The very title of “Everybody Loves Touda” poses a kind of challenge to viewers. If everybody loves Touda, dare you not? Moroccan director Nabil Ayouch’s forthright musical drama certainly doesn’t permit much room for dissent. From first gilded frame to last, the film is besotted with its eponymous heroine, a fiery small-town singer aspiring to the status of ‘Sheikhat’ — a revered class of diva versed in the poetic traditions of historical Aita music. With scene after scene conceived to emphasize Touda’s strength of character and depth of talent, it’s just as well star Nisrin Erradi is sufficiently magnetic not to buckle under the weight of the film’s devotion to her.
As a dramatic construction, however, Touda is more fabulous than she is intrinsically fascinating, characterized predominantly by determined ambition and glittering, show-must-go-on resolve. Ayouch’s script, written in collaboration with his wife and fellow filmmaker...
As a dramatic construction, however, Touda is more fabulous than she is intrinsically fascinating, characterized predominantly by determined ambition and glittering, show-must-go-on resolve. Ayouch’s script, written in collaboration with his wife and fellow filmmaker...
- 5/19/2024
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
Cannes Critics’ Week has appointed French producer Sylvie Pialat as president of the jury for its upcoming edition after Spanish director Rodrigo Sorogoyen, who was originally announced for the role, was forced to cancel for personal reasons.
French director Iris Kaltenbäck has also been been named as a new jury member. Her first film The Rapture premiered to acclaim in Critics’ Week last year. The drama, starring Hafsia Herzi as a midwife who passes off her best friend’s newborn child as her own, won the Prix Sacd.
Previously announced members of the jury include Rwandan actress Eliane Umuhire (Augure by Baloji, My New Friends, Haven of Grace), Belgian cinematographer Virginie Surdej (The Blue Caftan, Our Mothers, Casablanca Beats), and Canadian film critic and journalist Ben Croll.
Producer Pialat spent the first part of her cinema career collaborating with her husband Maurice Pialat, co-writing the screenplays for a number of...
French director Iris Kaltenbäck has also been been named as a new jury member. Her first film The Rapture premiered to acclaim in Critics’ Week last year. The drama, starring Hafsia Herzi as a midwife who passes off her best friend’s newborn child as her own, won the Prix Sacd.
Previously announced members of the jury include Rwandan actress Eliane Umuhire (Augure by Baloji, My New Friends, Haven of Grace), Belgian cinematographer Virginie Surdej (The Blue Caftan, Our Mothers, Casablanca Beats), and Canadian film critic and journalist Ben Croll.
Producer Pialat spent the first part of her cinema career collaborating with her husband Maurice Pialat, co-writing the screenplays for a number of...
- 5/11/2024
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
Among the high-profile filmmakers selected for this year’s Cannes Film Festival is a wave of upcoming talent from Asia and the Middle East, including the first Indian feature chosen for Competition in 30 years and the first film from Saudi Arabia to ever make the Official Selection.
While Cannes has a reputation for bringing back familiar names year after year, the line-up for the 77th edition does feature several rising filmmakers and not just in the “discovery” strands of the selection.
Making her first appearance in Competition is Indian filmmaker Payal Kapadia with All We Imagine As Light. It marks...
While Cannes has a reputation for bringing back familiar names year after year, the line-up for the 77th edition does feature several rising filmmakers and not just in the “discovery” strands of the selection.
Making her first appearance in Competition is Indian filmmaker Payal Kapadia with All We Imagine As Light. It marks...
- 4/12/2024
- ScreenDaily
Cannes’ Critics Week has rounded out the jury for its 63rd edition running running May 15-23.
The previously announced Spanish writer-director-producer Rodrigo Sorogoyen will preside over the festival’s parallel selection dedicated to first and second features alongside Rwandan actress Eliane Umuhire, French producer Sylvie Pialat, Belgian director of photography Virginie Surdej, and Canadian journalist and film critic Ben Croll.
Sorogoyen is known for psychological thriller The Beasts which premiered in the Cannes Premiere strand in 2022 and won nine Goya awards, plus 2019 drama Mother, 2018 Spanish-French thriller The Realm, 2016 crime thriller May God Save Us, 2013 romantic drama Stockholm, and 2008’s 8 Dates co-directed with Peris Romano.
The previously announced Spanish writer-director-producer Rodrigo Sorogoyen will preside over the festival’s parallel selection dedicated to first and second features alongside Rwandan actress Eliane Umuhire, French producer Sylvie Pialat, Belgian director of photography Virginie Surdej, and Canadian journalist and film critic Ben Croll.
Sorogoyen is known for psychological thriller The Beasts which premiered in the Cannes Premiere strand in 2022 and won nine Goya awards, plus 2019 drama Mother, 2018 Spanish-French thriller The Realm, 2016 crime thriller May God Save Us, 2013 romantic drama Stockholm, and 2008’s 8 Dates co-directed with Peris Romano.
- 4/10/2024
- ScreenDaily
Rwandan actress Eliane Umuhire (“Augure by Baloji,” “My New Friends”), French producer Sylvie Pialat (“Timbuktu,” “Staying Vertical”), Belgian cinematographer Virginie Surdej and Canadian film critic, journalist and frequent Variety contributor Ben Croll have been named on the jury for the Critics’ Week section of the Cannes Film Festival.
The four will now join Spanish filmmaker Rodrigo Sorogoyen, who last week was named Critics’ Week jury president, with the group set to choose the sidebar competition’s award winners, including the Grand Prize for best feature film, the French Touch Prize of the Jury, the Louis Roederer Foundation Rising Star award for best actor or actress and the Leitz Ciné Discovery Prize for best short film.
The 2024 Critics Week lineup is set to be unveiled on April 15, four days after the Cannes official selection is announced on April 11.
Last year, Venice Golden Lion-winning “Happening” director Audrey Diwan presided over a Critics...
The four will now join Spanish filmmaker Rodrigo Sorogoyen, who last week was named Critics’ Week jury president, with the group set to choose the sidebar competition’s award winners, including the Grand Prize for best feature film, the French Touch Prize of the Jury, the Louis Roederer Foundation Rising Star award for best actor or actress and the Leitz Ciné Discovery Prize for best short film.
The 2024 Critics Week lineup is set to be unveiled on April 15, four days after the Cannes official selection is announced on April 11.
Last year, Venice Golden Lion-winning “Happening” director Audrey Diwan presided over a Critics...
- 4/10/2024
- by Alex Ritman
- Variety Film + TV
Nabil Ayouch, a leading Moroccan filmmaker whose latest movie as a producer “The Blue Caftan” became the first Moroccan film to ever make it to the Oscars shortlist, is wrapping up his next directorial effort, “Everybody Loves Touda.”
Now in post-production, “Everybody Loves Touda” follows the journey of a strong-willed woman, along the lines of some of Ayouch’s best known films, such as “Much Loved” and “Razzia,” which played at Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight and Toronto, respectively. The movie will mark Ayouch’s directorial follow up to “Casablanca Beats,” which competed at the Cannes Film Festival in 2021 and marked the first Moroccan feature to vie for a Palme d’Or.
“Everybody Loves Touda” tells the story a young poetess and singer known as a Shaeirat, who raises her deaf-mute son in a small Moroccan village. Hoping to give her son a better future and more opportunities in life, she moves...
Now in post-production, “Everybody Loves Touda” follows the journey of a strong-willed woman, along the lines of some of Ayouch’s best known films, such as “Much Loved” and “Razzia,” which played at Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight and Toronto, respectively. The movie will mark Ayouch’s directorial follow up to “Casablanca Beats,” which competed at the Cannes Film Festival in 2021 and marked the first Moroccan feature to vie for a Palme d’Or.
