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The 29th edition of the American French Film Festival (Tafff) has been set for October 28 to November 2 at the Directors Guild of America complex in Hollywood.

Staged by the Franco-American Cultural Fund, Tafff claims to be the largest French film festival in North America and the largest festival dedicated to French films and TV programmes in the world.

Last year’s Tafff opened with the official Hollywood premiere of Emilia Perez, which went on to get 13 Oscar nominations and awards including Bafta’s non-English film prize. Other titles screening at the event included The Count Of Monte Cristo, Marching Band,...

I think it’s aptly said that in spite of all the horrors we have committed, people still have a bit of humanity left in them. Following the same philosophy, The Most Precious of Cargoes is a poignant fairy tale set against the terrifying backdrop of the Holocaust. Based on a novel by Jean-Claude Grumberg, the author assumes the role of the narrator to introduce us to a world that is beautiful with rabbits and dogs and wolves playing around, but in the same world the great powers bomb each other to oblivion in World War 2. Similar to the 2013 film The Book Thief, this movie emphasizes how a single choice can be bigger than the hateful ideology of a whole nation.

Spoilers Ahead

What happens in the movie?

The Most Precious of Cargoes begins with a poor woodcutter and his wife living in a small village. The couple didn’t...

This week's Empire Podcast sees the long-awaited return of one of our favourite guests, the wonderful British actor Will Poulter, who talks to Chris Hewitt about his role in Alex Scharfman's surreal new satire Death Of A Unicorn and what it's like to play a prize A-hole before engaging in some impromptu tongue-twisters. [20:38 — 33:28 approx] And Willy P (as nobody calls him) isn't the only returning guest joining us this week, as the uber talented Amber Midthunder sits down on Zoom with Amon Warmann to dive deep into her role in new Jack Quaid led action comedy Novocaine. [1:07:21 - 1:23:34 approx]

Either side of those, Chris is joined in the podbooth by James Dyer and, for the first time in forever, Ben Travis. Together, they discuss the videogames they'd like to see adapted into movies, review Death Of A Unicorn, Holland, Last Swim, and The Most Precious Of Cargoes, and go deep on tons of movie news,...

Michel Hazanavicius on casting Jean-Louis Trintignant in the role of the narrator for The Most Precious Of Cargoes: 'The story stirred his childhood memories, memories from his life, and recording was a very heartfelt part of the process' Photo: Studiocanal

The connection between director Michel Hazanavicius – who won an Oscar for his affectionate Hollywood pastiche The Artist – and his new animation The Most Precious Of Cargoes (La plus précieuse des marchandises) stretches back to his childhood.

The author of the original fairy tale Jean-Claude Grumberg was a family friend and had known Hazanavicius since the filmmaker was a boy. Hazanavicius's own family had survived the Holocaust. “I’ve been dipping in and out of this world since then. When the project came to me it hadn’t even been published yet, but I was able to read the proofs before it went to press. As I’d known Jean-Claude...

Disney’s “Snow White” retained the top spot at the U.K. and Ireland box office for a second week, bringing in £2 million ($2.6 million) and pushing its total to £6.7 million ($8.7 million), according to Comscore.

Leading the newcomers was “L2: Empuraan,” the Malayalam-language action film distributed by Rft Films Ltd. The film, a sequel to 2019’s “Lucifer,” opened with $1.5 million, securing second place and marking one of the strongest regional Indian film debuts in the U.K. in recent years. Starring Mohanlal and from actor-director Prithviraj Sukumaran, the film is the second part in a planned trilogy.

Warner Bros.’ “A Working Man,” starring Jason Statham, debuted at No. 3 with $850,180.

Universal’s “Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy” slipped to fourth but continued its phenomenal run, adding $726,295 in its seventh weekend. The film has now grossed $58.9 million, making it the highest-grossing U.K. release of the year.

In fifth, Paramount’s dark comedy “Novocaine,...

The Oscar‑winning director of The Artist spent five years creating The Most Precious of Cargoes. He talks about why he would never have made it as a live action movie

When the acclaimed French film-maker Michel Hazanavicius was approached by his parents’ best friend, the author and playwright Jean-Claude Grumberg, to adapt his fairytale The Most Precious of Cargoes (2019) into an animated film, he hesitated. The short book is a fable about the Holocaust, and the extraordinary acts of kindness that people are capable of. Although moved by it, Hazanavicius was initially reluctant: he had never made an animated film, and he thought he would never make a film about the Holocaust. The grandson of eastern European immigrants who came to France from Lithuania and Poland in the 1920s, Hazanavicius, 58, had felt that the subject was not his to tell. “It was more my grandparents’ and my parents’ story,...

