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Eve works as a maid at the upscale Hotel Presidente Intercontinental in Mexico City. Every room she enters is a chore — changing linens, scrubbing toilets and so on — but also a window into lives more luxurious than her own. Left alone with the affairs of the hotel’s rich guests, Eve indulges her curiosity. She doesn’t simply empty waste bins, but spreads out their contents and picks through what she finds there for clues as to how the other half lives. The irony, of course, is that director Lila Avilés has designed her debut feature, “The Chambermaid,” to give audiences the opposite opportunity, inviting us to step into the shoes of an invisible woman for two hours, and as such, her film is a rare and special thing.

In the real world, someone like Eve might be considered “common,” but as the protagonist of her own motion picture — imbued,...

Part Robinson Crusoe, part All Is Lost, and part Heavy Metal, the animated feature The Red Turtle applies a distinctively European visual design to a primal tale of man against the elements. A collaboration between Oscar-winning Dutch-British animator Michael Dudok De Wit (who won for his 2000 short “Father And Daughter”) and the team at Japan’s Studio Ghibli, the film represents the medium at its most artful and entertaining. Though some may find its allusiveness and magical-realist turns to be overly fanciful, The Red Turtle nevertheless remains throughout a simple, gripping story of survival, deriving its sense of adventure from the most basic plot imaginable: Here’s a human being, stranded in a strange place, using his strength, intelligence, and courage to forge some kind of a life for himself.

Dudok De Wit (who also co-wrote the picture with Bird People writer-director Pascale Ferran) sets the tone right from ...

Captain Fantastic’s Matt Ross wins director prize; animation The Red Turtle wins special prize.Scroll down for full list of winners

Finnish boxer drama The Happiest Day In The Life Of Olli Maki, directed by Juho Kuosmanen, has won the Un Certain Regard prize at the 69th Cannes Film Festival.

Review: The Happiest Day In The Life Of Olli Maki

After two Cinefondation-selected shorts, Kuosmanen has made his feature debut with this film inspired by the real life of Olli Maki, the first Finn to fight for the world championship in featherweight boxing, who is distracted by his first love on the day of the big fight.

Jarkko Lahti, Oona Airola and Eero Milonoff star in the black-and-white film, which shot on 16mm. B-Plan will release in Finland in September, with theatrical releases also secured for Germany, France and Denmark.

The Finland-Germany-Sweden co-production is produced by Aamu Film Company, One Two Films...

Michaël Dudok de Wit’s debut feature “The Red Turtle” will premiere in the Un Certain Regard section of Cannes, and if we were to judge from the trailer, it may be one of the most beautiful films to screen in Croisette this year.

Marking the anticipated return of Studio Ghibli (the film is their first co-production), the French-Japanese animated film tells the story of a man shipwrecked at sea who becomes stranded on a deserted island inhabited by turtles, crabs and birds. He learns to live in isolation, until he comes upon a woman lost at sea and begins a life with her. The entire 80-minute movie features very little dialogue and looks absolutely gorgeous, once more exemplyfying the benefits of 2D animation. The screenplay was written by Dudok de Wit and French screenwriter (and director) Pascale Ferran (Lady Chatterley, The Bird People).

Ghibli is at a very critical...

After premiering at the 2014 Toronto Film Festival in the Galas Program, via Cohen Media, the double 40th César Award nominated The New Girlfriend received a limited theatrical release a year later for a meager box-office take just under one hundred and fifty thousand. Based on a novel by Ruth Rendell, Francois Ozon’s playful subversion of gender dynamics hinges on camp, recalling a legion of vintage queer classics from decades ago (as well as Ozon’s own darker, challenging early filmography when the auteur was referred to as a terrible enfant). As politically correct agendas continue to be applied to queer characters, engulfing deliberations of appropriate representation, items such as Ozon’s film have become a rarity in the English language market. But there’s a perverse mixture of dark comedy and psychological unrest portrayed here, and Ozon gleefully captures a neglected energy of queer cinema once again relegated to the periphery of good taste.

Stars: Yayan Ruhian, Rirî Furankî, Hayato Ichihara, Mio Yûki, Pierre Taki, Denden, Tetsu Watanabe, Yoshiyuki Morishita, Riko Narumi, Reiko Takashima, Lily Frankie, Masanori Mimoto, Shô Aoyagi, Manzô Shinra, Kiyohiko Shibukawa | Written by Yoshitaka Yamaguchi | Directed by Takashi Miike

When considering the work of a director who often makes up to six or seven films a year, you might be forgiven for assuming that most of these would be low-key, simple productions focusing on small sets of characters. Not so in the case of Takashi Miike, the filmmaker behind such eyebrow-raising fare as the ultraviolent Ichi The Killer, zombie musical comedy The Happiness of the Katakuris and contemplative drama The Bird People in China. Never one to shirk an ambitious project for the sake of an easy life, Miike’s latest film sees him on world-ending form with Yakuza Apocalypse.

Kageyama is a low-level Yakuza thug bullied by his fellow gangsters...

The juries have been announced for the 2015 Marrakech Int. Film Fest, and the Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola) will be in good company. A cinephile’s wet dream, the 15th edition will include an astute set of mostly auteur filmmakers with Anton Corbijn, Naomi Kawase, Thomas Vinterberg, Jean-Pierre Jeunet along with, mostly actor but also director Sergio Castellitto, Richa Chadda (Gangs of Wasseypur), Olga Kurylenko and Amal Ayouch.

The Cinécoles Jury (short films comp) includes a who’s who of talent with

The White Knights (recently shown at Tiff) helmer Joachim Lafosse being joined by actor Niels Schneider (Xavier Dolan’s Heartbeats), actress and director Valeria Golino (Miele), actress and filmmaker Valeria Bruni Tedeschi (A Castle in Italy), local filmmaker Saâd Chraïbi and the bee’s knee’s actress from Bird People in Anaïs Demoustier. The festival kicks of on the 4th until the 12th of December.

Tone has always been an issue for François Ozon, the hit-or-miss filmmaker behind “Swimming Pool,” “In the House,” “8 Women” and “Young and Beautiful.” His work can be playful and dark, comical and serious, silly and harsh, often at the same time. When it works, as in “Swimming Pool” and the underrated “In the House,” the results can be wonderfully mysterious and wildly seductive. But when it doesn't, the results are awfully messy. “The New Girlfriend” is, without question, an Ozon mess. It is an endearing mess, in a way, thanks to its actors, but make no mistake, “The New Girlfriend” is one of Ozon’s weakest efforts to date. The film starts promisingly enough, with the bold image of a blonde woman in her wedding dress — in her coffin. This is Laura, the character whose presence, even in death, impacts every person onscreen. As Laura’s best friend Claire (French star Anaïs Demoustier,...

The Cannes Film festival was an exceptional edition for French films this year. A focus on the rising generation of French actors and directors that have been highlighted in Cannes and will most certainly be the stars of tomorrow was compiled by Unifrance chief Isabelle Giordano.

They are a force to be reckoned with. Unifrance films is ready to bet that you will certainly hear about these ten talented people. They represent the French cinema of today and will soon be on the screens worldwide.

Emmanuelle Bercot

An actress and a director, Emmanuelle Bercot began by enrolling at the Cours Florent drama school and taking dancing lessons after her baccalaureate. She graduated from Femis in 1998, after winning the Prix du Jury at the Cannes Film Festival for her short film "Les Vacances," in 1997. After her first few roles in the films of Jean-François Richet and Michel Deville, her career as an actress took off when Claude Miller gave her one of the main roles in "La Classe de neige" (1998). The following year, she made the headlines with the medium-length film she directed called "La Puce," presented in the selection of Un Certain Regard at Cannes. This film tells of the love affair between a 35-year-old man and a 14-year-old girl, played by Isild Le Besco.

Her first feature-length film, "Clément" (2001), is about the life of a troubled woman who has one adventure after another with various men until she meets a 14-yearold boy. Her second film, "Backstage" (2004), continues to explore teenage angst through a relationship between a hit singer and a young obsessional fan. She earned her first critical and public acclaim with "On My Way" (2013), the third film written by the director for Catherine Deneuve, in which the star plays a woman who has decided to leave everything behind and hit the road in France.

