Marie-Ange Luciani, who produced Justine Triet’s Oscar-nominated film “Anatomy of a Fall,” won the Toscan du Plantier Award at a Paris ceremony hosted by the Cesar Academie on Monday.
Celebrating the year’s best producer, the Toscan du Plantier prize is voted on by 1,717 members, including artists and crew members who were previously nominated at the Cesar Awards, along with the governing body members of the Cesar Academie.
Luciani most recently produced “Anatomy of a Fall” with David Thion. Some of her best known credits include Robin Campillo’s Cannes prizewinning “Bpm (Beats Per Minute).” Through her banner Les Films de Pierre, she has also been producing movies directed by Laurent Cantet, Claire Burger and Ursula Meier. Her pipeline includes the next movies by Campillo and Mona Chokri. She’ll be attending the Berlin Film Festival with the world premiere of Burger’s next film, “Langue etrangere,” playing in competition.
Celebrating the year’s best producer, the Toscan du Plantier prize is voted on by 1,717 members, including artists and crew members who were previously nominated at the Cesar Awards, along with the governing body members of the Cesar Academie.
Luciani most recently produced “Anatomy of a Fall” with David Thion. Some of her best known credits include Robin Campillo’s Cannes prizewinning “Bpm (Beats Per Minute).” Through her banner Les Films de Pierre, she has also been producing movies directed by Laurent Cantet, Claire Burger and Ursula Meier. Her pipeline includes the next movies by Campillo and Mona Chokri. She’ll be attending the Berlin Film Festival with the world premiere of Burger’s next film, “Langue etrangere,” playing in competition.
- 2/13/2024
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
In 2001, Agnès Godard became the first woman to win the Césare award for Best Cinematography on her own (Marie Perennou shared it with three men in 1997 for her documentary “Microcosmos”). Godard’s prize was for shooting Claire Denis’ “Beau Travail,” the poetic riff on “Billy Budd” that investigates masculinity in the French Foreign Legion.
“I thought it was funny because the film was about all these men,” she said, sitting down for an interview in New York ahead of a new film series of her work. “It was kind of ironic. I was smiling a bit. It wasn’t revenge. But it was funny.” But the milestone moment didn’t generate any headlines. “At the time, nobody mentioned it,” she said.
While the number of female cinematographers worldwide has inched up in recent years, it was a much narrower field when the 71-year-old Godard entered the profession over 30 years ago.
“I thought it was funny because the film was about all these men,” she said, sitting down for an interview in New York ahead of a new film series of her work. “It was kind of ironic. I was smiling a bit. It wasn’t revenge. But it was funny.” But the milestone moment didn’t generate any headlines. “At the time, nobody mentioned it,” she said.
While the number of female cinematographers worldwide has inched up in recent years, it was a much narrower field when the 71-year-old Godard entered the profession over 30 years ago.
- 4/4/2023
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
As the new crop of 2023 festival favorites roll out, Focus Features presents A Thousand And One in over 900 carefully curated theaters, testing the appetite for specialty fare at a challenging moment.
Short film and video director A.V. Rockwell’s feature-length debut stars Teyana Taylor as free-spirited Inez, who kidnaps her six-year-old son Terry from the foster care system. Holding onto their secret and each other, mother and son set out to reclaim their sense of home, identity, and stability in a rapidly changing New York City. Reviews are stellar, see Deadline’s. The winner of the Sundance Grand Jury Prize is at 97% with critics on Rotten Tomatoes, 82% with auds. The fest called it “an elegant ode to the terribly beautiful power of family as an anchor in an ever-changing world, making us into who we are in ways we can only haltingly understand.”
This film, like Barry Jenkins’ Moonlight in...
Short film and video director A.V. Rockwell’s feature-length debut stars Teyana Taylor as free-spirited Inez, who kidnaps her six-year-old son Terry from the foster care system. Holding onto their secret and each other, mother and son set out to reclaim their sense of home, identity, and stability in a rapidly changing New York City. Reviews are stellar, see Deadline’s. The winner of the Sundance Grand Jury Prize is at 97% with critics on Rotten Tomatoes, 82% with auds. The fest called it “an elegant ode to the terribly beautiful power of family as an anchor in an ever-changing world, making us into who we are in ways we can only haltingly understand.”
This film, like Barry Jenkins’ Moonlight in...
- 3/31/2023
- by Jill Goldsmith
- Deadline Film + TV
Agnès Godard films the opening sequence of her fifth collaboration (following four features and a short) with writer-director Ursula Meier, The Line (La Ligne), in static slow motion: Margaret (Stéphanie Blanchoud) hits her mother (Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi), who falls and collides against the keys of her own piano, rendering her deaf in the impacted ear. A restraining order charges the eldest daughter not to come within 200 meters of her mother—an invisible boundary she immediately ignores with abrasive attempts to make amends until her younger sister paints a literal perimeter around the house. Margaret hovers at a little hill at one end […]
The post “The Search for Images is a Search That Can Last Forever”: Agnès Godard on The Line and Nenétte et Boni first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post “The Search for Images is a Search That Can Last Forever”: Agnès Godard on The Line and Nenétte et Boni first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 3/31/2023
- by A.E. Hunt
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
Agnès Godard films the opening sequence of her fifth collaboration (following four features and a short) with writer-director Ursula Meier, The Line (La Ligne), in static slow motion: Margaret (Stéphanie Blanchoud) hits her mother (Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi), who falls and collides against the keys of her own piano, rendering her deaf in the impacted ear. A restraining order charges the eldest daughter not to come within 200 meters of her mother—an invisible boundary she immediately ignores with abrasive attempts to make amends until her younger sister paints a literal perimeter around the house. Margaret hovers at a little hill at one end […]
The post “The Search for Images is a Search That Can Last Forever”: Agnès Godard on The Line and Nenétte et Boni first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post “The Search for Images is a Search That Can Last Forever”: Agnès Godard on The Line and Nenétte et Boni first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 3/31/2023
- by A.E. Hunt
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
The relationship drama premiered in competition at the 2022 Berlinale.
Michael Koch’s second feature A Piece Of Sky was named best feature film at this year’s Swiss Film Awards which were held at a gala ceremony in Geneva at the weekend.
The Alpine love story premiered in competition at the 2022 Berlinale and was Switzerland’s entry for the International Feature Film category of the Academy Awards this year.
Members of the Swiss Film Academy voted Elena Avdija’s Stuntwomen (Cascadeuses) as best documentary, while Ursula Meier’s The Line - which premiered at the Berlinale in the main competition...
Michael Koch’s second feature A Piece Of Sky was named best feature film at this year’s Swiss Film Awards which were held at a gala ceremony in Geneva at the weekend.
The Alpine love story premiered in competition at the 2022 Berlinale and was Switzerland’s entry for the International Feature Film category of the Academy Awards this year.
Members of the Swiss Film Academy voted Elena Avdija’s Stuntwomen (Cascadeuses) as best documentary, while Ursula Meier’s The Line - which premiered at the Berlinale in the main competition...
- 3/28/2023
- by Martin Blaney
- ScreenDaily
Resignations come shortly after 21st edition wrapped.
The programme director and three board members of Geneva International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights (Fifdh) have all resigned from the festival.
The resignations of programme director Irène Challand and board members Nadia Dresti, Ursula Meier and Stina Werenfels follow a closed meeting of the festival board on March 23.
In a statement, Fifdh said the meeting was called “to discuss the tensions that have arisen in recent months within the Fifdh”.
The statement continued: “Considering that the mission entrusted last year by the Board to the Programme Director to develop the...
The programme director and three board members of Geneva International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights (Fifdh) have all resigned from the festival.
The resignations of programme director Irène Challand and board members Nadia Dresti, Ursula Meier and Stina Werenfels follow a closed meeting of the festival board on March 23.
In a statement, Fifdh said the meeting was called “to discuss the tensions that have arisen in recent months within the Fifdh”.
The statement continued: “Considering that the mission entrusted last year by the Board to the Programme Director to develop the...
