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“Souleymane’s Story,” Boris Lojkine’s timely drama which took two prizes at Cannes’ Un Certain Regard and four Cesar Awards earlier this year, has been acquired by Kino Lorber for U.S. and English-speaking Canada distribution rights.

Bolstered by the debut performance of first-time actor Abou Sangare, “Souleymane’s Story” is a ticking-clock drama charting the journey of a Guinean immigrant working as a bicycle deliveryman in Paris in the days leading up to his asylum interview. Kino Lorber pointed the film draws inspiration from Cristian Mungiu’s “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days” and socially minded films by the Dardenne brothers.

Since world premiering at Cannes where it won the Jury Prize at Un Certain Regard and best actor for Abou Sangare, “Souleymane’s Story” became a major arthouse hit in France, selling approximately 500,000 admissions in French cinemas. The film also turned out to be one of the highlights of France’s awards season.

Emilia Pérez won Best Film, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Sound, Best Original Music, Best Special Effects and Best Cinematography at the 50th edition of the Césars (aka the French Oscars) but in having two horses in the Best Actress race meant that the surprise win and award went to Hafsia Herzi for Borgo instead. The other big winner of the evening was Boris Lojkine’s Souleymane’s Story – he won for Best Original Screenplay (with Delphine Agut), Best Editing, Best Supporting Actress and of course Male Revelation – Abou Sangare had won at the European film awards for a role that won him Best Actor in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section.…...

“Emilia Pérez” won Best Film from the French 2025 César Awards, a major win for the Netflix film ahead of the Oscars. Jacques Audiard’s movie had earned 13 Oscar nominations but then fell out of frontrunner status.

The film also won both Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay for Jacques Audiard, though Zoe Saldaña, who has dominated the awards circuit all year, lost in an upset to Hafsia Herzi for the film “Borgo.” Saldaña though was nominated alongside Karla Sofía Gascón in the Best Actress category, and not in Best Supporting Actress.

In all, “Emilia Pérez” took home seven Césars out of 12 nominations, including Best Visual Effects, Best Sound, Best Original Music, and Best Cinematography. “The Count of Monte Cristo,” a new version of the Dumas revenge tale, led all nominees with 14, and it won two.

While the Césars this year largely did not resemble the Oscars, a few others won...

Jacques Audiard swept the board at the 50th Césars on Friday evening, winning Best Director and Film for Emilia Pérez against expectations after its award-season campaign was derailed by the uncovering of racist tweets by its star Karla Sofía Gascón.

“It’s such a pleasure although I fear you actually don’t like me,” quipped a visibly moved Audiard as he received the Directors Award, which was announced first, with Anatomy of Fall Oscar and César winner Justine Triet handing it over. “I thank my marvellous team and when I say my team it’s not in the sense of ownership, but rather a declaration of love.”

Audiard also cited Gascón, who he has publicly distanced himself from in the wake of the tweet scandal, as well as co-star Zoe Saldaña, referring to them as “My darling Zoe, my Darling Karla.”

Audiard’s Oscar hopeful also clinched Best Adapted Screenplay,...

Jacques Audiard’s Oscar contender Emilia Pérez was the big winner at the 50th César Awards, France’s equivalent of the Oscars, taking best film and best director among multiple honors.

Audiard won best director and best adapted screenplay for Emilia Pérez, and the film also took honors for best sound, best cinematography, best visual effects and best original music.

But Emilia Pérez star Karla Sofía Gascón, who walked the red carpet at the Paris gala, returning to the spotlight for the first time since the eruption of the controversy surrounding her offensive resurfaced tweets, lost out in the best actress race to Hafsia Herzi, who won for her role as a female prison guard in Stéphane Demoustier’s drama Borgo.

Gascón, who is Spanish, skipped Spain’s national film awards, the Goyas, earlier this month following the backlash over her past social media posts. Netflix removed the actress, the...

The Count of Monte Cristo, Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de La Patellière’s retelling of the classic French revenge tale, is the front-runner for this year’s César Awards, scoring 14 nominations, including in the best film and best directing categories.

