French sales outfit Totem Films has acquired international rights to Arab Blues director Manele Labidi’s second feature Queen Mom and will kick off sales at EFM next month in Berlin.
The film, now in post, blends social drama and bittersweet comedy and follows a Tunisian family living in France in the early1990s, exploring questions of identity, generational conflict and racism.
Queen Mom stars Cesar-winning actress Camelia Jordana and well-known rapper turned actor Sofiane Zermani. The two reteam after co-starring in Mehdi Fikri’s police violence drama After the Fire. Damien Bonnard co-stars.
Arab Blues premiered at Venice’s...
The film, now in post, blends social drama and bittersweet comedy and follows a Tunisian family living in France in the early1990s, exploring questions of identity, generational conflict and racism.
Queen Mom stars Cesar-winning actress Camelia Jordana and well-known rapper turned actor Sofiane Zermani. The two reteam after co-starring in Mehdi Fikri’s police violence drama After the Fire. Damien Bonnard co-stars.
Arab Blues premiered at Venice’s...
- 1/16/2024
- by Rebecca Leffler
- ScreenDaily
Franco–Tunisian filmmaker Manèle Labidi who gave us the Venice Days selected Arab Blues (aka Un divan à Tunis) back in 2019, is setting up shop on her sophomore project with production set to begin in June in Paris. Reine mère will feature singer-actress Camélia Jordana, rapper-actor Sofiane Zermani and established veteran Damien Bonnard (who actually has a small part in Yorgos Lanthimos’ upcoming Poor Things). We had announced late last year that the comedy received some Arte France Cinéma coin. Labidi will be re-teaming with Kazak Productions’ Jean-Christophe Reymond on the project – he of course backed the Palme d’Or winning Titane.…...
- 4/14/2023
- by Eric Lavallée
- IONCINEMA.com
Iranian actress Golshifteh Farahani, who is at the Berlin Film Festival as a member of Kristen Stewart’s jury, has talked passionately about the importance of art in her native country as an antidote to its repressive government.
“In a country, like Iran, which is a dictatorship, art is not only an intellectual or philosophical thing, it’s essential, it’s like oxygen,” she said at the festival’s opening press conference.
“Doing art and being an artist is something that goes beyond, because your existence, by being an artist, is put into danger.”
Iran’s authoritarian government has long persecuted professionals in the country’s creative community when they stepped out of line with its hardline Islamist views and policies.
The repression has ratcheted up over the last year. A brutal crackdown on freedom of expression, that preceded the recent protests, saw Berlinale Golden Bear winners Jafar Panahi and...
“In a country, like Iran, which is a dictatorship, art is not only an intellectual or philosophical thing, it’s essential, it’s like oxygen,” she said at the festival’s opening press conference.
“Doing art and being an artist is something that goes beyond, because your existence, by being an artist, is put into danger.”
Iran’s authoritarian government has long persecuted professionals in the country’s creative community when they stepped out of line with its hardline Islamist views and policies.
The repression has ratcheted up over the last year. A brutal crackdown on freedom of expression, that preceded the recent protests, saw Berlinale Golden Bear winners Jafar Panahi and...
- 2/16/2023
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
Next month’s Mubi lineup has been unveiled and if you can’t make it to Cannes Film Festival, they are spotlighting recent favorites from the event. As part of a Cannes Takeover series, they will show Lisandro Alonso’s Viggo Mortensen-led Jauja, the Zambian drama I Am Not a Witch, Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s The Wild Pear Tree, and Hirokazu Kore-eda’s After the Storm, plus two films from directors who have new films in this year’s lineup, Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Asako I & II and Nanni Moretti’s Mia Madre, plus more.
Also in the lineup will be the Mubi debut of Magnus van Horn’s Sweat, which opens in theaters today, plus series on Jean-Claude Carriére and Luis Buñuel’s collaboration and a trio of films by the prolific Chilean master Raúl Ruiz. There will also be some recent festival favorites, including Arab Blues starring Golshifteh Farahani...
Also in the lineup will be the Mubi debut of Magnus van Horn’s Sweat, which opens in theaters today, plus series on Jean-Claude Carriére and Luis Buñuel’s collaboration and a trio of films by the prolific Chilean master Raúl Ruiz. There will also be some recent festival favorites, including Arab Blues starring Golshifteh Farahani...
