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Mubi has unveiled their lineup for next month’s streaming offerings, featuring a selection of notable new releases, including Kazik Radwanski’s Matt & Mara, Lisandro Alonso’s Eureka, Monica Sorelle’s Mountains, Marija Kavtardzé’s Slow, Monia Chokri’s The Nature of Love, and more. Additional highlights include films by Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Brady Corbet, Peter Weir, and more.

Recently naming Matt and Mara one of the best films of 2024, Blake Simons said, “Kazik Radwanski’s misty-eyed, mostly improvised tale of friends-not-quite-lovers excels at capturing intricacies of the unspoken. There’s a warming tenderness and quiet sadness to Deragh Campbell and Matt Johnson’s restrained interactions. In the final moments, Mara places a crumpled receipt inside a book and returns it to its shelf. Sometimes that’s what a good film is: a leaf through our feelings. Matt and Mara is there on the shelf now, for when we feel like opening that book again.

What is it with 30-something Quebecoise filmmakers and their interest in exploring the tired porn trope of unsatisfied wives finding their sexual needs met by hot handymen? In 2023, Monia Chokri’s Ok dramedy “The Nature of Love” was selected for Cannes and even won a César for best foreign film. Now, helmer Chloé Robichaud (“Sara Prefers to Run”) enters the Sundance World Dramatic competition with “Two Women,” a cringy, unconvincing remake of a cult 1970 Québec sex romp, “Deux femmes en or.”

Screenwriter-producer Catherine Léger earlier adapted the material into a successful stageplay, but the theater version seems to have included some bracing irony, a quality sorely missing from this earnest, naturalistic misfire. The best that can be said for Robichaud’s film is that her two leads, Karine Gonthier-Hyndman and Laurence Leboeuf, give committed performances

The action mostly takes place in an ugly, suburban Montreal eco-housing coop, where the cramped interior spaces scream confinement.

As we continue to explore the best in 2024, today we’re taking a look at the articles that you, our dear readers, enjoyed the most throughout the past twelve months. Spanning reviews, interviews, features, podcasts, news, and trailers, check out the highlights below and return for more year-end coverage.

Most-Read Reviews

1. The Goldfinger

2. From Darkness to Light

3. The Devil’s Bath

4. Only the River Flows

5. Longlegs

6. The Nature of Love

7. The 2024 Oscar-Nominated Animated Short Films, Reviewed

8. Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 2

9. Trap

10. Dune: Part Two

Most-Read Interviews

1. Richard Linklater on Sex, Murder, Hit Man, and the Infantilization of Culture

2. Will Menaker on the Year in Cinema: Oppenheimer, Scorsese, Friedkin & Beyond

3. Lee Daniels on The Deliverance, Shifting Culture, Douglas Sirk, and That Glenn Close Performance

4. “All Great DPs Become Alcoholics”: Rob Tregenza on Shooting Béla Tarr’s Werckmeister Harmonies

5. In a Violent Nature Director Chris Nash on Creating a New Kind of Slasher,...

Ariane Louis-Seize‘s Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person (winner of the Director’s Award at Giornate degli Autori section in Venice Film Festival last year) leads all nominations at the Prix Iris (aka Quebec Oscars) with a total of twenty-two including Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best First Film, and seven acting nominations however it’s fiercest competition might come from Simple comme Sylvain by Monia Chokri which premiered at last year’s Cannes Film Festival in the Un Certain Regard section. Also known as “The Nature of Love,” Chokri’s third feature received fourteen nominations in all with Best Film, Best Screenplay, Best Director, and four acting nominations.…...

Exclusive: Pulsar Content has acquired world sales rights for Joséphine Japy’s upcoming feature The Wonderers following a family navigating the severe disability of the youngest daughter.

Produced by Cowboys Films, the feature marks Japy’s first time in the director’s chair.

The actress was recently seen in Netflix’s BAFTA-winning fictionalized Bernard Tapie biopic Class Act, with previous credits including On The Wandering Paths, Love At Second Sight, Breathe, as well as Claude François biopic My Way, early on in her career.

Set against the backdrop of a summer on the French riviera, the drama revolves around the Roussier family and its fragile equilibrium shaped by the uncertain diagnosis of its youngest daughter, 13-year-old Bertille, who suffers from a severe disability.

Her parents and 17-year-old older sister Marion live in constant fear of losing her. Disconnected from typical teenage dreams, Marion seeks escape in a relationship with an older boy.

Canada’s Oscar entry “Universal Language,” a critically acclaimed movie directed by Matthew Rankin, has been acquired by distributors in most major territories ahead of its North American premieres at Toronto and New York Film Festival.

Represented worldwide by Brussels-based company Best Friend Forever, the movie world premiered at this Cannes Directors’ Fortnight where it won the inaugural People’s Choice Award. Following Toronto and New York, the movie will go on to play at Fantastic Fest and Festival du Nouveau Cinema as the festival opener. “Universal Language” also won the Bright Horizons Best Film Award at the Melbourne International Film Festival.

“Universal Language” has been bought for France (Météore Films), Scandinavia (Njutafilms), Germany & Austria (Rapid Eye Movies), Switzerland (Outside The Box), Spain (Filmin), Portugal (Nitrato Filmes), Cei (Universal Distribution), Japan (The Klockworx), China (DDDream), Taiwan (Hooray Films), Brazil (Belas Artes Grupo), Indonesia (Falcon Pictures) and India (Big Tree Entertainment). Benelux,...

