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In the end, Emilia Pérez went two for 13. Jacques Audiard’s unclassifiable Mexican cartel transgender musical went into the 97th Academy Awards as the theoretical frontrunner. It’s 13 nominations — for best picture, director, actress, supporting actress, adapted screenplay, international feature, cinematography, film editing, makeup/hairstyling, original score, sound and two for original song — were the most ever for a non-English-language film, beating the 10 noms each for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Roma, and within touching distance of the all-time record held by All About Eve, Titanic and La La Land, which earned 14 each.

But when the votes were counted, Emilia Pérez walked away with just two awards: A best supporting actress nod for Zoe Saldaña and the best original song honor for “El Mal.”

We all know why. Emilia Pérez suffered the most spectacular derailing of an Oscar campaign in recent memory. There was just a week between the Jan.

The April 25 decision by the New York Court of Appeals to overturn Harvey Weinstein’s felony sex crime conviction looked like a major blow to the #MeToo movement in the U.S. and to the progress made within the U.S. film industry since 2017 (when the first allegations against Weinstein were made public).

In France, they are still waiting for that first wave of progress. The outrage triggered by #MeToo echoed across la grande nation — it even spawned a French counterpart, #Balancetonporc, or “Expose Your Pig” — but, until very recently, efforts to challenge the structure of the French entertainment industry came to very little.

That, it seems, is changing. U.S.-style measures, including the use of intimacy coordinators for sex scenes or chaperones to supervise the treatment of minors, are slowly becoming standard practice on French movie sets. #MeToo is “really at the center of our discussion now, in...

Now that the noise has subsided, were there any helpful takeaways from the Oscars?

If you ask the leaders of A24, the distributor that swept six categories, their answer would be the same as it was six years ago when Moonlight was the surprise winner. “Can’t think of a thing to say,” is what they said.

Related Story Oscars Analysis: First-Timers Lift Spirits And Emotions In Ceremony That Was Old-School Academy Awards In A Good Way Related Story 'Everything Everywhere All At Once', 'The Boys' Top Critics Choice Super Awards Related Story A24 Acquires Talking Heads 1984 Concert Film 'Stop Making Sense', Will Restore In 4K For Theatrical Release

A24 likes to surround its victories with the sounds of silence, as they made numbingly clear when last I had a sit-down with them (they resist sit-downs: more below).

But there were, in fact, some questions...

Des hommes

Belgium’s Lucas Belvaux has assembled one of his highest profile casts in some time with his latest feature Des hommes (Home Front), which reunites him with his Une Trilogy (2002) stars Catherine Frot and Jean-Pierre Darroussin who will be joined by Gerard Depardieu and Yoann Zimmer. Produced by David Frenkel and Patrick Quinet, Belvaux employs Bruno Dumont’s recent favored Dp Guillaume Deffontaines to lens. Belvaux, a five-time Cesar nominee competed in Cannes with his 2006 title The Right of the Weakest.…...

Early 2019 slate also includes Sundance selection ‘Midnight Traveler’.

Doc & Film International will kick-off sales on Belgian filmmaker Lucas Belvaux’s upcoming Algerian War legacy drama Des Hommes, co-starring Gérard Depardieu and Catherine Frot, at the Unifrance Rendez-vous with French Cinema in Paris next week (Jan 17-21).

Based on the eponymous novel of Laurent Mauvignier, Depardieu co-stars as the tortured, alcoholic figure of Feu-de-Bois, a brutish troublemaker haunted by a tough childhood and the horrors he saw as a young French soldier in Algeria during the country’s 1954-62 independence war.

The story unfolds some 40 years later in remote Burgundy region...

Early 2019 slate also includes Sundance selection ‘Midnight Traveler’.

Doc & Film International will kick-off sales on Belgian filmmaker Lucas Belvaux’s upcoming Algerian War legacy drama Des Hommes, co-starring Gérard Depardieu and Catherine Frot, at the Unifrance Rendez-vous with French Cinema in Paris next week (Jan 17-21).

Based on the eponymous novel of Laurent Mauvignier, Depardieu co-stars as the tortured, alcoholic figure of Feu-de-Bois, a brutish troublemaker haunted by a tough childhood and the horrors he saw as a young French soldier in Algeria during the country’s 1954-62 independence war.

The story unfolds some 40 years later in remote Burgundy region...

