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Masquerading, at least, in part, as a cosy crime drama, initial appearances are deceptive in François Ozon’s latest work. Set against the backdrop of autumn, the time of year reflects the stage that Michelle (Hélène Vincent) is at in life, as she potters in the woodlands near her rural French home. One thing that isn’t comfy, however, is her relationship with her daughter Valérie (Ludivine Sagnier) whose brewing resentment with her mother takes on fresh venom after an incident in which she and Michelle’s grandson Lucas (Garlan Erlos) pay a visit. The latest trouble is a case of mistaken identity, Michelle claims, although ambiguity hangs in the air like autumn mist and only thickens as the film wears on.

Michelle isn’t the only one whose relationship with her child is less than ideal, her best friend Marie-Claude (Josian Bolakso) is preparing for the release of her son Vincent (Pierre Lottin) from.

"I wasn't the mother she wanted." Music Box Films has revealed an official US trailer for a French indie film titled When Fall Is Coming, another new film from French director François Ozon. The film premiered at the 2024 San Sebastian & Toronto Film Festivals last year, and will be released in art house theaters in the US starting in April this spring. The story follows Michelle, a retiree in Burgundy, who expects her grandson Lucas but a mistake ruins her plans. When her Parisian daughter Valérie drops off her son Lucas to spend school vacation with his grandma, Michelle, stressed out from her daughter, serves her toxic mushrooms for lunch. Valérie quickly recovers, but forbids her mother from seeing her grandson anymore... Feeling lonely and guilty, Michelle falls into a depression... until Marie-Claude's son gets out of prison. Reviews state that the film is "a darkly funny French drama worth savoring.

“Emilia Pérez” won Best Film from the French 2025 César Awards, a major win for the Netflix film ahead of the Oscars. Jacques Audiard’s movie had earned 13 Oscar nominations but then fell out of frontrunner status.

The film also won both Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay for Jacques Audiard, though Zoe Saldaña, who has dominated the awards circuit all year, lost in an upset to Hafsia Herzi for the film “Borgo.” Saldaña though was nominated alongside Karla Sofía Gascón in the Best Actress category, and not in Best Supporting Actress.

In all, “Emilia Pérez” took home seven Césars out of 12 nominations, including Best Visual Effects, Best Sound, Best Original Music, and Best Cinematography. “The Count of Monte Cristo,” a new version of the Dumas revenge tale, led all nominees with 14, and it won two.

While the Césars this year largely did not resemble the Oscars, a few others won...

Jacques Audiard’s Oscar contender Emilia Pérez was the big winner at the 50th César Awards, France’s equivalent of the Oscars, taking best film and best director among multiple honors.

Audiard won best director and best adapted screenplay for Emilia Pérez, and the film also took honors for best sound, best cinematography, best visual effects and best original music.

But Emilia Pérez star Karla Sofía Gascón, who walked the red carpet at the Paris gala, returning to the spotlight for the first time since the eruption of the controversy surrounding her offensive resurfaced tweets, lost out in the best actress race to Hafsia Herzi, who won for her role as a female prison guard in Stéphane Demoustier’s drama Borgo.

Gascón, who is Spanish, skipped Spain’s national film awards, the Goyas, earlier this month following the backlash over her past social media posts. Netflix removed the actress, the...

Music Box Films has acquired U.S. distribution rights to “When Fall Is Coming,” a mystery-filled thriller directed by French auteur François Ozon.

Represented internationally by Playtime, “When Fall Is Coming” premiered at the San Sebastián Film Festival, where it won best screenplay and supporting actor for Pierre Lottin.

The movie had its U.S. premiere at the Palm Springs Festival and will next screen at Rendez-Vous With French Cinema on March 7. Music Box Films will release “When Fall Is Coming” in New York at the Film Forum on April 4 and is planning a national expansion. Home entertainment release plans will be announced this summer.

“When Fall Is Coming” revolves around the tumultuous life of Michelle (Hélène Vincent), who lived in Paris and has retired to a quiet existence in Burgundy. “The voracious hostility of her adult daughter Valérie (Sagnier) remains Michelle’s great puzzlement: how can a child for...