She was indisputably the most talked about person during the Cannes Film Festival 2015, both as an actress and a director. Thierry Frémaux surprised everyone by announcing that "Standing Tall," Emmanuelle Bercot’s fourth feature-length film would open the 68th Cannes Film Festival. Emmanuelle Bercot says that she has rediscovered the social fiber of her beginnings with this tale of juvenile delinquency. After the enthusiastic and unanimous reception of her film, she won the Best Actress Award for her role as a woman under the influence of love in the film "Mon Roi" by Maïwenn, with whom she co-wrote the script for "Polisse," which won the Prix du Jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 2012

Thomas Bidegain

Thomas Bidegain may well be one of the best known French screenwriters in the profession today, but it took him ten years to achieve this status. His career path in film is anything but ordinary. He started out in the 1990s by distributing and producing independent American films: "Ice Storm" by Ang Lee and "Chasing Sleep" by Michael Walker. He came back to France and joined MK2 where he became director of distribution. In 1999, he returned to production for "Why Not." In 2007, he told the story of his attempt to stop smoking in "Arrêter de fumer tue," a personal diary that was turned into a documentary, then a book.

In the meantime, he began screenwriting and worked on several projects. In 2009, he wrote the screenplay for Jacques Audiard’s film, "A Prophet," alongside Nicolas Peufaillit and Abdel Raouf Dafri, which won the Grand Prix du Jury in 2009. He participated in Audiard’s next film, "Rust and Bone" and "Our Children" by Joachim Lafosse. He was also the co-writer for "Saint Laurent" by Bertrand Bonello. Winning a César for the best original script and a César for the best adaptation, he presented "Cowboys" at the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs in Cannes this year, his first film as a director. He is also co-writer of "Ni le ciel ni la terre" by Clément Cogitore, presented during the Semaine de la Critique, as well as co-writer of the script for Jacques Audiard’s latest film, "Dheepan," which won the Palme d’Or.

Louise Bourgoin

Louise Bourgoin attended the Ecole des Beaux Arts for five years, during which she began her career as a model. After she graduated from art school in 2004, she radically changed direction and became a presenter on cable TV. She was Miss Météo in Le Grand Journal on Canal + from 2006 to 2008. Her slot became essential viewing and attracted a wide audience, including the attention of the film industry.

She began her acting career in "The Girl from Monaco" by Anne Fontaine, and her performance earned her a César nomination for Most Promising Actress. This recognition led to a whole series of roles and launched her career in film. She headed the bill of several films in 2010 ("White as Snow" by Christophe Blanc, "Sweet Valentine" by Emma Luchini, and "Black Heaven" by Gilles Marchand). The same year, Luc Besson selected her for the leading role in "The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec."

Since then, Louise Bourgoin has played in film after film, and has taken her first steps in the international scene with her part in the American film "The Love Punch" by Joel Hopkins. She attracted attention at the Cannes Film Festival this year with her unusual role in Laurent Larivière’s first film, "I Am a Soldier," presented at Un Certain Regard.

Anaïs Demoustier

Her passion for acting started at a very young age and rapidly pushed her to take drama classes. She auditioned, when still a teenager, and got her first role alongside Isabelle Huppert in "Time of the Wolf" by Michael Haneke. After this, her career was launched and she played in a series of films among which "L’Année suivante" by Isabelle Czajka, "Hellphone" by James Huth, "The Beautiful Person" by Christophe Honoré, "Sois sage" by Juliette Garcias, "Sweet Evil" by Olivier Coussemacq, "Dear Prudene" by Rebecca Zlotowski, "Snows of Kilimanjaro" by Robert Guédiguian, "Thérèse Desqueyroux" by Claude Miller, "Quai d’Orsay" by Bertrand Tavernier, "Paris Follies" by Marc Fitoussi, etc.

A filmography rich of 30 films for an actress who isn’t 30 years old yet. In 2014, the press talked about the blooming of Anaïs Demoustier because her face and poise became essential to cinema. Present in "Bird People" by Pascale Ferran, "Caprices" by Emmanuel Mouret, "À trois on y va" by Jérôme Bonnell and "The New Girlfriend" by François Ozon, she is Marguerite in the last Valérie Donzelli’s film, "Marguerite et Julien" screened in Official selection in Cannes.

Louis Garrel

The son of actress Brigitte Sy and the director Philippe Garrel, he began his career in film thanks to his father, who started filming him at the age of six in "Emergency Kisses," alongside his mother and his grandfather, Maurice Garrel. He went onto study drama at the Conservatoire National d’Art Dramatique. He made his real cinema debut in 2001 in the film "Ceci est mon corps" by Rodolphe Marconi. Two years later, he played opposite Michael Pitt and the future Bond girl, Eva Green, in "The Dreamers" by Bernardo Bertolucci.

He then starred in another of his father’s films, "Regular Lovers". His performance earned him the César for the Most Promising Actor in 2005. Since then, he has played alongside the greatest, such as Isabelle Huppert in "Ma mère" by Christophe Honoré. This marked the beginning of a long collaboration between the filmmaker and the actor. They worked together in the film "In Paris" with Romain Duris, then in 2007 in "Love Songs" with Ludivine Sagnier, in "The Beautiful Person" with Léa Seydoux, in "Making Plans" for Lena with Chiara Mostroianni and, finally, in " Beloved" with Catherine Deneuve. He also topped the bill with Valéria Bruni Tedeschi in "Actresses," whom he worked with again in 2013 in "A Castle in Italy."

In 2010, he directed a short film, "The Little Tailor," in which he directed Léa Seydoux. He performed once again in one of his father’s films, "A Burning Hot Summer," followed by "Jealousy." In 2014, he starred in Bertrand Bonello’s film "Saint Laurent," a role which led to another César nomination, but this time in the best supporting role category. His first feature-length film, "Two Friends," presented at a Certain Regard, was applauded by the critics. He also starred in "Mon Roi," Maïwenn’s fourth feature-length film, alongside Emmanuelle and Vincent Cassel, presented as part of the official selection.

Guillaume Gouix

After studying at the Conservatoire in Marseille and the Ecole Régionale d’Acteur de Cannes, Guillaume Gouix began his career in television. He played the male lead in "The Lion Cubs," by Claire Doyon, in 2003. Noted for his performance, especially the highly physical aspect of it and his intense gaze, he then played a series of supporting roles as a young hoodlum in "Les Mauvais joueurs" by Frédéric Balekdjian and in "Chacun sa nuit," by Jean-Marc Barr and Pascal Arnold. He featured in the 2007 war film "Intimate Enemies" by Florent Emilio Siri, thus confirming his taste for complex characters.

The following year, he was applauded for his performance in the film "Behind the Walls" by Christian Faure. In 2010, he starred in "22 Bullets" by Richard Berry and in 2011, he established his reputation with roles in "Nobody Else But You" by Gérald Hustache-Mathieu, "Et soudain, tout le monde me manque" by Jennifer Devoldere, and "Jimmy Rivière," Teddy Lussi-Modeste’s film debut.

He also appeared in "Midnight in Paris" by Woody Allen. He more recently starred in "Attila Marcel," by Sylvain Chomet, in which he played the lead role, in "French Women" by Audrey Dana, and "The Connection" by Cédric Jimenez with Jean Dujardin and Gilles Lelouche. He performed in three films presented at Cannes this year ("Les Anarchistes" by Elie Wajeman, which opened the Semaine de la Critique, "La Vie en grand" by Mathieu Vadepied, which closed the week, and in "Enragés" by Eric Hannezo, screened at the Cinéma de la Plage). He also directed his first short film "Alexis Ivanovitch, vous êtes mon héros" in 2011 and will soon start on a feature-length film, which is currently being written. He will be topping the bill in 2015 with "Braqueurs," a thriller by Julien Leclercq.

