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Melisa Godet’s social drama A Place For Her (La Maison des Femmes) will headline the Paris Rendez-Vous slate ofFederation’s international sales banner Ginger & Fed.

The film is based on La Maison des Femmes de Saint-Denis, a women’s shelter outside of Paris for survivors of domestic violence and sexual abuse.

Inspired by the centre’s founder Dr Ghada Hatem, A Place For Her stars Karin Viard as a fictional doctor and her team including a midwife, a young intern and a nurse as they navigate balancing their personal lives with their professional dedication to providing care.

The cast also includes Laetitia Dosch,...

2024 was a breakout year for horror films from across the globe, the likes of which deserve just as much attention and accolades as any domestic genre achievements.

2024 has been a fascinating year for film. Still reeling from 2023’s SAG-AFTRA and Writers Guild of America strikes and pushed back release dates, movie audiences have continually embraced the safe and soothing nostalgia of franchise fare and superhero cinema. Nearly every film from 2024’s top ten highest-grossing titles are sequels, which is creatively frustrating on some level, but this trend hasn’t impeded the horror genre from making significant cinematic gains.

Horror has seen incredible success in 2024, whether it’s The Substance accruing five major Golden Globe nominations, Terrifier 3 and Smile 2 setting new franchise records, and the critical acclaim of original releases like I Saw the TV Glow, Abigail, and Cuckoo. These domestic horror movies all bring something original to the table,...

Film Movement has picked up Emma Benestan’s French-language supernatural horror Animale for North America.

London and Paris-based Film Constellation is handling world sales and has also signed new deals with Cai Chang in Taiwan, Weirdwave in Greece and Ricochet Digital Media for inflight.

The Camargue-set Western stars César-winning Divines actress Oulaya Amamra as a young woman trying to find her way in the male-dominated sport of bullfighting. After a drunken night out strange things begin to happen to her amd the lines between beast and human and dream and reality start to blur.

Animalewas the closing night feature at...

The Brooklyn Horror Film Festival has unveiled its audience and jury award honorees for its 2024 edition, which ran from Oct. 17-24 at Nitehawk Cinema’s Williamsburg and Prospect Park locations.

Taking home the best film and best ensemble awards from the Dark Matter Jury was “Dead Talents Society” from writer-director John Hsu. The comedy horror, starring Bo-lin Chen, Sandrine Pinna and Gingle Wang, follows a ghost who joins a supernatural talent agency in hopes of becoming an urban legend.

Emma Benestan won best director from the Head Trip Jury, which honors films that deviate from the typical horror formula. Her film, “Animale,” follows a young bullfighter who begins noticing disturbing changes after a violent incident in the ring. Cast members include Oulaya Amamra, Damien Rebattel and Vivien Rodriguez.

For the Shorts Jury, Grace Rex’s script for “The Shadow Wrangler” took home best screenplay. Following an audiobook narrator tortured by...

There’s been an exciting influx of female transformation horror films in recent years, such as The First Omen, Smile 2, The Substance, and Titane. All these movies depict harrowing rebirths, but there are also often transferences of power that allow these characters to penetrate worlds that would otherwise be impossible for them. Animale gets to the kernel of this idea through a revelatory body horror story that puts the “bull” in bullseye. Body horror, in particular, is such a potent subgenre, especially when it has something deeper to say and is set in a unique realm, rather than purely celebrating gore and grossness. French filmmaker Emma Benestan creates a film that’s savage, raw, and such a breath of fresh air in what’s become an increasingly crowded corner of horror.

Animale, in many respects, resembles a folktale fantasy horror film that’s as much an allegory as it is a genuine nightmare.

London- and Paris-based production, finance and sales company Film Constellation has added new sales for Cannes Critics’ Week supernatural horror “Animale” by Emma Benestan, ahead of its North American premiere at Fantastic Fest later this month.

“Animale” sold to Scandinavia (Edge Entertainment), Cis (Nashe Kino), the Czech and Slovak republics (Film Europe), Brazil (Belas Artes), and Indonesia (Falcon Pt), adding to the previously announced territories which include Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy (Plaion), Spain (Filmin), Portugal (Nos Lusomundo), former Yugoslavia (McF Megacom), and Middle East and North Africa (Falcon).

Wild Bunch Distribution will release the film in French theaters nationwide on Nov. 27, with O’Brother releasing in Belgium on Dec. 18.

After its world premiere as closing film of the Cannes Critics’ Week, the film has been selected in some of the world’s foremost genre festivals including Fantastic Fest, Sitges Film Festival, MOTELx, and Neuchâtel Intl. Fantastic Film Festival to name a few.

Exclusive: The L.A.-based Screamfest Horror Film Festival has unveiled the first wave lineup for its 24th edition, taking place at the Tcl Chinese Theatre in Hollywood from October 8-17.

Among the films to look out for at this year’s festival are two produced for Hulu by WorthenBrooks (formerly 20th Digital Studio), on which we were first to report: Screamfest alum Brandon Espy’s Mr. Crocket and Justin Harding’s Carved, both of which will premiere on Hulu later this year.

