Palme d’Or Winner, Oscar Hopeful ‘Anatomy of a Fall’ Thrives at French Box Office

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent The political backlash surrounding Agnieszka Holland’s Venice Special Jury Prize-winning refugee drama “Green Border” hasn’t kept the movie from being a hot seller. The film explores the injustice and terror perpetrated at the Polish-Belarusian border from the perspective of refugees, Polish activists and border guards.

Disney has kept Kenneth Branagh’s 20th Century Studios Hercule Poirot franchise going following its inception at Fox with 2017’s Murder on the Orient Express, but recent installments have yet to reach that first pic’s box office heights.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent “Anatomy of a Fall,” Justine Triet’s Palme d’Or winning film, is one of the five movies shortlisted by France’s Oscars committee to represent the country in the international feature film race. The movie, which was acquired by Neon at Cannes, was pre-selected alongside “The Taste of Things” (previously titled “The Pot-au-Feu,” a culinary romance starring Juliette Binoche which won best director at Cannes for French-Vietnamese filmmaker Trần Anh Hùng); “The Scent of Green Papaya”; Clement Cogitore’s “Goutte d’or”; Thomas Cailley’s supernatural coming-of-age drama “The Animal Kingdom”; and Denis Imbert’s “Sur les chemins noirs.” The year’s selection committee includes sales agents Sabine Chemaly and Tanja Meissner, producers Charles Gillibert and Patrick Wachsberger, directors Olivier Assayas and Mounia Meddour, and Oscar-winning composer Alexandre Desplat.

France has unveiled the five titles in the running to be its entry for Best International Feature Film at the 96th Academy Awards.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent “The Eternal Memory,” Chilean documentarian Maite Alberdi’s follow-up to the Oscar-nominated “The Mole Agent,” is smashing box office records in Chile. Bowing Thursday Aug. 24 in 70 theaters and shooting straight to No.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief “Dust to Dust,” a low-key crime thriller, topped the mainland Chinese box office over the weekend, despite only being released on Saturday. The film, directed by Jonathan Li, recounts how 21 years after a major armed robbery, a video of the crime resurfaces and causes the police to reopen their investigation. It had its world premiere in June, in competition at the Shanghai International Film Festival. With Da Peng, a former talk show host, required to age significantly for the lead role, the film earned $22.2 million (RMB160 million) in just two days, according to consultancy Artisan Gateway.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The South Korean box office got a new chart topper with mystery drama “Sleep,” but the weekend was a sleepy affair. “Sleep” earned $2.97 million over the weekend, according to Friday to Sunday data from Kobis, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council (Kofic). Over its full opening five days, it grossed $3.97 million. The film, which had its world premiere in Cannes in May, is the tale of a newly-married couple whose relationship is challenged by the man’s nightly disturbances, in which he claims that someone else is inside him. “Sleep” is directed by Jason Yu and produced by Lewis Kim at Lewis Pictures. The top-ranked new release meant that “Oppenheimer” slipped to second place after three weeks on top.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Paris-based leading distribution company ARP Selection has bought a pair of U.S. indie gems from the fall festival circuit, Shane Atkinson’s feature debut “LaRoy” and Sofia Coppola’s “Priscilla.” “LaRoy,” a neo-noir Western comedy with Coen brothers influences, just won three major prizes at the Deauville Film Festival, including the Grand Prize, Audience Award and Critics Prize; while “Priscilla” world premiered at the Venice Film Festival and won best actress for Cailee Spaeny.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent While at the Deauville American Film Festival to present “May December,” Todd Haynes spoke to Variety, during a one-on-one interview at the Royal Hotel, about bringing Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore together in a film for the first time, provoking audiences and pushing against American conservatism. Haynes, who is attending Deauville with his producers Christine Vachon and Sophie Mas, also teased his next directorial effort starring Joaquin Phoenix, a “sexually explicit” movie telling a “love story between two men set in the 30s.” Loosely based on the story of Mary Kay Letourneau, the teacher who had an affair with her 6th grade student, “May December” has already earned awards buzz since world premiering in competition at the Cannes Film Festival, where it was bought by Netflix. In France, the movie will be released by ARP Selection in January.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor Actor Sandra Hüller could be the critical darling of awards season with two acclaimed performances in two high-profile international feature contenders, France’s “Anatomy of a Fall” from Justine Triet and United Kingdom’s “The Zone of Interest” from Jonathan Glazer. The German performer has opted to campaign her work in Glazer’s Holocaust-era drama for best supporting actress, Variety can reveal exclusively, greatly increasing her chances for possible double acting recognition this year. Her work in Triet’s French Oscar hopeful will be submitted for lead actress consideration.

