We’re getting close to that eight-year mark between features and we’ve just learned that Samuel Maoz is set to close out the trilogy and take another critical jab at the Israeli military-industrial complex with It’s Good to Die For Your Country — a film that will follow 2009’s Lebanon and 2017’s Foxtrot. Variety reports that producer Eitan Mansuri lassoed The Match Factory and Sophie Dulac to help back the project. It sounds like they are still in finding funds mode so the absolute earliest might be a Venice premiere in ’24 (the lieu where the filmmaker won the Golden Lion and Silver Lion).…...
- 3/25/2023
- by Eric Lavallée
- IONCINEMA.com
Eitan Mansuri, who attended Series Mania Festival to pitch season 2 of “No Man’s Land” (pictured), is re-teaming with award-winning Israeli director Samuel Maoz on his next film “It’s Good to Die For Your Country.”
The project will mark Maoz’s follow up to “Foxtrot” and “Lebanon” which won Venice’s Silver and Golden Lion awards, respectively. Mansuri told Variety that “It’s Good to Die For Your Country” will be like the third opus of a trilogy on war, completing “Foxtrot” and “Lebanon.”
“‘Lebanon’ was about being a soldier, ‘Foxtrot’ was about the implication of war on families and ‘It’s Good to Die For Your Country’ will be about trauma itself,” said Mansuri, whose produced Maoz’s last two movies.
While the exact plot remains under wraps, Mansuri revealed that it will revolve around two childhood friends in their late 50’s and 60’s who grew up believing that...
The project will mark Maoz’s follow up to “Foxtrot” and “Lebanon” which won Venice’s Silver and Golden Lion awards, respectively. Mansuri told Variety that “It’s Good to Die For Your Country” will be like the third opus of a trilogy on war, completing “Foxtrot” and “Lebanon.”
“‘Lebanon’ was about being a soldier, ‘Foxtrot’ was about the implication of war on families and ‘It’s Good to Die For Your Country’ will be about trauma itself,” said Mansuri, whose produced Maoz’s last two movies.
While the exact plot remains under wraps, Mansuri revealed that it will revolve around two childhood friends in their late 50’s and 60’s who grew up believing that...
- 3/24/2023
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
This number will increase as Cannes, Venice and other summer festival titles are added to the mix alongside studio releases.
French cinemas reopen this Wednesday (May 19) after lying dark for six months due to the Covid-19 pandemic, with the country’s 100-plus distributors rushing to set theatrical dates for an estimated backlog of 400 stalled films.
As a result, French cinemagoers will have access to the richest and most diverse offering of films in the world over the coming months, spanning festival titles, local mainstream comedies and dramas, world cinema and studio blockbuster fare, as the summer advances.
As of May...
French cinemas reopen this Wednesday (May 19) after lying dark for six months due to the Covid-19 pandemic, with the country’s 100-plus distributors rushing to set theatrical dates for an estimated backlog of 400 stalled films.
As a result, French cinemagoers will have access to the richest and most diverse offering of films in the world over the coming months, spanning festival titles, local mainstream comedies and dramas, world cinema and studio blockbuster fare, as the summer advances.
As of May...
- 5/17/2021
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- ScreenDaily
In another blow to the industry, the French government has ordered a curfew in several major cities across the country. From Saturday, residents of L’Ile de France (which includes Paris and its environs), Lyon, Marseille, Aix-en-Provence, Lille, Grenoble, Montpellier, Rouen, Toulouse and Saint-Etienne will be under a strict curfew from 9Pm to 6Am. This will affect about 20M people, or a little under a third of the population.
Cinemas, theaters, restaurants and other businesses will be closed as of 9Pm for a period of at least four weeks. Paris is the biggest moviegoing region of France, with many showtimes in the evening hours, meaning this will take a bite out of box office.
French ticket sales have been doing increasingly well amid the reopening process which began on June 22. Admissions last weekend were 526K with local film The ABCs Of Love (Parents D’Elèves) leading. Tenet has made $21.4M...
Cinemas, theaters, restaurants and other businesses will be closed as of 9Pm for a period of at least four weeks. Paris is the biggest moviegoing region of France, with many showtimes in the evening hours, meaning this will take a bite out of box office.
French ticket sales have been doing increasingly well amid the reopening process which began on June 22. Admissions last weekend were 526K with local film The ABCs Of Love (Parents D’Elèves) leading. Tenet has made $21.4M...
- 10/15/2020
- by Nancy Tartaglione
- Deadline Film + TV
Both films screened in Cannes virtual market at the end of June.
Paris-based mk2 films has unveiled first deals on its Cannes 2020 label titles The Big Hit and Here We Are, which it screened in the recent virtual edition of the Marché du Film at the end of June.
French director Emmanuel Courcol’s comedy The Big Hit has sold to Benelux (Paradiso Filmed Entertainment), Italy (Teodora Film), Scandinavia (NonStop Entertainment), Spain (Caramel Films), Switzerland (Filmcoopi), Poland (Galapagos Films) and Portugal (Nos Lusomundo).
In the rest of the world, deals have been done for Cis (Russian Word Vision), Brazil (Imovision...
Paris-based mk2 films has unveiled first deals on its Cannes 2020 label titles The Big Hit and Here We Are, which it screened in the recent virtual edition of the Marché du Film at the end of June.
French director Emmanuel Courcol’s comedy The Big Hit has sold to Benelux (Paradiso Filmed Entertainment), Italy (Teodora Film), Scandinavia (NonStop Entertainment), Spain (Caramel Films), Switzerland (Filmcoopi), Poland (Galapagos Films) and Portugal (Nos Lusomundo).
In the rest of the world, deals have been done for Cis (Russian Word Vision), Brazil (Imovision...
- 7/6/2020
- by 1100388¦Melanie Goodfellow¦69¦
- ScreenDaily
Unspooling online from 9–16 June, the 9th edition of the Parisian event will see ten films battling it out in competition and will feature Stephen Frears and Edgar Wright as its guests of honour. Registration opens today for free-of-charge, online participation in the different events put in place by the Champs-Élysées Film Festival, the 9th edition of which will unspool in virtual form from 9 – 16 June following the Coronavirus-based cancellation of its physical edition. The event founded and overseen by Sophie Dulac at the very heart of the French capital will open with a French preview of Zoé Wittock’s Jumbo (unveiled in competition in Sundance and later screened in the Berlinale’s Generation line-up). Standing out in particular on the agenda is a French competition composed of six feature films, which will be evaluated by a jury presided over by director Mounia Meddour (flanked by filmmakers Sébastien Lifshitz and...
Paris-based Luxbox has sold more new major territories on Peruvian Melina Leon’s Cannes Directors’ Fortnight hit “Canción sin nombre” (“Song Without a Name”), proving sales hits can come from anywhere., especially when selected for Cannes.
A standout at last year’s strong Ventana Sur Copia Final showcase, “Song Without a Name” has closed Italy with Torino.based Reading Bloom, a classics/contemporary distributor and European pay TV/Svod with HBO Europe.
In further deals, Leon’s feature debut has sold to frequent Luxbox client Mad Distribution for the Middle East and North Africa, classic arthouse distributor Trigon for Switzerland, Belgium’s Mooov, a strong buyer of Spanish productions, fro Benelux, and classic arthouse buyer Danaos for Greece.
Spafax and Skyline have acquired airline rights; other territories are in discussion now, including important Asian markets, said Fiorella Morreti, Luxbox co-founder.
The newly-revealed deals follow on already announced licensing arrangements to Film Movement for the U.
A standout at last year’s strong Ventana Sur Copia Final showcase, “Song Without a Name” has closed Italy with Torino.based Reading Bloom, a classics/contemporary distributor and European pay TV/Svod with HBO Europe.
In further deals, Leon’s feature debut has sold to frequent Luxbox client Mad Distribution for the Middle East and North Africa, classic arthouse distributor Trigon for Switzerland, Belgium’s Mooov, a strong buyer of Spanish productions, fro Benelux, and classic arthouse buyer Danaos for Greece.
Spafax and Skyline have acquired airline rights; other territories are in discussion now, including important Asian markets, said Fiorella Morreti, Luxbox co-founder.
The newly-revealed deals follow on already announced licensing arrangements to Film Movement for the U.
- 11/29/2019
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
UK-based documentary specialists announce sales on The Kingmaker, Sing Me A Song, The Cave, and Cunningham.
UK-based documentary specialists Dogwoof has announced a series of all-rights theatrical and TV sales for their Idfa slate.
The Kingmaker by Lauren Greenfield, which profiles the former first lady of the Philippines Imelda Marcos, sold to Piece of Magic (Benelux), with TV sales going to Svt (Sweden), Nrk (Norway), Yle (Finland), and Movistar (Spain). The film premiered in Venice and also screened in Telluride, Toronto, and BFI London Film Festival. Dogwoof will release in the UK on 13 December following its Us release earlier this month.
UK-based documentary specialists Dogwoof has announced a series of all-rights theatrical and TV sales for their Idfa slate.
The Kingmaker by Lauren Greenfield, which profiles the former first lady of the Philippines Imelda Marcos, sold to Piece of Magic (Benelux), with TV sales going to Svt (Sweden), Nrk (Norway), Yle (Finland), and Movistar (Spain). The film premiered in Venice and also screened in Telluride, Toronto, and BFI London Film Festival. Dogwoof will release in the UK on 13 December following its Us release earlier this month.
- 11/26/2019
- by 57¦Geoffrey Macnab¦41¦
- ScreenDaily
The festival, held in the French Alps, will have a timely ecological angle for the first time.
The Les Arcs Film Festival has unveiled the line-up for its 11th edition, which will unfold in the French Alps Dec 14-21, with a timely ecological angle for the first time.
Artistic director Frédéric Boyer has selected 120 films, which will play across six sections, including the Competition, Playtime, Hauteur and Avant-Premieres sidebars. Some 22,000 public and professional attendees are expected to attend in line with 2018.
Dutch actor-turned-director Halina Reijn’s psychological thriller Instinct, Fyzal Boulifa’s UK tragic female friendship tale Lynn + Lucy and...
The Les Arcs Film Festival has unveiled the line-up for its 11th edition, which will unfold in the French Alps Dec 14-21, with a timely ecological angle for the first time.
Artistic director Frédéric Boyer has selected 120 films, which will play across six sections, including the Competition, Playtime, Hauteur and Avant-Premieres sidebars. Some 22,000 public and professional attendees are expected to attend in line with 2018.
Dutch actor-turned-director Halina Reijn’s psychological thriller Instinct, Fyzal Boulifa’s UK tragic female friendship tale Lynn + Lucy and...
- 11/5/2019
- by 1100380¦Melanie Goodfellow¦0¦
- ScreenDaily
French sales companies to merge staff, infrastructure and slates.
Jour2Fête, the Paris-based sales and distribution company co-headed by Sarah Chazelle and Etienne Ollagnier, is set to acquire compatriot sales company Doc & Film International, as its CEO Daniela Elstner heads to French cinema agency Unifrance in the role of managing director.
Under the deal, which is in the final stages of completion, Jour2Fête will merge the existing staff, infrastructure, slates and catalogues of both companies into one entity over the coming months.
For the time being, the separate banners of Jour2Fête and Doc & Film will remain in place,...
Jour2Fête, the Paris-based sales and distribution company co-headed by Sarah Chazelle and Etienne Ollagnier, is set to acquire compatriot sales company Doc & Film International, as its CEO Daniela Elstner heads to French cinema agency Unifrance in the role of managing director.
Under the deal, which is in the final stages of completion, Jour2Fête will merge the existing staff, infrastructure, slates and catalogues of both companies into one entity over the coming months.
For the time being, the separate banners of Jour2Fête and Doc & Film will remain in place,...
- 10/11/2019
- by 1100380¦Melanie Goodfellow¦0¦
- ScreenDaily
Also working on Vitor Gonçalve’s ‘The Owl’s Journey’.
Prolific Portuguese production outfit Rosa Filmes, one of the producers on Albert Serra’s Un Certain Regard selection Liberté, is preparing a raft of new features, including new films with Serra, Filipino filmmaker Lav Diaz (also a Cannes regular) and The Inbetweeners producer Christopher Young.
This activity comes as Portugal’s production incentive (a cash rebate system worth up to 30%) is making the country significantly more attractive as a coproduction partner. Since the start of 2018, the new rebate has made €36m available for production.
The Diaz project, which has the working title Magellan,...
Prolific Portuguese production outfit Rosa Filmes, one of the producers on Albert Serra’s Un Certain Regard selection Liberté, is preparing a raft of new features, including new films with Serra, Filipino filmmaker Lav Diaz (also a Cannes regular) and The Inbetweeners producer Christopher Young.
This activity comes as Portugal’s production incentive (a cash rebate system worth up to 30%) is making the country significantly more attractive as a coproduction partner. Since the start of 2018, the new rebate has made €36m available for production.
The Diaz project, which has the working title Magellan,...
- 5/14/2019
- by Geoffrey Macnab
- ScreenDaily
Magnolia Pictures has acquired the North American rights to Cunningham Alla Kovgan’s documentary about Merce Cunningham, one of the world’s most influential and groundbreaking choreographers. The film immerses viewers in the choreographer’s world and will be released in both 2D and 3D later this year. Dogwoof will release in the UK, Sophie Dulac Distribution in France, and Camino Films in Germany.
Cunningham follows Merce’s artistic evolution over three decades of risk and discovery (1944–1972). It will trace his career from his early years as a struggling dancer in postwar New York to his emergence as one of the world’s most visionary choreographers. The 3D technology weaves together Merce’s philosophies and stories, creating a journey into his innovative work. The film will be a tribute to one of the world’s greatest modern dance artists with never-before-seen material and promises a breathtaking experience of dance.
“3D...
Cunningham follows Merce’s artistic evolution over three decades of risk and discovery (1944–1972). It will trace his career from his early years as a struggling dancer in postwar New York to his emergence as one of the world’s most visionary choreographers. The 3D technology weaves together Merce’s philosophies and stories, creating a journey into his innovative work. The film will be a tribute to one of the world’s greatest modern dance artists with never-before-seen material and promises a breathtaking experience of dance.
“3D...
- 4/16/2019
- by Dino-Ray Ramos
- Deadline Film + TV
The 3D immersive film is set for release later this year, the centenary of Merce Cunningham’s birth.
Magnolia Pictures has acquired North American rights to Cunningham, the 3D documentary about choreographer Merce Cunningham.
Magnolia plans to release the film, directed by Alla Kovgan, in both 2D and 3D formats in the Us later this year, the centenary of Cunningham’s birth.
Dogwoof, which took on worldwide sales of the immersive dance documentary last autumn, is set to release in the UK and the film has been pre-sold to Sophie Dulac Distribution for France and Camino Films for Germany.
Cunningham...
Magnolia Pictures has acquired North American rights to Cunningham, the 3D documentary about choreographer Merce Cunningham.
Magnolia plans to release the film, directed by Alla Kovgan, in both 2D and 3D formats in the Us later this year, the centenary of Cunningham’s birth.
Dogwoof, which took on worldwide sales of the immersive dance documentary last autumn, is set to release in the UK and the film has been pre-sold to Sophie Dulac Distribution for France and Camino Films for Germany.
Cunningham...
- 4/16/2019
- by John Hazelton
- ScreenDaily
An angry woman rails against the system in the punchy and timely “Cold Sweat,” a fact-based drama about an Iranian national futsal team member whose husband uses his legal right to prevent her traveling abroad and playing in the most important game of her life. This intelligently written, well performed and emotionally rewarding second feature by writer-director Soheil Beiraghi (“Me”) will enlighten and entertain audiences everywhere. A hit in local cinemas when released in late September, “Cold Sweat” ought to enjoy a long festival life at the very least. French arthouse outfit Sophie Dulac Distribution will screen the film theatrically Nov. 28.
A tale with especially strong appeal in these #TimesUp times, “Cold Sweat” draws from the real-life cases of many Iranian sportswomen whose dreams were dashed when their husbands invoked patriarchal laws. Its success at the local box office comes in the wake of well-publicized protests at the men’s soccer World Cup in June,...
A tale with especially strong appeal in these #TimesUp times, “Cold Sweat” draws from the real-life cases of many Iranian sportswomen whose dreams were dashed when their husbands invoked patriarchal laws. Its success at the local box office comes in the wake of well-publicized protests at the men’s soccer World Cup in June,...
- 11/2/2018
- by Richard Kuipers
- Variety Film + TV
Dogwoof has acquired world sales rights to 3D documentary “Cunningham,” the U.K.-based documentary specialist has revealed to Variety. Dogwoof, which is also set to distribute the feature in the U.K. and Ireland, will present a first-look teaser from the film to international buyers at the upcoming American Film Market.
“Cunningham,” which is currently in production, tells the story of legendary American choreographer Merce Cunningham. It is set to see its U.K. release through Dogwoof, as well as releases in pre-sold markets France and Germany via Sophie Dulac and Camino Films respectively, in Spring 2019 to coincide with the centenary of the choreographer’s birth.
