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In theory, a modern, feminist or at least feminine update of a cult softcore classic by an award-winning filmmaker does not necessarily sound like a bad idea. But theory is one thing, while practice can be something entirely else, even if the filmmaker has a clear vision of what she is doing. In the case of Audrey Diwan and her reading of Emmanuelle, which premiered as the San Sebastian opener and now struggles to get bookings on the festival circuit, it seems that she and her co-writer Rebecca Zlotowski did not have the vaguest idea. We were lucky or unlucky enough to catch the film at the late screening at Zagreb Film Festival.

For those who were born too late or are completely uninterested in the history of porn, let us quickly recap the phenomenon of Emmanuelle. It started with a 1967 erotic novel by Emmanuelle Arsan that quickly spawned...

Exclusive: It takes a certain kind of confidence to take a finished indie film to market with no presales, but if that completed film is a $24 million Spanish-language musical directed by a French auteur about a Mexican cartel leader that transitions from male to female, you’d better hope your sales agent has a backbone of steel and the experience to deliver.

Enter The Veterans co-founders Vincent Maraval and Kim Fox, who both arrived at this year’s Cannes Film Festival tasked with selling Emilia Pérez, the genre-defying musical from festival darling Jacques Audiard, which was competing for the Palme d’Or with just one key territory sale to France (Pathé) on the balance sheet.

“We knew it would be difficult to presell quickly because there were so many obstacles,” Maraval tells Deadline of the Zoe Saldaña, Selena Gomez and Karla Sofia Gascón-led project. “Initial feedback from some distributors...

A sprawling and shrewdly curated institution that has struggled to gain the foothold it deserves on the euro-centric festival circuit, the Tokyo International Film Festival — Aka the other TIFF — has long been something that IndieWire has wanted sufficient reason to cover.

Similar to the New York Film Festival in some ways, one of TIFF’s predominant functions has been to bring the best of world cinema to its hometown audience, a function that it’s fulfilling better than ever before with a 2024 slate that’s highlighted by the Japanese premieres of films like Jesse Eisenberg’s “A Real Pain,” Ridley Scott’s “Gladiator II,” and Audrey’s Diwan’s “Emmanuelle”.

Since we’ve already covered such films by the time they screen in Ginza or Yurakucho, our interest has been more focused on the festival’s International Competition and Asian Future sections, which offer a raft of compelling premieres from Japan and around the world.

French actress Christine Boisson, who got her big-screen break as a 17-year-old in Emmanuelle, has died at the age of 68 in Paris.

Boisson had just left school and was still a minor when Just Jaeckin cast her in his 1974 erotic classic as the sexually adventurous teenager Marie-Ange, who introduces Emmanuelle (Sylvia Kristel) to the shady libertine figure of Mario.

After being cast in a handful of smaller roles purely on the basis of her physique, Boisson decided to go back to school and studied acting at France’s prestigious Conservatoire.

On completing the three-year course, she refused to take on roles where the principal consideration for the casting was her physique.

Deadline Related Video:

Over the course of her 40-year career, Boisson ratcheted up more than 50 film credits including Michelangelo Antonioni’s Identification of a Woman (1984), Daniel Schmid’s Jenatsch (1987), Jacques Bral’s Exterior, Night, Yves Boisset’s Radio Rave...

She’s coming off a career-best with Other People’s Children (2022 Venice Film Festival selection) and recently was one of the scribes on Audrey Diwan’s Emmanuelle, Rebecca Zlotowski is confirmed to be in production on her sixth feature – one that might be about couplehood and might be (as we reported a while back) an erotic thriller. After Cineuropa mentioned that veteran actor (and director) Daniel Auteuil was to topline the project, we now have the confirmation that Jodie Foster will indeed star in Vie Privée (formerly titled Nous étions deux). Production began this month on a screenplay co-written by Zlotowski, Anne Berest and Gaëlle Macé.…...

While Europe has always lured Hollywood filmmakers, there are more opportunities today for transatlantic collaborations due to a number of factors, according to leading European industry reps taking part in the Zurich Summit on Saturday.

Outlining the many advantages and unique opportunities Europe offers at the Zurich Film Festival’s industry forum were Goodfellas’ Vincent Maraval, Mediawan Pictures CEO Elisabeth d’Arvieu, Constantin exec Martin Bachmann, Fremantle’s Christian Vesper and Karl Spoerri of Zurich Avenue.

While collaborations have always existed between the European industry and American filmmakers who wanted to do different kinds of films, the current situation has created more opportunities, Maraval said.

U.S. studios are becoming “more and more conservative,” he pointed out, adding that for creators today who feel frustrated or are looking for more freedom and more creativity, it’s easier to travel and work elsewhere.

It’s also becoming increasingly expensive to shoot Stateside,...