Brut Post TikTok Subscriber Milestone

France’s young adult-focused, online news-skewed platform Brut is sounding its own bell after hitting 10 million subscribers on TikTok, making it the top French publisher on the Chinese-owned platform. The subscriber gains also make the platform the second most followed European news publisher on TikTok after the Daily Mail. “Making news on TikTok was a challenge. A successful bet with 10 million subscribers, which makes us the leading news media in France on a platform historically focused on entertainment,” said TikTok Editor in Chief Laurent Lucas in a release. “This symbolic milestone reflects the success of an editorial policy developed especially for new uses of information consumption in France and around the world.” Launched by Guillaume Lacroix and Renaud le Van Kim in 2016, the Paris-based platform employs some 250 people. It has had its financial ups and down over its existence but reported last year that it...

“Emilia Pérez” won Best Film from the French 2025 César Awards, a major win for the Netflix film ahead of the Oscars. Jacques Audiard’s movie had earned 13 Oscar nominations but then fell out of frontrunner status.

The film also won both Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay for Jacques Audiard, though Zoe Saldaña, who has dominated the awards circuit all year, lost in an upset to Hafsia Herzi for the film “Borgo.” Saldaña though was nominated alongside Karla Sofía Gascón in the Best Actress category, and not in Best Supporting Actress.

In all, “Emilia Pérez” took home seven Césars out of 12 nominations, including Best Visual Effects, Best Sound, Best Original Music, and Best Cinematography. “The Count of Monte Cristo,” a new version of the Dumas revenge tale, led all nominees with 14, and it won two.

While the Césars this year largely did not resemble the Oscars, a few others won...

The Count of Monte Cristo, Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de La Patellière’s retelling of the classic French revenge tale, is the front-runner for this year’s César Awards, scoring 14 nominations, including in the best film and best directing categories.

The period drama, starring Pierre Niney, beat out Jacques Audiard’s Oscar frontrunner Emilia Pérez, which got 12 noms, and Beating Hearts, Gilles Lellouche’s contemporary reimagining of Romeo and Juliet featuring François Civil and Adèle Exarchopoulos, which earned 13 nominations.

Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de la Patelliere’s lavish adaptation of Alexandre Dumas’ classic was the biggest French box office hit of last year, drawing close to 10 million viewers for a $40 million local take. Globally, the film has grossed more than $75 million.

Sean Baker’s Palme d’Or winner, and Oscar contender, Anora, is up for the Cesar for best foreign film, against Academy Award hopefuls including Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance,...

Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre De La Patelliere’s epic literary adaptation The Count Of Monte-Cristo leads the nominations for France’s Cesar Awards with 14.

There were also strong showings from Gilles Lellouche’s Beating Hearts with 13 and Jacques Audiard’s Oscar and Bafta-nominated Emilia Perez with 12.

Scroll down for the full list of nominations

The Count Of Monte-Cristo and Emilia Perez are in the running for best film alongside Boris Lojkine’s Souleymane’s Story, Alain Guiraudie’s Misericordia and Emmanuel Courcol’s The Marching Band.

All of the films nominated for best film had their world premiere at the...

The Count of Monte Cristo has topped the nominations for France’s prestigious César awards, followed by Beating Hearts and Oscar frontrunner Emilia Pérez.

The film has made it into 14 categories in the nominations, which were announced in Paris on Wednesday morning. Beating Hearts clinched 13, followed by Emiia Pérez with 12.

Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de la Patelliere’s lavish and fast-paced adaptation of Alexandre Dumas’ classic novel starring Pierre Niney was one of France’s top performing movies at the local box office in 2024, drawing close to 10M spectators and its top international export.

Gilles Lellouche’s modern Romeo and Juliet tale Beating Hearts – co-starring François Civil and Adèle Exarchopoulos – has also performed well at home, drawing more than five million spectators.

The 12 nominations for Jacques Audiard’s Cannes Jury prize-winning musical film Emilia Pérez continue its buzzy awards season run which has seen it clinch four Golden Globes and...

Jacques Audiard’s musical film Emilia Pérez swept the 30th edition of France’s Lumière Awards on Monday evening, winning Best Film, Director and Screenplay as well Actress for Karla Sofia Gascón and Music for Camille and Clément Ducol.

The wins add further steam to the Cannes Jury Prize winner’s awards season run following its quadruple Golden Globes triumph and European Film Awards victory, where it also clinched Best Film, Director, Screenplay and Actress for Gascón.

The movie is currently on six of the 10 announced category shortlists for the 97th the Academy Awards and nominated in 11 categories for the 2025 Baftas film awards.

Further awards seasons hopefuls also featured in the Lumière prizes, with Mati Diop’s Berlinale Golden Bear winner Dahomey – which made it into Best International Feature Film (for Senegal) and Documentary Academy Award shortlists – won Best Documentary.

Latvian director Gints Zilbalodis’s Flow – which is also on...

Exclusive: Studiocanal has revealed a first image for Vincent Maël Cardona’s tense behind-closed-doors thriller No One Will Know as it launches sales on the title at the Unifrance Rendez-Vous in Paris this week.

The huis close follows the clients and bar staff of a shabby cafe outside Paris in the early hours of the morning, who enter into a deadly pact when an elderly regular comes in and wins €294 million in the lottery.