Ariane Labed

Born in Greece to French parents, Ariane Labed has always navigated between her two countries. She studied drama at the University of Provence and began her acting career treading the boards. After setting up a company combining dance and theater, Ariane Labed returned to live in Greece where she played at the National Theater of Athens. 2010 was the year of her first film, "Attenberg," directed by Athiná-Rachél Tsangári. "Alps" by Yorgos Lanthi-mos, the following year, confirmed the talent of this strangely charming actress. Two years later, she starred in "Before Midnight" by Richard Linklater where she played the role of Anna. The follow-up to "Before Sunrise" and "Before Sunset," this third part of the saga was a great success, making Labed known to a wider audience.

In 2014, she played a young sailor in "Fidelio, Alice’s Odyssey," who is torn between faithfulness and her desire to live her life. Winning the best actress award at the Locarno Film Festival and nominated for a César, the French actress gives a brilliant performance in Lucie Borleteau’s first feature-length film. She joined Yorgos Lanthimos in Cannes in 2015, where he won the Prix du Jury for his film "The Lobster."

Vincent Macaigne

Vincent Macaigne is the leading light in young French cinema. He joined the Conservatoire National Supérieur d’Art Dramatique in Paris in 1999, appearing on stage and assuming the role of director. His free adaptations of the great classics of literature and drama earned him public and critical acclaim. He directed "The Idiot" by Dostoïevski and presented "Au moins j’aurai laissé un beau cadavre in Avignon," inspired by Hamlet. He also rapidly made a name for himself in demanding art-house films. In 2001, he was seen for the first time in "Replay" by Catherine Corsini. In 2007, he starred in "On War" by Bertrand Bonello and in 2010, in "A Burning Hot Summer" by Philippe Garrel.

Since 2011, Vincent Macaigne’s presence in short, medium and full-length films has gradually increased. Faithful to his directors, he has starred in several of their films. As is the case with his friend Guillaume Brac, who directed him in "Le Naufragé," "Tonnerre" and "Un monde sans femmes." He was awarded the Grand Prix and the Prix Télérama at the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival, and the Prix Lutin for Best Actor in this film. Under the direction of Vincent Mariette, he played in "Les Lézards" then "Fool Circle." In 2013, we find the funny and touching thirty-something in "La fille du 14 juillet" by Antonin Peretjatko, "Age of Panic" by Justine Triet, and "2 Autumns, 3 Winters" by Sébastien Betbeder.

He was discovered by the general public at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival. Considered a figurehead of the revival of French cinema, Vincent has drawn the attention of the Cahiers du Cinéma, and even the British newspaper The Observer, which referred to him as the “new Gérard Depardieu”. In 2011, he directed "What We’ll Leave Behind," a very well-received medium-length film which won the Grand Prix at the Clermont-Ferrand Festival. He also starred in Mia Hansen-løve’s 2014 film "Eden." He plays one of the main roles in the actor Louis Garrel’s first feature-length film, "Two Friends," presented during the Semaine de la Critique. He also featured in his 2011 film, La Règle de trois.

Vimala Pons

From the Conservatoire National Supérieur d’Art Dramatique, where she attended drama classes even though she wanted to be a screenwriter, to circus tents, Vimala Pons is an acrobat in all senses of the word. The 29-year-old actress has established her physical and poetic presence in French art-house films. She began her career in film with Albert Dupontel in "Enfermés dehors" in 2006. She then starred in "Eden Log" by Franck Vestiel in 2007, then in "Granny’s Funeral" by Bruno Podalydès in 2012.

Since then, we have seen her cross France in a little blue dress in "La Fille du 14 juillet," (she plays the girl) by Antonin Peretjatko, and changing into a lioness in "Métamorphoses," by Christophe Honoré. The impetuous muse of French independent film, Vimala Pons played in "Vincent" by Thomas Salvador this year. The actress has made a name for herself in 2015, in particular with "Comme un avion" by Bruno Podalydès, "Je suis à vous tout de suite" by Baya Kasmi, "La vie très privée de Monsieur Sim" by Michel Leclerc, and "L’Ombre des femmes" by Philippe Garrel (presented at the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs this year in Cannes). She has also begun an international career, with a leading role in Paul Verhoeven’s latest film, "Elle."

Alice Winocour

The director Alice Winocour started out at Femis. After going into law, she returned to film and won three prizes for her short film "Kitchen: Prix TV5" for the best French-language short film, best international short film and the Silver Bear at the Festival of Nations (Ebensee). For "Magic Paris," she was awarded the jury prize at the St. Petersburg International Documentary, Short Film and Animated Film Festival.

She continued her career by writing the script for the film "Ordinary," by Vladimir Perisic. At the Cannes Film Festival 2012, Alice Winocour made a marked entry in the international arena with a film by a woman about women and the unchanging way of looking at them. In the film "Augustine," we are told the story of a professor and his patient, played by Vincent Lindon and Soko respectively. In 2015, she brought out her second feature-length film, "Maryland," which was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 68th Cannes Film Festival. She is also the co-writer of "Mustang," by Denis Gamze Ergüven, presented at the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs.

Exclusive: Company to launch Radu Mihaileanu’s The History of Love and Studio Ghibli co-production The Red Turtle.

Paris-based sales powerhouse Wild Bunch will kick off sales on Radu Mihaileanu’s saga The History of Love, starring John Hurt, Gemma Arterton and Sophie Nélisse at the Cannes Marché next month.

The mainly New York-set saga, spanning three continents and a period running from just before the Second World War to the present day, is based on Us writer Nicole Krauss’s international bestseller.

Hurt will play Leo, an elderly Polish Jewish immigrant still mourning the loss of his childhood sweetheart in the chaos of war, who is strangely linked to a teenage girl through a long, lost book on love… subtitled ‘the most loved woman in the world’.

“It’s a love story spanning 65 years… revolving around three friends in Poland whose destinies change forever when war breaks out,” Wild Bunch chief Vincent Maraval told ScreenDaily.

It marks...

While top tier Sundance items in Rick Alverson’s Entertainment, Josh Mond’s James White and Matt Sobel’s Take Me to the River are still without a distributor, the more than a dozen selections in Sundance’s U.S. Dramatic Comp are, at quick glance, close to being all snapped up. Deadline reports that Broad Green Pictures are going to give some tough love to I Smile Back, an addiction drama that was an audience and critic divider back in January. In what could be the distributor’s lead horse in the awards-worthy season, no mention has been made about a release date, but we imagine that this will be positioned sometime during the fall season. The company has a slate of about eight pictures (including Jeremy Saulnier’s Green Room which might premiere in Cannes) awaiting release.

Gist: Written by Amy Koppelman (who authored the book) and Paige Dylan,...

They've done what they've had to do to survive on AMC's The Walking Dead, brining hope and despair to palpable life on the small screen with gritty realism every week. Covered in grime, splattered in blood, and trudging down the sun-baked backroads and brush-bordered trails this season, the stellar cast and crew of The Walking Dead have paid their dues and then some, and now they're getting a tip of the cap in return with seven nominations for the 41st Annual Saturn Awards.

Andrew Lincoln, Norman Reedus, Emily Kinney, Melissa McBride, Chandler Riggs, and Andrew J. West have all earned nominations, with the TV series itself receiving one as well. Also recognized in this year's nominations is Scream Factory's Nightbreed: The Director's Cut Blu-ray, NBC's Hannibal TV series, Only Lovers Left Alive, and many more.

Press Release - "The Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films announces the...

It was a battle of Yves Saint Laurent biopics at the Césars (the French Oscars, if you will) this year as both the French foreign language Oscar submission "Saint Laurent" (leader of the pack with 10 nods) and "Yves Saint Laurent" picked up a ton of mentions. Oscar players that popped up include "Two Days, One Night" star Marion Cotillard and animated feature "Song of the Sea." Foreign film Oscar nominee "Timbuktu" also had a major showing. And of course, in the Césars' foreign category, films like "Boyhood," "The Grand Budapest Hotel" and "12 Years a Slave" are duking it out. Check out the full list of nominees below, and remember to keep track of it all at The Circuit. Best Film "Les Combattants" "Eastern Boys" "La Famille Bélier" "Saint Laurent" "Hippocrate" "Sils Maria" "Timbuktu" Best Director Céline Sciamma, "Bande De Filles" Thomas Cailley, "Les Combattants" Robin Campillo, "Eastern Boys" Thomas Lilti,...