A supernatural horror film starring Jerrika Hinton and Elvis Nolasco, Mr. Crocket follows Summer Beverly (Hinton) as she embarks on a chilling journey to rescue her son from a sinister children’s show host with otherworldly powers. Starring Peyton Elizabeth Lee, Carved is a fun romp centered on a group of survivors trapped in a Halloween village battle with a sentient, vengeful pumpkin.

In addition to Carved,...

Roaring towards its 23rd edition, the Neuchatel Intl. Fantastic Film Festival (Nifff) built its reputation as a haven for outré fare, pulling in a reliable (and renewable) youth crowd eager for wild thrills and hard-to-source Asian titles, while becoming a fixture on the horror festival circuit as a lakeside home-away-from-home for a stable of filmmakers who return year and again.

For the past half-decade or so, the Swiss showcase has also branched outward, welcoming new faces and diverse voices into the mix, all while pairing a more expansive vision of fantasy and with an intersectional programing remit that explores sociological questions through genre – or, if you will, that sees in fantasy a more crystalline reflection of the wider world.

“Fantasy is the cinema of the margins, the cinema of the forbidden,” says Nifff director Pierre-Yves Walder. “It is the tool that underrepresented or minority communities use to tell their own stories,...

From Jekyll and Hyde to the Wolfman, to much more recent twists on atavistic transformations, the concept of shape-shifting has always been a popular one in fiction — with storytellers turning the dial up or down on the potential social commentary therein, according to taste and preference. In “Animale,” the closing film of this year’s Cannes Critics’ Week section, director Emma Benestan is rather more interested in the interpersonal dynamics navigated by 22-year-old female bull-runner Nejma (Oulaya Amamra) than in really savouring some promising horror implications. She gives Dr. Jekyll center stage, as it were, rather than getting too involved with Mr. Hyde.

Nejma works at a ranch in Camargue, France, where bulls are raised to compete in the arena for baying crowds of exhilarated spectators. It is a traditionally masculine environment: From the bulls to the men who wrangle them, the emphasis is on displays of physical strength and ferocity.

Argentinian director Federico Luis’s first film Simon of the Mountain has won the Grand Prize at the 63rd edition of Cannes Critics’ Week.

The coming-of-age tale stars rising Argentinian actor, singer and song writer Lorenzo Ferro as a young man grappling with the challenges of a mental disorder.

It is produced by Patricio Alvarez Casado at Argentinian production house 20/20 in coproduction with Fernando Bascuñan at Chilean company Planta, Ignacio Cucucovich’s Uruguayan company Mother Superior and L.A. and Mexico City based producer Carlos Rincones at Twelve Thirty Media, with Luxbox handling international sales.

In other key prizes, U.S.-Chinese filmmaker Constance Tsang’s won the French Touch Prize of the Jury for first feature Blue Sun Palace, a bittersweet chronicle of the tumultuous destiny of Chinese immigrants living in Queens.

It is produced by Eli Raskin at Field Trip Media and Tony Yang at Big Buddha Productions,...

Toro Toro Toro: Amamra Grabs the Bull By the Horns in Transformative Role

For those who champion the bull in Spain’s electrifying yet antiquated tradition of the running of the bulls, there’s a fresh perspective awaiting in a genre-blending narrative that redefines and realigns the boundaries between genders and species. Departing from her beginnings in young adult romantic comedy with Fragile (2021), French-Algerian filmmaker Emma Benestan reunites with Oulaya Amamra for their third collaboration—a sophomore film that exudes a Cocteau-esque spirit with hints of whac-a-mole horror genre elements. An exploration of crossed boundaries and crossing over, Animale is reminiscent of last year’s Le Règne animal and especially Julia Ducournau’s Raw, despite embracing what is a familiar, well-trodden path, we find a fresh take on violence as redemption and salvation.…...

The anarchic spirit of Julia Ducournau’s Palme d’Or winner Titane lives on in Emma Benestan’s Critics’ Week closer Animale, the genre-busting debut of a director who cites Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Kathryn Bigelow’s Near Dark, and the naturalist films of Chloé Zhao as influences. More surprisingly, she also credits Abdellatif Kechiche, since her first break was as assistant editor on his 2013 Palme d’Or winner Blue Is the Warmest Color.

Emma Benestan

Benestan — who would later take a full-blown editor credit on Kechiche’s 2017 feature Mektoub, My Love — was then finishing her studies at France’s prestigious La Fémis film school, but observing Kechiche’s directorial style, and witnessing his penchant for mixing professional and amateur actors, was an education in itself. “It’s the way he marries professionals and amateurs that gives his films a certain spontaneity,” she explains. “I’d been taught the director had to control everything,...

A first clip has been unveiled for Emma Benestan’s “Animale,” which closes the Cannes Film Festival’s Critics’ Week strand this year.

The film is set in the Camargue region of the south of France, where daring youths participate in the local tradition of bull running. Only one woman, 22-year-old Nejma, takes her place in the arena. Taunting and evading the animals with increasing boldness, Nejma seeks to prove herself the equal of the men – inside and outside of the arena. But both situations put Nejma at risk, as a different threat looms over the community of riders: a bull is on the loose and young men are being killed. The film is designed as a supernatural fable that blends with the classic body horror, and the revenge thriller.