A new trailer has been revealed for François Ozon French gritty drama ‘When Autumn Falls.’

Loving grandmother Michelle is enjoying a peaceful retirement in a quiet Burgundy village near her best friend Marie-Claude. However, everything begins to unravel when her daughter Valérie drops off her grandson Lucas for their week together. As Michelle navigates the complexities of her strained relationship with Valérie, unexpected tensions arise—especially when Marie-Claude’s son, recently released from prison, enters the picture.

Directed by François Ozon, the cast includes Hélène Vincent, Ludivine Sagnier, Josiane Balasko and Pierre Lottin.

Also in trailers – Trailer slices in for ‘Final Destination Bloodlines’

The film is released in UK and Irish cinemas on 21st March.

The post Trailer drops for François Ozon’s ‘When Autumn Falls’ appeared first on HeyUGuys.

French director Jean-Paul Salomé has kicked off production on The Money Maker(L’Affaire Bojarski) about real-life counterfeiter Jan Bojarski, who was nicknamed “the Cézanne of fake money”.

The Bureau Sales has boarded for international sales and will launch the film at the upcoming European Film Market (EFM).

Set in post-Second World War France, the film stars Reda Kateb as Bojarski, a Polish refugee in France who forged near-perfect counterfeit money and eluded police for nearly 15 years. Bastien Bouillon plays a police commissioner who sets off on a high-stakes cat-and-mouse chase to hunt down the sophisticated swindler. Sara Giraudeau and...

The Count of Monte Cristo, Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de La Patellière’s retelling of the classic French revenge tale, is the front-runner for this year’s César Awards, scoring 14 nominations, including in the best film and best directing categories.

The period drama, starring Pierre Niney, beat out Jacques Audiard’s Oscar frontrunner Emilia Pérez, which got 12 noms, and Beating Hearts, Gilles Lellouche’s contemporary reimagining of Romeo and Juliet featuring François Civil and Adèle Exarchopoulos, which earned 13 nominations.

Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de la Patelliere’s lavish adaptation of Alexandre Dumas’ classic was the biggest French box office hit of last year, drawing close to 10 million viewers for a $40 million local take. Globally, the film has grossed more than $75 million.

Sean Baker’s Palme d’Or winner, and Oscar contender, Anora, is up for the Cesar for best foreign film, against Academy Award hopefuls including Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance,...

Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre De La Patelliere’s epic literary adaptation The Count Of Monte-Cristo leads the nominations for France’s Cesar Awards with 14.

There were also strong showings from Gilles Lellouche’s Beating Hearts with 13 and Jacques Audiard’s Oscar and Bafta-nominated Emilia Perez with 12.

Scroll down for the full list of nominations

The Count Of Monte-Cristo and Emilia Perez are in the running for best film alongside Boris Lojkine’s Souleymane’s Story, Alain Guiraudie’s Misericordia and Emmanuel Courcol’s The Marching Band.

All of the films nominated for best film had their world premiere at the...

The Count of Monte Cristo has topped the nominations for France’s prestigious César awards, followed by Beating Hearts and Oscar frontrunner Emilia Pérez.

The film has made it into 14 categories in the nominations, which were announced in Paris on Wednesday morning. Beating Hearts clinched 13, followed by Emiia Pérez with 12.

Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de la Patelliere’s lavish and fast-paced adaptation of Alexandre Dumas’ classic novel starring Pierre Niney was one of France’s top performing movies at the local box office in 2024, drawing close to 10M spectators and its top international export.

Gilles Lellouche’s modern Romeo and Juliet tale Beating Hearts – co-starring François Civil and Adèle Exarchopoulos – has also performed well at home, drawing more than five million spectators.

The 12 nominations for Jacques Audiard’s Cannes Jury prize-winning musical film Emilia Pérez continue its buzzy awards season run which has seen it clinch four Golden Globes and...

Jacques Audiard’s musical film Emilia Pérez swept the 30th edition of France’s Lumière Awards on Monday evening, winning Best Film, Director and Screenplay as well Actress for Karla Sofia Gascón and Music for Camille and Clément Ducol.

