Anonymous Content Boards Silex, Charades’ Surf-Themed Animated Film Based on AJ Dungo’s Graphic Memoir ‘In Waves’ (EXCLUSIVE)

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent France’s mk2 films is set to distribute internationally a collection of Martin Scorsese’s prestigious restored films from the World Cinema Project, which is part of his banner The Film Foundation. The World Cinema Project has so far restored 51 films from 29 different countries, representing the breadth and diversity of global cinema. Scorsese, one of the greatest living film legends whose latest movie “Killers of the Flower Moon” world premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on May 20, created The Film Foundation to raise awareness and funds for the preservation of our cinematic history. Since its formation, The Film Foundation has helped to preserve and restore over 1,000 films from every era and genre, ranging from features to documentaries, newsreels, shorts, home movies, experimental and silent films.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent A bold departure from France’s cinema tradition of social realism, Thomas Cailley’s widely ambitious sophomore outing “The Animal Kingdom” is equally a creature-filled dystopia, an emotionally charged father-and-son drama and a coming-of-age tale. The character-driven film world premiered to warm reviews at the Cannes Film Festival where it bowed the Un Certain Regard section. “The Animal Kingdom” is represented in international market by Studiocanal and was produced by Pierre Guyard at Nord Ouest Films, and co-produced by Artemis. “The Animal Kingdom” takes place in an undetermined future in France which has been swept by a genetic disease causing people to transform into creatures that are being hunted down and killed or institutionalized by authorities. Kircher, the breakout star of Christophe Honoré’s “Winter Boy,” plays 16-year-old Emile whose mother was institutionalized after showing first signs of a genetic mutation. He lives with his father Francois (Romain Duris) who is struggling to overcome grief.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Kaouther Ben Hania, the Oscar-nominated director of “The Man Who Sold His Skin” whose latest film “Four Daughters” is competing at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, will next direct “Mimesis,” an epic love story set in Tunisia. While the plot is under wraps, the story is set in two different periods, the 1990s and the 1940s, paying tribute to cinema and Arab-Muslim cultural heritage. It’s being produced by Nadim Cheikhrouha at Tanit Films, who produced Ben Hania’s “Four Daughters” and her previous film “The Man Who Sold His Skin” which world premiered at Venice where it won best actor for Yahya Mahayni and was nominated for best international film at the Oscars in 2021.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Claude Lelouch, the Oscar-winning director of “A Man and a Woman,” is getting ready to direct “Finalement…,” his next film which he says will be a sort of sequel to his BAFTA-nominated film “Happy New Year” and “L’aventure, l’aventure.” The lighthearted movie will reteam Lelouch with Metropolitan FilmExport which is co-producing with Lelouch’s banner Les Films 13, and will distribute in France. Scored by popular French singer Ibrahim Maalouf, “Finalement…” will boast a large ensemble cast of French stars, including Kad Merad (“Baron Noir”), Elsa Zylberstein (“Simone”), Sandrine Bonnaire, Raphael Mezrahi, Michel Boujenah and Barbara Pravi.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent France’s culture minister Rima Abdul-Malak gave her first interview with the international press at the Cannes Film Festival where she unveiled a plan to invest €350 million ($378 million) in the film and TV industry. Abdul-Malak also addressed some hot topics that are currently being debated within the industry, such as the windowing rules for streamers, the protests over the pension reform, the rise of the far right and criticism of France’s #MeToo movement. The government-investment initiative, called the Grande Fabrique de l’Image, is meant to bolster France’s position as a leader in film, TV and video games production, studio facilities, post-production, as well as film and TV training. The funding will go to 68 projects that were selected from 175 applicants by two committees, one of which is headed by filmmaker Cedric Jimenez (“November,” “The Stronghold”). Among the selected projects are 11 studio facilities, 12 animation studios, six video games studios, five visual effects and post production houses, and 34 training programs.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Leading French producer Michael Gentile’s Paris-based outfit The Film is about to start shooting Julie Delpy’s next directorial outing, “The Barbarians,” and Laurence Arné’s “Les Hennedricks” starring Dany Boon. Delpy’s comeback to French filmmaking since “Lolo,” “The Barbarians” is a satirical comedy unfolding in a small town in Brittany which is preparing to welcome Ukrainian refugees after voting unanimously to greet them in exchange for subsidies from the government. But instead of seeing Ukrainians come into town, they see Syrian refugees, causing some tensions among locals and testing their liberal beliefs. Delpy will star in the film opposite Sandrine Kiberlain (“Mademoiselle Chambon”), Laurent Lafitte (“Elle”) and Ziad Bakri (“The Weekend Away”), India Hair (“Angry Annie”), Mathieu Demy (“The Bureau”) and Delpy’s father Albert Delpy.