Filming in 3D, the documentary, which is described as a “breath-taking explosion of dance and music,” is directed by Alla Kovgan and edited by Andrew Bird. It traces Cunningham’s artistic evolution over three decades of risk and discovery from his early years...
“Cunningham,” which is currently in production, tells the story of legendary American choreographer Merce Cunningham. It is set to see its U.K. release through Dogwoof, as well as releases in pre-sold markets France and Germany via Sophie Dulac and Camino Films respectively, in Spring 2019 to coincide with the centenary of the choreographer’s birth.
Filming in 3D, the documentary, which is described as a “breath-taking explosion of dance and music,” is directed by Alla Kovgan and edited by Andrew Bird. It traces Cunningham’s artistic evolution over three decades of risk and discovery from his early years...
- 10/15/2018
- by Robert Mitchell
- Variety Film + TV
Doc & Film International has boarded Italian filmmaker Filippo Meneghetti’s feature debut “Deux” which is being produced by France’s Paprika Films, Luxembourg’s Tarantula and Belgium’s Artémis.
The movie started shooting Oct. 1 and stars German veteran actress Barbara Sukowa (“Lola,””Rosa Luxemburg”), Martine Chevallier (Pas son genre”) and Léa Drucker (“Custody”).
“Deux” follows two retired women, Nina et Madeleine, who are secretly in love with each other, and are believed to be simple neighbors as they live in the same building. One event causes them to separate abruptly while the daughter of Madeleine discovers her mother’s secret life. The two women will seek to reunite in spite of challenges.
Meneghetti wrote the script with Malysone Bovorasmy, in collaboration with Florence Vignon and Marion Vernoux. Meneghetti previously directed three shorts, “Undici,””l’Intruso” and “La Bête.”
Sophie Dulac Distribution will release “Deux” in France. Pierre-Emmanuel Fleurantin and Laurent Baujard...
The movie started shooting Oct. 1 and stars German veteran actress Barbara Sukowa (“Lola,””Rosa Luxemburg”), Martine Chevallier (Pas son genre”) and Léa Drucker (“Custody”).
“Deux” follows two retired women, Nina et Madeleine, who are secretly in love with each other, and are believed to be simple neighbors as they live in the same building. One event causes them to separate abruptly while the daughter of Madeleine discovers her mother’s secret life. The two women will seek to reunite in spite of challenges.
Meneghetti wrote the script with Malysone Bovorasmy, in collaboration with Florence Vignon and Marion Vernoux. Meneghetti previously directed three shorts, “Undici,””l’Intruso” and “La Bête.”
Sophie Dulac Distribution will release “Deux” in France. Pierre-Emmanuel Fleurantin and Laurent Baujard...
- 10/2/2018
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Beta closes raft of deals on Berlin titles 'In The Aisles', '3 Days In Quiberon', 'Ága' (exclusive)
Further deals inked on The Happy Prince and Styx.
German sales outfit Beta Cinema is reporting strong business across its 2018 European Film Market (Efm) slate.
The company has closed a series of deals on three of its titles that premiered in the Berlin Film Festival’s competition programme this year.
Thomas Stuber’s In The Aisles has gone to France (Kmbo), Spain (Surtsey), Benelux (Cherry Pickers), Japan (Aya Pro), China (Lemon Tree), Taiwan (Flash Forward), Baltics (A-One), Greece (Strada), Turkey (Filmarti), Poland (Aurora), Czech Republic and Slovakia (Film Europe) and the former Yugoslavia (Discovery Croatia). Read Screen’s review here.
German sales outfit Beta Cinema is reporting strong business across its 2018 European Film Market (Efm) slate.
The company has closed a series of deals on three of its titles that premiered in the Berlin Film Festival’s competition programme this year.
Thomas Stuber’s In The Aisles has gone to France (Kmbo), Spain (Surtsey), Benelux (Cherry Pickers), Japan (Aya Pro), China (Lemon Tree), Taiwan (Flash Forward), Baltics (A-One), Greece (Strada), Turkey (Filmarti), Poland (Aurora), Czech Republic and Slovakia (Film Europe) and the former Yugoslavia (Discovery Croatia). Read Screen’s review here.
- 3/1/2018
- by Tom Grater
- ScreenDaily
Sarah Marx’s debut feature explores the challenges of life after prison.
Source: Wiki Commons
Sandrine Bonnaire
Paris-based sales company Versatile has boarded French filmmaker Sarah Marx’s upcoming debut feature L’Enkas exploring the challenges of life after prison through the tale of an ex-convict who sets up a business selling ketamine out of a food truck at raves to make ends meet.
Marx, whose career to date spans music videos, documentaries and shorts, co-wrote the screenplay with French rappers Hamé and Ekoué, founders of the long-running, pro-social justice rap group La Rumeur.
Sandor Funtek stars as the young protagonist Ulysee who returns home after a stint in jail to the harsh reality of a severely depressed mother, played by Sandrine Bonnaire, and mounting bills.
“Ulysee is an ex-convict, fresh out of prison, who has to confront a different kind of incarceration: that of his mother’s illness,” says Marx.
“Right away he has...
Source: Wiki Commons
Sandrine Bonnaire
Paris-based sales company Versatile has boarded French filmmaker Sarah Marx’s upcoming debut feature L’Enkas exploring the challenges of life after prison through the tale of an ex-convict who sets up a business selling ketamine out of a food truck at raves to make ends meet.
Marx, whose career to date spans music videos, documentaries and shorts, co-wrote the screenplay with French rappers Hamé and Ekoué, founders of the long-running, pro-social justice rap group La Rumeur.
Sandor Funtek stars as the young protagonist Ulysee who returns home after a stint in jail to the harsh reality of a severely depressed mother, played by Sandrine Bonnaire, and mounting bills.
“Ulysee is an ex-convict, fresh out of prison, who has to confront a different kind of incarceration: that of his mother’s illness,” says Marx.
“Right away he has...
- 1/18/2018
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- ScreenDaily
Exclusive: Post-apocalyptic drama premieres at Sarajevo Film Festival.
Semih Kaplanoglu’s Grain, which premieres at Sarajevo Film Festival today (Aug 12), has scored its first deals for sales agent The Match Factory.
The film has sold to McF Megacom Film (Former Yugoslaviaa) and Ama Films (Greece). France’s Sophie Dulac, also a co-producer on the title, will distribute in France.
Grainis Kaplanoglu’s first feature since 2010 drama Honey, which won Berlin Film Festival’s top prize and was nominated for three prizes at the European Film Awards.
His new film is a dystopian story set in a world where a genetic crisis leads to massive crop failure.
Read: Semih Kaplanoglu talks post-apocalyptic drama ‘Grain’...
Semih Kaplanoglu’s Grain, which premieres at Sarajevo Film Festival today (Aug 12), has scored its first deals for sales agent The Match Factory.
The film has sold to McF Megacom Film (Former Yugoslaviaa) and Ama Films (Greece). France’s Sophie Dulac, also a co-producer on the title, will distribute in France.
Grainis Kaplanoglu’s first feature since 2010 drama Honey, which won Berlin Film Festival’s top prize and was nominated for three prizes at the European Film Awards.
His new film is a dystopian story set in a world where a genetic crisis leads to massive crop failure.
Read: Semih Kaplanoglu talks post-apocalyptic drama ‘Grain’...
- 8/12/2017
- by tom.grater@screendaily.com (Tom Grater)
- ScreenDaily
The heart of Paris beats for film industry in June. Industry Week is the professional part of the Champs-Elysées Film Festival.
The submissions for Us in Progress are now open till August 15th here.
This label includes the Us in Progress (USiP) and Les Arc Film Fesstival’s team presenting the Paris Coproduction Village and La Residence de la Cinefondation which welcomes a dozen young directors who come to Paris to work on their first or second fiction feature project for 4 and 1/2 months. All together, they offer 24 film projects at different stages, from development to post production. More than 200 professionals from the industry, producers, international sellers, distributors, etc. are welcomed.
This year Us in Progress broke out. It has become a top event for discovering American independent cinema not only for the Europeans invited to attend, but for Americans who find themselves in Paris for the event or who even...
The submissions for Us in Progress are now open till August 15th here.
This label includes the Us in Progress (USiP) and Les Arc Film Fesstival’s team presenting the Paris Coproduction Village and La Residence de la Cinefondation which welcomes a dozen young directors who come to Paris to work on their first or second fiction feature project for 4 and 1/2 months. All together, they offer 24 film projects at different stages, from development to post production. More than 200 professionals from the industry, producers, international sellers, distributors, etc. are welcomed.
This year Us in Progress broke out. It has become a top event for discovering American independent cinema not only for the Europeans invited to attend, but for Americans who find themselves in Paris for the event or who even...
- 7/26/2017
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Business as usual for festival unfolding on famous Paris avenue hit by two terror attacks in recent weeks.
Lauren Wolkstein and Christopher Radcliff’s thriller The Strange Ones has scooped the top prize at the sixth edition of France’s Us-focused Champs-Elysées Film Festival, which wan June 15-22.
The feature, starring Alex Pettyfer and James Freedson-Jackson as two brothers on a mysterious trip into the wilderness, premiered at SXSW earlier this year.
The American Independent Jury Prize comes with a €10,000 cash award for the French distributor of the film but, as it has yet to be acquired for France, the...
Lauren Wolkstein and Christopher Radcliff’s thriller The Strange Ones has scooped the top prize at the sixth edition of France’s Us-focused Champs-Elysées Film Festival, which wan June 15-22.
The feature, starring Alex Pettyfer and James Freedson-Jackson as two brothers on a mysterious trip into the wilderness, premiered at SXSW earlier this year.
The American Independent Jury Prize comes with a €10,000 cash award for the French distributor of the film but, as it has yet to be acquired for France, the...
- 6/23/2017
- ScreenDaily
The Champs-Élysées Film Festival, created by producer, distributor and exhibitor Sophie Dulac, is a commitment to Parisian audiences for a cinematic trip between France and the USA showcasing the best of French and American independent cinema and highlighting New Orleans.
Six American indies and six French indies will judged for two separate awards and will also receive audience awards. The 2017 Jury consist of talents coming from all kinds of backgrounds and having a strong involvement in French independent cinema : — Lolita Chammah, actress, — Lola Créton, actress, — Vincent Dedienne, actor, humorist and author, — Jérémie Elkaïm, actor, screenwriter and director, — Camélia Jordana, singer and actress, — Gustave Kervern, director and actor — Karidja Touré, actress.
Classic Claude Brasseur back when…
The classic French actor Claude Brasseur will be the Guest of Honor along with the American director Alex Ross Perry and director Jerry Schatzberg. Other guests include directors Arnaud and Jean-Marie Larrieu, the French actress Aïssa Maïga.
Six American indies and six French indies will judged for two separate awards and will also receive audience awards. The 2017 Jury consist of talents coming from all kinds of backgrounds and having a strong involvement in French independent cinema : — Lolita Chammah, actress, — Lola Créton, actress, — Vincent Dedienne, actor, humorist and author, — Jérémie Elkaïm, actor, screenwriter and director, — Camélia Jordana, singer and actress, — Gustave Kervern, director and actor — Karidja Touré, actress.
Classic Claude Brasseur back when…
The classic French actor Claude Brasseur will be the Guest of Honor along with the American director Alex Ross Perry and director Jerry Schatzberg. Other guests include directors Arnaud and Jean-Marie Larrieu, the French actress Aïssa Maïga.
- 5/16/2017
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Exclusive: Wide Management has closed a series of deals on the feature doc.
Paris-based Wide House has unveiled sales on Haitian director Raoul Peck’s Oscar-nominated documentary I Am Not Your Negro, exploring what it means to be black in the Us through the writings of James Baldwin.
Fresh sales at Efm include to ex-Yugoslavia (Discovery D.O.O), Turkey (Fabula Films), Portugal (Midas Filmes) and South Korea (Ak Entertainment), Australia and New Zealand (Madman), Brazil (Imovision), Mexico (Canana) and Taiwan (Joint Entertainment).
Earlier sales include to Germany (Salzgeber), Italy (Feltrinelli), Spain (Karma Films), Scandinavia and Baltics (NonStop Entertainment) and Poland (Against Gravity).
They join previously announced deals to Altitude Film Distribution for the UK and Magnolia in North America. The latter launched its wide Us release on Feb 3 where it grossed an impressive $1.01m in its first week in cinemas.
Narrated by Samuel L. Jackson, the documentary reflects on race in America, tracking the lives...
Paris-based Wide House has unveiled sales on Haitian director Raoul Peck’s Oscar-nominated documentary I Am Not Your Negro, exploring what it means to be black in the Us through the writings of James Baldwin.
Fresh sales at Efm include to ex-Yugoslavia (Discovery D.O.O), Turkey (Fabula Films), Portugal (Midas Filmes) and South Korea (Ak Entertainment), Australia and New Zealand (Madman), Brazil (Imovision), Mexico (Canana) and Taiwan (Joint Entertainment).
Earlier sales include to Germany (Salzgeber), Italy (Feltrinelli), Spain (Karma Films), Scandinavia and Baltics (NonStop Entertainment) and Poland (Against Gravity).
They join previously announced deals to Altitude Film Distribution for the UK and Magnolia in North America. The latter launched its wide Us release on Feb 3 where it grossed an impressive $1.01m in its first week in cinemas.
Narrated by Samuel L. Jackson, the documentary reflects on race in America, tracking the lives...
- 2/13/2017
- ScreenDaily
The Champs Elysees Film Festival was created by, Sophie Dulac, one of France’s top producers, distributors and exhibitors.
Continue reading on SydneysBuzz The Blog »...
Continue reading on SydneysBuzz The Blog »...
- 6/20/2016
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Prize is worth $45,000 (€40,000) in post-production services and distribution support.
Colombian, New York-based director Margarita Jimeno’s hybrid fiction feature Otto – My Life is a Soundtrack, about a renowned artist who undergoes a spiritual awakening after a failed show, has won the fifth edition of Us in Progress in Paris.
The prize includes a post-production and distribution package worth $45,000 (€40,000).
The Us in Progress event showcased six independent Us works looking for final post-production services and a sales agent.
It took place June 7-10 as part of the Industry Days programme of the French-us focused Champs-Elysées Film Festival, running June 7-14 and...
Colombian, New York-based director Margarita Jimeno’s hybrid fiction feature Otto – My Life is a Soundtrack, about a renowned artist who undergoes a spiritual awakening after a failed show, has won the fifth edition of Us in Progress in Paris.
The prize includes a post-production and distribution package worth $45,000 (€40,000).
The Us in Progress event showcased six independent Us works looking for final post-production services and a sales agent.
It took place June 7-10 as part of the Industry Days programme of the French-us focused Champs-Elysées Film Festival, running June 7-14 and...
- 6/13/2016
- ScreenDaily
For the past five years I have had the honor of interviewing Sophie Dulac three times. She is not only the founder and president of the…
Continue reading on SydneysBuzz The Blog »...
Continue reading on SydneysBuzz The Blog »...
- 6/13/2016
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Other winners included Mehmet Can Mertoglu’s Albüm and Wregas Bhanuteja’s Penjak.
Oliver Laxe’s Mimosas has won the Nespresso Grand Prize at the 55th Critics’ Week – the Cannes Film Festival sidebar devoted to first and second features.
Review: Mimosas
The story follows a caravan escorting a dying sheikh across the Atlas Mountains to fulfil his dying wish.
France-born, Spain-based Laxe won the €15,000 ($17,000) prize, which has previously been awarded to Guillermo del Toro, Gaspar Noe and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu among others.
The film, which was shot in Morocco and took part in Qumra 2016, is Laxe’s second film after You Are All Captains, which screened in Directors’ Fortnight in 2010, winning the Fipresci prize
Mimosas is a Spain-Morocco-France-Qatar co-production and is sold by Luxbox.
Albüm, from Turkish filmmaker Mehmet Can Mertoğlu, won the France 4 Visionary Award, which rewards “outstanding creativity and innovation”.
The black comedy centres on an Antalya-based couple who fake a pregnancy to keep their...
Oliver Laxe’s Mimosas has won the Nespresso Grand Prize at the 55th Critics’ Week – the Cannes Film Festival sidebar devoted to first and second features.
Review: Mimosas
The story follows a caravan escorting a dying sheikh across the Atlas Mountains to fulfil his dying wish.
France-born, Spain-based Laxe won the €15,000 ($17,000) prize, which has previously been awarded to Guillermo del Toro, Gaspar Noe and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu among others.
The film, which was shot in Morocco and took part in Qumra 2016, is Laxe’s second film after You Are All Captains, which screened in Directors’ Fortnight in 2010, winning the Fipresci prize
Mimosas is a Spain-Morocco-France-Qatar co-production and is sold by Luxbox.
Albüm, from Turkish filmmaker Mehmet Can Mertoğlu, won the France 4 Visionary Award, which rewards “outstanding creativity and innovation”.
The black comedy centres on an Antalya-based couple who fake a pregnancy to keep their...
