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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...

Exclusive: In keeping with its start-of-the-year tradition, Goodfellas has rolled out the bulk of its French-language slate for 2025 ahead of the Unifrance Rendez-Vous in Paris next week, and it’s a hot one.

The line-up features fresh additions An Affair by Arnaud Desplechin and Prime Rush by Carlos Abascal Peiró as well as half a dozen pictures that we expect to see at Cannes or Venice later this year.

An Affair marks a new chapter for Desplechin after achieving closure in 2024 with his long-running character of Paul Dédalus through Cannes-selected drama Filmlovers!, which hits French cinemas for Les Films du Losange next week.

New movie An Affair sees Desplechin collaborate with rising French stars François Civil (Beating Hearts) and Nadia Tereszkiewicz (The Crime is Mine) for the first time, in a cast also featuring Charlotte Rampling and Hippolyte Girardot.

Civil plays a pianist who returns to France after a long...

John C. Reilly will soon appear on the big screen as Buffalo Bill in “Heads or Tails?” a surreal Western by Italian directorial duo Alessio Rigo de Righi and Matteo Zoppis (“The Tale of King Crab”). The film is inspired by a true event that took place during Buffalo Bill’s stay in Italy.

Along with the Oscar-nominated U.S. actor – who co-starred with Joaquin Phoenix in Jacques Audiard’s Western “The Sisters Brothers” – the top notch “Heads or Tails?” cast also comprises rising French star Nadia Tereszkiewicz and Italy’s Alessandro Borghi, in lead roles, and Argentina’s Peter Lanzani.

Italian cowboys known as “butteri” –– and hailing from the central Italian plains of northern Lazio up through the coastal Italian region of Maremma into southern Tuscany — have a long-standing connection to Buffalo Bill and the history of America’s Wild West.

Buffalo Bill, born William F. Cody, was a...

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...

For a film that is not much more than pure, delightful homage to 1930s cinema and the various genres of the time, there is nothing stale about The Crime Is Mine. François Ozon’s frilly farce/pointed courtroom drama is closest in style to his previous film, Peter von Kant — and equally, if not more, eye-popping. But thematically it shares most common ground with 8 Women (which also features Isabelle Huppert), where murder, melodrama and storming female leads also combine. The result is a lavish, briskly witty period romp with an ultra-modern post-MeToo sensibility.

The first of said leads is Nadia Tereszkiewicz as Madeleine Verdier, an ailing actor who we initially see skedaddling from the impressive Art Deco mansion of a powerful theatre producer (Jean-Christophe Bouvet), after he has tried to attack her. Not long later, her assailant is discovered dead, and Madeleine inadvertently becomes a prime suspect. To make...

The acclaimed French actor answers your questions on Heaven’s Gate, Haneke and hindsight

François Ozon is a great director and 8 Women was a fantastic film. What brought you to work with him again for The Crime Is Mine? BenderRodriguez

I loved doing 8 Women and I just saw his last film in San Sebastián, When Fall Is Coming, and it’s really great. He’s very versatile. He goes from one style to the other, like a French Stephen Frears. The Crime Is Mine is more in the line of 8 Women. It’s a comedy, an adaptation of an old play that he turned into more contemporary material; something more feminist and more updated. He’s very vivid and he’s very, very, very fast, so when you work with him he gives you a certain kind of energy.

Having performed in such a wide range of films,...

Isabelle Huppert, the Oscar-nominated star of “Elle,” spoke candidly about her career choices and made the audience laugh with her self-deprecating humor at a masterclass held at the Lumière Film Festival in Lyon.

The French actor, who is also being honored with the fest’s lifetime achievement Lumière prize, revealed that she had seen very few movies when she started acting some 50 years ago. But that didn’t prevent her from working with some of Europe’s most talented filmmakers, including Claude Chabrol, Michael Haneke and Paul Verhoeven.

“We didn’t go to cinemas as much back then,” she said during the on-stage conversation with Lumiere Film Festival’s boss Thierry Fremaux, who is also Cannes chief. Claire Denis (“White Material”) and Francois Ozon, who have directed Huppert in several films, were sitting on the front row.

“When I started making films, I had seen very few. I’ve still seen few by the way.

Universal animation The Wild Robot leads the new releases at the UK and Ireland box office this weekend as Paramount’s Smile 2 and Studiocanal’s The Apprentice also open.