The wins add further steam to the Cannes Jury Prize winner’s awards season run following its quadruple Golden Globes triumph and European Film Awards victory, where it also clinched Best Film, Director, Screenplay and Actress for Gascón.

The movie is currently on six of the 10 announced category shortlists for the 97th the Academy Awards and nominated in 11 categories for the 2025 Baftas film awards.

Further awards seasons hopefuls also featured in the Lumière prizes, with Mati Diop’s Berlinale Golden Bear winner Dahomey – which made it into Best International Feature Film (for Senegal) and Documentary Academy Award shortlists – won Best Documentary.

Latvian director Gints Zilbalodis’s Flow – which is also on...

Sandrine Kiberlain and Pierre Lottin are set to headline Jean-Baptiste Leonetti’s French comedy-drama Whatever It Takes (Personne d’Autre) as polar opposites who connect under strange circumstances. The film will begin shooting in the Paris region at the end of the month.

Lottin plays Jean, a stubborn single in his thirties who has shut himself off from the world. When he meets Kiberlain’s Rose, a mother of three with a disarming joie de vivre, the two form an unlikely pairing. Ugc will release the film in France in 2026.

Snd is launching sales on the title at Unifrance’s...

French featureThe Marching Band, about an orchestra conductor who discovers he has a brother who plays the trombone in a local band, has out-performed the opening of Universal Pictures’ Wicked at the French box office.

Diaphana’s feelgood drama held at second in its second week on release with 342,700 admissions (an estimated* gross of €2.5m), compared to Wicked’s 290,000 admissions (€2.14m) in its opening week.

Disney’s Moana 2 took the top spot in its second week in cinemas with 1.65 million tickets sold to reach 4 million total, the seventh best-performing film of the year.

Directed by Emmanuel Courcol, and starring Benjamin Lavernhe and Pierre Lottin,...

Jacques Audiard’s musical film Emilia Pérez is the frontrunner at the nomination stage for the 30th edition of France’s Lumière awards.

The prizes, which are regarded as the French equivalent of the Golden Globes, will be voted on by members of the international press hailing from 38 countries this year.

They cover 13 categories spanning film, direction, screenplay, actress, actor, female revelation, male revelation, first film, animation, documentary, international co-production, cinematography and music.

Audiard’s Cannes Jury Prize winner Emilia Pérez has clinched six nominations, followed by Boris Lojkine’s Souleymane’s Story, which won the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize this year, and Alain Guiraudie’s Misericordia, with five nominations each.

Other frontrunners with four nominations each, include François Ozon’s When Fall Is Coming and Jonathan Millet’s Ghost Trail.

The winners will be announced in a ceremony at the Forum des images in Paris on January 20, 2025.

The full...

Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Perez has topped the nominations for France’s Lumière Awards.

The French-made, Spanish-language film earned six nominations for best film, director, screenplay, cinematography, music and actress for Karla Sofía Gascón in her starring role as the titular transitioning Mexican drug lord.

The Lumière nominations cap a strong week for Emilia Perez, which garnered 10 nominations for the 2025 Golden Globes,and was the big winner at the European Film Awards with five prizes.

Scroll down for full list of nominees

Boris Lojkine’s Souleymane’s Story, which tracks the daily life of an undocumented Guinean asylum seeker in Paris,...

In France, François Ozon has more or less taken on the mystique of a sort of European Hong Sang-soo—the announcement of a new film in his catalogue might as well be the announcement of a new Tuesday. Where Ozon may differ from Hong, however, is in the particular palatability of his prolific output; while it may take a while for Hong to wear you down, Ozon’s is an approach that is more or less accessible for just about anybody right from the start.

Just as there’s a strange comfort in the regularity of his releases, there’s something inherently cozy in the sort of French family dramas—some might call them “thrillers,” were it not for their frequently casual dispositions—Ozon pumps out like Stephen King pumps out new horror stories. In crafting an oeuvre whose general essence is one of contained coziness, it only makes sense...

Parkland Film Capital has acquired UK-Ireland distribution rights to Francois Ozon’s When Fall Is Coming.

