News

French director Alain Chabat will be this year’s guest of honor at Directors’ Fortnight, the Cannes independent festival sidebar organized by the French Directors’ Guild.

Chabat, best known for his quirky comedies and children’s films, including RRRrrrr!!! (2004), Asterix & Obelix: Mission Cleopatra (2002), and Houba! On the Trail of the Marsupilami (2012) will pick a “surprise film” to screen in Cannes on May 20, during the festival.

“Alain has returned time and again to a form of mainstream auteur cinema where absurdity and schoolboy humour rub shoulders with irreverent, magical worlds fit for the biggest of kids,” Directors’ Fortnight organizers said in a statement on Tuesday. “We all dream of seeing more auteur comedies on the big screen, so we gave Alain Chabat carte blanche to pick a surprise film that will be revealed during the festival. The screening will be followed by a discussion with Alain Chabat, in which he will...

PARIS -- The sixth Rendez-Vous of French Cinema, which unspools in the City of Lights this Friday through Monday, looks set to be a bustling affair, with several market premieres and some 370 distributors and TV buyers expected from 43 countries. The Paris market is spread over four theaters around the Champs Elysees. In total, 54 movies will be screened, half of which will be making market premieres. With big-budget movies increasingly presold on the international market, the screenings this year will be showcasing the more art house end of the market. One exception is the caveman comedy RRRrrrr!!! from writer-director-actor Alain Chabat. The StudioCanal title is due to screen Sunday with the main cast in attendance.