Hello Insiders. Jesse Whittock here to take you through a week in international TV and film that comes from as far and wide apart as Spain and Indonesia. Read on.

San Sebastian Spotlight

Johnny Depp at the San Sebastian Film Festival

In-Depp analysis: Spain’s San Sebastian Film Festival closes tomorrow, ending what many people on the ground described as one of the event’s strongest lineups in recent years. The festival opened with a bang with Audrey Diwan’s erotic remake Emmanuelle, but that film received mediocre reviews in Spain. Deadline’s Stephanie Bunbury was a little more generous, and described the flick as a “brave attempt.” There was a lot more love for the other big world premiere in San Sebastian — Johnny Depp’s second directorial effort, Modi — Three Days On The Wing Of Madness. The period flick debuted out of competition here in San Sebastian, where Depp...

The Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) unveiled its program for 2024, featuring a diverse selection of films and starting a new initiative to promote women in cinema. Running from October 28 to November 6, the festival continues to grow as a major event in Asian film.

A key part of this year’s festival is the Main Competition, with 15 films vying for top awards. World premieres in the competition include “Big World” from Chinese director Yang Lina, Philip Yung’s “Papa” out of Hong Kong, and “The Englishman’s Papers” by Portuguese filmmaker Sergio Graciano. A jury led by renowned Hong Kong actor Tony Leung will judge the films.

Another important element is the new Women’s Empowerment Section, created with the Tokyo Metropolitan Government. Programmer Andrijana Cvetkovikj curated nine movies that highlight female directors or stories. One selection is “My Favourite Cake” by banned Iranian directors Maryam Moghaddam and Behtash Sanaeeha, who...

The Tokyo International Film Festival revealed its full 2024 lineup on Wednesday, including its main competition program and the Asian Future section for emerging regional filmmakers, as well as the all-new Women’s Empowerment section, which highlights nine films directed by women or involving female-focussed stories.

Tokyo’s 15-title main competition reveals a preference for securing world premieres over previously shown titles by established festival names. There are eight world premieres in the section — including Big World and My Friend An Delie by China’s Yang Lina and Dong Zijian, respectively; Papa from Hong Kong’s Philip Yung; The Englishman’s Papers from Portugal’s Sergio Graciano; and three Japanese features, among others (see full lineup below). Additional highlights include the international premiere of Midi Z’s The Unseen Sister and Huang Xi’s recent Toronto Film Festival entry Daughter’s Daughter, starring Sylvia Chang.

As previously announced, the competition titles will...

Tokyo International Film Festival has announced its full line-up including its main international and Asian Future competitions, as well as the nine films selected for its Women’s Empowerment Section.

The new female-focused section will screen Iranian drama My Favourite Cake, directed by Maryam Moghaddam and Behtash Sanaeeha, who are banned from travelling by the Iranian authorities and were unable to attend the film’s premiere in Berlin.

Other titles in the Women’s Empowerment Section include Turkish director Ceylan Ozgun Ozcelik’s In Ten Seconds; Hong Kong filmmaker Oliver Chan’s Montages Of A Motherhood; Memories Of A Burning Body, from Costa Rica’s Antonella Sudasassi Furniss; and the world premiere of Japanese director Naoki Tamura’s Doctor-x The Movie, among other titles.

Co-hosted with Tokyo Metropolitan Government, the Women’s Empowerment Section is programmed by Andrijana Cvetkovikj and focuses on films directed by female filmmakers and/or with female-focused narratives.

Partway through “Emmanuelle,” the French filmmaker Audrey Diwan’s third feature, a sleazy producer strikes up a conversation with the title character in a hotel spa. “Only two types of guests frequent luxury hotels,” he purrs to Emmanuelle, “those on the prowl and those on the run.”

The fact that Emmanuelle (a simmering Noémie Merlant) is of the former type is one of the foundational principles of this sporadically sexy, frequently aloof, and occasionally ridiculous movie, which marks something of a departure for Diwan. Like her excellent character study “Happening” — about a woman seeking an abortion in midcentury France — “Emmanuelle” is again a literary adaptation, although that’s about where the similarities end. The new film is based on Emmanuelle Arsan’s 1967 novel, which in 1974 spawned a very different adaptation: a soft-core porn phenomenon of the same name.

In readapting the book, Diwan — who was approached to make the movie...

The 1974 romantic drama Emmanuelle caused quite a stir upon its release. Based on an erotic novel, the film featured explicit love scenes that were virtually unprecedented for mainstream cinema at the time. Starring a young Sylvia Kristel, Emmanuelle told the sexually liberated story of a woman discovering intimacy in Thailand alongside her husband. It proved a massive box office hit and cultural talking point, ostensibly helping to normalize depiction of female sexuality on screen.

