Luxbox Seals French Distribution Deal For Cannes Critics’ Week Title ‘Simon of the Mountain’ & Unveils Trailer

Selena Gomez has touched down in France to attend the 2024 Cannes Film Festival!

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent On Sept. 12, 2022, the day before Jean-Luc Godard died by assisted suicide at 91 in his home in Rolle, Switzerland, the Godfather of French New Wave completed his final 18-minute film, “Scénarios,” which premieres on today in Cannes. “Scénarios” — which comprises two components called “DNA, Fundamental Elements” and “MRI, Odyssey” — is followed by “Exposé du Film Annonce du Film ‘Scènario,’” a 34-minute, behind-the-scenes doc about the making of Godard’s last short.

Joe Alwyn is touching down in France to attend the 2024 Cannes Film Festival!

“When we leap into the unknown, we prove that we are free,” says Cesar Catalina, the futuristic architect at the beating heart of Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis (to give it its full title), a mad eco-sci-fi blockbuster some 40 years in the making. Catalina says it several times, and it’s one of the more succinct aphorisms that he spouts in a script that is stuffed with seemingly random literary allusions from the likes of Petrarch, Crassus and Marcus Aurelius to Goethe, Shakespeare, H.G. Wells and Ralph Waldo Emerson. Watching Anthony Mann’s The Fall of the Roman Empire and eating cheese afterwards would be the only way to replicate its fever-dream grandeur, a series of stunning images, carried along by the loosest of plots, that pontificate on the self-destructive nature of humankind, the only species capable of civilizing itself to death.

Jack Dunn Paramount+ has unveiled a teaser for its seventh “South Park” streaming special, “South Park: The End of Obesity,” which premieres May 24 in the U.S. and Canada, and May 25 in Australia, Latin America, Brazil, France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland and Austria. In “The End of Obesity,” weight loss drugs take the quiet mountain town of South Park by storm.

Naman Ramachandran A first clip has been unveiled for Emma Benestan‘s “Animale,” which closes the Cannes Film Festival‘s Critics’ Week strand this year. The film is set in the Camargue region of the south of France, where daring youths participate in the local tradition of bull running. Only one woman, 22-year-old Nejma, takes her place in the arena.

Cannes parallel section Critics’ Week opens Wednesday with French director Jonathan Millet’s psychological manhunt thriller Ghost Trail (Les Fantômes), starring Adam Bessa as man in in pursuit of a faceless, former torturer.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor France TV Distribution has closed several territory deals for Sylvain Desclous’ “The Victoria System,” starring Damien Bonnard and Jeanne Balibar. The film has been acquired by Spentzos in Greece, Divisa Red in Spain, Arna Media in the CIS, NK Content in South Korea, AVJET in Taïwan and Mars in Turkey. The film centers on David Kolski, who is overseeing the construction of the highest tower ever built in France.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof has left Iran and traveled to Europe clandestinely after being sentenced to eight years in prison by the country’s authorities, who pressured him to pull his latest work “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” from the Cannes Film Festival and harassed the film’s producers and actors. “We are very happy and much relieved that Mohammad has safely arrived in Europe after a dangerous journey,” said Jean-Christophe Simon, CEO of Films Boutique and Parallel45, who are distributing the film.

EXCLUSIVE: Paris-based Nour Films has acquired French rights to Saudi director Tawfik Alzaidi’s first feature Norah ahead of its world premiere in the Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor The trailer (below) has debuted for Leonardo Van Dijl‘s “Julie Keeps Quiet” ahead of its world premiere in Critics’ Week in Cannes. The film’s world sales agency New Europe Film Sales has revealed the first territory deals. New Europe has sold the film to New Horizons for Poland, Kino Pavasaris for the Baltic states, and I Wonder Pictures for Italy.

Cannes Critics’ Week has appointed French producer Sylvie Pialat as president of the jury for its upcoming edition after Spanish director Rodrigo Sorogoyen, who was originally announced for the role, was forced to cancel for personal reasons.

Canadian filmmaker David Cronenberg (“Crime of The Future”) returns to the festival circuit with “The Shrouds,” making its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. Three first-look clips from the film have made their way online (via the Cannes website), and you can watch those scenes below.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent French director Jonathan Millet riffs on manhunt tropes in “Ghost Trail,” the psychological thriller that will be the Cannes Critics’ Week opener. Variety has been given an exclusive first-look clip from the film, which is inspired by real-life events. “Ghost Trail” is the story of a Syrian man named Hamid who is part of a secret group pursuing fugitive leaders that perpetrated horrors in the name of the Syrian regime during the country’s civil war.

WBD Unveils Canal+, Amazon Deals For Max In France & Spain Along With Launch Date

B&M has slashed the prices of several fire pits that have been hailed as 'fabulous' for hosting summer parties in the garden or for relaxing outdoors in the evening. The bargain retailer has cut prices on the stunning heaters by up to 23%. with the cheapest costing £35.

Princ Films boards ‘Isabel’s Garden’ For Cannes Marche Du Film 

Paris-based distributor ARP Selection has acquired French rights for Paul Schrader’s Oh, Canada ahead of its world premiere in Competition at the Cannes Film Festival in May.

EXCLUSIVE: France tv distribution has acquired world sales rights for Romuald Boulanger’s upcoming bio-pic Mansour, capturing the journey of celebrity tennis player Mansour Bahrami’s from post-Revolutionary Iran, to exile and poverty in France, and then fame on the international circuit.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent French sales powerhouse Charades has boarded Constance Tsang’s migrant drama “Blue Sun Palace” which is set to world premiere at Cannes’ Critics’ Week. WME Independent is representing domestic rights for the movie in North America.