Chris Sanders’ The Wild Robot is opening in 675 locations. Produced by Dreamworks, the film follows a service robot shipwrecked on an uninhabited island who forms relationships with the local wildlife.

A starry ensemble comprises the voice cast including Lupita Nyong’o, Pedro Pascal, Kit Connor, Bill Nighy, Stephanie Hsu, Mark Hamill and Catherine O’Hara.

It has already proven a box office hit abroad, topping the global charts last week to bring its total up to $150m.

Ozon and a stellar cast serve up an entertaining, if shallow caper that shades a little too close to #MeToo

François Ozon has directed plenty of complex, demanding and serious dramas: Everything Went Fine, Summer of 85 and By the Grace of God, along with adaptations of Fassbinder. But he also has a sweet tooth for breezy, silly, crowd-pleasing theatrical comedies like this one. Watching it is like being force-fed a large box of chocolates; moreish, though. There is certainly an amazing blue-chip cast of French movie-acting royalty, including Isabelle Huppert, Fabrice Luchini and André Dussollier.

The Crime Is Mine is adapted from a 1934 French stage comedy called Mon Crime by Georges Berr and Louis Verneuil which has already spawned two different madcap Hollywood versions in the 30s and 40s, respectively starring Carole Lombard and Betty Hutton. Nadia Tereszkiewicz plays Madeleine, an impecunious would-be stage star, engaged to wealthy young...

Paramount and Hasbro Entertainment’s “Transformers One” debuted atop the U.K. and Ireland box office earning £1.6 million ($2.2 million), according to numbers from Comscore.

Warner Bros.’ “Joker: Folie a Deux” held strong in its second week, securing the second spot with £1.4 million bringing its total to £8.6 million.

Signature Entertainment’s “Terrifier 3” opened in third place with just over £1 million. The film marks the distributor’s record for its largest-ever opening weekend in the territory overtaking their previous champion “Orphan: First Kill,” which had a £464,616 opening gross in 2022. It is also the highest-opening for an 18-certificated horror film in 2024, over vampire horror “Abigail,” 1980s-set slasher “MaXXXine” and Sydney Sweeney starrer “Immaculate.” It also set a new record as 2024’s highest U.K. and Irish box office opening for an 18-certificated independent film – the record was previously held by rapper biopic “Kneecap.”

Warner Bros.’ “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” continued to show staying power in its sixth week,...

Useful as it may be for facts and stats, an actor’s Wikipedia page isn’t ever the go-to place for a complete, nuanced description of their thespian essence, and so it proves for Isabelle Huppert. “Known for her portrayals of cold, austere women devoid of morality, she is considered one of the greatest actresses of her generation,” states the introduction, in a strikingly selective encapsulation of over half a century on screen. Huppert can certainly do froideur and severity with flair — she’s imposing beyond the bounds of her diminutive frame in such rigorous, chill-carrying films as Claude Chabrol’s “La Cérémonie,” Michael Haneke’s “The Piano Teacher” and of course Paul Verhoeven’s “Elle,” though whether these complex, conflicted women are “devoid of morality” isn’t a call for any one web editor to make.

But it does Huppert an injustice to paint her, however admiringly, as some...

They say that history progresses in cycles, and Europe in the 2020s has much in common, socially and politically, with the 1930s. On the one hand, there have been striking advances in the rights of women and sexual minorities, the arts are thriving and everyone seems dazzled by celebrity culture. On the other, fascist movements are growing in strength and it is widely known that there is a culture of abuse and exploitation in the arts and elsewhere, with efforts to stamp it out making limited progress. Georges Berr and Louis Verneuil’s stage play Mon Crime captured all of this back in 1934. Ninety years later, who better to adapt it for the silver screen than François Ozon, who builds upon the high camp style of his sensational 8 Women to present it as a sugary delight with a delightfully bitter aftertaste.

Nadia Tereszkiewicz is Madeleine, a glamorous young actress.

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...

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,...

Parkland has unleashed the trailer for François Ozon’s satire ‘The Crime is Mine’ featuring Isabelle Huppert.

Paris in the 1930s — a playground for industrial heirs and debonair architects, but the City of Lights does not shine evenly for all. Struggling actress Madeleine (Nadia Terezkiewicz) and her best friend Pauline (Rebecca Marder), an unemployed lawyer, live in a cramped flat and owe five months’ rent. Opportunity knocks after a lascivious theatrical producer who made an inappropriate advance towards Madeleine turns up dead. Madeleine stands trial for murder and ascends to decadent stardom, with Pauline serving as defence counsel and media circus ringmaster. A new life of fame, wealth and tabloid celebrity awaits — until the truth comes out.