“Everybody Loves Touda” tells the story a young poetess and singer known as a Shaeirat, who raises her deaf-mute son in a small Moroccan village. Hoping to give her son a better future and more opportunities in life, she moves...
- 12/3/2023
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Saudi event has become a magnet for international execs and talent
As the third edition Red Sea International Film Festival kicks off today, the fledgling Saudi event has fast become a magnet for an international industry looking to access funding, talent and stories from the Middle East.
A significant number of international sales agents, distributors, financiers, producers and festival chiefs are travelling to Jeddah for Red Sea for the first time this year, making the trip despite regional tensions caused by Israel-Hamas war and an anticipated post-strike scaling up of production in the US and Europe.
At a time...
As the third edition Red Sea International Film Festival kicks off today, the fledgling Saudi event has fast become a magnet for an international industry looking to access funding, talent and stories from the Middle East.
A significant number of international sales agents, distributors, financiers, producers and festival chiefs are travelling to Jeddah for Red Sea for the first time this year, making the trip despite regional tensions caused by Israel-Hamas war and an anticipated post-strike scaling up of production in the US and Europe.
At a time...
- 11/30/2023
- by Tim Dams
- ScreenDaily
Paul Dano, Maryam Touzani, Denis Menochet, Rungano Nyoni, Atiq Rahimi round out jurors.
Cannes Film Festival has unveiled the eight global talents set for jury duty alongside president Ruben Östlund at the 76th annual event running May 16-27.
Joining the two-time Palme d’Or-winning Swedish filmmaker will be 2021’s Palme d’Or-winning French director-screenwriter Julia Ducournau, Moroccan director-screenwriter Maryam Touzani, French actor Denis Menochet, Zambian-uk writer-director Rungano Nyoni, American actress, director and producer Brie Larson, US actor-writer-director Paul Dano, Afghani writer-filmmaker Atiq Rahimi, and Argentinian writer-director Damian Szifron.
The jury is packed with familiar festival faces. Touzani’s first feature...
Cannes Film Festival has unveiled the eight global talents set for jury duty alongside president Ruben Östlund at the 76th annual event running May 16-27.
Joining the two-time Palme d’Or-winning Swedish filmmaker will be 2021’s Palme d’Or-winning French director-screenwriter Julia Ducournau, Moroccan director-screenwriter Maryam Touzani, French actor Denis Menochet, Zambian-uk writer-director Rungano Nyoni, American actress, director and producer Brie Larson, US actor-writer-director Paul Dano, Afghani writer-filmmaker Atiq Rahimi, and Argentinian writer-director Damian Szifron.
The jury is packed with familiar festival faces. Touzani’s first feature...
- 5/4/2023
- by Rebecca Leffler
- ScreenDaily
The Batman and The Fabelmans star Paul Dano, Titane-directing Palme d’Or winner Julia Ducournau, I Am Not a Witch breakout filmmaker Rungano Nyoni, and Captain Marvel herself, Brie Larson will help make up the superstar competition jury for this year’s Cannes Film Festival.
Together with French actor Denis Ménochet, of Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds and Ari Aster’s Beau is Afraid; Argentinian director Damián Szifron (Wild Tales, To Catch a Killer); Afghani-born, French-based filmmaker Atig Ranimi (Earth and Ashes, The Patience Stone); and Moroccan director Maryam Touzani (The Blue Caftan, Adam), they will join jury president Ruben Östlund, director of last year’s Cannes winner The Triangle of Sadness, in judging the Palme d’Or winners at the 76th Cannes International Film Festival.
Together, the jury will screen the 21 films picked for Cannes competition this year —among them Todd Haynes’ May December, Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City,...
Together with French actor Denis Ménochet, of Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds and Ari Aster’s Beau is Afraid; Argentinian director Damián Szifron (Wild Tales, To Catch a Killer); Afghani-born, French-based filmmaker Atig Ranimi (Earth and Ashes, The Patience Stone); and Moroccan director Maryam Touzani (The Blue Caftan, Adam), they will join jury president Ruben Östlund, director of last year’s Cannes winner The Triangle of Sadness, in judging the Palme d’Or winners at the 76th Cannes International Film Festival.
Together, the jury will screen the 21 films picked for Cannes competition this year —among them Todd Haynes’ May December, Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City,...
- 5/4/2023
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The subgenre of “ambitious outsider teacher who is determined to inspire a ragtag group of disenchanted students” is well-worn, to put it mildly. Yet when the formula works its works well. Enter Casablanca Beats, written (with the collaboration of Maryam Touzani) and directed by Nabil Ayouch. It concerns Anas (Anas Basbousi), a former rapper with a gig at the local arts center in Casablanca. He teaches hip-hop to a diverse group of underprivileged students, bonding them together in the process. Each student is forced to confront repressive traditions in Morocco and challenge the status quo, debating the lengths to which they will rebel—be it through their lyrics, dress, or otherwise.
“Young as I am I feel like an old man / I see the future as black as my skin,” raps Ismail (Ismail Adouab), while Amina (Amina Kannan) is pulled out of class after her conservative parents learn that they are being taught hip-hop.
“Young as I am I feel like an old man / I see the future as black as my skin,” raps Ismail (Ismail Adouab), while Amina (Amina Kannan) is pulled out of class after her conservative parents learn that they are being taught hip-hop.
- 9/20/2022
- by Dan Mecca
- The Film Stage
“Casablanca Beats” was reviewed by TheWrap out of the 2021 Cannes Film Festival.
Director Nabil Ayouch’s “Casablanca Beats” wears its narrative trappings ever so lightly. If the film’s bookends prime the viewer for an inspiration teacher drama, a kind of “Dead Poets Society” or “School of Rockablanca” about an unconventional prof helping his students at a community arts center find their voice, there’s both more and less to it than that.
Less in the sense that the film is not at all plot-heavy, with neither the teacher, one-time rapper Anas (played by real-life rapper Anas Basbousi), nor his students, who also play characters that share their real names, ever taking the lead. But what “Casablanca Beats” forgoes in conventional narrative it more than makes up for in filmic form, charging forward as a nonstop blitz of lyrics, language, movement and music.
It is, in other words, a world cinema hip-hop musical,...
Director Nabil Ayouch’s “Casablanca Beats” wears its narrative trappings ever so lightly. If the film’s bookends prime the viewer for an inspiration teacher drama, a kind of “Dead Poets Society” or “School of Rockablanca” about an unconventional prof helping his students at a community arts center find their voice, there’s both more and less to it than that.
Less in the sense that the film is not at all plot-heavy, with neither the teacher, one-time rapper Anas (played by real-life rapper Anas Basbousi), nor his students, who also play characters that share their real names, ever taking the lead. But what “Casablanca Beats” forgoes in conventional narrative it more than makes up for in filmic form, charging forward as a nonstop blitz of lyrics, language, movement and music.
It is, in other words, a world cinema hip-hop musical,...
- 9/15/2022
- by Ben Croll
- The Wrap
"Hip-hop Is an art form, ma'am." Kino Lorber has revealed an official US trailer for an indie film from France & Morocco titled Casablanca Beats, which first premiered at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival last year. This received pretty much nothing but negative reviews from everyone who dared to see through it. The film is a Moroccan hip hop musical that rips off School of Rock and sets it in the city of Casablanca instead. Anas, a former rapper, is employed in a cultural centre. Encouraged by their new teacher, the students will try to free themselves from the weight of traditions to live their passion and express themselves through hip hop culture. Starring rapper Anas Basbousi, plus an ensemble of kids: Ismail Adouab, Zineb Boujemaa, Meryem Nekkach, Nouhaila Arif, Abdelilah Basbousi, Mehdi Razzouk, Amina Kannan, Samah Baricou. I saw this in Cannes and was hoping it would be good fun, but...