Fast forward several decades, and French filmmaker Audrey Diwan took on reviving the property. Fresh off her acclaimed drama Happening about the 1960s abortion battle, Diwan set out to bring Emmanuelle into the modern era. This new version casts Noémie Merlant as the title character, now recast as a quality inspector for luxury hotels. Her latest assignment brings her to Hong Kong, where she finds herself drawn to both women and men.

With its stylish visuals...

Audrey Diwan: «El movimiento Me Too nos ha permitido encontrar nuestro propio espacio» © Ssiff

La 72 edición del Festival Internacional de Cine de San Sebastián abrió ayer sus puertas con la proyección de la película Emmanuelle, dirigida por la cineasta francesa Audrey Diwan. Basada en la novela homónima de Marayat Rollet-Andriane, más conocida por el sudónimo de Emmanuelle Arsan, la película regresa casi cinco décadas después de su icónica adaptación de 1974, la cual estuvo prohibida en España bajo el régimen franquista (y también en muchos otros países). Ahora, en un contexto muy diferente, esta nueva versión a manos de Diwan se presenta como la película inaugural de la Sección Oficial en Donostia, y lo hace con la promesa de generar debate.

El equipo de la película desfiló ayer por la alfombra roja de San Sebastián para acompañar su estreno. Entre ellos, la directora Audrey Diwan, cuyo último largometraje, El acontecimiento,...

On paper, a contemporary feminist spin on “Emmanuelle” sounds like a zesty idea. An ostensible portrait of liberated female sexuality firmly ossified in patriarchal politics, Just Jaeckin’s 1974 softcore smash is the kind of cultural touchstone so emblematic of its era that the very act of remaking it qualifies as a symbolic statement of sorts. In practice, however, “Emmanuelle” is a text so flimsy that reworking it is a bit like trying to defibrillate a blancmange: There’s no pulse of an idea there to activate, much less subvert. Saying something freshly substantive about female desire while honoring the film’s defining spirit of vapid, diaphanous horniness is a tricky, potentially unworkable brief; Audrey Diwan’s inert, frequently frigid new film opts to do neither.

Opening this year’s San Sebastian festival on a tepid note, “Emmanuelle” can only be regarded as a disappointment from Diwan, the writer-director who landed...

Neuverfilmung des Skandalromans von Emmanuelle Arsan, in dem eine junge Frau in Asien lernt, ihre Sexualität auszuleben und sich zu nehmen, was sie braucht.

Fast Facts:

• Neuverfilmung des Skandalromans von Emmanuelle Arsan aus dem Jahr 1967

• Das Original von 1974 mit Sylvia Kristel gilt als Klassiker des Erotikfilms

• „Emmanuelle“ kam in Deutschland auf 4,0 Mio. Ticketverkäufe

• Erste Regiearbeit von Audrey Diwan seit ihrem Goldener-Löwe-Gewinner „Das Ereignis“ von 2021

• Diwan schrieb das Drehbuch mit der renommierten Filmemacherin Rebecca Zlotowski

• Hauptdarstellerin Noémie Merlant ist seit „Porträt einer jungen Frau in Flammen“ schwer angesagt

• Weltpremiere als Eröffnungsfilm im Wettbewerb des 72. San Sebastián International Film Festival

• Kinostart ins Frankreich und in Spanien am 25. Bzw. 27. September

Credits:

Land / Jahr: Frankreich 2024; Laufzeit: 117 Minuten; Regie: Audrey Diwan; Drehbuch: Audrey Diwan, Rebecca Zlotowski; Besetzung: Noémie Merlant, Naomi Watts, Will Sharpe, Jamie Campbell-Bower; Verleih: Wild Bunch

Review:

Was nicht alles geschrieben wurde über „Emmanuelle“, den ersten Film von Audrey Diwan nach ihrem Gewinn...

Mit der Weltpremiere von Audrey Diwans „Emmanuelle“ wurde das 72. San Sebastián International Film Festival eröffnet. Als besonderer Höhepunkt bekam Javier Bardem endlich den Donostia Award überreicht, den er vor einem Jahr hätte erhalten sollen, dann aber wegen des Schauspielerstreiks nicht vor Ort sein durfte.

Noémie Merlant auf dem Roten Teppich in San Sebastián (Credit: Pablo Gómez / Ssiff)

Mehr als 200 Filme werden gezeigt auf dem diesjährigen San Sebastián International Film Festival, die 72. Ausgabe des spanischen A-Festivals. Es gab großen Starauftrieb, weil zum einen „Emmanuelle“ von Audrey Diwan Weltpremiere feierte und neben der Regisseurin/Autorin auch ihre Stars Noémie Merlant, Will Sharpe, Jamie Campbell Bower und Chacha Huang angereist waren, zum anderen die verspätete Übergabe des Donostia Awards – die höchste Auszeichnung des Festivals – an Javier Bardem stattfand. Eigentlich hatte er den Preis schon im vergangenen Jahr erhalten sollen. Wegen des Schauspielerstreiks war es dem spanischen Star allerdings unmöglich gewesen, vor Ort zu sein und die Auszeichnung entgegenzunehmen.