Cardona has gathered a high-profile ensemble cast featuring Pio Marmaï (The Three Musketeers duology and The Ties That Bind Us), Sofiane Zermani (Hunting With Tigers), Panayotis Pascot (Loup Garous), Lucie Zhang and Joseph Olivennes (Magnetic Beats).

They are joined by Pulp Fiction star Maria de Meideros as the bar’s tough-talking, streetwise, eccentric landlady who stumbles in on the dangerous plan, which ultimately send all the participants on a bloody downward spiral.

The...

As is typically the case, France was one of the world’s biggest producers of movies in 2024, debuting a nonstop series of French features ranging from internationally acclaimed indies to locally embraced box office hits. Naturally, it’s the former category that tends to make the crossover to us non-local viewers every year, but this past year saw a particular crossover appeal for the films that made waves at home and saw a ripple effect echo across the seas. 2024 saw no shortage of French auteurs (re)staking their claims over the field, as well as fresh faces looking to earn their glory for the first time.

And while some of these names missed the mark, both old and new (Agathe Riedinger), a country like France could never get to its current position as one of Europe’s most consistent exports of cinema without a heavy supply of names eager to create on a yearly basis,...

The U.S.'s largest animation film festival is heading to New York City next month for the 8th edition of Animation First. This year, Animation First will celebrate the medium with seven feature films and five short film programs, with a special focus on Swiss animation. Boasting the East...

Jacques Audiard’s musical film Emilia Pérez is the frontrunner at the nomination stage for the 30th edition of France’s Lumière awards.

The prizes, which are regarded as the French equivalent of the Golden Globes, will be voted on by members of the international press hailing from 38 countries this year.

They cover 13 categories spanning film, direction, screenplay, actress, actor, female revelation, male revelation, first film, animation, documentary, international co-production, cinematography and music.

Audiard’s Cannes Jury Prize winner Emilia Pérez has clinched six nominations, followed by Boris Lojkine’s Souleymane’s Story, which won the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize this year, and Alain Guiraudie’s Misericordia, with five nominations each.

Other frontrunners with four nominations each, include François Ozon’s When Fall Is Coming and Jonathan Millet’s Ghost Trail.

The winners will be announced in a ceremony at the Forum des images in Paris on January 20, 2025.

The full...

Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Perez has topped the nominations for France’s Lumière Awards.

The French-made, Spanish-language film earned six nominations for best film, director, screenplay, cinematography, music and actress for Karla Sofía Gascón in her starring role as the titular transitioning Mexican drug lord.

The Lumière nominations cap a strong week for Emilia Perez, which garnered 10 nominations for the 2025 Golden Globes,and was the big winner at the European Film Awards with five prizes.

Scroll down for full list of nominees

Boris Lojkine’s Souleymane’s Story, which tracks the daily life of an undocumented Guinean asylum seeker in Paris,...

They say third time’s a charm, and that can be true of our third visit to the Estonian capital city of Tallinn, for the annual Black Nights Film Festival. Taking place every November, HeyUGuys were fortunate enough to be invited back to celebrate all things cinema, in one of our stand-out events of the film calendar.

With the city prepping for the festive period, the wooden shacks in the old town square readying themselves to fill up tourists and locals alike with mulled wine – before the Christmas spirit engulfs the city, comes a festival that offers a uniquely diverse programme of films from around the world, showcasing stories from filmmakers both old and new, from such a myriad of fascinating voices.

Though our stay was sadly somewhat brief, during our four-day visit we still managed to get a flavour of the festival without having an all-encompassing experience, but even during our limited stay,...

The Valladolid International Film Festival, Seminci, will take place for the 69th time this fall, running Oct. 18-26.

To prepare, we’ve scanned the festival’s catalog for ten standout titles that attendees won’t want to miss at this year’s event. Below, we explain why each is a must-see proposition at this year’s Semicni.

“They Will Be Dust,” Carlos Marques-Marcet (Spain)

Opening this year’s festival is Carlos Marques-Marcet’s Toronto Platform winner, “They Will Be Dust.” In this tragicomic musical, a woman diagnosed with a terminal illness decides to go to Switzerland to end her life, accompanied by her partner of 40 years, Flavio. Seminci organizers praise the film as “an unexpected celebration of life itself and of the unconditional love of those who accompany us along the way.”

“Vermiglio,” Maura Delpero

Italy’s submission to the upcoming International Feature Oscar race, Maura Delpero’s intimate epic “Vermiglio,...

Carlos Marques-Marcet’s Toronto-winning musical drama They Will Be Dust, will open the 69th edition of the Valladolid International Film Week, also known as the Seminci, on October 18.

The end of life drama starring Alfredo Castro and Angela Molina won the Platform section at TIFF last month.

Valladolid, headed by José Luis Cienfuegos for a second year, is a key launchpad into the Spanish market for local and international films.

There are a total of 22 titles in the running for the festival’s top prize, the Golden Spike that comes with a €70,000 award for the Spanish distributor. The Silver Spike...