- 8/11/2022
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Strand Releasing has acquired all North American rights to Maryam Touzani’s “The Blue Caftan,” which world premiered at Cannes and won the Fipresci prize. The film, which is represented in international markets by Films Boutique, will have its North American premiere at Toronto in the Special Screenings section.
Touzani’s follow-up to Un Certain Regard title “Adam,” “The Blue Caftan” tells the story of Halim and Mina, a married couple running a traditional caftan store in one of Morocco’s oldest medinas. In order to keep up with the commands of the demanding customers, they hire Youssef. The talented apprentice shows an utmost dedication in learning the art of embroidery and tailoring from Halim. Slowly Mina realizes how much her husband is moved by the presence of the young man.
Produced by Nabil Ayouch, “The Blue Caftan” stars Lubna Azabal (“Incendies”) and Saleh Bakri.
Touzani said “The Blue Caftan...
Touzani’s follow-up to Un Certain Regard title “Adam,” “The Blue Caftan” tells the story of Halim and Mina, a married couple running a traditional caftan store in one of Morocco’s oldest medinas. In order to keep up with the commands of the demanding customers, they hire Youssef. The talented apprentice shows an utmost dedication in learning the art of embroidery and tailoring from Halim. Slowly Mina realizes how much her husband is moved by the presence of the young man.
Produced by Nabil Ayouch, “The Blue Caftan” stars Lubna Azabal (“Incendies”) and Saleh Bakri.
Touzani said “The Blue Caftan...
- 8/9/2022
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Films Boutique has acquired four films set to world premiere at Cannes, including Albert Serra (“The Death of Louis Xiv”)’s “Pacifiction” which will compete in the 75th edition’s Official Selection.
The Berlin-based international sales banner has also acquired rising Morrocan helmer Maryam Touzani (“Adam”)’s “The Blue Caftan” and Costa Rican director Ariel Escalante Meza’s “Domingo and the Mist” which will both play in Un Certain Regard; as well as Portuguese filmmaker João Pedro Rodrigues (“The Ornithologist”)’s “Will-o’-The-Wisp,” set for Directors’ Fortnight.
“Pacifiction” stars Cesar-winning French actor Benoit Magimel (“Peaceful”) as a calculating French government official working in the French Polynesian island of Tahiti. While investigating on a mysterious submarine, he navigates the high end ’establishment,’ and mingles with locals in underground venues.
Serra was last in Cannes with his 2019 feature film “Liberté” which won the jury prize at Un Certain Regard.”‘Pacifiction’ is a...
The Berlin-based international sales banner has also acquired rising Morrocan helmer Maryam Touzani (“Adam”)’s “The Blue Caftan” and Costa Rican director Ariel Escalante Meza’s “Domingo and the Mist” which will both play in Un Certain Regard; as well as Portuguese filmmaker João Pedro Rodrigues (“The Ornithologist”)’s “Will-o’-The-Wisp,” set for Directors’ Fortnight.
“Pacifiction” stars Cesar-winning French actor Benoit Magimel (“Peaceful”) as a calculating French government official working in the French Polynesian island of Tahiti. While investigating on a mysterious submarine, he navigates the high end ’establishment,’ and mingles with locals in underground venues.
Serra was last in Cannes with his 2019 feature film “Liberté” which won the jury prize at Un Certain Regard.”‘Pacifiction’ is a...
- 5/6/2022
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Decent holds for ‘The Bad Guys’, ‘The Lost City’, ‘The Northman’.
Rank Film (distributor) Three-day gross (Apr 29-May 1) Total gross to date Week 1. Downton Abbey: A New Era (Universal) £3.1m £4m 1 2. Sonic The Hedgehog 2 (Paramount) £1.35m £22.6m 5 3. The Lost City (Paramount) £1.2m £7.4m 3 4. Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets Of Dumbledore (Warner Bros) £1.198m £18.8m 4 5. The Bad Guys (Universal) £723,039 £10.2m 5
Gbp to Usd conversion rate: 1.25
Universal sequel Downton Abbey: A New Era brought in £3.1m on its opening weekend – enough to top the UK-Ireland chart, but down 40.8 on the first film from 2019.
Playing in 746 locations - the second-widest opening of all time...
Rank Film (distributor) Three-day gross (Apr 29-May 1) Total gross to date Week 1. Downton Abbey: A New Era (Universal) £3.1m £4m 1 2. Sonic The Hedgehog 2 (Paramount) £1.35m £22.6m 5 3. The Lost City (Paramount) £1.2m £7.4m 3 4. Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets Of Dumbledore (Warner Bros) £1.198m £18.8m 4 5. The Bad Guys (Universal) £723,039 £10.2m 5
Gbp to Usd conversion rate: 1.25
Universal sequel Downton Abbey: A New Era brought in £3.1m on its opening weekend – enough to top the UK-Ireland chart, but down 40.8 on the first film from 2019.
Playing in 746 locations - the second-widest opening of all time...
- 5/3/2022
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
It was a three way battle at the U.K. and Ireland the past weekend with Paramount’s “Sonic the Hedgehog 2” edging past Warner Bros.’ “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets Of Dumbledore” and another Paramount release “The Lost City” to top the box office.
In its fourth weekend, “Sonic the Hedgehog 2” moved up from third place the previous week to claim the top spot with £1.63 million (2 million), according to numbers released by Comscore. The animated sequel now has a total of £20.2 million.
Not far behind in its third weekend was “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets Of Dumbledore,” retaining its second placing from the previous week with £1.59 million for a total of £16.4 million.
Last week’s topper “The Lost City” moved down to third position in its second weekend with £1.3 million for a total of £5.6 million. Also in its second weekend, Warner Bros.’ “Operation Mincemeat” collected £758,698 in fourth place for a total of £2.6 million.
In its fourth weekend, “Sonic the Hedgehog 2” moved up from third place the previous week to claim the top spot with £1.63 million (2 million), according to numbers released by Comscore. The animated sequel now has a total of £20.2 million.
Not far behind in its third weekend was “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets Of Dumbledore,” retaining its second placing from the previous week with £1.59 million for a total of £16.4 million.
Last week’s topper “The Lost City” moved down to third position in its second weekend with £1.3 million for a total of £5.6 million. Also in its second weekend, Warner Bros.’ “Operation Mincemeat” collected £758,698 in fourth place for a total of £2.6 million.
- 4/27/2022
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
Nabil Ayouch’s film Casablanca Beats offers a glimpse of how Moroccan teens are finding an outlet in hip-hop. The director reveals how its positive energy has given him hope
‘Hip-hop didn’t just come out of nowhere,” explains young teacher Anas to his even younger class in Casablanca Beats. He speaks of the “poverty, racism and humiliation” experienced by hip-hop’s African-American founders, and how the genre became a vehicle for self-empowerment and social change. “It’s rap that speaks of our lives, of our problems, things people aren’t supposed to know.”
The Moroccan teenagers listening to Anas can relate to this. Hip-hop is now a commercial industry in the US, but around the world rap has become the lingua franca for disempowered and disaffected youth, and the soundtrack to revolution. Nowhere more so than north Africa. During the Arab spring in the 2010s, protesters in Tunisia and...
‘Hip-hop didn’t just come out of nowhere,” explains young teacher Anas to his even younger class in Casablanca Beats. He speaks of the “poverty, racism and humiliation” experienced by hip-hop’s African-American founders, and how the genre became a vehicle for self-empowerment and social change. “It’s rap that speaks of our lives, of our problems, things people aren’t supposed to know.”
The Moroccan teenagers listening to Anas can relate to this. Hip-hop is now a commercial industry in the US, but around the world rap has become the lingua franca for disempowered and disaffected youth, and the soundtrack to revolution. Nowhere more so than north Africa. During the Arab spring in the 2010s, protesters in Tunisia and...