Parkland acquired the film from sales agent Playtime.When Fall Is Coming centres on a grandmother whose peaceful retirement in Burgundy is disrupted when her daughter drops off her grandson for a week of autumn vacation.

Written, directed and produced by Ozon, it stars Helene Vincent, Ludivine Sagnier, Josiane Balasko and Pierre Lottin.

Ozon’s Foz Production produced the film, with France 2 Cinema, Playtime and support from Canal+ and the Cnc.

The film first screened in Cosne-Cours-sur-Loire in France in September, before a...

French sales outfit Ginger & Fed has boarded Fabien Gorgeart’s comedy drama What Is Love? (C’est Quoi l’Amour?) starring Laure Calamy and Vincent Macaigne as a long-divorced couple attempting to annul their Catholic marriage at the Vatican.

Ginger & Fed, the theatrical sales arm of French group Federation run by Sabine Chemaly, will kick off sales for the film at the American Film Market.

Lyes Salem, Melanie Thierry, Celeste Brunnquell and Saül Benchetrit round out the cast of the feature, which is shooting now and produced by Petit Film and Deuxième Lign.

Described by Chemaly as“a comedy...

A retired woman of a certain age (Hélène Vincent), who wants nothing more than to look after her perfect poppet of a grandson (Garlan Erlos), is devastated when her daughter (Ludivine Sagnier) removes access to him, all because of a silly mycological mistake in the delicious, sinister and deadly funny When Fall Is Coming. True to protean form, writer-director François Ozon (Swimming Pool, 8 Women) offers with this blackly comic thriller a tonal swerve into naturalism and away from the screwball energy of his last feature, the period-set courtroom caper The Crime Is Mine.

Nevertheless, this has a number of Ozonian elements that devotees of the prolific French auteur will cherish: intentional plot holes that keep things spicily ambiguous; characters who appear boringly bourgeois but are hiding secret pasts or proclivities or both; a tiny dash of the supernatural; and an irony in all its forms that runs through everything. Hardcore...

Albert Serra with his Golden Shell for Afternoons Of Solitude Photo: Courtesy of San Sebastian Film Festival/Alex Abril Albert Serra's bullfighting documentary Afternoons Of Solitude won the Golden Shell as San Sebastian Film Festival's 72nd edition drew to a close last night.

The film considers the life of matador Andrés Roca Rey and Serra received the award from last year’s Golden Shell winner, Spanish filmmaker Jaione Camborda. The jury also included directors Ulrich Seidl, Christos Nikou and Fran Kranz, producer Carole Scotta and journalist Leila Guerriero.

The Silver Shell directing honours were shared ex-aequo by Edinburgh-based Portuguese filmmaker Laura Carreira for On Falling, a carefully crafted character study of a Portuguese migrant working as a warehouse picker and Spaniard Pedro Martín Calero, also making his debut, with ambitious female-centric horror film The Wailing.

Laura Carreira receives her Silver Shell from Carole Scotta for On Falling Photo: Courtesy of...

Spanish director Albert Serra’s bullfighting documentary Afternoons Of Solitude has won the Golden Shell for best film at the closing ceremony of the 72nd edition of the Spanish festival tonight (Saturday September 28).

The special jury prize was awarded to Gia Coppola’s The Last Showgirl which stars Pamela Anderson as a Vegas showgirl facing the end of her career.

’Afternoons Of Solitude’ review

The official competition jury, presided over by Spanish filmmaker Jaione Camborda – who was last year’s Golden Shell winner for The Rye Horn, also awarded top prizes to new filmmakers. The Silver Shell for best director...

The 72nd San Sebastian Film Festival’s Golden Shell for best film has gone to Albert Serra’s Afternoons of Solitude, a documentary on bullfighting, edging out strong competition from narrative features by Joshua Oppenheimer, Edward Berger and Mike Leigh.

The Spanish director’s film focuses on Peruvian-Spanish bullfighter Andrés Roca Rey. While noting that the doc’s graphic cruelty makes it a harrowing watch, The Hollywood Reporter‘s chief film critic David Rooney in his review called it “transfixing … a unique study of discipline, bravado, laser-focus and showmanship.” It beat out Leigh’s Hard Truths and Berger’s Conclave, as well as Oppenheimer’s dystopian musical The End.

