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French director Mehdi Fikri spent a decade working as a reporter covering social conflict and the issues of police violence and justice in France’s notoriously deprived out-of-town suburbs.

What he learned and saw during this time now feeds into his work as a filmmaker.

First feature After The Fire, which debuts in Toronto’s Discovery line-up, follows Malika, a French woman of North African descent, living in an outer suburb of the city of Strasbourg, who seeks justice after her younger brother dies in suspicious circumstances after being stopped by the police.

“I was born and grew up in Saint Denis in northern Paris, which has the reputation for being one of the most disadvantaged places in the entire Paris region,” says Fikri.

“The question of police violence has been a political issue in France for years and is something that has touched me personally as a young man...

Exclusive: Newen Connect CEO Rodolphe Buet is happy to be back in person at the Berlinale’s European Film Market after the three-year Covid-19 hiatus.

“It’s fun to be in Berlin. When I started in the industry in 2005, my first market was Berlin with Studiocanal,” he says.

In the interim, Buet rose through the Studiocanal ranks to become president of distribution and marketing from 2015 to 2017, overseeing the rollout strategies for Paddington and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy among other major films.

He was appointed CEO of Paris-based Newen Connect in 2020, piloting its creation in the wake of TF1’s 100 acquisition of Newen Studios out of the merger of their distribution arms TF1 Studio, Newen Distribution and Reel One International.

He has spent the last three years steadily putting in place a structure in step with the convergence between the audiovisual and cinema worlds, appointing Leona Connell as Chief Commercial Officer...

Film is about the impact of police misconduct on a Parisian family.

Bac Films and Wild Bunch International are kicking off sales on Mehdi Fikri’s hot market title After the Fire at the European Film Market.

The film is Fikri’s first feature following his short Descente screened in Horizons at Venice in 2021.

The incendiary drama about police violence features a starry cast including French talents Camelia Jordana, who won the Cesar for best newcomer for her role in Yvan Attal’s Le Brio, and Sofiane Zermani, who stars in Netflix’s French-language film No Limit. They star alongside Sofian Khammes,...

Italy’s “The Impossible She,” Spain’s “Detective Touré,” South Africa’s “Paradys” and France’s “Hormones” feature among 15 drama series projects selected for the Series Mania Forum’s 2022 Co-Pro Pitching Sessions.

One of Europe’s most prestigious TV competitions, with titles competing for a €50,000 grand prize, this year’s Sessions form part of the Forum, which runs March 22-24.

The lineup is rich in projects backed by top-tier producers and sales forces, while sluiced by large themes, such as racial and gender equality.

The latest from top Italian company Fandango, producer of “Gomorrah” and “My Brilliant Friend,” “The Impossible She” turns on young Neapolitan aristocrat Maria Teresa de Filippis, the first female Formula 1 driver.

Co-produced by Academy Award winner Tornasol (“The Secret in My Eyes”), “Detective Touré” features Touré a sub-Saharan immigrant settled in Bilbao who will become the best detective of the city, despite no badge, nor papers.

Benjamin Elalouf’s Moonshaker, the Paris-based banner behind Netfix’s popular documentary “Lords of Scam,” has joined forces with TF1-owned Newen to expand its scope, and is developing Noé Debré’s “The Last of the Jews,” among other director-driven projects.

“The Last of the Jews” will mark the anticipated feature debut of Debré, the critically acclaimed co-screenwriter of “A Prophet” and “Stillwater,” whose latest short film “On n’est pas des animaux” — also produced by Moonshaker — competed at this year’s Sundance.

A burlesque bittersweet comedy, “The Last of the Jews” will be headlined by a strong French cast including Agnes Jaoui and Michael Zindel.

Set to start shooting in March, the movie takes place in an underprivileged suburb on the outskirts of Paris and revolves around a 27-year-old Jewish man, Bellisha, who lives with his mother, Giselle. The suburb has seen the synagogue shut down, and now the...

Gaumont has lured distributors in key territories for Yvan Attal’s “The Accusation” ahead of the movie’s world premiere out of competition at Venice.

Based on Karine Tuil’s bestseller “Les Choses Hu­maines,” “The Accusation” follows the downfall of a French intellectual power couple whose model son, Alexandre, is accused of rape, setting in motion an inextricable media-judicial machine. The film was penned by Attal and Yaël Langmann.

Attal’s previous directorial efforts include “My Wife Is an Actress” and “Le Brio.” Tuil’s book won a pair of prestigious awards, including the Prix Goncourt High Schoolers in 2019 and has been translated in Germany, Italy and Russia with a dozen of other countries coming up.