Adapted from a 1934 play by Georges Berr and Louis Verneuil, the cast includes Isabelle Huppert, Dany Boon and Fabrice Luchini.

Also in trailers – Trailer drops for Steve McQueen’s ‘Blitz’

The film hits...

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...

French composer, pianist and conductor Philippe Rombi will be the guest of honour at the 24th World Soundtrack Awards in Belgium on October 16, 2024.

Rombi is best known for his collaborations with François Ozon on films including Swimming Pool, Young And Beautiful, In The House, Potiche, Frantz and last year’s The Crime Is Mine.

The composer has been nominated for four Cesar awards and two Lumieres. His other credits include Oscar nominee Joyeux Noël from Christian Carion, Danny Boon’s Welcome To The Sticks and Christophe Barratier’s The Time Of Secrets.

Rombi will attend the awards at Film Fest Ghent in October,...

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.

Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.

Africans with Mainframes (Kima Hibbert)

What if electronic music was invented in the 1920s by Black sharecroppers in the American South? That’s the premise of Kima Hibbert’s debut short, in which a reclusive blogger uncovers a major conspiracy surrounding the origins of electronic music.

Where to Stream: Le Cinéma Club

Bottoms (Emma Seligman)

It’s beginning to feel like South By Southwest is the Rachel Sennott Festival. After breaking out there three years ago with Shiva Baby (the movie premiered as a short in 2018 and would have again as a feature in 2020 if not for the pandemic), she made waves last year in Austin with sleeper horror hit Bodies Bodies Bodies. Now Sennott’s back with Bottoms, one of two...

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.

Ginger & Fed, the new international film sales arm of Federation Studios headed by former TF1 Studio boss Sabine Chemaly, will launch several high profile titles at the Unifrance Rendez-Vous, including “The Future Awaits,” Niels Tavernier’s WWII-set drama based on the true story of a Holocaust survivor. Ginger & Fed will also bow sales on “Riviera Revenge,” a heartwarming comedy starring André Dussollier (“The Crime is Mine”), Sabine Azéma (“Tanguy”) and Thierry Lhermitte (“The Dinner Game”), along with continuing deals on “Rachel’s Game,” “Survive” and “Oldies and Goodies.”

Produced by Yves Darondeau at Bonne Pioche Cinema (“March of the Penguins”), “The Future Awaits” tells the story of Tauba Birenbaum, whose testimony was collected in July 1997 to become part of Steven Spielberg’s Institute for Visual History. The film opens in July 1942, during the Vel’ d’Hiv’ Roundup of Jewish families in Paris. 13-year-old Tauba and her parents, who are Polish Jews,...

A record 54 market premieres will be hosted at the Rendez-Vous showcase held by the French film promotion org Unifrance in Paris which will kick off Jan. 16 with the world premiere of Pascal Bonitzer’s “Auction.”

The biggest film market dedicated exclusively to French movies, the Rendez-Vous in Paris will welcome 420 buyers from 50 countries and 47 sales companies. As many as 1,000 professionals have registered for the week-long event. Since Unifrance has now merged with TV France International, the event will also gather 100 TV buyers from 27 countries.

“After returning last year with a post-pandemic edition, we’re back to normal with over 400 buyers — and we even have new buyers from Quebec and Africa, along with about 15 Latin American distributors,” said Gilles Renouard, Unifrance’s co-managing director.

More than 80 completed movies will screen at the Rendez-Vous, 54 of which have never been shown at an international festival or market. Renouard says the large roster of...

Searchlight Pictures’ Poor Things rounded out the top ten this weekend and American Fiction from Amazon MGM Studios continued its slow burn with both films in the running for big awards at the Golden Globes tonight.

Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things starring Emma Stone grossed $2 million in week five on 750 screens for a cume of $14.2 million.

Poor Things has a raft of Globe noms for Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, Director and Original Score and acting noms for Stone, Willem Dafoe and Mark Ruffalo.

America Fiction by Cord Jefferson had a $1M+ weekend on 114 screens (up from 40) for a cume of $2.98 million. The film starring Jeffrey Wright is in week four, the latest this season to find success in a slow platform release. It’s up for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy and Best Male Actor for Wright.