Designer biopic leads the pack with 10 nominations; Kristen Stewart, Marion Cotillard and Juliette Binoche in the running for actress awards.Scroll down for full list of nominees

Bertrand Bonello’s Saint Laurent and Olivier Assays’ Sils Maria are the hot favourites in France’s 40th annual Cesar awards.

France’s Academy of Cinema Arts and Sciences unveiled the nominations for this year’s César Awards at its traditional news conference at Le Fouquet’s restaurant on the Champs Elysées on Friday morning.

Biopic Saint Laurent - exploring fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent’s life from 1967 to 1976 - led the pack with 10 nominations including best film, best director for Bonello, best actor for Gaspard Ulliel and best supporting actor for Louis Garrel.

Jalil Lespert’s rival biopic, Yves Saint Laurent, secured seven nominations. While it missed out in the best film and director categories, it scored nods with Pierre Niney for best actor, Charlotte Le Bon for best...

Update, 2:25 Am Pt: Last year’s dueling Yves Saint Laurent biopics each picked up several nominations this morning for France’s César Awards. Bertrand Bonello’s Saint Laurent, the country’s entry for the Foreign Language Oscar, leads the pack with 10 mentions, followed by Thomas Cailley’s Directors’ Fortnight title Les Combattants with nine, and Oscar nominee Timbuktu with eight. Yves Saint Laurent, from helmer Jalil Lespert, took seven nods. Otherwise, there are a number of usual suspects in the batch including Best Actress Oscar nominee Marion Cotillard for Two Days, One Night, as well as Juliette Binoche for Olivier Assayas’ Sils Maria. In something of a departure — and a first — for the French Académie, they nominated American actress Kristen Stewart for her supporting turn in that Cannes competition entry. (Adrien Brody won the Best Actor prize in 2003 for The Pianist.) There are also six nominations for late 2014 release La Famille Bélier.

Park City — The Sundance Film Festival giveth, and the Sundance Film Festival taketh away…85 minutes of your evening. Those are the breaks when it comes to any major festival and, unfortunately, "I Smile Back" falls into the latter category. That may sound a tad harsh, but Adam Salky's latest is a disappointing effort that is the one film that truthfully doesn't belong in the U.S. Dramatic Competition this year. [It's worth noting there are usually two or three films that the Sundance faithful wonder why they've been selected for competition, so just one means it's been quite a good year overall.] In many ways, "Smile Back" feels like a film that would have been at Sundance 10 to 15 years ago. It centers on Laney (Sarah Silverman), a stay-at-home mom living in a gorgeous house in either Connecticut or upstate New York (either works) who has two beautiful kids and, seemingly, a wonderful husband, Bruce (Josh Charles). In reality, however, Laney isn't entirely with it. She forgets her ID to allow her to walk her kids to their classrooms and keeps trying...

The shortlist for France’s Louis Delluc Prize, one of the country’s highest film honors, has been released with 14 films making the cut across two categories: Best Film and Best Debut Feature. Among the eight main movies, six hail from this year’s Cannes crop. Saint Laurent – which is France’s entry for the Foreign Language Oscar – by Bertrand Bonello; Olivier Assayas’ Juliette Binoche/Kristen Stewart-starrer Clouds Of Sils Maria; veteran Jean-Luc Godard’s 3D Goodbye To Language; Abderrahmane Sissako’s Timbuktu; Pascale Ferran’s Bird People, starring Josh Charles; and Claus Drexel’s Au Bord Du Monde will vie alongside Venice pics Trois Coeurs, by Benoît Jacquot, and Robin Campillo’s Eastern Boys. Godard, Ferran and Jacquot are all former Delluc laureates. The Debut Feature shortlist is made up of Thomas Cailley’s well-received Fortnight film Love At First Fight; Camera d’Or winner Party Girl; Virgil Vernier...

Glenn has been attending the 25th Stockholm Film Festival as a member of the Fipresci jury where he saw a selection of Oscar hopefuls including ‘The Imitation Game’ and foreign language competitors ‘Human Capital’ and ‘Mommy’.

The Imitation Game

One of the curious things about festivals in a city like Stockholm is that, due to delayed distribution methods, films like Morten Tyldum’s The Imitation Game and Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Birdman (the director’s memo about the name change apparently hasn’t crossed oceans) can compete for prizes alongside global curiosities like Pascale Ferran’s Bird People and Adilkhan Yerzhanov’s The Owners. They feel unfairly situated alongside arthouse titles from the whole globe.

My fellow jurors were surprised when I informed them that The Imitation Game was an Academy frontrunner. Given that the Oscar Best Picture competition at this stage appears to be quite polarizing and auteur-focused, I...

The festival’s 25th edition will feature a contribution from Ai Weiwei and competition titles including Whiplash, Nightcrawler and Foxcatcher.

The Stockholm International Film Festival (Nov 5-16) is to present its Achievement Award to Us actress Uma Thurman.

The Kill Bill star will will visit Stockholm to receive the prestigious Bronze Horse and meet the audience during an exclusive “Face2Face”.

Thurman will also take part in the inauguration ceremony, which will include the unveiling of an ice sculpture by Chinese artist Ai Weiwei.

Weiwei was a Stockholm jury member last year but since he wasn’t allowed to leave China, he sent an empty chair named ”The Chair for Non-attendance” as symbol of his absence.

He is still not allowed to leave China so will send a design that will be portrayed in the form of a large ice sculpture symbolising this years’ Spotlight theme - Hope.

Brazil

The festival will focus this year on Brazil...

After a one film hiatus, the Cohen Media Group are once again working with the prolific François Ozon. While the rights to his previous film, the Cannes comp title Young & Beautiful, landed at the IFC Films, Cmg are picking up where they left off with 2012′s In the House. Deadline reports that The New Girlfriend starring Romain Duris which landed at the Toronto Int. and San Sebastian Film Festivals (oddly passing over Venice), has been picked up for what will likely be a first quarter 2015 release. The devilishly delicious new number was among one of our faves at Tiff this year.

Gist: After the death of her best friend, Claire (Anaïs Demoustier) falls into a deep depression, but a surprising discovery about her friend’s husband gives her a new taste for life.

Worth Noting: Demoustier is having a breakout year of sorts with Marc Fitoussi’ Paris Follies and Pascale Ferran...

The Skin I Live In: Ozon’s Exquisite New Exploration of Gender Subversion

For his most playful and delightfully creepy film in years, Francois Ozon adapts crime writer Ruth Rendell’s short story for his latest, The New Girlfriend. Rendell has long supplied a bevy of European filmmakers with some of their most memorable titles, including Claude Miller’s Alias Betty (2001), Pedro Almodovar’s Live Flesh (1997), and perhaps, most notably, Claude Chabrol’s La Ceremonie (1994) and The Bridesmaid (2004). An excellent purveyor of strange and complicated relationships that often involve sublimated identities and tendencies that often lead to deadly scenarios, Rendell serves as an excellent template for Ozon with material that recalls the sexually transgressive explorations of his early career.

Claire (Anais Demoustier) and Laura (Isild Le Besco) have been inseparable friends since childhood. They’ve followed nearly the same life trajectory as well, both marrying handsome young men and what not.

More than a dozen new specialty films crowded the box office this weekend, including films from Terry Gilliam, Kevin Smith and singer Nick Cave. Perhaps not surprisingly, overwhelmed audiences hit a saturation point, leaving several new titles with, at best, only decent debut numbers. Despite the competition, Roadside/Lionsgate’s The Skeleton Twins held strong in its second weekend with a sizable expansion, and Snowpiercer continued to release strong VOD grosses alongside its waning theatrical returns. On a straight per-theater average, it was Cave’s 20,000 Days on Earth that easily came out on top. Drafthouse Films is distributing the Sundance 2014 documentary, which centers on writer and musician Cave as he reaches that 20,000th day in his life. The film had one of the year’s biggest non-fiction debuts, with a $26,873 gross at New York’s Film Forum. Numbers for 20,000 Days were buoyed by a offsite special event at Town Hall that included a Q&A,...