- 3/27/2023
- by Tim Dams
- ScreenDaily
It is my experience that one gets a far richer, stranger cinema education in pursuing the careers of actors, that group defined first by (assuming luck shines upon them) two or three era-defining films and then so much that dictates their industry—pet projects, contractual obligations, called-in favors alimony payments, auteur one-offs, and on and on. Few embody that deluge of circumstance better than Michelle Yeoh and Isabelle Huppert, both of whom are receiving spotlights in March. The former’s is a who’s-who of Hong Kong talent, new favorites (The Heroic Trio), items we can at least say are of interest (Trio‘s not-great sequel Executioners), etc.
Huppert’s series runs longer, and notwithstanding certain standards that have long sat on the channel it adds some heavy hitters: Hong’s In Another Country, Cimino’s Heaven’s Gate, Breillat’s Abuse of Weakness, Hansen-Løve’s Things to Come. And, of course,...
Huppert’s series runs longer, and notwithstanding certain standards that have long sat on the channel it adds some heavy hitters: Hong’s In Another Country, Cimino’s Heaven’s Gate, Breillat’s Abuse of Weakness, Hansen-Løve’s Things to Come. And, of course,...
- 2/22/2023
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Event ran December 10-17.
Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel’s Austrian Vera has won the Crystal Arrow award at the 14th Les Arcs Film Festival which wrapped on Friday night in the French mountain resort.
A jury presided over by prolific French actor-director Roschdy Zem gave its great jury prize to Teona Strugar Mitevska’s The Happiest Man In The World. Acting prizes went to Yothin Clavenzani for Ghost Night and Annabelle Lengronne for Léonor Serraille’s Mother And Son, which also won a prize for best photography for Helene Louvart. The film is distributed by Diaphana in France and sold by MK2 Films.
Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel’s Austrian Vera has won the Crystal Arrow award at the 14th Les Arcs Film Festival which wrapped on Friday night in the French mountain resort.
A jury presided over by prolific French actor-director Roschdy Zem gave its great jury prize to Teona Strugar Mitevska’s The Happiest Man In The World. Acting prizes went to Yothin Clavenzani for Ghost Night and Annabelle Lengronne for Léonor Serraille’s Mother And Son, which also won a prize for best photography for Helene Louvart. The film is distributed by Diaphana in France and sold by MK2 Films.
- 12/16/2022
- by Rebecca Leffler
- ScreenDaily
Les Arcs Film Festival’s industry sidebar has unveiled prizes for several projects at different stages, including Annarita Zambrano’s black comedy “Rossosperanza.”
“Rossosperanza” is being produced by Italy’s Mad Entertainment, Rai Cinema, Minnerva Pictures, and France’s Ts Productions. The movie is set in the 1980’s and unfolds at a luxurious villa turned into a rehabilitation center for troubled children from rich families.
The film was one of the 14 projects in post-production presented to film executives from top international banners and festivals as part of the work-in-progress section. The sidebar, now in its 12th edition, is curated by Frederic Boyer, the director artistic of both Tribeca and Les Arcs film festivals, alongside producer and fest co-founder Jeremy Zelnik, among others.
“Rossosperanza” won the TitraFilm Award, chosen by a jury comprising of Ava Cahen, the artistic director of Cannes Critics’ Week), Louisa Dent, managing director of Curzon Artificial Eye,...
“Rossosperanza” is being produced by Italy’s Mad Entertainment, Rai Cinema, Minnerva Pictures, and France’s Ts Productions. The movie is set in the 1980’s and unfolds at a luxurious villa turned into a rehabilitation center for troubled children from rich families.
The film was one of the 14 projects in post-production presented to film executives from top international banners and festivals as part of the work-in-progress section. The sidebar, now in its 12th edition, is curated by Frederic Boyer, the director artistic of both Tribeca and Les Arcs film festivals, alongside producer and fest co-founder Jeremy Zelnik, among others.
“Rossosperanza” won the TitraFilm Award, chosen by a jury comprising of Ava Cahen, the artistic director of Cannes Critics’ Week), Louisa Dent, managing director of Curzon Artificial Eye,...
- 12/14/2022
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Les Arcs Industry Village Winners: ‘The Visitor’, ‘Rossosperanza’ & ‘Veni Vidi Vici’ Take Top Prizes
Lithuanian filmmaker Vytautas Katkus’s debut feature project The Visitor won the top €6,000 Artekino International Award at the Les Arcs Coproduction Village on Tuesday.
The award, decided by Rémi Burah, President of ArteKino Foundation and CEO of Arte France Cinéma, is granted to support the development of the project.
The project, which previously won Cannes Critics’ Week Next Step prize in May, revolves around a young man attempting to make a new life for himself in a foreign land where he does not speak the language or know anyone.
“For this 2022 edition, the ArteKino International Award supports a first feature by a director walking the line between fiction and documentary, social realism and fantastic poetry, with a subtle balance that he has demonstrated in his already very mastered short films,” said Burah.
The Visitor was among 18 feature projects participating in the Les Arcs Coproduction Village.
It is one element of...
The award, decided by Rémi Burah, President of ArteKino Foundation and CEO of Arte France Cinéma, is granted to support the development of the project.
The project, which previously won Cannes Critics’ Week Next Step prize in May, revolves around a young man attempting to make a new life for himself in a foreign land where he does not speak the language or know anyone.
“For this 2022 edition, the ArteKino International Award supports a first feature by a director walking the line between fiction and documentary, social realism and fantastic poetry, with a subtle balance that he has demonstrated in his already very mastered short films,” said Burah.
The Visitor was among 18 feature projects participating in the Les Arcs Coproduction Village.
It is one element of...
- 12/12/2022
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
In Elena Avdija’s documentary “Stuntwomen,” which is world premiering at Zurich Film Festival, you don’t just become a stuntwoman: you have to work for it. Virginie Arnaud, Petra Sprecher and Estelle Piget certainly do, but they don’t always get to showcase their skills.
“Cinema has a fascination with sexist violence. We like to see women suffer, getting kidnapped or raped,” Avdija tells Variety. These are the scenes her protagonists are usually asked to portray.
“What we see on the screen influences our society and our way of thinking. Seeing sexist violence normalizes it in our minds. We need to find new ways of talking about it and Michaela Coel’s ‘I May Destroy You’ is a great inspiration.”
Petra Sprecher, who is also an actor, was recently spotted in “Westworld” and “Lovecraft Country.” Arnaud worked as a stunt coordinator on Séries Mania-selected series “Syndrome E” and “Hors Saison,...
“Cinema has a fascination with sexist violence. We like to see women suffer, getting kidnapped or raped,” Avdija tells Variety. These are the scenes her protagonists are usually asked to portray.
“What we see on the screen influences our society and our way of thinking. Seeing sexist violence normalizes it in our minds. We need to find new ways of talking about it and Michaela Coel’s ‘I May Destroy You’ is a great inspiration.”
Petra Sprecher, who is also an actor, was recently spotted in “Westworld” and “Lovecraft Country.” Arnaud worked as a stunt coordinator on Séries Mania-selected series “Syndrome E” and “Hors Saison,...
- 10/1/2022
- by Marta Balaga
- Variety Film + TV
Strand Releasing has acquired all North American rights to Maryam Touzani’s “The Blue Caftan,” which world premiered at Cannes and won the Fipresci prize. The film, which is represented in international markets by Films Boutique, will have its North American premiere at Toronto in the Special Screenings section.
Touzani’s follow-up to Un Certain Regard title “Adam,” “The Blue Caftan” tells the story of Halim and Mina, a married couple running a traditional caftan store in one of Morocco’s oldest medinas. In order to keep up with the commands of the demanding customers, they hire Youssef. The talented apprentice shows an utmost dedication in learning the art of embroidery and tailoring from Halim. Slowly Mina realizes how much her husband is moved by the presence of the young man.
Produced by Nabil Ayouch, “The Blue Caftan” stars Lubna Azabal (“Incendies”) and Saleh Bakri.
Touzani said “The Blue Caftan...
Touzani’s follow-up to Un Certain Regard title “Adam,” “The Blue Caftan” tells the story of Halim and Mina, a married couple running a traditional caftan store in one of Morocco’s oldest medinas. In order to keep up with the commands of the demanding customers, they hire Youssef. The talented apprentice shows an utmost dedication in learning the art of embroidery and tailoring from Halim. Slowly Mina realizes how much her husband is moved by the presence of the young man.
