News

Jean-Pierre Jeunet, the Oscar-nominated director of “Amelie,” will direct Leïla Bekhti in the bigscreen adaptation of Changer l’eau des fleurs, a bestselling novel by Valérie Perrin which has sold more than two million copies in France and Italy.

The movie will start shooting in May and is produced by Italy’s Palomar and France’s 24 25 Films, both Mediawan Group companies.

Bekhti, whose notable credits include the Cesar-nominated “All Your Faces” and Damien Chazelle’s “The Eddy,” will play the lead role, Violette Toussaint, a beloved cemetery caretaker.

“Passers-by and regulars come to warm themselves in her home, where laughter and tears mingle between cups of coffee. Her daily routine is punctuated by their confidences. One day, a man knocks on her door. His name is Julien Seul and he is a police commissioner who has questions about a couple resting in the cemetery. His investigation begins and the links between...

In 2011, French thesps Omar Sy and Anne Le Ny co-starred in the comedy hit “Untouchable.” Now, the two are reunited in the domestic thriller “Out of Control,” with “Lupin” star Sy in one of the leading roles next to Elodie Bouchez, José Garcia and Vanessa Paradis, while Le Ny serves as director and Axella Cachman’s co-writer.

“There was a real bond and warmth between us then, which was easy to revive 13 years later,” says Le Ny, who shared the screen time with Matt Damon in “Stillwater” and earned her first writing/helming kudos for her breakthrough movie “Those Who Remain” (2008).

Her seventh pic as helmer, “Out of Control (“Dis moi juste que tu m’aimes”) world premieres at the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival official competition on Nov. 16, is being produced by Move Movie’s Bruno Levy, in co-production with Sy’s production company Korokoro, France 2 Cinéma and La Compagnie Cinématographique & Panache Productions,...

France’s Cnc has introduced a series of reforms to boost distribution of arthouse cinema in the country that will roll out over the next two years.

Scroll down for the top 10 arthouse releases in France in 2024

The annual budget for what is known in France as “le cinéma art et essai” has been set at €19m for 2024, up €1m from the previous year.

The increased funding is meant to better reward exhibitors who give what they call “fragile arthouse films a chance” and support the marketing of arthouse titles especially to the younger 15-25 age demographic.

The Cnc is...

Mallory Wanecque, the breakout actor of “The Worst Ones” who headlines Cannes competition title “Beating Hearts,” is starring alongside Sami Bouajila (“Through the Fire”) in “Vultures,” a thriller directed by Peter Dourountzis (“Rascal”).

Produced by Mediawan-owned 24-25 Films (“Black Box”), “Vultures” is represented internationally by Ginger & Fed, the new international film sales arm of Federation Studios headed by former TF1 Studio boss Sabine Chemaly. The cast is completed by Sami Bouajila (“Through the Fire”), Jean-Pierre Darroussin (“All Your Faces”), Pierre Lottin (“The Night of the 12th”) and Valerie Donzelli (“Declaration of War”).

“Vultures” will be delivered during the second quarter of 2025. Bouajila stars as Samuel, a journalist who partners with his intern daughter Ava to cover the brutal murder of a young girl that lead them to a male supremacist group headed by the enigmatic Nemesis. The movie marks Dourountzis’ follow-up to “Rascal,” an edgy film starring Pierre Deladonchamps as an outsider-turned-killer.

This year’s Cannes Film Festival should prove particularly festive for Mediawan Pictures managing director Elisabeth d’Arvieu. With five in-house productions premiering in the official selection and another in Critics’ Week, the exec and her team will hit the Croisette with cause for celebration.

As an ardent cinephile, she bolstered an extracurricular passion for movies while getting an Mba from Baruch College in New York. She still takes in a film a day.

The Cannes celebration promises to start early for Mediawan, kicking off with Quentin Dupieux’s festival opener “The Second Act,” then Palme d’Or contending Hearts” from Gilles Lellouche and Kirill Serebrennikov’s “Limonov: The Ballad of Eddie,” the epic “The Count of Monte-Cristo” screening out of competition and Un Certain Regard player “Le Royaume” from

emerging talent Julien Colonna.

When taken as a whole, the strong showing nicely reflects the group’s wider ambitions, from...