- 4/21/2022
- by Steve Rose
- The Guardian - Film News
The 2022 Glasgow Film Festival unveils an exciting programme with the UK premiere of The Outfit kicking it off.
Undoubtedly a highlight in the festival calendar, Gff this year will show 10 world premieres including Monstrous as part of FrightFest and the European premiere of Alan Cumming’s My Old School.
Antoneta Alamat Kusijanovic’s Camera D’ or winning, Murina, will close the festival in what will be its UK premiere.
The 18th annual festival will exclusively show the first episode of season six of the worldwide hit series, Outlander. Paul Verhoeven’s Benedetta is among the Scottish premieres as well as Ruth Paxton’s A Banquet, to name but a few.
Paul Verhoeven’s Benedetta.
In-person events also return with the legendary Armando Iannucci who will look back on his varied career to date.
As well as the 1962 retrospective showing classics including Cape Fear, which we reported here, the festival will...
Undoubtedly a highlight in the festival calendar, Gff this year will show 10 world premieres including Monstrous as part of FrightFest and the European premiere of Alan Cumming’s My Old School.
Antoneta Alamat Kusijanovic’s Camera D’ or winning, Murina, will close the festival in what will be its UK premiere.
The 18th annual festival will exclusively show the first episode of season six of the worldwide hit series, Outlander. Paul Verhoeven’s Benedetta is among the Scottish premieres as well as Ruth Paxton’s A Banquet, to name but a few.
Paul Verhoeven’s Benedetta.
In-person events also return with the legendary Armando Iannucci who will look back on his varied career to date.
As well as the 1962 retrospective showing classics including Cape Fear, which we reported here, the festival will...
- 1/27/2022
- by Thomas Alexander
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
If you wanted to name a winner from the Oscar international film shortlist right now, it would be the Cannes Film Festival. Nine of the 15 titles that made the cut came from the fest, even though the Palme d’Or winner, France’s submission “Titane,” did not. But then only those who were not paying attention to past trends in stage one voting assumed that it would be included.
Although a record 93 countries put forward an entry, only 15 are moving on. The ones selected for the shortlist come from almost every continent, although Africa, despite some exciting entries such as Somalia’s “The Gravedigger’s Wife,” Chad’s “Lingui: The Sacred Bonds” and Morocco’s “Casablanca Beats,” was ignored (all three titles premiered at Cannes).
Cannes players that are in the mix include Iran’s “A Hero,” helmed by previous Oscar-winner Asghar Farhadi; Norway’s “The Worst Person in the World...
Although a record 93 countries put forward an entry, only 15 are moving on. The ones selected for the shortlist come from almost every continent, although Africa, despite some exciting entries such as Somalia’s “The Gravedigger’s Wife,” Chad’s “Lingui: The Sacred Bonds” and Morocco’s “Casablanca Beats,” was ignored (all three titles premiered at Cannes).
Cannes players that are in the mix include Iran’s “A Hero,” helmed by previous Oscar-winner Asghar Farhadi; Norway’s “The Worst Person in the World...
- 1/22/2022
- by Shalini Dore and Alissa Simon
- Variety Film + TV
With last year’s surprise nominee “The Man Who Sold His Skin” hailing from Tunisia, Oscar handicappers should be sure to give West Asia and North Africa titles close scrutiny this time around.
Among the 11 submissions are several titles likely to be highly competitive in the international feature category. These include Iran’s social media critique “A Hero” from previous two-time winner Asghar Farhadi; Israel’s “Let It Be Morning”, a wry satire helmed by Eran Kolirin, about a Palestinian village put under military lockdown by the Israeli army; and Lebanon’s “Costa Brava, Lebanon,” a darkly comic commentary on the realities of modern-day Lebanon from feature debutant Mounia Akl.
Although “A Hero” may not be prime Farhadi, it already boasts the Grand Prix from Cannes. The narrative focuses on one of life’s losers, a likeable working-class man who, while on a short furlough from debtors prison, engineers events...
Among the 11 submissions are several titles likely to be highly competitive in the international feature category. These include Iran’s social media critique “A Hero” from previous two-time winner Asghar Farhadi; Israel’s “Let It Be Morning”, a wry satire helmed by Eran Kolirin, about a Palestinian village put under military lockdown by the Israeli army; and Lebanon’s “Costa Brava, Lebanon,” a darkly comic commentary on the realities of modern-day Lebanon from feature debutant Mounia Akl.
Although “A Hero” may not be prime Farhadi, it already boasts the Grand Prix from Cannes. The narrative focuses on one of life’s losers, a likeable working-class man who, while on a short furlough from debtors prison, engineers events...
- 12/13/2021
- by Alissa Simon
- Variety Film + TV
After going dark for the first time in more than half a century, the return of the Cannes Film Festival proves one major point: the event is still a significant launch pad when it comes to the International Feature Film Oscars. Indeed, of the 90-plus submissions recorded so far this year, nearly a quarter made their debut on the Croisette, be it in Competition, Un Certain Regard, Directors’ Fortnight or Critics’ Week. It’s perhaps to be expected—since the Academy first introduced the category in 1956, foreign-language auteur works have dominated more commercial fare—but the skew towards Cannes is telling. Other festivals have their place—notably Berlin and Venice, with Sundance emerging this year as an unexpected new contender—but, as a rough guide, Cannes has physically premiered six of the last 10 winners and presented last year’s victor, Thomas Vinterberg’s Another Round (Denmark) under the umbrella of its virtual 2020 label.
- 12/10/2021
- by Damon Wise
- Deadline Film + TV
Director Nabil Ayouch spoke of the real story behind Morocco’s Oscar submission Casablanca Beats, a musical drama about a teacher at a cultural center in the Moroccan city.
“It is personal and autobiographical in a way,” he said during Kino Lorber’s panel at Deadline’s Contenders Film: International awards-season event. “I grew up in a suburb of Paris that was quite violent and very close to the one that we see in the film in Casablanca. And when I was young, I knew how to love myself and connect with myself through arts and culture: specifically a cultural center. And later on, when I became a director, thanks to that center, after a film that I made called Horses of God, I decided to build up the center in the suburb of Casablanca.”
Ayouch then filmed Casablanca Beats in that very establishment. “Every week, more than 1,000 young girls...
“It is personal and autobiographical in a way,” he said during Kino Lorber’s panel at Deadline’s Contenders Film: International awards-season event. “I grew up in a suburb of Paris that was quite violent and very close to the one that we see in the film in Casablanca. And when I was young, I knew how to love myself and connect with myself through arts and culture: specifically a cultural center. And later on, when I became a director, thanks to that center, after a film that I made called Horses of God, I decided to build up the center in the suburb of Casablanca.”
Ayouch then filmed Casablanca Beats in that very establishment. “Every week, more than 1,000 young girls...
- 11/20/2021
- by Anna Smith
- Deadline Film + TV
The Red Sea International Film Festival has set the lineup for its inaugural edition which runs from December 6-15 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
The roster includes 138 titles from 67 countries and will open with MGM’s Joe Wright-directed musical romance Cyrano. The film previously played Telluride and Rome among others and releases domestically on December 31. Among highlights are also Netflix’s Venice Film Festival drama The Lost Daughter. Closing the Red Sea Fest is the world premiere of Egyptian director Amr Salama’s Bara El Manhag.
Sixteen films will run in the competition which is focused on films from Asia, Africa and the Arab world (see full list below). They will vie for the Golden Yusr Award as well as in individual directing, acting and writing categories. Among the titles screening are Hany Abu-Assad’s Huda’s Salon, Georgian Oscar submission Brighton 4th and Panah Panahi’s Hit The Road.