Produced by Nabil Ayouch, “The Blue Caftan” stars Lubna Azabal (“Incendies”) and Saleh Bakri.
Touzani said “The Blue Caftan...
- 8/9/2022
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Click here to read the full article.
Strand Releasing has picked up rights in North America for 99 Moons, an intense love story from Swiss director Jan Gassmann, which premiered in Cannes’ Acid sidebar.
Berlin-based sales group M-Appeal inked the deal with Strand, also closing deals for for the film with distributors in Israel (Shoval Film Production) and Hong Kong (Edko Films Ltd).
99 Moons tells the story of Bigna, a 28-year-old scientist, used to having everything under control, and Frank, a 33-year-old druggie who feeds on other people’s affection. Their different worlds collide, and they become obsessively entwined in a passionate and turbulent erotic love affair. The film stars first-time actors Valentina Di Pace and Dominik Fellmann.
With 99 Moons, Strand adds to its upcoming slate of European art house features. Recent acquisitions by the New York-based distributor include Francois Ozon’s Peter Von Kant and Ursula Meier’s The Line,...
Strand Releasing has picked up rights in North America for 99 Moons, an intense love story from Swiss director Jan Gassmann, which premiered in Cannes’ Acid sidebar.
Berlin-based sales group M-Appeal inked the deal with Strand, also closing deals for for the film with distributors in Israel (Shoval Film Production) and Hong Kong (Edko Films Ltd).
99 Moons tells the story of Bigna, a 28-year-old scientist, used to having everything under control, and Frank, a 33-year-old druggie who feeds on other people’s affection. Their different worlds collide, and they become obsessively entwined in a passionate and turbulent erotic love affair. The film stars first-time actors Valentina Di Pace and Dominik Fellmann.
With 99 Moons, Strand adds to its upcoming slate of European art house features. Recent acquisitions by the New York-based distributor include Francois Ozon’s Peter Von Kant and Ursula Meier’s The Line,...
- 8/3/2022
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
It was hard to be at the Cannes Film Festival this year and not run into Léa Seydoux. The French actress starred in two well-received movies at this year’s festival, David Cronenberg’s dystopian “Crimes of the Future” and Mia Hansen-Løve’s romantic drama “One Fine Morning,” and also attended a lively 75th-anniversary event for the festival. Throughout the two-week event, she was spotted at restaurants and parties around town, blending into the scene right on schedule.
Cannes has become a kind of ritual for Seydoux, with the exception of last year, when a positive Covid test nixed her trip even though she had three films in competition: “The French Dispatch,” “The Story of My Wife,” and Bruno Dumont’s “France.” Even when circumstances kept her from coming here, audiences couldn’t avoid Seydoux on the big screen.
“Every French actor comes here,” Seydoux said in an interview a...
Cannes has become a kind of ritual for Seydoux, with the exception of last year, when a positive Covid test nixed her trip even though she had three films in competition: “The French Dispatch,” “The Story of My Wife,” and Bruno Dumont’s “France.” Even when circumstances kept her from coming here, audiences couldn’t avoid Seydoux on the big screen.
“Every French actor comes here,” Seydoux said in an interview a...
- 5/27/2022
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
Memento International has acquired “Sick of Myself,” a movie by L.A.-based Norwegian filmmaker Kristoffer Borgli which will world premiere at Cannes in Un Certain Regard.
Borgli previously directed the short films including “Former Cult Member Hears Music For The First Time” and “Eer” which played at Sundance.
“Sick of Myself” stars Kristine Kujath Thorp and Eirik Sæther, a contemporary artist who is making his acting debut. The film was lensed by Benjamin Loeb, the cinematographer of “Pieces of a Woman,” “Mandy” and “When You Finish Saving the World.”
The pic revolves around Signe and Thomas whose dysfunctional relationship takes a vicious turn when Thomas suddenly breaks through as a contemporary artist. Signe embarks on a desperate quest to regain her status and attract attention by creating a new persona at all costs.
Andrea Berentsen Ottmar and Dyveke Bjørkly Graver at Oslo Pictures, the banner behind Joachim Trier’s...
Borgli previously directed the short films including “Former Cult Member Hears Music For The First Time” and “Eer” which played at Sundance.
“Sick of Myself” stars Kristine Kujath Thorp and Eirik Sæther, a contemporary artist who is making his acting debut. The film was lensed by Benjamin Loeb, the cinematographer of “Pieces of a Woman,” “Mandy” and “When You Finish Saving the World.”
The pic revolves around Signe and Thomas whose dysfunctional relationship takes a vicious turn when Thomas suddenly breaks through as a contemporary artist. Signe embarks on a desperate quest to regain her status and attract attention by creating a new persona at all costs.
Andrea Berentsen Ottmar and Dyveke Bjørkly Graver at Oslo Pictures, the banner behind Joachim Trier’s...
- 4/15/2022
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Strand Releasing has acquired all North American rights to Alain Guiraudie’s “Nobody’s Hero” which is handled by Films du Losange and world premiered at the Berlin Film Festival.
The movie, which opened the Berlinale Panorama section, is set in Clermont-Ferrand revolves around Frederic, a 35 year-old man who falls in love with with a middle-aged sex worker who is married.
“Nobody’s Hero” marks the third collaboration between Strand and Guiraudie which began with the helmer’s most successful film “Stranger By The Lake,” followed by his Cannes Competition title, “Staying Vertical.”
“Alain has been a dear colleague to our company, and we are so happy to be working with him again on this wonderfully exuberant comedy that is not only funny, but humane and completely original,” said Strand Releasing’s Jon Gerrans who negotiated the deal with Alice Lesort for Films du Losange. Guiraudie previously contributed to Strand Releasing’s...
The movie, which opened the Berlinale Panorama section, is set in Clermont-Ferrand revolves around Frederic, a 35 year-old man who falls in love with with a middle-aged sex worker who is married.
“Nobody’s Hero” marks the third collaboration between Strand and Guiraudie which began with the helmer’s most successful film “Stranger By The Lake,” followed by his Cannes Competition title, “Staying Vertical.”
“Alain has been a dear colleague to our company, and we are so happy to be working with him again on this wonderfully exuberant comedy that is not only funny, but humane and completely original,” said Strand Releasing’s Jon Gerrans who negotiated the deal with Alice Lesort for Films du Losange. Guiraudie previously contributed to Strand Releasing’s...
- 4/4/2022
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Memento International has sold Ursula Meier’s drama “The Line” to major markets, including the U.S. with Strand Releasing, on the heels of its world premiere in competition at the Berlin Film Festival.
A poignant study of acceptance and delicate family bonds, “The Line” stars Valeria Bruni Tedeschi (“La Fracture”) and Stephanie Blanchoud (“Ennemi Public”) as a mother and daughter whose turbulent relationship and explosive fight lead to a retraining order. “The Line” also stars musician-turned actor Benjamin Biolay, who composed a song for the film produced by Bandita Films, Les Films de Pierre and Les Films du Fleuve.
“We’re thrilled to be working with Meier’s dynamic film. Ms. Meier’s direction and collaboration with Blanchoud and Bruni Tedeschi create a credible tale of family tensions, said Jon Gerrans from Strand Releasing who negotiated the deal with Mathieu Delauney, head of sales at Memento Films International.
Strand...
A poignant study of acceptance and delicate family bonds, “The Line” stars Valeria Bruni Tedeschi (“La Fracture”) and Stephanie Blanchoud (“Ennemi Public”) as a mother and daughter whose turbulent relationship and explosive fight lead to a retraining order. “The Line” also stars musician-turned actor Benjamin Biolay, who composed a song for the film produced by Bandita Films, Les Films de Pierre and Les Films du Fleuve.
“We’re thrilled to be working with Meier’s dynamic film. Ms. Meier’s direction and collaboration with Blanchoud and Bruni Tedeschi create a credible tale of family tensions, said Jon Gerrans from Strand Releasing who negotiated the deal with Mathieu Delauney, head of sales at Memento Films International.
Strand...
- 3/7/2022
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Memento International has closed major sales on Ursula Meier’s Berlin contender “The Line,” and “Boy from Heaven” by Tarik Saleh, the Swedish-Egyptian helmer of “The Nile Hilton Incident.”