The numbers show “positive word-of-mouth is percolating,” said Amazon MGM’s theatrical distribution chief Kevin Wilson,...

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...

As we welcome in the New Year, we can reveal our annual (non-exhaustive) list of U.S. and international movies we think could grace the festival circuit in 2024. We’ve stuck to our criteria that the project must already be in production and have not already been announced for a festival. More than 70% of our selections last year went on to debut at a major festival. Those that didn’t were largely delayed by the strike or are still in post-production. If the titles below make the cut, it will be a thrilling year on the festival circuit once again.

Megalopolis

Expectations are high that Francis Ford Coppola will deliver his long-awaited $100+ million passion project in 2024. The sci-fi drama charts the story of an architect who wants to rebuild New York City as a utopia following a devastating disaster. The cast featuring Adam Driver, Aubrey Plaza, Dustin Hoffman, Jon Voight,...

The Crime Is Mine is a fun and fast-paced film set in 1930s Paris, with a witty dialogue and a screwball comedy feel. The movie combines old and new elements seamlessly, from period costuming to physical comedy, creating a charming blend of styles. The film explores themes of loyalty, female connection, and lesbian subtext, while also touching on the sensationalization of trials and media obsession with crime.

The Crime Is Mine, the latest project from François Ozon (Swimming Pool), is pure indulgent fun. Set in Paris in the 1930s, we meet two friends, struggling actress Madeleine (Nadia Tereszkiewicz) and unsuccessful lawyer Pauline (Rebecca Marder). They're five months behind on rent for their cramped apartment, unlucky in love, and unemployed. However, when Madeleine rejects the advances of a lecherous producer shortly before he is found shot dead, she becomes the investigation's prime suspect. Realizing they have a chance at fame and fortune,...

Quick, silly and lent weight only by the costume department’s copious wigs and furs, “The Crime Is Mine” finds tireless French auteur François Ozon in the playful period pastiche mode of “Potiche” and “8 Women.” It’s a film less about any frenetic onscreen shenanigans as it is about its own mood board of sartorial and cinematic reference points — Jean Renoir, Billy Wilder, some vintage Chanel — and as such it slips down as fizzily and forgettably as a bottle of off-brand sparkling wine. This story of an aspiring stage star standing trial for a top impresario’s murder (and making the most of her moment in the tabloid flashbulbs) may be based on a nearly 90-year-old play, but for those versed more in Hollywood and Broadway than in French theater, Ozon’s adaptation resembles a kind of diva fanfic: What if Roxie Hart went up against Norma Desmond, except in rollicking 1930s Paris?...

As inevitable as a new day comes another François Ozon film––accomplishing the deft task of feeling equally breezy and clever, but never clearing an overall low ceiling of quality. Maintaining this pattern is The Crime Is Mine (whose awkwardly translated international title makes more sense in light of seeing the film), an Ozon which surprisingly skipped much of the international festival circuit and thus the critical corps’ frustration with his sometimes glib efficiency; it was a commercial-enough proposition to go straight to theaters, with a strong appeal to an older segment of the audience.

Which is not to say his latest film is overly lightweight; in its own way, this is a film of ideas––concerned with nascent 20th-century women’s liberation, and also musing on cinema and performance––however much production design and sparkling lighting dress it up to look like a pink-frosted cake in the window of a French patisserie.

Salaar: Part 1 – Ceasefire saw $2.5 million in Thursday previews as the Telugu action thriller opens in about 800 locations in North America. Bollywood superstar Shah Ruhk Kan toplines drama Dunki, his third film of the year after Pathaan and Jawan, both in the top ten of India’s highest-grossing films.

Presented by Moksha Movies/Pathyangira Cinemas, Salaar directed by Prashanth Neel, stars Prabhas and Prithviraj Sukumaran in the story of a gang leader who makes a promise to a dying friend.

Indian films are a mainstay at the specialty box office, some weekends more than others. This is a big one. Key indie openings include Searchlight Pictures’ much-nominated All Of Us Strangers by Andrew Haigh; Michel Franco’s Memory from Ketchup Entertainment; Freud’s Last Session from Sony Pictures Classics’ and Music Box Pictures’ The Crime Is Mine, all in limited release.

On Salaar: Prabhas (Baahubali) is one of the biggest stars of Telugu cinema.