- 5/20/2016
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
Other winners included Mehmet Can Mertoglu’s Albüm and Wregas Bhanuteja’s Penjak.
Oliver Laxe’s Mimosas has won the Nespresso Grand Prize at the 55th Critics’ Week – the Cannes Film Festival sidebar devoted to first and second features.
Review: Mimosas
The story follows a caravan escorting a dying sheikh across the Atlas Mountains to fulfil his dying wish.
France-born, Spain-based Laxe won the €15,000 ($17,000) prize, which has previously been awarded to Guillermo del Toro, Gaspar Noe and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu among others.
The film, which was shot in Morocco and took part in Qumra 2016, is Laxe’s second film after You Are All Captains, which screened in Directors’ Fortnight in 2010, winning the Fipresci prize
Mimosas is a Spain-Morocco-France-Qatar co-production and is sold by Luxbox.
Albüm, from Turkish filmmaker Mehmet Can Mertoğlu, won the France 4 Visionary Award, which rewards “outstanding creativity and innovation”.
The black comedy centres on an Antalya-based couple who fake a pregnancy to keep their...
Oliver Laxe’s Mimosas has won the Nespresso Grand Prize at the 55th Critics’ Week – the Cannes Film Festival sidebar devoted to first and second features.
Review: Mimosas
The story follows a caravan escorting a dying sheikh across the Atlas Mountains to fulfil his dying wish.
France-born, Spain-based Laxe won the €15,000 ($17,000) prize, which has previously been awarded to Guillermo del Toro, Gaspar Noe and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu among others.
The film, which was shot in Morocco and took part in Qumra 2016, is Laxe’s second film after You Are All Captains, which screened in Directors’ Fortnight in 2010, winning the Fipresci prize
Mimosas is a Spain-Morocco-France-Qatar co-production and is sold by Luxbox.
Albüm, from Turkish filmmaker Mehmet Can Mertoğlu, won the France 4 Visionary Award, which rewards “outstanding creativity and innovation”.
The black comedy centres on an Antalya-based couple who fake a pregnancy to keep their...
- 5/20/2016
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
Israeli-American filmmaker Asaph Polonsky closed out his first week ever in Cannes with a Critics' Week prize for his first-ever feature. One Week And A Day, which drew strong reviews and a standing ovation at its official screening, took the Gan Foundation Award last night which comes with a 20K euro purse to help market the film in France. French distribution was earlier secured by Sophie Dulac. The film has also sold to Australia, Italy and Brazil with U.S. offers on…...
- 5/20/2016
- Deadline
Us in Progress Paris, a three-day works in progress event targeted at American independent filmmakers and European buyers, will take place in the scope of Champs-Elysées Film Festival on June 07-14 2016 in Paris.
The event is looking for 5 U.S. independent films at post-production stage (rough & fine cuts). The call for entries is open till April 8th 2016.
The application requirements for the films are the following:
* Narrative feature projects in post-production are eligible.
* Production Company needs to be Us based.
* Films looking for completion money, services and sales agent or European distribution should apply.
* Films in post-production when applying, with at least 30 min of the film edited and to reach feature format by June 1st 2016. If selected, the feature length version of the rough/fine cut will be presented on June 08-10. No excerpts or trailers will be accepted.
* Films with no Us or international premiere nor European sales representation prior to June 10th 2016 are eligible.
Us in Progress is a joint initiative between New Horizons Association (American Film Festival), Sophie Dulac’s Champs-Elysées Film Festival and Black Rabbit Film. It presents independent Us films in final production stages to European buyers, post-production houses and festivals in order to help them achieve completion and to foster the circulation and distribution of American indie films in Europe. Us in Progress involves two yearly get-togethers at two different festivals (Paris in June and Wroclaw in October). The next event will take form of two days of exclusive screenings of the 5 selected films (behind closed doors, for registered guests only) and one-to-one meetings on June 10th 2016.
As a bonus to contracts resulting from the presentations and meetings, a jury made of professionals (Europa Distribution, Producer’s Network, Ciné +, Commune Image, Eaux Vives Productions, Firefly, Titra-Tvs, Kickstarter, Centre Phi) will award one of the selected works in progress. The awarded movie will get post-production and promotion services in kind.
The last Paris and Wroclaw editions attracted more than 40 buyers and producers. Alumni of the workshop were selected in Sundance 2013 ("I Used to Be Darker," "Milkshake," "A Teacher"), Berlinale 2013 ("Hide Your Smiling Faces," "I Used to Be Darker"), SXSW 2013 ("A Teacher"), Tribeca 2013 ("Hide Your Smiling Faces," "Bluebird"), Karlovy Vary 2013 ("Bluebird"), Toronto International Film Festival 2013 ("1982"), Sundance 2014 ("Ping Pong Summer"), SXSW 2015 ("Creative Control"), Rotterdam 2016 ("Actor Martinez"), Berlinale 2016 ("Nakom").
The fifth edition of Champs-Elysées Film Festival is to take place in Paris on June 07th to 14th 2016.
Apply now: Entry Form...
The event is looking for 5 U.S. independent films at post-production stage (rough & fine cuts). The call for entries is open till April 8th 2016.
The application requirements for the films are the following:
* Narrative feature projects in post-production are eligible.
* Production Company needs to be Us based.
* Films looking for completion money, services and sales agent or European distribution should apply.
* Films in post-production when applying, with at least 30 min of the film edited and to reach feature format by June 1st 2016. If selected, the feature length version of the rough/fine cut will be presented on June 08-10. No excerpts or trailers will be accepted.
* Films with no Us or international premiere nor European sales representation prior to June 10th 2016 are eligible.
Us in Progress is a joint initiative between New Horizons Association (American Film Festival), Sophie Dulac’s Champs-Elysées Film Festival and Black Rabbit Film. It presents independent Us films in final production stages to European buyers, post-production houses and festivals in order to help them achieve completion and to foster the circulation and distribution of American indie films in Europe. Us in Progress involves two yearly get-togethers at two different festivals (Paris in June and Wroclaw in October). The next event will take form of two days of exclusive screenings of the 5 selected films (behind closed doors, for registered guests only) and one-to-one meetings on June 10th 2016.
As a bonus to contracts resulting from the presentations and meetings, a jury made of professionals (Europa Distribution, Producer’s Network, Ciné +, Commune Image, Eaux Vives Productions, Firefly, Titra-Tvs, Kickstarter, Centre Phi) will award one of the selected works in progress. The awarded movie will get post-production and promotion services in kind.
The last Paris and Wroclaw editions attracted more than 40 buyers and producers. Alumni of the workshop were selected in Sundance 2013 ("I Used to Be Darker," "Milkshake," "A Teacher"), Berlinale 2013 ("Hide Your Smiling Faces," "I Used to Be Darker"), SXSW 2013 ("A Teacher"), Tribeca 2013 ("Hide Your Smiling Faces," "Bluebird"), Karlovy Vary 2013 ("Bluebird"), Toronto International Film Festival 2013 ("1982"), Sundance 2014 ("Ping Pong Summer"), SXSW 2015 ("Creative Control"), Rotterdam 2016 ("Actor Martinez"), Berlinale 2016 ("Nakom").
The fifth edition of Champs-Elysées Film Festival is to take place in Paris on June 07th to 14th 2016.
Apply now: Entry Form...
- 2/22/2016
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Bridge of Spies, Jane Got a Gun, Steve Jobs junkets cancelled.
Most Paris cinemas were due to reopen their doors on Monday in the aftermath of terror attacks on the French capital that killed at least 132 people and left 350 injured, 99 severely.
In a campaign to mark France’s three days of national mourning, which entered its final day on Monday, the National Federation for French Cinemas (Fncf) announced it was making available a silent, seven-minute Dcp showing the “Peace for Paris” symbol and suggested cinemas played the clip ahead of screenings.
“Cinema theatres are among the most important places of culture in the heart of the city… Cinema must participate actively in fostering social links and national unity during this moment of mourning and solidarity,” said Fncf president Richard Patry.
The design incorporating the Eiffel Tower into the peace symbol, created by French graphic designer Jean Jullien in the wake of the attacks, has become...
Most Paris cinemas were due to reopen their doors on Monday in the aftermath of terror attacks on the French capital that killed at least 132 people and left 350 injured, 99 severely.
In a campaign to mark France’s three days of national mourning, which entered its final day on Monday, the National Federation for French Cinemas (Fncf) announced it was making available a silent, seven-minute Dcp showing the “Peace for Paris” symbol and suggested cinemas played the clip ahead of screenings.
“Cinema theatres are among the most important places of culture in the heart of the city… Cinema must participate actively in fostering social links and national unity during this moment of mourning and solidarity,” said Fncf president Richard Patry.
The design incorporating the Eiffel Tower into the peace symbol, created by French graphic designer Jean Jullien in the wake of the attacks, has become...
- 11/16/2015
- ScreenDaily
Bridge of Spies, Jane Got a Gun, Steve Jobs junkets cancelled.
Most Paris cinemas were due to reopen their doors on Monday in the aftermath of terror attacks on the French capital that killed at least 132 people and left 350 injured, 99 severely.
In a campaign to mark France’s three days of national mourning, which entered its final day on Monday, the National Federation for French Cinemas (Fncf) announced it was making available a silent, seven-minute Dcp showing the “Peace for Paris” symbol and suggested cinemas played the clip ahead of screenings.
“Cinema theatres are among the most important places of culture in the heart of the city… Cinema must participate actively in fostering social links and national unity during this moment of mourning and solidarity,” said Fncf president Richard Patry.
The design incorporating the Eiffel Tower into the peace symbol, created by French graphic designer Jean Jullien in the wake of the attacks, has become...
Most Paris cinemas were due to reopen their doors on Monday in the aftermath of terror attacks on the French capital that killed at least 132 people and left 350 injured, 99 severely.
In a campaign to mark France’s three days of national mourning, which entered its final day on Monday, the National Federation for French Cinemas (Fncf) announced it was making available a silent, seven-minute Dcp showing the “Peace for Paris” symbol and suggested cinemas played the clip ahead of screenings.
“Cinema theatres are among the most important places of culture in the heart of the city… Cinema must participate actively in fostering social links and national unity during this moment of mourning and solidarity,” said Fncf president Richard Patry.
The design incorporating the Eiffel Tower into the peace symbol, created by French graphic designer Jean Jullien in the wake of the attacks, has become...
- 11/16/2015
- ScreenDaily
Too often-forgotten and yet a key historical period in post-WW2, that began in 1958 was the revelation of the German crimes for the first time to its own people.
“Labyrinth of Lies” is based upon true events and tells the tale of Johann Radmann (Alexander Fehling, “Inglourious Basterds”) a young, principled prosecutor who investigates a massive conspiracy to cover up the Nazi pasts of “very normal Germans” who had actively facilitated the Final Solution at Auschwitz, but remained unpunished, and ignored, long after the war ended. The five-year investigation led to the 1963-1965 Frankfurt Auschwitz trials. August 19, 2015 will mark the 50th anniversary of the verdict.
A hit in France and Germany, and a selection of the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival, Beta has sold the film widely:
Argentina-Cdi Films, Australia-Madman Entertai, Brazil -Mares Filmes Lt, Canada -Métropole Films, Canada-Mongrel Media, France-Universcine, France-Sophie Dulac Di, Germany-Universal Pictu, Israel-Nachshon Films, Italy-Good Films Srl, Japan-At Entertainmen, Poland-Aurora Films, Portugal-Films4you, Taiwan-Swallow Wings F, Turkey- Fabula Films
“Labyrinth of Lies” casts light on how, despite the infamy of the Nuremberg trials, much of post-war Germany denied its war crimes. Crisply photographed, and propelled by sterling performances from Fehling, Szymanski and Krisch, the film parallels personal drama with issues of a national scale, and raises still-relevant questions about war, and how history is ultimately written.
From the first frame, the film demands attention. At times, a bit hackneyed with some heavy-handed musical cues toward “emotional” moments, and at times a bit too long, however the subject matter and the attractive stars are very engrossing. One wants to see how the action will unfold and is willing to forgive the overly melodramatic moments. This is the German submission for the Academy Award out of eight which were considered.
Director Giulio Ricciarelli was born in Milan, and has acted in numerous German films and television programs. “Labyrinth of Lies” is his feature film directorial debut. German film and stage actor Alexander Fehling, best known to U.S. audiences for his role as Staff Sgt. Wilhelm in Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglorious Basterds”, was awarded The Shooting Star Award at the 2011 Berlin International Film Festival. He will next be seen in the new season of “Homeland” as Carrie (Claire Danes)’s new love interest, and has been cast as Friedrich Engels in Raoul Peck’s “The Young Karl Marx”.
Sony Pictures Classics will release “Labyrinth of Lies”, Giulio Ricciarelli’s feature film debut, Wednesday, September 30 in New York and Los Angeles.
Directed by Giulio Ricciarelli. Written by Elisabeth Bartel and Giulio Ricciarelli. Cinematography by Martin Langer, Roman Osin. Starring Alexander Fehling, André Szymanski, Friederike Becht, Johannes Krisch, Hansi Jochmann, Johann von Bulow, Robert Hunger-Buhler, Lukas Miko and Gert Voss.
121 Minutes. In German with English Subtitles.
“Labyrinth of Lies” is based upon true events and tells the tale of Johann Radmann (Alexander Fehling, “Inglourious Basterds”) a young, principled prosecutor who investigates a massive conspiracy to cover up the Nazi pasts of “very normal Germans” who had actively facilitated the Final Solution at Auschwitz, but remained unpunished, and ignored, long after the war ended. The five-year investigation led to the 1963-1965 Frankfurt Auschwitz trials. August 19, 2015 will mark the 50th anniversary of the verdict.
A hit in France and Germany, and a selection of the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival, Beta has sold the film widely:
Argentina-Cdi Films, Australia-Madman Entertai, Brazil -Mares Filmes Lt, Canada -Métropole Films, Canada-Mongrel Media, France-Universcine, France-Sophie Dulac Di, Germany-Universal Pictu, Israel-Nachshon Films, Italy-Good Films Srl, Japan-At Entertainmen, Poland-Aurora Films, Portugal-Films4you, Taiwan-Swallow Wings F, Turkey- Fabula Films
“Labyrinth of Lies” casts light on how, despite the infamy of the Nuremberg trials, much of post-war Germany denied its war crimes. Crisply photographed, and propelled by sterling performances from Fehling, Szymanski and Krisch, the film parallels personal drama with issues of a national scale, and raises still-relevant questions about war, and how history is ultimately written.
From the first frame, the film demands attention. At times, a bit hackneyed with some heavy-handed musical cues toward “emotional” moments, and at times a bit too long, however the subject matter and the attractive stars are very engrossing. One wants to see how the action will unfold and is willing to forgive the overly melodramatic moments. This is the German submission for the Academy Award out of eight which were considered.
Director Giulio Ricciarelli was born in Milan, and has acted in numerous German films and television programs. “Labyrinth of Lies” is his feature film directorial debut. German film and stage actor Alexander Fehling, best known to U.S. audiences for his role as Staff Sgt. Wilhelm in Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglorious Basterds”, was awarded The Shooting Star Award at the 2011 Berlin International Film Festival. He will next be seen in the new season of “Homeland” as Carrie (Claire Danes)’s new love interest, and has been cast as Friedrich Engels in Raoul Peck’s “The Young Karl Marx”.
Sony Pictures Classics will release “Labyrinth of Lies”, Giulio Ricciarelli’s feature film debut, Wednesday, September 30 in New York and Los Angeles.
Directed by Giulio Ricciarelli. Written by Elisabeth Bartel and Giulio Ricciarelli. Cinematography by Martin Langer, Roman Osin. Starring Alexander Fehling, André Szymanski, Friederike Becht, Johannes Krisch, Hansi Jochmann, Johann von Bulow, Robert Hunger-Buhler, Lukas Miko and Gert Voss.
121 Minutes. In German with English Subtitles.
- 8/27/2015
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Ceff takes place in the heart of Paris in June. The first ever connection in Paris between French cinema and American cinema takes place during a glorious week of screenings and special events dedicated entirely to the public.
The opportunity to bring together a host of filmmakers, producers, distributors, journalists, academics, partners, around a big party every night at the top of Publicis where “Le Drugstore” made such a big splash during the 70s is also an event which reinvigorates what has become a touristic and consumer oriented Champs Elysees. Distinguished guests, film teams, young directors add up to a celebration of that most popular of all culture today, the movies.
The fourth edition of the Champs-Elysées Film Festival was presided by the actress Émilie Dequenne and actor Jeremy Irons, and it had more than 22, 000 attendees, accompanied all week by bright sunshine.
3 Audience Prizes were given during the closing ceremony which took place on Tuesday night at the Publicis Cinema.
• The Audience Prize for an Independent American Feature Lenght Film, given by Jeremy Irons, was awarded to the film "The Road Within" by Gren Wells, the story of a young man with Tourette’s Syndrome who embarks on a road trip. Its international sales agent is Annapurna and its U.S. distributor is WellGo.