Elsewhere, Pamela Anderson and the cast of Gia Coppola’s The Last Showgirl took home the Special Jury Prize for best ensemble cast. THR‘s review of the film said: “Even if The Last Showgirl feels slender overall, more consistently attentive...

Sometimes, in a closely contested festival competition, it pays to be the one thing that isn’t like the others. A starkly powerful, observational study of contemporary bullfighting, Spanish auteur Albert Serra’s “Afternoons of Solitude” was the only documentary in the main competition at this year’s San Sebastian Film Festival — and this evening won the Golden Shell for best film of the festival, beating some big-name narrative competition.

The award was presented by last year’s Golden Shell winner, Spanish filmmaker Jaione Camborda, heading a jury that also included directors Ulrich Seidl, Christos Nikou and Fran Kranz, producer Carole Scotta and Argentine journalist Leila Guerriero.

Centred on star Peruvian matador Andrés Rey Roca, “Afternoons of Solitude” is candid in its depiction of the violence of the sport, and has already proven controversial on home turf, with Spain’s animal-rights party Pacma calling for the film to be withdrawn from the festival.

True to its title, François Ozon’s new film “When Fall is Coming” is awash in the aesthetics of what people far younger than its octogenarian protagonist would call autumncore, with a bit of cottagecore for good measure. In the sleepy, picturesque Burgundy valley where it largely unfolds, the leaves are rusting and crisping, chunky knitwear is coming out of hibernation, and through the screen, you can just about feel the air turning cold enough to splinter. Yet as the film progresses, its timeline spanning months and then years, the weather never changes. The life of sweet-natured retiree Michelle (Hélène Vincent) is seemingly fixed in a perennial fall, as is the film’s mood of quiet, almost comforting melancholy — until, amid this appearance of strange, ochre-hued seasonal stasis, the temperature of proceedings takes a drastic turn south.

An elegant, slippery game of tonal bait-and-switch, “When Fall is Coming” finds the ever-unpredictable Ozon in mellow,...

Some people are just better off dead. That’s the ultimate conclusion of the prolific French filmmaker François Ozon’s new domestic drama When Fall Is Coming, receiving its world premiere at the San Sebastian Film Festival this week, but delivered with such sly delicacy, such slippery grace — no, actually, such sweetness — that there is simply no arguing with it.

Those qualities — delicacy, grace and sweetness — are largely encapsulated within the tidy person of Michelle. Michelle is the heroine of her own small but satisfying life and quite a few other lives besides, a woman with the time and inclination to be kind. On the day we meet her, she is driving her best friend to the prison where her son Vincent (Pierre Lottin) is being held. Visiting a prison is draining. Michelle waits outside, ready to listen to Marie-Claude...

San Sebastian — In bumper deals, premier French production-sales agency Playtime has secured a raft of sales across key territories for François Ozon’s “When Fall Is Coming,” which bows in San Sebastian’s main Competition.

Distribution so far takes in major territories such as Italy (Bim Distribuzione), Cis (A-One Russia), Spain (Caramel + La Zona), and Axia in Canada.

Playtime has cut further deals with Vertigo Media in Hungary, September Films in Benelux, Panda in Austria, Aurora in Poland, Filmcoopi in Switzerland, A-One Baltics, Outsider Film in Portugal, Filmtrade in Greece, Beta Films in Bulgaria, and Arthouse Traffic in Ukraine.

The pre-sales come on a film whose complex story is seemingly told effortlessly.

Perhaps it’s the moment two elderly friends, Michelle and Marie-Claude, leave the woods with wild mushrooms and laugh when Marie-Claude tells her friend to let her know how it goes. Perhaps it’s when we see Michelle...

New films from directors Mike Leigh, François Ozon, Edward Berger, Joshua Oppenheimer, and Costa-Gavras will vie for the Golden Shell at this year’s San Sebastian Film Festival. Organizers on Tuesday announced the competition line-up for the 72nd edition of San Sebastian, which runs from September 20-28.