Theatricality is the name of the game in The Crime Is Mine — for both the characters and the actors playing them. Even when the subject is murder, penury or thwarted ambition, everyone seems to be having a blast in François Ozon’s latest. Based on a 1934 play and set in the mid-’30s, the comedy opens with the image of a red velvet stage curtain, abounds in exquisite art deco flourishes, and is propelled by a screwball zaniness that arrives as a welcome antidote to awards season’s Serious Cinema Syndrome.

Sending up celebrity, the legal system and a medley of movie tropes, Ozon has spun serious ingredients into a zesty soufflé, albeit one that doesn’t avoid a sense of deflation. Led by two relative newcomers, with colorful support from a who’s who of French movie stars — key among them Isabelle Huppert, Fabrice Luchini, Dany Boon and André Dussollier...

François Ozon’s fizzy comedy The Crime Is Mine, a loose adaptation of Georges Berr and Louis Verneuil’s 1934 play Mon crime, begins with murder, poverty, and a suicide threat. But the film delivers this material with such a bubbly optimism that it wouldn’t be a surprise if the cast broke into a choreographed number from Gold Diggers of 1933.

Set in 1935 Paris, the film follows two best friends fending off criminal charges, eviction, and professional failure. Struggling actress Madeleine (Nadia Tereszkiewicz) flees the casting couch of producer Montferrand (Jean-Christophe Bouvet) only to discover that he was later murdered and that she’s the prime suspect. Her roommate, Pauline (Rebecca Marder), a struggling lawyer, offers to defend her. Given the media’s hyperventilating coverage of other accused female killers, Madeleine figures that a splashy trial could help her and Pauline’s careers. Madeleine then falsely confesses to shooting Montferrand and takes Pauline as her lawyer,...

Isabelle Huppert is one of cinema’s most fearless and compelling performers: she can be both powerfully raw and impenetrably composed at once. It is even more impressive that such an intimidating and disarming onscreen presence is disarmingly cheerful and warm in person. She is also a workhorse and appearing in four films this year, including a pair of December releases: her second collaboration with Jean-Paul Salomé (following 2019’s La Daronne), La Syndicaliste, and the upcoming murder mystery romp The Crime is Mine, directed by François Ozon.

La Syndicaliste is an elegant, ambiguous true-crime story that explores women in the workplace, corporate greed, and the slippery nature of truth. Huppert plays Maureen Kearney, a union rep for the massive nuclear company, Areva, who becomes a whistle-blower when she learns of the company’s secret deal with China that threatens thousands of French jobs. While the film has all the trademarks...

"Life is so different now." Music Box Films has revealed an official US trailer for the French crime comedy titled The Crime Is Mine, one of the latest films from filmmaker François Ozon. This already opened in Europe earlier in 2023, some may already be familiar with it, but it's only coming to the US this December. Madeleine Verdier, a young actress, is accused of murdering a famous producer – but did she really do it? After being acquitted in court, she begins her new life of fame and success bolstered by the attention, until the truth finally comes out. Starring Nadia Terezkiewicz and Rebecca Marder, a satirical commentary on cancel culture and the #MeToo movement with a tale of murderous women. Adapted from a 1934 play by Georges Berr & Louis Verneuil, featuring a murder's row of a supporting cast members: Isabelle Huppert, Dany Boon, and Fabrice Luchini. The Crime Is Mine is...

Music Box Films has dropped the trailer for “The Crime Is Mine,” François Ozon’s screwball comedy set in 1930s Paris starring Nadia Tereszkiewicz, Rebecca Marder and Isabelle Huppert.

A showbiz caper with a feminist edge in the vein of Ozon’s “8 Women” and “Potiche,” “The Crime Is Mine” will open in New York on Dec. 25, followed by Los Angeles and a national expansion.

Tereszkiewicz, who won a César award for best newcomer for her performance in “Forever Young,” stars as a struggling actress, Madeleine, who lives with her best friend, Pauline (Marder), an unemployed lawyer, in a cramped flat. Opportunity knocks after a lascivious theatrical producer who made an inappropriate advance toward Madeleine turns up dead. Madeleine admits to the crime and is acquitted on the grounds of self-defense — and in result becomes a star, as well as a feminist icon.

“The Crime Is Mine” was freely adapted...

Olivier Dahan: “I didn’t want to make a film about Simone Veil as we know her in France.”