After several shorts and a documentary, “Animale” is Benestan’s second fiction feature after the acclaimed “Fragile” aka “Hard Shell, Soft Shell...

Cannes parallel section Critics’ Week opens Wednesday with French director Jonathan Millet’s psychological manhunt thriller Ghost Trail (Les Fantômes), starring Adam Bessa as man in in pursuit of a faceless, former torturer.

Running from May 15 to 23, the compact line-up will showcase 11 first and second works features by emerging directors, seven in competition, as well as 13 short films.

Deadline caught up with Artistic Director Ava Cahen on the eve of the 63rd edition.

Deadline: You’re on your third selection as Critics’ Week artistic director. How was it this year?

Ava Cahen: We always put the counters back to zero. So everything felt new, even if it’s my third year. We received a few more films than normal and screened 1,050 features. It’s hard when you’ve only got 11 slots. Obviously there were a lot more than 11 films that we would have liked to have welcomed. There was a lot of discussion.

Studiocanal ex-Orange Studio (sic), the sales company in transition following Canal+’s acquisition of Orange Studio and Ocs earlier this year, has taken on All For One, the anticipated second feature from Camera d’Or-winning Divines director Houda Benyamina.

The comedy drama reteams Beyamina with Divines actresses Oulaya Amamra and Déborah Lukumuena who star alongside Daphné Patakia and Sabrina Ouazani. Set in France in 1625, All For One is a feminist retelling of The Three Musketeers and follows four women tasked with protecting the Queen of France.

Orange Studio’s head of sales Charlotte Boucon will be at the market selling the film,...

The Cannes Critics’ Week, the parallel film festival sidebar organized by the French film critics’ union, has unveiled its 2024 selection.

The psychological thriller Ghost Trail, the first feature from acclaimed French shorts director Jonathan Millet, will open the 2024 sidebar. Adam Bessa (star of 2022’s Un Certain Regard winner Harka) plays the lead in the manhunt drama about a man pursuing his former torturer, using only his sensory memories to guide him.

The competition lineup includes Brazilian drama Baby from director Marcelo Caetano, a portrait of a young outsider growing up in São Paulo; Constance Tsang’s Blue Sun Palace, which looks at the lives of Chinese immigrants in Queens; and the Egyptian/French/Danish/Qatari/Saudi Arabian drama The Brink of Dreams about a group of girls from the disenfranchised Christian Copts who defy tradition and set up an all-female street theater troupe.

Baby

Other competition titles include Antoine Chevrollier’s Block Pass,...

Cannes Critics’ Week, the sidebar dedicated to first and second films, will open with Jonathan Millet’s psychological thriller “Ghost Trail” and wrap with Emma Benestan’s genre film “Animale.”

“Ghost Trail” and “Animale” are two of the 11 features slated for Critics’ Week, which runs alongside the Cannes Film Festival.

The sole U.S. film of the selection is Constance Tsang’s “Blue Sun Palace,” a bittersweet film about two Chinese immigrants living in Queens who bond following a tragic death and find meaning in each other’s company. “As humble and dignified as its characters, this first, realistic and intimate, film sheds light on a community that is little seen,” said Ava Cahen, Critics’ Week’s artistic director. “Blue Sun Palace” stars Lee Kang-sheng whose recent credits include “Twisted Strings.”

Besides the opening and closing films, the Special Screenings section will comprise of Saïd Hamich Benlarbi’s “Across the...

Cannes Critics’ Week championing work by emerging filmmakers has unveiled the line-up for its 63rd edition running from May 15 to 23.

The traditionally compact parallel selection will showcase 11 features, seven in competition, as well as 13 short films, selected from 1,050 features and 2,150 short films. (scroll down for full list)

The 2024 edition marks Artistic Director Ava Cahen’s third at the helm, with buzzy discoveries under her directorship to date including Tiger Stripes, The Rapture, Aftersun and Love According To Dalva.

Opening and closing films

French director Jonathan Millet’s psychological manhunt thriller Ghost Trail (Les Fantômes) will open the section. It marks his first feature after half a dozen shorts including Tell Me About The Stars.

Adam Bessa, who won the Un Certain Regard prize for his performance in Harka in 2022, stars as a man in pursuit of his former torturer. He never saw his oppressor’s face, but knows his smell,...

Roll up, roll up for Part 2 of our Cannes Film Festival preview, this time with a focus on international, mainly non-English-language fare. If you didn’t catch Andreas’ English-language-focused Part 1, check it out.

As the fest basks in the warm glow of the Oscar wins for 2023 Palme d’Or winner Anatomy of a Fall and Grand Jury Prize winner The Zone of Interest, delegate general Thierry Frémaux and his team are furiously tying up the 2024 Official Selection.

With less than four weeks to go until the bulk of the 77th edition (running May 14-25) is revealed at the press conference in Paris on April 11, we’ve rounded up a host of the titles ready and in the running for a splash in either Official Selection or the main parallel sections of Directors’ Fortnight and Critics’ Week.