Charlotte Gainsbourg stars in the film alongside Pierre Arditi, Benjamin Lavernhe, Ben Attal and Mathieu Kassovitz.

Gaumont has pre-sold “The Accusation” to Canada (MK2 Mile End), Brazil (Imovision), Israel (Nachshon), Spain (Karma), Cis...

German cinema looks set for a major boost this year from some of the country’s most commercially successful and critically acclaimed directors tackling such eclectic subject matter as U.S. torture in Guantánamo, the impact of bipolar disorder on family, and a folkloric love story about the Grim Reaper.

The pandemic postponed a number of scheduled 2020 productions, which will likely make 2021 a busy year as production companies make up lost time.

Andreas Dresen, Til Schweiger, Michael Bully Herbig, Hans-Christian Schmid, Sönke Wortmann and the late Joseph Vilsmaier all have high-profile projects in the works or set to hit theaters (when they reopen) this year.

Dresen explores the injustice of America’s war on terror in the tentatively titled “Rabiye Kurnaz vs. George W. Bush.” Dresen, who enjoyed a major hit with the award-winning 2018 biopic “Gundermann,” reteamed with writer Laila Stieler on the fact-based pic about Rabiye Kurnaz (Meltem Kaptan), a Turkish housewife in Bremen,...

‘Normal People’ star Paul Mescal will play the male lead in Benjamin Millepied’s film “Carmen,” a modern-day reimagining of one of the world’s most celebrated operas. Mescal will star opposite Melissa Barrera (“Vida”), who will play the titular role of Carmen.

Mescal replaces “Fifty Shades” star Jamie Dornan, who was previously attached to the role.

“Carmen” will mark the feature debut of Millepied, a former principal dancer from the New York City Ballet who choreographed Darren Aronofsky’s “Black Swan.”

The adaptation was penned by Oscar-winning screenwriter Alexander Dinelaris Jr (“Birdman”), together with Millepied and Loic Barrère.

Dimitri Rassam is financing and producing via his banner Chapter 2, a Mediawan company, together with Rosemary Blight at Goalpost Pictures, one of Australia’s most dynamic independent film companies. TF1 Studio is co-producing and handling worldwide sales.

The movie will start shooting on Jan. 18 in Australia for seven weeks. Goalpost Pictures will handle the production locally.

Yasin Houicha and Oulaya Amamra lead the cast of the filmmaker’s first full-length work, a Unité production set to be distributed in France by Haut et Court. Having kicked off on 31 August, filming on Emma Benestan first feature Fragile wrapped in Sète yesterday, 13 October. Hailing from La Fémis’s Editing Department, the director previously drew attention with her numerous short films, in particular the fiction offering Goût bacon and the documentary Un monde sans bêtes. Distinguishing themselves at the head of the cast are Yasin Houicha and Oulaya Amamra (the winner of the Best New Hope César and the Best Newcomer Lumières award in 2017 for Divines, similarly well-received in The World is Yours, Farewell to the Night and The Salt...

Ben Attal, Suzanne Jouannet, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Mathieu Kassovitz, Pierre Arditi and Audrey Dana lead the cast. A Curiosa Films and Films Sous Influence production sold by Gaumont. Since 11 August, Yvan Attal has been filming The Accusation, his 7th feature as director, following among other titles My Wife is an Actress (nominated for the 2002 César award for Best Feature Debut), ... And They Lived Happily Ever After (2004), Le Brio and My Stupid Dog (2019).Standing out in the cast are Ben Attal (appearing for the 4th time in a film directed by his father), Suzanne Jouannet (her first time in a feature film), Charlotte Gainsbourg (soon on screens in Benoît Jacquot’s latest film Suzanna Andler) and...

The film stars Camelia Jordana, Emilie Dequenne, Niels Schneider and Vincent Macaigne.

Elle Driver is launching sales on Emmanuel Mouret’s ensemble relationship drama Love Affair (s), starring Camelia Jordana, Emilie Dequenne, Niels Schneider and Vincent Macaigne.

Popular French actor and director Mouret broke out internationally in 2018 with his 18th Century intrigue Mademoiselle de Joncquières, which Netflix acquired and released worldwide under the title of Lady J.

In this return to contemporary romance, Jordana plays a pregnant woman who finds herself looking after her boyfriend’s cousin the former is forced to abandon their holiday due to work commitments.

As...

Black Panther star Letitia Wright is the latest actress to be cast in director Kenneth Branagh’s Death on the Nile, which is the follow-up to last year’s Agatha Christie adaptation of Murder on the Orient Express.