Kaleem Aftab,...
The roster includes 138 titles from 67 countries and will open with MGM’s Joe Wright-directed musical romance Cyrano. The film previously played Telluride and Rome among others and releases domestically on December 31. Among highlights are also Netflix’s Venice Film Festival drama The Lost Daughter. Closing the Red Sea Fest is the world premiere of Egyptian director Amr Salama’s Bara El Manhag.
Sixteen films will run in the competition which is focused on films from Asia, Africa and the Arab world (see full list below). They will vie for the Golden Yusr Award as well as in individual directing, acting and writing categories. Among the titles screening are Hany Abu-Assad’s Huda’s Salon, Georgian Oscar submission Brighton 4th and Panah Panahi’s Hit The Road.
Kaleem Aftab,...
- 11/9/2021
- by Nancy Tartaglione
- Deadline Film + TV
Keep track of all the submissions for best international feature at the 2022 Academy Awards
Entries for the 2022 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.
Scroll down for profiles of each Oscar entry
The 94th Academy Awards will take place on March 27, 2022 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. This is the first time since 2018 that the ceremony will take place in March, having moved to avoid conflicting with the Winter Olympics.
An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the US with a predominantly non-English dialogue...
Entries for the 2022 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.
Scroll down for profiles of each Oscar entry
The 94th Academy Awards will take place on March 27, 2022 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. This is the first time since 2018 that the ceremony will take place in March, having moved to avoid conflicting with the Winter Olympics.
An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the US with a predominantly non-English dialogue...
- 10/25/2021
- by Ben Dalton¬Mona Tabbara
- ScreenDaily
Keep track of all the submissions for best international feature at the 2022 Academy Awards.
Entries for the 2022 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.
Scroll down for profiles of each Oscar entry
The 94th Academy Awards will take place on March 27, 2022 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. This is the first time since 2018 that the ceremony will take place in March, having moved to avoid conflicting with the Winter Olympics.
An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the US with a predominantly non-English dialogue...
Entries for the 2022 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.
Scroll down for profiles of each Oscar entry
The 94th Academy Awards will take place on March 27, 2022 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. This is the first time since 2018 that the ceremony will take place in March, having moved to avoid conflicting with the Winter Olympics.
An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the US with a predominantly non-English dialogue...
- 10/15/2021
- by Ben Dalton¬Mona Tabbara
- ScreenDaily
Amid ongoing disruption in the Arab world’s unstable fest landscape, Egypt’s El Gouna Film Festival is staying the course and increasingly proving its mettle in promoting the cream of the region’s cinematic crop while also providing key support in nurturing new works.
El Gouna chief Intishal Al Timimi proudly points out that the fifth edition of the Oct. 14-22 event has secured eight high-profile features from Arab directors, most of which will be having their Middle Eastern premieres in the Egyptian Red Sea resort after bowing in Cannes and Venice.
They comprise French-Moroccan veteran Nabil Ayouch’s high-energy hip-hop drama “Casablanca Beats”; and two works from Lebanon: Mounia Akl’s dramedy “Costa Brava, Lebanon,” which targets Lebanon’s political malaise; and Ely Dagher’s “The Sea Ahead,” about a young woman who returns from Paris to Beirut and reconnects with the life she had left behind. There...
El Gouna chief Intishal Al Timimi proudly points out that the fifth edition of the Oct. 14-22 event has secured eight high-profile features from Arab directors, most of which will be having their Middle Eastern premieres in the Egyptian Red Sea resort after bowing in Cannes and Venice.
They comprise French-Moroccan veteran Nabil Ayouch’s high-energy hip-hop drama “Casablanca Beats”; and two works from Lebanon: Mounia Akl’s dramedy “Costa Brava, Lebanon,” which targets Lebanon’s political malaise; and Ely Dagher’s “The Sea Ahead,” about a young woman who returns from Paris to Beirut and reconnects with the life she had left behind. There...
- 10/13/2021
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
Keep track of all the submissions for best international feature at the 2022 Academy Awards.
Entries for the 2022 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.
Scroll down for profiles of each Oscar entry
The 94th Academy Awards will take place on March 27, 2022 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. This is the first time since 2018 that the ceremony will take place in March, having moved to avoid conflicting with the Winter Olympics.
An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the US with a predominantly non-English dialogue...
Entries for the 2022 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.
Scroll down for profiles of each Oscar entry
The 94th Academy Awards will take place on March 27, 2022 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. This is the first time since 2018 that the ceremony will take place in March, having moved to avoid conflicting with the Winter Olympics.
An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the US with a predominantly non-English dialogue...
- 10/12/2021
- by Ben Dalton¬Mona Tabbara
- ScreenDaily
Keep track of all the submissions for best international feature at the 2022 Academy Awards.
Entries for the 2022 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.
Scroll down for profiles of each Oscar entry
The 94th Academy Awards will take place on March 27, 2022 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. This is the first time since 2018 that the ceremony will take place in March, having moved to avoid conflicting with the Winter Olympics.
An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the US with a predominantly non-English dialogue...
Entries for the 2022 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.
Scroll down for profiles of each Oscar entry
The 94th Academy Awards will take place on March 27, 2022 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. This is the first time since 2018 that the ceremony will take place in March, having moved to avoid conflicting with the Winter Olympics.
An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the US with a predominantly non-English dialogue...
- 10/11/2021
- by Ben Dalton¬Mona Tabbara
- ScreenDaily
Other African submissions so far include Nabil Ayouch’s Casablanca Beats for Morocco.
Finnish-Somali filmmaker Khadar Ayderus Ahmed’s The Gravedigger’s Wife, which world premiered in Cannes Critics’ Week in July, has been selected as Somalia’s first-ever Oscar submission for the 2022 Academy Awards.
Set in Djibouti City in the Horn of Africa, the drama stars Finnish-Somali actor Omar Abdi as a gravedigger on a quest to raise the money for the kidney transplant desperately needed by his beloved wife, played by Canadian-Somali model and actress Yasmin Warsame.
The film’s selection for consideration in the best international film category...
Finnish-Somali filmmaker Khadar Ayderus Ahmed’s The Gravedigger’s Wife, which world premiered in Cannes Critics’ Week in July, has been selected as Somalia’s first-ever Oscar submission for the 2022 Academy Awards.
Set in Djibouti City in the Horn of Africa, the drama stars Finnish-Somali actor Omar Abdi as a gravedigger on a quest to raise the money for the kidney transplant desperately needed by his beloved wife, played by Canadian-Somali model and actress Yasmin Warsame.
The film’s selection for consideration in the best international film category...
- 10/7/2021
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- ScreenDaily
Keep track of all the submissions for best international feature at the 2022 Academy Awards.
Entries for the 2022 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.
Scroll down for profiles of each Oscar entry
The 94th Academy Awards will take place on March 27, 2022 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. This is the first time since 2018 that the ceremony will take place in March, having moved to avoid conflicting with the Winter Olympics.
An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the US with a predominantly non-English dialogue...
Entries for the 2022 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.
Scroll down for profiles of each Oscar entry
The 94th Academy Awards will take place on March 27, 2022 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. This is the first time since 2018 that the ceremony will take place in March, having moved to avoid conflicting with the Winter Olympics.
An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the US with a predominantly non-English dialogue...
- 10/6/2021
- by Ben Dalton¬Mona Tabbara
- ScreenDaily
Keep track of all the submissions for best international feature at the 2022 Academy Awards.
Entries for the 2022 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.
Scroll down for profiles of each Oscar entry
The 94th Academy Awards will take place on March 27, 2022 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. This is the first time since 2018 that the ceremony will take place in March, having moved to avoid conflicting with the Winter Olympics.
An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the US with a predominantly non-English dialogue...
