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Annecy, France — Félix Dufour-Laperrière’s hand-drawn feature Death Does Not Exist made its competition bow at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival on 8 June. The screening follows the film’s world premiere in Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight on 15 May, where it opened the sidebar’s 57th edition.

Set in a magical valley scarred by political violence, the 72-minute drama tracks activist Hélène, who flees after a failed armed action against wealthy landowners and is confronted by the ghost of her comrade Manon. Best Friend Forever’s sales notes add that the story probes “convictions, loyalty and connections” as natural forces warp around the two women.

The project is a Canadian-French co-production between Quebec’s Embuscade Films and Paris-based Miyu Productions. UFO Distribution will handle the French theatrical release, while Maison 4:3 covers Canada, with Brussels-based Best Friend Forever steering international sales. The voice cast includes Karelle Tremblay and Zeneb Blanchet, with...

Annecy main comoetition contender “Death Does Not Exist” is a political film. And Quebec director Félix Dufour-Laperrière isn’t afraid to admit it.

“There’s urgency to redistribute wealth. There’s urgency to keep this world decent. I’m a father of two: a middle-class white man with a beautiful family, and one of my deepest desires is that my kids grow up in a livable world. On the other hand, there’s a legitimate anger about the state of the world that needs to be addressed. Mine and yours, and obviously our American neighbors,” he tells Variety about his latest animated feature.

“The film comes from all these contradictions. It’s crucial to take care of what you love, but it’s not sufficient when we have a collective responsibility toward the world. It’s a tragic tale about violence, but also about commitment, convictions, loyalty and connections.”

In...

The latest animation from Quebecois filmmaker Félix Dufour-Laperrière takes us into the headspace of a young activist in the wake of a failed armed attack in which she found herself unable to shoot as required. Death Does Not Exist (La Mort n’Existe Pas) sees Hélène (voiced by Zeneb Blanchet) re-encounter one of her slain comrades, Manon (voiced by Karelle Tremblay), who tells her she has the chance to redeem herself. Dufour-Laperrière uses hand-drawn animation and a carefully controlled colour palette to explore cycles of violence and the tension that exists between that and love and between camaraderie and fear. The film premiered in the Directors’ Fortnight strand at Cannes Film Festival and will screen at Annecy Festival this month. We caught up with Dufour-Laperrière to talk about his Alice In Wonderland-like odyssey into...

It appears we are, once again, at one of those junctures where the wallpaper of civilization is peeling to reveal some rather unfortunate structural issues. Félix Dufour-Laperrière’s animated contemplation, “Death Does Not Exist,” doesn’t so much knock on this particular door as observe it sagely from across a chasm of palpable despair, one filled with the low hum of eco-anxiety and the sharp stink of inequity – our constant companions these days.

That it chooses the often-ghettoized medium of animation to unpack these existential steamer trunks is its first, quiet act of rebellion. This is not your Saturday morning distraction, unless your Saturday mornings involve considering the precise weight of a soul before your second coffee.

Into this lovingly rendered gloom steps a cadre of earnest young firebrands, activists (or are they merely architects of a more theatrical form of despair?) intent on delivering a rather violent message to...

The world as we know it is crumbling.

Rising wealth inequality, a collapsing climate and the continued expansion of unchecked state violence are all bearing down on us. It’s far from a cheery state of affairs, but it’s in this heavy yet unavoidable reality where filmmaker Félix Dufour-Laperrière places us in “Death Does Not Exist.” Thus, it’s where any engagement with his work must also begin.

Despite its title, this is an impressionistic film very much about how death does exist and will haunt us after the moment of loss. While the doesn’t make its subtext 100% explicit, it’s grounded in distinctly modern anxieties about how out of balance the world has become. Brought to life with simple yet frequently stunning animation that can resemble a children’s book with a nightmarish tone, it’s a fable that pushes us to look death in the eyes...

Standing on a cliff, Hélène (voiced by Zeneb Blanchet) gazes down at an imposing estate, with a glass structure throned in its middle. She watches on as the building begins contorting and swelling, before being torn apart by an explosion of vegetation growing from within. Resembling a slithering black avalanche, it spills to the nearby town, poised to swallow a world that stands on the precipice. She hears a voice, giving meaning to this terrific vision – "A great upheaval, something new." The cataclysm shocks Hélène, pushing her to question her convictions about violent uprising. Félix Dufour-Laperrière's new feature depicts this conflicted inner space as an unrestrained animated canvas, where colour and texture resonate with rhythms of violence, repression and hope, revealing familiar dilemmas in an alien environment.

