Cannes’ Un Certain Regard Title ‘Joyland’ Swooped on by Condor in France (EXCLUSIVE)

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentLola Quivoron wowed critics and audiences at Cannes with her bold first film “Rodeo” which picked up the Coup de Coeur prize at the Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard section.Following the world premiere of “Rodeo,” Quiveron started being courted by a flurry of U.S. agents while Les Films du Losange, which is selling her movie, is fielding several offers from top North American buyers.Produced by Charles Gillibert (“Annette”) at CG Cinema, “Rodeo” follows a hot tempered and fiercely independent young woman who infiltrates an underground dirt bike community in France.

Michelle Williams arrives at the photo call for “Showing Up” at Palais des Festivals on Saturday (May 28) in Cannes, France.

The Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard sidebar handed out its prizes tonight with top honors going to Lise Akoka and Romane Gueret’s The Worst Ones (Les Pires). The Jury Prize was awarded to Saim Sadig’s Joyland, the first Pakistani movie ever in official selection at Cannes.

Jury Prize: “Joyland,” directed by Saim SadiqBest Director Prize: Alexandru Belc for “Metronomes”Best Actor Prize (jointly awarded):Vicky Krieps in “Corsage”Adam Bessa in “Harka”Best Screenplay Prize: “Mediterranean Fever,” directed by Maha HajCoup de cœur Prize: “Rodeo,” directed by Lola Quivoron

Guy Lodge Film CriticFrench film “The Worst Ones (Les Pires)” is the surprise winner of the top prize at this year’s Un Certain Regard awards ceremony, with Italian actor-director Valeria Golino and her fellow jurors also handing prizes to Pakistani breakout “Joyland,” Romanian drama “Metronom” and “Corsage” star Vicky Krieps.

The exquisite and sublime journeys of Oregon-based filmmaker Kelly Reichardt are arguably, more or less, incidental or oblique political statements about survival in America, often focusing on two or more friends, usually outsiders, and their struggle to endure. “Wendy And Lucy,” about a destitute woman and her soulmate canine companion, was overt about human inequity and hardship; “Meek’s Cutoff” depicted the unbearable burden of living off a hostile, unforgiving land; and “First Cow” presented the warm, but sad futility of two friends trying to sustain themselves under the grueling rigors of nascent American capitalism.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film CriticLizzy Carr (Michelle Williams), the central character of Kelly Reichardt’s “Showing Up,” is a sculptor who is finishing up a series of ceramic figures she’ll be presenting in a gallery show. We see her working, throughout the movie, on the small clay statues — all women, each one about a foot tall, some mounted on rods, all with an intentionally rough, patchy surface that may look awkward and unpolished if you’re close up to it, but when you stand back a bit you see the aesthetic elegance of her style. (Giacometti would understand.) She’s making sculptures of female characters who look a bit ghostly in their lack of perfect line, but that’s part of their design (they all appear a little tormented), and that quality is balanced by the delicate surprise colors they’re painted with, which express their inner life.

Michelle Williams hits the red carpet for a screening of her new film Showing Up at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival on Friday (May 27) in Cannes, France.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent“Plan 75,” Hayakawa Chie’s Japanese dystopian drama which world premiered at Cannes’ Un Certain Regard, has been sold in a raft of territories by Urban Sales. The movie is set in Japan, in a near future where a government program called Plan 75 encourages senior citizens to be voluntarily euthanized in order to remedy the aging society. The film weaves the stories of an elderly woman who isn’t able to live independently, a pragmatic Plan 75 salesman and a young Filipino caregiver.

Caitlin Quinlan “I don’t think you ever have to be fearful when you’re writing a film,” says Moroccan filmmaker Maryam Touzani ahead of the premiere of her second feature “The Blue Caftan” in Un Certain Regard.Following the relationship between husband and wife Halim and Mina who have kept Halim’s homosexuality a secret for many years, the film takes an important stand against the homophobia of Morocco and its anti-LGTBQ laws. “In Morocco, homosexuality is illegal and I don’t have words to describe how it makes me feel.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentPulsar Content has closed a raft of major deals on “La Maison,” Anissa Bonnefont’s erotic drama based on Emma Becker’s controversial bestselling novel chronicling the young author’s two-year undercover experience working as a sex worker at a Berlin brothel. The Paris-based company introduced the title to buyers at Cannes and sold it to Wild Bunch for Germany, Austria, Italy and Spain, among other deals. Wild Bunch will team with Capelight for the German release.

