‘Animale’ Review: A Bullish Sophomore Effort from French Director Emma Benestan

Anna Marie de la Fuente Eurozoom, a leading French distributor for Japanese animation, has forged a strategic partnership with major French animation producer Special Touch Studios, led by founder and CEO Sebastien Onomo. “We both share the same passion for animation and want to tell bold stories with a particular attention to professional diversity,” said Eurozoom’s CEO-Founder Amel Lacombe, who added that they were jointly working on a six-animation feature lineup. Leading the pack is “Melvile,” directed by Romain Renard and Fursy Teyssier.

Salma Hayek’s presence at major international events is indispensable, and she proved it once again during the state dinner organized by French President Emmanuel Macron and First Lady Brigitte Macron in honor of U.S. President Joe Biden’s visit to France.

Dick and Angel Strawbridge, the stars of Escape to the Chateau, confessed that they had "200 plus pages of reasons not to buy" their French abode.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent The French far-right party Rassemblement National (National Rally, or RN) made historical gains on June 9, dominating the European elections by a landslide with 31.5% of votes. Fronted by the Rassemblement National’s 28 year-old lead candidate Jordan Bardella, the victory prompted French President Emmanuel Macron — whose party Renaissance came in second with 14.5% of votes — to dissolve the National Assembly and call early Parliamentary elections.

French President Emmanuel Macron left his country reeling on Sunday after he dissolved parliament and called snap general elections in response to hefty gains by the far-right Rassemblement national (RN) party in European elections.

Carlos Alcaraz is making history.

Novak Djokovic will no longer continue in the French Open.

Guy Lodge Film Critic Like her fellow documentarian Frederick Wiseman, Claire Simon is drawn to institutions, and the human flow that keeps them running. Where many of Wiseman’s films favor a big picture, a systemic view, Simon often works in more intimate close-up, picking out faces and personalities from a larger institutional community.

Tim Chan If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Variety may receive an affiliate commission. The world’s best tennis players take to the clay courts at Roland Garros this week for the 2024 French Open. Novak Djokovic is the defending French Open champion on the men’s side, while Iga Świątek is the defending women’s champ.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Rolling off its acquisition of Francis Ford Coppola‘s “Megalopolis,” Italy’s leading independent distributor Eagle Pictures has scooped Italian remake rights to French smash hit “A Little Something Extra,” along with a raft of high-profile projects shopped at the Cannes Film Market. The company, which is owned by veteran producer-distributor Tarak Ben Ammar, will produce and distribute the Italian remake of “A Little Something Extra” (“Un Ptit truc en plus), Artus’ heartwarming family comedy which has taken the French box office by storm, selling a whooping 3.4 million tickets in theaters in three weeks. “It’s a delightful film about a father and his son who rob a little jewelry shop in a small town and as they’re looking a place to hide, they get on a bus without realizing that it’s taking them to a summer camp for young adults with disabilities,” Ben Ammar said.

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

Seemingly from out of nowhere, actor turned director Gilles Lellouche throws a Molotov Flanby into the Competition with only his second feature, a terrific and unexpectedly potent piece of genre filmmaking that could, to avoid spoilers, be described as a kind of mash-up of Badlands and La Haine, as if directed by Walter Hill. Throw in a little Eurocrime, from the likes of Fernando Di Leo and late-period Jean-Pierre Melville, and you’re getting close to what Lellouche has achieved here, a romantic banlieue opera that delivers all the gritty, vicarious thrills of the now-standard post-Goodfellas gangster movie but also burrows into issues of class and gender in refreshingly unpredictable ways.

France’s Precarious Film Festival Workers Collective has warned that the Cannes Film Festival and France’s other major film events will be at “risk” due to a widescale exodus from the industry by festival staffers after plans they drew up to resolve their ongoing pay dispute were “rejected” by the French culture and labor ministries.

Angelique Jackson Nathalie Emmanuel‘s first trip to the Cannes Film Festival was certainly a memorable one. The “Fast and Furious” franchise star and “Game of Thrones” alum knows what it’s like to be in the spotlight, but Cannes is unique. First, consider the fact that she’s the leading lady in legendary filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola‘s longtime passion project “Megalopolis,” which made its world premiere at the festival.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Rolling off their partnership on Studiocanal’s “‘Mayhem!” (“Farang”) and Netflix hit movie “Watch Under Paris,” popular genre filmmaker Xavier Gens (“Gangs of London”) is joining forces with Vincent Roget and Eric Lavaine’s banner Sameplayer to launch a new production company. Named Good Players, the Paris-based company will aim at developing and producing action, thriller, aventure, fantasy and horror movies that have an international appeal.

Jamie Lang French distribution company UFO has secured the rights to American filmmaker Ryan J. Sloan’s New psychological thriller “Gazer,” which will world premiere at this year’s Directors’ Fortnight on May 22. Set in New Jersey and starring Sloan’s partner Ariella Mastroianni, “Gazer” is the story of a young mother with a rare degenerative brain condition called dyschronometria.

The stars of Yorgos Lanthimos‘ new movie are taking over the 2024 Cannes Film Festival!

The anarchic spirit of Julia Ducournau’s Palme d’Or winner Titane lives on in Emma Benestan’s Critics Week closer Animale, the genre-busting debut of a director who cites Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Kathryn Bigelow’s Near Dark, and the naturalist films of Chloé Zhao as influences. More surprisingly, she also credits Abdellatif Kechiche, since her first break was as assistant editor on his 2013 Palme d’Or winner Blue Is the Warmest Colour. 

The stars of Megalopolis are back on the red carpet!

The stars of Megalopolis are back on the red carpet!