Protected by the shade of the nearby forest, Hélène and the other freedom fighters prepare to attack the glass mansion. She offers a.

This interview was conducted in French and translated by Linda Marric, it was therefore edited for clarity and length.

Please note that this interview contains spoilers for the film.

François Ozon has long been celebrated for his ability to craft compelling, multi-dimensional female characters—an increasingly rare feat in contemporary cinema. In his latest film, When Autumn Falls, he once again brings a deeply layered narrative to life, offering a story filled with moral ambiguity, complex relationships, and raw human emotion.

In this conversation, acclaimed French actor Hélène Vincent shares how she came to be involved in the project, the unexpected gift of landing a leading role, and the joy of working alongside actor and filmmaker Josiane Balasko on the film. She also reflects on the nuances of her character, Michelle, a woman whose past as a prostitute does not define her but instead shapes her unapologetic approach to life.

Millie (Sophie Desmarais) with Hélène (Irène Jacob) and Aliocha (Aurélia Arandi-Longpré) in Philippe Lesage’s Who By Fire (Comme Le Feu) starting to move to Rock Lobster by the B-52s: “The use of music is very important in my films …”

Philippe Lesage’s striking Who By Fire, shot by Balthazar Lab has in its center a four minute dance scene to Rock Lobster by the B-52s that turns into a conga line. Beautifully choreographed, it unfolds as a well-deserved moment of relaxation for all present at the long intense weekend in the Canadian wilderness, albeit in a comfortable lodge owned by Oscar-winning filmmaker Blake, played mischievously by Arieh Worthalter (who starred opposite Vicky Krieps in Mathieu Amalric’s Hold Me Tight).

Philippe Lesage with Anne-Katrin Titze and Ed Bahlman holding up the B-52s original Rock Lobster/52-Girls record (1978)

We enter the story by car, in the...

In recent years, many Barbie fans have been satiated by re-watching episodes of Barbie: Life in the Dreamhouse and other releases on Netflix. The latest Netflix drop, released this year, is Barbie & Teresa: Recipe for Friendship. But, these projects cannot compare with the character’s best films from the 2000s.

Following the success of Greta Gerwig’s Barbie in 2023, there were rumors that Illumination (the studio behind projects like Despicable Me) had an interest in making more Barbie animated films. As this proposed partnership has not yet yielded any classics, it may be opportune to reminisce on some early Barbie movies that still hold up today.

Barbie Fairytopia: Mermaidia Was Released in 2006

The second in the Fairytopia trilogy, Mermaidia embodies the spirit of the first Barbie films, which were mainly focused on fairies, princesses, or some combination of the two. In Mermaidia, directors William Lau and Walter P. Martishius expand the world,...

Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani, the filmmaking duo behind The Strange Color of Your Body’s Tears, and Let the Corpses Tan, are back with a unique spin on the Eurospy subgenre with Reflection in a Dead Diamond.

Below we can exclusively unveil Reflection in a Dead Diamond’s European poster by Gilles Vranckx ahead of the film’s premiere this weekend at the Berlin International Film Festival.

Update: Shudder has acquired the film for premiere later this year.

In the film, “John D, a septuagenarian living in a luxury hotel on the Côte d’Azur, is intrigued by his next-door neighbour who reminds him of the wildest years on the Riviera during the 1960s. At that time, he was a spy in a rapidly developing world full of promise. One day, this neighbour mysteriously disappears… bringing John face to face with his demons: are his former adversaries back to wreak havoc on his idyllic world?...

Christophe Honoré fans have much to celebrate this January. Ahead of his latest feature, the meta Chiara Mastroianni-led Cannes selection Marcello Mio, arriving in U.S. theaters on January 31 from Strand Releasing, one of his most provocative, acclaimed earlier films has been restored. Coming from KimStim Films, his 2004 psychosexual drama Ma Mère, starring Isabelle Huppert and Louis Garrel, will open at the IFC Center a week earlier on January 24. Ahead of this release, we’re pleased to exclusively premiere the new trailer for the Nc-17-rated feature.

Based on George Bataille’s posthumous and controversial novel, here’s the synopsis: “Ma mère takes place in the Canary Islands, where the film’s family shares a home. The mother Hélène (Isabelle Huppert), cool and in charge, and her teenaged son Pierre (Louis Garrel), a pious Catholic back from boarding school, discuss his father’s infidelity; the next they hear, he...

