Ahead of Cannes, Film Market Pre-Sales May Be Down but Not Out

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief“Lendarys,” a big-budget family adventure animation film that is currently in production, scored a handful of pre-sales during the Cannes Market. Rights sales are handled by Hong Kong-, Paris and Los Angeles-based All Rights Entertainment.With a production budget of $30 million, the film is the directorial debut of Philippe Duchene and Jean-Baptiste Cuvelier.

Former Love Island star Laura Anderson announced to her fans on Wednesday that she has been forced to delay her IVF due to a "setback". The news comes just a day after she spoke of her excitement at starting the fertility treatment with her partner Dane Bowers. Sadly, her plans have been put on hold because she needs to take more vitamins.

Lise Pedersen In a panel discussion provocatively entitled “Content Scramble for Africa,” guests at the Cannes Film Market’s Cannes Docs sidebar were invited to interrogate the sustainability of current forms of collaboration between the African continent and the Global North in documentary filmmaking.Moderated by IDFA programmer Sarah Dawson, the panel included Laurent Bitty, president of Africadoc-Côte d’Ivoire, Senegalese director and producer Angèle Diabang (“Un air de Kora,” “Le Monde en Face”), Christilla Huillard-Kann, co-founder of Paris-based indie film production company Elda Productions, and Mohamed Saïd Ouma, head of DocA (Documentary Africa), a film fund dedicated to documentary film.

EXCLUSIVE: Utopia has finalized its North American deal for Cannes Competition pic Holy Spider, the noir thriller from Danish-Iranian filmmaker Ali Abbasi. We told you the deal was all but there a couple of days ago.

BBC Studios Partners With ‘Repair Shop’ Star Jay Blades & Hungry Bear

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentREinvent International Sales has closed major territory sales on “UFO Sweden,” a science fiction movie adventure from Crazy Pictures, a Swedish film collective whose past credits includes the 2018 hit movie “The Unthinkable.”Described as a mix between “X-Files” and “Stranger Things,” “UFO Sweden” is set in a small town and follows a teenage rebel placed in foster care, who suspects that her father is not dead, but has been kidnapped by UFOs. With the help from a UFO association, she is determined to find out the truth.

films of the season. It's also a majorly important for fashion, since film premieres require some serious looks on the red carpet. And who's been bringing their style A-game this time around? None other than Anne Hathaway, who has been in Cannes to promote her new film Armageddon Time, a historical drama alongside an all-star cast including Anthony Hopkins and Jessica Chastain that is her latest big project after tv series We Crashed.

She's not even got a ring on her finger yet, but Love Island Scot Laura Anderson is already planning her wedding to Dane Bowers.

EXCLUSIVE: Oscar winner Julianne Moore (Still Alice) and Killing Eve star Sandra Oh are set to star in hot Cannes market package Stone Mattress, which Lynne Ramsay (You Were Never Really Here) will direct from the acclaimed New Yorker short story by The Handmaid’s Tale scribe Margaret Atwood.

Vivienne Chow The Taiwan Pavilion returns to the Marché du Film this year with a beefed-up version after two years of interruption due to the COVID-19 pandemic, presenting 91 titles including the latest box office hits at home, elaborate international co-productions, as well as technology-driven XR projects. Genre films with a solid plot and production, rather than a stellar cast, can easily win the hearts of audiences at home, according to filmmakers behind some of the featured projects. International co-productions will continue to play a vital role in boosting local opportunities as well as taking Taiwan talents abroad, but the ongoing pandemic restrictions on the self-governed island will certainly have an impact on making international connections.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefLeading Japanese indie studio Gaga Corporation is launching suspense thriller “#Manhole” next week at Cannes.Being directed by Kumakiri Kazuyoshi (“My Man,” “Sketches of Kaitan City”), from a screenplay by Okada Michitaka (“Masquerade Hotel”), the film depicts a promising young man, with everything going for him, who falls to the bottom of a deep manhole on the eve of his wedding. Trapped and imagining all sort of horrors, the prospective bridegroom uses his smartphone to reach out to friends, the police and social media. But his predicament becomes worse.

Olivia Attwood breaks down in tears on Thursday's The Games as she suffers a brutal bike crash during training and injures her bad elbow. In the upcoming episode, the female contestants do bike training at the velodrome ahead of the live track racing when Olivia, 31, crashes into Phoenix Gulzer-Brown as she shouts: "Ah, it's so scary!" During the brutal crash, Olivia breaks down in tears as she falls on her bad elbow, causing further injury to her shoulder.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefStudiocanal will launch rights sales at Cannes on “Kangaroo,” the first Australia-New Zealand production from the local arm of the French film and TV group Canal Plus. The film is inspired by the real-life story of The Kangaroo Sanctuary founder Chris ‘Brolga’ Barns, who has been saving and raising baby kangaroos in Central Australia since 2005.The narrative is shaped as a heart-warming family comedy about a down-on-his-luck pro surfer who becomes stranded in an Outback town after a car accident.

Olivia Attwood got emotional on Wednesday's The Games as she admitted that she has layers to her that fans won't have seen. The reality star, 31, confessed that although she is herself, she also plays a "character" that people have "bought into" since appearing on Love Island in 2017. Olivia got emotional as she joined her fellow contestants in javelin training, where she admitted she felt "embarrassed" after it didn't go to plan.

Father John Misty delivered a live rendition of ‘Kiss Me (I Loved You)’ on US TV last night (May 3). Check out the video below.The singer-songwriter – aka Joshua Tillman – appeared as the musical guest on the latest episode of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in support of his fifth album ‘Chloë And The Next 20th Century’, which came out last month.Having recently shared its David Raboy-directed video, FJM played ‘Kiss Me…’ in Fallon’s New York City studio with the help of a small orchestra.

EXCLUSIVE: Ming-Na Wen (The Book of Boba Fett) and Esai Morales (Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning – Part One) have signed on to star alongside Brianna Hildebrand (Deadpool) in the long-gestating sci-fi thriller Persephone, from director Jeffrey Morris (Oceanus: Act One).

Naman Ramachandran The Cannes Film Market has added to its previously announced Ukraine in Focus program, which will provide Ukrainian filmmakers and producers with networking, pitching and co-financing opportunities over two days during the Cannes Film Festival, on May 21 and 22. A panel discussion titled “Ukrainian Cinema: From Surviving to Thriving Again: How the Global Film Community Can Come Together to Support the Country’s War-Torn Industry” will take place on May 21.In addition the market has confirmed the full endorsement and patronage of Ukrainian Films Now, an initiative promoted by EAVE, First Cut Lab, and When East Meets West, which aims at gathering a pool of European regional and national film funds to support Ukrainian films at a late post-production stage to complete the final financial gap.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans EditorIFTA (The Independent Film & Television Alliance) announced Tuesday that American Film Market managing director Jonathan Wolf would step down when his term ends on June 30. Wolf has led the AFM for 24 years, and will continue as an advisor for the 2022 AFM, set to return to Santa Monica in person on Nov.