A religious and political thriller, “Boy From Heaven” is set in Cairo at a Koranic school following the collapse of a grand imam which marks the start of a ruthless battle for influence.
The movie is headlined by Tawfeek Barhom and Fares Fares, who previously starred in “The Nile Hilton Incident.” Saleh’s Stockholm-based outfit Atmo is producing the movie with Memento.
Memento International has sold the film to Benelux (Cineart), Spain (La Aventura), Italy (Movies Inspired), Greece (Cinobo), Hungary (Vertigo) and Middle East (Falcon). Other territories in negotiation. Memento Distribution will release in France.
The company has also sold “The Line,” Ursula Meier’s drama which is in main competition at the Berlin Film Festival, to a raft of territories,...
A religious and political thriller, “Boy From Heaven” is set in Cairo at a Koranic school following the collapse of a grand imam which marks the start of a ruthless battle for influence.
The movie is headlined by Tawfeek Barhom and Fares Fares, who previously starred in “The Nile Hilton Incident.” Saleh’s Stockholm-based outfit Atmo is producing the movie with Memento.
Memento International has sold the film to Benelux (Cineart), Spain (La Aventura), Italy (Movies Inspired), Greece (Cinobo), Hungary (Vertigo) and Middle East (Falcon). Other territories in negotiation. Memento Distribution will release in France.
The company has also sold “The Line,” Ursula Meier’s drama which is in main competition at the Berlin Film Festival, to a raft of territories,...
- 2/14/2022
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
When developing films like 2008’s “Home” and 2012’s “Sister,” French-Swiss director Ursula Meier began by focusing on geography, imaging what stories may spring from a forgotten stretch of highway or how a remote mountaintop might shape the lives of those living upon it. But when she began work on “The Line,” which premiered on Friday at the Berlin Film Festival, the filmmaker had a different terrain in mind.
“The setting for this film would be the character’s body,” Meier tells Variety. “I wanted to follow a series of old scars that would retrace a troubled past, so that landscape would be the body itself and the story would be one of violence.”
Indeed, violence was what drew Meier and the film’s co-writer and lead actor Stéphanie Blanchoud to the project. “We wanted to examine a violent woman,” Meier says. “The project really started from a shared observation that...
“The setting for this film would be the character’s body,” Meier tells Variety. “I wanted to follow a series of old scars that would retrace a troubled past, so that landscape would be the body itself and the story would be one of violence.”
Indeed, violence was what drew Meier and the film’s co-writer and lead actor Stéphanie Blanchoud to the project. “We wanted to examine a violent woman,” Meier says. “The project really started from a shared observation that...
- 2/13/2022
- by Ben Croll
- Variety Film + TV
Fists Out of Pocket: Meier Mines Superficial Dysfunction with Uneven Comic Melodrama
Although she’s been working on a variety of documentary and short projects, not to mention a compelling segment of the 2018 Shock Waves television series Diary of My Mind (read review), it’s been a decade since Ursula Meier’s last narrative feature and she returns with another dollop of idiosyncratic familial dysfunction with La ligne (The Line). Once again showcasing new faces against renowned cast members, there’s much to admire on the surface in this latest offering of one family’s specific woes. But the narrative drives into immediate high gear and unfortunately stays completely on the surface as we navigate a traumatic situation involving one fragile yet imperious mother and her detached affect towards her three daughters.…...
Although she’s been working on a variety of documentary and short projects, not to mention a compelling segment of the 2018 Shock Waves television series Diary of My Mind (read review), it’s been a decade since Ursula Meier’s last narrative feature and she returns with another dollop of idiosyncratic familial dysfunction with La ligne (The Line). Once again showcasing new faces against renowned cast members, there’s much to admire on the surface in this latest offering of one family’s specific woes. But the narrative drives into immediate high gear and unfortunately stays completely on the surface as we navigate a traumatic situation involving one fragile yet imperious mother and her detached affect towards her three daughters.…...
- 2/12/2022
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Violence and motherhood make for an unusual combination in Ursula Meier’s Berlin Film Festival competition title The Line (La Ligne). Set in remote present-day Switzerland, it stars actor-singer-playwright Stéphanie Blanchoud as Margaret, whose anger towards her mother Christina (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi) frequently turns physical. While she’s a grown woman, there’s something primal and childlike about Margaret’s visceral fury that suggests a disorder that’s never named.
It also points to problems in her past. These become apparent as a restraining order is filed against her, and as Christina rants about the youth she lost when she had a child so young. Christina has since had two other daughters: Louise (India Hair), now heavily pregnant, and sensitive schoolgirl Marion (newcomer Elli Spagnolo), whose way of rebelling against her bohemian, self-centered mother is to turn to religion.
It’s an arresting story of familial disharmony that’s distinctive both visually and thematically.
It also points to problems in her past. These become apparent as a restraining order is filed against her, and as Christina rants about the youth she lost when she had a child so young. Christina has since had two other daughters: Louise (India Hair), now heavily pregnant, and sensitive schoolgirl Marion (newcomer Elli Spagnolo), whose way of rebelling against her bohemian, self-centered mother is to turn to religion.
It’s an arresting story of familial disharmony that’s distinctive both visually and thematically.
- 2/11/2022
- by Anna Smith
- Deadline Film + TV
At the risk of over-generalizing about gender, a great many man-made movies build to climactic scenes of violence, whereas Ursula Meier’s “The Line” begins with a knock-down-drag-out fight and then spends the rest of its running time exploring the consequences.
That opening brawl is a doozy — a mother-daughter showdown that leaves 35-year-old Margaret (Stéphanie Blanchoud) with a nasty scar above her left eye and 50-something Christina (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi) deaf in one ear — though the confrontation itself happens largely in our heads. We see a vase, sheet music and what looks like an entire record collection smashing against a wall. Then we see Margaret chasing her mom around a baby grand piano, a slow-motion slap and Christina’s face slamming hard against the ivory keys. Later, we will learn what triggered this altercation, but in the moment, the younger of the two women looks positively homicidal, as if she...
That opening brawl is a doozy — a mother-daughter showdown that leaves 35-year-old Margaret (Stéphanie Blanchoud) with a nasty scar above her left eye and 50-something Christina (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi) deaf in one ear — though the confrontation itself happens largely in our heads. We see a vase, sheet music and what looks like an entire record collection smashing against a wall. Then we see Margaret chasing her mom around a baby grand piano, a slow-motion slap and Christina’s face slamming hard against the ivory keys. Later, we will learn what triggered this altercation, but in the moment, the younger of the two women looks positively homicidal, as if she...
- 2/11/2022
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
Stéphanie Blanchoud and Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi impress in Ursula Meier’s stark, well-written tale of malignant domestic resentment
The line is there to be crossed in this engrossing, unnerving but unexpectedly sympathetic drama of family dysfunction from French-Swiss film-maker Ursula Meier who made her memorable debut back in 2008 with the eco-parable Home, starring a particularly intransigent Isabelle Huppert. Meier has a knack of creating overwhelming mothers: Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi is on very imperious and distrait form as Christina, a former classical concert pianist who abandoned her career for her family and never let her three daughters forget it – finally becoming a demanding music teacher who also appears to have taken her oldest child as a pupil. This is Margaret (Stéphanie Blanchoud) who is a talented pop musician, singer and guitarist with a thriving local following.
Maybe Margaret owes some of her success to her impossible mother and maybe she doesn’t. But...
The line is there to be crossed in this engrossing, unnerving but unexpectedly sympathetic drama of family dysfunction from French-Swiss film-maker Ursula Meier who made her memorable debut back in 2008 with the eco-parable Home, starring a particularly intransigent Isabelle Huppert. Meier has a knack of creating overwhelming mothers: Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi is on very imperious and distrait form as Christina, a former classical concert pianist who abandoned her career for her family and never let her three daughters forget it – finally becoming a demanding music teacher who also appears to have taken her oldest child as a pupil. This is Margaret (Stéphanie Blanchoud) who is a talented pop musician, singer and guitarist with a thriving local following.
Maybe Margaret owes some of her success to her impossible mother and maybe she doesn’t. But...
