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It’s a debut solo feature debut film we’ve been tracking after French filmmaker Lila Pinell claimed the Grand Prix prize at the Prix du Scénario 2025 back in February, and managed to snag producers in Ecce Films’ Emmanuel Chaumet and CG Cinéma’s Charles Gilibert. Shana grabbed the top prize for the Fondation Gan last week and moved into production in that same time frame. Pretty remarkable start to the proceedings. We learned that Eva Huault (returning to the character she played in the short), Sékouba Doucouré, vet actress Noémie Lvovsky, Inès Trabendo, Agnès Host, Inès Anane, Jacky Abdillah, Lalla Rami populate the cast.…...

Exclusive: Here’s some distinctive first footage of sci-fi-thriller Jessica Forever, which is getting its European premiere in Berlin’s Panorama strand after closing Toronto’s Platform section last year.

The English and French-language film from first-time directors Caroline Poggi and Jonathan Vinel centers on a woman and her makeshift family of rehabilitated marauders fighting for peace in a dystopian world where violent misfits reign supreme.

Shudder, the AMC Networks genre streaming service, picked up North American and Australia/New Zealand rights last year. International sales rep MK2 has also closed deals for China with DDDream International, Japan with Klockworx and Mexico with Canibal Networks. Le Pacte will release in France.

The pic drew praise from critics out of Tiff last year and looks to bring an auteur take to a tried and tested genre premise. Aomi Muyock (Love), Sebastian Urzendowsky (The Counterfeiters), Lucas Ionesco and Paul Hamy star. Emmanuel Chaumet produces.

“Rojo,” a noirish retro drama-thriller by fast-rising Argentinean helmer Benjamin Naishtat, has closed a number of territories, including France and China, after scooping three prizes at the San Sebastian Film Festival following its Toronto world premiere. The distribution pacts sold by Paris-based sales agent Luxbox are for Benelux (September); Brazil (Vitrine Film); China (Time Vision); France (Condor); Greece (Spentzos); Switzerland (Filmcoop); and the U.K. (New Wave). Primer Plano will distribute in Argentina. Discussions are ongoing in Spain and other key territories. Described by Variety in its review as “a witheringly provocative examination of temporary moral eclipse becoming permanent moral apocalypse,” “Rojo” features a star-studded Latin American lineup, including Argentina’s Dario Grandinetti, and Chile’s Alfredo Castro, a favorite thesp of compatriot Pablo Larrain. Unspooling in a rustic province in 1975, the film is set against an ominous backdrop of mounting political violence that foreshadows Argentina’s approaching coup and Dirty War.

Madrid — Swooping in on a just-announced San Sebastian main competition title, Paris-based Luxbox has picked up world sales rights to the noirish retro drama-thriller “Rojo,” from Benjamin Naishtat, one of Argentina’s most highly-rated on-the-rise auteurs.

Also one of the biggest titles now coming out of Argentina and a Naishtat passion project developed over years, “Rojo” is set in an Argentine province in 1975 against a expanding wave of political violence, often perpetrated by illegal police squads.

Its prologue kicks off with Dr. Claudio Mora, an upstanding lawyer being attacked outside a restaurant by a stranger who pulls a gun, shoots himself but doesn’t die. In a fateful decision, Mora abandons the still-living stranger in the nearby desert. Consumed by guilt, he begins to discover a whole world of subterfuge, corruption and violence beneath the placid surface of provincial Argentina….

Naishtat’s follow-up to his debut, “History of Fear,” which...

Altered Innocence and Mubi have picked up U.S. rights to Bertrand Mandico’s debut feature film “The Wild Boys.” The film, which played in Venice Critics’ Week last year, follows five adolescent boys, all played by female actors, who after committing a crime are punished to board a boat with a captain hell-bent on taming their ferocious appetites.

The film, which is described as “brimming with eroticism, gender fluidity, and humor,” will receive a theatrical release in the U.S. in early fall from Altered Innocence and go on to a global streaming premiere exclusively on Mubi for 30 days as part of the platform’s Special Discovery series, with Altered Innocence releasing it on home video in late fall.

The deal was negotiated between Frank Jaffe from Altered Innocence, Daniel Kasman at Mubi, and Louise Rinaldi from Ecce Films, which produced and sold the film. Emmanuel Chaumet produced the pic,...

Exclusive: The company has also come onboard as a producer.

Paris-based mk2 films has boarded sales on Romanian director and Cannes regular Corneliu Porumboiu’s upcoming black comedy Gomera.

The film, set on the Canary Island of La Gomera, stars long-time Porumboiu collaborator Vlad Ivanov as a Romanian policeman on a mission to free a crooked businessman from prison which involves learning the local coded whistled language, known as El Silbo.

The company has also come on board the $3.87m project as a co-producer alongside Sylvie Pialat’s Les Films du Worso, Julie Gayet and Nadia Turincev’s joint company Rouge International, and Apaches in Spain. Porumboiu was last in Cannes in 2015 with The Treasure, which premiered in Un Certain Regard.

Gomera is among a trio of titles boarded by mk2 films on the eve of Cannes, including Mikhaël Hers’ third film Amanda and directorial duo Caroline Poggi and Jonathan Vinel’s debut feature Jessica Forever.

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Festival guests include Nathalie Baye, Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi Jalil Lespert and Vincent Macaigne.

Michael Kohlhaas by Arnaud de Pallieres was awarded best film at the 15th Athens Francophone film festival (March 19-26) backed by Unifrance.

The award sponsored by the French public channel TV5 and the Athens Municipality carries a purse of €9,000 to back the release of the film in Greece by Seven Films and Spentzos Films.

A special mention was given to Bruno Dumont’s Camille Claudel 1915, starring Juliette Binoche in the eponymous role.Videorama Films/Odeon acquired for Greece.

The five-member jury was comprised of the French-Greek actor George Corraface (president), Greek film producer Fenia Kosovitsa, French film scholar and director Antoine Danis, Greek born-French resident composer Olga Kouklaki and Greek film critic Yiannis Zoumpoulakis.

The audience award, backed by Fischer Breweries with €6,000, went to Marion Vernoux’s Les Beaux Jours starring Fanny Ardant. Produced by the French outlet Les Films du Kiosque, the film will...