Entries for the 2022 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.
Scroll down for profiles of each Oscar entry
The 94th Academy Awards will take place on March 27, 2022 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. This is the first time since 2018 that the ceremony will take place in March, having moved to avoid conflicting with the Winter Olympics.
An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the US with a predominantly non-English dialogue...
- 10/5/2021
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Keep track of all the submissions for best international feature at the 2022 Academy Awards.
Entries for the 2022 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.
Scroll down for profiles of each Oscar entry
The 94th Academy Awards will take place on March 27, 2022 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. This is the first time since 2018 that the ceremony will take place in March, having moved to avoid conflicting with the Winter Olympics.
An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the US with a predominantly non-English dialogue...
Entries for the 2022 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.
Scroll down for profiles of each Oscar entry
The 94th Academy Awards will take place on March 27, 2022 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. This is the first time since 2018 that the ceremony will take place in March, having moved to avoid conflicting with the Winter Olympics.
An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the US with a predominantly non-English dialogue...
- 9/29/2021
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
So far at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival, we’ve seen a woman having sex with a car, nuns having sex with each other and Adam Diver and Marion Cotillard singing while having sex. But can we get our minds off sex for a minute and start thinking about the prestige side of Cannes — namely, what films might actually win the Palme d’Or when the jury announces its picks on Saturday?
That’s a tricky question, because as this year’s pandemic-altered festival nears its end, the awards picture remains extremely murky.
Sure, the attention went to Julia Ducournau’s “Titane” (woman/car sex), Paul Verhoeven’s “Benedetta” (nun/nun sex) and Leos Carax’s “Annette” (singing sex). But are those legitimate contenders to take the top award from a jury headed by Spike Lee and also including actors Maggie Gyllenhaal, Melanie Laurent, Mylene Farmer, Tahar Rahim and Kang Ho Song,...
That’s a tricky question, because as this year’s pandemic-altered festival nears its end, the awards picture remains extremely murky.
Sure, the attention went to Julia Ducournau’s “Titane” (woman/car sex), Paul Verhoeven’s “Benedetta” (nun/nun sex) and Leos Carax’s “Annette” (singing sex). But are those legitimate contenders to take the top award from a jury headed by Spike Lee and also including actors Maggie Gyllenhaal, Melanie Laurent, Mylene Farmer, Tahar Rahim and Kang Ho Song,...
- 7/16/2021
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
Mubi, the London-based streamer and theatrical distributor that’s been on a buying spree this week in Cannes, has acquired the rights for North America, U.K., and a host of other territories for Kira Kovalenko’s “Unclenching the Fists,” which took home the top prize in the Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard section, Variety can reveal.
Set in a former mining town in Russia’s North Ossetia region, “Unclenching the Fists” is the story of a young woman, played by Milana Aguzarova, who struggles to escape the stifling hold of the family she both loves and rejects. The film is produced by two-time Oscar nominee Alexander Rodnyansky.
The deal includes all rights for North America, U.K., Ireland, Latin America and India. Wild Bunch International, which is handling the film’s world sales, has also closed deals for France (Arp), Benelux (September Film), Greece (Cinobo), Italy (Movies...
Set in a former mining town in Russia’s North Ossetia region, “Unclenching the Fists” is the story of a young woman, played by Milana Aguzarova, who struggles to escape the stifling hold of the family she both loves and rejects. The film is produced by two-time Oscar nominee Alexander Rodnyansky.
The deal includes all rights for North America, U.K., Ireland, Latin America and India. Wild Bunch International, which is handling the film’s world sales, has also closed deals for France (Arp), Benelux (September Film), Greece (Cinobo), Italy (Movies...
- 7/16/2021
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
Bruno Dumont’s ‘France’ and Nabil Ayouch’s ’Casablanca Beats’ also land on the grid.
Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Memoria has taken second place on Screen’s Cannes jury grid with an impressive mean score of 3.4.
The latest from the Thai filmmaker, who won the Palme d’Or in 2010 with Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, is just behind current grid leader Drive My Car (directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi), which scored a 3.5.
Memoria was awarded six scores of four (excellent) from our critics, but a one (poor) from Positif’s Michel Ciment dragged the average down. Weerasethakul’s English-language...
Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Memoria has taken second place on Screen’s Cannes jury grid with an impressive mean score of 3.4.
The latest from the Thai filmmaker, who won the Palme d’Or in 2010 with Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, is just behind current grid leader Drive My Car (directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi), which scored a 3.5.
Memoria was awarded six scores of four (excellent) from our critics, but a one (poor) from Positif’s Michel Ciment dragged the average down. Weerasethakul’s English-language...
- 7/16/2021
- by Melissa Kasule
- ScreenDaily
by Cláudio Alves
The 2021 Cannes Film Festival is on its last days, and almost all Competition titles have premiered. The latest were new films by Apichatpong Weerasethakul Bruno Dumont and Nabil Ayouch. The Thai director's Memoria has already been met with raves by fans, though, as ever, his work continues to be unfit for all tastes. Some audiences aren't into slow-cinema. Dumont's France, however, got full-on boos, while Ayouch's Casablanca Beats was deemed a possible contender for the Palme d'Or. We'll know the jury's choices on Saturday. For now, let's indulge in cinematic reminiscence as we look back at these artist's previous triumphs. They include a poetic reverie complete with an interspecies sex scene, a funny serial killer movie, and a film that drove irate people to attack its cast…...
The 2021 Cannes Film Festival is on its last days, and almost all Competition titles have premiered. The latest were new films by Apichatpong Weerasethakul Bruno Dumont and Nabil Ayouch. The Thai director's Memoria has already been met with raves by fans, though, as ever, his work continues to be unfit for all tastes. Some audiences aren't into slow-cinema. Dumont's France, however, got full-on boos, while Ayouch's Casablanca Beats was deemed a possible contender for the Palme d'Or. We'll know the jury's choices on Saturday. For now, let's indulge in cinematic reminiscence as we look back at these artist's previous triumphs. They include a poetic reverie complete with an interspecies sex scene, a funny serial killer movie, and a film that drove irate people to attack its cast…...
- 7/16/2021
- by Cláudio Alves
- FilmExperience
Director Nabil Ayouch brings heart and energy to the Cannes Film Festival competition with Casablanca Beats (Haut Et Fort), a story of arts students in the titular Moroccan city. Former rapper Anas (a charismatic Anas Basbousi) takes a job at a cultural center in a working-class part of town, and tries to teach a mixed group of kids and teens to rap.
With a style that’s questioning and confrontational but fostering, Anas fits firmly into the inspirational teacher category. His students respond enthusiastically, taking turns to perform and bringing their problems and politics into the classroom. Tensions arise, but the tone is generally upbeat in this simple but likable musical drama that’s based on the experiences of the director, who founded his own arts school for young people.
Like Anas, the young cast are playing versions of themselves, and bring their talents for rap, singing and dance to striking performance scenes.
With a style that’s questioning and confrontational but fostering, Anas fits firmly into the inspirational teacher category. His students respond enthusiastically, taking turns to perform and bringing their problems and politics into the classroom. Tensions arise, but the tone is generally upbeat in this simple but likable musical drama that’s based on the experiences of the director, who founded his own arts school for young people.
Like Anas, the young cast are playing versions of themselves, and bring their talents for rap, singing and dance to striking performance scenes.
- 7/16/2021
- by Anna Smith
- Deadline Film + TV
“You have to change it because you didn’t choose it.” The defiant mantra that evolves over the course of Moroccan director Nabil Ayouch’s scrappy but heartfelt hip-hop street-musical “Casablanca Beats,” his third time in Cannes but first time in competition, could be a rallying cry for any youth activism group, anywhere in the world. But it’s the specificity of the setting, in the music room of an embattled Casablanca arts center, where a motley collection of local adolescents bond, bicker and brag through the medium of hip-hop, that gives Ayouch’s film the buzz of real-life resistance emerging in real time, demonstrating how music builds into a movement.
