Ones” (“Les Pires”), a drama about four unruly French teenagers who are chosen to act in a film, has won the top prize in the Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival.

The film was chosen by a jury chaired by actress Valeria Golino and also including director Debra Granik, actors Joanna Kulig and Edgar Ramirez and actor-singer Benjamin Biolay. Acting prizes went to Vicky Krieps for “Corsage” and Adam Bessa for “Harka,” while the directing award went to Alexandru Belc for “Metronomes.”

Saim Sadiq’s “Joyland” won the Jury Prize, which made it runner-up to “The Worst Ones.”

The Un Certain Regard section, which is typically devoted to smaller, more daring films than those in the main competition, consisted of 20 movies this year. Other entries in the section included Riley Keough and Gina Gammell’s “War Pony,” Davy Chou’s “Return to Seoul,” Maryam Touzani’s “The Blue Caftan,...

With the Cannes Film Festival wrapping up, the awards portion of the world’s most prestigious film festival is officially underway. While fans will have to wait until tomorrow to see the festival’s main jury award its top prizes, including the Palme d’Or, the winners in the Un Certain Regard category have been announced. Italian actress and director Valeria Golino oversaw the jury for Un Certain Regard, which runs parallel to the Main Competition and awards films with particularly unique styles or points of view. And even by the category’s bold standards, some of this year’s winners were likely surprising to the festival’s attendees.

“The Worst Ones,” Lise Akoka and Romane Gueret’s French movie about a film crew shooting in a working-class town, took the top prize, while “Joyland,” Saim Sadiq’s Pakistani transgender love story, won the Jury Prize. Alexandru Belc won Best Director for “Metronom,...

Predicting winners is always a fool’s errand in the Un Certain Regard section (the second-most prestigious competition of the Cannes Film Festival) and so it proved tonight, as the little-heralded French entry “The Worst Ones” (“Les Pires”), a debut feature from female directing duo Lise Akoka and Romane Gueret, was handed the top prize by jury president Valeria Golino — one of four first films to be recognized at the ceremony.

A playful film-within-a-film about the challenges and perils of street casting — following a film crew seeking out local non-professional actors for a shoot in a working-class French town — “The Worst Ones” surged past a number of buzzier critical favorites and hot distribution prospects to claim the award.

It’s the second consecutive female-directed feature to be named best in show: last year’s Prix Un Certain Regard went to Russian director Kira Kovalenko’s gritty coming-of-age drama “Unclenching the Fists.

Rays of promotional sunshine will highlight 46 European finished and unfinished films at this year’s Marché du Film at the Cannes Film Festival (17–28 May 2022).

‘Triangle of Sadness’ by Ruben Östlund (Sweden, France, Germany, UK/ Coproduction Office)

21 international sales agents are drawing on Film Sales Support (Fss) - totalling €78,000 - to bolster and innovate promotion and marketing campaigns of brand-new films to trigger sales to countries outside of Europe at one of the most prestigious markets of the year. Overseas buyers on-site and off-site will have the fortune to catch sight of a number of new films from Europe premiering at the Croisette.

Amongst the many to be discovered at the Marché are Competition titles, Pacifiction by Albert Serra (Spain, Portugal, Germany/Films Boutique,France), Triangle of Sadness by Ruben Östlund (Sweden, France, Germany, UK/Coproduction Office), Boy from Heaven by Tarik Saleh (Sweden, France, Finland, Denmark/Memento International), Un Certain Regard titles, Metronom by Alexandru Belc (Romania, France/Pyramide International) and Rodeo by Lola Quivoron (France/Les Films du Losange) as well as films in Directors’ Fortnight, Will-o'-the-wisp by Joao Pedro Rodrigues (Portugal, France/ Films Boutique,Germany) and The Super 8 Years by Annie Ernaux & David Ernaux-Briot (France/Totem Films).