The registration deadline was March 15, with March 22 the official cut-off for submissions to arrive...

Production has wrapped on genre feature Animale, directed by French filmmaker Emma Benestan, with London and Paris-based sales agent Film Constellation unveiling a first-look image.

It is set against the wild backdrop of the southern France bull riding tradition of Camargue, and stars César winning actress Oulaya Amamra (pictured). Producers are French outfit June Films’ Julie Billy and Naomi Denamur; Titane producers Cassandre Warnauts and Jean-Yves Roubin of Belgium’s Frakas Productions; in co-production with broadcaster France 3 Cinema.

In this male-dominated environment, a 22-year-old woman trains hard to fulfil her dream of winning the upcoming annual competition. When...

Quentin Dupieux’s chaotic, bizarre film about a monster-fighting squad controlled by a rat named Didier will greatly annoy some, which is one of its strengths

Only a pedant and a bore would complain that the last word of that title should be “cancer”. The phrase’s childlike naivety and irrelevance, apparently taken from an obsolete era when smoking was considered bad in the sense that eating cream cakes was bad, is a hint of what you’re in for: a fantastically silly and magnificently inconsequential comedy from French film-maker and former DJ Quentin Dupieux. For the life of me, I can’t think of another director right now who wants (or is allowed) to do just straight comedy for theatrical release, without having to buy the right to do so by also being unfunnily dark and disturbing.

Dupieux has put together something chaotic, disparate, entirely negligible yet oddly gripping and also funny.

Now available On Demand, courtesy of Magnet Releasing, we have an exclusive clip from Smoking Causes Coughing! While everything may start out looking like a scene from Power Rangers, things take a very R-rated turn that you'll have to see for yourself!

"Labeled Dupieux’s “funniest yet” by The New York Times, Smoking Causes Coughing, the critically-acclaimed and Certified Fresh comedy arrives On Demand on June 27 from Magnolia Home Entertainment under the Magnet Label. The latest entry into the celebrated filmography of director Quentin Dupieux, Smoking Causes Coughing stands as a must-see French film, full of crude humor and absurd comedy as a group of heroes prepare for the fight of their lives by taking a mandated retreat in the woods.

After a brutal battle, the Tobacco Force, a team of five frivolous superheroes, receive a call from their boss informing them of their most difficult battle yet; Lézardin, Emperor of Evil,...

John Waters raved that Smoking Causes Coughing is a “superhero movie for idiots,” and Bloody Disgusting has an exclusive clip that perfectly encapsulates the absurdist humor and violence that ensues when the Tobacco Force attempts to prepare for battle.

Written/Directed by Quentin Dupieux (Rubber, Deerskin, Mandibles), the absurdist, gory French comedy releases On Demand on June 27 from Magnolia Home Entertainment under the Magnet Label.

In the exclusive clip below, members of the plucky Tobacco Force team fumble their way through helmet removal to comically lethal results. It feels safe to assume that whoever this wacky superhero team goes up against might have the upper hand. With Dupieux behind it, we’d expect nothing less.

The “wildly inventive new comedy” follows the misadventures of a team of five superheroes known as the Tobacco Force – Benzene (Gilles Lellouche), Nicotine (Anaïs Demoustier), Methanol (Vincent Lacoste), Mercury (Jean-Pascal Zadi), and Ammonia (Oulaya Amamra...

Picturehouse Entertainment has revealed the trailer for the darkly comic superhero movie ‘Smoking Causes Coughing.’ See our 4-star review from Glasgow FrightFest.

After a devastating battle against a diabolical turtle, a team of five avengers – known as the Tobacco Force – is sent on a mandatory retreat to strengthen their decaying group cohesion. Their break goes wonderfully well until Lézardin, Emperor of Evil, decides to annihilate planet Earth… But will they repair their relationship in time for a final epic battle?

Directed by Quentin Dupieux, the film stars Gilles Lellouche, Vincent Lacoste, Anais Demouster, Jean-Pascal Zadi and Oulaya Amamra.

Also in trailers – Full trailer swings in for season 3 of ‘The Witcher’

The movie is released on July 7th.

The post Darkly comic trailer drops for French superhero feature ‘Smoking Causes Coughing’ appeared first on HeyUGuys.

Quentin Dupieux is the unique, comically twisted mind behind the likes of Rubber, Wrong Cops, Mandibles and Incredible But True. He's back with his latest, superhero satire Smoking Causes Coughing, which played to acclaim at last year's Cannes and has been ping-ponging around the festival circuit since then. We have the new trailer for the film as an exclusive, and you can see it below.

Smoking Causes Coughing follows the misadventures of a team of five superheroes known as the Tobacco Force – Benzene (Gilles Lellouche), Nicotine (Anaïs Demoustier), Methanol (Vincent Lacoste), Mercury (Jean-Pascal Zadi), and Ammonia (Oulaya Amamra).