Music Box Films has acquired U.S. distribution rights to Carson Lund’s comedy drama “Eephus,” which premiered in Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight. The film was recently announced as an Official Selection of New York Film Festival, where it will have its North American premiere.

Music Box plans for a theatrical release nationwide followed by home entertainment. London- and Paris-based sales and production house Film Constellation handles worldwide sales and negotiated the deal on behalf of the filmmakers.

“Eephus” is set on a small-town New England baseball field called Soldiers Field. As an imminent construction project looms over their beloved baseball field, a pair of Sunday league teams face off for the last time over the course of a day. Tensions flare up and ceremonial laughs are shared as an era of camaraderie and escapism fades into an uncertain future.

Variety highlighted “Eephus” as one of the must-see films of the...

Rank Film (distributor) Three-day gross (July 5-7) Total gross to date Week 1. Inside Out 2 (Disney) £5.1m £40.1m 4 2. A Quiet Place: Day One (Paramount) £1.6m £6.2m 2 3. Bad Boys: Ride Or Die (Sony) £446,578 £11.1m 5 4. MaXXXine (Universal) £384,410 £384,410 1 5. The Bikeriders (Universal) £373,027 £3.2m 3

Disney’s Inside Out 2 has become the highest-grossing title 2024 so far at the UK and Ireland box office, after hitting £40m in four weeks.

The animated sequel added another £5.1m, down just 15% on the previous session. Inside Out 2 overtakes Warner Bros’ Dune: Part Two on £39.4m as well as its own predecessor, 2015’s Inside Out, which also ended on £39.4m.

Rank Film (distributor) Three-day gross (July 5-7) Total gross to date Week 1. Inside Out 2 (Disney) £5.1m £40.1m 4 2. A Quiet Place: Day One (Paramount) £1.6m £6.2m 2 3. Bad Boys: Ride Or Die (Sony) £446,578 £11.1m 5 4. MaXXXine (Universal) £384,410 £384,410 1 5. The Bikeriders (Universal) £373,027 £3.2m 3

Disney’s Inside Out 2 has become the highest-grossing title 2024 so far at the UK and Ireland box office, after hitting £40m in four weeks.

The animated sequel added another £5.1m, down just 15% on the previous session. Inside Out 2 overtakes Warner Bros’ Dune: Part Two on £39.4m as well as its own predecessor, 2015’s Inside Out, which also ended on £39.4m.

Filmmaker Monia Chokri loves a zoom lens. Such is the fun aesthetic of her third feature The Nature of Love. Often the image jumps forwards or backwards, accenting an emotional moment with a punchy, visual exclamation point. It shouldn’t work, yet it does. The film stars Magalie Lépine Blondeau as Sophia, a 40-year-old professor in a comfortable marriage to Xavier (Francis-William Rhéaume). “Not unhappy,” she describes herself at one point. Early on, Sophia is intrigued and quickly entranced by Sylvain (Pierre-Yves Cardinal), the craftsperson renovating Sophia and Xavier’s country home. The affair is immediately sexy, exciting, and passionate.

Cinematographer André Turpin’s camera matches the excitement. When things are turbulent––be they good or bad––the camera gets a bit impatient. When things are stale, the camera gets a bit complacent. Consider one of the best moments of the film: Sylvain’s seductive introduction. The camera runs slowly down a corridor,...

The task of crafting an intellectual definition of love — a feeling so indescribable and transcendent that empires have crumbled and countless lives have blown up just because humans craved a little more of it — is, by definition, an impossible task. It’s a feeling that inspires so much art because it can’t be explained or rationalized away. At its best, it’s so overpowering that even the smartest among us have no choice but to suspend their need to analyze and accept that they’ve fallen prey to an emotion better summarized by a three-minute pop song than anything in a textbook.

But the impossibility of the assignment hasn’t stopped the great thinkers of every generation from trying. From ancient Greek philosophers who argued that love couldn’t be separated from unfulfilled sexual desire and obsession to more modern interpretations that see it as a state of being...

The Nature of Love explores binaries like passion vs. companionship, beauty vs. intelligence, and realism vs. fantasy in relationships. The film's intense emotional scenes and stylistic choices create a dream-like atmosphere, but the extreme thematic binaries may not be convincing. The impressive visual style and creative efforts enhance the film's world, but the overemphasis on symbolism and exaggeration detract from the overall experience.

The Nature of Love is a movie obsessed with binaries. From short-lived passion vs enduring companionship to beauty vs intelligence, and sophistication vs messiness, every major theme in the narrative has its opposition. The story itself centers around Sophia (Magalie Lpine Blondeau), a woman whose stable life is complicated when she meets Sylvain (Pierre-Yves Cardinal), and their connection threatens her established long-term relationship.

The film's primary concern is to address the age-old question of whether fidelity and commitment are realistic. By building layers of contrast at each turn,...

Gory Hindi action film Kill opens on 827 screens via Roadside Attractions this weekend. It’s the distributor’s first foray into Indian film, which is having another moment after two pics hit the top 10 in North America last week. This is a crowded theatrical market with wide releases piling in and some high-profile indie holdovers. New indie debuts include Mother Couch and The Nature of Love in NYC.