For the first time, Fss will also be awarded to a Ukrainian film in solidarity with the country. Indie Sales is the happy recpient for its film Pamfir by Ukrainian director, Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk, a multi-coproduction between the Ukraine, Poland, France, Germany, Chile and Luxembourg. By a lucky twist, 3 of Efp’s Producers on the Move and their films will benefit from the support indirectly: Sick of Myself by Kristoffer Borgli (producer Andrea Berentsen Ottmar from Norway/Memento International), The Woodcutter Story by Mikko Myllylahti (producer Derk-Jan Warrink from the Netherlands) and Tel Aviv Beirut by Michale Boganim (producer Janine Teerling from Cyprus/Wt Films).

13 European films in the companies’ line-ups are yet unfinished but ready to be announced and promoted.

**Click here for the full list**

Thanks to Swiss Films, 4 films from Switzerland will similarly receive Fss for the promotion in Cannes: Men Caves by Céline Pernet (Lightdox), Continental Drift by Lionel Baier (Switzerland, France/ Les Films du Losange), 99 Moons by Jan Gassmann (m-appeal world sales) and The Black Spider by Markus Fischer (Switzerland, Hungary/The Playmaker Munich).

Fss is supported by Creative Europe Media and part of Efp’s (European Film Promotion) many activities for the promotion of European films and talent around the world.

get in touch with °efp

Efp European Film Promotion

info@efp-online.com

www.efp-online.com

Efp (European Film Promotion) is an international network of film promotion institutes from 37 countries from throughout Europe, each representing their national films and talent abroad. Under the Efp flag, these organisations team up to jointly promote the diversity and spirit of European films and talent at key film festivals and markets, in particular outside of Europe.

Distributor adds to its haul of official selection titles from the Croisette.

Benelux distributor Cinéart has added a trio of Competition titles to its Cannes haul: Ali Abbasi’s Holy Spider from Wild Bunch, Park Chan-Wook’s Decision To Leave from Cj Entertainment, and Tarik Saleh’s Boy From Heaven from Memento.

The Brussels-based outfit came to Cannes with Competition title Tori And Lokita, directed by Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne

From Un Certain Regard, Cinéart has Maryam Touzani’s The Blue Caftan from Films Boutique, and Patricio Guzmán’s doc My Imaginary Country, a Special Screening, from Pyramide.

Fellow...

Competition titles ‘Pacification’, ‘Triangle Of Sadness’, ‘Boy From Heaven’ also backed.

Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk’s Ukrainian co-production Pamfir is one of 49 European films at this year’s Marché du Film to receive Film Sales Support (Fss) from the European Film Promotion (Efp) network.

Twenty-one sales companies are receiving a total of €78,000 for promotion and marketing campaigns of the 49 titles. Thirty-three of the films are completed, with a further 13 still in later stages of production.

Pamfir is Ukrainian director Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk’s debut feature, and plays in Directors’ Fortnight at the festival. A co-production between Ukraine, Poland, France, Germany, Chile and Luxembourg, it...

At last count, Pyramide is selling the most films (6) which are showing in the Festival and its satellites. Four are in the Official Selections of the Cannes International Film Festival (Cannes Ff Premiere, Cannes Ff Special Screening, and Cannes Ff Un Certain Regard); one is in Critics’ Week / La Semaine de la critique and one is in Directors’ Fortnight/ Quinzaine des realisateurs.

Throughout the festival, we will watch not only their films to report on, but will keep an eye on the sales to some 60 international territories.

Pyramide International is part of the Pyramide Group which is also a domestic distribution company in France (Pyramide Distribution) and a French production company (Pyramide Productions). The company was founded in 1989 by Claudie Cheval, Fabienne Vonier, Francis Boespflug, Louis Malle and Michel Seydoux. Claudie also founded Ace which is still going strong today. (see current blog on Ace in Cannes).