Lea Michele treated the final-night audience of Broadway’s Funny Girl to an extra song Sunday, performing “My Man,” popularized by Fanny Brice in 1921 but not included in the musical’s original score.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent French TV sales broke an all-time record of €214.8 million ($230 million) in 2022, a 15.4% year-on rise, bolstered by premium TV series such as Newen’s procedural “HPI,” Federation’s spy series “The Bureau” and Banijay’s period show “Marie Antoinette,” according to a study unveiled by the National Film Board and promotion org Unifrance. The French org credited the spike in French TV exports to the end of the pandemic and the delivery of fresh content, as well as the return of in-person markets and business travel. French linear channels still remain the main buyers of local TV content, accounting for 49% of sales, on par with 2021.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Elsa Zylberstein, the French César-winning actor and producer whose popular movie “Simone: Woman of the Century” recently opened in the U.S., is preparing a biopic movie of fashion icon Christian Dior. The film is being penned by Julien Teisseire (“The Hookup Plan”) and is being developed by Zylberstein’s banner Sonia Films and Odile McDonald (“Ransom”).

Variety said the receipts were boosted by showtimes in premium large format auditoriums, and the flick is on track for the second-highest Labor Day weekend opening in historyThe Post praised the movie stating that unlike the first two “dark” and “pathologically unpleasant” films, the third “lives up to the ever-deepening talent of its leading man.”The summer’s biggest blockbuster, “Barbie,” continued to pull in audience, netting $2.5 million Friday.

With titles falling off marquees due to the strikes, leave it to Taylor Swift to save the day. Her record breaking concert, the Eras Tour, will be playing AMC and Cinemark theaters this fall. The pic is directed by Sam Wrench.

Good Night, Oscar, the Oscar Levant bio-play starring Sean Hayes, and El Mago Pop, the Broadway debut of Spanish illusionist Antonio Díaz, ended their limited Broadway engagements on upswings last week, with the former selling out for its best week take of $1,147,057 and the magician conjuring a big $2,717,000 to break the house record at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre with an unusually busy 13-performance week.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent The 80th Venice Film Festival kicks off tomorrow with a robust roster of awards season hopefuls making their bows, such as Michael Mann’s “Ferrari,” Bradley Cooper’s “Maestro,” Sophia Coppola’s “Priscilla” and David Fincher’s “The Killer,” accompanied by a smattering of stars. As previously reported by Variety, the festival has confirmed that Adam Driver will be in Venice to promote “Ferrari” while Cailee Spaeny and Jacob Elordi, who play Priscilla and Elvis Presley in “Priscilla,” as well as Priscilla Presley herself, are also expected to be on the Lido.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Pulsar Content has secured international rights on “Pacific Fear,” a French survival horror film which has started filming in French Polynesia. The movie is directed by Jacques Kluger, who previously directed the Belgian horror movie “Play or Die,” and is produced by Nolita, whose recent credits include the Netflix hit action franchise “Lost Bullet.” Darklight Content is co-producing.

Brent Lang Executive Editor “Barbie” and “Gran Turismo” are both claiming victory at the box office in a showdown that has a lot to do with movie accounting and shifting definitions of the meaning of an opening weekend. Warner Bros., which backed “Barbie,” is claiming that the film won the weekend for the fifth time, earning $15.1 million over last Friday, Saturday and Sunday. However, Sony, which produced “Gran Turismo,” is claiming that its film topped box office charts with $17.4 million.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Chinese crime action film “No More Bets” headed the mainland China box office for the fourth consecutive weekend, cementing its place as one of the biggest films in the world this year. Between Friday and Sunday, it earned $33.5 million (RMB241 million), according to data from specialist consultancy firm Artisan Gateway. Global data provider Comscore ranked that as the third highest performance of the weekend anywhere in the world, narrowly behind “Barbie’s” $35.3 million. The latest increment advanced “No More Bets’” cumulative score to $469 million (RMB3.37 billion). “Papa,” a comedy about parental efforts to improve their son’s education, held an unchanged second place in its second week.