It’s a surprise to find out that director Audrey Diwan had never seen the original Emmanuelle — a gauzy soft-porn feature that got la toute France hot and bothered when it was allowed to be shown in normal cinemas in 1974 — before she was approached to do this remake, which opens the San Sebastian Film Festival in Competition. In its day, Emmanuelle spawned a string of sequels, each reputedly worse than its predecessors, while star Sylvia Kristel became so immediately famous for taking off her clothes that the expectation blighted her entire career. It also made a huge amount of money.

But what’s most surprising about the fact that Diwan — who made The Happening, which won the Golden Lion in Venice three years ago — had not seen Just Jaeckin’s then-so-scandalous film is that this one seems to be constructed as an answer to it. Both are based on Emmanuelle Arsan’s pseudonymous 1967 novel,...

The 72nd San Sebastian Film Festival is underway after the world premiere of Audrey Diwan’s racy flick Emmanuelle kicked off the festivities in Spain.

The film, which boasts stars such as Noémie Merlant (Portrait of a Lady on Fire), Naomi Watts (Mullholland Drive, Birdman), Will Sharpe (The White Lotus) and Jamie Campbell Bower (Stranger Things), is inspired by Emmanuelle Arsan’s erotic novel. Chacha Huang and Anthony Wong round out the cast, all of whom, barring Watts, appeared briefly onstage before the showing at the city’s Kursaal Theater.

The director’s project centers around a woman, Emmanuelle (Merlant), on a business trip to Hong Kong working with a luxury hotel group. Searching for a lost pleasure, she seeks her arousal in experiences with some of the hotel’s guests. One of them, Kei (Sharpe), seems to constantly elude her. Diwan has said the script was conceived as an...

Spanish national treasure Javier Bardem became emotional Friday night as he gushed over his wife, Penélope Cruz, while accepting his Donostia Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2024 San Sebastian Film Festival.

Bardem, who has had starring roles in Dune: Part Two, No Country for Old Men — which bagged him an Academy Award — and Skyfall, among myriad celebrated Spanish projects like Huevos de Oro and El detective y la muerte, accepted the award from his siblings, Monica and Carlos Bardem, who paid tribute to their brother at the Kursaal Theater during the opening night gala.

Bardem referenced his Silver Shell win for best actor 30 years ago, nearly to the day, in 1994. “It was the beginning of a great friendship with this beautiful film festival that has given so much to me personally and professionally,” the actor said.

“San Sebastian is a place where 30 years ago I won an award that I still...

French director Audrey Diwan is opening the San Sebastian Film Festival this evening with third feature Emmanuelle, in the company of its star Noémie Merlant and supporting cast members Will Sharpe, Chacha Huang and Jamie Campbell Bower.

Diwan, who won Venice’s Golden Lion for abortion drama Happening in 2021, has taken inspiration for her first English-language picture from Emmanuelle Arsan’s erotic novel, originally published clandestinely in France in 1959 and then officially in 1967.

The work sparked a franchise of erotic, soft porn films, kicking off with Just Jaeckin’s 1974 cult movie, starring Sylvia Kristel as a woman who joins her diplomat husband in Bangkok where she embarks on a series of sexual adventures.

In Diwan’s contemporary adaptation, Merlant plays hotel quality control agent Emmanuelle, who is sent to audit a luxury hotel in Hong Kong, where she comes up against a steely hotel manager, played by Naomi Watts.

Bored...

Mubi horror The Substance leads the new releases at this weekend’s UK and Ireland box office, opening in 521 locations.

It is Mubi’s widest-ever release, beating out Priscilla which opened in 295 cinemas in January and the 150 locations How To Have Sex debuted in last year.

The Substance stars Demi Moore as a fading star who takes a mysterious drug that enables her to live as a younger version of herself, played by Margaret Qualley. Coralie Fargeat wrote and directed the feature which also stars Dennis Quaid.

The film had its world premiere at Cannes in competition, where it won...

José Luis Rebordinos, director of the San Sebastian Film Festival, has just over a week until opening night when he sits down for an interview with Deadline, and he is still plagued by one niggling organizational issue.

“It’s always so difficult to close the jury,” Rebordinos explains as he rushes out of the room to take a call about his potential jury head.

When he returns, he explains: “A few weeks ago I was speaking with Thierry Fremaux. He said even for him it’s always a problem because jury members have to be at your festival for 10 days, you don’t pay, and it’s complicated because people are often working and when they aren’t, they want to spend time with their families and friends.”