The period drama, starring Pierre Niney, beat out Jacques Audiard’s Oscar frontrunner Emilia Pérez, which got 12 noms, and Beating Hearts, Gilles Lellouche’s contemporary reimagining of Romeo and Juliet featuring François Civil and Adèle Exarchopoulos, which earned 13 nominations.

Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de la Patelliere’s lavish adaptation of Alexandre Dumas’ classic was the biggest French box office hit of last year, drawing close to 10 million viewers for a $40 million local take. Globally, the film has grossed more than $75 million.

Sean Baker’s Palme d’Or winner, and Oscar contender, Anora, is up for the Cesar for best foreign film, against Academy Award hopefuls including Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance,...

Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre De La Patelliere’s epic literary adaptation The Count Of Monte-Cristo leads the nominations for France’s Cesar Awards with 14.

There were also strong showings from Gilles Lellouche’s Beating Hearts with 13 and Jacques Audiard’s Oscar and Bafta-nominated Emilia Perez with 12.

Scroll down for the full list of nominations

The Count Of Monte-Cristo and Emilia Perez are in the running for best film alongside Boris Lojkine’s Souleymane’s Story, Alain Guiraudie’s Misericordia and Emmanuel Courcol’s The Marching Band.

All of the films nominated for best film had their world premiere at the...

“The Count of Monte Cristo,” a three-hour epic adventure adapted from Alexandre Dumas’s literary classic, is leading the race at the Cesar Awards, France’s equivalent to the Oscars, with a whooping 14 nominations. “Beating Hearts,” Gilles Lellouche’s sprawling crime romance, follows shortly with 13 nominations.

A favorite in the Oscar race, Jacques Audiard’s “Emilia Perez” is nominated for 12 Cesar Awards, including best film and actress for Karla Sofía Gascón and Zoe Saldana. The French awards show has highlighted international performers before, notably Kristen Stewart, who won a Cesar nod in 2015 for her supporting role in Olivier Assayas’ “Cloud of Sils Maria.”

It’s worth noting that the two Cesar frontrunners — “The Count of Monte Cristo” and “Beating Hearts” — were also France’s second and third highest grossing local films in 2024. Both movies are produced by Mediawan-owned banners, Chapter 2 and Chi-Fou-Mi (the latter produced “Beating Hearts...

The Count of Monte Cristo has topped the nominations for France’s prestigious César awards, followed by Beating Hearts and Oscar frontrunner Emilia Pérez.

The film has made it into 14 categories in the nominations, which were announced in Paris on Wednesday morning. Beating Hearts clinched 13, followed by Emiia Pérez with 12.

Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de la Patelliere’s lavish and fast-paced adaptation of Alexandre Dumas’ classic novel starring Pierre Niney was one of France’s top performing movies at the local box office in 2024, drawing close to 10M spectators and its top international export.

Gilles Lellouche’s modern Romeo and Juliet tale Beating Hearts – co-starring François Civil and Adèle Exarchopoulos – has also performed well at home, drawing more than five million spectators.

The 12 nominations for Jacques Audiard’s Cannes Jury prize-winning musical film Emilia Pérez continue its buzzy awards season run which has seen it clinch four Golden Globes and...

Jacques Audiard’s musical film Emilia Pérez swept the 30th edition of France’s Lumière Awards on Monday evening, winning Best Film, Director and Screenplay as well Actress for Karla Sofia Gascón and Music for Camille and Clément Ducol.

The wins add further steam to the Cannes Jury Prize winner’s awards season run following its quadruple Golden Globes triumph and European Film Awards victory, where it also clinched Best Film, Director, Screenplay and Actress for Gascón.

The movie is currently on six of the 10 announced category shortlists for the 97th the Academy Awards and nominated in 11 categories for the 2025 Baftas film awards.

Further awards seasons hopefuls also featured in the Lumière prizes, with Mati Diop’s Berlinale Golden Bear winner Dahomey – which made it into Best International Feature Film (for Senegal) and Documentary Academy Award shortlists – won Best Documentary.

Latvian director Gints Zilbalodis’s Flow – which is also on...