Highlights include Leigh’s hotly-anticipated new film Hard Truths, which will see the iconoclastic British director reunite with his Secrets & Lies star Marianne Jean-Baptiste; and Conclave, Berger’s follow-up to his multiple-Oscar winner All Quiet on the Western Front. The Vatican thriller stars Ralph Fiennes as a cardinal tasked with supervising a conclave following the sudden death of the Pope to choose a successor.

Veteran political filmmaker Costa-Gavras (Missing, Z) returns to San Sebastian with Last Breath, a drama about a palliative care doctor. Ozon will make his sixth appearance in the festival’s official selection with When Fall Is Coming, a French drama starring Hélène Vincent,...

Inevitably it’s going to be compared to Mark Herman’s Brassed Off, the British comedy-drama about colliery bands, but this French contribution to what could become a “genre” if there’s any more of them, has a beating emotional pulse all of its own.

To be sure it’s feel-good and sentimental but none the worse for any of that. Emmanuel Courcol on his third directorial outing after Ceasefire (Cessez-le-feu) in 2016 and The Big Hit (Un triomphe) in 2020 treads the tightrope between tearjerker, social upheaval, and family dynamics with skilful aplomb.

The focus here is on the relationship between two brothers - Thibaut (Benjamin Lavernhe) and Jimmy (Pierre Lottin) who share a love of music. At the start of the film they are unaware of each other’s existence because they have grown up separately having been adopted by different families.

They seem to be worlds apart. Thibaut is a rather solitary internationally renowned.

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.

Playtime has boarded sales on Francois Ozon’s upcoming feature film When Fall Is Coming and released fresh details about the production which has largely been under wraps.

When Fall Is Coming marks the prolific French director’s 24th feature and follows hot on the tail of hit dramaThe Crime Is Mine which was one of Ozon’s most successful movies at the French box office to date.

Ozon has said previously cryptically said that When Fall Is Coming is inspired by a childhood memory and revolves around a crime family dinner.

As per a new synopsis sent out in a wide release by Playtime on Wednesday, the film revolves around grandmother, Michelle, who is enjoying a peaceful retirement in a charming Burgundy village, close to her long-time friend Marie-Claude.

She is looking forward to her grandson spending the school vacation. However, when her Parisian daughter, with whom she has a conflictual relationship,...

Playtime (“Son of Saul”) is reteaming with celebrated French directors François Ozon (“By the Grace of God”) and sister duo Delphine and Muriel Coulin (“17 Girls”) on their respective upcoming films, “When Fall Is Coming” and “The Quiet Son.”

“When Fall is Coming” marks Ozon’s follow up to “The Crime Is Mine.” The film stars Hélène Vincent (“The Specials”), Josiane Balasko (“Back to Mom’s”), Ludivine Sagnier (“Lupin”) and Pierre Lottin (“Notre-Dame on Fire”).

The film tells the story of Michelle, who is enjoying a peaceful retirement in a charming Burgundy village near her longtime friend Marie-Claude. She eagerly anticipates her grandson Lucas spending the school vacation with her, but things don’t go as planned. Feeling lonely, Michelle loses her sense of purpose, until Marie-Claude’s son gets out of prison.

The film is self-produced by Ozon through his vehicle Foz. Diaphana Distribution will release it in France.

The film is about two brothers who discover each other later in life and bond over a love of music.

Playtime has scooped international sales to Emmanuel Courcol’s social comedyThe Marching Band starring Benjamin Lavernhe, whose credits include L’Abbé-Pierre: A Century Of Devotion and Jeanne Du Barry.

Produced by Agat Films and now in post, the €6.5m film follows a successful orchestra conductor with discovers he was adopted and has a younger brother. Pierre Lottin co-stars.

The film is produced by Marc Bordure and Robert Guédiguian’s prolific Agat Films of Godard by Godard, Amore Mio and Holly,...

The film is about two brothers who discover each other later in life and bond over a love of music.

Playtime has scooped international sales to Emmanuel Courcol’s social comedyThe Marching Band starring Benjamin Lavernhe, whose credits include L’Abbé-Pierre: A Century Of Devotion and Jeanne Du Barry.

Produced by Agat Films and now in post, the €6.5m film follows a successful orchestra conductor with discovers he was adopted and has a younger brother. Pierre Lottin co-stars.