At this point, we all know that for better or for worse, Lady Gaga loves going Method for her roles. She claimed that for her role as Ally in "A Star is Born" — the role that won her an Oscar for best original song thanks to the showstopper "Shallow" — she lived in the role for years. More recently, she changed her singing voice and walked the set of "Joker: Folie á Deux" as Harleen "Lee" Quinzel. In 2022, for the biopic "House of Gucci," Lady Gaga took "the Method," where you fully embody your character even when the cameras are off super seriously, and even spoke in an Italian accent for her role as Patrizia Reggiani. Apparently, she also refused to speak to one of her co-stars as a result of her approach to Patrizia.

In a 2022 interview with The Guardian, French actress Camille Cottin — who shared one scene with Lady...

If you’ve spent time in towns in the far-flung provinces of any number of European countries — particularly ones in which mills that supplied the economic lifeblood of working-class communities have closed, leaving inhabitants adrift without a raft — chances are you’ll recognize the fictional Northeastern French setting of And Their Children After Them (Leurs enfants aprés eux). These are places stuck in time, usually around the point when their industries were shuttered. That fossilization can be observed at public celebrations where the locals mob the dance floor when the cheesiest of Euro-pop relics are blasted over the speakers, in this case Boney M.’s “Rivers of Babylon.”

Writer-director brothers Ludovic and Zoran Boukherma capture that atmosphere with such specificity and melancholy fondness in their ambitious adaptation of Nicolas Mathieu’s 2018 Prix Goncourt-winning novel that it’s easy to imagine they lived it — or at least something very close to it.

Programmers from Sundance, Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight, Toronto, and Rotterdam, sales agents such as Goodfellas and Coproduction Office and U.S. distributor Magnify Pictures are among 50 top international guests expected at the inaugural Ecam Forum co-production market in Madrid, which is due to unspool June 10-14.

More than 300 delegates have signed up for the co-pro event where a curated slate of 37 Spanish, Latin American and international films and series will compete for the best project, including the next Lois Patiño (“Samsara”), Pablo Hernando (“Berserker”), Belén Funes (“A Thief’s Daughter”) and Sergi Perez (“The Long Way Home”).

Other highlights include masterclasses from U.S. indie mogul Ted Hope, and France’s illustrious cinematographer Hélène Louvart, a regular Alice Rohrwacher and Karim Aïnouz collaborator, and Silver Bear winner 2023 for “Disco Boy.”

In this exclusive interview, Ecam Forum’s coordinator Alberto Valverde maps out the full program of the latest industry initiative of Madrid’s Ecam film school,...

Gérard Depardieu Photo: Richard Mowe

Star Gérard Depardieu was taken into police custody in Paris this morning to be questioned over allegations of sexual assault. The 75-year-old actor, who has previously admitted to a troubled youth in which he associated with criminals, faces accusations by two separate women concerning incidents alleged to have taken place on the sets of films he made in 2014 and 2021.

The first of the new claims relates to an alleged incident on the set of The Green Shutters, which the accuser says was broken up only by his own bodyguards, while the second concerns his alleged behaviour towards an assistant working on The Magician And The Siamese. The police have yet to issue any further comment.

Four years ago, the actor was charged with the rape of then 22-year-old actor Charlotte Arnould in 2018. The case has not been brought to trial. Another claim of rape made by actor Hélène.

As a general movie rule, when a group of happy weekenders head to a woodland cottage for a bit of rest and relaxation, the great outdoors has some grisly surprises in store for them. In “Who By Fire,” however, the horrors all come from inside the house — or more specifically from the people themselves, many of whose worst impulses and insecurities are unleashed by their tranquil surroundings. Dramatizing a curious case of cabin fever with keen human observation and patient wrangling of intangible dread, the third narrative feature from Quebecois director Philippe Lesage underlines his ability to carve a semblance of a horror movie from everyday domestic drama — confirming him as a filmmaker of considerable grace and daring.

It’s been six years since Lesage’s last film, “Genesis” — a long wait for his admirers, a select club still largely confined to the festival circuit, notwithstanding the polish and rigor of the director’s work.

Kenneth Branagh is back for this third — and by TheWrap’s account, best — appearance as Agatha Christie’s detective Hercule Poirot in “A Haunting in Venice.” He also directs the spooky mystery, which boasts a terrific lineup of murder suspects (and potential victims), including Michelle Yeoh, Tina Fey, Jamie Dornan and Kelly Reilly.

Here’s who plays which character in the film based on Christie’s 1969 novel “Hallowe’en Party” — and where you might have seen the less familiar names before.

“A Haunting in Venice” is now streaming on Disney+.

20th Century Studios.