David Frenkel‬ on Claude Lanzmann: "He has like a sixth sense. I think that was maybe the most powerful tool when he was interviewing people during Shoah." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

In the second half of my conversation with the producer of Claude Lanzmann's The Last Of The Unjust and The Four Sisters (Les Quatre Soeurs) at the Film Society of Lincoln Center during the New York Film Festival in 2017 David Frenkel shared with me some insight on Ada Lichtman in La Puce Joyeuse (The Merry Flea), Paula Biren in Baluty, Ruth Elias in Le Serment d'Hippocrate (The Hippocratic Oath), and Hanna Marton in L'arche De Noé (Noah's Ark).

The interviews of the four women were conducted by Lanzmann in the 1970s. Each one bringing to light the in-depth testimony of a remarkable woman who survived unspeakable horrors during the Third Reich. Their strength, their dignity and even joyfulness - their embrace of life,...

‪Claude Lanzmann‬'s Les Quatre Soeurs (The Four Sisters) clockwise from top left - Ruth Elias in Le Serment d'Hippocrate (The Hippocratic Oath); Hanna Marton in L'arche De Noé (Noah's Ark); Ada Lichtman in La Puce Joyeuse (The Merry Flea); Paula Biren in Baluty

During the 55th New York Film Festival in 2017, Claude Lanzmann presented the World Premiere of The Four Sisters (Les Quatre Soeurs) in the Special Events programme. At Lincoln Center prior to the public screenings, I spoke with David Frenkel, the producer of the four films, edited by Chantal Hymans. Frenkel is also a producer for The Last of the Unjust with Jean Labadie, Kurt Stocker, and Danny Krausz (Maria Schrader's Stefan Zweig: Farewell To Europe).

‪David Frenkel‬: "What's great working with Claude is that he always surprises you. It was the same with The Last of the Unjust and Benjamin Murmelstein. He was so striking.

‪Claude Lanzmann‬ Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Claude Lanzmann, the director of the documentaries Shoah, The Last Of The Unjust, Napalm, and The Four Sisters (Les Quatre Soeurs) passed away in Paris on the morning of July 5, 2018.

During last year's New York Film Festival Claude Lanzmann and I had a brief exchange at Lincoln Center when he was presenting The Four Sisters (Les Quatre Soeurs). He had heard earlier from his producer David Frenkel, with whom I had an in-depth conversation on the films, how deeply moved I was. Lanzmann walked up to me and gave me a big hug before he introduced The Hippocratic Oath (Le Serment d'Hippocrate), his unforgettable documentary on Ruth Elias.

Arnaud Desplechin sent the following tribute (translated below) from Paris in honour of Claude Lanzmann:-

"Ce matin, mon maitre est mort. Si je suis devenu le spectateur que je suis, c’est à la suite de la première sortie en.

Agreement is Arte Distribution’s first ever theatrical deal.

Source: Arte

The Four Sisters

Arte Distribution, the sales arm of pan-European broadcaster Arte, has sold North American rights to Claude Lanzmann’s holocaust survivor documentary The Four Sisters to the Cohen Media Group (Cmg).

The deal marks a first foray into theatrical film sales for Arte Distribution, which normally focuses on sales of the Arte catalogue to broadcasters and streaming platforms worldwide.

“This is actually our first theatrical deal,” Céline Payot-Lehmann, head of distribution at Arte, told Screen. “We plan indeed on taking on only a few prestigious films a year co-produced by Arte for theatrical and festival audiences.”

Payot-Lehmann negotiated the deal with John Kochman, executive vice president of Cmg.

The Four Sisters consists of a quartet or remastered films, originally intended for Lanzmann’s epic work Shoah.

It revolves around four Holocaust survivors with unique destinies, each finding herself unexpectedly and improbably alive after the end of...

Politics drama that upset France’s Front National party to market premiere at Rendez-vous with French cinema.

The French release of Lucas Belvaux’s populist politics drama This Is Our Land (Chez Nous) will go ahead as planned in February and without cuts in the face of fierce criticism from France’s far-right Front National (Fn) party, distributor Jean Labadie of Paris-based Le Pacte has vowed.

The Belgian director’s film has been in the eye of a political storm this week following the release of the first trailer on Dec 30, ahead of its scheduled Feb 22 release.

Le Pacte’s international sales team will hold buyers-only screening at Unifrance’s Rendez-vous with French Cinema in Paris next week. It will get its festival world premiere at the International Film Festival Rotterdam at the end of this month.

“The film will be released in February as planned and in its current form. There will be...