- 2/11/2022
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Undeterred by the pandemic, the wheels of Switzerland’s film production machine kept on spinning in 2021, churning out the meticulously made multicultural co-productions the country is known for that scored slots at top festivals.
Works by young directors such as Elie Grappe, whose coming-of-age drama “Olga” launched at Cannes; Niccolò Castelli’s terrorism-themed “Atlas,” which bowed at Locarno; and also the VR project “Caves” by Carlos Isabel Garcìa, which premiered at Venice; provided a preamble to the exceptionally strong Swiss presence at this year’s Berlinale.
Berlin sees a record-breaking two competition slots filled by new works from established Swiss directors, Ursula Meier’s “The Line” and Michael Koch’s “A Piece of Sky,” plus several more Swiss titles in other sections.
“In the worst year ever we shot three productions back-to-back during the pandemic; somehow we got used to it,” says Oscar-nominated Max Karli (“My Life as a Zucchini...
Works by young directors such as Elie Grappe, whose coming-of-age drama “Olga” launched at Cannes; Niccolò Castelli’s terrorism-themed “Atlas,” which bowed at Locarno; and also the VR project “Caves” by Carlos Isabel Garcìa, which premiered at Venice; provided a preamble to the exceptionally strong Swiss presence at this year’s Berlinale.
Berlin sees a record-breaking two competition slots filled by new works from established Swiss directors, Ursula Meier’s “The Line” and Michael Koch’s “A Piece of Sky,” plus several more Swiss titles in other sections.
“In the worst year ever we shot three productions back-to-back during the pandemic; somehow we got used to it,” says Oscar-nominated Max Karli (“My Life as a Zucchini...
- 2/11/2022
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
Switzerland, thanks to its prolific co-production activity, has a hand in a record-breaking 11 titles in the Berlinale’s official selection, including two films competing for the Golden Bear, and two more in Berlin’s cutting-edge Encounters section, as well as a Swiss talent selected for the fest’s Shooting Stars event, Souheila Yacoub.
Ursula Meier’s “The Line” (competition) — Following “Home” and “Sister,” Meier continues to pursue “this idea of family that is as much necessary, as it is toxic,” says the film’s producer Pauline Gygax. After a violent argument with her mother, Margaret, 35 (Stephanie Blanchoud), who has a long history of inflicting and suffering from violence, is subjected to a restraining order. She is not allowed to make contact with her mother (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi) or come within 100 meters of the family home. But the separation exacerbates her desire to be closer to her family, so she returns...
Ursula Meier’s “The Line” (competition) — Following “Home” and “Sister,” Meier continues to pursue “this idea of family that is as much necessary, as it is toxic,” says the film’s producer Pauline Gygax. After a violent argument with her mother, Margaret, 35 (Stephanie Blanchoud), who has a long history of inflicting and suffering from violence, is subjected to a restraining order. She is not allowed to make contact with her mother (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi) or come within 100 meters of the family home. But the separation exacerbates her desire to be closer to her family, so she returns...
- 2/11/2022
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
“There’s more of a crush over the opening weekend”, said one PR director.
International PR teams at the Berlinale are facing higher costs and scheduling complications as they juggle a shorter festival and less press and critics in town than usual.
“While I’m quite happy with the festival shaving off a few days, that has meant there’s more of a crush over the opening weekend,” said Jonathan Rutter, director of film at London-based Premier PR, which is repping seven titles in Official Selection, including Ursula Meier’s The Line in Competition.
“We’ve had to bring in...
International PR teams at the Berlinale are facing higher costs and scheduling complications as they juggle a shorter festival and less press and critics in town than usual.
“While I’m quite happy with the festival shaving off a few days, that has meant there’s more of a crush over the opening weekend,” said Jonathan Rutter, director of film at London-based Premier PR, which is repping seven titles in Official Selection, including Ursula Meier’s The Line in Competition.
“We’ve had to bring in...
- 2/10/2022
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
“There’s more of a crush over the opening weekend”, said one PR director.
International PR teams at the Berlinale are facing higher costs and scheduling complications as they juggle a shorter festival and less press and critics in town than usual.
“While I’m quite happy with the festival shaving off a few days, that has meant there’s more of a crush over the opening weekend,” said Jonathan Rutter, director of film at London-based Premier PR, which is repping seven titles in Official Selection, including Ursula Meier’s The Line in Competition.
“We’ve had to bring in...
International PR teams at the Berlinale are facing higher costs and scheduling complications as they juggle a shorter festival and less press and critics in town than usual.
“While I’m quite happy with the festival shaving off a few days, that has meant there’s more of a crush over the opening weekend,” said Jonathan Rutter, director of film at London-based Premier PR, which is repping seven titles in Official Selection, including Ursula Meier’s The Line in Competition.
“We’ve had to bring in...
- 2/10/2022
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
After launching last year’s edition as a two-pronged event held last March and June, this year’s Berlin Film Festival is attempting to return to (relative) normalcy, complete with an enviable lineup of new films. While the Berlinale’s European Film Market has moved online, this year’s Berlin Film Festival is sticking to an in-person event with limited capacity, mandatory vaccines, and no parties.
But although moviegoers might not be literally partying it up during the course of the 10-day festival, there will still be plenty to celebrate, including new films from beloved auteurs like Claire Denis, Dario Argento, Quentin Dupieux, Ursula Meier, and Peter Strickland, plus new works from rising stars on the international circuit like Kivu Ruhorahoza, Ashley McKenzie, and Li Ruijun. There are Covid-made features and murderous revenge thrillers, small-scale romances and real-life twins making their debut, and at least one film that just might...
But although moviegoers might not be literally partying it up during the course of the 10-day festival, there will still be plenty to celebrate, including new films from beloved auteurs like Claire Denis, Dario Argento, Quentin Dupieux, Ursula Meier, and Peter Strickland, plus new works from rising stars on the international circuit like Kivu Ruhorahoza, Ashley McKenzie, and Li Ruijun. There are Covid-made features and murderous revenge thrillers, small-scale romances and real-life twins making their debut, and at least one film that just might...
- 2/9/2022
- by Kate Erbland, David Ehrlich and Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
Berlin Film Festival artistic director Carlo Chatrian on Wednesday unveiled the full lineup for the fest’s 72nd edition which he is hellbent on holding as an in-person event despite the global spread of the omicron variant, even after other top fests such as Sundance and Rotterdam have thrown in the towel and gone online.
Chatrian spoke to Variety about the selection and what he expects his “exercise in resistance,” as he has called it, to be like on the ground in Berlin.
One thing that I think is clear is that the global film community is supporting your determination.
Yes. Despite everything that is happening, the willingness and desire to be part of the festival on the part of production companies, sellers, actors and directors is very strong. I was even moved a couple of weeks ago when they told me that Paolo Taviani, who is 91, really wants to come at any cost.
Chatrian spoke to Variety about the selection and what he expects his “exercise in resistance,” as he has called it, to be like on the ground in Berlin.
One thing that I think is clear is that the global film community is supporting your determination.
Yes. Despite everything that is happening, the willingness and desire to be part of the festival on the part of production companies, sellers, actors and directors is very strong. I was even moved a couple of weeks ago when they told me that Paolo Taviani, who is 91, really wants to come at any cost.
- 1/19/2022
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
The complete lineup for the 2022 Berlin International Film Festival, taking place February 10-20, 2022, has been unveiled and it’s a major collection of some of our most-anticipated films of the year. As teased yesterday, Claire Denis’ Fire (which now has the title Avec amour et acharnement (aka Both Sides of the Blade)) will premiere in competition, alongside Hong Sangsoo’s The Novelist’s Film, Carla Simón’s Summer 1993 follow-up Alcarràs, Ulrich Seidl’s Rimini, Rithy Panh’s Everything Will Be Ok, and more.
Elsewhere in the festival is Bertrand Bonello’s Coma, Dario Argento’s Dark Glasses, Andrew Dominik’s Nick Cave & Warren Ellis doc This Much I Know To Be True, Peter Strickland’s Flux Gourmet, Gastón Solnicki’s A Little Love Package, Quentin Dupieux’s Incredible But True, plus new shorts by Lucrecia Martel, Hlynur Pálmason, and more. Also recently announced was the Panorama section, which will open...