Kill isn’t traditional Bollywood, shorter at an hour forty five minutes and without song and dance numbers in between the action. It debuted at the Toronto Film Festival’s Midnight Madness section, also screening at Fantastic Fest, Beyond Fest and last month at Tribeca.

The R-rated film is being marketed to the reliable Indian diaspora — Roadside marketed the film heavily at the Cricket T20 World Cup held in the U.S. for first time in June, and won by India — but...

Ti West’s crime horror MaXXXine leads the new titles at this weekend’s UK-Ireland box office, opening in 477 cinemas through Universal.

The third title in the X film series from US director West follows X and Pearl. MaXXXine sees its protagonist, played by Mia Goth, set out for fame and success in 1980s Hollywood while being targeted by a mysterious killer.

X opened to £227,493 from 481 sites at a £473 average in March 2022, ending on £641,792, released through Entertainment Film Distributors. The franchise then moved to Universal for UK-Ireland, where Pearl started with £192,895 from 293 sites at a £658 average, ending on £477,076 in March...

In a creative output that saw her add a harvest of three feature films in the last five years, after 2019’s A Brother’s Love and 2022’a Babysitter we now find Monia Chokri celebrating lightning in a bottle attraction, longing, and what it looks like when we rationalize surrendering to our emotions and abandoning our safeguards. Her third oeuvre Simple comme Sylvain (aka The Nature of Love) has ties to her astounding debut short Quelqu’un d’extraordinaire (2013) where actress Magalie Lépine-Blondeau began as perhaps Chokri’s creative muse. Sporting autumn browns and on one occasion wearing dish gloves, here Lépine-Blondeau steps into the character of Sophia, a 40-year-old philosophy professor who finds herself well beyond the seven-year itch, as her world is thrown into chaos, leaving her to ponder, “should I stay or should I go?”…...

Echoing its worldwide box office standing, Indian sci-fi epic “Kalki 2898 Ad” debuted in third place at the U.K. and Ireland box office.

“Kalki 2898 Ad,” one of the most expensive Indian films ever made with the budget estimated to be $72 million, is distributed in the territory by Dreamz Entertainment and bowed with £886,366 ($1.1 million). It was released in several Indian languages including Telugu, Tamil and Hindi.

Topping the charts in its third weekend was Disney’s “Inside Out 2,” which added another £6 million to take its tally to £31.9 million. Paramount’s “A Quiet Place: Day One” debuted with £2.9 million in second place.

Sony’s “Bad Boys: Ride Or Die” collected £651,891 in its fourth weekend to take its running total to £10.2 million. Rounding off the top five was Universal’s “The Bikeriders,” which earned £588,675 in its second weekend for a total of £2.3 million.

There were three more debuts in the...

Monia Chokri’s 2023 film The Nature of Love offers insight into humanity’s most complex emotion. Set in Montreal, it centers on Sophia, a university philosophy teacher played brilliantly by Magalie Lépine-Blondeau. For a decade, she’s been with her partner, Xavier, but their relationship has lost its spark. This changes when rugged contractor Sylvain, portrayed with charm by Pierre-Yves Cardinal, is hired to renovate Sophia’s country home. Their connection is electric, sweeping Sophia into a passionate affair behind Xavier’s back.

As a philosophy professor, Sophia is well-versed in the theories of love put forth by great thinkers. Yet finding herself irresistibly drawn to Sylvain exposes how imperfectly her intellect aligns with her heart. Chokri explores how even the most well-read among us can struggle to understand love in practice.

She depicts Sophia swept up in irrational desire, grappling with conflicting emotions as passion for Sylvain collides with loyalty to Xavier.

The premise of writer-director Monia Chokri’s Quebec-set The Nature of Love makes it sound like your standard-issue rom-com. Sophia (Magalie Lépine-Blondeau), a university philosophy teacher stuck in a static relationship with Xavier (Francis-William Rhéaume), is one day suddenly swept off her feet by Sylvain (Pierre-Yves Cardinal), the hunky, charming contractor tasked with renovating Sophia and Xavier’s lakeside getaway.

But after scenes depicting Sophia lecturing her classes about history’s great thinkers and their philosophies of love, it becomes clear that Chokri isn’t so much interested in the central couple’s meet-cute as she is in all that the affair triggers for Sophia. And much like what Todd Haynes’s Far from Heaven did with the aesthetic of the Sirkian Hollywood melodrama, The Nature of Love engages with the stylings and bubbly tonality of the classic rom-com in ironic fashion, along the way exploring complex aspects of human behavior.

Brussels-based company Best Friend Forever has boarded international rights to “Death Does Not Exist” (“La mort n’existe pas”) which is being showcased in the work-in-progress section at the Annecy Film Festival.

Currently in production, “Death Does Not Exist” is directed by Félix Dufour-Laperrière who previously helmed “Archipel” which won the Annecy Contrechamps Jury Award in 2021, and ‘Ville Neuve’ which had its premiere at Venice Days 2018.