• The Audience Prize for a French Short Film given by Émilie Dequenne and Céline Nallet, Gerenal Director of HD1 channel, was awarded to "J’aurais pas dû mettre mes Clarks" by Marie Caldera. The film will be screened on HD1.
• The Audience Prize for an American Short Film given by actress Zoë Felix and Éric Legendre from Variety was awarded to "Scheherazade" by Mehrnoush Aliaghaei.
The Student Jury Prize, given by Adrien Fallu, the marketing and communication director of TCM , the object of which is to present classics of the cinema to young adults, was given to "Shoot the Moon," by Alan Parker, presented in the section "TCM Cinéma Essentials."
The Festival was created by the Producer, Distributor and Exhibitor Sophie Dulac. More than 100 films were screened during the festival showcasing the diversity of French and American cinema in six cinemas on the most prestigious avenue in the world: The Balzac, the Gaumont Champs-Élysées, the Lincoln, the Publicis cinema, Ugc George V and MK2 Grand Palais.
Prestigious Guests This Year at the Festival:
• William Friedkin met with the public for an amazing Q&A at the end of the screening of the restored director’s cut version of "Sorcerer."
• Alan Parker, who confirmed his decision not to shoot anymore, gave a remarkable masterclass on the cult movies that have made him famous from "Fame" to "Bugsy Malone" and "Midgnight Express."
• Josh and Benny Safdie, emblematic directors of today’s New York cinema, introduced their shorts and feature movies, and premiered their new film "Heaven Knows What."
• Euzhan Palcy, director of "Sugar Cane Alley" and "A Dry White Season" gave a brilliant masterclass, sharing how she became the voice of Black People at a time when nobody wanted to hear.
• Vilmos Zsigmond, Oscar-winning director of photography who has worked with the greatest directors from Spielberg and Cimino to Brian de Palma, introduced the restored version of "The Rose" by Mark Rydell,
• Jeremy Irons, passionate cinephile who was present the screenings all week and who also gave a masterclass.
Professional Program in Constant Progression
• More than 50 distributors, producers, and international sales agents came from all over the world to discover six independent American films, works in progress, of which "Diverge" by James Morrisson, was awarded great help with several post-production services necessary to complete the film.
• The growing success of the second edition of the Paris Coproduction Village, organized in collaboration with Les Arcs European Film Festival took place from 10th to 12th June with a Brazilian focus and delighted the professionals who came from many different countries.
During the festival, numerous American directors in competition came from the U.S. to debate with audiences after the screenings: Hannah Fidell for "6 years," Onur Tukel for "Applesauce," Matthew Heineman for "Cartel Land," Andrew Renzi for "Franny," Sebastian Silva for "Nasty Baby," Gren Wells and his producer Brent Emmery for "The Road Within," Rachel Wolther producer of "Stinking Heaven" and Jenner Furst, producer of "Welcome to Leith," that's without mentioning all the French and American shorts films, premieres, etc…
All the best moments, interviews with distinguished guests, directors, jurors, and red carpets are available thanks to the Festival Web TV on:
https://www.youtube.com/user/CEfilmfestival/
www.champselyseesfilmfestival.com
https://www.facebook.com/champselyseesfilmfestival...
The opportunity to bring together a host of filmmakers, producers, distributors, journalists, academics, partners, around a big party every night at the top of Publicis where “Le Drugstore” made such a big splash during the 70s is also an event which reinvigorates what has become a touristic and consumer oriented Champs Elysees. Distinguished guests, film teams, young directors add up to a celebration of that most popular of all culture today, the movies.
The fourth edition of the Champs-Elysées Film Festival was presided by the actress Émilie Dequenne and actor Jeremy Irons, and it had more than 22, 000 attendees, accompanied all week by bright sunshine.
3 Audience Prizes were given during the closing ceremony which took place on Tuesday night at the Publicis Cinema.
• The Audience Prize for an Independent American Feature Lenght Film, given by Jeremy Irons, was awarded to the film "The Road Within" by Gren Wells, the story of a young man with Tourette’s Syndrome who embarks on a road trip. Its international sales agent is Annapurna and its U.S. distributor is WellGo.
• The Audience Prize for a French Short Film given by Émilie Dequenne and Céline Nallet, Gerenal Director of HD1 channel, was awarded to "J’aurais pas dû mettre mes Clarks" by Marie Caldera. The film will be screened on HD1.
• The Audience Prize for an American Short Film given by actress Zoë Felix and Éric Legendre from Variety was awarded to "Scheherazade" by Mehrnoush Aliaghaei.
The Student Jury Prize, given by Adrien Fallu, the marketing and communication director of TCM , the object of which is to present classics of the cinema to young adults, was given to "Shoot the Moon," by Alan Parker, presented in the section "TCM Cinéma Essentials."
The Festival was created by the Producer, Distributor and Exhibitor Sophie Dulac. More than 100 films were screened during the festival showcasing the diversity of French and American cinema in six cinemas on the most prestigious avenue in the world: The Balzac, the Gaumont Champs-Élysées, the Lincoln, the Publicis cinema, Ugc George V and MK2 Grand Palais.
Prestigious Guests This Year at the Festival:
• William Friedkin met with the public for an amazing Q&A at the end of the screening of the restored director’s cut version of "Sorcerer."
• Alan Parker, who confirmed his decision not to shoot anymore, gave a remarkable masterclass on the cult movies that have made him famous from "Fame" to "Bugsy Malone" and "Midgnight Express."
• Josh and Benny Safdie, emblematic directors of today’s New York cinema, introduced their shorts and feature movies, and premiered their new film "Heaven Knows What."
• Euzhan Palcy, director of "Sugar Cane Alley" and "A Dry White Season" gave a brilliant masterclass, sharing how she became the voice of Black People at a time when nobody wanted to hear.
• Vilmos Zsigmond, Oscar-winning director of photography who has worked with the greatest directors from Spielberg and Cimino to Brian de Palma, introduced the restored version of "The Rose" by Mark Rydell,
• Jeremy Irons, passionate cinephile who was present the screenings all week and who also gave a masterclass.
Professional Program in Constant Progression
• More than 50 distributors, producers, and international sales agents came from all over the world to discover six independent American films, works in progress, of which "Diverge" by James Morrisson, was awarded great help with several post-production services necessary to complete the film.
• The growing success of the second edition of the Paris Coproduction Village, organized in collaboration with Les Arcs European Film Festival took place from 10th to 12th June with a Brazilian focus and delighted the professionals who came from many different countries.
During the festival, numerous American directors in competition came from the U.S. to debate with audiences after the screenings: Hannah Fidell for "6 years," Onur Tukel for "Applesauce," Matthew Heineman for "Cartel Land," Andrew Renzi for "Franny," Sebastian Silva for "Nasty Baby," Gren Wells and his producer Brent Emmery for "The Road Within," Rachel Wolther producer of "Stinking Heaven" and Jenner Furst, producer of "Welcome to Leith," that's without mentioning all the French and American shorts films, premieres, etc…
All the best moments, interviews with distinguished guests, directors, jurors, and red carpets are available thanks to the Festival Web TV on:
https://www.youtube.com/user/CEfilmfestival/
www.champselyseesfilmfestival.com
https://www.facebook.com/champselyseesfilmfestival...
- 6/17/2015
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Exclusive: Us, UK, France among major market deals on slate.
German indie powerhouse The Match Factory scored a slew of deals in major markets during Berlin’s European Film Market (Efm) (Feb 5-13).
Among titles to sell around the world were competition winners 45 Years and Victoria.
Andrew Haigh’s 45 Years, which won Silver Bears for stars Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay, has sold in 30 markets, with deals closing in Us / Canada (IFC / Sundance Selects), Germany (Piffl Medien), France (Ad Vitam), Australia /New Zealand (Madman), Switzerland (Filmcoopi), Austria (Filmladen), BeNeLux (Cinemien), Japan (AyaPro), Scandinavia (Future Film), Spain (Golem), Italy (Teodora) and Poland (Solopan).
Deals also finalised for Portugal (Alambique), Greece (Seven), Turkey (Bir Film), South Korea (Pancinema), Israel (Lev Films), Baltics (Must Kasi), Ex-Yugoslavian territories (McF Megacom), Hong Kong (Edko Films), Austria (Filmladen), Hungary (Cirko Film).
Further territories, including Latin America, are under negotiation.
Sebastian Schipper’s heist thriller Victoria, which won the Silver Bear for cinematographer [link=nm...
German indie powerhouse The Match Factory scored a slew of deals in major markets during Berlin’s European Film Market (Efm) (Feb 5-13).
Among titles to sell around the world were competition winners 45 Years and Victoria.
Andrew Haigh’s 45 Years, which won Silver Bears for stars Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay, has sold in 30 markets, with deals closing in Us / Canada (IFC / Sundance Selects), Germany (Piffl Medien), France (Ad Vitam), Australia /New Zealand (Madman), Switzerland (Filmcoopi), Austria (Filmladen), BeNeLux (Cinemien), Japan (AyaPro), Scandinavia (Future Film), Spain (Golem), Italy (Teodora) and Poland (Solopan).
Deals also finalised for Portugal (Alambique), Greece (Seven), Turkey (Bir Film), South Korea (Pancinema), Israel (Lev Films), Baltics (Must Kasi), Ex-Yugoslavian territories (McF Megacom), Hong Kong (Edko Films), Austria (Filmladen), Hungary (Cirko Film).
Further territories, including Latin America, are under negotiation.
Sebastian Schipper’s heist thriller Victoria, which won the Silver Bear for cinematographer [link=nm...
- 2/17/2015
- by andreas.wiseman@screendaily.com (Andreas Wiseman)
- ScreenDaily
Exclusive: German indie powerhouse signs slew of deals.
German sales outfit The Match Factory will be at the Berlinale with a typically strong line-up, which has already piqued plenty of buyer interest.
Four of the company’s titles compete for the Golden Bear, two will premiere in Panorama and one in Forum.
45 Years, the Golden Bear contender starring Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay by Weekend director Andrew Haigh has recently sold to Benelux (ABC Cinemien), Switzerland (Filmcoopi), Australia/ New Zealand (Madman) and Germany (Piffl Medien).
The Match Factory previously secured a deal for the UK (Artificial Eye).
Competition title As We Were Dreaming, which continues The Match Factory’s relationship with director Andreas Dresen and producer Peter Rommel, has been sold to France (Sophie Dulac), Switzerland (Filmcoopi), Greece (Ama Films) and ex-Yugoslavia (McF Megacom).
Pandora Film Verleih will release the drama in Germany after its Berlinale premiere.
Meanwhile, Laura Bispuri’ s debut film Sworn Virgin, also in competition...
German sales outfit The Match Factory will be at the Berlinale with a typically strong line-up, which has already piqued plenty of buyer interest.
Four of the company’s titles compete for the Golden Bear, two will premiere in Panorama and one in Forum.
45 Years, the Golden Bear contender starring Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay by Weekend director Andrew Haigh has recently sold to Benelux (ABC Cinemien), Switzerland (Filmcoopi), Australia/ New Zealand (Madman) and Germany (Piffl Medien).
The Match Factory previously secured a deal for the UK (Artificial Eye).
Competition title As We Were Dreaming, which continues The Match Factory’s relationship with director Andreas Dresen and producer Peter Rommel, has been sold to France (Sophie Dulac), Switzerland (Filmcoopi), Greece (Ama Films) and ex-Yugoslavia (McF Megacom).
Pandora Film Verleih will release the drama in Germany after its Berlinale premiere.
Meanwhile, Laura Bispuri’ s debut film Sworn Virgin, also in competition...
- 2/5/2015
- by andreas.wiseman@screendaily.com (Andreas Wiseman)
- ScreenDaily
Exclusive: German indie powerhouse signs slew of deals.
German sales outfit The Match Factory will be at the Berlinale with a typically strong line-up, which has already piqued plenty of buyer interest.
Four of the company’s titles compete for the Golden Bear, two will premiere in Panorama and one in Forum.
45 Years, the Golden Bear contender starring Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay by Weekend director Andrew Haigh has recently sold to Benelux (ABC Cinemien), Switzerland (Filmcoopi), Australia/ New Zealand (Madman) and Germany (Piffl Medien).
The Match Factory previously secured a deal for the UK (Artificial Eye).
Competition title As We Were Dreaming, which continues The Match Factory’s relationship with director Andreas Dresen and producer Peter Rommel, has been sold to France (Sophie Dulac), Switzerland (Filmcoopi), Greece (Ama Films) and ex-Yugoslavia (McF Megacom).
Pandora Film Verleih will release the drama in Germany after its Berlinale premiere.
Meanwhile, Laura Bispuri’ s debut film Sworn Virgin, also in competition...
German sales outfit The Match Factory will be at the Berlinale with a typically strong line-up, which has already piqued plenty of buyer interest.
Four of the company’s titles compete for the Golden Bear, two will premiere in Panorama and one in Forum.
45 Years, the Golden Bear contender starring Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay by Weekend director Andrew Haigh has recently sold to Benelux (ABC Cinemien), Switzerland (Filmcoopi), Australia/ New Zealand (Madman) and Germany (Piffl Medien).
The Match Factory previously secured a deal for the UK (Artificial Eye).
Competition title As We Were Dreaming, which continues The Match Factory’s relationship with director Andreas Dresen and producer Peter Rommel, has been sold to France (Sophie Dulac), Switzerland (Filmcoopi), Greece (Ama Films) and ex-Yugoslavia (McF Megacom).
Pandora Film Verleih will release the drama in Germany after its Berlinale premiere.
Meanwhile, Laura Bispuri’ s debut film Sworn Virgin, also in competition...
- 2/5/2015
- by andreas.wiseman@screendaily.com (Andreas Wiseman)
- ScreenDaily
Swiss feature doc Yalom’s Cure, which premiered at the Locarno Festival in August, has been snapped up by a number of European distributors.
Sales agent Autlook Film Sales has confirmed that both Swiss distributor Filmcoopi and German outfit Alamode Films, who have acquired the film, are planning a late 2014 theatrical release in German-speaking territories following the Zurich Film Festival (Sept 25 - Oct 5).
Meanwhile, a number of other buyers have now come on board. Sophie Dulac Films (France), Cinemien (Benelux), and Filmtrade (Greece) have all taken Yalom’s Cure. Both a Czech /Slovak and a Us release will be announced soon.
The deals we’re all negotiated by Autlook’s Salma Abdalla.
Yalom’s Cure (aka Yalom’s Guide To Happiness) is directed by Sabine Gisiger. The film profiles bestselling author, popular scholar and existentialist Irvin D. Yalom, one of the most influential living psychotherapists.
Millions of Yalom’s books have been sold worldwide. The film is...
Sales agent Autlook Film Sales has confirmed that both Swiss distributor Filmcoopi and German outfit Alamode Films, who have acquired the film, are planning a late 2014 theatrical release in German-speaking territories following the Zurich Film Festival (Sept 25 - Oct 5).
Meanwhile, a number of other buyers have now come on board. Sophie Dulac Films (France), Cinemien (Benelux), and Filmtrade (Greece) have all taken Yalom’s Cure. Both a Czech /Slovak and a Us release will be announced soon.
The deals we’re all negotiated by Autlook’s Salma Abdalla.
Yalom’s Cure (aka Yalom’s Guide To Happiness) is directed by Sabine Gisiger. The film profiles bestselling author, popular scholar and existentialist Irvin D. Yalom, one of the most influential living psychotherapists.
Millions of Yalom’s books have been sold worldwide. The film is...
- 9/27/2014
- by geoffrey@macnab.demon.co.uk (Geoffrey Macnab)
- ScreenDaily
Last week in Paris we were amazed (and hosted) by the Champs Elysee Film Festival during their mid June event. Organized, founded and headed up by the indefatigable Sophie Dulac I think this event holds an important place for indie filmmakers of all countries today.
Mainly French but also European trade attended and the filmmakers got the unique chance to have one on one sessions with buyers and sales companies who had seen their projects.
I am impressed because this connection - filmmakers to trade - is so very hard at the always great (but huge!!) events such as Cannes. For me marketing and connecting to the trade - buyers and sellers - is almost as important for a filmmaker as making a great film (and this of course always the number 1 priority!!)
My basic question always to filmmakers is this - Considering the huge amount of films now made annually how do you intend to raise your head above the mass (of product) to reach your audience?
It struck me that reasonably sized (even small) events such as this Fest (and its amazing daily evening networking gatherings) is a very important way to go for indie filmmakers.
The large Large events dominate attention these days but quality smaller events such as this one I think may offer different and even more rewards (networking, deals, etc) for many producers.
In France weeks apart I attended Cannes Film Festival and its Marche du Film and then later Champs Elysee. Both are wonderful and the careful serious producer needs to evaluate for each production how they will use such promising venues to advance their business goals and find their audience.
Two events in particular stood out at Champs Elysee Ff.