Simone: Woman Of The Century director, writer, editor Olivier Dahan (La Vie En Rose with Marion Cotillard as Edith Piaf and Grace de Monaco with Nicole Kidman as Grace Kelly) is no stranger to depicting influential women. His all-embracing portrait of Simone Veil stars Elsa Zylberstein as Veil from 1968 till 2006, and Rebecca Marder (Arnaud Desplechin’s Tromperie and François Ozon’s Mon Crime) from 1942 through 1967.

Olivier Dahan with Anne-Katrin Titze on young people not knowing Simone Veil, Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List, Roman Polanski’s The Pianist, and László Nemes’s Son Of Saul: “I was really trying to connect with those young people and this woman, of course.”

In Bernard-Henri Lévy’s homage to Simone Veil he writes: “The world, French philosopher Gaston Bachelard said a century ago,...

Exclusive: In a world where the space for specialist and non English-language cinema is shrinking in cinemas, it’s encouraging to see that Tokyo-based Gaga Corporation is committed to bringing a diverse range of theatrical releases to Japanese audiences.

Launched in 1986, the company is one of Japan’s longest established buyers, releasing between 20-25 films a year, with its president and CEO Tom Yoda a familiar face on the international festival and markets circuit. The company is also an active producer of Japanese films, with recent titles including Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Monster, which is screening as a Special Presentation in Toronto, following its Best Screenplay award in Cannes.

As Japan was moving out of the pandemic, the company says it was pleased with the box office results for acquisitions such as Todd Field’s Tar, French filmmaker Claude Zidi Jr’s opera-themed Tenor and multiple Oscar winner Everything Everywhere All At Once,...

In Bernard-Henri Lévy’s homage to Simone Veil he writes: “The world, French philosopher Gaston Bachelard said a century ago, could be reduced to a series of copyrights. Einstein’s relativity. Descartes’s doubt. Bergson’s laughter. Dante’s hell. Today: Simone Veil’s Europe.” Olivier Dahan’s all-embracing portrait, Simone: Woman of the Century, stars Elsa Zylberstein as Veil from 1968 till 2006, and Rebecca Marder (Arnaud Desplechin’s Tromperie and François Ozon’s Mon Crime) from 1942 through 1967.

Auschwitz survivor, Health Minister of France, magistrate, mother, member of the Constitutional Council, advocate for the rights of women and prison reform, and the first President of the European Parliament, Simone Veil’s importance for the 20th and 21st century cannot be overstated. Director, writer, editor...

Elsa Zylberstein with Anne-Katrin Titze on Simone Veil: “She was really someone fighting for people’s dignity. I didn’t know it was that strong. My models were Meryl Streep, obviously, or Gary Oldman as Churchill (in Joe Wright’s Darkest Hour). So I didn’t want to play her, I wanted to become her.”

Olivier Dahan’s all-embracing portrait, Simone: Woman Of The Century, stars Elsa Zylberstein as Simone Veil from 1968 till 2006, and Rebecca Marder (Arnaud Desplechin’s Tromperie and François Ozon’s Mon Crime) from 1942 through 1967.

Auschwitz survivor, Health Minister of France (she put an end to the criminalization of abortion), magistrate, mother, member of the Constitutional Council, advocate for the rights of women and prison reform, and the first President of the European Parliament, Simone Veil’s importance for the 20th and 21st century cannot be overstated. Dahan (La Vie En Rose with Marion Cotillard as Edith Piaf...

Berlin-based sales agent M-Appeal has sold “Evil Does Not Exist,” which will world premiere in Competition at the Venice Film Festival, to France, Italy and Spain. The film is directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi, whose “Drive My Car” won the Oscar for International Film, was Oscar nominated for Best Picture, and earned him Oscar nominations for Directing and Adapted Screenplay last year.

“Drive My Car” premiered in Cannes Competition in 2021, winning four prizes including Best Screenplay.

Hamaguchi’s “Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy,” which also premiered in 2021, won the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize at the Berlinale.

“Evil Does Not Exist” has been co-acquired by Tucker and Teodora for Italian distribution. Tucker is specialized in Asian cinema and it handled “Drive My Car” and “Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy,” and achieved great theatrical successes with those. Teodora is the distributor of prestigious art house films, such as recent Palme d’Or...

The French pay-TV giant also announced a surprise film festival-focused channel.