Kenneth Branagh as Hercule Poirot

British actor Kenneth Branagh reprises his role as the fussy Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot, whom he previously played in the recent remakes “Murder on the Orient Express” and “Death on the Nile.” The film begins in 1947 with Poirot retired from sleuthing and leading a quiet life in Venice — until he’s dragged into a new case.

Good Luck to You, Leo Grande star Daryl McCormack shines in this handsomely executed mystery thriller from British director Alice Troughton, best known for her work on the legendary TV series Doctor Who. Written by Alex MacKeith, The Lesson also features exquisite performances from acclaimed French actor Julie Delpy and Oscar-nominated Richard E Grant. Although purely fictional, MacKeith is said to have based the story on real life events that arose after he was hired as a tutor by a writer he admired.

Aspiring young writer Liam (McCormack), accepts a tutoring position at the family home of his writing idol, the acclaimed author J.M. Sinclair (Grant). Liam is immediately seduced by his host’s seemingly perfect existence. But soon, the young man finds himself involved in his new employers’ complicated family life and the secrets they keep. Sinclair, his wife Hélène (Delpy), and their son Bertie (up and coming...

A charismatic young tutor comes to help a tragedy-stuck family in a bookish drama that’s fun and smart, but not entirely convincing

Here is a brittle and contrived but rather elegant Brit thriller about literary paranoia from debut feature screenwriter Alex MacKeith and director Alice Troughton, herself a cinema first-timer having had much acclaim working on TV. The upscale and sophisticated mise-en-scène is rather French; Julie Delpy has a role here and looks quite at home.

Richard E Grant plays Jm Sinclair, a bestselling, sharp-tongued author who gives roguish interviews repeating the old maxim that good artists borrow but great ones steal. He is married to art collector Hélène (Delpy) and they live in a handsome country estate with extensive grounds and a lake. But Sinclair, usually so prolific, has retreated to a haunted creative silence following the tragic death of his elder son; the parents are now concerned...

Richard E. Grant is a towering figure in film, and not just because he's a great actor of considerable height. He also has a tendency to play larger-than-life characters, people with sizable egos and so much self-inflation they often float. He's mastered this in great films like Withnail & I and Can You Ever Forgive Me?, and has played with that character type to hilarious degrees in projects like How to Get Ahead in Advertising, Girls, and Loki. He injects varying degrees of melancholy or menace into these characters as well, so that none of them are quite the same. He's a master of the craft.

His latest conjuring act is J.M. Sinclair, one of the four main characters of the tense but witty chamber drama The Lesson, which is part film noir, part dark comedy, and part literary thriller. Sinclair is a famous novelist who hasn't published a book in several years,...

An aspiring writer recently graduated from Oxford descends upon the gloomy countryside estate of revered author J.M. Sinclair for a summer gig tutoring his son. Naturally, the young man, Liam, arrives bearing an unfinished manuscript with which he plans to impress his hero, but if there’s anything to be taken away from this “exquisitely made chamber piece”, it’s that meeting your idols isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

Though the house overflows with contemporary art curated by Sinclair’s wife, Hélène, and light that pours in through floor-to-ceiling windows, sorrow echoes between its hallways and behind its locked doors. Two years earlier, we learn, the Sinclairs’ eldest drowned himself on the property, a trauma that sent J.M. into professional hiatus. Albeit for very different reasons, Liam’s arrival is just what the family has been waiting for, and he soon finds himself tangled...

In Alice Troughton's The Lesson, Richard E. Grant and Julie Delpy portray J.M. Sinclair, a renowned novelist, and Hélène, his neglected artist wife. The noir thriller follows Liam (Daryl McCormack), a young, aspiring writer who takes a position tutoring the couple's son, Bertie (Stephen McMillan). Liam idolizes Sinclair but quickly realizes that there are some lingering familial issues. In The Lesson, the relationship between Sinclair and Hélène is definitely complicated, but that didn't stop Grant and Delpy from sharing real-life relationship advice with us.

Asked whether she believes artists should date or marry other artists, Julie Delpy provided some insight, saying, "I don't necessarily think artists should date artists. I think artists are better off being with people that understand artists, that could be in the sphere of artists' world, but not necessarily artists themselves." She continued:

I think it's complicated, two artists together. Yeah, I think it...

In Alice Troughton's The Lesson, Richard E. Grant and Julie Delpy portray J.M. Sinclair, a renowned novelist, and Hélène, his wife. The noir thriller follows Liam (Daryl McCormack), a young, aspiring writer that takes a position tutoring the couple's young son, Bertie (Stephen McMillan). Liam idolizes Sinclair but quickly realizes that there are some lingering familial issues. In The Lesson, the relationship between Sinclair and Hélène is definitely complicated, but that didn't stop Grant and Delpy from sharing real-life relationship advice with us.