After a devastating battle against a diabolical giant turtle, the Tobacco Force is sent on a mandatory week-long retreat to strengthen their decaying group cohesion. Their sojourn goes wonderfully well until Lézardin, Emperor of Evil, decides to annihilate planet Earth. Oh, that old story… It's all very relevant to our superhero-saturated movie...

Wild Bunch Distribution has pre-bought French rights and will release the film in cinemas in 2024.

London and Paris-based sales outfit Film Constellation has boarded sales on French filmmaker Emma Benestan’s revenge feature Animale.

Wild Bunch Distribution has pre-bought French rights and will release the film in cinemas in 2024.

The film is set in the Camargue region of France, known for traditional bull fighting. In this male-dominated environment, a woman trains to fulfil her dream of wining the annual competition. When she is mauled after a drunken celebration, she starts to notice disturbing changes, while young men begin to be murdered.

There were the three musketeers and now…we can expect to see that number shoot up to four in Houda Benyamina‘s long-awaited sophomore film project. Lou de Laâge leads Daphné Patakia, Héloise Letissier with Oulaya Amamra and Déborah Lukumuena (who both broke out in Benyamina’s debut) in Toutes pour une (which translates to All For One). Production takes place this month in France. Production companies include Easy Tiger and Haut et court in France, and Versus Production from Belgium.

They’ve cut their hair, strapped their chests, and slipped leather pieces under their pants, but they’re women. When Sara, a young Morisco on the run, unmasks the three musketeers protecting the Queen of France, she has only one thing in mind, to cling to these women and their brilliant idea: to dress up to be free.…...

Chicago – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com audio film review for the newly released “Smoking Causes Coughing,” an official selection of the Cannes Film Festival, and a ripe, necessary superhero genre parody. Currently in theaters, since March 31st.

Rating: 4.0/5.0

This is a French film that involves the Tobacco Force … five plasticine clad heroes who themselves look like the Power Rangers, fight evildoers who look like Japanese monsters from the 1950s, have an off-putting robot companion and use their powers of spraying cancer causing agents found in cigarettes. And that’s not all … they also tell stories that become a short film within the film … all having nothing to do with the heroes themselves.

”Smoking Causes Coughing” is currently in theaters, including (click link) Chicago’s Music Box Theatre through April 6th. Featuring Gilles Lellouche, Vincent Lacoste, Anais Demoustier, Jean-Pascal Zadi and Oulaya Amamra. Written and Directed by Quentin Dupieux. Not Rated.

For starters, they’re called the Tobacco Force, and these intergalactic “avengers” battle extraterrestrial monsters by giving them cancer via chemicals like nicotine, mercury and ammonia… but let’s assume that any similarities to other groups of helmeted, high-kicking heroes, living or dead, are not coincidental.

This quintet — technically a sextet if you count their suicidal robot, Norbert 500 — have just blown up an oversized, homicidal turtle in a quarry when a message comes through from their leader. His name is Chief Didier, and though he’s a grotty rat puppet...

French filmmaker Quentin Dupieux has almost never steered us wrong with his droll satires like psychokinetic horror movie “Rubber,” about a murderous anthropomorphic tire, awards season satire “Reality,” or insectoid comedy “Mandibles.”

With his latest parody, “Smoking Causes Coughing,” the zany maestro also known as Mr. Oizo takes a puff off Marvel and other superhero IP by centering his bizarre comedy on a band of spandex-clad dimwits known as the Tobacco Force. It’s , even if not for all tastes, which he knows.

The ridiculously named fivesome are made up of Benzene (Gilles Lellouche), Nicotine (Anaïs Demoustier), Methanol (Vincent Lacoste), Mercury (Jean-Pascal Zadi), and Ammonia (Oulaya Amamra). We first meet them by happenstance, following a family on a road trip who stumble upon them battling a giant, rubber-made tortoise.

Everything looks cheesy by design, with Justine Pearce’s costumes stretching over-the-top artifice to its limits thanks to the giant, hulking tortoise,...

Smoking Causes Coughing is ostensibly a riff on Power Rangers/Super Sentai, Ultraman, and other tokusatsu-style media in which spandex-clad superheroes battle intergalactic monsters, but — as is the case with writer-director Quentin Dupieux’s entire filmography — his latest genre-bending slice of French absurdity is predictably unpredictable.

The Tobacco Force is a team of avengers in which each of its five members represents a different chemical found in cigarettes: Benzene, Nicotine (Anaïs Demoustier), Methanol (Vincent Lacoste), Mercury (Jean-Pascal Zadi), and Ammonia (Oulaya Amamra). When they’re unable to defeat an enemy in hand-to-hand combat, they call upon their powers — which only work when they’re sincere — to infect their foe with cancer to the point of bodily combustion.

The Tobacco Force has a mentor in Chief Didier. He’s a wise, mutant rat, like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles‘ Splinter, except Didier is a womanizer that drools green goo. The team is...