Jacques Audiard’s musical film Emilia Pérez is the frontrunner at the nomination stage for the 30th edition of France’s Lumière awards.

The prizes, which are regarded as the French equivalent of the Golden Globes, will be voted on by members of the international press hailing from 38 countries this year.

They cover 13 categories spanning film, direction, screenplay, actress, actor, female revelation, male revelation, first film, animation, documentary, international co-production, cinematography and music.

Audiard’s Cannes Jury Prize winner Emilia Pérez has clinched six nominations, followed by Boris Lojkine’s Souleymane’s Story, which won the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize this year, and Alain Guiraudie’s Misericordia, with five nominations each.

Other frontrunners with four nominations each, include François Ozon’s When Fall Is Coming and Jonathan Millet’s Ghost Trail.

The winners will be announced in a ceremony at the Forum des images in Paris on January 20, 2025.

The full...

Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Perez has topped the nominations for France’s Lumière Awards.

The French-made, Spanish-language film earned six nominations for best film, director, screenplay, cinematography, music and actress for Karla Sofía Gascón in her starring role as the titular transitioning Mexican drug lord.

The Lumière nominations cap a strong week for Emilia Perez, which garnered 10 nominations for the 2025 Golden Globes,and was the big winner at the European Film Awards with five prizes.

Scroll down for full list of nominees

Boris Lojkine’s Souleymane’s Story, which tracks the daily life of an undocumented Guinean asylum seeker in Paris,...

Cannes Competition titles The Substance, The Seed Of The Sacred Fig, and Emilia Perez are among the first set of titles recommended for nominations at this year’s European Film Awards.

Overall, 29 titles have been selected for the first stage of nominations by the European Film Academy Board. The selection includes films from 26 countries. In the coming weeks, the 5,000 members of the European Film Academy will start to vote on the selected films. The winners will be announced at the European Film Awards ceremony in Lucerne, Switzerland, on December 7.

To be eligible for a European Film Awards, films must be European feature films which, among other criteria, had their first official screening between June 1, 2023 and May 31, 2024 and have a European director. The rule book states that should a film director not be European, exceptions can be made if the filmmaker is “provided they have a European refugee or similar status...

It’s not only because of its similar time frame that Boris Lojkine’s hurtling, headlong social-issues drama “Souleymane’s Story” recalls “Two Days, One Night” by the Dardenne brothers. Lojkine’s film, which was awarded the jury prize and a well-deserved best actor award in the Un Certain Regard competition in Cannes, is similarly invested in its electrifying lead — non-professional Abou Sangare, making an unforgettably persuasive and poignant debut — and similarly effective in maintaining a level of urgency and high-stakes personal peril that few genre thrillers can muster. If the hero’s dire situation is a ticking clock, Lojkine’s intelligent and empathetic film places us right alongside him, with each cog of circumstance and each gear of good fortune grinding against him at every turn.

Souleymane (Sangare) is a recent arrival in Paris from Guinea, who sleeps in homeless shelters at night and works as a delivery biker by...

Ever since they were granted essential worker status during the pandemic, food deliverers on bikes have become a steady fixture of the contemporary urban landscape. And yet, most us only interact with them for a few seconds at a time, grabbing the box of pizza or bag of food, saying thank you (if we’re polite) and quickly shutting the door.

What happens after that is the subject of director Boris Lojkine’s compelling third feature, The Story of Souleymane (L’Histoire de Souleymane), a realistic and very humanistic look at one immigrant’s grueling daily life in Paris, where he struggles to make a living and obtain legal status.

Another movie immediately comes to mind here, which is Vittorio De Sica’s neorealist classic, Bicycle Thieves. Both films are structured as suspenseful, ticking-clock dramas where men navigate a ruthless city as they ride around on two wheels, doing everything they can to get by.

Mohamed Kordofani’s Goodbye Julia and Kaouther Ben Hania’s Four Daughters lead the nominations for the 8th Critics Awards for Arab Films, which will be held during the upcoming Cannes Film Festival.

Both features picked up seven nominations apiece for the awards, focused on Arab films that were produced and premiered outside of the Arab world in 2023. Overseen and run by the Cairo-based Arab Cinema Centre (Acc), it was voted on by 209 critics from 72 countries and the winners will be announced during Cannes on May 18.