The 16th edition of the Lumière Film Festival kicked off in high style, with a glittering lineup of stars including Benicio del Toro, Tim Burton, Monica Bellucci and Vanessa Paradis plus high-profile directors Costa-Gavras and Giuseppe Tornatore gracing the red carpet in Lyon.

Bellucci, who’s in town to present a new documentary about the stage play in which she portrays Maria Callas, was among the last to take to the red carpet. After taking a few steps, she turned back with a playful gesture as if she had forgotten something, reached through the curtain, and drew out Tim Burton, to the delight of the 5,000-strong crowd: Burton’s unannounced appearance drew massive applause.

The pair famously met and fell in love in Lyon in 2022, when Burton was the recipient of the festival’s lifetime achievement Lumière Award, which was handed to him by Bellucci. The Italian actress has since...

Studiocanal France has revealed the main official French trailer for the film titled The Most Precious of Cargoes, an animated tale from WWII about a Jewish baby rescued by a compassionate Polish woodcutter and his wife. This premiered at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival as one of the final films at the end of the fest. In war-torn times, a poor woodcutter and his wife live in a great forest in Poland. One day, the woman finds and rescues a baby girl, bringing irrevocable change to the lives of the couple, and to those whose paths the child will cross. The story follows a Holocaust-surviving Jewish girl whose father throws her from a moving train heading to Auschwitz who is luckily found and raised by these two people. The voices include Jean-Louis Trintignant as the narrator, Grégory Gadebois as the woodcutter, with Denis Podalydès and Dominique Blanc. The stunning animation is really the star of this,...

The American French Film Festival unveiled the full-line up of its upcoming edition at a press conference at the Résidence de France in Beverly Hills on Wednesday, as the event returns after a one-year hiatus due to the Hollywood strikes.

The 28th edition, running October 29 to November 3 in the Director’s Guild of America Theatre Complex, will showcase 60 films and series, with 14 shorts, 14 Series and TV movies, and 32 feature films and documentaries, many of which are International, North American and U.S. premiere presentations.

As previously announced the event will be book-ended by Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Pérez as the opening film and The Count of Monte Cristo, which will close the event.

The American French Film Festival was created and is produced by the Franco-American Cultural Fund, a collaboration between the Directors Guild of America (DGA), the Motion Picture Association (MPA), France’s Society of Authors, Composers and Publishers...

French-speaking Belgium hit a high-water mark at the Cannes Film Festival in May, with 11 Belgian co-productions claiming accolades and acclaim across the Croisette. Alongside Critics’ Week opener “Ghost Trail” and the Cannes jury and best actress prize-winner “Emilia Pérez,” eight of those co-productions received support from Belgium’s Federation Wallonie-Bruxelles, while just as many shared a proud Francophone voice.

At Venice, industry delegates built on that robust show of force, touting home-grown projects like Fabrice Du Welz’s police thriller “Maldoror” and co-productions like Aude Léa Rapin’s sci-fi drama “Planet B” and Marie Losier’s music doc “Peaches Goes Bananas,” while young producers took to the Lido to forge new partnerships beyond the traditional mold.

“We’re trying to diversify as much as possible,” says French-speaking Belgium’s Cinema and Audiovisual Center director Jeanne Brunfaut. “Though we tend to partner with [other Francophone countries], we want to encourage our producers to look further afield,...

Adding to its new scripted TV offer, France TV Distribution is launching sales on Season 2 of Ocs Signature drama-comedy “The Aerobics Project” (“Toutouyoutou”), a fun, light dramedy set in a 1982 France in thrall of American pop culture, including aerobics.

Created by writing team Maxime Donzel and Géraldine de Margerie as well as David Coujard, the first season of “The Aerobics Project” began with dowdy fortysomething housewife Karine (Claire Dumas), living in Blagnac, a humdrum suburb of Toulouse, southern France, save for being the birthplace of French aeronautics. One day she stumbles open-mouthed on an aerobics class taught be a rangy instructor Jane (aLEXIA Barlier), who’s just arrived from the U.S. and takes a large interest in Project 37, a top-secret program run by Karine’s husband at the local aeronautics company.

By Season 2, Karine has rumbled Jane as an industrial spy, has taken a job at the company and...

Michel Hazanavicius, the Oscar-winning director of “The Artist” whose animated film “The Most Precious of Cargoes” competed at this year’s Cannes and was subject to some backlash due to its depiction of Auschwitz victims, has penned an op-ed denouncing rising antisemitism in France.

Hazanavicius, who is the Jewish son of Holocaust survivors from Eastern Europe, rhetorically asked in French newspaper Le Monde, “Why do I have the impression that more and more people have an issue with the simple fact of addressing the genocide against Jews?”

“Why do I have the impression that as a member of a minority like any other, which has had its share of tragedies, I’ve become a member of the dominant caste, the figurehead of oppression, imperialism and injustice? As if being Jewish had become something really murky, vaguely suspect, possibly detestable. How could I have become so evil in such a short time?...