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent French actor Marine Delterme has signed with WME and has joined the cast of Park Chan-Wook’s HBO spy series “The Sympathizer” alongside Robert Downey Jr. Delterme, who currently lives in Los Angeles with her husband Florian Zeller, the Oscar-winning director of “The Father,” is best known in France for her role in the long-running procedural series “Alice Nevers.” Delterme has also acted in Roland Joffe’s “Vatel,” Mike Figgis’ “Women and Men 2,” and Christian Duguay’s “Coco Chanel.” She also collaborated with directors such as Jean Luc Godard, Manuel Poirier, Benoît Delepine, Philippe Leguay, Raoul Ruiz,  Philippe Harrel, Cyril Collard, Cedrick Klapish, Caroline Champetier, Gerard Oury and Claude Berri.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Kinology has come on board the highly anticipated next film of Russian filmmaker Kirill Serebrennikov, “The Disappearance of Josef Mengele,” based on Olivier Guez’s bestselling novel. Kinology is at Cannes to present the project to buyers. Set to start shooting in a few weeks, the film is being produced by Charles Gillibert at CG Cinema (“Annette”) and Ilya Stewart at Hype Studios (“Tchaikovsky’s Wife”). It stars August Diehl as Mengele, the notorious Nazi doctor who found refuge in South America at the end of WWII and was never captured. Mengele died in Brazil in 1979 without having been judged for his crimes. The daring movie will focus on Mengele’s fugitive years, spanning from Paraguay to the Brazilian jungle, and will be told from the man’s point of view.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Music Box Films has bought U.S. rights to “The Crime Is Mine” (“Mon Crime”), a period comedy by French helmer François Ozon (“Swimming Pool,” “8 Women”). “The Crime Is Mine” stars Rebecca Marder and Nadia Tereszkiewicz, who just won the Cesar Award for female newcomer, alongside Isabelle Huppert, Fabrice Luchini, Dany Boon and André Dussolier. Music Box Films plans a theatrical release for later this year, followed by a home entertainment rollout. Adapted from a 1934 play by Georges Berr and Louis Verneuil, “The Crime Is Mine” follows struggling actress Madeleine (Tereszkiewicz), and her best friend and roommate Pauline (Marder), an unemployed lawyer in 1930s Paris. Madeleine ascends to fame after standing trial for the murder of a movie producer, with Pauline serving as defense counsel and media circus ringmaster. Upon Madeleine’s acquittal, a new life of fame, wealth and tabloid celebrity awaits — until the truth comes out.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Mikael Marcimain, the popular Swedish director of “Call Girl” and “Gentlemen,” is on track to direct “Devastation,” an epic and horrific tale of survival set in 1867. “Devastation” is one of the first projects developed by Mylla films, the new banner set up by Jakob Abrahamsson and Patrik Andersson (“Midsommar”). Mylla films has enlisted Nordic distributor and co-producer Scanbox and French boutique genre specialist Alexis Perrin of Rumble Fish as co-producers. A period piece set in Northern Sweden, “Devastation” is penned by Melina Maraki (“The Liberation of Harold Kvist”). Unfolding during the ever-ending winter and famine of 1867, the film revolves around two brothers, one the local industrialist and the other the local preacher, who keep a sawmill society in a tyrannical stronghold. An uprising begins from the most unexpected place.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent REInvent has closed a French deal on “The Angel Maker,” a psychological thriller starring a top Nordic cast including Julie R. Ølgaard (“The Killing”), Roland Møller (“Riders of Justice”), Christopher Læssø (“The Bridge”) and Stine Stengade (“Those Who Kill”). The banner has sold the film to Koba Films in France and will be hosting a market screening at Cannes on the 18th. “The Angel Maker” tells the story of crime detective Laura who is specialized within cybercrime. Laura is on sick leave with a psychosis after a birth depression and by coincidence she stumbles upon a case with a beastly serial killer which piques her interest and she decides that it is time for her to return to her job as a crime detective.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Playtime has boarded “Monsieur Aznavour,” the prestige biopic of legendary French-Armenian Charles Aznavour starring Tahar Rahim (“A Prophet,” “Napoleon”). Budgeted at €26 million, the film will start principal photography on May 30. Pathé has scooped French rights and will give it a wide release in theaters. Surely one of the hottest packages to hit this year’s Cannes market, the film will chart Aznavour’s sprawling life journey, from his poor childhood to his rise to fame, from his triumphs to his failures, from Paris to New York. Aznavour was devoted to his art until the very end, singing his songs in ten languages, on every stage, in every city, desperately searching for perfection. He sold more than 180 million records around the world.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Catherine Corsini, an outspoken queer activist and co-founder of France’s feminist organization 50:50, should have been celebrating her new film’s inclusion in the competition lineup of the Cannes Film Festival. Instead, she found herself in the middle of a firestorm after “Homecoming,” her coming-of-age story, failed to get the proper government approvals for a scene of a sexual nature involving two minors.   Corsini admits that mistakes were made. But she says that she took every effort to protect her young actors from being exploited.   That scene, which was eventually cut from the movie, became the object of wild rumors, which Corsini said are false, “crazy, completely out of control.” “I’m hallucinating at things I’m reading, accusing me of having forced Esther to do a blowjob or masturbate herself,” she said. 