This year’s European Film Awards are officially out of the gates with a not so lean 50 film submissions to select from. The 27th edition collects titles that date back to last year’s Venice and Toronto Int. Film Festivals moving into Sundance-Rotterdam-Berlin and finally Cannes of ’14. Among the 31 European countries represented, we’ve got likes of the Palme d’Or winner Nuri Bilge Ceylan leading the huge pack of contenders including Jonathan Glazer’s Under the Skin and Pawel Pawlikowski’s Ida. Here’s the complete list of 50!:

Alienation

ОТЧУЖДЕНИЕ (Otchujdenie)

Bulgaria

Directed By: Milko Lazarov

Written By: Milko Lazarov, Kitodar Todorov & Georgi Tenev

Produced By: Veselka Kiryakova

Amour Fou

Austria/Luxembourg/Germany

Written & Directed By: Jessica Hausner

Produced By: Martin Gschlacht, Antonin Svoboda, Bruno Wagner, Bady Minck, Alexander Dumreicher-Ivanceanu & Philippe Bober

Beautiful Youth

Hermosa Juventud

Spain/France

Directed By: Jaime Rosales

Written By: Jaime Rosales & Enric Rufas

Produced By: Jaime Rosales,...

More than 30 European countries represented in the line-up.Scroll down for list in full

The 50 films recommended for a nomination for the European Film Awards (EFAs) have been unveiled.

The European Film Academy and Efa Productions revealed the titles at a press conference in Riga, Latvia where this year’s 27th EFAs will take place on Dec 13.

A total of 31 European countries are represented. In the 20 countries with the most Efa members, these members have voted one national film directly into the selection list.

To complete the list, a selection committee consisting of Efa Board Members and invited experts have included further films. Those experts include Screen International chief film critic and reviews editor Mark Adams (UK), Marit Kapla (Sweden), Stefan Kitanov (Bulgaria), Paz Lázaro (Spain), Christophe Leparc (France) and Elma Tataragic (Bosnia & Herzegovina).

In the coming weeks, more than 3,000 members of the European Film Academy will vote for the nominations in the categories European Film, Director...

Some eight fifteenths of the way through Ovid’s Metamorphoses, the epic poem relates the tale of an unnamed boy who was turned into a partridge. Flung from Minerva’s high temple by his jealous uncle Daedalus, the nascent inventor free falls into his new form as the Goddess intervenes, spinning his arms into wings. In observance of his near-death experience, Perdix the partridge, as he is identified in a recent translation, “declines the lofty trees, and thinks it best/To brood in hedge-rows o’er its humble nest.” (Pear trees, you’ll note, are conveniently low to the ground.)

Folded into twenty-eight lines of dactylic hexameter, Perdix’s snapshot of a story speaks to primordial self-absorption and condemnation as much as it does the whimsy of divine intervention. One could easily argue that 2006 years later, these two stanzas have been cracked open and scrambled into Pascale Ferran’s Bird People,...

Roadside/Lionsgate opened its Sundance prize-winner The Skeleton Twins to robust numbers in a five-city platform debut across 15 theaters, taking one of the highest theater averages of the year among limited releases. In a much broader release, Fox Searchlight edged The Drop to a near-wide release over the weekend, landing sixth in overall box office. American Experience/PBS Films‘ doc Last Days In Vietnam, meanwhile held over solidly, adding one theater in its second week, while China Lion maintained some momentum with the Stateside release of Chinese-language entry But Always, also adding a single location. Sony Pictures Classics expanded Love Is Strange with momentum. Comedy-drama Skeleton Twins starring Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig grossed nearly $411K in 15 theaters in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago and Washington D.C., for a very solid $27,383 PTA. The film, directed by Craig Johnson about long-estranged and troubled twins reuniting was No. 1 in a dozen locations,...

The upcoming weekend boasts an onslaught of new Specialty titles vying for audiences. In all likelihood, however, many will have a short big screen life as the fall’s awards contenders ramp up and crowd others out. Five of this week’s dozen-plus newcomers are spotlighted here with Fox Searchlight’s The Drop edging on a wide release. The feature starring Tom Hardy, Noomi Rapace and James Gandolfini will bow in over 800 theaters. TWC’s The Disappearance Of Eleanor Rigby also joins the fray with a platform release. The film also has two accompanying titles told from the perspective of its two main characters, which will be released in more limited runs in October. Magnolia will open its thriller Honeymoon in a day and date release while Dada Films’ Swearnet: The Movie breaks a movie record with the most F-bombs ever. And Cohen Media Group’s My Old Lady bowed Wednesday in limited release.

“The Good Wife” alum Josh Charles stopped by TheWrap's “Drinking With the Stars” set at the Toronto International Film Festival presented by SodaStream to promote his new movie “Bird People.” While Charles is from Baltimore, the film isn't about the Ravens or the Orioles. Instead, Pascale Ferran's latest film is about, as Charles describes it, “how we interact with one another — the sense of loneliness and isolation a lot of people feel. The more literally connected we are the more emotionally disconnected we become. It deals in those themes,” though he later admitted that it's not the type of.

Flight risks abound in Pascale Ferran's charming, audacious Bird People, a film that tracks the dizzying rush to freedom of two restive souls both grounded in a particularly dreary, confining location: an airport hotel. The bulwark-like Hilton that's a quick shuttle ride from Paris's Charles de Gaulle Airport becomes a crucial way station for identities — and bodies — to be cast off and reconfigured.

A similar kind of reimagining is at work in Bird People, Ferran's fourth feature (which she co-wrote with Guillaume Bréaud) in 20 years and only her second, after her incandescent Lady Chatterley (2006), to open in the U.S. Just as that adaptation of D.H. Lawrence's once-scandalous novel (or, more precisely, of John Thomas and La...

At some point or another, every major international filmmaker gets the itch to broaden their audience and work with big (or biggish) names for a film that, at least in part, is in the English language. The latest director to experiment away from their native tongue is Pascal Ferran, who made a splash eight years ago with her three-hour French adaptation of D.H. Lawrence's "Lady Chatterley." "Bird People," which is in large part in English, and features a number of recognizable faces, including Josh Charles, Radha Mitchell and "The Wire" actor (and director) Clark Johnson, has its vocal champions here in Cannes, but we were legitimately puzzled by the film, which combines a drab, enervating English-language first half with a better, but still not entirely successful, second that marks a major departure from what's come before. After a brief prologue in which Ferran delves into the thoughts of passengers on a train,...

Tweets and FaceTimes: Pascale Ferran Returns with Uneven But Adventurous Realist-Fantasy

There are a number of films scattered throughout that are intent on depicting how our world communicates and operates today, viz. through web-mediated interfaces. But none of them approached this reality, however glancingly, in such an exuberantly abstract register as did Pascale Ferran in her bonkers, wholly original, yet painfully uneven new film, Bird People. It’s her first project since the now eight year-old Lady Chatterley (2006), and one can imagine that at least half of that hiatus was spent working on the film’s CGI effects alone, which are some of the most subtle but meticulous to be employed in any film yet in existence. The only problem is that so much narrative playfulness and structural innovation gets seriously bogged down by Ferran’s awkward direction and a script filled with lame dialogue — perhaps attributable to English being her second language.