She will join the previously cast Armie Hammer, Gal Gadot, Jodie Comer (Killing Eve) and Branagh, who is reprising his role of detective Hercule Poirot.

Death on the Nile was published in 1937, and the story follows "Poirot investigating a murder during a luxurious cruise on the Nile River that he just happens to be on. But just as he identifies a motley collection of would-be killers, several of the suspects also meet their demise, which only deepens the mystery.”

Wright will play a character named Rosalie Otterbourne, “a lead suspect in the story, which follows Poirot as he attempts to unravel the murder of a young heiress while on holiday in Egypt.

France.tv, the newly revamped streaming service of French broadcasting group France Televisions, has ordered “Parlement,” a half-hour satirical comedy series about the European Parliament created by Noé Debré.

Debré’s credits include Jacques Audiard’s Palme d’Or winning “Dheepan.”

The series, which is being produced by Fabienne Servan-Schreiber and Thomas Saignes at Paris-based production banner Cineteve, centers around five young assistants of different nationalities and backgrounds who work at the European Parliament in the midst of a post-Brexit chaos.

“Parlement” marks the first original series commissioned by France.tv, which aims to feed its digital pipeline with premium original series from France and Europe aimed at younger viewers.

Studio Hamburg’s CineCentrum is co-producing the series; a yet-to-be-named German TV network will soon come on board. The series is also backed by Artemis in Belgium and All3 Media’s 7Stories in the U.K.

Debré is writing the series...

This last half-decade, few French screenwriters have run up such an illustrious list of co-write credits as Noé Debré. Thomas Bedigain’s writing partner on Jacques Audiard’s Cannes Palme d’Or winner “Deephan,” Debra co-penned Bedigain’s own debut, “The Cowboys,” “Racer and the Jailbird,” by Michael Roskam, and “Le Brio,” directed by Yvan Attal. He has now made his directorial debut, “The Seventh Continent.” Few films in MyFrenchFilmFestival, which launched yesterday.

In it, Emile, a rotund-girthed private investigator is asked by Thybaud to find his girlfriend Claire Soares, who has been abducted by billionaire John Rapoport, or so Thybaud says. The first person Emile down his local club says she knows Rapport very well – he comes to cry on her shoulder every night; the second announces he’s going to a party at Claire’s place, just nearby. But Emile really shouldn’t take Mdma, when he’s on the job.

Letitia Wright has landed her next film, joining the U.S. remake of 2017 French comedy-drama Le Brio that is being produced by John Legend's Get Lifted banner.

French producer Dimitri Rassam (The Little Prince) has teamed with Get Lifted Film Company on the project, which will see Wright — who achieved global fame as the scene-stealing Princess Shuri in Marvel's Black Panther and also earned an Emmy nomination for her performance on the Black Mirror episode "The Black Museum" — play the female lead.

The original Le Brio was directed by Yval Attal and told the story of ...

Letitia Wright has landed her next film, joining the U.S. remake of 2017 French comedy-drama Le Brio that is being produced by John Legend's Get Lifted banner.

French producer Dimitri Rassam (The Little Prince) has teamed with Get Lifted Film Company on the project, which will see Wright — who achieved global fame as the scene-stealing Princess Shuri in Marvel's Black Panther and also earned an Emmy nomination for her performance on the Black Mirror episode "The Black Museum" — play the female lead.

The original Le Brio was directed by Yval Attal and told the story of ...

Leading French producer Dimitri Rassam (“The Little Prince”) is joining forces with Mike Jackson and John Legend’s banner Get Lifted Film Company to produce the U.S. remake of 2017’s “Le Brio,” the Cesar-nominated comedy/drama. Endeavor Content has come on board to co-finance.

Letitia Wright (“Black Panther”) is attached to star in and executive produce the film, which is currently in development. The French original revolves around the relationship between a young French-Arab woman from an underprivileged neighborhood (played by singer-turned-actress Camelia Jordana) and a brilliant but prejudiced professor (played by Daniel Auteuil), who is forced to coach her for an annual speech contest.

Wright will play the female lead in the remake, which will also explore the complex relationship between a student and a professor who come from different ethnic and social backgrounds. However, the plot of the movie won’t center on the speech competition.

“With...

Leading Hollywood-based sales and finance agency, Sierra/Affinity has begun international sales for action film “Red Snake,” at the Cannes Film Market. The film is directed by Caroline Fourest and features a predominantly female cast.

