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A dozen years separate Agathe Riedinger’s feature-length directorial debut, Wild Diamond, and Matteo Garrone’s Reality, another continental European story of a working-class aspirant hoping to star on a reality television program. Yet the difference in what each film’s protagonist expects to receive from their selection proves illustrative of how the influencer economy has fundamentally rewired the nature of adolescent aspiration.

For Wild Diamond’s striving 19-year-old main character, Liane Pougy (Malou Khebizi), the program Miracle Island means more than a mere refuge from reality, like Grande Fratello (Italy’s Big Brother) represented to Garrone’s fishmonger Luciano. In Liane’s eyes, the show provides a rare opportunity to fully remake her lot in life and reorient herself as the star of her surroundings. But to become the person she so desperately wishes to be, she must first get the show’s producers to reconstitute her essence as...

The heart of “Wild Diamond,” the only debut to play in competition at Cannes this year, is a story we’ve seen before. A young woman living in grim-to-disappointing circumstances has dreams of stardom, and her journey toward fame takes her to dark places, physically and emotionally. You can find versions of this scenario in Andrea Arnold’s “Fish Tank” to Ninja Thyberg’s “Pleasure.” Director Agathe Riedinger’s debut feature has little new to say about the pursuit of fame and the toll it takes despite a truly unique heroine in Liane, played with a strange and alluring distance by Malou Khebizi. It’s only a shame that the film does her a disservice in leaving the world around her underdeveloped.

The 19-year-old Liane has mastered the art of making herself up for the internet. In one sequence, we watch as she gets ready. She contours her face with precision.

“Hater says I’m superficial,” muses one of the TikTok influencers who rule the version of the world that obsesses 19-year-old Liane in Agathe Riedinger’s Cannes Competition entry Wild Diamond (Diamant Brut). “Yes, I’m superficial,” continues the influencer, “but that doesn’t mean I’m a moron.”

Maybe not, but there aren’t many prospects for young women like her fan Liane (Malou Khebizi), whose adeptness at facial contouring, applying diamantés to her towering shoes and blowing kisses to her 50,000-and-counting followers are not generally regarded as marketable skills. Not in the old-school versions of the world, anyway; she can see that her middle-aged career counsellor, for all that she is worn down by Liane’s tantrums, pities her.

Liane doesn’t see things that way. For her, being beautiful – her kind of beautiful, read: hot — is her future. It makes people look at her. They may look...

When Liane (Malou Khebizi), the protagonist of Agathe Riedinger’s stylish debut feature Wild Diamond (Diamant Brut), says that she will be the French Kim Kardashian, it sounds more like a prophecy than a desire.

The 19-year-old waitress from Fréjus is obsessed with fame and beauty. She scrupulously saved her paychecks to get breast augmentation surgery. She had a friend inject hyaluronic acid into her lips to plump them. Now she has her sights set on getting a Bbl. Liane chronicles her body modifications on Instagram, where her thousands of followers leave adoring comments that she repurposes as daily affirmations. “I’m not like everyone else,” Liane says throughout the film to the skeptics and doubters.

Premiering in competition at Cannes, Wild Diamond is Riedinger’s compassionate contribution to the “perils-of-social-media-and-fame” genre. The film expands on themes first explored in the director’s 2017 short Waiting for Jupiter, which followed a young woman,...

Exclusive: France TV Distribution has unveiled a raft of deals on Andréa Bescond and Éric Métayer’s intergenerational comedy-drama Big Kids.

The film has sold to Brazil (Imovision), Benelux (Cinéart), Spain (Vercine), Switzerland (Agora Films), Poland (Best Film Co), Baltics (Unlimited Media), Central America (Babilla) and Taiwan (Avjet International Media Co.).

Ad Vitam released the film in France in April, achieving a gross of just under $1million.

Inspired by real-life stories in France, the movie revolves around a group of school children who end up spending their lunch breaks at a nearby nursing home while their school cafeteria is being remodelled.

The caretaker, played by Vincent Macaigne, is not happy to see the school children invade his residents’ territory, and an intergenerational clash seems inevitable.

However, shared interests and a series of comical situations foster new friendships between the elderly residents and their young lunchtime guests.

While unveiling its slate of new French originals and acquisitions on Monday, Prime Video announced that it would skip a French theatrical release for “Challengers,” Luca Guadagnino’s anticipated tennis drama. The film, which stars Zendaya, Josh O’Connor and “West Side Story” star Mike Faist, will still be released in theaters in all other territories.

During a posh press event hosted at the Pavillon Royal on the outskirts of Paris, Brigitte Ricou-Bellan, Prime Video’s country managing director for France, said the strategic move by the Amazon streamer resulted from France’s notoriously strict windowing rules, which demands streamers to wait 15 to 17 months after a theatrical roll out before making a new film available on their services. The rule has led other studios to opt to skip French cinemas for new releases before, such as Disney’s decision to debut “Strange World” on streaming.