A few days later, the competition jury is finally confirmed, with Spanish filmmaker Jaione Camborda leading alongside Leila Guerriero, Fran Kranz, Christos Nikou,...

Noch bis 2026 wird José Luis Rebordinos der Direktor des San Sebastián International Film Festival sein, dann will er in gut bestelltes Haus hinterlassen. Aber jetzt freut er sich erst einmal auf einen Jahrgang, den er für einen der besten überhaupt hält, wie er im Interview mitteilt. Heute Abend geht’s los mit der Weltpremiere von „Emmanuelle“.

San-Sebastián-Festivalchef José Luis Rebordinos (Credit: Ssiff)

Ein Blick aufs Programm sagt einem: ein außergewöhnlich gutes Jahr für San Sebastián. Fühlte sich die Auswahl diesmal anders an?

José Luis Rebordinos: Ich könnte nicht sagen, dass für uns irgendetwas anders gewesen wäre. Für uns ist die Arbeit immer gleich. Was sich ändert, ist das Angebot, sind die damit verbundenen Möglichkeiten. Für uns bedeutet das in diesem Jahr, dass ungewöhnlich viele große Namen in diesem Jahr im Line-up zu finden sind und mehr namhafte Regisseure im Hauptwettbewerb antreten. Ich vermute, das hängt damit zusammen, dass in...

Opening up this year’s San Sebastian Film Festival, Audrey Diwan’s “Emmanuelle” marks an unexpected follow-up to her Golden Lion winner “Happening” – at least on paper, anyway.

If anything, the filmmaker followed a similar line, using a literary adaptation to emphasize sensorial experience, in this case the evasive quest for physical pleasure. “The project was one of renewal,” Diwan tells Variety. “Reviving sensations then sharing them with the audience.”

Updating the 1967 novel from Emmanuelle Arsan, the latest version imagines a thirtysomething Emmanuelle (Noemie Merlant) as a kind of leisure quality control inspector, sent to stress test a Hong Kong luxury hotel run by Naomi Watts and haunted by a mysterious guest played by Will Sharpe.

And though centered on pleasure, the film often sees those needs unmet, focusing as much on frustration as on elation. “Pleasure, and the pursuit thereof, should remain a mystery,” says Diwan. “So I meant...

In terms of stars — Cate Blanchett, Johnny Depp, Javier Bardem, Tilda Swinton, Pamela Anderson — and auteur power — Pedro Almodóvar, Sean Baker, Costa Gavras, Edward Berger, Mike Leigh, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Joshua Oppenheimer, François Ozon, Lupita Nyong’o, Mohammad Rasoulof, Walter Salles, Maite Alberdi — this year’s San Sebastián Festival promises one of its biggest editions ever.

Yet it’s the Spanish festival’s wealth of new talent and rising names in its industry competitions sets it apart. Here are 10 things to expect from the fest, which runs Sept. 20-28 at the stunning Basque seaside resort:

Blanchett, Almodóvar, Bardem, Depp, Swinton, Anderson

Blanchett, Almodóvar and Bardem will collect career achievement Donostia Awards, with Blanchett talking up Guy Maddin’s Cannes hit “Rumours,” set for U.S. theatrical release via Bleecker Street on Oct. 18; Almodóvar and Swinton will present Venice success “The Room Next Door.” Depp will unveil “Modi,” his second film as a...

Pablo Larrain’s Maria starring Angelina Jolie and Heretic featuring Hugh Grant as a villain will round out AFI Fest’s Red Carpet Premieres section at the Los Angeles festival.

Horror-thriller Heretic from Scott Beck and Bryan Woods premiered in Toronto and will receive its gala screening on October 24, while Maria Callas drama Maria, which premiered in Venice, will screen on October 26.

The complete Red Carpet Premieres section includes the world premieres of Music By John Williams, Robert Zemeckis’ Here, Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl and Clint Eastwood’s Juror #2.

The festival also announced on Thursday that Venice Golden...

France’s revamped Oscar committee has selected Jacques Audiard’s exhilarating redemption thriller “Emilia Perez” for the international feature film race. The movie won two major awards at the Cannes Film Festival and earned rave reviews.

“Emilia Perez” stars Karla Sofía Gascón as a fearsome drug lord who embraces her true self as a woman. The Spanish-language film earned one of Cannes’s longest standing ovations and went on to win the Jury Prize (in a jury presided over by Greta Gerwig), on top of a best actress prize for the ensemble cast, including Gascón, Zoe Saldaña, Selena Gomez and Adriana Paz. The movie was bought by Netflix for the U.S. and the U.K. following its Cannes premiere.