Elsewhere in the festival is Bertrand Bonello’s Coma, Dario Argento’s Dark Glasses, Andrew Dominik’s Nick Cave & Warren Ellis doc This Much I Know To Be True, Peter Strickland’s Flux Gourmet, Gastón Solnicki’s A Little Love Package, Quentin Dupieux’s Incredible But True, plus new shorts by Lucrecia Martel, Hlynur Pálmason, and more. Also recently announced was the Panorama section, which will open...
- 1/19/2022
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
The 72nd Berlin International Film Festival (February 10-20) revealed its Competition line-up on Wednesday, scroll down for the full list.
As previously announced, the International Competition opens this year with François Ozon’s Peter Von Kant. Joining the Ozon pic today were 17 further features, including new films from Hong Sang-soo, Claire Denis, Ulrich Seidl, and Rithy Panh.
This marks Denis’ first time in Berlin’s Competition, having been a regular at Cannes over the years, while her last film High Life debuted at Toronto. The director’s new movie Both Sides of the Blade (previously known as Fire) stars Juliette Binoche and Vincent Lindon.
South Korean filmmaker Hong Sang-soo picked up the Silver Bear for Best Director in 2020 for movie The Woman Who Ran. His latest pic is The Novelist’s Film, which Berlin Artistic Director today said celebrates chance encounters.
The Competition program is 17 world premieres plus one international premiere,...
As previously announced, the International Competition opens this year with François Ozon’s Peter Von Kant. Joining the Ozon pic today were 17 further features, including new films from Hong Sang-soo, Claire Denis, Ulrich Seidl, and Rithy Panh.
This marks Denis’ first time in Berlin’s Competition, having been a regular at Cannes over the years, while her last film High Life debuted at Toronto. The director’s new movie Both Sides of the Blade (previously known as Fire) stars Juliette Binoche and Vincent Lindon.
South Korean filmmaker Hong Sang-soo picked up the Silver Bear for Best Director in 2020 for movie The Woman Who Ran. His latest pic is The Novelist’s Film, which Berlin Artistic Director today said celebrates chance encounters.
The Competition program is 17 world premieres plus one international premiere,...
- 1/19/2022
- by Tom Grater
- Deadline Film + TV
Films by auteurs Claire Denis, Hong Sangsoo and Rithy Panh are part of the lineup in competition at the 72nd Berlin Film Festival.
Berlin’s 2022 selection spans 18 movies, seven directed by women, which will compete for the Golden and Silver Bears. The films originate from 15 countries, with 17 serving as world premieres. Two of the films are first features, both from women.
Artistic director Carlo Chatrian discussed the thematic throughline of “human and emotional bonds” across the selection, with the family unit serving as a key focal point in a number of movies. More than half are set in the present time, and two are within the pandemic era.
The festival hosts 12 returning filmmakers, eight of whom are in competition and five of whom already hold a Bear from Berlin.
The festival will go ahead as an in-person event, albeit with seating capacity in movie theaters reduced to 50% and without any parties or receptions.
Berlin’s 2022 selection spans 18 movies, seven directed by women, which will compete for the Golden and Silver Bears. The films originate from 15 countries, with 17 serving as world premieres. Two of the films are first features, both from women.
Artistic director Carlo Chatrian discussed the thematic throughline of “human and emotional bonds” across the selection, with the family unit serving as a key focal point in a number of movies. More than half are set in the present time, and two are within the pandemic era.
The festival hosts 12 returning filmmakers, eight of whom are in competition and five of whom already hold a Bear from Berlin.
The festival will go ahead as an in-person event, albeit with seating capacity in movie theaters reduced to 50% and without any parties or receptions.
- 1/19/2022
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
La ligne
Excluding her docu features, Ursula Meier is now at the three feature film mark with La ligne (The Line) – a project that began lensing in Switzerland around this time last year. Co-written by Stéphanie Blanchoud, Antoine Jaccoud and Meier (with additional help from Robin Campillo and Nathalie Najem), this stars Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, India Hair, Benjamin Biolay and Blanchoud as Margaret — this reunites the filmmaker with with her cinematographer Agnès Godard. Meier moves from shipwrecked family in 2008’s Home to disproportionately supporting one’s sibling in 2012’s L’enfant d’en haut to a film that pokes the family tree with a stick.…...
Excluding her docu features, Ursula Meier is now at the three feature film mark with La ligne (The Line) – a project that began lensing in Switzerland around this time last year. Co-written by Stéphanie Blanchoud, Antoine Jaccoud and Meier (with additional help from Robin Campillo and Nathalie Najem), this stars Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, India Hair, Benjamin Biolay and Blanchoud as Margaret — this reunites the filmmaker with with her cinematographer Agnès Godard. Meier moves from shipwrecked family in 2008’s Home to disproportionately supporting one’s sibling in 2012’s L’enfant d’en haut to a film that pokes the family tree with a stick.…...
- 1/11/2022
- by Eric Lavallée
- IONCINEMA.com
If 2021 has been a calvacade of bad decisions, dashed hopes, and warning signs for cinema’s strength, the Criterion Channel’s monthly programming has at least buttressed our hopes for something like a better tomorrow. Anyway. The Channel will let us ride out distended (holi)days in the family home with an extensive Alfred Hitchcock series to bring the family together—from the established Rear Window and Vertigo to the (let’s just guess) lesser-seen Downhill and Young and Innocent—Johnnie To’s Throw Down and Orson Welles’ The Magnificent Ambersons in their Criterion editions, and some streaming premieres: Ste. Anne, Lydia Lunch: The War is Never Over, and The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love.
Special notice to Yvonne Rainer’s brain-expanding Film About a Woman Who . . .—debuting in “Female Gaze: Women Directors + Women Cinematographers,” a series that does as it says on the tin—and a Joseph Cotten retro boasting Ambersons,...
Special notice to Yvonne Rainer’s brain-expanding Film About a Woman Who . . .—debuting in “Female Gaze: Women Directors + Women Cinematographers,” a series that does as it says on the tin—and a Joseph Cotten retro boasting Ambersons,...
- 11/21/2021
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Event running in French ski resort of Les Arcs will showcase more than 120 films.
France’s Les Arcs Film Festival (December 11-18) has announced the programme for its first physical edition in two years, after the Covid-19 pandemic forced its cancellation in 2020, while its industry events took place online.
Unfolding in the French Alps, the convivial, European cinema-focused festival was unable to take place after the government ordered ski resorts to remain closed due to a fresh wave of the virus.
It returns this year with a packed programme that will showcase more than 120 European works.
“We’re all eager...
France’s Les Arcs Film Festival (December 11-18) has announced the programme for its first physical edition in two years, after the Covid-19 pandemic forced its cancellation in 2020, while its industry events took place online.
Unfolding in the French Alps, the convivial, European cinema-focused festival was unable to take place after the government ordered ski resorts to remain closed due to a fresh wave of the virus.
It returns this year with a packed programme that will showcase more than 120 European works.
“We’re all eager...
- 11/10/2021
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- ScreenDaily
The Criterion Channel has unveiled their March 2021 lineup, which includes no shortage of remarkable programming. Highlights from the slate include eight gems from Preston Sturges, Elaine May’s brilliant A New Leaf, a series featuring Black Westerns, Ann Hui’s Boat People, the new restoration of Ousmane Sembène’s Mandabi.
They will also add films from their Essential Fellini boxset, series on Dirk Bogarde and Nelly Kaplan, and Luchino Visconti’s The Damned and Death in Venice, and more. In terms of recent releases, there’s also Matthew Rankin’s The Twentieth Century and Claire Denis’ Let the Sunshine In.
Check out the lineup below, along with the teaser for the Black Westerns series. For weekly streaming updates across all services, bookmark this page.
The Adventurer, Charles Chaplin, 1917
Bandini, Bimal Roy, 1963
Behind the Screen, Charles Chaplin, 1916
Black Jack, Ken Loach, 1979
Black Rodeo, Jeff Kanew, 1972
Blood Simple, Joel and Ethan Coen,...
They will also add films from their Essential Fellini boxset, series on Dirk Bogarde and Nelly Kaplan, and Luchino Visconti’s The Damned and Death in Venice, and more. In terms of recent releases, there’s also Matthew Rankin’s The Twentieth Century and Claire Denis’ Let the Sunshine In.