Asked whether she believes artists should date or marry other artists, Delpy provided some insight:

"I don't necessarily think artists should date artists. I think artists are better off being with people that understand artists, that could be in the sphere of artists' world, but not necessarily artists themselves? I think it's complicated, two artists together. Yeah, I think it gets competitive and, you know,...

Films about fictitious great writers often stumble when it comes to the character’s actual writing: Viewers must suspend disbelief that a lofty literary reputation has been built on the purplest of screenwriter-devised prose. A blackly comic melodrama in which writerly ego, ambition and insecurity do increasingly destructive battle, “The Lesson” gets around that trap by folding questions of authorship into its arch country-house mystery: Who is writing what, and to what extent it matters, are the questions that keep director Alice Troughton and screenwriter Alex MacKeith’s mutual debut feature interesting, even as it slides into occasional, overheated cliché.

When the film’s own words don’t quite pass muster, however, a tight, tony ensemble of actors gives them some polish and punch. A big, ripe turn by Richard E. Grant — as a celebrated British novelist looking to emerge from a gloomy hiatus with one more masterwork — represents the...

Though it doesn’t exactly have the same warm, melancholic charm, Alice Troughton’s elegant literary thriller The Lesson could give star Richard E. Grant the kind of late-career bump that last year’s Living afforded Bill Nighy. An Oscar nom might be a little fanciful at this stage, but a BAFTA shot is a no-brainer, with Grant on top form as a mercurial, narcissistic British author. Co-star Julie Delpy might also find new offers coming in, showing a stiletto-sharp new side to herself as his enigmatic wife.

Though it doesn’t have the intensity of this year’s Palme d’Or winner Anatomy of a Fall, Troughton’s upper-middle-class gothic is working in similar territory — with the exception of art curator Hélène, three of the four main characters are writers at various stages of their career. The minimalistic opening credits set an intriguing tone — if Sally Potter made a Knives Out movie,...

There’s an irony to the title “No Love Lost”: that the gaping hole left in a lover’s wake can still shape a person’s whole existence. In short, there’s plenty lost. Erwan Le Duc (“The Bare Necessity”) writes and directs the 2023 Cannes Critics Week closing film that was billed by the festival as a “bittersweet comedy about paternity and filiation with a poetic and off-beat angle,” and delivers on most fronts.

Nahuel Pérez-Biscayart stars as Étienne, a hopeful football player who has a whirlwind romance à la “Up” with protester Valérie (Mercedes Dassy) in the first five minutes of the feature. The duo have an immediate connection after both evading the police at a demonstration, but their fearless young love (they’re in their very early twenties) soon becomes more complicated once Valérie discovers she’s pregnant. A wordless montage captures their love story up until...

As The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is wrapping its five-season run, Emmy-winning creators Amy Sherman-Palladino and Daniel Palladino are prepping their next series. Prime Video has given a two-season order to Sherman-Palladino and Palladino’s Étoile, starring Mrs. Maisel duo of Luke Kirby, who won an Emmy for his work on the show, and Gideon Glick as well as Call My Agent! standout Camille Cottin, Simon Callow (Outlander), Lou de Laâge (The Innocents) and David Alvarez (West Side Story).

Set in New York City and Paris, the eight-episode Étoile follows the dancers and artistic staff of two world-renowned ballet companies, as they embark on an ambitious gambit to save their storied institutions by swapping their most talented stars.

Word of the new series started trickling out last fall when Sherman-Palladino and Palladino held an Open Dance Call for an untitled ballet show. The duo will write, direct and executive produce the...

Behind some bins – big wheelie ones down an alley on Dublin’s Northside – a man and a woman, both oldish, are coupling frantically. Their al fresco pleasure is interrupted when they are spotted by the man’s daughter, who’s just come out of an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting.

“It’s not what it looks like, Shiv,” explains her flustered father, as he makes himself decent while the woman, short and of Asian heritage, with cropped silver hair, yanks up her tights.

“It looks like an old Irish man f***in’ a woman behind some bins,” she says.

This delicious scene is from The Dry, a daffy eight-part tragicomedy previously on Britbox, now coming to Itvx. The old man is played, with all his baffled hangdog charm, by Ciarán Hinds, who is 70. The woman behind the bins with him – and here’s the complicated surprise – is played by none other than Hinds’s French-Vietnamese wife,...