EXCLUSIVE: WTFilms has snapped up international sales rights for Dutch directorial duo Steffan Haars and Flip Van Der Kuil’s English-language debut Krazy House following its world premiere at Sundance.
16.01.2024 - 19:19 / deadline.com
Cinema export agency Unifrance’s annual international box office report for 2023 revealed on Tuesday that Russia was the top market in terms of admissions for French cinema last year.
Given that Russia’s relations with Europe are at their lowest ebb since the end of the Cold War in 1991 as its ongoing war on Ukraine rumbles on, the finding was a surprise.
Per the data, Russia accounted for 7.09M of the overall 37.4M international admissions for French cinema, but generated a smaller gross than Germany.
The Russian figures were driven by feature animation Miraculous: Ladybug and Cat Noir, The Movie, which was released on a record 1,877 screens for a French film and sold 3.53M tickets.
Maïwenn’s Jeanne du Barry, co-starring Johnny Depp, also did well in Russia, selling just over one million tickets.
While U.S. Studios are boycotting Russia, European Union sanctions do not include films sales to the territory.
French sales agents addressed Russia’s pole position in a panel after the presentation of the report within the framework of Unifrance’s annual Paris Rendez-vous.
Miraculous producer Anton Soumache, whose company On Entertainment is part of the Mediawan kids and family group, stood by the film’s release Russia.
He said the deal with Moscow-based distributor Exponenta Film and the country’s main TV channel Rossiya 1 had been done prior to the outbreak of the war in 2022.
“Animation is a long process… Would we have done the deal today? I can’t say,” he told the panel.
“We’re trying to talk to children around the world and we don’t want to politicize them in the debates,” he continued.
“When we make animation, our job is to present something in an intelligent manner that sparks children and helps them to dream and
EXCLUSIVE: WTFilms has snapped up international sales rights for Dutch directorial duo Steffan Haars and Flip Van Der Kuil’s English-language debut Krazy House following its world premiere at Sundance.
Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent French mini-major Pathé has acquired Les Films des Tournelles, the production company founded by Anne-Dominique Toussaint whose recent credits include Louis Garrel‘s Cesar-winning “The Innocent.” Besides Garrel, Les Films des Tournelles has worked with a flurry of auteurs on some of their most successful films, including Riad Sattouf’s “The French Kissers,” which won the Cesar for best first film in 2010; Nadine Labaki’s “Caramel”; Emanuele Crialese’s “Respiro”; Valeria Golino’s “Miele”; and Mona Achache’s “The Hedgehog.” “The Innocent” won two prizes at last year’s Cesar Awards and screened at Cannes on the 75th anniversary of the festival. Toussaint has also worked with Philippe Le Guay and Emmanuel Carrère.
Ukraine is not happy with HBO for hiring Serbian actor Miloš Biković for season three of The White Lotus.
Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent After keeping a fairly low profile as president of France’s leading commercial network TF1 Group for seven years, Gilles Pelisson, the discreet Harvard-educated executive, is ready for showtime. He has been propelled into the spotlight to promote French film and TV in his new role as president of Unifrance, succeeding Serge Toubiana last summer.
Ben Croll French film promotional organization Unifrance put talent in the spotlight at this year’s Rendez-Vous in Paris, where the 10 actors and filmmakers selected as 2024’s Talents to Watch were fêted with flutes of champagne at France’s Ministry of Culture before being introduced to the international press at a dedicated event. For more than a decade, the 10 to Watch program has pinpointed the creative talents breathing modernity and vitality into contemporary French cinema.
Nadia Romdhani, former Screen International and The Drum executive, is joining Deadline as Sales Director, International.
Justine Triet’s Anatomy Of A Fall continued its prize-winning run on Monday at France’s 29th Lumière Awards clinching Best Film and Best Screenplay, while its German star Sandra Hüller won Best Actress.
Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent French prosecutors have dismissed the complaint filed by French actor Hélène Darras alleging that Gerard Depardieu sexually assaulted her during the filming of “Disco” in 2007. In a statement sent to Variety, the prosecutors’ office said the complaint filed on Sept.
Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent “Dahomey,” a documentary directed by Cannes prizewinner Mati Diop (“Atlantique”) and slated for the Berlinale competition, will be represented internationally by Paris-based Les Films du Losange. The feature marks the directorial comeback of the French-Senegalese talent after winning the Grand Prize at Cannes with “Atlantique” in 2019.
So, here we are in mid-January, and though we’re staring down the barrel of a tough year ahead, it’s not all wintry doom and gloom on an international box office (and combined global) level.
Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Already one of France’s most beloved and bankable actors (“The Stronghold”), Gilles Lellouche is about to graduate as a big-shot filmmaker five years after delivering his sophomore outing, “Sink or Swim,” a B.O. hit which lured more than four million moviegoers (over $35 million) in theaters.
Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Brussels-based company Best Friend Forever has acquired international rights to Lenny and Harpo Guit’s new feature “Heads or Fails,” the duo’s follow-up to Sundance comedy “Mother Schmuckers.” Now in post, “Heads or Fails” tells the story of Armande Pigeon, a queen of shenanigans in Brussels who struggles to make ends meet because she can’t stop gambling on everything, always ending up on the wrong side of luck. When she teams up with Ronnie one night, everything changes – they win it all.
Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Agnes Jaoui, a beloved French actor, screenwriter and filmmaker, will receive an honorary Cesar Award during its 49th edition, which will be held at Olympia Concert Hall on Feb. 23. Jaoui formed a duo with the late Jean-Pierre Bacri for over three decades, collaborating on a number of films that were both critical and commercial hits.
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Former TF1 Group CEO and chairman Gilles Pélisson has gone through a baptism of fire this week in his new role of president at French film and TV promotional body Unifrance as he attends his first edition of its annual Paris Rendez-vous.
Watching the science-fiction space thriller I.S.S., I couldn’t help but get the feeling that maybe this claustrophobic and talky material might be better suited as a stage play than as a movie, where audiences might be anticipating something a bit more compelling along the lines of a Gravity or an Alien.
Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Jean-Claude Van Damme, the global martial artist turned action hero whose 2021 movie “The Last Mercenary” was a hit on Netflix, has another film on the horizon. He will star opposite Michaël Youn (“BDE”) in “Le jardinier,” another high-voltage action-comedy reuniting him with “The Last Mercenary” director David Charhon.
Ben Croll Capping a growth year that saw Gallic productions draw 37. 4 million global theatrical admissions for a total of $254 million in international receipts, producers and sales agents indicated that geopolitical tensions and eco-responsible transformation would be two of the major stressors on France’s film export business in the months to come.
Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Ben Aldridge (“Knock at the Cabin”) and Martina Garcia (“The Hidden Face”) have joined the cast of “Dear Paris,” Marjane Satrapi‘s (“Persepolis”) ensemble drama which is one Studiocanal‘s highlights at this week’s Unifrance Rendez-Vous showcase, along with Gilles Lellouche‘s sprawling romance thriller “Beating Hearts.” “Dear Paris” (“Paris Paradis”), produced by Vito Films, is a dark comedy set in the French capital where a flurry of charming characters confront death only to embrace life once again. The film also stars Monica Bellucci as a narcissistic Italian opera singer and Rossy De Palma as an eccentric elderly Colombian woman, as well as Eduardo Noriega, André Dussollier, Alex Lutz, Roschdy Zem and singer-turned-actor Gwendal Marimoutou (“Sam”).
French cinema saw its fortunes rise at the international box office in 2023 after three difficult Covid-19 and post pandemic years, according to the annual report of export agency Unifrance released on Tuesday.