Audiard is a revered French auteur who won a Palme d’Or with “Dheepan,” and was previously nominated for a foreign-language Oscar with “A Prophet” starring Tahar Rahim.

Although “Emilia Perez...

The jury for the 2024 San Sebastian Festival will be chaired by director Jaione Camborda, who was the first Spanish female filmmaker to win the Golden Shell last year with The Rye Horn.

She will be joined on the jury by Greek director Christos Nikou who competed at San Sebastian last year Apples And Fingernails, which won the Fipresci Award; Austrian filmmaker Ulrich Seidl, who presented Sparta in the Official Selection in 2022 and is a prize-winner at Berlin and Venice; and French producer Carole Scotta, founder of Haut et Court.

Also on the jury are actor Fran Kranz, whose first film as a director,...

France’s Oscar committee has shortlisted four movies, including Jacques Audiard’s redemption thriller “Emilia Perez” and “The Count of Monte Cristo,” an epic adventure film adapted from Alexandre Dumas’ classic, as well as Payal Kapadia‘s “All We Imagine as Light” and Alain Guiraudie’s “Misericordia.”

All four movies word premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. “Emilia Perez” won two major awards, the Jury Prize and a best actress nod for its ensemble female cast, Karla Sofía Gascón, Selena Gomez, Zoe Saldana and Adriana Paz; while “All We Imagine as Light,” a tale of two Mumbai nurses bonding, won the Grand Prize, becoming the first Indian film in 30 years to win the award. Kapadia was also the first Indian female director to compete at Cannes. Guiraudie’s darkly comic and provocative “Misericordia” played at Cannes Premiere and recently screened at Telluride and Toronto, while “The Count of Monte Cristo,...

France’s National Film Board has unveiled its revamped and expanded Oscar committee which is presided over by Charles Tesson, the former artistic director of Cannes’ Critics Week.

Along with Tesson, the committee includes “Emmanuelle” director Audrey Diwan who won Venice’s Golden Lion with “Happening” in 2021; critically acclaimed French playwright, director and producer Florian Zeller (“The Father”); former Lionsgate boss Patrick Wachsberger; international sales veterans Carole Baraton from Charades, and Gregoire Melin from Kinology; powerful French distributor Michèle Halberstadt from Arp Selection; producers Rosalie Varda (“Faces Places”) from Ciné-Tamaris, Nadim Cheikhroua (“Olfa’s Daughters”) and David Thion (“Anatomy of a Fall”) at Les Films Pelléas; and actor Clemence Poesy.

Appointed by France’s culture minister, Rachida Dati, the committee is facing the difficult task of picking the French film that is best suited to give the country its first Oscar win for best international feature in over three decades.

El Festival se celebra del 20 al 28 de septiembre. © Ssiff

La 72ª edición del Festival de Cine de San Sebastián contará con una notable presencia de cineastas, actores, guionistas y productoras de renombre que se darán cita en la ciudad.

La Sección Oficial será el epicentro de muchas de estas figuras, quienes presentarán sus últimas producciones y participarán en diversas actividades del festival. La inauguración del festival estará marcada por la película Emmanuelle, que llegará acompañada de la directora Audrey Diwan y los actores Noémie Merlant, Will Sharpe, Jamie Campbell Bower y Chacha Huang. Por otro lado, para clausurar el festival, el director John Crowley y el actor Andrew Garfield presentarán We Live In Time (Vivir el momento), una de las películas más anticipadas de esta edición.

El Festival de San Sebastián también recibirá a destacadas personalidades como la directora Gia Coppola y la icónica Pamela Anderson, quienes asistirán a la proyección de The Last Showgirl.

This year’s Venice Film Festival lineup was not only the starriest in recent history, it was also the steamiest. Literally and figuratively. Aside from the brutal heatwave that plagued festivalgoers, the roster was filled with sexually charged movies, ranging from “Babygirl,” starring Nicole Kidman, to Luca Guadagnino’s “Queer” with Daniel Craig. Elsewhere in the festival circuit, Audrey Diwan’s “Emmanuelle” is kicking off San Sebastian, while Alain Guiraudie’s “Misericordia,” which opened at Cannes, is playing at virtually every major fest this fall.

But like Kidman’s character in “Babygirl” who only gets triggered when something is at stake, erotic movies in 2024 aren’t created as mere entertainment as they once were; they exist to push boundaries and break down clichés revolving mainly around female and gay protagonists.

“Babygirl,” directed by Dutch helmer Halina Reijn (“Bodies Bodies Bodies”), tackles the complexity of female sexuality and the issue of...

The French box office dipped 7.5% in August year on year to 14.3 million admissions but the three-month summer period was up on 2023 thanks to a strong June and July, according to Cnc figures.