“Death Does Not Exist” takes place after young activists fail an armed attack to overthrow figures of the establishment in their sumptuous villa. Helen freezes and abandons her accomplices. Manon, another

member of her group, returns to haunt her. The film’s voice cast includes Zeneb Blanchet, Karelle Tremblay (“The Nature of Love”), Mattis Savard-Verhoeven, Barbara Ulrich and Irène Dufour.

“’Death Does Not Exist’ deals with difficult subjects – violence, commitment, profound convictions – in a way that exposes their underlying tensions, outbursts, dead ends,” said Félix Dufour-Laperrière,...

Music Box Films has bought domestic rights to “In the Summers,” a coming-of-age tale from writer-director Alessandra Lacorazza Samudio which won Sundance’s grand jury prize and directing award in the U.S. dramatic competition.

A directorial debut, “In the Summers” tells the story of two daughters navigating a turbulent but loving father during yearly visits to his home in Las Cruces, New Mexico. The Latin-American family portrait is headlined by Grammy Award-winning Puerto Rican rapper, songwriter, and actor René Pérez Joglar (known in the music industry as Residente), who plays the divorced father, while the two siblings, Violeta and Eva, are played at different ages by several rising actors, including Sasha Calle (“The Flash”) and Lío Mehiel (“Mutt”). The cast is completed by Leslie Grace (“In the Heights”) and Emma Ramos (“New Amsterdam”).

The critically lauded movie will have its New York premiere in June at the Tribeca Film Festival,...

"I'm too romantic. Love should be simple." Music Box Films has revealed an official US trailer for an indie romantic comedy called The Nature of Love from Quebec. This French-language Canadian comedy first premiered at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival last year, and is just now getting a summer debut in limited US theaters. The original title is Simple comme Sylvain in French, or Simple as Sylvain, referring to the man she falls for in this film. Sophia's life is turned upside down when she meets Sylvain. She's from a wealthy family, while Sylvain comes from a large family of manual workers. Sophia questions her own values after abandoning herself to her great romantic impulses – she enjoys sleeping with Sylvain much more following 10 years of marriage and can't stop. So what comes next for her? Starring Magalie Lépine-Blondeau as Sophia and Pierre-Yves Cardinal as Sylvain, plus Monia Chokri, Francis-William Rhéaume,...

Canadian director Matthew Rankin’s Persian and French-language drama Universal Language has won the inaugural Audience Award of Directors’ Fortnight.

This is the first official prize launched by Directors’ Fortnight which does not have a jury. The €7,500 cash award, is also the first audience award to be launched in Cannes, across the Official Selection and the parallel sections.

It is being sponsored by the Chantal Akerman Foundation, which preserves the legacy of the director who retained strong ties with Directors’ Fortnight throughout her career, after screening breakthrough film Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce – 1080 Brussel in the section in 1975.

Described as taking place “somewhere between Tehran and Winnipeg”, Universal Language intertwines multiple characters.

Gradeschoolers Negin and Nazgol find a sum of money frozen in the winter ice and try to claim it, while Massoud leads a group of befuddled tourists through the monuments and historic sites of Winnipeg and Matthew quits...

Exclusive: Brussels-based company Best Friend Forever (Bff) has acquired international sales rights for Canadian director Matthew Rankin’s Universal Language.

The intriguing Persian and French-language drama is among 21 feature films announced as being selected for the 2024 edition of Cannes parallel section Directors’ Fortnight on Tuesday.

In a first key distribution deal for the movie, Oscilloscope Laboratories have taken U.S. rights. Quebecois distributor Maison4Tiers will release in Canada.

Universal Language is Rankin’s second feature after The Twentieth Century, on which Bff also handled international sales. The surrealist dark comedy won the Berlinale Fipresci Award in 2020 and Best Canadian debut award in TIFF Midnight Madness 2019.

Rankin has also made multiple short films including The Tesla World Light, which premiered in Cannes Critic’s Week 2017.

Going under the Persian title of Avaz boughalamoune (Lovesong for a Turkey), Rankin’s new film Universal Language is described as taking place “somewhere between...

“The Nature of Love,” Monia Chokri’s sexy romantic comedy that beat Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” in the best foreign-language film race at this year’s Cesar Awards, has been acquired by Music Box Films for the U.S.

“The Nature of Love” world premiered at Cannes’ Un Certain Regard to strong reviews, followed by a North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. Chokri’s film stars Magalie Lépine-Blondeau and Pierre-Yves Cardinal. Music Box Films will open “The Nature of Love” in theaters this summer with a home entertainment release to follow. The film is produced by Metafilms and co-produced by Mk Productions.

“The Nature of Love” follows 40-year-old philosophy professor Sophia, who abandons her stable and conventional marriage for a passionate affair with Sylvian, a craftsman renovating her country house. Their romantic impulses are complicated by intellectual and social differences.

“Monia Chokri takes a familiar romantic comedy...

Steve Buscemi’s “The Listener” is heading to the Sarasota Film Festival.

The 26th edition of the Florida fest will feature live and in-person screenings and events that will take place across Sarasota beginning on April 5. The 10-day fest will feature 23 narrative features, 41 documentary features and 81 short films.

Buscemi will be in Sarasota to participate in a Q&a following the screening of “The Listener,” which will serve as the closing night film. About a crisis hotline worker enduring the pressures of her job, the film starring Tessa Thompson made its world premiere at Venice Film Festival in 2022.