- 6/18/2021
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
The producers of this year’s International Feature Film Oscar winner “Another Round” and Berlin Silver Bear winner “Natural Light” have been selected for European Film Promotion’s Producers on the Move program, which promotes promising producers and fosters international co-productions. The 20 participants for the program, which runs online from May 17-21, will be presenting their latest projects in speed meetings and during roundtable sessions. More than half of the selection are women.
The participants, who were selected for the program from all of the nominations submitted by the Efp member organizations, are Annabella Nezri (Belgium), Nikolay Mutafchiev (Bulgaria), Bojan Kanjera (Croatia), Marek Novák (Czech Republic), Kasper Dissing (Denmark), Jean-Christophe Reymond (France), Maite Woköck (Germany), Sára László (Hungary), Ruth Treacy (Ireland), Marica Stocchi (Italy), Iris Otten (The Netherlands), Gary Cranner (Norway), Beata Rzeźniczek (Poland), Tathiani Sacilotto (Portugal), Bianca Oana (Romania), Katarína Tomková (Slovak Republic), Andraž Jerič (Slovenia), Clara Nieto (Spain...
The participants, who were selected for the program from all of the nominations submitted by the Efp member organizations, are Annabella Nezri (Belgium), Nikolay Mutafchiev (Bulgaria), Bojan Kanjera (Croatia), Marek Novák (Czech Republic), Kasper Dissing (Denmark), Jean-Christophe Reymond (France), Maite Woköck (Germany), Sára László (Hungary), Ruth Treacy (Ireland), Marica Stocchi (Italy), Iris Otten (The Netherlands), Gary Cranner (Norway), Beata Rzeźniczek (Poland), Tathiani Sacilotto (Portugal), Bianca Oana (Romania), Katarína Tomková (Slovak Republic), Andraž Jerič (Slovenia), Clara Nieto (Spain...
- 5/6/2021
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
Emmanuel Mouret’s “Love Affairs” is leading the nominations for the Cesar Awards, France’s top film honors. Nominations were announced online on Wednesday.
The film, which was part of Cannes 2020’s official selection, weaves together a series of romantic tales exploring love, friendship and infidelity with an ensemble cast including Camelia Jordana, Niels Schneider, Vincent Macaigne and Julia Piaton. “Love Affairs” earned 13 awards nominations, including for best film, director, as well as nods for Jordana, Schneider, Macaigne and Piaton. The film previously won best film at the Lumieres Awards.
Meanwhile, Albert Dupontel’s “Bye Bye Morons” and Francois Ozon’s “Summer of 85” are each nominated for 12 Cesar Awards, including best film and best director. A dark comedy, “Bye Bye Morons” stars Virginie Efira as a seriously ill woman on a mission to reunite with her long-lost child with the help of a man who’s having a burnout.
The film, which was part of Cannes 2020’s official selection, weaves together a series of romantic tales exploring love, friendship and infidelity with an ensemble cast including Camelia Jordana, Niels Schneider, Vincent Macaigne and Julia Piaton. “Love Affairs” earned 13 awards nominations, including for best film, director, as well as nods for Jordana, Schneider, Macaigne and Piaton. The film previously won best film at the Lumieres Awards.
Meanwhile, Albert Dupontel’s “Bye Bye Morons” and Francois Ozon’s “Summer of 85” are each nominated for 12 Cesar Awards, including best film and best director. A dark comedy, “Bye Bye Morons” stars Virginie Efira as a seriously ill woman on a mission to reunite with her long-lost child with the help of a man who’s having a burnout.
- 2/10/2021
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
French cinema saw its international box office receipts fall to €86.6 million ($105.4 million), a near 70% drop, in 2020, according to a study unveiled by French promotion org UniFrance during the virtual Rendez-Vous market.
The drastic decline is explained by the fact that theaters worldwide were closed for several months due to the pandemic. The number of French films released in foreign theaters fell by 30% to 611 titles.
International ticket sales, meanwhile, fell to 13.7 million, down 69.8% on 2019. The extent of the drop in overseas admissions mirrors the decline in admissions for French films at home, which were down 60.7% compared with 2019 levels. UniFrance also points to the absence of a major hit and the downturn in emerging markets such as China.