Pathé’s epic Alexandre Dumas adaptation The Count Of Monte-Cristo, released June 28, continued its reign in August, topping the charts for the second month in a row with 2.1 million more admissions added in August. It has helped the box office to tackle its slow start to the year garnering 7.6 million admissions in total.

If it reaches 8 million as expected, it will be the first time since 1998 three films...

The San Sebastian film festival (September 20-28) has added four titles to its official selection, including Modi - Three Days On The Wing Of Madness, directed by Johnny Depp.

The film will premiere out of competition, and sees Riccardo Scamarcio play Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani. It also stars Stephen Graham, Al Pacino and Antonia Desplat. Depp was given a lifetime achievement award by the festival in 2021.

It marks Depp’s second feature as director after The Brave, which premiered in Competition at Cannes in 1997.

In special screenings, Cannes general delegate Thierry Frémaux will present Lumiere! The Adventure Continues, a sequel to Lumière!

The San Sebastian film festival (September 20-28) has added four titles to its official selection, including Modi - Three Days On The Wing Of Madness, directed by Johnny Depp.

The film will premiere out of competition, and sees Riccardo Scamarcio play artist Amedeo Modigliani. It also stars Stephen Graham, Al Pacino and Antonia Desplat. Depp was given a lifetime achievement award by the festival in 2021.

In special screenings, Cannes general delegate Thierry Frémaux will present Lumiere! The Adventure Continues, a sequel to Lumière! The Adventure Begins, which reveals another hundred restored Lumière films.

Two new titles have also joined the New Directors strand.

New films from directors Mike Leigh, François Ozon, Edward Berger, Joshua Oppenheimer, and Costa-Gavras will vie for the Golden Shell at this year’s San Sebastian Film Festival. Organizers on Tuesday announced the competition line-up for the 72nd edition of San Sebastian, which runs from September 20-28.

Highlights include Leigh’s hotly-anticipated new film Hard Truths, which will see the iconoclastic British director reunite with his Secrets & Lies star Marianne Jean-Baptiste; and Conclave, Berger’s follow-up to his multiple-Oscar winner All Quiet on the Western Front. The Vatican thriller stars Ralph Fiennes as a cardinal tasked with supervising a conclave following the sudden death of the Pope to choose a successor.

Veteran political filmmaker Costa-Gavras (Missing, Z) returns to San Sebastian with Last Breath, a drama about a palliative care doctor. Ozon will make his sixth appearance in the festival’s official selection with When Fall Is Coming, a French drama starring Hélène Vincent,...

Das San Sebastián International Film Festival hat sein Programm für die 72. Ausgabe bekannt gegeben. Aus deutscher Sicht der größte Name: Edward Bergers „Conclave“ wird auf dem spanischen A-Festival seine Europapremiere im Wettbewerb feiern. Weitere bekannte Namen sind Gia Coppola, Mike Leigh, François Ozon und Costa-Gavras.

Ralph Fiennes als Kardinal Lawrence in Edward Bergers „Conclave“ (Credits: Focus Features)

Schon in den letzten Jahren hat sich immer mehr angedeutet, dass das spanische A-Festival wieder an Bedeutung zunimmt. Für die 72. Ausgabe des San Sebastián International Film Festival, die vom 20. bis 28. September stattfindet, kann der langjährige Festivalchef José Luis Rebordinos auf eine Selektion mit überaus namhaften Filmemacher:innen zugreifen. Bereits bekannt war Audrey Diwans „Emmanuelle“ mit Noémie Merlant als Eröffnungsfilm. Dazu gesellt sich im Wettbewerb als aus deutscher Sicht wichtigster Name Edward Berger mit seiner Robert-Harris-Verfilmung „Conclave“ mit Ralph Fiennes, der nach Auftritten in Telluride und Toronto in der baskischen Küstenstadt seine Europapremiere haben wird.

Altitude Film Distribution has picked up a raft of titles to release in UK-Ireland in the next six months, including Audrey Diwan’s Emmanuelle, which is the opening film of the San Sebastian film festival in September.

Noemie Merlant, Naomi Watts, Jamie Campbell Bower and Will Sharpe star in Emmanuelle, about a woman’s erotic fantasies when she travels to Hong Kong on a business trip.

The Veterans is handling sales with Pathe releasing in France on September 25. Neon has North American rights.

The film is Diwan’s English-language debut and is based on Emmanuelle Arsan’s French novel about...

Projects from Albert Serra and Iciar Bollain are among the 12 Spanish features selected for the 2024 San Sebastian International Film Festival (Ssiff), taking place from September 20-28.

Serra will compete for the first time in San Sebastian’s official section with bullfighting documentary Tardes De Soledad. His previous films include Locarno winner The Story Of My Death and 2022 Cannes premiere Pacifiction.

