Animation Studio Mercury Filmworks Taps Guillaume Dubois as Vice President Production (EXCLUSIVE)

Ben Croll Following only the U.S. and Japan (though operating, it should be noted, on an exponentially smaller scale) France has become the world’s third-biggest animated content supplier, producing an average of 300 hours of programming each year and banking $137.7 million in global sales in 2020.

EXCLUSIVE: Deadline has the first exclusive track from Jeff Danna’s score for Julia, which is set for release tomorrow via Watertower Music.

Mip TV is just around the corner and, as ever, the content will be king. Deadline takes you through 15 of the best dramas set to light up the Croisette as the market returns in-person for the first time in three years. Read on for the best-in-class scripted projects heading to France.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentAfter a year marked by a two-month lockdown and COVID restrictions, the volume of French productions surged by 43.5% in 2021, with 340 films made after widespread postponements in 2020, according to a report unveiled by the CNC (National Film Board).The number of movies produced last year is even 13% higher than in 2019, before the pandemic. Along with production levels, the investment in French films skyrocketed by 73.5% to €1.1 billon ($1.2 billion), the second-highest figure of the decade — behind 2016.

Emilio Mayorga Documentary short “Les Filles de Sète” (“Sète’s Daughters”) and series episode “Eva y el abedul del Edén” (“Eve and the Birch of Eden”) have secured funding through the Platino Crowdfunding platform, a new financing initiative launched last December.Initiated by the Platino Awards organization, the crowdfunding online platform for film, series and other formats was officially presented Thursday March 24 at Málaga’s Picasso Museum along with an array of industry activities at a Malaga Film Festival presentation under the motto, “Universo Platino.”Platform already has 26 ongoing projects, mainly shorts but also documentaries and mini-series.“Eva y el abedul del Edén,” from TV show “Nunca nos dijeron la verdad,” and docu short “Les Filles de Sète” are the first two productions to be completed through the platform. Young creators Andrés Ribagorda and Pablo Jimeno attended the event and explained that not only did they get the financing they needed but also the professional input to jumpstart their first work.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentLondon-based Headline Pictures (“Kin”) and French banner Itineraire Productions (“Oussekine”) are set to produce together “Who Killed Lady Di?,” a drama mini-series set in the aftermath of Princess Diana’s death in Paris in 1997. The series re-teams Itineraire Productions with Julien Lilti, the up-and-coming creator and screenwriter of Disney Plus Star’s original series “Oussekine” and Canal Plus hit show “Hyppocrates.” Lilti is writing the scripts for “Who Killed Lady Di” with the collaboration of Martine Monteil, who led the criminal investigation division of the French police at the time of Diana Spencer’s death.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentParamount Plus, which is the global streaming service of recently rebranded Paramount — formerly ViacomCBS — has forged a three-year partnership with Gaumont, the storied French studio behind Netflix’s “Lupin” and “Narcos,” to jointly produce a slate of high-end original shows for its growing subscribers around the world.Under the partnership Gaumont will produce these series in association with Paramount’s international studio, VIS. The shows will be part of Paramount Plus’s stated plans to green light 50 new non-U.S.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentUGC, the long-running French film studio whose biggest hits include “Amelie Poulain,” has successful branched into TV series by acquiring stakes in a flurry of talent-driven production companies such as Itineraire Productions (“HPI”) and Headline Pictures (“Call My Agent!’s” British remake) in the U.K.Opting for a different approach to Gaumont’s or large media groups like Mediawan, the company has been building its label UGC Series as a coalition of independently-ran production companies under the leadership of Laurence Lenica, a veteran UGC executive, and Franck Calderon, a well-known writer, producer and former boss of TF1 Productions.So far, UGC Series comprises six banners. Along with Headline Pictures and Itineraire Productions, these include Henri Debeurne’s Next Episode whose credits take in “Christmas Flow” for Netflix and “J’ai tué mon mari” for NBCU and TF1; UGC Fiction, which Calderon is leading with Karine Evrard and Sophie Exbrayat, and which has delivered the ratings hit ”Jacqueline Sauvage, It was Him or Me”, and most recently “La Traque” for TF1.

K.J. Yossman Keira Knightley-voiced animated biopic “Charlotte” has an official trailer.The feature, from Good Deed Entertainment, the studio behind “Loving Vincent,” tells the story of Charlotte Salomon, a young German-Jewish artist who was murdered in Auschwitz at the age of 26.“Charlotte” is directed by Eric Warin and Tahir Rana and features the voices of Jim Broadbent (“Downton Abbey,” Brenda Blethyn (“Pride and Prejudice”), Sam Claflin (“The Hunger Games: Catching Fire”), Eddie Marsan (“Ridley Road”), Sophie Okonedo (“Death on the Nile”) and Mark Strong (“1917”).It also features one of the last performances from “Peaky Blinders” star Helen McRory, who died of cancer in 2021.A French version of the film stars Marion Cotillard (“Inception”) as Charlotte.