This is filmmaking as celebration and also intervention — in casting the center’s real attendees as fictionalized versions of themselves, Ayouch is not just telling the story of the notorious Casablanca neighborhood of Sidi Moumen that he, as a longtime resident of the city,...
This is filmmaking as celebration and also intervention — in casting the center’s real attendees as fictionalized versions of themselves, Ayouch is not just telling the story of the notorious Casablanca neighborhood of Sidi Moumen that he, as a longtime resident of the city,...
- 7/16/2021
- by Jessica Kiang
- Variety Film + TV
The 17 titles are a mix of pre-buys and acquisitions.
Benelux distributor Cineart, which has offices in Brussels and Amsterdam, is in Cannes with 17 titles in Official Selection already in the bag, a mixture of pre-buys and pick-ups.
They include six Competition titles: Nabil Avouch’s Casablanca Beats, Asghar Farhadi’s A Hero, Joachim Lafosse’s The Restless, Jacques Audiard’s Les Olympades, Joachim Trier’s The Worst Person In The World and Nanni Moretti’s Three Floors.
Cineart has also secured titles in Un Certain Regard (Teodora Ana Mihai’s La Civil); Cannes Premiere as well as Valérie Lemercier’s Aline The Voice Of Love,...
Benelux distributor Cineart, which has offices in Brussels and Amsterdam, is in Cannes with 17 titles in Official Selection already in the bag, a mixture of pre-buys and pick-ups.
They include six Competition titles: Nabil Avouch’s Casablanca Beats, Asghar Farhadi’s A Hero, Joachim Lafosse’s The Restless, Jacques Audiard’s Les Olympades, Joachim Trier’s The Worst Person In The World and Nanni Moretti’s Three Floors.
Cineart has also secured titles in Un Certain Regard (Teodora Ana Mihai’s La Civil); Cannes Premiere as well as Valérie Lemercier’s Aline The Voice Of Love,...
- 7/8/2021
- by Geoffrey Macnab
- ScreenDaily
Sean Penn’s “Flag Day,” Leos Carax’s “Annette,” starring Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard, and Wes Anderson’s “The French Dispatch,” with Frances McDormand and Timothée Chalamet, will provide star power at a 2021 Cannes Festival packed to overflowing with established and very often new European and world cinema arthouse talent.
The festival films will also drive much of Cannes’ business. Cannes’ business behemoth, a pre-sales market unveiling big indie projects — such as this year’s $60 million Vin Diesel vehicle “Muscle” — took place June 21-25 at the virtual Pre-Cannes Screenings.
“In some ways, Cannes this year has the opportunity to be the purest form of itself,” said Dylan Leiner at Sony Pictures Classics.
“Since the market was held virtually a couple of weeks before, festivalgoers will be able to focus on the programmed films almost exclusively without the distraction of a physical market, which so often favors splashy, large scale packages that grab headlines,...
The festival films will also drive much of Cannes’ business. Cannes’ business behemoth, a pre-sales market unveiling big indie projects — such as this year’s $60 million Vin Diesel vehicle “Muscle” — took place June 21-25 at the virtual Pre-Cannes Screenings.
“In some ways, Cannes this year has the opportunity to be the purest form of itself,” said Dylan Leiner at Sony Pictures Classics.
“Since the market was held virtually a couple of weeks before, festivalgoers will be able to focus on the programmed films almost exclusively without the distraction of a physical market, which so often favors splashy, large scale packages that grab headlines,...
- 7/6/2021
- by John Hopewell and Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Slate also includes new films from Michel Hazanavicius and Pierre Salvadori.
Wild Bunch International (Wbi) has unveiled one of its biggest Cannes slates to date as it gears up for its first trip to the Croisette in two years.
As well as 10 Cannes selections (as of June 15), it also features upcoming projects from Palme d’Or winners Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne and fellow Cannes laureate Arnaud Desplechin, and the portmanteau work Shining Sex, combining the talents of Lucile Hadzihalilovic, Sion Sono, directorial duo Helene Cattet and Bruno Forzani, Bertrand Mandico and Kleber Mendonça Filho.
Now in pre-production, the Dardenne’sTori...
Wild Bunch International (Wbi) has unveiled one of its biggest Cannes slates to date as it gears up for its first trip to the Croisette in two years.
As well as 10 Cannes selections (as of June 15), it also features upcoming projects from Palme d’Or winners Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne and fellow Cannes laureate Arnaud Desplechin, and the portmanteau work Shining Sex, combining the talents of Lucile Hadzihalilovic, Sion Sono, directorial duo Helene Cattet and Bruno Forzani, Bertrand Mandico and Kleber Mendonça Filho.
Now in pre-production, the Dardenne’sTori...
- 6/15/2021
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- ScreenDaily
Slate also includes new films from Michel Hazanavicius and Pierre Salvadori.
Wild Bunch International (Wbi) has unveiled one of its biggest Cannes slates to date as it gears up for its first trip to the Croisette in two years.
As well as 10 Cannes selections (as of June 15), it also features upcoming projects from Palme d’Or winners Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne and fellow Cannes laureate Arnaud Desplechin, and the portmanteau work Shining Sex, combining the talents of Lucile Hadzihalilovic, Sion Sono, directorial duo Helene Cattet and Bruno Forzani, Bertrand Mandico and Kleber Mendonça Filho.
Now in pre-production, the Dardenne’sTori...
Wild Bunch International (Wbi) has unveiled one of its biggest Cannes slates to date as it gears up for its first trip to the Croisette in two years.
As well as 10 Cannes selections (as of June 15), it also features upcoming projects from Palme d’Or winners Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne and fellow Cannes laureate Arnaud Desplechin, and the portmanteau work Shining Sex, combining the talents of Lucile Hadzihalilovic, Sion Sono, directorial duo Helene Cattet and Bruno Forzani, Bertrand Mandico and Kleber Mendonça Filho.
Now in pre-production, the Dardenne’sTori...
- 6/15/2021
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- ScreenDaily
Exclusive: Aisling Franciosi (The Nightingale) is set to take the lead role in elevated horror film Stopmotion, which Wild Bunch International is launching ahead of the Cannes market.
Franciosi, also known for starring in TV series Black Narcissus and The Fall, will play Ella Blake, a stop-motion animator struggling to control her demons after the loss of her overbearing mother, who embarks upon the creation of a film that becomes the battleground for her sanity. As Ella’s mind starts to fracture, the characters in her project take on a life of their own.
The psychological horror will mark the feature debut of short film director Robert Morgan. Morgan, who scripted alongside Robin King, previously directed BAFTA and Sundance-nominated short Bobby Yeah.
Producers are Alain de la Mata (The Owners) and Christopher Granier-Deferre (Lady Macbeth) for London-based production company BlueLight. The project is being supported by the BFI. A start...
Franciosi, also known for starring in TV series Black Narcissus and The Fall, will play Ella Blake, a stop-motion animator struggling to control her demons after the loss of her overbearing mother, who embarks upon the creation of a film that becomes the battleground for her sanity. As Ella’s mind starts to fracture, the characters in her project take on a life of their own.
The psychological horror will mark the feature debut of short film director Robert Morgan. Morgan, who scripted alongside Robin King, previously directed BAFTA and Sundance-nominated short Bobby Yeah.
Producers are Alain de la Mata (The Owners) and Christopher Granier-Deferre (Lady Macbeth) for London-based production company BlueLight. The project is being supported by the BFI. A start...
- 6/15/2021
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
Casablanca Beats is first Moroccan film to play in Cannes Competition since 1962.