Cannes Film Festival is making efforts to diversify beyond the cavalcade of many of the same male auteurs. Instead, there will be a record number of women directors in competition.Now the bad news.

Audrey Diwan’s planned English language directing debut, the erotic tale Emmanuelle starring Lea Seydoux, has buyers buzzing as much as any Cannes Market package being shopped this week on the Croisette. But her last film Happening (which didn’t make the cut as France’s choice for Best Foreign Language Film, though many felt it would have won) might have the most lasting impact. The film is just released in the U.S. smack in the middle of revelations that the Supreme Court plans to overturn Roe V Wade.

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentLondon-based Alief has closed North America and French-speaking territories on Icelandic spoof “Cop Secret.” In North America, “Cop Secret” has scored a platform release with Epic Pictures. Extralucid Films has acquired France, Monaco, Luxembourg and French-speaking Belgium and Switzerland.The writer-director feature debut of Hannes Thor Halldorsson, Iceland’s national soccer team goalkeeper, “Cop Secret” will bow in select theaters in North America on July 8 then on VOD on July 12.Alief’s Brett Walker and Miguel Govea are at the Cannes Film Market to continue the international roll-out of “Cop Secret,” which is already impressive. Territories closed take in Japan (AT Ent), Korea (Movement), Taiwan (CCE) and Spain (Twelve Oaks).

Ahead of its world premiere in Un Certain Regard section of Cannes, the Davy Chou directed and written feature All the People I’ll Never Be has been picked up by Sony Pictures Classics.

Manori Ravindran International EditorU.S. director Lotfy Nathan, best known for his acclaimed debut documentary “12 O’Clock Boys,” is making his feature directorial debut with “Harka.”Screening as part of the Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard section, the film is set in Tunisia, in North Africa, and follows Ali (Adam Bessa), a young man in his twenties who makes a precarious living selling contraband gas on the streets.Ali dreams of a better life for himself, but his domestic responsibilities step up when his father’s sudden death leaves him in charge of his two young sisters. With the family facing impending eviction, Ali seeks steadier work and a stable life.

Manori Ravindran International EditorThe first trailer for Jasmine Trinca’s “Marcel!” features Alba Rohrwacher’s eccentric artist searching for her beloved lost dog Marcel, and in the process reconnecting with her neglected young daughter.The film, which is a Special Screenings title at the Cannes Film Festival this year, has secured distribution in France with Rezo Films. Paris-based sales agent Totem Films, which handled sales for hit movie “Compartment No.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at LargeJames Corden is heading home — to visit, as part of a week-long trip to Blighty for “The Late Late Show” on CBS. This will mark the fourth time “The Late Late Show with James Corden” has filmed from the U.K., but marks the first major initiative for the show since Corden announced that he would depart next year.“The Late Late Show” will broadcast four episodes from Freemasons’ Hall in Central London, marking the show’s first time in that venue. The episodes will air on Monday, June 27, through Thursday June 30 — in the show’s normal 12:37 a.m.

EXCLUSIVE: French distributor ARP Selection has just acquired Cannes Competition movie EO by Polish veteran Jerzy Skolimowski.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentPresiding over the 75th edition of the Cannes Film Festival, director Thierry Frémaux has assembled some serious Hollywood star power, world cinema auteurs amid indications that despite COVID, the film world is buzzing with anticipation for the films, the deals and most of all the glamour the fest brings.While Frémaux has been credited with expanding the horizons of the Cannes Film Festival since taking over the reins of its Official Selection in 2001, he’s also been praised for building relationships with American studios and filmmakers.This year, he’s lured them back in spite of the ongoing pandemic, with a lineup including James Gray’s “Armageddon Time,” David Cronenberg’s “Crimes of the Future,” Joseph Kosinski’s “Top Gun: Maverick,” Kelly Reichardt’s “Showing Up,” George Miller’s “Three Thousand Years of Longing” and Baz Luhrmann’s “Elvis.” “My first red carpet was for ‘Moulin Rouge!’ with Baz Luhrmann and Nicole Kidman in 2001 and it will be engraved in my memory forever,” says Fremaux. “I’m happy to reunite with Baz this year.