Lynn Dow’s “Bull Street,” starring Loretta Devine and Amy Madigan, will open the fest on April 5. The drama centers on a South Carolina small-town lawyer (Malynda Hale) as she faces local politics and an unwavering judge (Madigan) when her estranged father’s family tries to evict her and her grandmother (Devine) from her home.

The César Awards are always the biggest night of the year for French cinema, but the massive award season impact of “Anatomy of a Fall” ensured that this year’s event took on additional importance for Oscar watchers around the globe. When the 49th César Awards took place in Paris on Friday night, all eyes were on Justine Triet and her Palme d’Or-winning film.

Predictably, “Anatomy of a Fall” swept many of the night’s biggest categories. In addition to winning the top prize of Best Film, Triet was honored with Best Director and shared Best Screenplay with her partner Arthur Harari. Stars Sandra Hüller and Swann Arlaud also won Best Actress and Best Supporting Actor, respectively.

The night’s other big winner was Thomas Cailley’s “The Animal Kingdom,” which won awards for Cinematography, Visual Effects, Costume Design, and Sound.

Keep reading for a complete list of winners from the 2024 César Awards.

The 49th Cesar Awards, France’s top film honors, have been handed out in Paris, with Justine Triet‘s Oscar contender Anatomy of a Fall emerging as the big winner.

The French courtroom drama — which is competing at the Oscars in five categories — earned the best film prize, best actress for Sandra Hüller, best director for Triet, best original screenplay shared between Triet and co-writer Arthur Harari, and Swann Arlaud took home the best supporting actor trophy.

Hüller won in the best actress category over Oscar winner Marion Cotillard, nominated for Little Girl Blue; Lea Drucker, up for Last Summer; Hafsia Herzi, nominated for The Rapture; and Belgian actress Virginie Efira, nominated for her work in Just the Two of Us.

The other big winner on the night was The Animal Kingdom, French director Thomas Cailley’s follow-up to 2014’s Love at First Fight. Cailley picked up the best cinematography...

Justine Triet’s Anatomy of a Fall won Best Film and Best Director at the 49th edition of the French César awards Friday.

Triet is only the second women to clinch the Best Director prize in the near 50-year history of the César Awards, after Tonie Marshall for Venus Beauty in 1976.

The director took to the stage with her producers Marie-Ange Luciani at Les Films de Pierre and David Thion at Les Films Pelléas.

Luciani suggested the Best Film honor, which is voted on by the some 4,600 members of the César Academy, was a sign of solidarity for the film and Triet in the light of her controversial Cannes d’Or acceptance speech which provoked a political backlash after she criticized the attitude of Emmanuel Macron’s government towards culture and cinema.

“After Justine’s speech in Cannes and the lively debate she provoked we’d like to say this...

Christopher Nolan touched down in Paris on Friday evening to receive an honorary César award at the 49th edition of France’s top film awards.

In attendance with producer and wife Emma Thomas, the Paris trip comes in the final days of the front-running Academy Award campaign for Oppenheimer, which is nominated in 13 categories.

Oscar-winning actress Marion Cotillard, who appeared in Nolan’s Inception and Dark Knight Rises, presented the director with the award.

“The magic of cinema is made by magicians and we have the honor of having the biggest magician of the 7th art with us this evening,” said the actress, also paying tribute to Thomas for enabling Nolan to work in complete creative freedom.

Nolan has a strong following in France. Inception sold 5M tickets there to gross close to $40M, whileemade around $20m at the box office.

The Oscar-winning director said the country had a special...

Justine Triet became the second female filmmaker in the Cesar Award’s 49-year history to win the best director trophy for “Anatomy of a Fall,” which also won best film, original screenplay, actress for Sandra Huller, supporting actor for Swann Arlaud and editing at the French film industry’s big night. Thomas Cailley’s supernatural drama “The Animal Kingdom” also dominated the race, picking up a raft of prizes, including cinematography, costumes, visual effects and music. The ceremony unfolded at the Olympia Theater in Paris on Friday evening and aired lived on Canal+.

Triet’s movie, which is vying for five Oscars, stars Hüller as a novelist who is put on trial following the mysterious death of her husband at their remote chalet. The movie is produced by Marie-Ange Luciani at Les Films de Pierre and David Thion at Les Films Pelleas.

Triet dedicated her best film award to all women,...

Thomas Cailley’s fantasy drama The Animal Kingdom topped the nominations for France’s César Awards, which were announced in Paris on Wednesday.

The drama picked up 12 nominations with Justine Triet’s Oscar hopeful Anatomy Of A Fall coming in second with 11 nominations, followed by Jeanne Herry’s All Your Faces, which nine, and The Goldman Case, with eight.

Set in a world where human beings start transmuting into animals, The Animal Kingdom world premiered as the opening film of Cannes Un Certain Regard in 2023 and went on to make $8.5M at the box office last fall.

The Animal Kingdom and Anatomy of a Fall are competing in eight categories spanning Best Film, Director, Original Screenplay, Male Revelation, Editing, Sound, Cinematography and Production Design.

The high nomination count for Herry’s ensemble drama All Your Faces was thanks to the fact it dominated the Supporting Actress category with separate nominations for cast members Leila Bekhti,...