Wild Bunch International (Wbi) has boarded sales on French-Moroccan filmmaker Nabil Ayouch’s Casablanca Beats ahead of its world premiere in Competition at this year’s Cannes Film Festival in July.
The film follows a group of youngsters living in the Casablanca slum district of Sidi Moumen as they participate in a workshop encouraging them to express themselves through hip-hop music and dance.
It was shot in Casablanca’s Les Etoiles de Sidi Moumen (The Stars of Sidi Moumen) cultural centre, which Ayouch created in 2014 with novelist Mahi Binebine.
Wild Bunch International (Wbi) has boarded sales on French-Moroccan filmmaker Nabil Ayouch’s Casablanca Beats ahead of its world premiere in Competition at this year’s Cannes Film Festival in July.
The film follows a group of youngsters living in the Casablanca slum district of Sidi Moumen as they participate in a workshop encouraging them to express themselves through hip-hop music and dance.
It was shot in Casablanca’s Les Etoiles de Sidi Moumen (The Stars of Sidi Moumen) cultural centre, which Ayouch created in 2014 with novelist Mahi Binebine.
- 6/7/2021
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- ScreenDaily
Cannes' Official Selection for its 74th edition, running July 6-17.
In Competition
Annette, Leos Carax (France) - Opening Film
The Story of My Wife, Ildikó Enyedi (Hungary)
Benedetta, Paul Verhoeven (Netherlands)
Bergman Island, Mia-Hansen-Love (France)
Drive My Car, Rysuke Hamaguchi (Japan)
Ha’Berech (Ahed’s Knee), Nadav Lapid
Casablanca Beats, Nabil Ayouch (Morocco)
Compartment No. 6, Juho Kuosmanen (Finland)
The Worst Person in the World, Joachim Trier (Norway)
La Fracture, Catherine Corsini (France)
The Restless, Joachim Lafosse (Belgium)
Paris 13th District, Jacques Audiard (France)
Lingui, Mahamat-Saleh Haroun (Chad)
Memoria, Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Thailand)
Nitram, Justin Kurzel (Australia)
France, Bruno Dumont (France)
Petrov’s Flu, Kirill Serebrennikov (Russia)
Red Rocket, Sean Baker (USA)
Flag Day, Sean Penn (USA)
The French Dispatch, Wes Anderson (USA)
Titane, Julia Ducournau (France)
Tre Piani, Nanni Moretti (Italy)
Tout s'est Bien Passé, François Ozon (France)
A Hero, Asghar Farhadi (Iran)
Un Certain Regard
Moneyboys, C.B. Yi (Austria)
Blue Bayou, Justin Chon (USA)
Freda, Gessica Geneus (Haiti)
Delo (House Arrest), Alexey German Jr. (Russia)
Bonne Mere, Hafsia Herzi (France)
Noche de Fuego, Tatiana Huezo (Mexico)
Lamb, Valdimar Johansson (Iceland)
Commitment Hasan, Hasan Semih Kaplanoglu (Turkey)
After Yang, Kogonada (USA)
Let There Be Morning, Eran Kolirin (Israel)
Unclenching the Fists, Kira Kovalenko (Russia)
Women Do Cry, Mina Mileva, Vesela Kazakova (Bulgaria)
Rehana Maryam Noor, Abdullah Mohammad Saad (Bangladesh)
Great Freedom, Sebastian Meise (Austria)
La Civil, Teodora Ana Mihai (Romania / Belgium)
Gaey’s Wa’r, Na Jiazuo (China)
The Innocents, Eskil Vogt (Norway)
Un Monde, Laura Wandel (Belgium)
Out of Competition
De Son Vivant, Emmanuelle Bercot (France)
Emergency Declaration, Han Jae-Rim (Korea)
The Velvet Underground, Todd Haynes (USA)
Bac Nord, Cédric Jimenez (France)
Aline, The Voice of Love, Valérie Lemercier (France)
Stillwater, Tom McCarthy (USA)...
In Competition
Annette, Leos Carax (France) - Opening Film
The Story of My Wife, Ildikó Enyedi (Hungary)
Benedetta, Paul Verhoeven (Netherlands)
Bergman Island, Mia-Hansen-Love (France)
Drive My Car, Rysuke Hamaguchi (Japan)
Ha’Berech (Ahed’s Knee), Nadav Lapid
Casablanca Beats, Nabil Ayouch (Morocco)
Compartment No. 6, Juho Kuosmanen (Finland)
The Worst Person in the World, Joachim Trier (Norway)
La Fracture, Catherine Corsini (France)
The Restless, Joachim Lafosse (Belgium)
Paris 13th District, Jacques Audiard (France)
Lingui, Mahamat-Saleh Haroun (Chad)
Memoria, Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Thailand)
Nitram, Justin Kurzel (Australia)
France, Bruno Dumont (France)
Petrov’s Flu, Kirill Serebrennikov (Russia)
Red Rocket, Sean Baker (USA)
Flag Day, Sean Penn (USA)
The French Dispatch, Wes Anderson (USA)
Titane, Julia Ducournau (France)
Tre Piani, Nanni Moretti (Italy)
Tout s'est Bien Passé, François Ozon (France)
A Hero, Asghar Farhadi (Iran)
Un Certain Regard
Moneyboys, C.B. Yi (Austria)
Blue Bayou, Justin Chon (USA)
Freda, Gessica Geneus (Haiti)
Delo (House Arrest), Alexey German Jr. (Russia)
Bonne Mere, Hafsia Herzi (France)
Noche de Fuego, Tatiana Huezo (Mexico)
Lamb, Valdimar Johansson (Iceland)
Commitment Hasan, Hasan Semih Kaplanoglu (Turkey)
After Yang, Kogonada (USA)
Let There Be Morning, Eran Kolirin (Israel)
Unclenching the Fists, Kira Kovalenko (Russia)
Women Do Cry, Mina Mileva, Vesela Kazakova (Bulgaria)
Rehana Maryam Noor, Abdullah Mohammad Saad (Bangladesh)
Great Freedom, Sebastian Meise (Austria)
La Civil, Teodora Ana Mihai (Romania / Belgium)
Gaey’s Wa’r, Na Jiazuo (China)
The Innocents, Eskil Vogt (Norway)
Un Monde, Laura Wandel (Belgium)
Out of Competition
De Son Vivant, Emmanuelle Bercot (France)
Emergency Declaration, Han Jae-Rim (Korea)
The Velvet Underground, Todd Haynes (USA)
Bac Nord, Cédric Jimenez (France)
Aline, The Voice of Love, Valérie Lemercier (France)
Stillwater, Tom McCarthy (USA)...
- 6/3/2021
- IMDbPro News
Cannes is back in full force with the announcement of the Official Selection for the film festival’s 74th edition. Taking place in July after having been originally scheduled for May, Cannes is returning with an in-person event after the pandemic forced the festival to cancel in 2020. Spike Lee, who was supposed to head the jury and premiere his “Da 5 Bloods” out of competition last year, is returning to Cannes 2021 as jury president. Films such as Wes Anderson’s “The French Dispatch,” Leos Carax’s “Annette,” and Paul Verhoeven’s “Benedetta” were all supposed to premiere at Cannes 2020 but are now confirmed for Cannes 2021 after waiting a year to be unveiled to the world.
Given this is the first Cannes in the Covid pandemic era, there are as many questions about the event’s safety protocols as there are about the lineup. Cannes general delegate Thierry Frémaux told IndieWire...
Given this is the first Cannes in the Covid pandemic era, there are as many questions about the event’s safety protocols as there are about the lineup. Cannes general delegate Thierry Frémaux told IndieWire...
- 6/3/2021
- by Zack Sharf
- Indiewire
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