The cast includes Dilan Gwyn, Cesar Award winner Camelia Jordana (“Le Brio”), Amira Casar (“Call Me by Your Name”), Esther Garrel (“Call Me by Your Name”), Maya Sansa (“Italian Romance”), Noush Skaugen (“The Conjouring 2”), Nanna Blondell (“Hassel”) and Mark Ryder (“Borgia”).

Inspired by true events, “Red Snake” follows the story of Zara, a young Yazidi woman who is kidnapped and held captive by a ruthless commander. When she finally escapes, she joins a powerful group of female warriors determined to fight back. Although they hail from different backgrounds, the women all share a troubled past that fuels their urge to accomplish the goal of bringing down Isis (aka Islamic State).

Producers include Samuel Hadida via his Davis Films label,...

At the start of April, a spattering of American and French journalists gathered, Champagne in hand, at the home of French consul general to Los Angeles Christophe Lemoine for the lineup announcement of the 22nd City of Lights, City of Angels film festival, which kicks off tonight with Eric Barbier’s Romain Gary biopic “Promise at Dawn.” It was the perfect setting to announce a film about the French writer, a former Los Angeles consul general himself, who managed to keep one foot in his native land and another in Hollywood, through both his diplomatic appointment and his marriage to Jean Seberg. Colcoa has been striving to strike a similar balance for the past two decades.

Initially commissioned as the flagship project of the Franco-American Cultural Fund — a joint project among the MPAA, DGA, WGA and France’s Sacem — Colcoa provides a week’s worth of French film premieres in the middle of L.

Eric Barbier’s “Promise at Dawn” will headline the 2018 Colcoa French Film Festival on April 23, the Franco-American Cultural Fund announced Tuesday.

“Promise at Dawn” is an adaptation of French author Romain Gary’s autobiography that stars Pierre Niney and Charlotte Gainsbourg. The film will kick off the screenings of 37 new features and documentaries competing for the Colcoa Cinema Awards at the Directors Guild of America in Los Angeles. The event will present a record total of 86 films, TV shows, digital series, and virtual reality programs, 75 of which will be considered for the Colcoa awards throughout the week’s festivities, which will culminate on May 1.

Colcoa executive producer and artistic director Francois Truffart also announced that this year’s festival will set aside a day exclusively for screening first films made by female writers and directors. The day, titled “Focus on a Filmmaker Day,” will honor writer, director, and actor Melanie...

“Bpm” triumphed at the César Awards, taking home the prizes for Best Film, Best Original Screenplay, Best Supporting Actor (Antoine Reinartz), Best Male Newcomer (Nahuel Pérez Biscayart), Best Original Score, and Best Editing. Robin Campillo’s drama about AIDS activists in Paris also won the Grand Prix at last year’s Cannes Film Festival, but wasn’t nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign-Language Film — a snub that was met with some controversy.

Andrey Zvyagintsev’s “Loveless,” which is nominated for the Oscar, won the equivalent award. Albert Dupontel’s “Au revoir là-haut” also had a big night, taking Best Director, Best Actress (Jeanne Balibar), and three other prizes. Full list of winners:

Best Film

“Bpm,” Robin Campillo

“Au revoir là-haut,” Albert Dupontel

“Barbara,” Mathieu Amalric

“Le Brio,” Yvan Attal

“Patients,” Grand Corps Malade, Mehdi Idir

“Petit Paysan,” Hubert Charuel

“C’est La Vie,” Eric Tolédano, Olivier Nakache

Best Director

Robin Campillo,...

Pathé does brisk business across Cannes slate.

Pathé International saw brisk business on its Cannes slate, highlighted by a previously announced multi-territory deal with Focus for Lenny Abrahamson’s upcoming chiller The Little Stranger.

Also among sellers were Gurinder Chadha’s drama Viceroy’s House, which scored a Us deal with IFC, and Paolo Sorrentino’s upcoming Silvio Berlusconi movie Loro, which will reunite the director with La Grande Bellezza lead actor Toni Servillo.

The movie, due to start production in July, sold to Germany (Dcm), Spain (Dea Planeta), Benelux (Belga), Poland (Gutek), Greece (Feelgood), Cis (Aone), Czech Republic and Slovakia (Aero films), Ex Yougoslavia (McF), Hungary (Mozinet) and Israel (Lev). Pathé will distribute the film in France and Switzerland.

Dany Boon’s La Ch’tite Famille scored pre-sales in Germany (Concorde), Italy (Rai Cinema), Spain (Tripictures), Greece (Feelgood), Poland (Kinoswiat), Netherland (Paradiso) and Canada (Az films).

The film goes into production next month and is scheduled...