The early autumn slump has been reversed.

France’s box office bounced back in November following a downturn in September and October with 15.1 million ticket sales, a total gross of €108.8m based on an average ticket price of €7.2.

However, admissions were still down 19.6% from the pre-pandemic 2017-2019 average for the month.

It was enough to assure solid annual figures to date with ticket sales hitting upwards of 162.8 million admissions (€1.17bn), above 2022’s full year 152 million admissions but below the 2017-2019 pre-pandemic average of 208 million tickets per year. Estimates suggest 2023 will reach between 180-190 million.

The upswing comes after an abysmal...

Festival has programmed 75 films from 36 countries.

The Marrakech International Film Festival has unveiled the full line-up for its 20th edition, which runs from November 24-December 2.

The festival is opening with Richard Linklater’s action comedy Hit Man, starring Glen Powell, and is screening 75 films in total from 36 countries.

Marrakech’s official competition, which comprises first and second feature films, includes Ramata-Toulaye Sy’s Cannes Competition title Banel & Adama, Lina Soualem’s Venice Giornate degli Autori documentary Bye Bye Tiberias and Moroccan director Kamal Lazraq’s feature debut Hounds, which premiered in Un Certain Regard at Cannes.

Scroll down for full line-up

Johnny Barrington,...

Richard Linklater’s action comedy “Hit Man” is set to open the Marrakech International Film Festival, which has announced its lineup of more than 70 films mixing known titles and fresh fare.

The fest is forging ahead with its 20th edition, which will run Nov. 24- Dec.2 in the ancient Moroccan city despite the Israel-Hamas conflict that has caused cancellations of several other fests in the region, as well as the earthquake that hit the country in September.

“Hit Man,” for which organizers declined to specify whether talent will attend, will screen as part of Marrakech’s red carpet gala screenings. Italian director Matteo Garrone is expected to make the trek for the gala of his Venice prizewinning immigration drama “Io Capitano” and Michel Franco will be coming to present another Venice prizewinner, “Memory,” starring Jessica Chastain, who is presiding over the fest’s main jury.

Also expected on hand for...

The 20th edition of the Marrakech International Film Festival has announced its selection, opening with Richard Linklater’s comedy Hit Man.

The event, running from November 24 to December 24, will unfold two months after the devastating earthquake in the nearby Atlas Mountains in September, which killed more than 2,000 people.

The management team has decided to push on with the event to support Marrakech, which suffered very little damage and relies heavily on tourism for its livelihood.

Hit Man will play as part of the festival’s six picture red carpet Gala selection which also includes Matteo Garrone’s Italian Oscar entry Me Captain and Michel Franco’s Memory.

Previously announced high-profile guests due to attend this year include Martin Scorsese, who will act as a mentor to emerging filmmakers attending the industry-focused Atlas Workshops, and Jessica Chastain as president of the jury.

She will be joined by Iranian actress and director Zar Amir,...

Monia Chokri’s “The Nature of Love” has been acquired for U.K. and Ireland distribution by Vertigo Releasing.

The film stars Magalie Lépine Blondeau and Pierre-Yves Cardinal. In the film, the cosy married life of lecturer and intellectual Sophia (Blondeau) takes a bold new turn when she meets Sylvain (Cardinal), the ruggedly charming handyman at her new chalet and she embarks on a steamy and all-consuming affair.

“The Nature of Love” premiered at Cannes’ Un Certain Regard strand earlier this year and since then has played Toronto and Zurich among other festivals. It has its U.K. premiere at the BFI London Film Festival on Oct. 13 and will play Chicago post that.

“Female mid-life crises are not explored in this mode of storytelling as often their male counterpart: While the tragedy of the woman who f—s around and finds out is a mainstay of plenty of great literature and cinema,...

Toronto: “Humanist Vampire,” “Solo” Heat Up Market for Toronto’s Quebec Feature Slate

By Jennie Punter

Toronto has long been a go-to place for Quebec filmmakers to launch new work, connect directly to the U.S. marketplace and, by extension, propel their careers to the next level — Denis Villeneuve, Phillippe Falardeau and Jean-Marc Vallée, for example, premiered most of their early films here.

Many of this year’s bumper crop of mostly world-premiering Quebec titles explore less familiar corners of society — First Peoples and newcomer stories, the drag scene — and there are also fresh takes on romantic dramedy (Monia Chokri’s “The Nature of Love”), true-story-inspired WWII drama (Louise Archambault’s “Irena’s Vow”) and horror comedy.

Five of the festival’s eight Quebec features are directed by women. Sophie Dupuis, whose third film, the drag-scene character study “Solo,” told Variety that support from government funding agencies Telefilm and Sodec (Quebec...

Pakistani Canadian filmmaker Anam Abbas has won the Canadian Media Producers Assn.’s 2023 Kevin Tierney Emerging Producer Award, it was announced Sept. 7 at the Indiescreen Awards, the opening event of the Toronto International Film Festival’s industry conference at Glenn Gould Studios.

Abbas’ latest feature is writer and director Zarrar Kahn’s feature debut “In Flames,” a Pakistani Canadian horror-drama about a Karachi woman and her mother who are beset by malevolent figures from their past after the family patriarch dies. The film, which screens next week in Toronto, premiered in Director’s Fortnight at Cannes, where XYZ Films’ announced the title would launch its New Visions slate.