Celine Sciamma’s “Portrait of a Lady on Fire,” Roman Polanski’s “An Officer and a Spy” and Ladj Ly’s “Les Miserables” were the three French films that sold the most admissions overseas...
The drastic decline is explained by the fact that theaters worldwide were closed for several months due to the pandemic. The number of French films released in foreign theaters fell by 30% to 611 titles.
International ticket sales, meanwhile, fell to 13.7 million, down 69.8% on 2019. The extent of the drop in overseas admissions mirrors the decline in admissions for French films at home, which were down 60.7% compared with 2019 levels. UniFrance also points to the absence of a major hit and the downturn in emerging markets such as China.
Celine Sciamma’s “Portrait of a Lady on Fire,” Roman Polanski’s “An Officer and a Spy” and Ladj Ly’s “Les Miserables” were the three French films that sold the most admissions overseas...
- 1/13/2021
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Read about all the leading titles coming to cinemas.
France, opening Wednesday October 7
Mainstream French comedies and dramas topped the release schedule in France once again this week, in the absence of US studio titles.
The biggest release of the week was romantic comedy The ABCs Of Love for Ugc Distribution on some 480 prints. Rising star Vincent Dedienne plays a thirtysomething babysitter, who unwittingly gets entangled in the parent teacher association of the school that his nine-year-old charge attends but finds love along the way.
Other local features included long triangle drama Dreamchild, starring Jalil Lespert, Louise Bourgoin and Mélanie Doutey...
France, opening Wednesday October 7
Mainstream French comedies and dramas topped the release schedule in France once again this week, in the absence of US studio titles.
The biggest release of the week was romantic comedy The ABCs Of Love for Ugc Distribution on some 480 prints. Rising star Vincent Dedienne plays a thirtysomething babysitter, who unwittingly gets entangled in the parent teacher association of the school that his nine-year-old charge attends but finds love along the way.
Other local features included long triangle drama Dreamchild, starring Jalil Lespert, Louise Bourgoin and Mélanie Doutey...
- 10/9/2020
- by Ben Dalton¬Melanie Goodfellow¬Gabriele Niola¬Martin Blaney
- ScreenDaily
Exclusive: Simon Kinberg/David Weil’s sweeping Apple TV+ alien invasion series returned to production in Manchester, England a week ago.
Sam Neill, Shamier Anderson, Golshifteh Farahani, Firas Nassar (Fauda) and Shioli Kutsuna star in Invasion (fka Untitled Kinberg/Weil), a character-driven sci-fi drama series from Kinberg, Weil and Platform One Media.
Written and executive produced by Kinberg and Weil, Invasion is set across multiple continents and follows an alien invasion through multiple perspectives around the world.
One of Apple’s most ambitious original series to date, Invasion is designed to film in four locations on four continents: New York in the U.S. as well as UK (Manchester), Morocco and Japan. Portions of the series had been shot in New York and Morocco, and producers were prepping for the UK shoot when the coronavirus-related industry shutdown started in mid-March.
Sam Neill, Shamier Anderson, Golshifteh Farahani, Firas Nassar (Fauda) and Shioli Kutsuna star in Invasion (fka Untitled Kinberg/Weil), a character-driven sci-fi drama series from Kinberg, Weil and Platform One Media.
Written and executive produced by Kinberg and Weil, Invasion is set across multiple continents and follows an alien invasion through multiple perspectives around the world.
One of Apple’s most ambitious original series to date, Invasion is designed to film in four locations on four continents: New York in the U.S. as well as UK (Manchester), Morocco and Japan. Portions of the series had been shot in New York and Morocco, and producers were prepping for the UK shoot when the coronavirus-related industry shutdown started in mid-March.
- 8/27/2020
- by Nellie Andreeva
- Deadline Film + TV
Leonine is opening Russell Crowe thriller ‘Unhinged’ in Germany.
As cinemas begin to reopen again in many territories, Screen is tracking which films are being released in key territories each week.