Two of France’s fastest-rising young stars, Lyna Khoudri and Rio Vega, will lead the French voice cast of animated feature “In Waves,” an unconditional first love story, and tale of loss and memories adapting American illustrator Aj Dungo’s same-titled multi-prized graphic novel.

An anticipated banner prestige animation title from Paris-based Silex Films, “In Waves” lead producer, the feature also marks the first animated co-production of both Anonymous Content and Charades, behind sales of Jeremy Clapin’s “I Lost My Body” and Mamoru Hosoda’s “Mirai,” both Oscar nominated titles.

In Waves is directed by Phuong Mai Nguyen, a former student of French animation schools Gobelins and La Poudrière who helmed episodes of the Silex-produced animated series “Brazen” and was Oscar-shortlisted for her short “My Home,” “In Waves” has just been announced as one of five titles at the Annecy Animation Showcase, part of Cannes’ Animation Day on May...

“Beating Hearts” (“L’amour ouf”), an epic crime romance directed by Gilles Lellouche and slated to compete at the Cannes Film Festival, has lured major distributors in key markets ahead of its world premiere.

The sprawling movie, which is budgeted in the $30 million range, is financed, co-produced represented in international markets by Studiocanal. One of the most anticipated and ambitious French movies set for a theatrical release in 2024, “Beating Hearts” was produced by Hugo Selignac at Chi-Fou-Mi, a Mediawan company, and Alain Attal’s Les Films du Tresor.

Studiocanal will distribute the film in Germany and Australia, as well as France, with a release set for Oct. 16. The company has sold it to Cineart in Benelux, Filmcoopi in Switzerland, Feelgood in Greece, Lucky Red in Italy, Lusomundo in Portugal, Kinoswiat in Poland, Greenlight Films in Ukraine, Capella in Russia and Pinema in Turkey. Studiocanal will be closing more deals at the Cannes Film Festival.

Goodfellas has boarded Julien Colonna’s father-daughter coming-of-age thriller Le Royaume ahead of the film’s world premiere in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard.

The debut feature is set in Corsica in summer 1995 and follows a teenage girl (played by Ghjuvanna Benedetti) who discovers her father (Saveriu Santucci) in hiding in an isolated villa with his clan of men. As war breaks out in the underworld, the noose tightens around the clan and death strikes. Forced to go on the run, the father-daughter duo must learn to understand and love each other.

The film is produced by Hugo Selignac and Antoine Lafon at Mediawan-owned Chi-Fou-Mi,...

Ahead of its launch in France, Warner Bros. Discovery’s streaming service Max unveiled at Series Mania Festival its pipeline of ambitious local scripted projects, “Malditos” (working title), the adaptation of “Living with our deads,” the memoir of Rabbi Delphine Horvilleur, and

“Malditos,” created by Jean Charles Hue (“Eat Your Bones”) and Olivier Prieur (“The Accident”), is an action-packed crime thriller revolving around the leader of a Gypsy community and her two sons who struggle to save their clan threatened with eviction by rising waters in Southern France. The series is produced by Eve Muller and Noor Sadar at Mediawan-owned White Lion Films, was penned by Hue, Prieur and Maya Haffar (“En thérapie”). Hue is directing the first five episode and Cécilia Verheyden (“Undercover”) is directing the remaining two.

Max has also boarded the series adaptation of the book “Living with our deads” (“Vivre avec nos morts”), which is...

Vivendi saw its revenues rise by 9.5% to €10.5 billion ($11.4 billion) in 2023, bolstered by the performance of Canal+ Group and Havas, as well as the integration of French media and publishing giant Lagardere in December. Vivendi also posted a net profit of $443 million (€405 million).

Canal+ Group, which comprises pay TV giant Canal+ and the production-distribution company Studiocanal (“Paddington”), is pursuing its international development, particularly in Asia, the Nordic countries and Africa. Canal + Group has just increased its stake in leading Chinese streamer Viu to 30%, and also owns a 30% stake in South African streamer MultiChoice, along with a 29.33% stake in Viaplay in the Nordics. Vivendi said it will make a mandatory offer for MultiChoice by April 8.

Canal+ has also increased its subscriber base to 900,000 new subs, both in France and abroad in 2023. The group currently boasts 26.4 million subscribers in nearly 50 countries. In mainland France, Canal+ also recorded a net growth of 290,000 subscribers over the past twelve months,...