“We’re a strong partner for French cinema and well-established talent.

It’s the second feature from Little Tickles co-directors Andrea Bescond and Eric Metayer.

France tv distribution has acquired world sales rights to French filmmakers Andrea Bescond and Eric Metayer’s nursing-home-set comedy drama Big Kids starring Vincent Macaigne, Aissa Maiga and Marie Gillain.

It is the directorial duo’s second feature collaboration after award-winning child-abuse drama Little Tickles, which world premiered in Cannes Un Certain Regard in 2018 and sparked a public debate about the issue when it was released in France in 2019.

The duo’s new film revolves around the residents of a nursing home and a group of...

Anger over return of old guard to revamped general assembly.

A promised reform drive by France’s troubled Academy of Cinema Arts and Techniques has gotten off to a rocky start after the body moved to allow historic members back into its revamped general assembly including disgraced director Roman Polanski.

The 4,313 members of the body, which oversees the prestigious national César awards, elected the new general assembly earlier this month. This assembly will now vote in a gender-balanced governing board on September 29 as well as male and female presidents who will work in tandem over a two-year period.

However it...

Update, Writethru: France’s biggest movie awards night has drawn to a close with Custody (Jusqu’à La Garde) crowned Best Picture. Originally screened in Venice and Toronto in 2017, it’s a story of domestic abuse that stars Denis Ménochet and Léa Drucker, the latter won Best Actress tonight. Jacques Audiard’s The Sisters Brothers also scored multiple recognition including Best Director.

While some of tonight’s winners in Paris were expected — during a ceremony that is forever laborious — it was a major shock to see an In Memoriam segment minus two incredibly important figures. Where was Michel Le Grand? And why was Samuel Hadida not remembered in a first segment, but the added later in the telecast? Franchement?

In any case, below is a rundown of

Previous: France’s Académie des Arts et Techniques du Cinéma is handing out its César Awards tonight in Paris. Nominations for the local...

France’s Académie des Arts et Techniques du Cinéma unveiled its nominations for the César Awards this morning in Paris. The races for the country’s Oscar equivalent are led by Xavier Legrand’s feature debut Jusqu’à La Garde (Custody) and Gilles Lellouche’s Le Grand Bain (Sink Or Swim) with 10 mentions each. They are followed by Jacques Audiard’s English-language western, The Sisters Brothers, and Pierre Salvadori’s En Liberté! (The Trouble With You) with nine a piece. All four are in the Best Picture and Director categories.

There’s a noticeably lighter edge to the nominations this year with Le Grand Bain a sort of Full Monty à la française that sees a group of middle-aged men form a synchronized swimming team. The movie debuted out of competition in Cannes and became the 3rd highest grossing local title of 2018 with over 5M tickets sold.

Also out of Cannes,...

Lumières are the Golden Globes of France.

A mixed bag of nominations for the 24th edition of France’s Lumière awards was unveiled in Paris on Monday (Dec 17).

Jacques Audiard’s Us-set, English-language The Sisters Brothers, period comedy-drama Mademoiselle de Jonquières, adoption drama Pupille and Venice-winning relationship drama Custody came out as the front-runners with four nominations each.

Following with three nominations each were Alex Lutz’s comedy-drama Guy, about a man who discovers he is the illegitimate son of a fading variety star and decides to follow him on tour; comedy The Trouble With You, sexual abuse drama Little Tickles,...

“Yomeddine,” a road-trip movie about an Egyptian leper and a young orphan journeying in search of family, won the Reflet d’Or for best feature film at the 24th Geneva Intl. Film Festival Saturday. The character-driven drama, Egyptian-Austrian director A.B. Shawky’s feature debut, premiered in competition in Cannes, and is Egypt’s candidate for the foreign-language Oscar.

The features jury, led by Malian filmmaker Souleymane Cissé, gave a special mention to Bi Gan’s languorous noir love story “Long Day’s Journey Into Night.” The director’s sophomore feature tracks a lovelorn drifter’s return to his hometown in Southwest China.

“Autonomies,” written and created by Yehonatan Indursky and Ori Elon, and directed by Indursky, received the Reflet d’Or for best TV series. In the alternate-reality drama, Israel has split in two states: Jerusalem is ultra-Orthodox, while Tel Aviv is a secular state. The action focuses on two...

Chicago – The Chicago International Film Festival is competitive, and the 54th edition presented its awards on October 19th, 2018, at the AMC River East Theatre in Chicago. The winner of the Gold Hugo as Best Film was “Happy as Lazzaro” (Italy/Switzerland/Germany/France), directed by Alice Rohrwacher.