Screen Rant is thrilled to present an exclusive clip from the new French film Smoking Causes Coughing, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival last year. The comedy comes from the mind of acclaimed director and writer Quentin Dupieux, and it follows a team of superheroes known as the Tobacco Force. With suits and villains similar to the Power Rangers, Benzene (Gilles Lellouche), Nicotine (Anaïs Demoustier), Methanol (Vincent Lacoste), Mercury (Jean-Pascal Zadi), and Ammonia (Oulaya Amamra) fight to keep the world free from evil — but they don't always succeed.

After one particularly difficult battle against a giant turtle, Chef Didier (voiced by Alain Chabat) sends the Tobacco Force on a mandatory retreat in order to strengthen the group's teamwork. But their vacation is interrupted when Lézardin, known as the Emperor of Evil, prepared to destroy Earth. Whether or not the corporate retreat is enough to give them a second wind,...

Phoenix Film Festival & International Horror and Sci-Fi Film Festival: "The Phoenix Film Festival started in 2000 by 3 local filmmakers as a way to get their films some exposure in their home town. Twenty-two years and thousands of movies later, the Phoenix Film Foundation has grown from a 3-day exhibition to an 11 day celebration of film with over 250 films, filmmaking seminars, parties and student workshops for over 20,000 attendees all at the Harkins Scottsdale 101.

The Phoenix Film Festival has been named one of The 25 Coolest Film Festivals and a Top 50 Worth the Entry Fee by MovieMaker Magazine and has been called the most filmmaker-friendly festival out there. Most recently, we've also earned a spot on MovieMaker's 20 Great Film Festivals for First-Time Moviemakers."

This year's event takes place from March 23-April 2, 2023 at Harkins Theatres Scottsdale 101 and you can learn more at: https://www.phoenixfilmfestival.com/

International Horror and Sci-Fi Film Festival

Showcase Films...

While at least half of the month’s film-related discussion will, unfortunately, be consumed by the endless Oscar race chatter, we’re here to cut through the noise and highlight gems worth seeking out in March. From a superhero film actually worth a watch to a fascinating archival documentary to highlights from not only this year’s Sundance but the 2022 edition as well, check out my picks to see.

15. Rodeo (Lola Quivoron; March 17)

One of the breakouts of last year’s Cannes Film Festival, where it premiered in the Un Certain Regard section and picked up a jury prize, was Lola Quivoron’s feature debut Rodeo. Starring Julie Ledru Kaïs, Yannis Lafki Ophélie, Antonia Buresi, Cody Schroeder, Louis Sotton, and Junior Correia, it follows a young woman who enters the underground world of dirt biking. Set for a NYC premiere at First Look, it’ll arrive later this month from Music Box Films.

The trailer for Smoking Causes Coughing offers a glimpse at the bizarre Power Rangers-inspired film. Smoking Causes Coughing is the new film from Quentin Dupieux, the director behind Rubber, Wrong Cops, and Mandibles. The French film stars Gilles Lellouche, Anaïs Demoustier, Vincent Lacoste, Jean-Pascal Zadi, Oulaya Amamra, and Adèle Exarchopoulos, and follows the Tobacco Force, a team of vigilantes fighting to save the world.

Magnolia Pictures shared the trailer for Smoking Causes Coughing on YouTube, giving audiences a glimpse at a unique riff on the Power Rangers-style team versus monster formula.

The trailer sees the Tobacco Force taking down a monster before being subjected to a week-long retreat meant to rebuild the team's spirit. As their retreat begins, one absurd occurrence after another permeates the trailer, offering viewers a look at the ridiculous humor and off-the-wall gags the movie has in store.

Related: Power Rangers’ Other Evil Green...

Working at such a clip it can be hard to discern when his films actually arrive stateside and on what platform, Quentin Dupieux’s second movie of last year, Smoking Causes Coughing, will finally land in the U.S. next month and the first trailer has now arrived. Starring Gilles Lellouche, Anaïs Demoustier, Vincent Lacoste, Jean-Pascal Zadi, and Oulaya Amamra, the John Waters-approved film follows five superheroes known as the Tobacco Force – Benzene. After a devastating battle against a diabolical giant turtle, the Tobacco Force is sent on a mandatory week-long retreat to strengthen their decaying group cohesion. Their sojourn goes wonderfully well until Lézardin, Emperor of Evil, decides to annihilate planet Earth.

Leonardo Goi said in his review, “Teeming with all kinds of freaks and plots that toggle freely between the real and the absurd, Quentin Dupieux’s films are the work of an inveterate, shamelessly playful raconteur.

"Why are you wearing weird outfits?" Meet the Tobacco Force! They might just ruin your day. Magnolia Pictures has revealed an official US trailer for a wacky indie comedy from France titled Smoking Causes Coughing, one of the latest creations from director Quentin Dupieux. This is the second of the two brand new Dupieux films that premiered in 2022, the other being Incredible But True (which still has never been released in the US). A group of superhero vigilantes called the "Tobacco Forces" is falling apart. To rebuild team spirit, their leader suggests that they meet for a week-long retreat, before returning to save the world. Can they pull it off? This comedy plays like - what if Dupieux made an Avengers movie, but about cigarettes instead. Starring Gilles Lellouche, Anaïs Demoustier, Vincent Lacoste, Jean-Pascal Zadi, Oulaya Amamra, and Adèle Exarchopoulos. There's also a downbeat talking robot team member, who's voiced by Ferdinand Canaud.