Oscar-winning director and screenwriter Michel Hazanavicius has voiced his fears over rising antisemitism in a heart-felt opinion piece in France’s Le Monde newspaper.

The French-born director is descended from Jewish grandparents who fled persecution in Lithuania and Poland in the 1920s, making a new life in France, to then find themselves on the run again during World War Two.

The director – whose black and white silent movie The Artist won five Oscars in 2012 – has said in the past that he was raised in a family that identified as Jewish but was not religious.

In his opinion piece, Hazanavicius said that until recently his Jewishness had been just one aspect of his identity, to which he did not give much thought, but this was now changing.

“Why, for some time, do I, who am Jewish among other things, who has never really given a damn, have the impression of being...

Matt Dillon, Alice Diop and Karla Sofia Gascon will bring their springtime spirit to this month’s Nouvelles Vagues Film Festival, now running from June 18 – 23 in Biarritz. Launched last year with the support of Chanel, the nascent festival invites both established and emerging talents to share an expansive vision of youth, hosting a competition dedicated to young adult stories overseen by a jury all under the age of 35.

“Across all sections, this festival shines the spotlight on younger generations and celebrates young characters on screen,” says programing director Lili Hinstin. “We wanted to look to the future through the prism of the next generation, and to interrogate the questions and contemporary issues important to them.”

To that end, this sophomore edition kicked off with the world premiere of “Night Call,” a Brussels-set thriller, taking place over the course of one heated night, foisting an unsuspecting locksmith into a criminal underworld...

After closing out last month’s Cannes competition, Michel Hazanavicius’ “The Most Precious of Cargoes” opened this year’s Annecy Animation Festival on an auspicious note. With French productions accounting for one half of Annecy’s 12 competition slots, the Alpine showcase doubles a show of force for Gallic filmmakers writ large – a fact made all the more impressive given their sector’s relative youth.

“20 years ago, French animation barely existed,” says “The Most Precious of Cargoes” executive producer Valerie Schermann, who credits “Kirikou and the Sorceress” director Michel Ocelot with forging a new path that many have since followed. “Michel showed that it was possible to produce animated features in France; without him I would never have been able to make my own films.”

But if Schermann built a sterling filmography in those ensuing decades – with credits such as “Zarafa,” “Wolfy, the Incredible Secret” and “The Red Turtle” – the stalwart...

Explore Helen Mirren’s Life and Career Helen Mirren’s Height Compared to the Average English Woman Helen Mirren’s Height and Her Love for High Heels Helen Mirren’s Shoe Size Across Different Regions A Glimpse into Dame Helen Mirren’s Illustrious Career Fascinating Facts about the Accomplished Helen Mirren Captivating Wisdom from Helen Mirren: Timeless Quotes to Inspire and Empower Helen Mirren Exudes Royal Elegance at Trumbo Premiere in Suzannah Dress

British actress Helen Mirren dazzled on the red carpet at the 77th Cannes Film Festival in a royal purple amethyst satin gown with a sweeping train at the screening of “La Plus Precieuse Des Marchandises” (The Most Precious Of Cargoes) on May 24, 2024, in Cannes, France (Credit: Abaca Press / INSTARimages)

Helen Mirren’s Height Compared to the Average English Woman

Helen Mirren is reportedly 5 feet 4 inches tall (162.6 cm). This places her at approximately the average height of an English woman.

Joey King has been acting since she was little, but she has never had the opportunity to walk the Cannes red carpet. This year, she finally made a remarkable debut at the Cannes Film Festival, and she left a lasting impression by choosing outfits that showcased her charms.

She was seen on two occasions over the weekend, showing support for the French animated drama film The Most Precious of Cargoes, directed by Michel Hazanavicius, and the Chinese-Hong Kong crime drama She’s Got No Name, starring Zhang Ziyi and Michelle Yeoh, and helmed by Peter Chan.

Joey King showcases two contrasting looks and hairstyles at the 77th Cannes Film Festival (Credit: Abaca Press / Pa / INSTARimages)

See the striking differences between Joey King’s dazzling yellow look and icy princess appearance on the red carpet.

Radiating Old Hollywood Glamour in a Yellow Miu Miu Column Gown

King’s style has indeed changed over the years.

Ioncinema.com’s Chief Film Critic Nicholas Bell reviewed the entire competition and more. Here is a comprehensive guide to all the feature films across all sections, including logged reviews and forthcoming ones. Though Cannes might be over, we still have unpublished reviews that will be released over the next month.

In Competition:

All We Imagine as Light – [Review]

Anora – [Review]

The Apprentice – [Review]

Beating Hearts – [Review]

Bird – [Review]

Caught by the Tides – [Review]

Emilia Pérez – [Review]

The Girl with the Needle – [Review]

Grand Tour – [Review]

Kinds of Kindness – [Review]

Limonov: The Ballad – [Review]

Marcello Mio – [Review]

Megalopolis – [Review]

The Most Precious of Cargoes – [Review]

Motel Destino – [Review]

Oh, Canada – [Review]

Parthenope – [Review]

The Seed of the Sacred Fig – [Review]

The Shrouds – [Review]

The Substance – [Review]

Three Kilometres to the End of the World – [Review]

Wild Diamond – [Review]

Un Certain Regard:

Armand

Black Dog

The Damned – [Review]

Dog on Trial

Flow

Holy Cow – [Review]

The Kingdom

My Sunshine

Niki

Norah

On Becoming a Guinea Fowl

Santosh

September Says

The Shameless

The Story of Souleymane...