The 54th Chicago International Film Festival Awards Night was October 19th, 2018

Photo credit: Chicago International Film Festival

The awards event was hosted by entertainment reporter Bill Zwecker. Presenters included Artistic Director Mimi Plauché, programmers Anthony Kaufman and Sam Flancher, plus various jury members. Festival CEO Michael Kutza presented his “Founder’s Award.” The Festival’s highest honor is the Gold Hugo, named for the mythical God of Discovery.

International Feature Film Competition

’Happy as Lazzaro,’ Directed by Alice Rohrwacher

Photo credit: Chicago International Film Festival

The Gold Hugo for Best Film: “Happy as Lazzaro,” (Italy/Switzerland/Germany/France) Directed by Alice Rohrwacher

The...

Other winners include Guillaume Senez and Jafar Panahi.

Belgium’s Guillaume Senez, Iceland’s Benedikt Erlingsson and Iran’s Jafar Panahi were among the award-winners at this year’s Filmfest Hamburg, which ended yesterday (6 October).

The Art Cinema Award went to Benedikt Erlingsson’s political comedy Woman At War which opened the Filmfest on 26 September and will be released in German cinemas by Pandora Filmverleih.

Senez’s second feature Our Battles (his debut was Keeper) won the Critics’ Choice Award which was presented for the first time in collaboration with the Association of German Film Critics (Vdfk).

The family drama...

Docs include The Dread, and My Home, In Libya.

Cannes selections Birds Of Passage and Border will compete with the likes of Transit and Non Fiction for the Gold Hugo at next month’s 54th Chicago International Film Festival.

Artistic director Mimi Plauché announced on Friday (14) the international competition line-ups at the 54th Chicago International Film Festival, which runs from October 10–21.

The longest running competitive film festival in North America will feature two world premieres – Guie’dani’s Navel (Mexico) and the documentary Father The Flame (USA) – and showcase 16 films in the main International Feature Film Competition, 14 films in New Directors Competition,...

Already the 2018 film festival circuit has yielded two high-profile titles that both deal with the trauma of childhood sexual abuse: Jennifer Fox’s Sundance sensation “The Tale,” and Cannes discovery “Little Tickles,” the debut film from Andréa Bescond, co-directed by Eric Métayer and based on Bescond’s autobiographical one-woman play. The films bear many similarities: Both are from female filmmakers and based on their own experiences. Both use the protagonist’s creativity as the conduit to investigate their trauma. Most strikingly, both employ a device in which the protagonist as an adult can interact with herself as a child, allowing them to wander in and out of memories as if they were adjacent rooms in the same house.

Bescond further complicates her tricky, occasionally clumsy past-and-present-colliding motif by making the adult Odette (played by Bescond herself) into a less-than-reliable narrator. Sometimes what we see did not happen at all, or not in that place,...

Red carpet protest highlighted fact only 82 women have been honoured in Official Selection over 71 editions of festival.

Cate Blanchett and Agnes Varda led 82 female industry figures in a silent ascent of the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival on Saturday protesting the lack of female representation at the event over its 71 editions.

Moving, historic, 82 women from all countries and professions in cinema have just made the red carpet entrance for Les Filles Du Soleil (Girls Of The Sun) by Eva Husson. #Cannes2018 #Competition pic.twitter.com/0YY9SNbRqg

— Festival de Cannes (@Festival_Cannes) May 12, 2018

Other stars joining the protest...

The Festival de Cannes has announced the lineup for the official selection, including the Competition and Un Certain Regard sections, as well as special screenings, for the 71st edition of the festival:COMPETITIONEverybody Knows (Asghar Farhadi)At War (Stéphane Brizé)Dogman (Matteo Garrone)Le livre d'images (Jean-Luc Godard)Netemo Sameteo (Asako I & II) (Ryūsuke Hamaguchi)Sorry Angel (Christophe Honoré)Girls of the Sun (Eva Husson)Ash Is Purest White (Jia Zhangke)Shoplifter (Hirokazu Kore-eda)Capernaum (Nadine Labaki)Burning (Lee Chang-dong)BlacKkKlansman (Spike Lee)Under the Silver Lake (David Robert Mitchell)Three Faces (Jafar Panahi)Cold War (Pawel Pawlikowski)Lazzaro Felice (Alice Rohrwacher)Yomeddine (A.B. Shawky)Leto (Kirill Serebrennikov)Un couteau dans le cœur (Yann Gonzalez)Ayka (Sergei Dvortsevoy)The Wild Pear Tree (Nuri Bilge Ceylan)Out Of COMPETITIONSolo: A Star Wars Story (Ron Howard)Le grand bain (Gilles Lelouch)The House That Jack Built (Lars von Trier)Un Certain REGARDGräns (Ali Abbasi...

The selection includes films by Jean-Luc Godard, Matteo Garrone, Eva Husson, Spike Lee and Pawel Pawlikowski.