The award, which comes with a C$10,000 cash prize, recognizes the talents of emerging feature producers. Abbas was recognized by the jury for her ingenuity and her passion for creating films that feel real and essential.

Nancy Grant of Metafilms received the...

Last year the Contemporary World Cinema had plenty of Cannes Film Festival gems in Aftersun, Falcon Lake, R.M.N. and The Worst Ones. This year’s programme no longer called Cwc but could be called Cannes replay but the programmers want us to call it the Centrepiece programme. We have the masterful (Cannes Best Actress-winning) About Dry Grasses by Nuri Bilge Ceylan plus Croisette light touches in the feel-good films of Fallen Leaves, Perfect Days and Monia Chokri ‘s Simple Comme Sylvain. From Venice we find Lkhagvadulam Purev-Ochir’s City of Wind, Ariane Louis-Seize’s Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person and Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s Evil Does Not Exist.…...

Auteurs Agnieszka Holland, Wim Wenders, Hamaguchi Ryusuke and Aki Kaurismaki are among the filmmakers featured in the Toronto International Film Festival’s (TIFF) Centrepiece program.

The strand, previously known as Contemporary World Cinema, which honors and celebrates global cinematic achievements, features 47 titles from filmmakers representing 45 countries.

TIFF has also revealed the additional lineup of galas, special presentations and documentaries, which feature star wattage from around the world including Tommy Lee Jones and Anil Kapoor.

“We are very excited to present the new Centrepiece program, a cinematic journey that transcends boundaries and embraces the art of human experience,” said Anita Lee, TIFF chief programming officer. “The rebranding of the TIFF program, formerly Contemporary World Cinema, is a reflection of the festival’s vision to provide an elevated platform for international cinema, acclaimed titles from festivals around the globe, highly anticipated premieres from Canadian and international talents, and the latest work of influential filmmaking luminaries.

Ahead of Toronto International Film Festival kicking off in less than a month, the festival announced more additions, including Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s Evil Does Not Exist, Close Your Eyes by Víctor Erice, Fallen Leaves by Aki Kaurismäki, Green Border by Agnieszka Holland, Perfect Days by Wim Wenders, About Dry Grasses by Nuri Bilge Ceylan, and more.

“We are very excited to present the new Centrepiece programme, a cinematic journey that transcends boundaries and embraces the art of human experience,” said Anita Lee, TIFF Chief Programming Officer. “The rebranding of the TIFF programme, formerly Contemporary World Cinema, is a reflection of the Festival’s vision to provide an elevated platform for international cinema, acclaimed titles from festivals around the globe, highly anticipated premieres from Canadian and international talents, and the latest work of influential filmmaking luminaries.”

See the lineup below.

Centrepiece Programme 2023

100 Yards Xu Haofeng, Xu Junfeng | China

International Premiere

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The programme comprises 47 films from 45 countries.

The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) has unveiled the line-up for its Centrepiece programme, with 47 titles screening from filmmakers representing 45 countries.

Included in the programme (previously known as Contemporary World Cinema) are Victor Erice’s Close Your Eyes, getting its North American premiere; Aki Kaurismaki’s Fallen Leaves, receiving its Canadian premiere; and Agnieszka Holland’s Green Border, a North American premiere.

Scroll down for the full list of Centrepiece titles

TIFF also announced additional titles for its Galas, Special Presentations and Documentaries programmes, among them the world premiere of Brian Helgeland’s Finestkind.

The Toronto International Film Festival has added 59 more films to the lineup of its 2023 festival, including 47 international films in the Centrepiece program, which in previous years was known as Contemporary World Cinema. New films were also added to the Galas, Special Presentations and Documentary sections.

World premieres among the new selections include “Finestkind,” a crime thriller from Brian Helgeland (screenwriter of “L.A. Confidential”) starring Tommy Lee Jones and Ben Foster; The Movie Teller,” a film set in Chile starring Berenice Bejo from “An Education” director Lone Scherfig; and Jessica Yu’s “Quiz Lady,” with Sandra Oh and Awkwafina.

The Centrepiece selections include a number of films from May’s Cannes Film Festival, among them Wim Wenders’ “Perfect Days,” Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s “About Dry Grasses,” Aki Kaurismaki’s “Fallen Leaves,” Ramata-Toulaye Sy’s “Banel & Adama,” Amjad Al Rasheed’s “Inshallah a Boy,” Joanna Arnow’s “The Feeling That the...

The Toronto International Film Festival continues to expand its 2023 lineup with 47 films from 45 countries in the Centerpiece program, previously known as Contemporary World Cinema. The highlights include Cannes Film Festival winners “Fallen Leaves” from Aki Kaurismäki and “Perfect Days” from Wim Wenders as well as Agnieszka Holland’s Venice-bound “Green Border.” See the full lineup below.

“We are very excited to present the new Centrepiece program, a cinematic journey that transcends boundaries and embraces the art of human experience,” said Anita Lee, TIFF Chief Programming Officer, in an official statement. “The rebranding of the TIFF program, formerly Contemporary World Cinema, is a reflection of the festival’s vision to provide an elevated platform for international cinema, for acclaimed titles from festivals around the globe, highly anticipated premieres from Canadian and international talents, and the latest work of influential filmmaking luminaries.”