On awards day, there is what they call le reprise des films de la Compétition – essentially each film in the comp receives one extra screening for those who might have missed the film, and while our top three films didn’t move, some scores did become official. Rasoulof’s The Seed of the Sacred Fig edged out Kapadia’s All We Iagine as Light but one point, while Schrader’s Oh, Canada technically edged out Arnold’s Bird and Jia Zhangke’s Caught by the Tides if we take into consideration the decimal point differences. Here is the final grades and last chart.

The top 5:

Mohammad Rasoulof’ 3.6

Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine as Light 3.5

Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Pérez 3.4

Sean Baker’s Anora 3.4

Paul Schrader’s Oh, Canada 3.0

Andrea Arnold’s Bird, 3.0

Jia Zhangke’s Caught by the Tides 3.0

Middle of the pack:

Miguel Gomes’ Grand Tour 2.9

Michel...

If an animated film turns up in the Competition at Cannes, chances are it’s not going to be another Bambi — although, if it were made today, the traumatic shooting of Bambi’s mother would certainly tickle the selection committee. No, Cannes prefers its animation to be skewed towards adults, like René Lalou’s surreal sci-fi Fantastic Planet (1973), Robert Taylor’s raunchy sequel The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat (1974) or Ari Folman’s wartime docudrama Waltz with Bashir (2008). And with The Most Precious of Cargoes, actor turned director and now graphic artist Michel Hazanavicius has turned to the most controversial topic it is possible to approach with pen and ink: the Holocaust.

Five long years in the making, Hazanavicius’s adaptation of the 2019 novel by Jean-Claude Grumberg arrives in Cannes two years after the death of its narrator, Jean-Louis Trintignant, and, unfortunately, a year after the debut of Jonathan Glazer...

The Seed Of The Sacred Fig from Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof has swooped to a late victory on Screen’s 2024 Cannes jury grid with an average score of 3.4.

See the final jury grid below.

The Seed Of The Sacred Fig and Michel Hazanavicius’ The Most Precious Of Cargoes were the final two titles to land on the grid, with the latter scoring 1.2, the lowest score this year.

Rasoulof attended last night’s (May 24) Cannes premiere after fleeing his country following an eight-year prison sentence from Iranian authorities. The family drama follows a judge in Tehran’s Revolutionary Court grappling...

Michel Hazanavicius said that when it came to making his Holocaust feature The Most Precious of Cargoes “the question didn’t even arise” when making it animated. “I would never want to make a live film on this.”

The Artist Oscar winner adapted from the Jean-Claude Grumberg novel. The story follows a poor woodcutter and his wife who, once upon a time, lived in a great forest. Cold, hunger, poverty and a war raging all around them meant their lives were very hard. One day, the woodcutter’s wife rescues a baby girl thrown from one of the many trains that constantly pass through the forest.

Some critics have taken umbrage with the Cannes Competition title and its approach to its portrayal of horrifying scenes. The Screen Daily review wrote, “The worst decision comes in a late sequence showing still, stylized black and white images of the faces of the...

Preity Zinta attended the 77th edition of the Cannes Film Festival. She dazzled in a pink-coloured saree as she arrived for the screening of the film ‘La Plus Precieuse des Marchandises’ (The Most Precious of Cargoes).

Preity looked stunning in a Seema Gujral-designed, embellished saree. Describing her look as “simple yet with a little bit of sparkle,” Preity expressed her excitement about being at the Cannes Film Festival after a long time.

However, another thing that caught people’s attention was her accent when she spoke at the event. People on social media platforms questioned why she was using a “fake accent”.

Preity Zinta made her Cannes debut in 2006 and later returned to the festival as a brand ambassador for a watch brand.

Queen is here ! Slaying the #Cannes2024 red carpet with her sparkle ✨️ #PreityZinta #CannesFilmFestival pic.twitter.com/492qVHYV99

— Preity Zinta Fandom (@PZ_Fandom) May 25, 2024

View this post on...

The Artist Oscar winner Michel Hazanavicius returned to the Cannes Competition this evening with animated fairy tale feature The Most Precious of Cargoes. The warm applause for the film inside the Grand Théâtre Lumière went on for 10 minutes.

Coming in at a tight 81 minutes, it’s the final Competition film to premiere this year.

Hazanavicius applauded during ‘The Most Precious of Cargoes’ ovation #Cannes2024 pic.twitter.com/3TWoUBF6V9

— Deadline Hollywood (@Deadline) May 24, 2024

The voice cast includes the late Jean-Louis Trintignant, Grégory Gadebois, Dominique Blanc and Denis Podalydès.