Claudie brought Eric Lagesse into Pyramide International as a young man and, typically for everyone who is involved with Pyramide, he continues to work with them today as their CEO. Claudie was one of the most wonderful, warm and creative women in the business and unfortunately for us all, she died much too soon, on July 30, 1999 at age 48. Claudie set a tone of willing cooperation and support among the French film business colleagues. One can see at a glance when entering the Unifrance umbrella offices how the French international sales agents at the markets cooperate with each other. When reading how films in the Cannes Film Festival and the sidebars seem to be apportioned out to them when the titles are announced and there is no international sales agent attached yet, one surmises that there is a special kind of sharing going on among them.

Pyramide is one of the oldest and most respected of some 450 interntional sales agents. Last year they represented one of my favorite films of the festival, the Critics’ Week film A Tale of Love and Desire. Please read my blog about it here. The French government support of film as a cultural heritage allows the French sales agents to serve as the best examples of agents for the 7th Art to all other countries. As a world sales agent, Pyramide International has deliberately focused on the “film d’auteur” and promotes international sales of young directors.

As distributors in France itself as well as international sales agents, they also can boast of one of the top acquisitions executive in the business, Christine Ravet buys the films the French public lines up to see at their theaters as well as those that are sold internationally.

This year’s Cannes titles are described here:

Cannes Ff Premiere Dodo directed by Panos H. Koutras is a coproduction of Greece, France, and Belgium.

Dodo directed by Panos H. Koutras

Cannes Ff Special Screenings My Imaginary Country/ Mi país imaginario directed by Patricio Guzmán is a production of Chile. Sales have already been made for UK and Ireland to New Wave; Benelux to Cineart; Italy to I Wonder, Ex-Yugo to Discovery.

My Imaginary Country/ Mi país imaginario directed by Patricio Guzmán

Cannes Ff Un Certain Regard Metronom is eligible for the Camera d’Or as it is the third film, but the first fiction feature of director Alexandru Belc of Romania.

Metronom is eligible for the Camera d’Or as it is the third film, but first fiction feature of director Alexandru Belc

Cannes Ff Un Certain Regard The Worst Ones/Les pires is also eligible for the Camera d’Or. It is directed by Lise Akoka and Romane Gueret of France.

Directors’ Fortnight Harkis/ Les Harkis directed by Philippe Faucon of France tells the story set during the Algerian War 1954–1962, when impoverished young Algerian men known as “Harkis” volunteered to join the French Army.

Critics’ Week in Competition The Pack/ La jauría directed by Colombian Andrés Ramírez Pulido is a coproduction of Colombia and France. It tells of a country boy, Eliú, incarcerated́ in an experimental juvenile correction center in the heart of the Colombian jungle after he committed a crime with his friend El Mono. Ordered to perform manual labour and undergo intensive group therapy, Eliú discovers that El Mono has been transferred to the same center, bringing with him a past that Eliú is trying to escape.Pulido’s feature directorial debut follows a distinguished track record in short films that saw Damiana premiere in Competition in Cannes in 2017 a year after El Edén played in the Berlinale.

And in the Marche: I Love Greece. And who doesn’t?...

Updated, April 21: The Cannes Film Festival has added competition titles and additional screenings in the Midnight, Un Certain Regard, and Out of Competition sections. They are:

Competition

“The Eight Mountains,” Charlotte Vandermeersch, Felix Van Groeningen

“Un Petit Frère,” Leonor Serraille

“Tourment Sur Les Iles,” Albert Serra

Cannes Premiere

“Don Juan,” Serge Bozon

“La Nuit du 12,” Dominik Moll

“Chronicle of a Temporary Affair,” Emmanuel Mouret

Midnight Screenings

“Rebel,” Adil Arbi, Bilall Fallah

Un Certain Regard

“More Than Ever,” Emily Atef

“Mediterranean Fever,” Maha Haj

“The Blue Caftan,” Maryam Touzani

Out of Competition

“L’Innocent,” Louis Garrel

Special Screenings

“Mi Pais Imaginario,” Patricio Guzmán

“The Vagabonds,” Doroteya Droumeva

“Riposte Feministe,” Marie Perennes, Simon Depardon

“Restos do Vento,” Tiago Guedes

“Little Nicholas,” Amandine Fredon, Benjamin Massoubre

Earlier, April 14: The 2022 Cannes Film Festival is upon us and once again taking place in person this spring from May 17 through May 28. The lineup for...