Bird People is a series of misconnections. After a blissful prologue paying homage to Wings of Desire, Pascale Ferran’s fourth feature listlessly morphs into a bizarre confluence of realism and magicalism. The film is a textbook example of ambition undercut by tonal and pacing inconsistency. Divided into two chapters, Bird People leads with Gary (Josh Charles), a Bay Area businessman ready to “leave everything behind,” as he proclaims. Ridden with anxiety, Gary knows he needs to leave his position at his growing Tech Company, his wife (after 18 years of courtship), his kids, and his current way of life. From one airport hotel to the next, he seems unable to experience joy or happiness. This heightened mid-life crisis serves as a jarring juxtaposition between Audrey (Anais Demoustier), a Parisian chambermaid and college student whose future is still ahead of her. She too is dissatisfied with her place of work, a Hilton Hotel where Gary is hiding out...

“Confounding in a good way” is probably a cop-out way to describe a film, but I can think of few other ways to succinctly sum up Pascale Ferran’s Bird People. As you may have deduced from the title, this binary portrait features a supporting character of the avian persuasion, who turns in some of the most seamless VFX work this side of The Wolf of Wall Street. The above video from French special effects company Buf — who also handled The Matrix series, United 93 and The Dark Knight — reveals that nearly every background in the film was transposed onto a green screen. This would seem logical as […]...

“Confounding in a good way” is probably a cop-out way to describe a film, but I can think of few other ways to succinctly sum up Pascale Ferran’s Bird People. As you may have deduced from the title, this binary portrait features a supporting character of the avian persuasion, who turns in some of the most seamless VFX work this side of The Wolf of Wall Street. The above video from French special effects company Buf — who also handled The Matrix series, United 93 and The Dark Knight — reveals that nearly every background in the film was transposed onto a green screen. This would seem logical as […]...

"Sometimes people change..." IFC Films has debuted the full Us trailer for Pascale Ferran's new film Bird People, a two-part story set in Paris, France about two people - one of them is Gary Newman, played by Josh Charles following up his "Good Wife" departure; the other is Audrey, played by Anaïs Demoustier, a young French hotel maid who has an interesting story of her own. It's a very beautiful trailer, I will admit, with a lovely score and alluring premise with all the right shots to drag you in. What does the name Bird People have to do with the story? Well, that's one of those you-have-to-see-it-to-find-out kind of questions. Well, actually, they don't show all of it but they do hint a bit at what's going on in the trailer anyway. Enjoy. Here's the first official Us trailer for Pascale Ferran's Bird People, originally debuted by...

A trip abroad causing a crisis for an American man isn't exactly the freshest premise for a film, but that don't let that stop you from seeing Pascale Ferran's "Bird People." That's just the start of a movie with many more surprises up its sleeve that move it far away from what you expect. Today we have the exclusive U.S. trailer and poster for the film. "The Good Wife" star Josh Charles leads the film as Gary Newman, a Silicon Valley engineer who lands in Paris only to completely disconnect from his past life, quitting his job and calling things off with his wife. What happens next can't be spoiled, but a French maid (Anais Demoustier) and a second act shift turn the narrative over. This movie marries fantasy and drama in ways that had critics buzzing at the Cannes Film Festival where it premiered this spring. "Bird People...

If you wanted a snapshot of worldly issues then Tiff’s Contemporary World Cinema programme would certainly serve as a whirlwind passport. Loaded in Cannes Film Festival preemed items receiving their North American Premiere debuts (Jessica Hausner’s Amour Fou, Mélanie Laurent’s Breathe , Bruno Dumont’s P’tit Quinquin and Pascale Ferran’s Bird People are are just the tip of the iceberg) Tiff programmers have landed world premiere items from the likes of Cristián Jiménez, Ole Christian Madsen, Alex Holdridge & Linnea Saasen (we pic above) and Baran bo Odar. Along with the Canadian items mentioned last week, Here is the largest section’s offerings for 2014.

“Aire Libre,” Anahí Berneri, Argentina / International Premiere

“Amour Fou,” Jessica Hausner, Austria/Luxembourg/Germany / North American Premiere

“Behavior” (“Conducta”), Ernesto Daranas, Cuba / Canadian Premiere

“Bird People,” Pascale Ferran, France / North American Premiere

“Black Souls” (“Anime Nere”), Francesco Munzi, Italy / International Premiere

“Breathe” (“Respire”), Mélanie Laurent,...

This morning the Toronto Film Festival added several more films to their lineup including the world premiere of Thomas McCarthy's The Cobbler which stars Adam Sandler as a New York City cobbler who, disenchanted with the grind of daily life, stumbles upon a magical heirloom that allows him to step into the lives of his customers and see the world in a new way. The film co-stars Method Man, Ellen Barkin, Melonie Diaz, Dan Stevens, Steve Buscemi and Dustin Hoffman. Additionally, Sundance standouts Infinity Polar Bear and Laggies starring Keira Knightley and Chloe Grace Moretz were added to the Gala selection. Joining The Cobbler as new additions to the Special Presentations field include Olivier Assayas' Clouds of Sils Maria starring Kristen Stewart and Juliette Binoche and Two Days, One Night from Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne and starring Marion Cotillard. Both films made a splash at Cannes earlier this year,...

Toronto film festival organisers have programmed features from 42 countries in the Contemporary World Cinema (Cwc) programme and unveiled eight South Korean selections in the City To City.

Cwc features latest work by Jessica Hausner, Rolf de Heer, Christian Zübert and Ryuichi Hiroki, among others.

For the third year, Tiff (Sept 4-14) has partnered with the University of Toronto’s Munk School Of Global Affairs on the Contemporary World Speakers series, pairing five films in selection with expert scholars.

The Contemporary World Speakers series is programmed in conjunction with the Tiff Adult Learning department.

Contemporary World Cinema

Wp = World premiere / Nap = North American premiere / IP = International premiere / Cp = Canadian premiere.

Aire Libre (Argentina), Anahí Berneri IP

Amour Fou (Austria-Luxembourg-Germany), Jessica Hausner Nap

Behavior (Conducta) (Cuba), Ernesto Daranas Cp

Bird People (France), Pascale Ferran Nap

Black Souls (Anime Nere) (Italy), Francesco Munzi IP

Breathe (Respire) (France), Mélanie Laurent Nap

Charlie’s Country (Australia), Rolf de Heer Nap

*John Stackhouse...

Bird People

Written by Guillaume Bréaud and Pascale Ferran

Directed by Pascale Ferran

France, 2014

By just the opening shots of Pascale Ferran’s Bird People, the film has established an odd perspective: the audience is privy to the inner thoughts of each character, their wandering conversations, or the music modestly playing through their headphones. It’s an act of cinematic eavesdropping, of allowing the audience to peer into the lives of even the most minor characters. In truth, however, it serves as introduction to one of the leads, Audry (Anais Demoustier), a persistent wallflower whose curiosity into the private lives of others later lends itself to a magical opportunity. It’s the sort of magic that’s genuinely unexpected in such a drama-centered story, but the sheer amount of charm exuberating from the character-driven narrative allows the story to sink into a pleasing form of magical realism.

Hard-working and incredibly...



The Wonders

At Cannes this year, I cried at the end of The Wonders by Alice (A-lee-che, she's Italian) Rohrwacher. Crying at The Wonders is one thing I have in common with Nicolas Widing Refn.

I didn't expect to cry. At first, the film reminded me of two nauseating clichés. One is the coming-of-age summer, when some unexpected boy arrives on the scene and changes everything. The other, in this film about an eccentric family of beekeepers in Tuscany, is that sort of softcore porn of the European idyllic countryside (with soft backlighting) that finds easy audiences in the United States. Summer Hours is one recent example.

Yet about halfway through, The Wonders defied my expectations through filmmaking choices with texture, costume, and music. I'd guess that a song in the credits is what pushed Refn to tears. It's a John Hughes-type cue used much more subtly than Refn's own music choices.

Cannes - The Cannes Film Festival is certainly easier than some of its North American cousins in regards to the sheer number of movies screened and how they are scheduled (two major films rarely premiere at the same time). That being said, too many 8:30am screenings and it's easy for the whole festival to get away from you a bit. With that in mind, here are three quick capsule reviews from this year's fest. "Coming Home" Over the past 15 years, master film director Zhang Yimou's work seems to have settled into two distinct styles. He's best known for visionary epics such as "Hero," "Curse of the Golden Flower" and, most recently, "The Flowers of War." Alternatively, Yimou has also crafted small, intimate dramas that rarely show any hint of his great cinematic eye. That is the Yimou audiences will experience in his new drama "Coming Home," starring longtime muse...