Centerpiece Program 2023

About Dry Grasses (Kuru Otlar Üstüne) Nuri Bilge Ceylan...

Canadian director Monia Chokri isn’t big on Hollywood romance movies that glorify unavailable men who eventually become the prize of women chasing them.

“It’s been done, so I don’t need to do another Pretty Woman,” she dismissively tells The Hollywood Reporter about The Nature of Love, a French-language film about two people from different classes falling in love at first sight, that has been screening at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival’s Horizons section after its world premiere in Cannes.

For Chokri, romance is a surrogate for female expression as her tragicomedy tackles how women view themselves sexually and behave among men. “It’s about what she feels in her mind,” the director says of Sophia, a 40-year-old Montreal philosophy professor played by Magalie Lépine-Blondeau.

Sophia is in a stable, yet sex-less relationship with her partner Xavier (Francis William Rheaume), but finds her sexual desire is reawakened,...

Canada-based movie distributor and aggregator H264 is launching a world sales arm with the acquisition of “Red Rooms,” which has its world premiere next week in the Crystal Globe Competition of the Karlovy Vary Film Festival. The company is focused on festival-driven, innovative films.

“Red Rooms,” directed by Quebec filmmaker Pascal Plante, is a cyber-thriller questioning the collective fascination with murderers. It will screen at Karlovy Vary on July 4, and will then open the Fantasia Film Festival on July 20 for its North American premiere.

Montréal-based H264 is also ramping up its international slate by adding “Mademoiselle Kenopsia,” from filmmaker Denis Côté, who won awards at Berlin with “Vic + Flo Saw a Bear” and Locarno with “Curling.”

The company is also representing the dark comedy “Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person,” directed by Ariane Louis-Seize, starring Sara Montpetit (“Falcon Lake”) and Steve Laplante.

Jean-Christophe J. Lamontagne, founder and president of H...

A few weeks back, Mubi Podcast host Rico Gagliano traveled to the Cannes Film Festival, camera crew in tow, to chat it up with a cross-section of filmmakers debuting their movies there. Our Cannes Conversations mini-season continues this week with two new episodes.Episode Two: Kleber Mendonça FilhoIn 2019, Brazil's Kleber Mendonça Filho won the Jury Prize at Cannes with Bacurau, which he co-directed with Juliano Dornelles. This year he returned to the fest to premiere a documentary about movies … or more specifically, about the places we watch them.In this second conversation taped on location at Cannes '23, Filho tells host Rico Gagliano about Pictures of Ghosts. It's his look back at the movie palaces in his hometown of Recife, and how he's come to terms with the way that they—and lots of beloved city spaces—inevitably vanished.Episode Three: Monia ChokriQuebecois actor and director Monia Chokri is a Cannes regular.

A taboo question about modern relationships – what is more important: sexual compatibility or intellectual compatibility? That's the core of this smart new romantic comedy film from Quebec titled Simple comme Sylvain (in French) or The Nature of Love (in English). After watching it, I prefer the original French title more. The direct translation is "Simple as Sylvain", or "Easy as Sylvain". The guy she falls for in the film is named Sylvain, and it's a story about how he is both a simple man (translation: not so smart), and also how simple/easy it is to fall for him and fall for his charms and all of that. The Nature of Love is a bit more abstract and doesn't quite have the sharpness of Simple as Sylvain. Though if you haven't seen the film yet, how do you know who Sylvain is? But I digress. This clever film hasn't left my mind since watching,...

The rom-com has always appeared to be in safe hands with French-language cinema, but Quebecois director Monia Chokri wanted to push the boundaries of the genre even further with her new film “Simple comme Sylvain.”

“French people like to talk about love but they always do it in the same way of toxic relationships. And there aren’t so many [rom-coms] made by women,” says Chokri, who was last in Cannes in 2019 with her debut feature, “A Brother’s Love,” which won Un Certain Regard’s Jury Cup de Coeur.

“Simple comme Sylvain” centers on a posh French-Canadian woman in a sexless marriage who turns her life upside down when she has an affair with her contractor.

The Quebec-born actor broke out in meaty roles in Canadian auteur Denys Arcand’s “The Age of Darkness” and Xavier Dolan’s “Heartbeats” and “Laurence Anyways.” She also acts in “Simple comme Sylvain,” playing her protagonist’s outspoken best friend,...

Monia Chokri’s “The Nature of Love” opens by introducing us to 40-year-old philosophy professor Sophia (Magalie Lépine Blondeau) and her husband Xavier (Francis-William Rhéaume), as they enjoy a dinner party with friends. Said friends (one of whom is played by the director) are similarly middle-class progressive types with nice homes and comfortable lives; Sophia’s job in particular allows a strand of metatextual self-commentary in an otherwise predominantly broad and sexy comedy. It is, of course, a cast-iron rule of cinema that if a film opens with a middle-class dinner party, you’re about to see somebody’s bourgeois certainties undermined, and Chokri doesn’t disappoint.

On the drive home, Sophia and Xavier gossip about their friends’ love lives. Supposedly one of the other couples has sex three or four times a week, but also fights constantly. Xavier is of the opinion that a peaceful but sexless life is preferable,...