These were:
Us in Progress
My partner Sydney Levine sat on the jury for this very interesting section of the Champs Elysee Film Festival.
Us in Progress is a joint initiative between the American Film Festival in Wroclaw, Poland, the Champs-Élysées Film Festival (June 11-17, 2014) in Paris and Black Rabbit Film, created in 2011.
It is the first professional event dedicated to independent American films that are still in post-production. The goal of the event is for film-makers to show their work to potential European buyers in order to encourage their distribution and broadcast across Europe.
Us in Progress takes place twice a year during two festivals: once in Paris, in June and once in Wroclaw, in October.
So, the question is relevant -
Why create an event in favor of the American cinema in Europe?
The founders reply -
There is no doubt in anybody’s mind that today the European market is dominated by American films. But by American films we generally mean big budget films produced by big studios. These films are no doubt entertaining, but they only reflect a portion of what the Us is all about. Outside of the big studios, there is a dynamic and interesting group of people making independent films but struggling to find distributors abroad. Independent productions often lack an efficient international strategy and European buyers are mostly unaware of the films being produced.
Thus, Us in Progress aims at building new bridges between today’s up-and-coming generation of talented American filmmakers and European buyers. In a word, we want to present the new faces of the Us cinema to the European market.
The selection committee made up of the Champs-Élysées Film Festival/American Film Festival Wroclaw/Black Rabbit Film selects 4-5 films for each Us in Progress. The selected feature films are presented to a panel of over 40 potential sellers, buyers, distributors, festivals and European producers. The films presented at Us in Progress are feature films produced by well-known producers/directors as much as emerging ones.
These past two years, Us in Progress Paris has received over 80 projects.
The second event that impressed me was -
Paris Coproduction Village
This event is dedicated to international co-productions.
Les Arcs European Film Festival and Champs-Élysées Film Festival launched a partnership and created Paris Coproduction Village which was held on June 12-13
Paris Coproduction Village is a new platform for the development and the funding of selected feature films from around the world. It is organized by Les Arcs European Film Festival and the Champs-Élysées Film Festival. The goal of the two-day event is to encourage the Fest attending European film industry to get involved in international co-productions.
For two days, 12 to 15 international projects looking to build a French or European co-production were presented to producers, international sellers, distributors, backers, representatives of regional funds and festivals.
Moreover, the 6 residents of the Cinéfondation of the Cannes Festival were also involved in the selection.
Participants took part in private meetings, networking events, and seminars chaired by major figures of the cinema industry.
For more details about the selected projects please see the website at
http://www.champselyseesfilmfestival.com/...
Mainly French but also European trade attended and the filmmakers got the unique chance to have one on one sessions with buyers and sales companies who had seen their projects.
I am impressed because this connection - filmmakers to trade - is so very hard at the always great (but huge!!) events such as Cannes. For me marketing and connecting to the trade - buyers and sellers - is almost as important for a filmmaker as making a great film (and this of course always the number 1 priority!!)
My basic question always to filmmakers is this - Considering the huge amount of films now made annually how do you intend to raise your head above the mass (of product) to reach your audience?
It struck me that reasonably sized (even small) events such as this Fest (and its amazing daily evening networking gatherings) is a very important way to go for indie filmmakers.
The large Large events dominate attention these days but quality smaller events such as this one I think may offer different and even more rewards (networking, deals, etc) for many producers.
In France weeks apart I attended Cannes Film Festival and its Marche du Film and then later Champs Elysee. Both are wonderful and the careful serious producer needs to evaluate for each production how they will use such promising venues to advance their business goals and find their audience.
Two events in particular stood out at Champs Elysee Ff.
These were:
Us in Progress
My partner Sydney Levine sat on the jury for this very interesting section of the Champs Elysee Film Festival.
Us in Progress is a joint initiative between the American Film Festival in Wroclaw, Poland, the Champs-Élysées Film Festival (June 11-17, 2014) in Paris and Black Rabbit Film, created in 2011.
It is the first professional event dedicated to independent American films that are still in post-production. The goal of the event is for film-makers to show their work to potential European buyers in order to encourage their distribution and broadcast across Europe.
Us in Progress takes place twice a year during two festivals: once in Paris, in June and once in Wroclaw, in October.
So, the question is relevant -
Why create an event in favor of the American cinema in Europe?
The founders reply -
There is no doubt in anybody’s mind that today the European market is dominated by American films. But by American films we generally mean big budget films produced by big studios. These films are no doubt entertaining, but they only reflect a portion of what the Us is all about. Outside of the big studios, there is a dynamic and interesting group of people making independent films but struggling to find distributors abroad. Independent productions often lack an efficient international strategy and European buyers are mostly unaware of the films being produced.
Thus, Us in Progress aims at building new bridges between today’s up-and-coming generation of talented American filmmakers and European buyers. In a word, we want to present the new faces of the Us cinema to the European market.
The selection committee made up of the Champs-Élysées Film Festival/American Film Festival Wroclaw/Black Rabbit Film selects 4-5 films for each Us in Progress. The selected feature films are presented to a panel of over 40 potential sellers, buyers, distributors, festivals and European producers. The films presented at Us in Progress are feature films produced by well-known producers/directors as much as emerging ones.
These past two years, Us in Progress Paris has received over 80 projects.
The second event that impressed me was -
Paris Coproduction Village
This event is dedicated to international co-productions.
Les Arcs European Film Festival and Champs-Élysées Film Festival launched a partnership and created Paris Coproduction Village which was held on June 12-13
Paris Coproduction Village is a new platform for the development and the funding of selected feature films from around the world. It is organized by Les Arcs European Film Festival and the Champs-Élysées Film Festival. The goal of the two-day event is to encourage the Fest attending European film industry to get involved in international co-productions.
For two days, 12 to 15 international projects looking to build a French or European co-production were presented to producers, international sellers, distributors, backers, representatives of regional funds and festivals.
Moreover, the 6 residents of the Cinéfondation of the Cannes Festival were also involved in the selection.
Participants took part in private meetings, networking events, and seminars chaired by major figures of the cinema industry.
For more details about the selected projects please see the website at
http://www.champselyseesfilmfestival.com/...
- 6/27/2014
- by Peter Belsito
- Sydney's Buzz
Paris! What could be better than to be in Paris, when it sizzles and drizzles, with spectacular lightning, and an evening view of the Arc de Triomphe every night as the participants of the Champs Elysees Film Festival, U.S. in Progress and Paris Coproduction Village drink champagne and eat exciting and uniquely presented hors d’oevres.
Even as we left for the airport after our five nights at the festival, at 6 am we were treated to a full moon and the Eiffel Tower on our right, still enveloped by the navy blue night and on our left, the Seine River and the sun turning the sky rose with its long fingers of dawn.
The beautiful and erudite Jacqueline Bisset, Bertrand Tavernier, Agnes Varda, Keanu Reeves, Whit Stillman and Mike Figges were all here in this intimate and quintessentially Parisian film festival, being celebrated and giving master classes to a public which is eager to soak in American films and French films in the only film festival in Paris.
The American films showing here are indies, relevant, funny, and all special. The Official Selection of American features include Sundance premiere films “Obvious Child” which also screened in Rotterdam and is now playing in U.S., “See You Next Tuesday”, “American Promise”, “Rich Hill” (also played in Hot Docs) and “Test”; the Toronto hit about the French photographer of U.S. street scenes in 1940s and ‘50s U.S. “Searching for Vivian Maier”; Tiff’s “Fort Bliss”; Urbanworld Ff’s “The Magic City” the debut film of R. Malcolm Jones; the critical hit “Locke”; last year’s U.S. in Progress and Tiff films “ 1982”; “Summer of Blood” which went on to play in Tribeca and “Sunbelt Express” in its world premiere.
I have to mention that very relevant French films, both new and classic, are also showing. For me the standout is Jacques Tati’s “Playtime” with English subtitles by Art Buchwald which came out 1967 to the great surprise and delight of the American public lucky enough to see it. In this adventure, Monsieur Hulot has to contact an American official in Paris, but he gets lost in the maze of modern architecture which is filled with the latest technical gadgets. Caught in the tourist invasion, Hulot roams around Paris with a group of American tourists, causing chaos in his usual manner. (Written By Leon Wolters <wolters [at] strw.LeidenUniv.nl>)
Writing this after “Fort Bliss” won the Audience Award is great because I loved that film.
That it could avoid the clichés expected to abound in a film about a beautiful young mother who enlists not once but twice to serve in Afghanistan was a feat of expert script writing and filmmaking.
Between the two stints in the Army, Maggie Swann must renew her relationship with her five-year old son, adjust to her ex-husband’s new live-in and establish a new romance with a blue-eyed Mexican car mechanic, played by Manolo Cardona, who played Santiago in “Contracorriente” (“Undertow”) and is heart-throbbingly gorgeous.
Michelle Monaghan who played Maggie Swann reminded me a little too much of Sandra Bullock though she is a good actress, playing the two ends of the emotional spectrum so well that I actually cried with her. Returning home and to Fort Bliss in Houston Texas after a horrendous stint in the army where she served as a medic, unable to sleep much and determined to take back her son, she plays the stoic decorated U.S. Army medic that she has become and yet, to win back her son and establish any other loving relationship, she must (and does) allow her emotions to rule in the end.
The director, Claudia Myers, who also wrote the screenplay was at the screening answering numerous questions afterward in both English and French. She is American but grew up in France. She worked extensively with the military making training movies and wanted to write a story about a woman with a career and family. This extreme situation of a career in the military also appealed to her because the woman had to play such emotional extremes, from not showing emotion in the worst circumstances of war to allowing her emotions for her son and for her lover to have free reign. This is the second feature she has directed after the 2006 Showtime movie, “ Kettle of Fish”.
The film premiered at Toronto Film Festival 2013 and is being sold internationally by Voltage who has sold it for Showgate for Japan and Umbrella for Australia), and Phase 4 for North America.
If only there were a family-friendly version, I would take my young grandson and his mother to see this as I think a child would empathize with the little boy, played by if the two very hot (and very meaningful) sex scenes were edited out for a family-friendly version. The sex scenes, however, were great in that each showed the psychological needs of a long emotionally-suppressed military woman and latter the sad and determined lust of her and her lover. That was one cliché less: instead of showing the usual dreamy and loving sex motives of most films, sex revealed the emotional states of people under pressure. The second cliché avoided was the emotional bond between mother and son. It was a film even a child could respond too, much the way children respond to the story of Bambi on film, and yet it avoided any sappiness. And the Army wants to see this story told, despite it showing troubling subject matter like Ptsd, reintegrating into society and sexual assault -- but to their credit they have supported it and helped the film get made in terms of accuracy.
The credits offered thanks to the 1st Armored Division and Fort Bliss,
American Legion, American Red Cross, Joint Forces Training Base Los Alamitos, CA, Patriot Guard Riders, U.S. Army Public Affairs, Union Editorial and the United Service Organizations (Uso).
Also playing were my favorite Tiff film “Searching for Vivian Maier” and “1982” which we (the jury) voted Best Film of Us in Progress last year in Paris and which also went on to play in Toronto. We’re waiting to see how Tommy Oliver releases it. He is now producing two other films: “ Halfway” and “Black Eyed Dog”.
Watch this moving picture of Tommy Oliver lighting up for the Us in Progress organizer Ula Sniegowska, Trust Nordisk’s Silje Glimsdal and others last year in Paris at the Champs Elysees Film Festival
My other personal favorites and wonderful discoveries were “Sun Belt Express” and “Summer of Blood”. The next blog will be about these two films and their filmmakers.
The Champs Elysees Film Festival: American Independent Film Competition
My runner-ups to the Audience Favorite, “Fort Bliss” are “Sun Belt Express” and “Summer of Blood”.
“Sun Belt Express” was named in 2012 as the Indiewire Project of the Day as it began its trajectory by raising money on Kickstarter.
See the article Here
"Sun Belt Express" is a funny movie about illegal immigration, set to the south of Tucson in the Sonoran Desert. The story follows Allen King, an offbeat ethics professor who ends up on a run across the Mexican border with his conservative teenage daughter in tow - and four illegal immigrants in the trunk. What follows is a family road trip where anything that can go wrong – does. Set on both sides of the border, the film is a testament to the enduring power of humor, even in the most trying of situations.
My interview with the Writer – Director Evan Buxbaum and the Producer Noah Lang took place at the Hotel Marceau, not far from the Champs Elysees where seven theaters were showing films from the Champs Elysees Film Festival, put on for the third year by Sophie Dulac – producer, distributor, arthouse exhibitor and vice-president of family-founded, Publicis, the third largest advertising agency in the world.
Women to Watch: Sophie Dulac and the Champs Elysees Film Festival
Evan Buxbaum started life as a totally unexposed-to-the-world upper Westside (NY) Jewish boy. He didn’t even go to film school. He studied political science and political conflict resolution at Swarthmore. He graduated in ’06 and learned filmmaking by making three or four shorts at the same time as he tended bar.
His “barback” (that is the busboy for bars) Gregorio Castro, shared his story of how he came to U.S. As they became better friends, Evan met other Latinos who had some insane stories about crossing the border which were oddly uplifting. They always showed an indominable spirit in telling these tough stories; they always laughed. It was a unique way to approach life with such a sense of humor.
He and Gregorio set about writing a script and made a 10 minute short, “La Linea” about people in the trunk of a car, as a test of the concept, to see if it would resonate in the way they wanted. They wanted to create a film in a space that didn’t exist. Terrible things happen on the border and the film gave him the opportunity to explore humor in adversity.
The short played in a lot of festivals and some people wanted to finance his feature and so his life was shaped over the next five years (from ages 20 to 30).
Producer Noah Lang -- who incidently is the son of actor Stephen Lang, who played a cameo in this film and was the bad guy in “Avatar” and will be again in “Avatar” 2, 3 and 4 – also went to Swarthmore but did not know Evan there. Noah was working at Cinetic when he went to Headsets and Highballs, a networking operation in NYC where a producer, telling a funny story, got him interested him in reading the script. Over the next four months, while working at Cinetic, he helped out in the development of the script and subsequently left Cinetic to produce independently and subsequently was accepted into a program The Dogfish Accelerator. There he met one of the producers and got involved. That was two years ago…and he didn’t grow broke.
A first feature is usually sheer blindness, stupidity and luck. Financing began with Kickstarter to raise seed money. That was the most difficult part of making the movie. Kickstarter is a great platform to make you do something! They had 650 donors and raised $40,000 to hire actors, an attorney, asting director and location scout. Kickstarter also created a big following. From crowdfunding they moved to private equity and cash flowed through New Mexico tax credit. They raised some money from Indiegogo for post-production and their very rough cut won the Us in Progress prize in the fall of 2013 in Wroclaw, Poland, sharing with “Lake Los Angeles ” for color, sound, foley and a full music mix. They will still use the Polish Us in Progress prize to do a final print mix and color pass and get a Dcp.
Says Noah: “This account of how we raised money is not a replicating model. The first film is a constant bargain for what you can do.”
The creative notes they received during Us in Progress were very important. It was the first time they knew what they needed to do.
“In editing you’re blind. The emotional connection is very powerful, the process however is a slog, filled with doubts,” Evan says.
The speed dating model of networking gave Evan and Noah a way to approach problems.
One French distribution company showed interest in the film and lots of international sales agents gave them advice. Some told them that the film would do well in U.K. and Russia, but would not play to a French audience.
Here in Paris, however, many people gave them their cards for French distribution. The French audience was very good and made them optimistic as their reception was overwhelmingly positive, in fact some in the audience were very passionate about the immigration issue.
“And this was supposed to be the difficult audience”, they said.
Even the French international sales agents had underestimated the French audiences. The strength of this well told story was in dealing with the issue of transplantation in a humanized, humanitarian way. The audience was very emotional and spoke of their own or their great-grandparents’ coming to France. I noticed questions were asked by Africans and North Africans as well as by French.
They are now in talks with sales agents and a domestic distributor. Stay tuned!
They have several projects jockeying for priority now. One is to work with the “Summer of Blood” team on a coproduction. This is still pre-script stage. More on “Summer of Blood” and their team to follow. Both the investors in “Summer of Blood” and “Sunbelt Express” are interested in continuing.
For more information, go to SunBeltExpressMovie.com.
Based on Noah Lang and Evan Buxbaum’s recommendations and on the fact that like it had also been in Us in Progress and in Tribeca Film Festival, I went to see “Summer of Blood” and was not disappointed.
In fact, I was surprised by the humor of this so-called “mumble gore” movie which Mpi is releasing in the U.S. The best of it all was the presentation and post screening Q&A by the director and star Onur Tukel, a Turkish Woody Allen. This is a New York story of a guy who is afraid to commit and becomes a vampire and is still afraid to commit but has a great time having sex until he realizes his former girlfriend is still the one he loves.