Scroll down for full list of nominations

This year’s nominees range from Sudan,...

Tunisian filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania’s Oscar-nominated documentary Four Daughters and Sudanese director Mohamed Kordofani’s Lupita Nyong’o-EPed drama Goodbye Julia lead the nominations in the eighth edition of the Critics Awards for Arab Films.

Hybrid work Four Daughters, exploring the story of a real-life Tunisian mother who lost two of her daughters to Isis after they were radicalized by a local preacher, world premiered in Competition in Cannes last year.

The film won Cannes’ Golden Eye for Best Documentary and also went on to be nominated for Best Documentary at the 2024 Academy Awards.

Kordofani’s Khartoum-set drama Goodbye Julia was also at Cannes in 2023, making history as the first Sudanese film to play in the festival across its 76 editions, with a debut in Un Certain Regard. It represented Sudan at in the 2023-24 Oscar race but was not nominated.

Set against the backdrop of the 2011 South Sudan Independence referendum,...

In a lull for specialty openings early in the new year, three foreign-language films are taking a shot. The Settlers, winner of the Cannes Un Certain Regard Fipresci Prize, and Inshallah A Boy are Cannes alumns and Oscar submissions from, respectively, Chile and Jordan (neither short-listed in a competitive field). Driving Madeleine is a crowd pleasing French film.

The Settlers is a western presented by Mubi in limited release at the IFC Center/NY and Laemmle Royal/LA. The debut feature by writer-director Felipe Galvez is a frontier epic set at the turn of the 20th century as three horsemen set out across the Tierra del Fuego archipelago tasked with securing a wealthy landowner’s vast property. Accompanying a reckless British lieutenant and an American mercenary is mestizo marksman Segundo, who comes to realize their true mission is much darker. Stars Mark Stanley, Camillo Arancibia and Benjamin Westfall. Screenplay by Galvez and Antonia Girardi.

Inshallah a Boy is the subtle yet deeply affecting feature-length directorial debut from Jordanian filmmaker Amjad Al Rasheed. This drama — which is Jordan's submission for the Academy Awards — follows Nawal, a mother whose husband dies suddenly one night, leaving her unmoored in a society dependent on husbands and fathers. Al Rasheed co-wrote the screenplay with Delphine Agut and Rula Nasser over the course of five years or so, and this meticulous editing paid off. It's clear that a great degree of care has gone into this story, which plays out steadily over the movie's 113-minute runtime.

So many elements of this project are impressive, from its elegant construction to the effortless conveyance of its ideas, it's smooth all the way through. This is not to say it's always an easy watch, several moments are far from it, but it's never forced or overly expositional. Our central character, Nawal, is played...

When a man dies, intones the leader of a women’s wake, the light goes from the home. Nawal (Mouna Hawa), who has woken to find her increasingly tired husband Adnan has died in the night, bows her head with her accustomed piety as her very existence is erased by this prolonged eulogy to the man who is gone.

She still is here caring for their daughter, working long hours in a wealthy house as a nurse to an elderly woman with advanced dementia and maintaining a welcoming home in the flat they bought and were paying off together, using her inheritance as a deposit. That life isn’t mentioned, however. Nawal’s primary duty is to “safeguard the reputation” of her husband by staying inside for four months and 10 days. And if that is impossible, not to be outside the house after dark. “The devils roam the world after sunset,...

Italy, Scandinavia, Australia-New Zealand all jump in on the film.

Amjad Al Rasheed’s Jordanian drama Inshallah A Boy has sealed several additional territory deals ahead of its Arab premiere in the Red Sea Competition at Red Sea Film Festival today (Saturday December 2).

The film has sold to Italy (Satine), Scandinavia (Angel Film), Australia-New Zealand (Palace), Benelux (Arti film), Switzerland (Trigon), Eastern Europe (HBO Europe) and Indonesia (Falcon).

Greenwich Entertainment acquired US distribution rights on the film in August; the film had its world premiere in Critics’ Week at Cannes in May and North American launch at Toronto in September.