Cinephiles were drooling early Thursday morning over what was cooking at Cannes. Cannes Film Festival director Thierry Frémaux unleashed the competition and out-of-competition slate for 2022, and it is très formidable.

Eighteen movies from across the globe will compete for the Palme D’or. (Don’t be surprised if another title slips in between now and opening night; last-minute additions are common occurrences.) The big guns are as follows:

David Cronenberg will make his return to whacked-out weirdo body horror with “Crimes of the Future.” After last year’s win for “Titane,” don’t count this one out for the top prize. The film stars Cronenberg vet Viggo Mortensen plus Léa Seydoux (a Cannes regular who had to skip last summer’s fest after testing positive for Covid) and Kristen Stewart. Not much is known about the picture, other than it shares a title with a one-hour feature with non-synchronous sound...

Update: The lineup for the 75th Cannes Film Festival — as it stands so far, there are still additions to be made — has been revealed with 18 movies in Competition (see full lists below). Included in the running are such returning Palme d’Or winners as Hirokazu Kore-eda, Cristian Mungiu, Ruben Ostlund and the Dardenne brothers.

Other familiar names who will launch new works in the Competition include James Gray, Claire Denis, Park Chan-wook, Kelly Reichardt, Jerzy Skolimowski, and, as expected, David Cronenberg.

Across the rest of the Official Selection, George Miller’s Three Thousand Years Of Longing was confirmed for an Out of Competition berth while Ethan Coen turns up in Special Screenings with Jerry Lee Lewis: Trouble In Mind.

In total, 49 movies were announced today, including Michel Hazanavicius’ Z (Comme Z) aka Final Cut, which will open the festival on May 17 out of competition. The Zombie comedy stars Bérénice Bejo and Romain Duris.

After a skipped year and then a delayed year, the Cannes Film Festival is now back in its usual spring slot, taking place May 17 through 28. After many rumors and reports, festival director Thierry Frémaux has now unveiled the main lineup for this 75th Edition.

Featuring new work from David Cronenberg, Claire Denis, Park Chan-wook, Kelly Reichardt, George Miller, James Gray, Hirokazu Kore-eda, Cristian Mungiu, Arnaud Desplechin, Dardennes, Ruben Östlund, and more, it’s quite a promising slate. There was no mention of David Lynch, but Olivier Assayas will also be showing part of his new TV show adaptation of Irma Vep and Ethan Coen will debut his first documentary (on Jerry Lee Lewis), while studio offerings Top Gun: Maverick and Elvis were re-confirmed.

Explore below.

Opening

Z, Michel Hazanavicius (out of competition)

Competition

The Almond Tree, Valeria Bruni Tedeschi

Armageddon Time, James Gray

Boy From Heaven, Tarik Saleh

Broker, Hirokazu Kore-eda

Brother and Sister,...

The line-up includes films by David Cronenberg, Hirokazu Kore-eda, Ruben Östlund, Kelly Reichardt, Park Chan-Wook and Claire Denis.

The Official Selection of the 2022 Cannes Film Festival has been announced.

Scroll down for the line-up

The selection includes films by David Cronenberg, Hirokazu Kore-eda, Ruben Östlund, Park Chan-Wook, Kelly Reichardt and Claire Denis. The 18-strong competition features three female directors (Reichardt, Denis and Valeria Bruni Tedeschi).

Michel Hazanavicius’ zombie comedy Z will open the festival out of competition.

47 titles were unveiled today (plus the previously announced Elvis and Top Gun: Maverick), significantly down on last year’s 83, though more titles will...