Onur, a Turkish guy who grew up in North Carolina, and his producer Clifford McCurdy were in Paris with “Summer of Blood”. The two could not appear more disparate. One loose, dresses in plaid shirts, has a beard and long hair, the other straight-laced, short haired, reserved. When Onur begins talking, you don’t know if he is serious or joking and he gets pretty outrageous. He says this film is a cross between “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and “True Blood” and it is very Woody Allen. One of the actresses, Juliette Fairley was also there. She was sexy, drole, perky and funny in the movie. Her mother – French Jewish, her father African American met when he went to France during World War 2. She has a script about it which she is also beginning to show people. At one point in the Q&A, someone in the audience asked how Onur could be so brazen about how he portrayed his Jewish landlord or the African American date in one scene (Juliette) and he had no shame or trace of bigotry in his answer. As a Turkish American growing up in North Carolina, he had never met a Jew until he moved to New York and his landlord was actually like the landlord in the movie…why not? The question was made to seem like one in “Sunbelt Express” when the daughter asks her father how he can dare to call these people “Mexicans” and he replies, “but they are Mexicans”. The fun of poking holes in peoples’ politically corrected prejudices make both of these comedies subversively funny.
See the movie when Mpi releases it. As for “Sun Belt Express”, you’ll have to wait until they sign a distribution deal.
Even as we left for the airport after our five nights at the festival, at 6 am we were treated to a full moon and the Eiffel Tower on our right, still enveloped by the navy blue night and on our left, the Seine River and the sun turning the sky rose with its long fingers of dawn.
The beautiful and erudite Jacqueline Bisset, Bertrand Tavernier, Agnes Varda, Keanu Reeves, Whit Stillman and Mike Figges were all here in this intimate and quintessentially Parisian film festival, being celebrated and giving master classes to a public which is eager to soak in American films and French films in the only film festival in Paris.
The American films showing here are indies, relevant, funny, and all special. The Official Selection of American features include Sundance premiere films “Obvious Child” which also screened in Rotterdam and is now playing in U.S., “See You Next Tuesday”, “American Promise”, “Rich Hill” (also played in Hot Docs) and “Test”; the Toronto hit about the French photographer of U.S. street scenes in 1940s and ‘50s U.S. “Searching for Vivian Maier”; Tiff’s “Fort Bliss”; Urbanworld Ff’s “The Magic City” the debut film of R. Malcolm Jones; the critical hit “Locke”; last year’s U.S. in Progress and Tiff films “ 1982”; “Summer of Blood” which went on to play in Tribeca and “Sunbelt Express” in its world premiere.
I have to mention that very relevant French films, both new and classic, are also showing. For me the standout is Jacques Tati’s “Playtime” with English subtitles by Art Buchwald which came out 1967 to the great surprise and delight of the American public lucky enough to see it. In this adventure, Monsieur Hulot has to contact an American official in Paris, but he gets lost in the maze of modern architecture which is filled with the latest technical gadgets. Caught in the tourist invasion, Hulot roams around Paris with a group of American tourists, causing chaos in his usual manner. (Written By Leon Wolters <wolters [at] strw.LeidenUniv.nl>)
Writing this after “Fort Bliss” won the Audience Award is great because I loved that film.
That it could avoid the clichés expected to abound in a film about a beautiful young mother who enlists not once but twice to serve in Afghanistan was a feat of expert script writing and filmmaking.
Between the two stints in the Army, Maggie Swann must renew her relationship with her five-year old son, adjust to her ex-husband’s new live-in and establish a new romance with a blue-eyed Mexican car mechanic, played by Manolo Cardona, who played Santiago in “Contracorriente” (“Undertow”) and is heart-throbbingly gorgeous.
Michelle Monaghan who played Maggie Swann reminded me a little too much of Sandra Bullock though she is a good actress, playing the two ends of the emotional spectrum so well that I actually cried with her. Returning home and to Fort Bliss in Houston Texas after a horrendous stint in the army where she served as a medic, unable to sleep much and determined to take back her son, she plays the stoic decorated U.S. Army medic that she has become and yet, to win back her son and establish any other loving relationship, she must (and does) allow her emotions to rule in the end.
The director, Claudia Myers, who also wrote the screenplay was at the screening answering numerous questions afterward in both English and French. She is American but grew up in France. She worked extensively with the military making training movies and wanted to write a story about a woman with a career and family. This extreme situation of a career in the military also appealed to her because the woman had to play such emotional extremes, from not showing emotion in the worst circumstances of war to allowing her emotions for her son and for her lover to have free reign. This is the second feature she has directed after the 2006 Showtime movie, “ Kettle of Fish”.
The film premiered at Toronto Film Festival 2013 and is being sold internationally by Voltage who has sold it for Showgate for Japan and Umbrella for Australia), and Phase 4 for North America.
If only there were a family-friendly version, I would take my young grandson and his mother to see this as I think a child would empathize with the little boy, played by if the two very hot (and very meaningful) sex scenes were edited out for a family-friendly version. The sex scenes, however, were great in that each showed the psychological needs of a long emotionally-suppressed military woman and latter the sad and determined lust of her and her lover. That was one cliché less: instead of showing the usual dreamy and loving sex motives of most films, sex revealed the emotional states of people under pressure. The second cliché avoided was the emotional bond between mother and son. It was a film even a child could respond too, much the way children respond to the story of Bambi on film, and yet it avoided any sappiness. And the Army wants to see this story told, despite it showing troubling subject matter like Ptsd, reintegrating into society and sexual assault -- but to their credit they have supported it and helped the film get made in terms of accuracy.
The credits offered thanks to the 1st Armored Division and Fort Bliss,
American Legion, American Red Cross, Joint Forces Training Base Los Alamitos, CA, Patriot Guard Riders, U.S. Army Public Affairs, Union Editorial and the United Service Organizations (Uso).
Also playing were my favorite Tiff film “Searching for Vivian Maier” and “1982” which we (the jury) voted Best Film of Us in Progress last year in Paris and which also went on to play in Toronto. We’re waiting to see how Tommy Oliver releases it. He is now producing two other films: “ Halfway” and “Black Eyed Dog”.
Watch this moving picture of Tommy Oliver lighting up for the Us in Progress organizer Ula Sniegowska, Trust Nordisk’s Silje Glimsdal and others last year in Paris at the Champs Elysees Film Festival
My other personal favorites and wonderful discoveries were “Sun Belt Express” and “Summer of Blood”. The next blog will be about these two films and their filmmakers.
The Champs Elysees Film Festival: American Independent Film Competition
My runner-ups to the Audience Favorite, “Fort Bliss” are “Sun Belt Express” and “Summer of Blood”.
“Sun Belt Express” was named in 2012 as the Indiewire Project of the Day as it began its trajectory by raising money on Kickstarter.
See the article Here
"Sun Belt Express" is a funny movie about illegal immigration, set to the south of Tucson in the Sonoran Desert. The story follows Allen King, an offbeat ethics professor who ends up on a run across the Mexican border with his conservative teenage daughter in tow - and four illegal immigrants in the trunk. What follows is a family road trip where anything that can go wrong – does. Set on both sides of the border, the film is a testament to the enduring power of humor, even in the most trying of situations.
My interview with the Writer – Director Evan Buxbaum and the Producer Noah Lang took place at the Hotel Marceau, not far from the Champs Elysees where seven theaters were showing films from the Champs Elysees Film Festival, put on for the third year by Sophie Dulac – producer, distributor, arthouse exhibitor and vice-president of family-founded, Publicis, the third largest advertising agency in the world.
Women to Watch: Sophie Dulac and the Champs Elysees Film Festival
Evan Buxbaum started life as a totally unexposed-to-the-world upper Westside (NY) Jewish boy. He didn’t even go to film school. He studied political science and political conflict resolution at Swarthmore. He graduated in ’06 and learned filmmaking by making three or four shorts at the same time as he tended bar.
His “barback” (that is the busboy for bars) Gregorio Castro, shared his story of how he came to U.S. As they became better friends, Evan met other Latinos who had some insane stories about crossing the border which were oddly uplifting. They always showed an indominable spirit in telling these tough stories; they always laughed. It was a unique way to approach life with such a sense of humor.
He and Gregorio set about writing a script and made a 10 minute short, “La Linea” about people in the trunk of a car, as a test of the concept, to see if it would resonate in the way they wanted. They wanted to create a film in a space that didn’t exist. Terrible things happen on the border and the film gave him the opportunity to explore humor in adversity.
The short played in a lot of festivals and some people wanted to finance his feature and so his life was shaped over the next five years (from ages 20 to 30).
Producer Noah Lang -- who incidently is the son of actor Stephen Lang, who played a cameo in this film and was the bad guy in “Avatar” and will be again in “Avatar” 2, 3 and 4 – also went to Swarthmore but did not know Evan there. Noah was working at Cinetic when he went to Headsets and Highballs, a networking operation in NYC where a producer, telling a funny story, got him interested him in reading the script. Over the next four months, while working at Cinetic, he helped out in the development of the script and subsequently left Cinetic to produce independently and subsequently was accepted into a program The Dogfish Accelerator. There he met one of the producers and got involved. That was two years ago…and he didn’t grow broke.
A first feature is usually sheer blindness, stupidity and luck. Financing began with Kickstarter to raise seed money. That was the most difficult part of making the movie. Kickstarter is a great platform to make you do something! They had 650 donors and raised $40,000 to hire actors, an attorney, asting director and location scout. Kickstarter also created a big following. From crowdfunding they moved to private equity and cash flowed through New Mexico tax credit. They raised some money from Indiegogo for post-production and their very rough cut won the Us in Progress prize in the fall of 2013 in Wroclaw, Poland, sharing with “Lake Los Angeles ” for color, sound, foley and a full music mix. They will still use the Polish Us in Progress prize to do a final print mix and color pass and get a Dcp.
Says Noah: “This account of how we raised money is not a replicating model. The first film is a constant bargain for what you can do.”
The creative notes they received during Us in Progress were very important. It was the first time they knew what they needed to do.
“In editing you’re blind. The emotional connection is very powerful, the process however is a slog, filled with doubts,” Evan says.
The speed dating model of networking gave Evan and Noah a way to approach problems.
One French distribution company showed interest in the film and lots of international sales agents gave them advice. Some told them that the film would do well in U.K. and Russia, but would not play to a French audience.
Here in Paris, however, many people gave them their cards for French distribution. The French audience was very good and made them optimistic as their reception was overwhelmingly positive, in fact some in the audience were very passionate about the immigration issue.
“And this was supposed to be the difficult audience”, they said.
Even the French international sales agents had underestimated the French audiences. The strength of this well told story was in dealing with the issue of transplantation in a humanized, humanitarian way. The audience was very emotional and spoke of their own or their great-grandparents’ coming to France. I noticed questions were asked by Africans and North Africans as well as by French.
They are now in talks with sales agents and a domestic distributor. Stay tuned!
They have several projects jockeying for priority now. One is to work with the “Summer of Blood” team on a coproduction. This is still pre-script stage. More on “Summer of Blood” and their team to follow. Both the investors in “Summer of Blood” and “Sunbelt Express” are interested in continuing.
For more information, go to SunBeltExpressMovie.com.
Based on Noah Lang and Evan Buxbaum’s recommendations and on the fact that like it had also been in Us in Progress and in Tribeca Film Festival, I went to see “Summer of Blood” and was not disappointed.
In fact, I was surprised by the humor of this so-called “mumble gore” movie which Mpi is releasing in the U.S. The best of it all was the presentation and post screening Q&A by the director and star Onur Tukel, a Turkish Woody Allen. This is a New York story of a guy who is afraid to commit and becomes a vampire and is still afraid to commit but has a great time having sex until he realizes his former girlfriend is still the one he loves.
Onur, a Turkish guy who grew up in North Carolina, and his producer Clifford McCurdy were in Paris with “Summer of Blood”. The two could not appear more disparate. One loose, dresses in plaid shirts, has a beard and long hair, the other straight-laced, short haired, reserved. When Onur begins talking, you don’t know if he is serious or joking and he gets pretty outrageous. He says this film is a cross between “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and “True Blood” and it is very Woody Allen. One of the actresses, Juliette Fairley was also there. She was sexy, drole, perky and funny in the movie. Her mother – French Jewish, her father African American met when he went to France during World War 2. She has a script about it which she is also beginning to show people. At one point in the Q&A, someone in the audience asked how Onur could be so brazen about how he portrayed his Jewish landlord or the African American date in one scene (Juliette) and he had no shame or trace of bigotry in his answer. As a Turkish American growing up in North Carolina, he had never met a Jew until he moved to New York and his landlord was actually like the landlord in the movie…why not? The question was made to seem like one in “Sunbelt Express” when the daughter asks her father how he can dare to call these people “Mexicans” and he replies, “but they are Mexicans”. The fun of poking holes in peoples’ politically corrected prejudices make both of these comedies subversively funny.
See the movie when Mpi releases it. As for “Sun Belt Express”, you’ll have to wait until they sign a distribution deal.
- 6/22/2014
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Once again I have the good fortune of spending some time with Sophie Dulac who is not only President of the Champs Elysees Film Festival but producer currently of three coproductions, one with Germany and one with Armenia and whose past co-productions include "Hannah Arendt" by Margarethe Von Trotta, "Last Days in Jerusalem" by Tawfik Abu-Wael and "The Band's Visit". She is also a distributor of over 70 films since the 2003 founding of Sophie Dulac Distribution with films of Bela Tarr, Frederick Wiseman, Alexandre Sokourov, Jacques Doillon and Theo Angelopoulos as well as new talents like Katel Quillévéré or Eva Ionesco, from festivals such as Cannes, Locarno, Berlin, Toronto, Sundance or Venice among others.
She also owns key theaters in Paris without whose support films would flounder and die. The company, Screens in Paris (Les Ecrans de Paris), is a circuit of five independent cinemas with 13 screens and 2,300 seats on Paris: Harlequin, the Medici Reflection Panorama El Escorial, the Majestic and Majestic Passy Bastille. When a film shows in some of these, then its success is nearly guaranteed. And last, but hardly least, she is Vice President of Publicis, founded by her grandfather, Marcel Blaustein, in 1926, abandoned while he fought in the Resistance and reclaimed after the war and rebuilt into the third largest public relations/ advertising corporation in the world. Marcel Blaustein was first to use radio as a means of advertising,
When we spoke two years ago, the Champs Elysees Film Festival was just beginning.
See Women to Watch.
Now in its third edition, taking place June 11 - 17, 2014, it has grown in recognition among professionals and the public worldwide, and it is enhancing the Champs Elysees as a place for the French to attend cinema once again. It is also creating ties between the French and American cineastes in many new ways. This popular and festive Franco-American film festival taking place on the most prestigious avenue offered an even more eclectic and exciting program this year. It was presided over by Bertrand Tavernier and Jacqueline Bisset.
Guests of Honor giving master classes include :
- Agnès Varda, present to talk about her films shot in the States
- Keanu Reeves, who presented the documentary "Side by Side" which he produced
- Whit Stillman whose cult film "Metropolitan" was shown in the festival and will shortly be released in France. He spoke French as did many other American filmmakers during their presentations.
- Mike Figgis spoke about fashion and film following a documentary and several short films he has made this subject
The Feature Film Competition of newly released American Independent films includes "1982" by Tommy Oliver which won U.S. in Progress in 2013 and will soon be released in the U.S., "American Promise", a documentary by Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson, "Fort Bliss" by Claudia Myers, "Obvious Child" by Gillian Robespierre, "Rich Hill" a documentary by Andrew Droz Palermo & Tacy Droz Tragos, "See You Next Tuesday" by Drew Tobia, "Summer of Blood" by Onur Tukel, a former U.S. in Progress entry, "Sun Belt Express" by Evan Buxbaum - another former U.S. in Progress entry, "The Magic City" by R. Malcolm Jones.
There is also a short film competition of over 35 French and American shorts, including a selection from film schools (AFI, USC and Columbia in the States and La Fémis, Eicar, ArtFx and Les Gobelins schools in France).
Since the Paris Film Festival lost its funding by the city earlier this year, Ceff is the only Film Festival in the city and the Paris Coproduction Village moved over to it with 12 features. Run by the same team which runs the Les Arcs Coproduction Village in the French Alps in December, CEO Pierre Emmanuel Fleurantin, head of industry Vanja Kaludjercic, general manager Guillaume Calop and consultant co-founder Jeremy Zelni, it kept up the high quality of its projects. More than 130 companies registered and 160 professionals attended. There were 560 one-to-one meetings over the two days. The main focus of the event is to connect international filmmakers with potential French sales agents and producers but alongside representatives of companies such as Bac Films, Other Angle, Les Films d’ici 2 a number of international companies also attended including the UK’s WestEnd Films, Bankside, The Match Factory and The Works.
The festival poster is a cross between movie icon Marilyn Monroe and the icon of French Liberty, Marianne. Nicknamed "Marilyanne", it is being featured on T shirts, buttons, post cards and are all for sale. A new pass for full entry for the week is offered for 50 Euros.