At some point or another, every major international filmmaker gets the itch to broaden their audience, and work with big (or biggish) names for a film that, at least in part, is in the English language. The latest director to experiment away from their native tongue is Pascal Ferran, who made a splash eight years ago with her three-hour French adaptation of D.H. Lawrence's "Lady Chatterly." "Bird People," which is in large part in English, and features a number of recognizable faces including Josh Charles, Radha Mitchell and "The Wire" actor (and director) Clark Johnson has its vocal champions here in Cannes, but we were legitimately puzzled by the film, which combines a drab, enervating English-language first half with a better, but still not entirely successful, second that marks a major departure from what's come before. After a brief prologue in which Ferran delves into the thoughts of passengers on a train,...

Exclusive: Latest film from Francois Ozon [pictured] stars Romain Duris and Raphael Personnaz.

Paris-based film company Films Distribution has racked up sales on François Ozon’s upcoming film The New Girlfriend starring Romain Duris and Raphael Personnaz.

It has sold to Switzerland (Filmcoopi), Spain (Golem), Portugal (Leopardo Filmes), Sweden (Folkets Bio), Cis (A-one Films), Israel (Lev Cinema), Brazil (Imovision), Hong Kong (Sundream) and Japan (Kino Films).

Based on a short story by Ruth Rendell, the film stars Anais Demoustier as a young woman who falls into a deep depression after her best friend dies. She finds the strength to re-embrace life after her she discovers an unexpected secret about her friend’s husband.

The picture, which is in post-production, is produced by Eric and Nicolas Altmayer of Paris-based Mandarin Cinema.

Films Distribution is promo-reeling The New Girlfriend in the Marché. Other hot titles on its slate include Céline Sciamma’s Girlhood which opened Directors’ Fortnight and Pascale Ferran’s Un Certain...

Second film from one of Spain’s hottest up and coming filmmakers.

Paris-based Films Distribution has picked up international rights to Spanish director Carlos Vermut’s Magical Girl, on the eve of the Cannes Marché.

The film follows a father’s attempt to acquire his sick daughter the dress of her dreams, as worn by her favourite Japanese cartoon character, Magical Girl Yukiko.

In his search, the man, called Luis, crosses paths with the beautiful but mentally disturbed Barbara and retired teacher Damian, who has a troubled past.

Luis, Barbara and Damian enter a vicious circle of blackmailing where sex, instinct and reason will struggle in a battle that will ultimately end in tragedy.

“Magical Girl is a drama that takes twists and turns that put you at the edge of your seat. The story is sexy and troubling,” said Films Distribution co-chief Nicolas Brigaud-Robert.

Magical Girl is highly anticipated after Vermut’s critically acclaimed debut, the kidnap...

The mystery is finally solved: Will Gardner faked his death so that he could go overseas and find himself!

Ok, I’ll let the Will Gardner thing go (for now). But we do have a glimpse of Josh Charles first post-Good Wife film, Bird People. From director Pascale Ferran, Bird People stars Charles as an American engineer who heads overseas and decides he needs a major life change, which apparently involves staying out of America and away from razors. Along with Charles, French actress Anaïs Demoustier stars as a chambermaid who also undergoes a major life change, though hers has a supernatural element to it.

The Cannes Film Festival's lineup of films include the Competition titles of several legendary auteurs such as Jean-Luc Godard, David Cronenberg, The Dardenne Brothers, Atom Egoyan, Mike Leigh, and Ken Loach. In the Un Certain Regard section, the highly anticipated film by actor-turned-director Ryan Gosling. Those in the business will be happy to find Alison Thompson in her new company, Sunray Films, selling Mike Leigh's Mr. Turner. Two films out of 18 in Competition are by women, but across all sections there are 15 women directors. Further in Competition, three films are from Canada; two are from U.S. one film is from Latin America (Argentina); one is from Japan; one from Turkey; one from Russia and the rest are European.

Opening Night Film :

Grace of Monaco (Producer: Stone Angels/ U.S. The Weinstein Company) from France by Olivier Dahan

In Competition

Clouds of Sils Maria (Isa: MK2/ U.S. Distribution: IFC Films) from France/ Gremany/ Switzerland by Olivier Assayas

Saint Laurent (Isa: EuropaCorp) from France by Bertrand Bonello

Winter's Sleep aka Kis uykusu (Producer: Zeynofilm ) from Turkey by Nuri Bilge Ceylan who has a great website.

Maps to the Stars (Isa: Entertainment One) from Canada by David Cronenberg

Two Days, One Night (Isa: Wild Bunch/ U.S. Distribution: IFC Films) from Belgium and France by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne

Mommy (Isa: Seville International) from Canada by Xavier Dolan

The Captive (Isa: Entertainment One) from Canada by Atom Egoyan. You can watch the trailer here.

Goodbye to Language aka Adieu au Langage (Isa: Wild Bunch) from France by Jean-Luc Godard

The Search (Isa: Wild Bunch/ U.S. Distribution: Worldview Entertainment) from France by Michel Hazanavivius

The Homesman (Isa: Europacorp) from U.S. by Tommy Lee Jones

Still the Water (Isa: MK2) from Japan and France by Naomi Kawase ♀

Mr. Turner (Isa: Sunray Films/ U.S. Distribution: Sony Pictures Classics) from U.K. by Mike Leigh. Sunray Films is Alison Thompson's new company and she brought the film over from her former employer Focus Features International when they left the international sales business.

Jimmy's Hall (Isa: Wild Bunch) from Ireland and U.K. by Ken Loach

Foxcatcher (Isa: Panorama Media/ U.S. Distribution: Sony Pictures Classics) from U.S. by Bennett Miller

Le Meraviglie (Isa: The Match Factory) from Italy, Switzerland and Germany by Alice Rohrwacher ♀

Timbuktu (Isa: Le Pacte) from France by Abderrahmane Sissako

Wild Tales (Isa: Film Factory Entertainment/ U.S. Distribution: Palmera International) from Argentina by Damian Szifron

Leviathan (Isa: Pyramide International) from Russia by Andrey Zvyagintsev

Un Certain Regard

Party Girl (Isa: Pyramide International) from France by Marie Amachoukeli ♀ , Claire Burger ♀ , Samuel Theis

Jauja (Isa: Ndm) from Argentina by Lisandro Alonso

The Blue Room (Isa: Alfama Films) from France by Mathieu Amalric

Misunderstood aka Incompresa aka L'Incomprise (Production: Paradis Films) from Italy by Asia Argento ♀

Titli (Isa: Westend Films) from India by Kanu Behl

The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby (Isa: Myriad Pictures/ U.S. Distribution: The Weinstein Company) from U.S. by Ned Benson

Bird People (Isa: Films Distribution) from France by Pascale Ferran ♀

Lost River (Isa: Sierra/Affinity) from U.S. by Ryan Gosling

Amour Fou (Isa: Coproduction Office Paris) from Austria by Jessica Hausner ♀

Charlie's Country (Isa: Visit Films) from Australia by Rolf de Heer

Snow in Paradise (Isa: The Match Factory) from U.K. by Andrew Hulme

A Girl at My Door (Isa: Cj Entertainment) from So. Korea by July Jung ♀

Xenia (Isa: Pyramide International) from Greece by Panos Koutras

Run (Isa: Bac) from France by Philippe Lacote

Turist from Sweden and Norway by Ruben Ostlund

Beautiful Youth aka Hermosa Juventud (Producer: Fresdeval Films) by Jaime Rosales

Fantasia by Wang Chao

The Salt of the Earth (Isa: Le Pacte) from Germany and Brazil by Wim Wenders, Juliano Ribeiro Salgado