Competing in the main section for the fifth time is Iciar Bollain with I’m Nevenka, about a town councillor who reports abuse by the major. Mireia Oriol and Urko Olazabal star.

Also selected are Pedro Martín-Calero’s directorial debut The Wailing,...

When it comes to the indie movie business, you don’t get more old-school than Kino Lorber. The New York outfit, founded as Kino International in 1977, has been the first source of independent cinema for U.S. audiences. It was the first to distribute films from Yorgos Lanthimos, Aki Kaurismäki, Wong Kar-wai, Andrei Tarkovsky and Michelangelo Antonioni in U.S. theaters and the first to restore and rerelease silent classics like Metropolis, The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari, and the films of Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin.

In 2009, when Richard Lorber’s home entertainment company Lorber Ht Digital acquired and merged with Kino International, physical media got added to the mix, and the newly minted Kino Lorber became known for its home entertainment releases, ranging from classic (Nosferatu, The Sacrifice) to cult (Mad Max, Emmanuelle). The Kino Lorber library now counts more than 4,000 titles and the company is continually adding to the list,...

Audrey Diwan is attached to direct “The Marriage Portrait,” based on the novel by award-winning Northern Irish writer Maggie O’Farrell, best known for “Hamnet.”

Variety hears that the project will see the fast-rising French auteur team with two of Europe’s leading arthouse producers in Ireland’s Element Pictures (which has three films in Cannes’ official selection this year) and Italy’s Wildside (which has competition title “Limonov: The Ballad”). Film4 helped develop the feature.

Set in 1500s Renaissance Florence, “The Marriage Portrait” — which was published in 2022 — follows the fictional tale of young duchess Lucrezia de’ Medici, a sheltered 16-year-old who has spent her life locked inside the city’s grandest palazzo. But when her husband takes her on an unexpected visit to a country villa, it occurs to her that he has a sinister purpose — he intends to kill her.

Diwan, who has just completed the post-production of her...

French film production skyrocketed in 2023 marking a return to pre-pandemic levels as budgets soared, according to an annual report from the Cnc, the country’s national film organisation.

A total of 298 films were approved by the Cnc last year, driven by French-initiated films which totalled 236, up from 208 in 2022.

There were 18 animated films compared to 13 in 2022; but documentaries dipped from 54 in 2022 to just 40 in 2023.

International co-productions maintained pre-Covid levels with 120 co-productions clocked over the year, in line with the 2017-2019 average of 119 films.

However, just 40.3% of total films were co-productions, down from 50.2% in 2022, but still in line with the pre-pandemic 2017-...

French film production skyrocketed in 2023 marking a return to pre-pandemic levels as budgets soared, according to an annual report from the Cnc, the country’s national film organisation.

A total of 298 films were approved by the Cnc last year, driven by French-initiated films which totalled 236, up from 208 in 2022.

There were 18 animated films compared to 13 in 2022; but documentaries dipped from 54 in 2022 to just 40 in 2023.

International co-productions maintained pre-Covid levels with 120 co-productions clocked over the year, in line with the 2017-2019 average of 119 films.

However, just 40.3% of total films were co-productions, down from 50.2% in 2022, but still in line with the pre-pandemic 2017-...

Neon is circling U.S. rights to Audrey Diwan’s English-language debut, “Emmanuelle,” an erotic drama that started filming in September in Paris with Noemie Merlant starring in the titular role.

The film is inspired by Emmanuelle Arsan’s novel and is based on a script co-developed by Diwan and Rebecca Zlotowski (“Other People’s Children”). The book centers on a woman and the series of erotic fantasies that she entertains. It was previously made into a 1974 film of the same name, directed by Just Jaeckin, and starring Sylvia Kristel. That film developed as a cult hit.

Diwan is best known for her sophomore outing, “Happening,” which received critical raves and won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. “Happening” tells the story of a woman obtaining an illegal abortion in the 1960s. After its Venice premiere, the film went on to win the César Award for best female newcomer...

Exclusive: Happening writer-director Audrey Diwan has recalibrated her English-language debut Emmanuelle, which is a working title. She has set Noémie Merlant (Portrait of a Lady on Fire) to star in a film that will begin production September in Hong Kong. Léa Seydoux had originally been attached to play the title character.

The Veterans and CAA Media Finance will be discussing the script with buyers at this week’s European Film Market.

Merlant gave her breakthrough performance in Céline Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire, and her recent work includes the Jacques Audiart-directed Paris, 13th District, the Louis Garrel-directed The Innocent, and she starred in her first English-speaking role opposite Cate Blanchett in the Oscar-nominated Todd Field-directed Tár.

The film is inspired by the character and world created by Emmanuelle Arsan. Diwan wrote the script with Rebecca Zlotowski (Other People’s Children). The new film will be produced by Chantelouve,...