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent If you thought Johnny Depp starring in a film might be a lightning rod of controversy, imagine the movie’s director spitting on a journalist. “Jeanne du Barry” will open the Cannes Film Festival on Tuesday night, marking Depp’s return to the red carpet, following legal battles that have largely defined the actor for the past few years. Ahead of the film’s premiere, the director, French actor and filmmaker Maiwenn, admitted to assaulting a journalist by spitting on him. “She’s outspokenly anti-#MeToo and she made a gesture to please her world, and that’s why she bragged about it on TV. We could see a sort of pride that echoed that world,” journalist Edwy Plenel tells Variety in his first interview since the spitting incident. Plenel was referring to Maiwenn’s comments published by Paris Match in 2020, saying “It’s crazy how many stupidities they say these days! These women don’t like men, that’s clear, and they’re causing very serious collateral damages.” In that same interview she said “When I hear women complaining that men are only interested in their bottom, I tell them, ‘Enjoy it because it won’t last!'”

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent The city of Cannes has banned protests along the Croisette and its surroundings during the Cannes Film Festival. The labor union CGT, which is represented by Denis Gravouil on the administration board of the Cannes Film Festival, is still preparing a large demonstration on May 21 but it will take place along Boulevard Carnot, far away from the Croisette and from the festival’s headquarters. There will also be a rally of hospitality workers, including staff from hotels, cafes and restaurants, in front of the Carlton hotel – whose famous guests this year include Martin Scorsese — on May 19, from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. The rally, which will likely involve protesters banging saucepans to express their anger, is technically allowed because the front of the Carlton is a private area.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Orange Studio is launching several French projects at the Cannes Film Market, including Simon Bouisson’s “Drone,” a thriller produced by Haut et Court (“The Night of the 12th”), and “Miss Violet,” a period drama directed by Eric Besnard (“Delicious”) and starring Alexandra Lamy (“Rolling to You”). Bouisson, who is directing “Drone,” previously penned and directed the short-format series “Stalk” which was hit on France Televisions’ youth-centered service and has been optioned for a remake in the U.S. The thriller stars Marion Barbeau, the dancer-turned-actor who broke through in Cedric Klapisch’s “Rise,” as well as Eugénie Derouand (“Paris Police”), Cédric Kahn (“November”) and Stefan Crepon (“Peter Von Kant”)

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Sales banner Best Friend Forever has unveiled the teaser for Ramata Toulaye-Sy’s buzzed-about Senegalese drama “Banel & Adama,” which is the sole feature debut slated for the competition at the Cannes Film Festival. The lushly lensed female emancipation drama, set to bow on May 20, takes place in a remote village of Northern Senegal where Banel and Adama are fiercely in love. Longing for a home of their own, they have decided to live apart from their families. When Adama refuses his blood duty as future chief and informs the village council of his intentions, the whole community is disrupted and chaos ensues. The film was shot in Pulaar language with a cast of local non-professional actors, including Khady Mane, Mamadou Diallo, Binta Racine Sy and Moussa Sow.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Rolling off a successful collaboration on “Charlatan,” Films Boutique has boarded Agnieszka Holland’s next film “The Green Border,” which just completed principal photography in Poland. Now in post production, “The Green Border” tells the fateful story of a family of Syrian refugees, a solitary English teacher from Afghanistan and a young border guard, all of whom meet on the Polish-Belarusian border during the most recent humanitarian crisis triggered by President Lukaschenko opening doors to migrants in Belarus as a back door to enter the EU.  The screenplay, penned by Holland, Gabriela Łazarkiewicz-Sieczko and Maciej Pisuk, is inspired by real events. Research for the film included hundreds of hours of document analysis, interviews with refugees, border guards, borderland residents, activists and experts.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent “Flo,” a biopic of popular French sailor Florence Arthaud slated to world premiere at Cannes’ Cinema de la Plage, has been boarded by Other Angle. The French sales company will introduce the film to buyers at Cannes. Set to unspool on May 19, “Flo” charts Arthaud’s unique achievement in the male-dominated world of sailing, notably her victory of the Route du Rhum, a transatlantic sailing race, in 1990. The movie also portrays Arthaud as a fiercely independent woman who chose to live her dreams to the fullest rather than follow her pre-determined path. The film is directed by Geraldine Danon and is produced by Manuel Munz, in association with Metropolitan which will release the film in French theaters on Nov. 25.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Noémie Merlant, the French actor of “Tár,” is reteaming with Celine Sciamma, who directed her in “Portrait of a Lady on Fire,” for her sophomore outing, “The Balconettes.” The fantastical comedy horror movie is being written by Merlant with the collaboration of Céline Sciamma. MK2 Films will launch sales at the Cannes Film Market. Filming is slated to begin this summer. Set in a boiling Marseille neighborhood plagued by a heat wave, the movie revolves around three roommates who gleefully meddle in the lives of their neighbors from their balcony. Until a late-night drink turns into a bloody affair. Merlant stars in the film alongside Souheila Yacoub (“Dune”) and Sanda Codreanu (“Mi Iubita Mon Amour”).