A hike in subscribers for French pay-tv giant Canal+ Group as well as a successful year at the box office in France for Studiocanal helped drive positive 2023 results for parent company Vivendi, which were released Thursday evening after the close of the local stock exchange.

The media and communications giant posted a net profit of $443M (€405M) after a loss of $1.07B (1.01B Euros) for 2022, linked to the deconsolidation of its Telecom Italia stake.

Full-year revenue rose 9.5% to $11.4B (€10.5B), against $10.1B (€9.6B) in 2022. Earnings before interest, taxes, and amortisation (Ebita) rose by 7.5% year-on-year to $1.02B (€934M), against $915M (€868M) in 2022.

Despite the positive results, the Vivendi share price was trading lower in Paris on Friday morning, with analysts citing the lack of an update on plans to split the group into separate entities, first announced last December, as a factor weighing on the title.

Vivendi Chairman Yannick Bolloré gave...

Anatomy Of A Fall was named best French film of the year at the 49th annual César awards, among six prizes for Justine Triet’s film during an evening dominated by female solidarity that saw actress Judith Godrèche set the tone with a #MeToo-motivated speech.

Scroll down for full list of winners

Anatomy Of A Fall also earned prizes for best director for Triet, best actress for Sandra Hüller, best original screenplay for Triet and Arthur Harari, best supporting actor for Swann Arlaud and best editing for Laurent Senechal.

Triet’s best director prize made her the first female filmmaker...

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 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,...

Simon Moutaïrou, the critically acclaimed screenwriter behind the spy thriller hit “Black Box,” has partnered with some of France’s biggest players — leading producer Chi-Fou-Mi and Studiocanal — on his ambitious directorial debut, “No Chains, No Masters.”

Now in post, “No Chains, No Masters,” is an epic movie inspired by historical accounts of former slaves in West Africa, nicknamed Maroons, who emancipated themselves from French settlements.

Set in 1759, in the French colony of Mauritius Island, “No Chains, No Masters” is an epic historical drama following a father, Massamba (Ibrahima Mbaye Thié), and his fierce teenage daughter Mati (Anna Thiandoum) who defy all odds to survive a manhunt across the jungle and emancipate themselves from the hell of a colonial plantation.

The story revolves around Mati, who refuses to accept her fate and flees from the plantation, hoping to seek freedom in a remote part of the island, where a community of fugitives is said to live.

Thomas Cailley’s sci-fi thriller The Animal Kingdom and Justin Triet’s Oscar-nominated courtroom drama Anatomy Of A Fall rose to the top of the nominations at France’s Cesar awards.

The Animal Kingdom, a supernatural twist on a father-son drama that first premiered at Cannes’ Un Certain Regard, has been nominated for 12 awards including best film and will vie in that category against the five-time Academy-award nominated, Palme d’Or-winning Anatomy Of A Fall with 11 nominations, alongside Cédric Kahn’s The Goldman Case, Jeanne Herry’s All Your Faces and Jean-Baptiste Durand’s Junkyard Dogs.

Cailley, Triet, Kahn and...

Justine Triet’s Oscar-nominated Anatomy of a Fall and Thomas Cailley’s fantasy drama The Animal Kingdom are the front runners for this year’s Cesar Awards, France’s equivalent to the Academy Awards. In nominations announced Wednesday, Anatomy picked up 11 Cesar noms and The Animal Kingdom 12. Both were nominated in the best film and best director categories.

Also nominated for best film are Jean-Baptiste Durand’s Junkyard Dog, All Your Faces from director Jeanne Herry and Cédric Kahn’s The Goldman Case.

France’s official Academy Award contender, Anh Hung Tran’s foodie period drama The Taste of Things, which missed out on an Oscar nom on Tuesday, picked up three Ceasar nominations, but none in the main categories.

German actress Sandra Hüller, a best actress nominee at this year’s Oscars for her starring turn in Anatomy of a Fall, is also up for the Cesar for best actress,...

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,...

Thomas Cailley’s supernatural drama “The Animal Kingdom” and Justine Triet’s Palme d’Or winner “Anatomy of a Fall” are leading the race at the 49th Cesar Awards with 12 and 11 nominations, respectively.

Triet’s movie, which just garnered an impressive five Oscar nominations, and “The Animal Kingdom,” which opened at Cannes’ Un Certain Regard and won a prize, will vie for top Cesar awards including best director and film.