Up next from Rubber, Deerskin and Mandibles director Quentin Dupieux is the superhero movie spoof Smoking Causes Coughing, and Magnet has debuted the official trailer today.

Earning a rave review from cult filmmaker John Waters, Magnet Releasing will release Smoking Causes Coughing in theaters and on demand March 31, 2023.

The “wildly inventive new comedy” follows the misadventures of a team of five superheroes known as the Tobacco Force – Benzene (Gilles Lellouche), Nicotine (Anaïs Demoustier), Methanol (Vincent Lacoste), Mercury (Jean-Pascal Zadi), and Ammonia (Oulaya Amamra).

“After a devastating battle against a diabolical giant turtle, the Tobacco Force is sent on a mandatory week-long retreat to strengthen their decaying group cohesion. Their sojourn goes wonderfully well until Lézardin, Emperor of Evil, decides to annihilate planet Earth.”

John Waters raves that Smoking Causes Coughing is a “superhero movie for idiots,” as well as “one of the best movies of the year.” If it’s good enough for Waters,...

‘All My Friends Hate Me’ and ‘The Almond And The Seahorse’ also won prizes.

Frances O’Connor’s Emily proved the big hit of the 33rd edition of Dinard Film Festival, the French seaside festival that spotlights UK and Irish cinema, for French audiences that closed on October 2.

Emily won the Golden Hitchcock for best film, with Emma Mackey receiving the award for best performance. The period drama also scooped the audience prize for best feature film. The film premiered at Toronto, and marks the directorial debut of actor O’Connor.

Sex Education star Mackey plays a rebellious version of Wuthering...

The festival celebrates UK independent cinema and runs September 28 - October 2.

Martin McDonagh’s The Banshees Of Inisherin will screen at France’s Dinard Festival Of British Film (September 28 - October 2), with Sophie Hyde’s Good Luck To You, Leo Grande closing the event.

Both films will have their French premiere at the festival which is held on the coastal town of Dinard, France and celebrates independent cinema from the UK.

Scroll down for full line-up

McDonagh’s Ireland-set comedy drama recently premiered at Venice Film Festival and stars Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson as two lifelong friends hurtled into...

After staging a vastly scaled-down version in 2020, organizers of the Cannes Film Festival brought buzz back to the Croisette last year as the industry dipped its toes into the annual French gathering. As the 75th edition kicked off May 17, many in the business are all-in on the in-person experience and there are plenty of completed films for sale.

Mubi took an early lead in acquisitions, scooping up Léa Mysius’s sophomore film “The Five Devils” and Park Chan-wook’s mystery “Decision to Leave” in recent weeks. Other films arriving with distribution include Brett Morgen’s David Bowie doc “Moonage Daydream,” from Neon. A24 has five films premiering at Cannes, including Alex Garland’s “Men” and Claire Denis’ “The Stars at Noon.”

Still up for grabs are films like “Hunt,” the directorial debut of “Squid Game” star Lee Jung-jae, and Arnaud Desplechin’s “Brother and Sister.”

Below find a constantly updated...

Cannes comedy becomes Quentin Dupieux’s third release with distributor.

Magnolia Pictures has acquired North American rights to Smoking Causes Coughing, the French comedy from Quentin Dupieux that had its world premiere in the Midnight section at last month’s Cannes festival.

Written and directed by Dupieux, the film follows the misadventures of the Tobacco Force, a team of five superheroes who face a villain trying to annihilate the Earth.

Hugo Selignac produced the film for Chi-Fou-Mi Productions in coproduction with Gaumont, with the participation of Canal+, Ocs and Tmc.

Magnolia, which previously released Dupieux’s Mandibles and Rubber, is planning a 2023 release for Smoking,...

Magnolia has acquired North American rights to Quentin Dupieux’s wild comedy “Smoking Causes Coughing” rolling off its world premiere at Cannes festival’s Midnight section. Gaumont co-produced the film and is representing it in international markets.

The deal reteams Dupieux with Magnolia which previously released two of the French director’s most successful films “Mandibles” and “Rubber.”

As other films by Dupieux, “Smoking Causes Coughing” features an ensemble cast of highly popular French stars, including Gilles Lellouche (“The Stronghold”), Anais Demoustier (“Alice and the Mayor”), Vincent Lacoste (“Victoria”), Jean-Pascal Zadi (“Simply Black”) and Oulaya Amamra (“Divines”).

The film follows the misadventures of a team of five superheroes known as the Tobacco Force – Benzene, Nicotine, Methanol, Mercury and Ammonia. After a devastating battle against a diabolical giant turtle, the Tobacco Force is sent on a mandatory week-long retreat to strengthen their decaying group cohesion. Eventually their mission goes south when Lézardin,...

