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France TV Distribution has enlisted a raft of major distributors worldwide for “Sugar and Stars,” a movie starring Riadh Belaïche, a social media influencer-turned-actor.

The inspirational drama is based on the true story of Yazid Ichemrahem, an underdog who became a famous pastry chef.

“Sugar and Stars” marks the debut feature of Sébastien Tulard, who has directed several shorts and worked as assistant director on hit French comedies such as Tarek Boudali’s “30 jours max,” Frank Gastambide’s popular show “All the Way Up,” Dany Boon’s “Supercondriaque” and Philippe Lacheau’s “Babysitting.”

The film was penned by Penned by Cédric Ido and based on Ichemrahem’s bestselling autobiographical book “Un rêve d’enfant étoilé.”

The story revolves around Yazid, who spent his childhood moving from one foster home to another while dreaming of becoming a pastry chef. Nothing predestines him for such a career, but Yazid’s fierce...

A genius South Korean lawyer with very poor social skills, Wonder Woman star Connie Nielsen as Danish writer Karen Blixen, Martin Freeman as a cop on the edge, and those foul-mouthed Derry Girls are among the nominees for this year’s International Emmy awards, which were announced today by the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. The 56 nominees span 20 countries and six continents.

Best drama contenders include South Korea’s Extraordinary Attorney Woo, featuring Park Eun-bin as an autistic rookie female lawyer with a genius Iq; the German period drama The Empress, British thriller The Devil’s Hour starring Peter Capaldi; and Yosi, the Regretful Spy, a historic thriller from Argentina, another Amazon production. On the comedy side, Netflix’s Northern Irish hit Derry Girls is up against Argentine series The Boss from Star+, season 2 of the French reality show send-up Le Flambeau, and Vir Das: Landing, a Netflix stand-up special from the Indian comedy star.

The International Union of Cinemas (Unic) has unveiled its annual report highlighting recent developments within Europe’s theatrical industry during the pandemic. The org looks at 43,000 screens across 38 territories for its study.

This year’s findings, presented during exhibition trade show CineEurope, show that European movie theaters suffered a 70.4% year-on-year drop to €2.6 billion ($3 billion) in box office revenue in 2020. In terms of admissions, there was an annual drop of 68.4% to 430 million tickets sold.

Unic estimates that as much as €4.5 billion ($5.2 billion) were lost in other revenues for the European industry.

European theaters were on a path of steady growth when they were hit by the pandemic, having increased by 34% between 2000 to 2019 during the last two decades. 2019 was a particularly strong year as European cinemas grossed over €8.8 billion at the box office and attracted more than 1.34 billion cinema-goers.

While cinemas were shut down for most of the year and U.S.

Movie theaters in France will be allowed to reopen from December 15, President Emmanuel Macron announced this evening in an address to the nation. The country’s second Covid-19 spike has peaked, said Macron, and there will be an overall, gradual easing of restrictions over the next several weeks. Culture “is essential,” Macron insisted. A 9Pm curfew will nevertheless be imposed for some time.

The move out of lockdown for movie theaters comes as most of the European majors have been shuttered in recent weeks. On Monday, cinemas in England were given the green light to resume operations next week when the most recent lockdown there comes to an end on December 2. Capacity limits will apply.

Capacity limits for cinemas in France were not directly outlined in Macron’s highly-anticipated speech, though they are expected to be in line with earlier iterations for the time being. France entered a second lockdown...

France’s exhibitors and distributors are aiming for a quick restart when theaters are allowed to reopen, whenever that may be.

During the first lockdown, which lasted nearly three months, many French distributors took the streaming route, opting to release their films on transactional VOD services and in some cases, sell rights to SVOD platforms such as Amazon or Netflix. But this time around, key distributors like Gaumont, Studiocanal and Le Pacte, who had movies playing when theaters shut down on Oct. 29, told Variety that they’re planning to re-release their pics when cinemas reopen, even if a date is still unknown.

Among the films that will return to theaters are Gaumont’s “Bye Bye Morons,” a black comedy directed by Albert Dupontel; Le Pacte’s “DNA,” directed by Maiwenn; Studiocanal’s “Little Vampire,” an animated feature by Joann Sfar; and comedy “30 Jours Max” from Tarek Boudali.

“We will...

‘Tenet’ hits $334m globally, while family films dominate Germany.

’Demon Slayer’ slays Japan with $44m opening

Japanese anime Demon Slayer The Movie: Mugen Train delivered a sensational $44m three-day opening in Japan for joint distributors Toho and Aniplex – the top result globally at the weekend for any film on release, and the biggest ever opening for a film in Japan.

The film is adapted from the manga Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba by Koyoharu Gotoge, and was previously adapted into a 2019 TV series. Both the series and the film are directed by Haruo Sotozaki, whose animation department credits include Cowboy Bebop: The Movie...

Cinema numbers are shrinking again as Covid-19 cases rise across Europe.

France, opening Wednesday October 14

It has been a complicated few days for French distributors and exhibitors following the introduction of a night-time curfew from Saturday night in Paris and eight other major cities, as part of measures to slow the spread of Covid-19.

The measure, which obliges people to return home by 9pm, effectively wipes out key evening screening slots although exhibitors are lobbying the government for a special dispensation for cinemagoers. A final decision was expected late Friday or over the weekend, but if the answer is ‘no...