“The Animal Kingdom” is an ambitious film that marks a departure from France’s cinema tradition of social realism. It’s both a creature-filled dystopia and a father-and-son drama, weaving some contemporary concerns over the future of mankind. It’s produced by Pierre Guyard at Nord Ouest Films and co-produced by Artemis.

“Anatomy of a Fall,” meanwhile stars Sandra Hüller — the German actor nominated for Cesar, Oscar and BAFTA awards — as a novelist who is put on trial following the...

Paris-base sales house boards literary adaptation ’And Their Children After Them’ and dark comedy ’Lucky Winners’

Paris-based sales house Charades will represent international sales rights to French star-powered adaptation And Their Children After Them and dark comedy Lucky Winners. Both titles will be released by Warner Bros. Pictures in France and Benelux.

And Their Children After Them (Leurs Enfants Après Eux) is directed by French twin brother writing-directing duo Ludovic and Zoran Boukherma and adapted from Nicolas Mathieu’s Prix Goncourt-winning book of the same name. The Boukhermas made their debut in Cannes’ Acid with Willy the 1st then followed with 2020 Official Selection Teddy.

Paris-base sales house boards literary adaptation ’And Their Children After Them’ and dark comedy ’Lucky Winners’

Paris-based sales house Charades will represent international sales rights to French star-powered adaptation And Their Children After Them and dark comedy Lucky Winners. Both titles will be released by Warner Bros. Pictures in France and Benelux.

And Their Children After Them (Leurs Enfants Après Eux) is directed by French twin brother writing-directing duo Ludovic and Zoran Boukherma and adapted from Nicolas Mathieu’s Prix Goncourt-winning book of the same name. The Boukhermas made their debut in Cannes’ Acid with Willy the 1st then followed with 2020 Official Selection Teddy.

By admissions, the 2023 France box office was down by 13.1% on the 2017-2019 average, the smallest dip in Europe.

France’s box office hit 181 million ticket sales in 2023, powered by combination of US hits led by The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Barbie, Avatar: The Way of Water and a few French twists, according to figures from the Cnc.

This is a rise of 18.9% on 2022’s 152 million admissions.

Total box office gross is estimated to be €1.3bn based on an average ticket price of €7.2. The final total is likely to be even higher when the 2023 average ticket price is calculated mid-year.

While...

French exhibitors can start 2024 with renewed confidence as new figures released by the National Cinema Center (Cnc) show that audiences are heading back to the big screen.

The Cnc has recorded 181 million theater admissions for 2023, an 18.9 percent jump compared with 2022. However, the national film body states that the figure remains around 13.1% behind the average admissions in the pre-Covid years between 2017 and 2019. 2023 was the first year post-Covid with no health restrictions on cinemas in France.

U.S. films topped the French admissions charts in 2023, with Universal’s The Super Mario Brothers leading the way with 7.15 million admissions, followed by Wbd’s cultural hit Barbie with 5.80 million and Disney’s Avatar: The Way of Water with 5.18 million. The only local title to sneak into the top five was Guillaume Canet’s Asterix & Obelix: The Middle Kingdom, the latest in the comedy franchise. The film clocked 4.48 million in admissions. Christopher Nolan’s...

The French box office jumped 19% in 2023 with an estimated €1.3 billion ($1.4 billion) grossed from 181.2 million tickets, according to Comscore France.

Unlike in 2022, when the top 10 was exclusively dominated by U.S. movies, 2023 was bolstered by a mix of Hollywood blockbusters and French fare. Notably, “Asterix and Obelix: The Middle Kingdom” — Pathé’s big-budget comedy adventure inspired by the cult French comics — sold slightly more tickets than Christopher Nolan’s epic “Oppenheimer” from Universal.

Two other French movies ranked in the top 10: Studiocanal’s “Alibi.com 2,” the second installment of Philippe Laucheau’s comedy series riffing on adultery, and Pathé’s “The Three Musketeers: d’Artagnan” (pictured), the first of a two-part adventure saga based on Alexandre Dumas’ classic novel. The three top-grossers of 2023 in France were “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” the animated video game adaptation from Universal, Illumination and Nintendo; Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” from Warner Bros.; and James Cameron...

Clad in his familiar accessories of dark suspenders and tortoise-shell glasses, Canal+ Group Chairman & CEO Maxime Saada cuts a decorous and professorial figure, though the two framed posters of “Scarface” and “The Godfather” that decorate his office walls offer a slightly better insight into the chairman’s inner passions.