Hazanavicius wrote the script for The Most Precious of Cargoes, which is based on the novel by Jean-Claude Grumberg. The story centers on a poor woodcutter and his wife who, once upon a time, lived in a great forest. Cold, hunger, poverty and a war raging all around them meant their lives were very hard.

One day, the woodcutter’s wife rescues...

Of all the films premiering at Cannes this year, “The Most Precious of Cargoes” is both an anomaly (the first animated feature to compete for the Palme d’Or since “Persepolis” in 2007) and the most likely to become a classic. Blending the heavy lines of early-20th-century woodcuts with the gentle pastels of watercolor painting, “The Artist” director Michel Hazanavicius finds a poignant way to address not only the horrors of the Holocaust, but the kindness that combated it, crafting an indelible parable destined to be watched and shared by generations to come.

The polar opposite of “The Zone of Interest,” his hand-drawn adaptation of the slender but impactful novel by Jean-Claude Grumberg engages audiences at the gut, rather than in some abstract intellectual way. It focuses on neither the culprits nor the victims, but average folk who tried to remain neutral — as if such a thing were possible — until...

Competing for Cannes’ top prize, The Most Precious of Cargoes deploys animation to tell a semi-contemporary fairy tale about a lost baby girl who is thrown from a train bound for Auschwitz and found in the snow by a childless woodcutter’s wife. It’s the latest feature by French filmmaker Michel Hazanavicius, who’s been a favorite of the Cannes programmers ever since his cinephile- and crowd-pleasing serio-comic pastiche The Artist (2011) broke him onto the international stage, going on to scoop up awards — including a best picture Oscar — and box-office records (for a near-silent film, at least) worldwide.

Sadly, Hazanavicius’ subsequent films haven’t enjoyed the same success. This latest effort, however, might just be his most commercially viable in a while since Holocaust films nearly always travel. Its portability is only enhanced by it being animated, making it easy to dub this for different territories. If nothing else,...

From politics to buzz films, star appearances and deal making, there was – as always – plenty to talk about at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Screen gathers together the major discussion points of this year’s festival.

Muted politics

In the build-up to Cannes, there was much talk about how this year’s festival was set to be the most politically charged edition of recent years, amid Israel’s war on Gaza, festival workers threatening strike action and rumours of bombshell #MeToo accusations set to rock the French industry. The result was far more muted, with the #MeToo accusations quickly...

Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine As Light joins Sean Baker’s Anora at the top of Screen’s Cannes jury grid while Gilles Lellouche’s Beating Hearts lands bottom of the pack.

Kapadia’s debut fiction scored 3.3 from the critics including six four stars (excellent), equalling that of Anora. The Indian drama, the first from the country to compete at Cannes in over 30 years, received a further four three stars (good) and two two stars (average).

Click on the image above for the most up-to-date version of the grid.

All We Imagine As Light centres on two nurses with...

Michel Hazanavicius, the Oscar-winning director of “The Artist,” makes a first foray into animation with “The Most Precious of Cargoes” which world premieres at the Cannes Film Festival on May 24. Adapted from Jean-Claude Grumberg’s bestselling novel, “The Most Precious of Cargoes” is the first animated feature to vie for a Palme d’Or since Ari Folman’s “Waltz With Bashir” in 2008; and it will be the last movie watched by the competition jury, presided over by Greta Gerwig, before the closing ceremony.

Hazanavicius developed the project for years and wrote the script with Grumberg, as well as created the drawings. Oscar-winning composer Alexandre Desplat created the original score. The drama intertwines the fate of a Jewish family, including newborn twins, deported to Auschwitz, with that of a poor and childless woodcutter couple living deep in a Polish forest. On the train to the death camp, the young father wraps...

Paris production house Agat Films – Ex Nihilo, which has six films in Cannes, is now in various stages of production on six more titles including Robert Guedigian’s drama Stealing Angel, starring Ariane Ascaride and Jean-Paul Darroussin that is in post. Playtime is handling sales.

Agat Films- Ex Nihilo are separate entities operating under the same banner. “We are a house of auteur cinema,” said producer Nicolas Blanc. “We are at the service of auteurs – we like what they think, what they say and how they say it.”

International titles in the works include Thierry Machado’s Inuit -language Yura,...

Animated feature “Flow,” selected for Cannes’ Un Certain Regard, has debuted an exclusive image and it’s purr-fect.

In the dialogue-free film, a flood is coming, quickly devouring everything on its way: including Cat’s home. There is no human in sight, but luckily, he finds refuge on a boat full of other animals. Together, they silently sail through the cat-astrophe.

Directed by Latvia’s Gints Zilbalodis, “Flow” is produced by Sacrebleu Productions, Dream Well Studio and Take Five. Charades handles sales.

“All the films I’ve made before didn’t have any dialogues either. I think it’s my strength: telling stories through images rather than words,” said the man in question, admitting that “Flow” was always supposed to be “visually driven.”