The 2022 Cannes Film Festival announced its 75th anniversary lineup on Thursday morning in Paris, with films selected for the prestigious festival including “Three Thousand Years of Longing,” George Miller’s first film since “Mad Max: Fury Road”; “Showing Up,” which finds indie director Kelly Reichardt reuniting with her “Wendy and Lucy” and “Certain Women” star Michelle Williams; and “Crimes of the Future,” a reportedly disturbing David Cronenberg drama whose cast includes Kristen Stewart, Lea Seydoux and Viggo Mortensen, who starred in three Cronenberg films between 2005 and 2011, including “A History of Violence” and “Eastern Promises.”

Other films include two music documentaries: “Trouble in Mind,” a Jerry Lee Lewis film by Ethan Coen, and “Moonage Daydream,” an authorized David Bowie work by Brett Morgen.

The 18 films in the main competition include several from Cannes regulars, including the Dardenne brothers (“Tori and Lokita”), Claire Denis (“Stars at Noon”), James Gray (“Armageddon Time”), Hirokazu...

The press conference will kick off in central Paris at 11:00am local time (10:00 BST).

The Cannes Film Festival will reveal the Official Selection for its 75th edition today (April 14).

General delegate Thierry Frémaux will present the titles alongside outgoing festival president Pierre Lescure at the Normandie Cinema on the Champs-Elysées in central Paris at 11:00am local time (10:00 BST).

This year’s edition is returning to a more traditional May 17-28 slot after being moved to July in 2021 due to the pandemic.

So far the only titles officially announced are Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis and Tom Cruise blockbuster Top Gun: Maverick.

Four world premieres among line-up.

Sarajevo Film Festival (Aug 12-20) has revealed the documentary films that will play in competition at its 22nd edition.

The programme consists of 21 films that examine issues ranging from personal identity, national identity, emigration and social justice to family secrets, political mysteries and economical crises.

Competition Programme – Documentary Filmworld Premieres

Borders

Slovenia, 2016, 10 min.

Director: Damjan Kozole

The Heart Of Wood / Srce Od Drveta

Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2016, 36 min.

Director: Namik Kabil

Scream For Me Sarajevo

Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2016, 100 min.

Director: Tarik Hodžić

Svetlana

Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2016, 25 min.

Director: Pero Pavlovic

International Premieres

Baglar

Turkey, 2016, 81 min.

Director: Berke Bas, Melis Birder

The Beast Is Still Alive

Bulgaria, 2016, 91 min.

Director: Mina Mileva, Vesela Kazakova

Down There / Unten

Austria, 2016, 87 min.

Director: Đorđe Čenić, Hermann Peseckas

Drums Of Resistance / Daullet E REZISTENCËS

Kosovo, 2016, 65 min.

Director: Mathieu Jouffre

Four Passports / ČETIRI PASOŠA

Serbia, Croatia, Germany, 2016, 83 min.

Director: Mihajlo Jevtić

Islands Of Forgotten Cinemas / Kino Otok

Croatia, 2016, 35 min.

Director:...

Round-up of news from the sixth American Film Festival and Us in Progress showcase.

Shaz Bennett’s Alaska Is A Drag was the big winner at the fifth edition of the Us In Progress showcase during Wroclaw’s sixth American Film Festival (Oct 20-25).

The strand’s jury awarded post-production services worth up to $40,000 to the project. This will include colour correction from Chimney Poland, a score composed by Maciej Zielinski from Soundflower Studios, and a final sound mix from Toya Studios, as well as an offer to acquire TV rights from Ale Kino+.

The film, which is writer-director Bennett’s feature version of her 2012 short of the same name, was produced by her 4248 Productions with Melanie Miller’s Fishbowl Films.

The cast of the $700,000 project includes Matt Dallas, Jason Scott Lee, Margaret Cho, newcomer Martin L. Washington Jr. and Christopher O’Shea.

Daniel Grove, an executive producer on acclaimed horror A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night,picked...

New films by Vitaly Mansky, Alexandru Belc and Joseph Gordillo are among the world premieres in competition at this year’s Dok Leipzig (Oct 26 - Nov 1).

Mansky’s Russian-German-Czech-North Korean co-production Under The Sun, about the everyday life of a North Korean family, will compete in the festival’s international competition for feature-length documentaries and animation films with such films as Alexander Sokurov’s Venice title Francofonia, Wojciech Staron’s Brothers, Roberto Minervini’s The Other Side and Anca Damian’s animation The Magic Mountain. .