Teeming with all kinds of freaks and plots that toggle freely between the real and the absurd, Quentin Dupieux’s films are the work of an inveterate, shamelessly playful raconteur. With ten features now to his name, the musician-turned-filmmaker has amassed an oeuvre whose leitmotif isn’t (just) the director’s penchant for the gonzo, but his passion for storytelling itself. Stories and storytellers abound in his latest, Smoking Causes Coughing. A Russian doll of tales-within-tales, it features one of Dupieux’s most bizarre concoctions yet—which, for a man that gave us a sentient killer tire (Rubber), an oversized fly-turned-pet (Mandibles), and a leather jacket with homicidal powers (Deerskin), is to say plenty. That’d be the Tobacco Force, a group of five superheroes who roam the Earth slaughtering monsters with the power of the toxic substances they borrow their names from—but which, curiously, none of them has ever consumed.

Quentin Dupieux’s film debuted out of Competition.

Picturehouse Entertainment has made Quentin Dupieux’s Smoking Causes Coughing its latest Cannes 2022 acquisition, buying UK-Ireland rights for the out of Competition title.

Smoking Causes Coughing debuted as a Midnight screening on the Croisette; it is sold by France’s Gaumont.

The film follows a team of five avengers known as the Tobacco Force. After a devastating battle against a diabolical turtle, they are sent on a retreat to strengthen their cohesion, which goes well until Lezardin, Emperor of Evil, decides to annihilate planet Earth.

Gilles Lelouche, Vincent Lacoste, Anais Demoustier, Jean-Pascal Zadi and Oulaya Amamra star.

Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania’s “I and the Stupid Boy,” the new title in the Prada-commissioned Miu Miu Women’s Tales short film series directed by women, was unveiled Sept. 4 at the Venice Film Festival’s independently run Venice Days section.

The short by Ben Hania, who directed the Oscar-nominated “The Man Who Sold His Skin,” is a tale of male-female power, sexuality and shame — with a biting, feminist twist.

In “I and the Stupid Boy,” the protagonist, Nora, is a striking young woman, newly in love. All dressed up, she takes a short cut through an abandoned building, on the way to her date, only to run into Kevin, her ex, who pulls up in a scooter and starts to harass her.

Nora is played by Oulaya Amamra, who won the 2017 César Award for best emerging actress for her role in the film “Divines” by Houda Benyamina, set in the Paris banlieu.

Kad Merad, Fatsah Bouyahmed and Oulaya Amamra lead the cast of the French adaptation of The Distinguished Citizen, produced by Axel Films. Having kicked off on 5 March in Morocco, filming on Citoyen d'honneur, the 5th feature film by Mohamed Hamidi (discovered in 2013 via Homeland and nominated for the 2016 European Film Award for Best Comedy thanks to One Man and His Cow) is set to wrap in the Paris region tomorrow. Shining bright in the cast are Kad Merad, Fatsah Bouyahmed (who led the cast of One Man and His Cow), Oulaya Amamra (who bagged the Best New Hope César and...

Yasin Houicha and Oulaya Amamra lead the cast of the filmmaker’s first full-length work, a Unité production set to be distributed in France by Haut et Court. Having kicked off on 31 August, filming on Emma Benestan first feature Fragile wrapped in Sète yesterday, 13 October. Hailing from La Fémis’s Editing Department, the director previously drew attention with her numerous short films, in particular the fiction offering Goût bacon and the documentary Un monde sans bêtes. Distinguishing themselves at the head of the cast are Yasin Houicha and Oulaya Amamra (the winner of the Best New Hope César and the Best Newcomer Lumières award in 2017 for Divines, similarly well-received in The World is Yours, Farewell to the Night and The Salt...

Philippe Garrel’s modus operandi since 2013’s Jealousy has been unfussy, melancholic, black-and-white tales of Parisian men in the throes of romance, typically under 75 minutes. His latest, The Salt of Tears, which played in competition at the Berlin Film Festival, stretches to 100 minutes, but retains much of the lo-fi monochrome aesthetic, here centering on a cocky, shaggily attractive 20-something whose predilection for spurning women won’t win admirers from the MeToo generation.

But The Salt of Tears, with its title that sounds like a philosophical tract by Sartre, is a distant, ruminative film that refrains from wallowing in snide judgments of its characters. Perhaps to its fault, it’s a sober, adult, sincere film that seeks to consider some truth of the fallacy present in all human relationships.

The story follows trainee carpenter Luc through a trio of romantic misadventures, as he moves from the French countryside for something akin to a sentimental Parisian education.

One bold gesture the new Berlinale team has made at the festival this year is to put Philippe Garrel back in competition. His last two movies, small films with grand sensitivity, have premiered at the Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes, a fitting place for their discretion but not necessarily the director’s stature. His new film, The Salt of Tears, is no different in scale, effectively embracing cinema’s affinity for, in literary terms, short stories rather than novels. Like his last film, Lover for a Day, we find Garrel channeling the energy of young actors cast mostly from the acting classes he teaches to bring a light-footed freshness to his atmosphere and storytelling. And like his two most recent films, it has a swift, sketch-like quality that sometimes works well and sometimes doesn’t with the film’s essentially fable-like, rather than realistic storytelling. This friction between the exactitude required...