Manori Ravindran International EditorHBO is developing a long-awaited adaptation of Rohinton Mistry’s critically acclaimed, award-winning novel “A Fine Balance,” Variety can reveal.The seven-part series is being produced by “A Very British Scandal” and “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” producer Blueprint Pictures and “Anne With an E” outfit Northwood Entertainment. Ritesh Batra, who directed the late Irrfan Khan and Nimrat Kaur in “The Lunchbox,” is attached to both write and direct.The show would look to shoot in India from early June through November.First published by Canada’s McLelland and Stewart in 1995, “A Fine Balance” went on to win the 1995 Giller Prize and was shortlisted for the 1996 Booker Prize.

When the major studios zig, other theatrical distributors zag, and in this instance that means taking advantage of putting a wide release out there when the majors were too scared to do so earlier this year with all the Omicron mixed messages. Crunchyroll (ne Funimation) has the anime movie Jujutsu Kaisen 0 which racked up $2.88M in previews last night from 2,003 locations, juiced by 49 Imax auditoriums.

K.J. Yossman Film Mode Entertainment has inked a multi-project distribution deal with Australian director/producer Luke Sparke’s company Sparke Films.Among the titles Film Mode will represent worldwide are Sparke’s upcoming projects “Weapons of Choice,” a television adaptation of John Birmingham’s World War Two trilogy “Axis of Time” and “Primitive War,” a horror feature franchise based on Ethan Pettus’ book series.Film Mode will also handle worldwide sales rights for “Occupation: Rainfall 2” and “Occupation: Rainfall 3” – the third and fourth films in Sparke’s franchise – as well as a number of other projects still in development.

K.J. Yossman Framestore, the Oscar-winning VFX company behind upcoming features such as “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets Of Dumbledore” and “Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness,” has tapped Naomi Stopa and Jinnie Pak to join the company as it charts a global expansion.Both hires will join the company’s Canada team, with Stopa appointed managing director, Vancouver, and Pak joining as head of production, Vancouver.Stopa, who has credits on films including “Free Guy” and “Black Widow,” was previously head of production at Digital Domain, overseeing Vancouver, Montreal and L.A.

sequel,. While speaking to ET, Nicol reflects on a decade of playing the cook in charge of the downstairs kitchen staff in the acclaimed British drama and what inspired her return to the stage. Created by Julian Fellowes, first launched in the U.K. in 2010 before quickly becoming an international sensation, thanks to its captivating stories about the lives upstairs versus downstairs at the Crawley family estate in Yorkshire county in the early 1900s.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief“Inu-Oh,” the acclaimed Japanese animation that debuted in Venice and Toronto last year, has been sold widely by Fortissimo Films and Asmik Ace.Amsterdam and Beijing based Fortissimo is collaborating with Tokyo-based Asmik Ace on two titles, “Inu-oh” by Yuasa Masaaki and “Missing” by Katayama Shinzo, a former assistant director to “Parasite” director Bong Joon Ho on “Mother.”Rock musical animation “Inu-Oh” was licensed to Sun Distribution for Latin America, to Rapid Eye for Germany, Front Row in the Middle East and Cinemaran in Spain. Asmik Ace handles Asian territories, North America, France, U.K. and Benelux.

Netflix today provided a taste of its slate of original French productions coming up in 2022, which includes 25 new titles for launch this year and 20 projects currently in production. The slate, selected and developed by the Netflix France creative team, reps a total investment of more than 200M euros ($221M) across 2022. The streamer recently signed a deal with the French industry in which it committed to producing at least 10 local films per year, investing about 40M euros ($45M).   Among the projects highlighted during a presentation in Paris today was Romain Gavras’ formerly untitled feature, which is now called Athena. An immersive and modern tragedy, it stars Dali Benssalah, Sami Slimane, Anthony Bajon and is co-written with Oscar nominee Ladj Ly (Les Misérables) and Elias Belkeddar. The logline reads: In the space of a few hours following the tragic death of their younger brother in troubling circumstances, the men’s lives will tip over into chaos.

Cartoon Movie Croissants Breakfast – a video clip prompting approving whoops and hollers – Spanish-French animated feature “Unicorn Wars” saw its poster and first stills unveiled at the presentation which looks like an early highlight at this year’s meet. Yohann Comte, co-founder of Charades, the film’s sales agent, also confirmed at the unveil that “Unicorn Wars” has sold to Japan’s Riskit. UFO Distribution handles the feature’s release in France, Barton Films distributes in Spain.The film is just a few weeks off completion, said Miñambres.