The film is produced by Marc Bordure and Robert Guédiguian’s prolific Agat Films of Godard by Godard, Amore Mio and Holly,...

Playtime will launch sales on Emmanuel Courcol’s new social comedy The Marching Band, about two brothers separated by fate and reunited by music, at the upcoming Unifrance Rendez-vous in Paris next week.

The €6.5M production, which is currently in post-production, is actor-director-screenwriter Courcol’s third theatrical feature after Ceasefire and The Big Hit.

Benjamin Lavernhe, seen recently in Maïwenn’s Jeanne du Barry, stars as successful orchestra conductor Thibaut Désormeaux, who is hoping his sister is a compatible bone marrow donor to treat a rapidly progressing leukaemia.

His DNA results reveal instead that he is adopted. On confronting his mother, he discovers he has a younger brother, played by Pierre Lottin, who was raised in more modest conditions and is now a factory worker.

This brother shares his musical talent and is a member of the local marching band. Thibault decides to nurture this gift and help his brother...

Watching a police-procedural homicide drama, whether it’s the grungiest of VOD potboilers or the most visionary film of the genre, Michael Mann’s silvery, dread-drenched “Manhunter,” we more or less know one thing: At the end of two hours, the grisly mystery we’ve been dunked in will have its catharsis and its resolution. We will know who the killer is, and in knowing that a kind of order will have been restored. David Fincher’s “Zodiac,” with its tantalizing ambiguities, might stand as an exception to the form — a singular winding creep-out, without the closure we’re thirsting for — yet even there you feel, by the end, that you’ve glimpsed the face of evil.

But “The Night of the 12th,” the French thriller that was nominated for 10 César Awards and won six of them, including best picture (it opens here on May 19), throws the audience a slow-motion...

Lille’s Series Mania Forum is kicking off today with a packed schedule of talks, screenings and competitions.

Fighting it out in International Competition are the likes of Prime Video’s Toni Collette starrer The Power, Haven of Grace from Magnetic Beats director Vincent Maël Cardona, and Quoc Dang Tran’s Apple TV+ series Drops of God.

They compete against Greek series Milky Way, which opened the festival, Viaplay’s futuristic Russell Tovey drama The Fortress, Red Skies from Israel, The Actor from Iran and Fleeting Lies from Spain. Each will have its world premiere at the event.

The Power is a fantasy series set in a world where the physical balance of power between men and women switches when electric arcs emerge from the fingers of teenage girls all around the world. Debuting later this month, it comes from Sister, the UK producer behind Chernobyl and is based on Naomi Alderman’s sci-fi novel.

Vivants

Alix Delaporte will move into production in Paris on her third feature film next month – in a news media stratosphere storyline that includes Roschdy Zem, Alice Isaaz, Vincent Elbaz, Ludivine Sagnier and Pierre Lottin. Delaporte’s fiction features efforts to date include Angel & Tony (2010) and The Last Hammer Blow (2014) which was a Venice Film Fest invite. Look for synopsis info prior to the shoot. Previously titled as “La Fille à la caméra” and “Gabrielle,” Vivants could chart a course towards the Lido.

Gist: Tbd.

Release Date/Prediction: Venice Film Festival could be in the cards if this shoots out of the starting gate.…...

Angel & Tony (2010) and Le dernier coup de marteau (2014) filmmaker Alix Delaporte is finally climbing back into the director’s chair for a third feature film titled, Vivants. Roschdy Zem, Alice Isaaz, Vincent Elbaz, Ludivine Sagnier and Pierre Lottin (who had a pair of Cannes preems in Les Harkis and The Night of the 12th) will topline the project with production due to begin somewhere around January and February of next year with producers probably earmarking a Lido launch as Delaporte’s first two films premiered there.

Vivants will explore the world news reporters — something that Bruno Dumont had plenty of fun with in 2021’s France.…...

Vincent Maël Cardona, whose 2021 pic “Magnetic Beats” won a prize at Cannes’ Directors Fortnight and a Cesar Award for best first film, is set to direct “De Grâce,” a sprawling crime thriller unfolding in the northern French port city of Le Havre.