The films chosen for the Cannes Film Festival 2018 Official Selection have been announced.

Festival President Pierre Lescure and General Delegate Thierry Frémaux revealed the line-up at a press conference, which was live-streamed on YouTube. More films will be added closer to the festival.

The selection includes films by Jean-Luc Godard, Matteo Garrone, Eva Husson, Spike Lee and Pawel Pawlikowski.

The 71st Cannes Film Festival is scheduled to run from May 8-...

Yesterday, the 2018 Cannes Film Festival lineup was announced bright and early. As always, it’s a moment in the cinematic year that marks a turning point of sorts. In fact, it really does seem like it positions us to start thinking about what might play on the festival circuit this fall. We’re a ways off, but with Cannes letting loose their news, the mind can tend to wander and start speculating. We already knew that Ron Howard’s Solo: A Star Wars story was a special early addition to the fest, having its premiere there. We also already had been told that Everybody Knows from Asghar Farhadi was the Opener. Now, we know much more. The crop of titles so far seems to have even more of an international flavor than usual. In fact, aside from the previously announced special screening of Howard’s Solo: A Star Wars Story,...

Update: Cannes Film Festival chief Thierry Fremaux presented the Official Selection lineup for next month’s 71st running this morning in Paris. There were no major bombshells in the mix, although it’s yet to be completed. Frémaux often reserves the weeks following the press conference and ahead of the fest to sprinkle in other titles. One highly expected film missing this morning was Lars von Trier’s The House That Jack Built, and Frémaux hinted that could change in a few days.

Among the U.S. filmmakers mentioned today, Spike Lee is in with Blackkklansman and David Robert Mitchell moves up to the competition with Under The Silver Lake, something we expected would come to pass after his previous two films ran in Directors’ Fortnight.

Other well-known names on the competition roster include Jean-Luc Godard (Le Livre D’Image), Pawel Pawlikowski (Cold War) and Kore-Eda Hirokazu (Shoplifters). Also notable,...

With a jury headed by Cate Blanchett, the main lineup for the 71st Cannes Film Festival has been unveiled, including Competition, Un Certain Regard, Out of Competition, Midnight, and Special screenings. This year’s competition lineup features some of our most-anticipated films of the year, including Jean-Luc Godard’s Le livre d’images, Lee Chang-dong’s Burning, Jia Zhangke’s Ash is Purest White, Spike Lee’s BlackKkKlansman, Jafar Panahi’s recently unveiled Three Faces, David Robert Mitchell’s Under the Silver Lake, Pawel Pawlikowski’s Cold War, and more. The Un Certain Regard section also includes one title we hoped might make it into competition: Bi Gan’s Kaili Blues follow-up Long Day’s Journey into Night.

While it’s clear there was going to be no Netflix films, there were a handful of rumored films that didn’t make the cut, though there’s the possibility of being added later.

New movies from Spike Lee (“BlacKkKlansman”), Jean-Luc Godard (“The Image Book”) and Oscar-winning “Ida” director Pawel Pawlikowski (“Cold War”) join previously announced “Solo: A Star Wars Story” at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival, making for a lineup that’s considerably less starry — at least by Hollywood standards — than in years past.

At the press conference in Paris, Cannes artistic director Thierry Frémaux suggested that several more titles may be announced in the days to come, reminding that 2017 Palme d’Or winner “The Square” was a late addition last year.

Scheduled to kick off a month after the inaugural television-focused Cannes Series event, the festival will unspool from May 8-19 — which is the earliest the festival has taken place in more than 20 years. The parallel Directors’ Fortnight and Critics’ Week programs will take place during the same dates, but technically fall outside the “official selection,” and as such, will announce their lineups later in April.

The 71st Cannes Film Festival has announced its official lineup in a morning press conference. The festival revealed the films in this year’s Competition lineup, as well as in sidebars such as Un Certain Regard, Midnight Section, and Special Screenings.

Read More: Asghar Farhadi to Open Cannes 2018 With ‘Everybody Knows,’ Starring Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem

The festival previously announced that the 2018 edition will open with the world premiere of Asghar Farhadi’s “Everybody Knows.” The director’s first Spanish-lanugage drama stars Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem.

The official selection for the 2018 Cannes Film Festival is below. Additions will be made in the coming days.

Opening Night Film

“Everybody Knows,” Asghar Farhadi (In Competition)

Competition

“At War,” Stéphane Brizé

“Dogman,” Matteo Garrone

“The Picture Book,” Jean-Luc Godard

“Asako I & II,” Ryusuke Hamaguchi

“Sorry Angel,” Christophe Honoré

“Girls of the Sun,” Eva Husson

“Ash Is Purest White,” Jia Zhang-Ke

“Shoplifters,...