Greek filmmaker Maria Economou’s The Longest Run, about the fate of two young refugees picked up at the Greek border and the festival’s opening film, Time Will Tell by Andreas Voigt, are the other two world premieres apart from Mansky’s film.

German competition

New documentaries by Mario Schneider (Naked Beauty), André Schäfer (Herr von Bohlen) and Tom Lemke (Land on Water) are among the films to receive their world premieres...

Docu Rough Cut Boutique prizes also revealed.

The 21st Sarajevo Film Festival (Aug 14-22) announced the winners of the partner awards at a ceremony last night (Aug 21).

Dalibor Matanić’s The High Sun (Zvizdan), which premiered at Cannes in Un Certain Regard (where it won the Jury Prize), received the Cicae Award from the jury comprising Kevin De Ridder and Silvia Bahl.

The Croatian drama comes from Zagreb-born writer-director Matanić, best known for his 2002 feature Fine Dead Girls, andis about forbidden love across national borders - a tale that starts just before the Balkan war in 1991 and travels through to 2011.

Young Croatian director Eva Kraljević won the European Documentary Network Talent Grant for her intimate 41-minute film I Like That Super Most The Best.

The film, shot over 10 years, follows the relationship of Kraljević and her sister, Mia, who has Down syndrome.

The jury - comprising Laurent Crouzeixis, Marina Kožul, and [link=nm...

New documentaries by Boris Mitic, Vitaly Mansky and Salome Jashi are among the projects being pitched at this year’s East Doc Platform in Prague (March 2-8).

Broadcasters, distributors, film funders, festivals and producers from Europe and North America will attend pitching sessions for the East European Forum, Project Market and the second edition of the cross-media showcase Doc Tank.

200 applications were submitted for the 15th edition of the East European Forum which will be presenting ten projects including:

Georgian film-maker Salomé Jashi’s The Station about the aspirations of the only journalist and anchor-woman of a small provincial TV station

Estonian Jaak Kilmi’s People From Nowhere which will also be presented at next week’s When East Meets West co-production gathering in Trieste

Jakub Piatek’s A Film For My Mom, a home video documentary with fictional scenes

Vitaly Mansky’s highly topically Close Relations – The Ukraine Crisis, My Family...

HBO Europe has re-emphasised its commitment to feature documentary as a core part of its original programming.

Antony Root, evp of programming and production at HBO Europe, said: “We want strong narratives with, in most cases, strong emotional storylines as well.”

HBO, he elaborated, aims to support docs “with a strong point of view and a directorial voice”.

Root said that provision is being made for some of these docs to have cinema releases alongside their TV showings.

“What we want is films that work well for us when they finally premiere on HBO,” said Root.

He added that cinema runs can “help recognise the merits of the film and give the film a profile we can benefit from when we finally show it on the air on our service. It is a virtuous circle, really. If something warrants going in the cinema, we are very supportive of that.”

HBO does not sell commercials and is not...

An observational documentary and two fiction films are the first projects to be supported by the Transilvania Film Festival Fund (Tfff).

Launched at this year’s 13th Transilvania International Film Festival, the winners receiving cash or in-kind post-production services are:

Fifteen Zero Thirty Three by Iulia Matei, an observational documentary which promises to be one of the most ambitious of its kind in Romania;

Alexandru Capataiou’s love triangle with a difference, Under A Good Sign, which was developed at the Transilvania TalentLab in Cluj last year;

Cristina Grosan’s fiction short Openings, to be produced by Mindwax and HiFilm Productions, which was developed within the European Short Pitch programme and nominated for the 2014 (and final) edition of the Film Prize for International Cooperation sponsored by Germany’s Robert Bosch Foundation.

The thinking behind the creation of Tfff which attracted 35 entries is to promote the development and production in the Romanian region of Transilvania by supporting short fiction...