At the memorial gathering for her husband Adnan, 30-year-old Nawal (a riveting Mouna Hawa) is offered many empty words of support and so-called comfort by friends and family. “When a woman loses her husband, she loses her lover, her partner, everything in her life,” clucks a commiserating neighbor. What she fails to mention is how much is not lost, but can, under the Jordanian legal system so scathingly exposed in Amjad Al Rasheed’s fluid, gripping “Inshallah a Boy,” be taken. Employment, home, child, dignity – all can be summarily stripped from a widow who has committed the grievous crime of never having borne a son.

Al Rasheed’s precision-tooled movie is a social-realist drama rendered as an escape thriller where the labyrinth that Nawal must navigate is the Jordanian social order itself, a massive bureaucratic, patriarchal maze designed to ensure that any woman trying to evade its clutches will batter...

Exclusive: Greenwich Entertainment has acquired U.S. distribution rights to Inshallah a Boy, the directorial debut of Amjad Al Rasheed which world premiered during the Cannes Film Festival’s Critics’ Week and is set to have its North American debut at TIFF next month.

Inshallah a Boy is being considered for Jordan’s Official Selection for Best International Feature Film and Greenwich will release the film in January.

The Imaginarium Films drama was co-written by Al Rasheed, Delphine Agut, and Rula Nasser. In the movie, after the sudden death of her husband, a widow fights for her inheritance to save her daughter and home. Inshallah a Boy examines a society where women are pressured to relinquish their property rights to male relatives and having a son would change everything.

“I’m beyond excited to collaborate with Greenwich on the upcoming theatrical release of my film,” said director Amjad al Rasheed.

In “Inshallah a Boy,” selected for Cannes’ Critics Week, women talk about sex and pregnancy. They also address misogyny and social injustice. But most of all, they say no.

“The main idea was to talk about a woman who refuses something that’s considered normal in her society,” points out director Amjad Al Rasheed, celebrating his feature debut.

In the Jordan-set film, Nawal (Mouna Hawa), after her husband’s sudden death, finds out that according to local inheritance law, and because she “only” gave birth to a daughter, his family might be entitled to everything she owns, including her home. Out of options, she pretends to be pregnant again.

Despite its Cannes premiere — and his previous win at Venice’s Final Cut — Al Rasheed remains cautious when discussing the film’s future reception at home.

“I can’t predict people’s reactions, but I am going to be honest: there...

Laïla Marrakchi talks Atlas Workshops strawberry picker drama ‘La Más Dulce’

Moroccan director Laïla Marrakchi broke out internationally in 2005 with debut feature and Cannes Un Certain Regard selection Marock, a Casablanca-set love story between a Jewish boy and Muslim girl, which she followed with the 2013 female-focused family drama Rock The Casbah.

The Paris-based, Casablanca- born director has not made a feature film in seven years, however, having become caught up in the high-end drama boom, taking directing credits on French language series Marseille, The Bureau, The Eddy and most recently L’Opera, set against France’s iconic Le Garnier Opera house.

Michael Gentile’s Paris-based The Film, the banner behind Julie Delpy’s upcoming show “On the Verge,” is developing a string of projects with emerging filmmakers, notably Yaël Cojot-Goldberg’s “Farewell Caracas” and Mehdi Fikri’s drama “Et maintenant, le feu.”

The company is also producing Danielle Arbid’s “Des châteaux qui brûlent,” based on Arno Bertina’ book, and Delpy’s next French-language movie, “Les Barbares,” a culture clash film set in Brittany.

“Farewell Caracas,” co-written by Cojot-Goldberg and Thomas Vincent (the co-director of “Bodyguard”), is set in the 1970s in Venezuela and is a semi-autobiographical tale. The film revolves around French expats who move to Venezuela and will star Melanie Thierry (“In Therapy”), Arieh Worthalter (“Girl”) and Mathieu Amalric (“Sound of Metal”). It tells the story of the helmer’s parents whose love for one another got tested after her father, who was a well-established banker, spiralled out of control after discovering Klaus Barbie,...