“All the characters are animals and we wanted them to behave like animals, to keep it grounded this way. It’s not a Disney film. I can...

Studiocanal has unveiled the first clip of Michel Hazanavicius’s “The Most Precious of Cargoes,” an allegorical hand-drawn animated feature which is competing at the Cannes Film Festival. The first animated film to vie for a Palme d’Or since Ari Folman’s “Waltz With Bashir” in 2008, “The Most Precious of Cargoes” is adapted from Jean-Claude Grumberg’s bestselling novel of the same name.

Set during World War II against the backdrop of the Holocaust,” the film has been developed by Hazanavicius, the Oscar-winning filmmaker behind “The Artist,” for many years.Hazanavicius penned the script with Grumberg and created the drawings, with Oscar-winning composer Alexandre Desplat providing the score.

The drama intertwines the fate of a Jewish family, including newborn twins, deported to Auschwitz, with that of a poor and childless woodcutter couple living deep in a Polish forest. On the train to the death camp, the young father wraps...

Update 8 Am Pt: Studiocanal has now unveiled Sara Reese Geffroy as SVP of its nascent Studiocanal Stories label and TV series development.

She will run the French major’s new literary adaptations division, which was unveiled earlier today, while also supervising the development of Studiocanal TV series. She has held the VP Development TV series role for the past three years.

Geffroy will start on May 1 and report into new Studiocanal TV boss M-k Kennedy and Ron Halpern, EVP Global Production and Talent Management.

Studiocanal CEO Anna Marsh said Geffroy’s “knowledge of the sales and production roles, as well as her trusted relationships with the production companies which form part of the Studiocanal ecosystem, are major assets to achieve our ambitions in the franchise and adaptations market.”

Previous: Studiocanal is pushing further into TV and film adaptations of literary IP.

The Canal+-owned company has launched Studiocanal Stories, two...

European production and distribution group StudioCanal has launched a new label, StudioCanal Stories, focused on book-to-screen adaptations. The outfit will be the first of its kind in France and follows StudioCanal’s creation of a dedicated literary adaptation division in 2022.

Unveiling the new label Monday, StudioCanal pointed to the success of book adaptations, citing figures from a study last year by France’s Centre National du Livre (Cnl) that found 42 percent of the top 100 most successful films at the U.S. box office were literary adaptations. The figure for France was 44 percent and, according to the study, the production of literary adaptations for French film and TV has jumped nearly 30 percent over the period from 2015 to 2021.

StudioCanal is bringing two of its latest adaptations: Gilles Lellouche’s Beating Hearts, an adaptation of Neville Thompson’s 2000 novel Jackie Loves Johnser Ok?; and Michel Hazanavicius’ The Most Precious of Cargoes to competition...

The full Cannes Film Festival competition jury has been revealed.

Joining president Greta Gerwig to award this year’s Palme d’Or will be “Killers of the Flower Moon” Oscar nominee Lily Gladstone; “The Three Musketeers” star Eva Green; “Lupin” lead Omar Sy; Ebru Ceylan, who co-wrote the 2014 Palme d’Or winner “Winter Sleep”; director Nadine Labaki, whose “Capernaum” won the Cannes jury prize in 2018; director Juan Antonio Bayona, whose latest film “Society of the Snow” was Oscar-nominated for best international feature; Italian actor Pierfrancesco Favino, who will next appear in Pablo Larraìn’s “Maria” alongside Angelina Jolie; and director Kore-eda Hirokazu, director of the 2018 Palme d’Or winner “Shoplifters.”

The competition lineup for the upcoming festival includes “All We Imagine as Light” by Payal Kapadia; Sean Baker’s “Anora”; Donald Trump biopic “The Apprentice” from Ali Abbasi; Andrea Arnold’s “Bird,” starring Barry Keoghan and Franz Rogowski; “Caught by the Tides...

The official website for the upcoming 48th Annecy International Animation Film Festival has revealed 12 films to compete in this year's official selection of feature films. The lineup includes four Japanese film — Ghost Cat Anzu (French-Japanese co-production) directed by Yoko Kuno, Nobuhiro Yamashita, The Colors Within directed by Naoko Yamada, Totto-Chan: The Little Girl at the Window directed by Shinnosuke Yakuwa, and The Imaginary by Yoshiyuki Momose. The 2024 Annecy International Animation Film Festival Official Selection - Feature films Into the Wonderwoods by Vincent Paronnaud, Alexis Ducard / France, Luxembourg Flow by Gints Zilbalodis / Latvia, Belgium, France Ghost Cat Anzu by Yoko Kuno, Nobuhiro Yamashita / Japan, France The Colors Within by Naoko Yamada / Japan The Most Precious of Cargoes by Michel Hazanavicius / Belgium, France Totto-Chan: The Little Girl at the Window by Shinnosuke Yakuwa / Japan Memoir of a Snail by Adam Elliot / Australia Rock Bottom by María Trénor / Spain, Poland Sauvages by Claude Barras / Switzerland,...