“[I follow] a logic of intensity,” Saada tells Variety. “As a payTV player, our main objective is not to broadcast content to the widest possible audience in order to lure to advertizers, nor to aim for consensus. We want to inspire passion and fervor, because reactions of ‘not bad’ do not encourage subscriptions.”

Saada is being honored at Mipcom with the Variety Vanguard Award.

Since taking the reins eight years ago, Saada has looked for new subscribers all across the globe, transforming the emblematic French brand into a significant international player that has grown from 11 million (almost entirely European) clients in 2015 to last year’s tally of 25.5 million,...

Gaumont and Egerie Productions have announced they are teaming with Prime Video on heartwarming French-language drama My Mother, God, And Sylvie Vartan, which is the platform’s first French-language feature destined for a theatrical release.

The picture is adapted from the autobiographical novel of French radio and TV presenter Roland Perez and is inspired by his strong-minded Sephardic Jewish mother’s determination that he would live a full life after he was born with a clubfoot.

Her self-sacrifice and a consuming passion for the music of popular singer Sylvie Vartan enabled her son to achieve his dreams despite his difference.

Canadian director and screenwriter Ken Scott is attached to direct and also wrote the screenplay, adaptation and dialogue.

Filming will take place in Paris between September and November 2023

Leïla Bekhti and Jonathan Cohen lead the cast.

Prime Video and Gaumont (“Intouchables”) are teaming up on an uplifting mother-son drama tackling disability, directed by Ken Scott (“Starbuck”), and starring French actors Leïla Bekhti (“All Your Faces”) and Jonathan Cohen (“Sentinelle”). Scott penned and will be directing the film which is titled “Ma mère, Dieu et Sylvie Vartan” and is based on Roland Perez’s novel by the same name.

The project is the first theatrical film that Amazon Prime Video is co-financing as part of the French decree that kicked off in July 2021 and stems from the implementation of the European Commission’s legislation called Audiovisual Media Services Directive (Avms). As such, Gaumont will release the film theatrically in France and holds all distribution rights in France and internationally (outside of Canada). “Ma mère, Dieu et Sylvie Vartan” will roll out on Prime Video 17 months after its theatrical release under France’s windowing rules.

The poignant movie...

“Anatomy of a Fall,” Justine Triet’s Palme d’Or winning film, is one of the five movies shortlisted by France’s Oscars committee to represent the country in the international feature film race.

The movie, which was acquired by Neon at Cannes, was pre-selected alongside “The Taste of Things” (previously titled “The Pot-au-Feu”), a culinary romance starring Juliette Binoche which won best director at Cannes for French-Vietnamese filmmaker Trần Anh Hùng; Clement Cogitore’s “Sons of Ramses;” Thomas Cailley’s supernatural coming-of-age drama “The Animal Kingdom”; and Denis Imbert’s “On The Wandering Paths.” “The Animal Kingdom” was bought by Magnolia’s Magnet, while “The Taste of Things” was picked up by IFC Films and Sapan Studios. The selected movie will be unveiled on Sept. 21.

France hasn’t won an Oscar for best international film since Régis Wargnier’s “Indochine” in 1993 (it was then called best foreign-language film). Last year’s French entry,...

Ticket sales dropped 10.8% in June year on year to 10m and were down 12.8% compared to the 2017-2019 average.

The French box office struggled to keep up the momentum of its April and May bounceback to pre-pandemic ticket sales in June, but continues to show signs of a slow, but steady comeback in the first six months of the year.

According to figures from the Cnc, ticket sales dropped 10.8% in June year on year to 10m and were down 12.8% compared to the 2017-2019 average. June’s drop is especially notable since every month from January through May saw ticket sales surpass...

Fifty-nine French films were released in April with a market share of 47.4%.

France’s box office has confirmed its comeback with 19.1 million ticket sales in April, up 37.8% from the same month in 2022 and a 2.7% increase from the 2017-2019 average, marking the first time admissions have exceeded pre-pandemic levels.

Universal’s Super Mario Bros released on April 5, took the top spot for the month and, with more than 4.8m tickets sold to date, reigns as the top film of the year in the territory. Pathé’s The Three Musketeers – d’Artagnan, also released on April 5, followed with 2.3m tickets sold. The...