Check out the lineup below, along with the teaser for the Black Westerns series. For weekly streaming updates across all services, bookmark this page.
The Adventurer, Charles Chaplin, 1917
Bandini, Bimal Roy, 1963
Behind the Screen, Charles Chaplin, 1916
Black Jack, Ken Loach, 1979
Black Rodeo, Jeff Kanew, 1972
Blood Simple, Joel and Ethan Coen,...
- 2/26/2021
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Franco-American critic and broadcaster Iris Brey has teamed with Paris-based sales/production outfit Totem Films to adapt her 2020 book “The Female Gaze: A Screen Revolution” as a nonfiction feature.
A member of France’s 50/50 Collective and a lecturer at the University of California’s Paris campus, Brey will write and direct the upcoming film, weaving the central concern of her book – a long essay interrogating representations of female bodies and perspectives throughout film history – into a more personal onscreen exploration.
“The book has a more theoretical background to it, and can be seen as more specific or dense,” Brey tells Variety. “I want the documentary to touch a broader audience.”
The creative doc will mix first-person voiceover and newly shot footage alongside interviews and archival clips as it seeks to examine the subject in a more tactile and interactive way, assuming the broad outline of a coming-of-age tale that recounts...
A member of France’s 50/50 Collective and a lecturer at the University of California’s Paris campus, Brey will write and direct the upcoming film, weaving the central concern of her book – a long essay interrogating representations of female bodies and perspectives throughout film history – into a more personal onscreen exploration.
“The book has a more theoretical background to it, and can be seen as more specific or dense,” Brey tells Variety. “I want the documentary to touch a broader audience.”
The creative doc will mix first-person voiceover and newly shot footage alongside interviews and archival clips as it seeks to examine the subject in a more tactile and interactive way, assuming the broad outline of a coming-of-age tale that recounts...
- 1/13/2021
- by Ben Croll
- Variety Film + TV
Latest round will support 20 fiction, one animation, and five documentary films.
New projects from Danish director Niels Arden Oplev and Portugal’s Miguel Gomes are among the 26 selected in the latest Eurimages co-production support funding round.
The 26 films have been awarded a total of €6.1m (£5.5m). 52% are directed by women, with those projects receiving €2.5m (£2.3m) – 41% of the total funding.
Arden Oplev’s new film Rose will receive €280,000, and is a co-production between Norway and his native Denmark. Oplev’s previous features include 2009’s The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and last year’s Daniel.
Also included is Gomes’ Savagery,...
New projects from Danish director Niels Arden Oplev and Portugal’s Miguel Gomes are among the 26 selected in the latest Eurimages co-production support funding round.
The 26 films have been awarded a total of €6.1m (£5.5m). 52% are directed by women, with those projects receiving €2.5m (£2.3m) – 41% of the total funding.
Arden Oplev’s new film Rose will receive €280,000, and is a co-production between Norway and his native Denmark. Oplev’s previous features include 2009’s The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and last year’s Daniel.
Also included is Gomes’ Savagery,...
- 7/6/2020
- by 1101321¦Ben Dalton¦26¦
- ScreenDaily
New projects by Miguel Gomes, Ursula Meier, Joachim Lafosse, Philippe Faucon and Giordano Gederlini, among the selection. At its 159th meeting held online, the Board of Management of the Council of Europe's Eurimages Fund agreed to support 20 fiction films, 1 animation film and 5 documentary projects for a total amount of €6,137,000. The share of eligible projects with female directors examined at this Eurimages Board of Management meeting was 39%; 52% of the projects supported were directed by women and €2,500,000 was awarded to these projects, representing 41% of the total amount awarded. The list of projects: Rose - Niels Arden Oplev (Denmark/Norway)A Reply to a Letter from Helga - Asa Hjorleifsdottir (Iceland/Netherlands/Estonia)Behind the Haystacks - Asimina Proedrou (Greece/Germany)Savagery - Miguel Gomes (Portugal/France)The Sacred Spirit - Chema Garcia Ibarra (Spain/France/Turkey) (read news)Bruxa - Cristèle Alves Meira (France/Portugal/Belgium)Dreaming Walls - Amélie Van Elmbt,...
The Virtues of Virtual Festivals
Put together in just a few weeks, the online edition of Visions du Reel is perhaps the first festival which really moves the dial on the virtues of virtual festivals, suggesting that, at least when it comes to festivals or markets whose titles are most commonly seen in a broadcast space – drama series, doc features – the onus is now on events to justify doing nothing at all. 95 out of the 97 films selected for Visions du Reel accepted screening online, with one of the Remainers unable to finish postproduction post-lockdown. “There was a real readiness on the audience and filmmaker and producer side,” said Visions du Réel artistic director Emilie Bujes. Though she is fascinating in person, the Claire Denis masterclass was watched by 1,400 viewers around the world who might not have time to attend a three-hour talk at a physical event or fly to Switzerland in the first place.
Put together in just a few weeks, the online edition of Visions du Reel is perhaps the first festival which really moves the dial on the virtues of virtual festivals, suggesting that, at least when it comes to festivals or markets whose titles are most commonly seen in a broadcast space – drama series, doc features – the onus is now on events to justify doing nothing at all. 95 out of the 97 films selected for Visions du Reel accepted screening online, with one of the Remainers unable to finish postproduction post-lockdown. “There was a real readiness on the audience and filmmaker and producer side,” said Visions du Réel artistic director Emilie Bujes. Though she is fascinating in person, the Claire Denis masterclass was watched by 1,400 viewers around the world who might not have time to attend a three-hour talk at a physical event or fly to Switzerland in the first place.
- 5/4/2020
- by John Hopewell and Jamie Lang
- Variety Film + TV
Francesca Mazzoleni’s “Puntasacra,” Francisco Bermejo’s “The Other One” and Nick Brandestini’s “Sapelo” scooped the top prizes in the three major sections at Switzerland’s Visions du Réel prize ceremony Sunday night, held online as the whole of the documentary festival.
Major plaudits in the festival’s main International Feature Film Competition also went to Markku Lehmuskallio and Johannes Lehmuskallios “Anerca, Breath of Life,” Afsaneh Salari’s “The Silhouettes,” Mo Scarpelli’s “El Father Plays Himself” and José Permar’s “Off the Road.”
The Audience Award, one of the key prizes for distributors,was nabbed by Chines-German feature “Mirror Mirror on the Wall.”
Acquired by Italy’s True Colours for world sales, “Puntasacra” won Visions du Réel’s top Sesterce d’Or la Mobilière for a doc feature that portrays the resilient inhabitants of the last triangle of habitable land at the mouth of the Italy’s Tiber...
Major plaudits in the festival’s main International Feature Film Competition also went to Markku Lehmuskallio and Johannes Lehmuskallios “Anerca, Breath of Life,” Afsaneh Salari’s “The Silhouettes,” Mo Scarpelli’s “El Father Plays Himself” and José Permar’s “Off the Road.”
The Audience Award, one of the key prizes for distributors,was nabbed by Chines-German feature “Mirror Mirror on the Wall.”
Acquired by Italy’s True Colours for world sales, “Puntasacra” won Visions du Réel’s top Sesterce d’Or la Mobilière for a doc feature that portrays the resilient inhabitants of the last triangle of habitable land at the mouth of the Italy’s Tiber...
- 5/3/2020
- by John Hopewell and Jamie Lang
- Variety Film + TV
“Back to Visegrad” opens, appropriately enough, with Miresha, a former student at Eastern Bosnia’s Visegrad Primary School, driving through a series of long tunnels hacked into a hillside. Miresha is in many ways still in a psychological tunnel herself. She’s about to attend a school reunion of her classmates at the school, whom she hasn’t seen in 26 years, after the 1992-95 Bosnian War broke out, separating Muslim and Serbian students seemingly for ever, forcing the former to flee for their lives with their parents.
26 years later, Budimir Zecevic, the school’s former headmaster, and Djemila Krsmanovic, Miresha’s class teacher’s widow, get into Djemila’s Zastava car and start a long journey to find the class’ often still traumatized students, asking them one by one, if they’d like to meet again. Produced by Elisa Garbar at Lausanne’s Louise Productions, with Outside The Box taking all rights to Switzerland,...