Away From His Absence (Isa: Bizibi) from Israel by Karen Yedaya ♀

Out of Competition

How to Train Your Dragon 2 (Dreamworks Animation) from the U.S. by Dean Deblois

Coming Home aka Gui Lai (Isa: Wild Bunch) from China by Zhang Yimou

Special Screenings

Bridges of Sarajevo (Les Ponts de Sarajevo) from Bosnia-Herzegovina, Portugal, Germany, and France

Red Army from the U.S. and Russia by Gabe Polsky

Maidan (Isa: Atoms & Void Bv) from Belarus by Segei Loznitsa

Silvered Water, Syria Self-Portrait from Syria by Ossama Mohammed

Cartoonists - Foot Soldiers Of Democracy from France by Stephanie Valloatto

Directors' Fortnight

Opening Film: Girlhood aka Bande De Files (Isa: Films Distribution) from France by Céline Sciamma

Closing Film: Pride (Isa:Pathe International) from the U.K. by Matthew Warchus

Features

Alleluia (Isa:snd- Groupe M6) from Belgium and France by Fabrice Du Welz

Catch Me Daddy (Isa: Altitude Film Sales) from the U.K. by Daniel Wolfe

Next To Her aka At Li La Yla (Isa: Films Boutique) from Israel by Asaf Korman

Cold In July (Isa: Memento Films International) from the U.S. by Jim Mickle

Fighters aka Les Combattants (ISa: Bac Films) from France by Thomas Cailley

Gett — The Trial Of Viviane Amsalem (Isa: Films Distribution) from France, Germany, Israel by Ronit & Shlomi Elkabetz

The Tale of Princess Kaguya aka Kaguya-Hime No Monogatari (Isa: Wild Bunch) from Japan by Isao Takahata

Eat Your Bones aka Mange Tes Morts (Isa:Capricci Films) from France by Jean-Charles Hue

A Hard Day aka Kkeut-Kka-Ji-Kan-Da (Isa: Showbox/Mediaples, Inc.) from South Korea by Seong-Hun Kim

National Gallery (Isa: Doc & Film International) from France by Frederick Wiseman

Queen And Country (Isa: Le Pacte) from the U.K. and Ireland by John Boorman

Sheltered aka Refugiado (Isa: Backup Media Films) from Argentina, France, Poland, and Colombia by Diego Lerman

These Final Hours (Isa: Celluloid Dreams/Nightmares) from Australia by Zach Hilditch

Tu Dors Nicole (Isa: Seville International) from Canada by Stéphane Lafleur

Whiplash (Isa:Sierra /Affinity) from the U.S. by Damien Chazelle

Special Screening

P'tit Quinquin by Bruno Dumont

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre by Tobe Hooper (4K restoration)

Acid Program

Brooklyn (Produced by Les Enfants de la Dalle) from France by Pascal Tessaud

The Way Out aka Cesta Ven (Produced by Cinema de Facto) from France and the Czech Republic by Petr Vaclav

Challat of Tunis aka Le Challat the Tunis (Produced by Cinetelefilms ) from Tunisia and France by Kaouther Ben Hania

The Girls and the River aka La Fille et le Fleuve (Produced by 31 Juin Films) from France by Aurélia Georges

Mercuriales (Produced by Kazak Productions) from France by Virgil Vernier

New Territories (Produced by Paraiso Production Difussion) from France by Fabianny Deschamps

Insecure aka Qui Vive (Isa: Udi- Urban Distribution International ) from France by Marianne Tardieu

The Rules of the Game aka Les Regles du Jeu (Isa: Doc & Film International) from France by Claudine Bories and Patrice Chagnard

Spartacus & Cassandra (Produced by Morgane Productions) from France by Ioanis Nuguet

Critics' Week

Opening Night: Faire: L'Amour (Fla) from France by Djinn Carrénard

Closing Nigh: Hippocrates aka Hippocrate (Isa: Le Pacte) from France by Thomas Lilti

Features

Darker Than Midnight aka Piu' Buio di Mezzanotte (Isa: Rai Trade) from Italy by Sebastiano Riso

Gente de Bien (Isa: Versatile) from Colombia and France by Franco Lolli

Hope (Isa: Pyramide International) from France by Boris Lojkine

It Follows (Isa: Visit Films) from the U.S. by David Robert Mitchell

Self Made aka Boreg (Isa: Westend Films) from Israel by Shira Geffen

The Tribe aka Plemya (Isa: Alpha Violet) from Ukraine by Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy

When Animals Dream aka Nar Dyrene Drommer (Produced by Gaumont) from Denmark by Jonas Alexander Arnby

Critics' Week: Special Screenings

Breathe aka Respire (Produced by Gaumont) from France by Mélanie Laurent

The Kindergarten Teacher aka Haganenet Teacher aka (Isa: Le Pacte) from Israel by Nadav Lapid...

Workshop to probe statistics behind the debate on women in film.

The European Audiovisual Observatory is to run an event looking at the place of women in today’s film industry, entitled “Girls Just Wanna Have Film”, during the Cannes Film Festival (May 14-25).

“We know this is a hot topic but it’s clear that any discussion on this subject needs to be backed up by reliable facts and figures. It’s the Observatory’s role to provide these and that’s what we come to Cannes to do,” Eao’s executive director Susanne Nikoltchev told ScreenDaily.

“We made a study on female directors at the request of our Advisory Committee and we’d like to make this data available to add to the discussion.”

News of the conference comes amid the now traditional Cannes debate on the number of women in Official Selection as well as the parallel sections.

There are two...

Tim here. It's Christmas morning, everybody: the Cannes Film Festival announced its line-up today for this year's edition, running from May 14-25.

Opening Night

Grace of Monaco (dir. Olivier Dahan; starring Nicole Kidman)

Official Selection

Sils Maria (Olivier Assayas)

Saint Laurent (Bertrand Bonelo)

Winter's Sleep (Nuri Bilge Ceylan)

Maps to the Stars (David Cronenberg) Yes No Maybe So

Two Days, One Night (Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne)

Mommy (Xavier Dolan)

The Captive (Atom Egoyan)

Goodbye to Language (Jean-Luc Godard)

The Search (Michel Hazanavicius)

The Homesman (Tommy Lee Jones) Yes No Maybe So

Still the Water (Naomi Kawase)

Mr. Turner (Mike Leigh)

Jimmy's Hall (Ken Loach)

Foxcatcher (Bennett Miller) We Can't Wait

Le Meraviglie (Alice Rohrwacher)

Timbuktu (Abderrahmane Sissako)

Wild Tales (Damian Szifron)

Leviathan (Andrey Zvyagintsev)

Channing Tatum & Mark Ruffalo as brothers in "Foxcatcher"

Un Certain Regard

Opener - Party Girl (Marie Amachoukeli, Claire Burger, Samuel Theis)

Jauja (Lisando Alonso)

The Blue Room...

The official selections for the 67th Cannes Film Festival have been announced with a more mainstream than expected selection this year featuring quite a few films you've probably heard of.

New films are on over from such esteemed directors as David Cronenberg, Jean-Luc Godard, Bennett Miller, Olivier Dahan, David Michod, Zhang Yimou, Atom Egoyan, Xavier Dolan, Ken Loach, Olivier Assayas, Rolf de Heer, Michel Hazanavicius, Mike Leigh, second-timer Tommy Lee Jones and first-timer Ryan Gosling.

Opening Film (Out of Competition):

"Grace of Monaco" – Olivier Dahan

Competition:

"The Captive" – Atom Egoyan

"Clouds of Sils Maria" – Olivier Assayas

"Two Days, One Night" – Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardennes

"Foxcatcher" – Bennett Miller

"Goodbye to Language" – Jean-Luc Godard

"The Homesman" – Tommy Lee Jones

"Jimmy's Hall" – Ken Loach

"Leviathan" – Andrey Zvyagintsev

"Le Meraviglie" – Alice Rohrwacher

"Maps to the Stars" – David Cronenberg

"Mommy" – Xavier Dolan

"Mr. Turner" – Mike Leigh

"Saint Laurent" – Bertrand Bonello

"The Search" – Michel Hazanavicius...