French pay-tv powerhouse Canal Plus unveiled its autumn line-up in Paris this week and announced a new channel devoted to films from well-known directors selected at global festivals called Canal+ Cinema(s) that will launch on September 1 alongside Canal+ Box Office.

The latter will feature primarily blockbusters from the US majors in addition to crowd-pleasing local fare, capitalising on themedia chronology that allows Canal+ to air films six months after their theatrical release, a major leg up compared to fellow streamers inlcuding Netflix and Prime Video that have to wait 15-17 months.

In the real world, the difference between right and wrong can often get blurry, but a captivating tale like The Crime Is Mine defies convention. Imagine a scenario where crime, against all expectations, becomes the catalyst for an individual’s wildest dreams to come true. It’s a story that challenges our preconceived notions and invites us to explore the complex nuances of human desire and ambition. Step into the mesmerizing world of The Crime Is Mine, a captivating film set in the evocative era of the 1930s. In the midst of an unforgiving landscape of poverty and unfulfilled dreams, two best friends, Madeleine and Pauline, find themselves caught in the relentless grip of their dire circumstances. But fate takes an unexpected twist when the shocking murder of the renowned producer Montferrand thrusts its way into their lives.

Spoilers Ahead

What Challenges Do Madeleine And Pauline Face?

Enter the tumultuous lives of Madeleine and Pauline,...

After a few pandemic-addled years, the global box office is finally ready to feel the warmth of the studios’ tentpole releases.

Though the swing-back to pre-pandemic release schedules is happening at different speeds in each market, the quartet of “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3,” “Fast X,” “The Little Mermaid” and “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” — not to mention “The Super Mario Bros Movie” before them — have announced the arrival of Hollywood’s version of summer across much of the planet.

France saw admissions climb by 33% in the first five months of 2023, compared with the equivalent period last year, according to data from the Cnc (National Film Board). Compared with an average figure for 2017 to 2019, the performance of the 2023 box office is (only) 12% behind. France’s recovery has been powered by a string of successful local films including “Asterix and Obelix: The Middle Kingdom,” “Alibi.com 2,” “The Three Musketeers: D’Artagnan,” “The Crime Is Mine...

Aside from its Palme d’Or for Justine Triet’s “Anatomy of a Fall,” the French cinema world is also celebrating the near-complete recovery of French box office after the pandemic.

Ticket sales are still 11.6 % down on the average levels of 2017 to 2019, but the good news is that the B.O. jumped by 33% with 82.38 million admissions during the first five months of 2023, according to the Cnc (National Film Board).

The upward trend is driven by the spike in anticipated U.S. movies being released — they skyrocketed from 29 in 2022 to 51 in 2023 during the first five months, according to Comscore France. There’s also been a tide of successful French movies, ranging from big-budget, franchise-based movies like Guillaume Canet’s “Asterix and Obelix: The Middle Kingdom,” Philippe Lacheau’s “Alibi.com 2” and Martin Bourboulon’s “The Three Musketeers: D’Artagnan,” to original fare like the Omar Sy starrer “Father and Soldier” and François Ozon...

Period drama inspired by the true story of a French bearded woman.

Picturehouse Entertainment has acquired UK and Ireland rights to Stephanie Di Giusto’s period drama Rosalie from France’s Gaumont, following its premiere in Un Certain Regard at Cannes.

Set in 1870s France, it stars Nadia Tereszkiewicz as a woman who must constantly shave her face to conceal her hairiness, which extends across her whole body. Her new husband, played by Benoît Magimel, is initially repulsed but when she lets go of her embarrassment, the novelty begins to attract curious customers to their struggling cafe.

‘Rosalie’: Cannes...

Music Box Films has acquired the US distribution rights to “The Crime is Mine” (“Mon Crime”). François Ozon directs the comedy of errors starring newcomers Rebecca Marder and Nadia Terezkiewicz, alongside Isabelle Huppert, Fabrice Luchini, Dany Boon, and André Dussolier.

Music Box is aiming for a theatrical release later this year with a home video release to follow.

The picture, based on George Berr and Louis Verneuil’s 1934 play, concerns a struggling actress (Terezkiewicz) and her roommate (Marder), an unemployed attorney in 1930’s Paris. Madeleine ends up on trial for the murder of a movie producer, while Pauline serves as both defense counsel and media circus ringmaster to both of their mutual benefit. Their post-acquittal life of fame, fortune and glory is eventually undercut by certain revelations.