She also owns key theaters in Paris without whose support films would flounder and die. The company, Screens in Paris (Les Ecrans de Paris), is a circuit of five independent cinemas with 13 screens and 2,300 seats on Paris: Harlequin, the Medici Reflection Panorama El Escorial, the Majestic and Majestic Passy Bastille. When a film shows in some of these, then its success is nearly guaranteed. And last, but hardly least, she is Vice President of Publicis, founded by her grandfather, Marcel Blaustein, in 1926, abandoned while he fought in the Resistance and reclaimed after the war and rebuilt into the third largest public relations/ advertising corporation in the world. Marcel Blaustein was first to use radio as a means of advertising,
When we spoke two years ago, the Champs Elysees Film Festival was just beginning.
See Women to Watch.
Now in its third edition, taking place June 11 - 17, 2014, it has grown in recognition among professionals and the public worldwide, and it is enhancing the Champs Elysees as a place for the French to attend cinema once again. It is also creating ties between the French and American cineastes in many new ways. This popular and festive Franco-American film festival taking place on the most prestigious avenue offered an even more eclectic and exciting program this year. It was presided over by Bertrand Tavernier and Jacqueline Bisset.
Guests of Honor giving master classes include :
- Agnès Varda, present to talk about her films shot in the States
- Keanu Reeves, who presented the documentary "Side by Side" which he produced
- Whit Stillman whose cult film "Metropolitan" was shown in the festival and will shortly be released in France. He spoke French as did many other American filmmakers during their presentations.
- Mike Figgis spoke about fashion and film following a documentary and several short films he has made this subject
The Feature Film Competition of newly released American Independent films includes "1982" by Tommy Oliver which won U.S. in Progress in 2013 and will soon be released in the U.S., "American Promise", a documentary by Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson, "Fort Bliss" by Claudia Myers, "Obvious Child" by Gillian Robespierre, "Rich Hill" a documentary by Andrew Droz Palermo & Tacy Droz Tragos, "See You Next Tuesday" by Drew Tobia, "Summer of Blood" by Onur Tukel, a former U.S. in Progress entry, "Sun Belt Express" by Evan Buxbaum - another former U.S. in Progress entry, "The Magic City" by R. Malcolm Jones.
There is also a short film competition of over 35 French and American shorts, including a selection from film schools (AFI, USC and Columbia in the States and La Fémis, Eicar, ArtFx and Les Gobelins schools in France).
Since the Paris Film Festival lost its funding by the city earlier this year, Ceff is the only Film Festival in the city and the Paris Coproduction Village moved over to it with 12 features. Run by the same team which runs the Les Arcs Coproduction Village in the French Alps in December, CEO Pierre Emmanuel Fleurantin, head of industry Vanja Kaludjercic, general manager Guillaume Calop and consultant co-founder Jeremy Zelni, it kept up the high quality of its projects. More than 130 companies registered and 160 professionals attended. There were 560 one-to-one meetings over the two days. The main focus of the event is to connect international filmmakers with potential French sales agents and producers but alongside representatives of companies such as Bac Films, Other Angle, Les Films d’ici 2 a number of international companies also attended including the UK’s WestEnd Films, Bankside, The Match Factory and The Works.
The festival poster is a cross between movie icon Marilyn Monroe and the icon of French Liberty, Marianne. Nicknamed "Marilyanne", it is being featured on T shirts, buttons, post cards and are all for sale. A new pass for full entry for the week is offered for 50 Euros.
- 6/17/2014
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
The third annual Champs-Elysées Film Festival, created by producer, distributor and exhibitor Sophie Dulac, in association with Turner Classic Movies, will take place during the week of June 11th – 17th in Paris.And this year, among the some 60 films that will be screened, will be a special selection of independent African-American films, including Tommy Oliver’s 1982, with Hill Harper and Wayne Brady, The Magic City by filmmaker R. Malcolm Jones starring Keith David, Jenifer Lewis and Erika Alexander, and the documentary American Promise by Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson (pictured above).All the festival screenings will take place at the theatres that line the...
- 5/14/2014
- by Sergio
- ShadowAndAct
New co-production platform to take place during Champs Elysées Film Festival in June.
The team behind Les Arcs European Film Festival is launching a new Paris-based co-production market to run in the French capital in June.
The new event, titled Paris Coproduction Village, launches its call for applications today (March 11) with a deadline for April 18.
The platform has been created to continue the work of Paris Project, which used to run during the Paris Cinema Film Festival in July but has been axed due to public spending cuts. The festival continues in a reduced format.
“Paris is a key hub for co-productions and from the moment it became clear that Paris Project was being axed, we decided to launch an alternative platform,” explained Pierre Emmanuel Fleurantin, co-founder of Les Arcs European Film Festival alongside Guillaume Calop.
Les Arcs European Film Festival, which runs in December in the French Alps, has built a solid industry programme since its launch...
The team behind Les Arcs European Film Festival is launching a new Paris-based co-production market to run in the French capital in June.
The new event, titled Paris Coproduction Village, launches its call for applications today (March 11) with a deadline for April 18.
The platform has been created to continue the work of Paris Project, which used to run during the Paris Cinema Film Festival in July but has been axed due to public spending cuts. The festival continues in a reduced format.
“Paris is a key hub for co-productions and from the moment it became clear that Paris Project was being axed, we decided to launch an alternative platform,” explained Pierre Emmanuel Fleurantin, co-founder of Les Arcs European Film Festival alongside Guillaume Calop.
Les Arcs European Film Festival, which runs in December in the French Alps, has built a solid industry programme since its launch...
- 3/11/2014
- ScreenDaily
Berlin’s Picture Tree International (Pti) has secured several deals with Us distributors, following its debut as an exhibitor at the European Film Market (Efm).
The Berlin-based production and sales outfit sold North American rights for Christian Schwochow’s West (Westen) to Mainstreet Films.
Schwochow’s East-West drama, which Senator will be releasing theatrically in Germany on March 27, was also sold to the UK (New Wave), France (Sophie Dulac), Spain (Savor Ediciones) and South Korea (Mediasoft), with Encore securing the global in-flight rights.
Pti also sold Icelandic director Ragnar Bragason’s Metalhead to Cinelicious, marking the first acquisition made by the fledgling Us distributor. The heavy metal drama was also sold to Canada (Raven Banner).
Fack Ju goes international
The first sales of Fack Ju Göthe (Suck Me Shakespeer) have been secured with Océan Film (France), Cinemart (Czech Republic/Slovakia) and Sejong (South Korea).
Bora Dagtekin’s screwball romantic comedy is Germany’s latest blockbuster, where it has...
The Berlin-based production and sales outfit sold North American rights for Christian Schwochow’s West (Westen) to Mainstreet Films.
Schwochow’s East-West drama, which Senator will be releasing theatrically in Germany on March 27, was also sold to the UK (New Wave), France (Sophie Dulac), Spain (Savor Ediciones) and South Korea (Mediasoft), with Encore securing the global in-flight rights.
Pti also sold Icelandic director Ragnar Bragason’s Metalhead to Cinelicious, marking the first acquisition made by the fledgling Us distributor. The heavy metal drama was also sold to Canada (Raven Banner).
Fack Ju goes international
The first sales of Fack Ju Göthe (Suck Me Shakespeer) have been secured with Océan Film (France), Cinemart (Czech Republic/Slovakia) and Sejong (South Korea).
Bora Dagtekin’s screwball romantic comedy is Germany’s latest blockbuster, where it has...
- 3/5/2014
- by screen.berlin@googlemail.com (Martin Blaney)
- ScreenDaily
Berlin’s Picture Tree International (Pti) has secured several deals with Us distributors, following its debut as an exhibitor at the European Film Market (Efm).
The Berlin-based production and sales outfit sold North American rights for Christian Schwochow’s West (Westen) to Mainstreet Films.
Schwochow’s East-West drama, which Senator will be releasing theatrically in Germany on March 27, was also sold to the UK (New Wave), France (Sophie Dulac), Spain (Savor Ediciones) and South Korea (Mediasoft), with Encore securing the global in-flight rights.
Pti also sold Icelandic director Ragnar Bragason’s Metalhead to Cinelicious, marking the first acquisition made by the fledgling Us distributor. The heavy metal drama was also sold to Canada (Raven Banner).
Fack Ju goes international
The first sales of Fack Ju Göthe (Suck Me Shakespeer) have been secured with Océan Film (France), Cinemart (Czech Republic/Slovakia) and Sejong (South Korea).
Bora Dagtekin’s screwball romantic comedy is Germany’s latest blockbuster, where it has...
The Berlin-based production and sales outfit sold North American rights for Christian Schwochow’s West (Westen) to Mainstreet Films.
Schwochow’s East-West drama, which Senator will be releasing theatrically in Germany on March 27, was also sold to the UK (New Wave), France (Sophie Dulac), Spain (Savor Ediciones) and South Korea (Mediasoft), with Encore securing the global in-flight rights.
Pti also sold Icelandic director Ragnar Bragason’s Metalhead to Cinelicious, marking the first acquisition made by the fledgling Us distributor. The heavy metal drama was also sold to Canada (Raven Banner).
Fack Ju goes international
The first sales of Fack Ju Göthe (Suck Me Shakespeer) have been secured with Océan Film (France), Cinemart (Czech Republic/Slovakia) and Sejong (South Korea).
Bora Dagtekin’s screwball romantic comedy is Germany’s latest blockbuster, where it has...
- 3/5/2014
- by screen.berlin@googlemail.com (Martin Blaney)
- ScreenDaily
Deadline: April 1st 2014, no entry fee
Once again the initiative known as U.S. In Progress Paris, a two-day works in progress event targeted at American independent filmmakers and European buyers, will take place in the scope of Champs-Elysées Film Festival on June 10-12 2014 in Paris.
The event is looking for 4 U.S. independent films at post-production stage (rough & fine cuts). The call for entries is open till April 1st 2014.
Application form and Terms and Conditions can be found online: http://www.blackrabbitfilm.com/us-in-progress/paris-2014-edition/
The application requirements for the films are the following:
- Narrative feature projects in post-production are eligible.
- Production Company needs to be U.S. based.
- Films looking for completion money, services and sales agent or European distribution should apply.
- Films in post-production when applying, with at least 30 min of the film edited and to reach feature format by June 1st 2014. If selected, the feature length version of the rough/fine cut will be presented on June 10-12. No excerpts or trailers will be accepted.
- Films with no Us or international premiere nor European sales representation prior to June 10 2014 are eligible.
U.S. in Progress is a joint initiative between New Horizons Association (American Film Festival), Sophie Dulac’s Champs-Elysées Film Festival and Black Rabbit Film. It presents independent U.S. films in final production stages to European buyers, post-production houses and festivals in order to help them achieve completion and to foster the circulation and distribution of American indie films in Europe.
The program is conformed of two yearly get-togethers at two different festivals (Paris in June and Wroclaw in November). The next event will includes two days of exclusive screenings of the 4 selected films (behind closed doors, for registered guests only) and one-to-one meetings on June 10-12 2013.
As a bonus to contracts resulting from the presentations and meetings, a jury made of professionals (Europa Distribution, Producer's Network, Ciné +, Commune Image, Eaux Vives Productions, Firefly, Titra Tvs, Touscoprod) will award one of the selected works in progress. The awarded movie will get post-production and promotion services in kind.
The last Paris and Wroclaw editions attracted more than 60 buyers and producers. Alumni of the Programme were selected in Sundance 2013 (I Used To Be Darker, Milkshake, A Teacher), Berlinale 2013 (Hide your Smiling Faces, I Used To Be Darker), SXSW 2013 ( A Teacher), Tribeca 2013 (Hide Your Smiling Faces, Bluebird), Karlovy Vary 2013 (Bluebird), Toronto 2013 (1982), Sundance 2014 (Ping Pong Summer).
The third edition of Champs-Elysées Film Festival (http://www.champselyseesfilmfestival.com/en) is to take place in Paris on June 11-17 2014.
Once again the initiative known as U.S. In Progress Paris, a two-day works in progress event targeted at American independent filmmakers and European buyers, will take place in the scope of Champs-Elysées Film Festival on June 10-12 2014 in Paris.
The event is looking for 4 U.S. independent films at post-production stage (rough & fine cuts). The call for entries is open till April 1st 2014.
Application form and Terms and Conditions can be found online: http://www.blackrabbitfilm.com/us-in-progress/paris-2014-edition/
The application requirements for the films are the following:
- Narrative feature projects in post-production are eligible.
- Production Company needs to be U.S. based.
- Films looking for completion money, services and sales agent or European distribution should apply.
- Films in post-production when applying, with at least 30 min of the film edited and to reach feature format by June 1st 2014. If selected, the feature length version of the rough/fine cut will be presented on June 10-12. No excerpts or trailers will be accepted.
- Films with no Us or international premiere nor European sales representation prior to June 10 2014 are eligible.
U.S. in Progress is a joint initiative between New Horizons Association (American Film Festival), Sophie Dulac’s Champs-Elysées Film Festival and Black Rabbit Film. It presents independent U.S. films in final production stages to European buyers, post-production houses and festivals in order to help them achieve completion and to foster the circulation and distribution of American indie films in Europe.
The program is conformed of two yearly get-togethers at two different festivals (Paris in June and Wroclaw in November). The next event will includes two days of exclusive screenings of the 4 selected films (behind closed doors, for registered guests only) and one-to-one meetings on June 10-12 2013.
As a bonus to contracts resulting from the presentations and meetings, a jury made of professionals (Europa Distribution, Producer's Network, Ciné +, Commune Image, Eaux Vives Productions, Firefly, Titra Tvs, Touscoprod) will award one of the selected works in progress. The awarded movie will get post-production and promotion services in kind.
The last Paris and Wroclaw editions attracted more than 60 buyers and producers. Alumni of the Programme were selected in Sundance 2013 (I Used To Be Darker, Milkshake, A Teacher), Berlinale 2013 (Hide your Smiling Faces, I Used To Be Darker), SXSW 2013 ( A Teacher), Tribeca 2013 (Hide Your Smiling Faces, Bluebird), Karlovy Vary 2013 (Bluebird), Toronto 2013 (1982), Sundance 2014 (Ping Pong Summer).
The third edition of Champs-Elysées Film Festival (http://www.champselyseesfilmfestival.com/en) is to take place in Paris on June 11-17 2014.
- 2/5/2014
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
It looks like Halle Berry and Olivier Martinez were married in France on Saturday (July 13). Photographs posted by guests at the event show what indeed looks like a wedding at the Chateau des Conde in Vallery, France.
Although Berry and Martinez have been engaged since early in 2012, there has been no rush to a wedding for the couple, who met on the set of 2010's "Dark Tide." Berry, who was previously married to baseball player David Justice and singer Eric Benet, had actually said she would never marry again.
Things change.
The now presumably married couple flew to Paris on Tuesday (July 9) with Berry's five-year-old daughter, Nahla. This timing may just be because Berry and Martinez are expecting their first child, a boy, to join the family in the fall of 2013.
"They seem truly in love," Sophie Dulac, the president of Paris' Champs-Elysees Film Festival told People. "She's said she...
Although Berry and Martinez have been engaged since early in 2012, there has been no rush to a wedding for the couple, who met on the set of 2010's "Dark Tide." Berry, who was previously married to baseball player David Justice and singer Eric Benet, had actually said she would never marry again.
Things change.
The now presumably married couple flew to Paris on Tuesday (July 9) with Berry's five-year-old daughter, Nahla. This timing may just be because Berry and Martinez are expecting their first child, a boy, to join the family in the fall of 2013.
"They seem truly in love," Sophie Dulac, the president of Paris' Champs-Elysees Film Festival told People. "She's said she...
- 7/14/2013
- by editorial@zap2it.com
- Pop2it
Never say never. Halle Berry is a bride once more. The expectant Oscar-winner, 46, wed French film star Olivier Martinez, 47, Saturday at the Chateau des Conde in Vallery, France, her rep officially confirms to People. The ceremony took place in a small chateau, where, in accordance with French law, a civil union was held (at 4 p.m.), followed by a religious ceremony at 5:30 at the chapel in the village. Among the 60 people, mostly close friends, in attendance were the groom's mother Rosemarie and brother Vincent. Dinner was held under an arbor, and there was a fireworks display. Six years ago the Oscar winner told InStyle,...
- 7/13/2013
- by Kathy Ehrich Dowd and Peter Mikelbank
- PEOPLE.com
I love Paris! Serving on the jury of U.S. in Progress to judge five American independent films in post production, bonding with filmmakers, organizers and the beautiful city itself, being part of a larger festival which featured films I particularly enjoyed like Nina Simone, Love Sorceress… Forever, It Felt Like Love by Eliza Hittman, Umbrellas of Cherbourg, what’s not to love?
The friendly openness of everyone at the festival made the event special. Sophie Dulac, the festival’s founder (and distributor, producer and exhibitor) whom I interviewed last year and again, almost as old friends again this year (see upcoming blog!), the publicist and programmer, Maxine Leonard, the staff, the Us in Progress organizers – Adeline Monzier (now also Us representative for Unifrance), Ula Śniegowska, Artistic Director of Wroclaw, Poland’s American Film Festival and Mobile New Horizons, my fellow jury members for USinP, and of course, the filmmakers themselves created a fun and inspiring event. What a great international film business we are in!