26 years later, Budimir Zecevic, the school’s former headmaster, and Djemila Krsmanovic, Miresha’s class teacher’s widow, get into Djemila’s Zastava car and start a long journey to find the class’ often still traumatized students, asking them one by one, if they’d like to meet again. Produced by Elisa Garbar at Lausanne’s Louise Productions, with Outside The Box taking all rights to Switzerland,...
- 4/27/2020
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
Switzerland’s Rita Productions, producer of Academy Award-nominated “My Life as a Courgette,” is re-teaming with France’s Silex Films, the company behind France Televisions’ Slash hit series “Stalk,” to develop “Witch!” (“Sorciere!”).
Aiming to rehabilitate the figure of the witch in contemporary society, doc-feature “Witch!” is based on the bestselling essay by Mona Chollet, “Witches, the Undefeated Power of Women.” The essay should hit English-language bookstores later this year.
The doc-feature is being written by TV creator Thalia Rebinsky whose “Nina” is now in its sixth season on France 2, and documentarian Eve Minault, director for French-German public broadcaster Arte of the prescient “Crash: Are You Ready for the Next Crisis?”
Pauline Gygax, Judith Nora, Max Karli and Priscilla Bertin will produce. Minault, Rebinsky and Gygax will present the project on Saturday April 25 as part of an Rts Prize: Documentary Perspectives showcase, organized by the French-language broadcaster at Swiss film festival Visions du Réél,...
Aiming to rehabilitate the figure of the witch in contemporary society, doc-feature “Witch!” is based on the bestselling essay by Mona Chollet, “Witches, the Undefeated Power of Women.” The essay should hit English-language bookstores later this year.
The doc-feature is being written by TV creator Thalia Rebinsky whose “Nina” is now in its sixth season on France 2, and documentarian Eve Minault, director for French-German public broadcaster Arte of the prescient “Crash: Are You Ready for the Next Crisis?”
Pauline Gygax, Judith Nora, Max Karli and Priscilla Bertin will produce. Minault, Rebinsky and Gygax will present the project on Saturday April 25 as part of an Rts Prize: Documentary Perspectives showcase, organized by the French-language broadcaster at Swiss film festival Visions du Réél,...
- 4/21/2020
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
New projects by Claire Denis and Asghar Farhadi, the first fiction feature by Alice Diop and a documentary by Régis Sauder will also be co-produced by the cinema branch of the Franco-German channel. The second selection committee for 2020 of Arte France Cinéma (headed by Olivier Père) has chosen to engage in co-production and in pre-buying on five projects. Standing out among them is La Ligne, which will be the third fiction feature from Franco-Swiss director Ursula Meier following Home (Critics’ Week in Cannes in 2008) and Sister (Silver Bear special prize winner at the 2012 Berlinale). For the record, the filmmaker also presented in the Panorama section of the 2018 Berlinale the TV fiction Shock Waves – Diary of My Mind. Written by Ursula Meier together with Stéphanie Blanchoud (who will also be playing the lead role) in collaboration with Antoine Jaccoud and with the participation of Robin Campillo...
Parallel sections issue joint statement on the decision to abandon 2020 editions due to Covid-19.
Cannes parallel sections Critics’ Week, Directors’ Fortnight and Acid announced on Wednesday (April 15) that they were cancelling their 2020 editions due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The respected sidebars had originally been due to take place alongside the Cannes Film Festival during its cancelled dates of May 12-23, and had then been holding out to run during a potential end-June, start-July slot, which has now also been abandoned after the French government extended a ban on large gatherings to mid-July.
”Following the French president’s April 13 announcement banning...
Cannes parallel sections Critics’ Week, Directors’ Fortnight and Acid announced on Wednesday (April 15) that they were cancelling their 2020 editions due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The respected sidebars had originally been due to take place alongside the Cannes Film Festival during its cancelled dates of May 12-23, and had then been holding out to run during a potential end-June, start-July slot, which has now also been abandoned after the French government extended a ban on large gatherings to mid-July.
”Following the French president’s April 13 announcement banning...
- 4/15/2020
- by 1100380¦Melanie Goodfellow¦0¦
- ScreenDaily
Tunisian director Boutheyna Bouslama and Iraqi-Swiss filmmaker Samir win over both the jury and the audience of the Solothurn Film Festival. Composed of director Ursula Meier, artist Cemile Sahin and ambassador Mirko Manzoni, the jury of the 55th Solothurn Film Festival have honoured Boutheyna Bouslama’s debut feature À la recherche de l’homme à la caméra with the Prix de Soleure. Struck by the film’s “cinematographic narration and writing”, the jury emphasised the director’s capacity to “give victims of war and forgotten conflicts visibility, demonstrating the kind of honesty that we need to see more often”. Boutheyna Bouslama was born in Paris but has Tunisian nationality. Despite having lived in Geneva for many years, where she studied Visual Arts & Film at Head and subsequently worked, she has since been forced to leave the country and now lives in Istanbul. Bouslama’s film saw her set out on a three-year hunt looking.
The Cnc is also throwing its weight behind films put forward by Ursula Meier, Robert Guédiguian, Philippe Faucon, Tony Gatlif, Mona Achache and the duo composed of Alain Gagnol and Jean-Loup Felicioli. Seven projects were selected during the 5th and final session of the Cnc’s second advance on receipts 2019 committee. Standing out amongst these is Le temps d’aimer which will be Katell Quillévéré’s fourth feature film following on from 2010’s Love Like Poison (screened in Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight 2010 and the winner of the Prix Jean Vigo), Suzanne and Heal The Living (unveiled in Venice’s Orizzonti line-up in 2016 before participating in Toronto’s Platform competition). Written by the filmmaker alongside Gilles Taurand, the story kicks off in 1947. Madeleine, a waitress in a hotel restaurant and the mother of a small...
On 22 January, the 55th edition of the festival will open with the screening of Micha Lewinsky’s long-awaited new film One-Way to Moscow. The Swiss Panorama section of the Solothurn Film Festival’s 2020 edition (22-29 January) will play host to 22 fiction feature films and documentaries hailing from all corners of the Swiss territory. In total, this highly anticipated edition, now helmed by new festival director Anita Hugi, will offer up no less than 178 works. And this year, too, first films by young directors will come out in force, primed and ready to take on the demanding audience of the festival. In terms of the jury for the prestigious Prix de Soleure, we’ll see many known names gracing its ranks: director Ursula Meier (Sister), young multimedia artist Cemile Sahin (Taxi) and Swiss diplomat and ambassador to the United Nations Mirko Manzoni. Among the twelve films selected for the Prix...
- 12/16/2019
- Cineuropa - The Best of European Cinema
Swiss filmmaker Blaise Harrison is bringing his fiction feature debut to this year’s Directors’ Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival.
Known for his documentary work, Harrison was selected for competition at the 2013 Locarno Festival for his film “Harmony,” about a marching band in the small French town of Pontarlier.
“Particles” follows P.A., a teenager in his final year of high school in a small rural town on the French-Swiss border. Famous for little else, the town is home to Cern’s Large Hadron Collider (Lhc).
P.A.’s coming of age story, and the monumental shifts that come with the throes of growing up, are mirrored by a series of seemingly fantastic phenomena the young man observes in the world around him.
The feature is co-produced by France’s Les Films du Poisson and Bande à Part Films, the Swiss company formed in 2009 by four of its most...
Known for his documentary work, Harrison was selected for competition at the 2013 Locarno Festival for his film “Harmony,” about a marching band in the small French town of Pontarlier.
“Particles” follows P.A., a teenager in his final year of high school in a small rural town on the French-Swiss border. Famous for little else, the town is home to Cern’s Large Hadron Collider (Lhc).
P.A.’s coming of age story, and the monumental shifts that come with the throes of growing up, are mirrored by a series of seemingly fantastic phenomena the young man observes in the world around him.
The feature is co-produced by France’s Les Films du Poisson and Bande à Part Films, the Swiss company formed in 2009 by four of its most...
- 5/21/2019
- by Jamie Lang
- Variety Film + TV
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