“The Crime is Mine” marks Music Box Films’ fifth collaboration with director Ozon, following “Potiche,” “Frantz,” “By the Grace of God” and “Summer of 85.

Music Box Films has picked up the U.S. rights to The Crime Is Mine, the post #MeToo comedy from French director François Ozon and which stars Rebecca Marder, Nadia Tereszkiewicz and Isabelle Huppert.

A theatrical release is planned for later this year for the period film, with a home entertainment release to follow, the distributor said in an announcement timed for the start of the Cannes Film Festival.

Fabrice Luchini, Dany Boon, and André Dussolier round out the ensemble cast for The Crime is Mine, which follows struggling actress Madeleine, played by Tereszkiewicz, and her best friend and roommate Pauline (Rebecca Marder), an unemployed lawyer in 1930s Paris.

Madeleine secures fame after standing trial for the murder of a lascivious movie producer, with Pauline serving as defense counsel and media circus ringmaster. The Crime is Mine is adapted from a 1934 play by Georges Berr and Louis Verneuil.

Music Box...

Music Box Films has bought U.S. rights to “The Crime Is Mine” (“Mon Crime”), a period comedy by French helmer François Ozon.

“The Crime Is Mine” stars Rebecca Marder and Nadia Tereszkiewicz, who just won the Cesar Award for female newcomer, alongside Isabelle Huppert, Fabrice Luchini, Dany Boon and André Dussolier. Music Box Films plans a theatrical release for later this year, followed by a home entertainment rollout.

Adapted from a 1934 play by Georges Berr and Louis Verneuil, “The Crime Is Mine” follows struggling actress Madeleine (Tereszkiewicz), and her best friend and roommate Pauline (Marder), an unemployed lawyer in 1930s Paris. Madeleine ascends to fame after standing trial for the murder of a movie producer, with Pauline serving as defense counsel and media circus ringmaster. Upon Madeleine’s acquittal, a new life of fame, wealth and tabloid celebrity awaits — until the truth comes out.

The acquisition marks Music Box Films’ fifth collaboration with Ozon,...

Playtime has boarded “Monsieur Aznavour,” the prestige biopic of legendary French-Armenian Charles Aznavour starring Tahar Rahim. Budgeted at €26 million, the film will start principal photography on May 30. Pathé has scooped French rights and will give it a wide release in theaters.

Surely one of the hottest packages to hit this year’s Cannes market, the film will chart Aznavour’s sprawling life journey, from his poor childhood to his rise to fame, from his triumphs to his failures, from Paris to New York. Aznavour was devoted to his art until the very end, singing his songs in ten languages, on every stage, in every city, desperately searching for perfection. He sold more than 180 million records around the world.

Rahim, who’s rolling off Marvel’s “Madame Web” and Ridley Scott’s “Napoleon,” is highly committed to the part and has been preparing it for months. He will be in Cannes...

Elle Fanning (“The Great”), Christopher Abbott (“Poor Things”) and Nadia Tereszkiewicz (“The Crime is Mine”) are set to headline “The Maid of Orleans,” Sarah Elizabeth Mintz’s daring follow up to “Good Girl Jane.” Loosely inspired by Mintz’s real-life experiences, “The Maid of Orleans” will explore sexual power dynamics on and off set.

Jessica Chastain’s Freckle Films is set to produce alongside Fanning’s Lewellen Pictures. Memento International will introduce the hot project to buyers at the Cannes Film Market. Filming is scheduled to begin early 2024 in France.

Fanning will star as Rebecca Spielman, a young film school graduate who travels to Paris to work as the assistant to the brilliant, yet tortured up-and-coming director Sammy Lindberg (Abbott). As the production of Sammy’s new “Joan of Arc” movie ramps up, Rebecca finds herself struggling to satisfy the growing maze of demands made by her new boss, all the while,...

Norwegian distributor Fidalgo has acquired a number of award-winning titles following conversations began at the European Film Market in Berlin in February.

The company’s latest acquisitions include Fantastic Machine, directed by Axel Danielson and Maximilien Van Aertryck and sold by Heretic. Fidalgo plans a theatrical release this autumn for the documentary about humanity’s obsession with the image. The film won Sundance’s World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Creative Vision and the Ag Kino Award Cinema Vision Award at Berlinale Generation 14plus.

Fidalgo also bought another Sundance award-winning documentary, Anna Hints’ Smoke Sauna Sisterhood, sold by Autlook.