As I write this, the mailman just delivered a book, entitled Titra Film, A Cinematographic and Family Chronicle, sent to me by my fellow jury-member, Isabelle Frilley, who now, along with her children, owns and operates Titra, now called TitraTVS, the sub-titling company founded by her grandparents in 1933 shortly after talkies made subtitling de riguer . Very involved in the world of cinema, and inspired by her literary tastes, Isabelle has also helped develop multi-lingual subtitling for cinema, subtitling for the hearing impaired, and audio-description for the visually impaired. For many years, Isabelle Frilley has been a member of the juries of “Ciné en Construction” (for Latin-American cinema, in Toulouse), of “Cinéma en Mouvement” (for Mediterranean cinema, in San Sebastian), and of the Caméra d’Or in Cannes. She is only one of the illustrious jury among whom I was honored to count myself. Others included Julie Bergeron who runs Cannes Marche’s Producer Network among other things, Europa Distribution Eve Gabereau of Soda Pictures, a London-based indie distributor, Ciné Cinéma’s Bruno Deloye, Firefly’s Philippe Reinaudo, Commune Image’s Michael Werner, Eaux Vives Production’s Xénia Maingot, and Matthias Lavaux, the cofounder of touscoprod, the French crowdfunding website dedicated to movies, launched in January 2009.
1982 by Tommy Oliver
USinP’s winner, Tommy Oliver, whose previous film Kinyarwanda was a favorite of mine at Sundance a couple of years ago which Roger Ebert ranked 6 on his top ten films of 2011, is now in post on 1982 and won Us$60,000 worth of post production services.
Tommy’s directorial debut, 1982, starring Hill Harper, Sharon Leal, La La Anthony, Bokeem Woodbine, Wayne Brady and Ruby Dee, tells the story of a black father whose wife succumbs to a crack cocaine addiction and his efforts to shield their 10-year old daughter from the ill effects of having a drug addicted mother while trying to wean her off of her addiction. It's set in 1982 in Philadelphia at the very onset of the crack cocaine epidemic and ultimately, it's a story about a father doing whatever he can to protect his family. It's semi- autobiographical story and inspired by true events.
He also wrote and produced 1982 which also received a prestigious San Francisco Film Society Krf grant .
Tommy himself is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University, a Microsoft alum and founder of Seattle-based interactive media firm Viliv Studios as well as La- based production company Confluential Films, which he started with actor/ author/ speaker Hill Harper.
I can confidently predict that this film will be seen on the festival circuit as it brings a humanity to the issue we’ve seen dozens of time – crack in communities – but never like this. We don’t see the ugly community violated by violence. We see a loving family coping with a personal and private disaster. Hill Harper plays a loving, compassionate good man. Comparisons will be made with Fruitvale Station, another African American “issue” film (police brutally killing an innocent family man) which will be released July 12 by The Weinstein Company. We need more such films to create a consistent pipeline for audiences who will pay to see these films. AFor his film 1982, he has devised a super-sophisticated, break-the-record domestic marketing plan. I am eager to watch the trajectory of this one.
The runner-up film, Bfe was supported with great gusto by its director and producer, Shawn Telford and producer, Mark Carr who brought a special energy to the entire event and were full of fun throughout. Shawn charmed his French hosts with his French. Watch for the film and with it, watch for Shawn!
I Believe In Unicorns is the feature debut of director Leah Meyerhoff. It was nominated for a Calvin Klein grant at the 2012 Gotham Independent Film Awards and stars Natalia Dyer, Peter Vack, Toni Meyerhoff, Julia Garner, Joshua Leonard and Amy Seimetz.
As noteworthy as the film is and as talented as Leah is, the producers themselves are also notable and prolific! Allison Anders, Katie Mustard and Heather Rae who also produced the Academy Award nominated film Frozen River, starring Melissa Leo, which won the 2008 Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, opened the New York Film Society’s New Directors/New Film series and was acquired by Sony PicturesClassics. She won the 2008 Independent Spirit Award for her production work on Frozen River. Heather also produced Mosquita Y Mari (Sundance 2012), Backroads (Sundance 2000), Trudell (2005 Sundance Film Festival), Ibid (2008 SXSW), The Dry Land (Sundance 2010), Magic Valley (Tribeca 2011), and is currently in post-production on Five Thirteen (with Tom Sizemore), Ass Backwards (with Alicia Silverstone and Vincent D’Onofrio) and Plastic Jesus (with Paul Schneider and Mackenzie Foy). For six years she was a programmer for the Sundance Film Festival and ran the Native Program at the Sundance Institute and recently joined the Sundance Board of Trustees.
Ping Pong Summer
Michael Tully made his directorial debut, Cocaine Angel, world premiered at the 2006 International Film Festival Rotterdam, Michael Tully (Director) was named one of Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces of Independent Film. His follow-up, Silver Jew, world premiered at the 2007 South By Southwest Film Festival. In 2011, he wrote, directed, and acted in Septien, which world premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and was picked up for distribution by Sundance Selects. He’s currently in post-production on his newest feature, Ping Pong Summer, which he wrote and directed. Since 2008, he has been the head writer/editor of HammerToNail.com, a website devoted to championing ambitious cinema.
Producers: George Rush, Brooke Bernard, Ryan Zacarias, Michael Gottwald, Billy Peterson, Jeff Allard
Main Cast : Susan Sarandon, John Hannah, Leah Thompson, Judah Friedlander, Amy Sedaris
Children
Director : Jaffe Zinn Producer : Jaffe Zinn and Sterling Hoch
Aside from the jury, the films were seen by members of Europa Distribution:
Alpha Violet - Keiko Funato & Virgine Devesa - France - Sales agent Bac Films - Crasset Véronique - France - Sales agent & Distributor Bankside - Alice Ramsey - UK Sales Agent Chrysalis - Camille Lopato - France – Distributor Content - Toby Melling - UK - Sales Agent Coproduction Office - Marina Perales & Philippe Bober - France - Sales Agent Distrib Films - François Scippa-Kohn - France - Distributor Equation - Didier Costet - France - Distributor Eurozoom - Manon Galibert - France - Distributor Film Republic Rashid Xavier UK sales agent Films Boutique - Jean-Christophe Simon - Germany - Sales Agent Hanway - Fabien Westerhoff - UK - Sales Agent Happiness - Isabelle Dubar - France - Distributor Heliotrope - Laurent Aléonard & Goldfain Philippe - France - Distributor Imagine - Bral Tinne - Benelux - Distributor Jour 2 Fête - Sarah Chazelle - France - Distributor K5 Intl - Oda Schäfer - Germany - Sales Agent Kmbo - Grégoire Marchal - France - Distributor Le Pacte - Nathalie Jeung - France - Sales Agent & Distributor Level K - Freja Johanne - Denmark - Sales agent Locarno Film Festival - Aurélie Godet - France - Festival Memento Film - Tanja Meissner & Ram Murali - France - Sales Agent & Distributor MK2 - Emmanuelle de Couesbouc / Juliette Shramek - France - Sales Agent Premium Films - Karwan Kasia - France - Sales Agent & Distributor Reel Suspects - Frederic Gentet - France - Sales Agent Rezo - Sebastien Chesneau - France - Sales Agent & Distributor Sacrebleu - Louise Bellicaud - France - Producer Soda Pictures - Eve Gabereau - UK - Distributor Sophie Dulac Distribution - Eric Vicente - France - Distributor The Works - Steve Bestwick - UK - Sales Agent Tribeca Film Festival - Frédéric Boyer - USA - Festival Trust Nordisk - Silje Glimsdal - Denmark - Sales Agent Urban - Claire Charles-Gervais - France - Sales Agent & Distributor Versatile - Violaine Pichon & Pape Boye - France - Sales Agent Wide Management - Loïc Magneron - France – Sales Agent Wild Bunch - Emmanuelle Fellous - France - Sales Agent & Distributor Zed - Martine Scoupe - France - Distributor...
The friendly openness of everyone at the festival made the event special. Sophie Dulac, the festival’s founder (and distributor, producer and exhibitor) whom I interviewed last year and again, almost as old friends again this year (see upcoming blog!), the publicist and programmer, Maxine Leonard, the staff, the Us in Progress organizers – Adeline Monzier (now also Us representative for Unifrance), Ula Śniegowska, Artistic Director of Wroclaw, Poland’s American Film Festival and Mobile New Horizons, my fellow jury members for USinP, and of course, the filmmakers themselves created a fun and inspiring event. What a great international film business we are in!
As I write this, the mailman just delivered a book, entitled Titra Film, A Cinematographic and Family Chronicle, sent to me by my fellow jury-member, Isabelle Frilley, who now, along with her children, owns and operates Titra, now called TitraTVS, the sub-titling company founded by her grandparents in 1933 shortly after talkies made subtitling de riguer . Very involved in the world of cinema, and inspired by her literary tastes, Isabelle has also helped develop multi-lingual subtitling for cinema, subtitling for the hearing impaired, and audio-description for the visually impaired. For many years, Isabelle Frilley has been a member of the juries of “Ciné en Construction” (for Latin-American cinema, in Toulouse), of “Cinéma en Mouvement” (for Mediterranean cinema, in San Sebastian), and of the Caméra d’Or in Cannes. She is only one of the illustrious jury among whom I was honored to count myself. Others included Julie Bergeron who runs Cannes Marche’s Producer Network among other things, Europa Distribution Eve Gabereau of Soda Pictures, a London-based indie distributor, Ciné Cinéma’s Bruno Deloye, Firefly’s Philippe Reinaudo, Commune Image’s Michael Werner, Eaux Vives Production’s Xénia Maingot, and Matthias Lavaux, the cofounder of touscoprod, the French crowdfunding website dedicated to movies, launched in January 2009.
1982 by Tommy Oliver
USinP’s winner, Tommy Oliver, whose previous film Kinyarwanda was a favorite of mine at Sundance a couple of years ago which Roger Ebert ranked 6 on his top ten films of 2011, is now in post on 1982 and won Us$60,000 worth of post production services.
Tommy’s directorial debut, 1982, starring Hill Harper, Sharon Leal, La La Anthony, Bokeem Woodbine, Wayne Brady and Ruby Dee, tells the story of a black father whose wife succumbs to a crack cocaine addiction and his efforts to shield their 10-year old daughter from the ill effects of having a drug addicted mother while trying to wean her off of her addiction. It's set in 1982 in Philadelphia at the very onset of the crack cocaine epidemic and ultimately, it's a story about a father doing whatever he can to protect his family. It's semi- autobiographical story and inspired by true events.
He also wrote and produced 1982 which also received a prestigious San Francisco Film Society Krf grant .
Tommy himself is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University, a Microsoft alum and founder of Seattle-based interactive media firm Viliv Studios as well as La- based production company Confluential Films, which he started with actor/ author/ speaker Hill Harper.
I can confidently predict that this film will be seen on the festival circuit as it brings a humanity to the issue we’ve seen dozens of time – crack in communities – but never like this. We don’t see the ugly community violated by violence. We see a loving family coping with a personal and private disaster. Hill Harper plays a loving, compassionate good man. Comparisons will be made with Fruitvale Station, another African American “issue” film (police brutally killing an innocent family man) which will be released July 12 by The Weinstein Company. We need more such films to create a consistent pipeline for audiences who will pay to see these films. AFor his film 1982, he has devised a super-sophisticated, break-the-record domestic marketing plan. I am eager to watch the trajectory of this one.
The runner-up film, Bfe was supported with great gusto by its director and producer, Shawn Telford and producer, Mark Carr who brought a special energy to the entire event and were full of fun throughout. Shawn charmed his French hosts with his French. Watch for the film and with it, watch for Shawn!
I Believe In Unicorns is the feature debut of director Leah Meyerhoff. It was nominated for a Calvin Klein grant at the 2012 Gotham Independent Film Awards and stars Natalia Dyer, Peter Vack, Toni Meyerhoff, Julia Garner, Joshua Leonard and Amy Seimetz.
As noteworthy as the film is and as talented as Leah is, the producers themselves are also notable and prolific! Allison Anders, Katie Mustard and Heather Rae who also produced the Academy Award nominated film Frozen River, starring Melissa Leo, which won the 2008 Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, opened the New York Film Society’s New Directors/New Film series and was acquired by Sony PicturesClassics. She won the 2008 Independent Spirit Award for her production work on Frozen River. Heather also produced Mosquita Y Mari (Sundance 2012), Backroads (Sundance 2000), Trudell (2005 Sundance Film Festival), Ibid (2008 SXSW), The Dry Land (Sundance 2010), Magic Valley (Tribeca 2011), and is currently in post-production on Five Thirteen (with Tom Sizemore), Ass Backwards (with Alicia Silverstone and Vincent D’Onofrio) and Plastic Jesus (with Paul Schneider and Mackenzie Foy). For six years she was a programmer for the Sundance Film Festival and ran the Native Program at the Sundance Institute and recently joined the Sundance Board of Trustees.
Ping Pong Summer
Michael Tully made his directorial debut, Cocaine Angel, world premiered at the 2006 International Film Festival Rotterdam, Michael Tully (Director) was named one of Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces of Independent Film. His follow-up, Silver Jew, world premiered at the 2007 South By Southwest Film Festival. In 2011, he wrote, directed, and acted in Septien, which world premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and was picked up for distribution by Sundance Selects. He’s currently in post-production on his newest feature, Ping Pong Summer, which he wrote and directed. Since 2008, he has been the head writer/editor of HammerToNail.com, a website devoted to championing ambitious cinema.
Producers: George Rush, Brooke Bernard, Ryan Zacarias, Michael Gottwald, Billy Peterson, Jeff Allard
Main Cast : Susan Sarandon, John Hannah, Leah Thompson, Judah Friedlander, Amy Sedaris
Children
Director : Jaffe Zinn Producer : Jaffe Zinn and Sterling Hoch
Aside from the jury, the films were seen by members of Europa Distribution:
Alpha Violet - Keiko Funato & Virgine Devesa - France - Sales agent Bac Films - Crasset Véronique - France - Sales agent & Distributor Bankside - Alice Ramsey - UK Sales Agent Chrysalis - Camille Lopato - France – Distributor Content - Toby Melling - UK - Sales Agent Coproduction Office - Marina Perales & Philippe Bober - France - Sales Agent Distrib Films - François Scippa-Kohn - France - Distributor Equation - Didier Costet - France - Distributor Eurozoom - Manon Galibert - France - Distributor Film Republic Rashid Xavier UK sales agent Films Boutique - Jean-Christophe Simon - Germany - Sales Agent Hanway - Fabien Westerhoff - UK - Sales Agent Happiness - Isabelle Dubar - France - Distributor Heliotrope - Laurent Aléonard & Goldfain Philippe - France - Distributor Imagine - Bral Tinne - Benelux - Distributor Jour 2 Fête - Sarah Chazelle - France - Distributor K5 Intl - Oda Schäfer - Germany - Sales Agent Kmbo - Grégoire Marchal - France - Distributor Le Pacte - Nathalie Jeung - France - Sales Agent & Distributor Level K - Freja Johanne - Denmark - Sales agent Locarno Film Festival - Aurélie Godet - France - Festival Memento Film - Tanja Meissner & Ram Murali - France - Sales Agent & Distributor MK2 - Emmanuelle de Couesbouc / Juliette Shramek - France - Sales Agent Premium Films - Karwan Kasia - France - Sales Agent & Distributor Reel Suspects - Frederic Gentet - France - Sales Agent Rezo - Sebastien Chesneau - France - Sales Agent & Distributor Sacrebleu - Louise Bellicaud - France - Producer Soda Pictures - Eve Gabereau - UK - Distributor Sophie Dulac Distribution - Eric Vicente - France - Distributor The Works - Steve Bestwick - UK - Sales Agent Tribeca Film Festival - Frédéric Boyer - USA - Festival Trust Nordisk - Silje Glimsdal - Denmark - Sales Agent Urban - Claire Charles-Gervais - France - Sales Agent & Distributor Versatile - Violaine Pichon & Pape Boye - France - Sales Agent Wide Management - Loïc Magneron - France – Sales Agent Wild Bunch - Emmanuelle Fellous - France - Sales Agent & Distributor Zed - Martine Scoupe - France - Distributor...
- 7/12/2013
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Halle Berry and Olivier Martinez are about to say "I do!" The couple, who revealed their engagement in March 2012, are planning to get married this weekend, a source confirms to People. They boarded a flight to Paris Tuesday with Berry's daughter, 5-year-old Nahla. With rumors flying of an impending wedding, whether they remain in Paris or travel further afield - Martinez loves the Mediterranean - remains a mystery. But the pair have had their eye on summer nuptials for some time, several sources say. Berry, 46, and Martinez, 47, who are expecting their first child together in early fall, are frequent visitors to the City of Light.
- 7/11/2013
- by Michelle Tauber
- PEOPLE.com
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