Cinema reopening dates around the world: latest updates France, opening Wednesday July 15
The French box office entered its fourth full week of activity on July 15, following the reopening of cinemas on June 22 after their 14-week Covid-19 hiatus.
New films on release this week include Francois Ozon’s young adult drama Summer Of 85. Diaphana Distribution pushed the launch forward from France’s typical Wednesday release day to Tuesday, to...
As cinemas begin to reopen again in many territories, Screen is tracking which films are being released in key territories each week.
Cinema reopening dates around the world: latest updates France, opening Wednesday July 15
The French box office entered its fourth full week of activity on July 15, following the reopening of cinemas on June 22 after their 14-week Covid-19 hiatus.
New films on release this week include Francois Ozon’s young adult drama Summer Of 85. Diaphana Distribution pushed the launch forward from France’s typical Wednesday release day to Tuesday, to...
- 7/17/2020
- by 158¦Martin Blaney¦40¦¬1101324¦Elisabet Cabeza¦37¦¬1101325¦Gabriele Niola¦35¦¬1101321¦Ben Dalton¦26¦¬1100388¦Melanie Goodfellow¦69¦
- ScreenDaily
Arab Blues Photo: Courtesy of London Film Festival/Carole Bethuel The French Film Festival has announced it will screen a streamlined programme for its 28th edition across dates in November and December.
The programme, which is still a work in progress, will feature films including culture-clash comedy Arab Blues and Papicha - which sees teens fighting fundamentalism - alongside classics like Costa-Gavras' murder mystery The Sleeping Car Murders. Other familiar names joining the line-up include Robert Guédiguian, whose heartfelt family drama Gloria Mundi will also screen.
Festival director Richard Mowe said: "We felt it important that the 28th edition of the French Film Festival UK should continue to keep faith with our colleagues in cinemas and our loyal and enthusiastic audiences stretching from Shetland to Plymouth. The festival will follow the guidelines for distancing and self-protection."
The programme so far - with further titles due to be announced later this...
The programme, which is still a work in progress, will feature films including culture-clash comedy Arab Blues and Papicha - which sees teens fighting fundamentalism - alongside classics like Costa-Gavras' murder mystery The Sleeping Car Murders. Other familiar names joining the line-up include Robert Guédiguian, whose heartfelt family drama Gloria Mundi will also screen.
Festival director Richard Mowe said: "We felt it important that the 28th edition of the French Film Festival UK should continue to keep faith with our colleagues in cinemas and our loyal and enthusiastic audiences stretching from Shetland to Plymouth. The festival will follow the guidelines for distancing and self-protection."
The programme so far - with further titles due to be announced later this...
- 6/12/2020
- by Amber Wilkinson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
France’s National Cinema Centre was granted powers in March to soften windows.
The French branches of Universal Pictures International (Upi) and Warner Bros are among a dozen distributors operating in France to have been granted permission by the country’s National Cinema Centre (Cnc) to break the theatrical window due to the shutdown of cinemas amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
They are joined by local studios Gaumont and Pathé as well as independent distributors Le Pacte, Diaphana, Memento Films Distribution and Ad Vitam, Rezo and Apollo, all of which are strong supporters of France’s media windows.
France’s notoriously...
The French branches of Universal Pictures International (Upi) and Warner Bros are among a dozen distributors operating in France to have been granted permission by the country’s National Cinema Centre (Cnc) to break the theatrical window due to the shutdown of cinemas amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
They are joined by local studios Gaumont and Pathé as well as independent distributors Le Pacte, Diaphana, Memento Films Distribution and Ad Vitam, Rezo and Apollo, all of which are strong supporters of France’s media windows.
France’s notoriously...
- 4/2/2020
- by 1100388¦Melanie Goodfellow¦0¦
- ScreenDaily
For many first-generation immigrants, or those taken to another country at a young age, the place they could call 'home' is often difficult (not least if you're a person of colour raised in a predominantly white culture). Do you continue to stay in your adopted country, where even your privilege comes with discrimination and difficulty? Or do you return to your parents' country of origin, and be seen as an outsider in the place that should welcome you? How do you handle the cultural differences, and can you ease into a life? Such clashes are ripe fodder for comedic cinema, and Arab Blues, Tunisian director Manele Ladibi's debut feature, plays them up in a film that blends cultural specificity with universally understandable frustrations. While not...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
- 3/10/2020
- Screen Anarchy
Actor and director is best known internationally for his role as one of the assistant characters in Call My Agent!.