The series is being co-produced and commissioned by Arte France, and is produced by Pierre-Emmanuel Fleurantin at Ego Productions, a Mediawan company. Belgium’s Savage Films is co-producing. Mediawan Rights is representing the show in international markets.

Set to start shooting on location in Le Havre on Aug. 8, “De Grâce” features a strong ensemble cast including Olivier Gourmet (“The Minister”), Margot Bancilhon (“Five”), Panayotis Pascot (“Mon chien stupide”), Pierre Lottin (“Notre-Dame on Fire”), Astrid Whettnall (“Baron noir”), Philippe Rebbot.(“L’amour flou”) and French rapper Gringe.

“De Grâce,” penned by Maxime Crupaux (“Cherif”) and Baptiste Fillon, tells the story of Pierre Leprieur (Gourmet), a native of Le Havre who...

Notre-Dame On Fire Trailer — Jean-Jacques Annaud‘s Notre-Dame On Fire / Notre-Dame brûle (2022) movie trailer has been released by Pathe. The Notre-Dame On Fire trailer stars Samuel Labarthe, Jean-Paul Bordes, Mikael Chirinian, Jérémie Laheurte, Chloé Jouannet, and Pierre Lottin. Crew The screenplay is written by Jean-Jacques Annaud and Thomas Bidegain. Produced by Jérôme Seydoux. Plot Synopsis Notre-Dame [...]

Continue reading: Notre-dame On Fire (2022) Movie Trailer: Fire-fighters Fight a Blaze at Notre Dame Cathedral in Jean-Jacques Annaud’s Film...

"Up there with a few men, we can do it." Pathe UK has released their own official UK trailer for the Notre-Dame On Fire movie from France, dramatizing the tragic fire at Paris's Notre Dame cathedral in 2019. The French title is just Notre-Dame Brûle and it's supposed to tell a story "from inside the Notre-Dame de Paris fire of April 2019." Made by the same director from Seven Years in Tibet and Enemy at the Gates, Frnech filmmaker Jean-Jacques Annaud who has stay away from Hollywood for a while now. The film retraces how heroic men & women firefighters put their lives on the line to accomplish this awe-inspiring rescue. The ensemble cast features Samuel Labarthe, Jean-Paul Bordes, Mikael Chirinian, Jérémie Laheurte, Chloé Jouannet, and Pierre Lottin. It's set to open in the UK this July after first premiering in France this March, but there's still no US plans yet. I guess...

"Be sure to use the fastest and surest channel. Your wait will seem long..." Pathe in France has revealed the first teaser trailer for a movie titled, in English, Notre-Dame On Fire - which is indeed a "blockbuster" about the Notre Dame fire in 2019. The French title is, amusingly, just Notre-Dame Brûle and it's supposed to tell a story "from inside the Notre-Dame de Paris fire of April 2019." The film retraces how heroic men & women firefighters put their lives on the line to accomplish an awe-inspiring rescue. The movie's ensemble cast features Samuel Labarthe, Jean-Paul Bordes, Mikael Chirinian, Jérémie Laheurte, Chloé Jouannet, and Pierre Lottin. Don't dismiss this one too soon! It's made by the same director as Seven Years in Tibet and Enemy at the Gates, so he certainly knows how to make a good movie. Yeah this looks excruciatingly cheesy, but hey, Hollywood makes disaster films like this...

Tout Le Monde M’appelle Mike

Guillaume Bonnier makes his directorial debut Tout Le Monde M’appelle Mike in 2020, produced by Eric Neve and co-produced by Charles Walter. Bonnier’s script received funding from the Gans Foundation for Cinema in late 2018 and his cast includes Abderissaak Mohamed, Daphne Patakia and Pierre Lottin. For the past two decades, Bonnier has worked as Assistant Director on a number of notable projects for some of France’s most renowned auteurs, including Patrice Chereau, Philippe Garrel (In the Shadow of Women), Xavier Beauvois (Of Gods and Men), Rachid Bouchareb (Days of Glory), Hiner Saleem, Bruno Podalydes and Jean-Pierre Mocky.…...