Paris-based Les Films du Losange has launched sales on My Best Part, the solo directorial debut of Nicolas Maury, who is best known internationally as one of the assistant characters in hit French show Call My Agent!.
The comedy drama stars Maury as an upcoming actor, in the midst of an existentialist crisis, who retreats to his mother’s home in the countryside after a series of romantic and professional setbacks in Paris but finds little peace-of-mind.
Maury co-wrote the...
Paris-based Les Films du Losange has launched sales on My Best Part, the solo directorial debut of Nicolas Maury, who is best known internationally as one of the assistant characters in hit French show Call My Agent!.
The comedy drama stars Maury as an upcoming actor, in the midst of an existentialist crisis, who retreats to his mother’s home in the countryside after a series of romantic and professional setbacks in Paris but finds little peace-of-mind.
Maury co-wrote the...
- 2/21/2020
- by 1100388¦Melanie Goodfellow¦0¦
- ScreenDaily
With his first short film, the animated “Yùl and the Snake,” Gabriel Harel won Europe’s Cartoon d’Or for the continent’s best animated short film, given at the 2016 Cartoon Forum in Toulouse. Now, Harel’s awaited sophomore effort, the animated “The Night of the Plastic Bags,” competes at UniFrance’s MyFrenchFilmFestival, and is available on a swathe of VOD platforms around the world. The short world-premiered at last year’s Cannes Festival, in Directors’ Fortnight.
Trained at Valence’s celebrated La Poudrière animation school in France, Harel delivers in his second short a dark story – with the rhythm of an ecological thriller – about 39-year-old Agathe, who is obsessed with having a child in a world conquered by plastic bags. As in “Yùl,” Harel has chosen to shoot in B&w with select objects — the devilish bags— in pop-out colors. “The Night” is produced by French Kazak Productions, behind Manele Labidi’s “Arab Blues,...
Trained at Valence’s celebrated La Poudrière animation school in France, Harel delivers in his second short a dark story – with the rhythm of an ecological thriller – about 39-year-old Agathe, who is obsessed with having a child in a world conquered by plastic bags. As in “Yùl,” Harel has chosen to shoot in B&w with select objects — the devilish bags— in pop-out colors. “The Night” is produced by French Kazak Productions, behind Manele Labidi’s “Arab Blues,...
- 1/18/2020
- by Emilio Mayorga
- Variety Film + TV
Paris-based mk2 films, which is in Venice with three films including Robert Guédiguian’s competition entry “Gloria Mundi,” is bowing sales on a raft of prestige documentaries, notably Jia Zhang-ke’s “So Close to My Land” and Jacques Loeuille’s “Birds of America.”
“So Close to My Land” marks the sixth collaboration between mk2 and the Chinese auteur, whose latest film, “Ash Is Purest White,” competed at Cannes in 2018. Jia also competed at Cannes with “Mountains May Depart” in 2015 and “A Touch of Sin,” which won the best screenplay award in 2013.
“So Close to My Land” is the third and final installment in a trilogy focusing on different artistic disciplines in China, after “Dong” (2006), about an acclaimed painter, and “Useless” (2007), about the fashion and clothing industry. Jia’s 2010 film “I Wish I Knew” played at Cannes’ Un Certain Regard, while “Useless” and “Dong” opened at Venice and won prizes.
An...
“So Close to My Land” marks the sixth collaboration between mk2 and the Chinese auteur, whose latest film, “Ash Is Purest White,” competed at Cannes in 2018. Jia also competed at Cannes with “Mountains May Depart” in 2015 and “A Touch of Sin,” which won the best screenplay award in 2013.
“So Close to My Land” is the third and final installment in a trilogy focusing on different artistic disciplines in China, after “Dong” (2006), about an acclaimed painter, and “Useless” (2007), about the fashion and clothing industry. Jia’s 2010 film “I Wish I Knew” played at Cannes’ Un Certain Regard, while “Useless” and “Dong” opened at Venice and won prizes.
An...
- 8/29/2019
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
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