Passion Unveils ‘Love,’ ‘Greetings From the Apocalypse’ at Annecy (EXCLUSIVE)

Christine & The Queens has released a new single titled ‘Je te vois enfin’ alongside a suave and sophisticated persona she calls Redcar.Released on June 24, the Mike Dean-produced single is sung entirely in French and sees Christine metaphorically musing, “Je me souviens jeune animal je courais bien loin / Dans la forêt pour chercher mon chemin / J’étais perdu mais comptait seulement le présent”: “I remember young animal I was running so far / Into the forest to look for my path / I was lost but counted only the present.”Listen to Christine & The Queens’ ‘Je te vois enfin’ below.The track is the first solo material to be released by the French singer this year following her collaborations with Charli XCX and Caroline Polachek on ‘New Shapes’ having previously worked with Charli on 2019’s ‘Gone’ from her third album ‘Charli’, and most recently the single ‘Body’ with 070 Shake from Shake’s upcoming album ‘You Can’t Kill Me‘.‘Je te vois enfin’ is said to mark “a new era” for the artist according to a statement, having previously hinted in 2020 that she was hard at work on a “vast, hopeful and ambitious” new album.She dropped a surprise two-track EP titled ‘Joseph’ in September last year, the first new material since her 2020 EP ‘La Vita Nuova’ – itself a surprise release when it was released. Later that year, she also shared a remix EP of ‘La Vita Nuova’, which saw A.

As Paramount+ prepares for UK rollout and in advance of tonight’s swanky London do, the streamer has greenlit a seven-strong international slate including a French fantasy horror thriller, doc on the Circeo Massacre, two shows from Mexico and two from Germany including The Sheikh.

Naman Ramachandran Wildlife and nature programmer Love Nature has greenlit five-part natural history series “Evolution Earth” in co-production with PBS and Arte. The series, produced by Passion Planet and shot in extreme locations around the world, is an examination of adaptation stories that illustrate the rapid pace of change happening across Earth, while providing a look at nature’s ability to thrive.The series includes five films, each showcasing a different extreme landscape including Earth, Islands, Ice, Heat and Grasslands. It will debut across Love Nature’s branded linear and streaming platforms around the world, PBS in the U.S., Arte in France and Germany and on Sky Nature in the U.K.

‘Evolution Earth’ Greenlit By PBS, ARTE, Sky Nature and Love Nature

Variety watches the shorts in Annecy’s main competition selection and picks 10 of our favorites. We’re not saying these are the best 10 shorts this year, though four won prizes, but we believe each brings something that shouldn’t be missed.“Anxious Body,” (Yoriko Mizushiri, France, Japan)Screening at Cannes Directors’ Fortnight, Mizushiri’s fourth short and the first project co-produced by Japanese New Deer and France’s Miyu Productions.

Mötörhead frontman Lemmy has been unveiled at French metal festival Hellfest.The new sculpture, which is the brainchild of artist Caroline Brisset, replaces an existing Lemmy statue at the event, which has been erected for six years.The second statue, a gigantic and imposing metal creation, was unveiled this week to signal the start of Hellfest 2022, which is being held across two weekends in Clisson, France.See the new statue of Lemmy at Hellfest below:Lemmy Hellfest Open Air @hellfestopenair pic.twitter.com/kZm9g9z1AJ— The Metal Voice (@themetalvoice) June 17, 2022I was sad when I heard that Hellfest were talking down the awesome Lemmy statue and replacing it with a new one.

Lise Pedersen Oscar-winning director Michel Hazanavicius (“The Artist”) has unveiled his first-ever animation film project at the Annecy Intl. Animation Film Festival.Entitled “The Most Precious of Cargos,” it is an adaptation of the eponymous best-selling book by acclaimed French playwright and children’s books author Jean-Claude Grumberg, who is co-writing the film with Hazanavicius.Told in the form of a classic fairy tale in 2D animation, it is set during World War II, and tells the story of a poor woodcutter and his wife who live deep in the Polish forest.

JD Linville Swiss animator and director Raphaëlle Stolz (“Le Salsifis du Bengale”) has debuted her new short film “Miracasas” at Annecy, where it is in competition with 37 other animated short films as part of the official selection.Stolz employs a flowing and impressionist animation style to tell the story of Ernesto, an almost-dead soldier carried to his final destination deep in the Brazilian jungle, where villagers hope his death will usher in new life. The film is a French and Swiss co production between Nadasy Film, a prominent Swiss animation studio, Komadoli Studio and Swiss public broadcaster RTS Radio Télévision Suisse.Showing a gift for collaboration (her short “Le Salsifis du Bengale” was an adaptation of a Robert Desnos poem), Stolz interprets and transforms Augusto Zanovello’s story with her singular style, with wide brush strokes, clever humor and a nod to classic animation.

Peter Debruge Chief Film CriticBelgian graphic artist Laurent Durieux has designed some of the most gorgeous movie posters of the past decade, working not for the studios but in custom-published runs just for collectors and fans. You’ve probably seen his work: intricate, finely tooled reimaginings of classic films — “Jaws,” “King Kong” and “Casablanca,” to name a few — produced as limited-edition screenprints by companies such as Mondo, resold on eBay for thousands of dollars.Durieux’s retrofuturist designs have appeared on everything from bottles of Francis Ford Coppola’s wine to the cover of The New Yorker.

Naman Ramachandran Wildlife and nature programmer Love Nature has launched FAST (free ad-supported streaming TV) service NatureTime. NatureTime will be available as a free streaming service in markets where the Love Nature brand is already established as a linear service. Content will be windowed in strategic ways to set each brand apart – i.e.

Things are already heating up in the Love Island villa, but it looks set to get even hotter over the coming days with temperatures rising up to 40C in Mallorca. A mega heatwave has already started to hit Spain, and the Islanders have been soaking up the sun with highs of 37C in the villa so far.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorKarlovy Vary Intl. Film Festival’s industry section, Eastern Promises, has unveiled its lineup of 35 film projects, which will be showcased during the Works in Progress, Works in Development – Feature Launch, First Cut+ Works in Progress and Odesa International Film Festival Works in Progress presentations.

Emiliano Granada In what promises to be an incredibly busy Annecy, Brinca Animation Studio will premiere its animated feature “Home is Somewhere Else” at the French animation meet’s Contrechamp section, its major sidebar.Co-directed by Carlos Hagerman and Jorge Villalobos, the Mexican animated feature reflects on the lives of the many undocumented Hispanic immigrants arriving in the U.S.; less interested in simply stating the immense difficulty that this means for them and keener on observing with care the emotional consequences that it entails. Built around the voices of real characters and their families, the toon’s varied styles become deeply intimate.

Martin Dale ContributorThe Annecy Intl. Animation Festival is returning to a full-fledged in-person event in 2022, expecting more than 10,000 attendees, from more than 90 countries June 13-18.“The world’s animation community will be back in Annecy — the key meeting place for the industry and artists,” says fest director Mickaël Marin, beaming.The Annecy team has striven to maintain connections and momentum within the animation community during the pandemic, through the 2020 online edition and 2021 hybrid fest, complemented by yearround masterclasses, professional meetings, seminars and dedicated trips, including recent trips to Nigeria, Israel and Brazil.The fest also collaborates with events such as Ventana Sur in Argentina and the Animation Day in Cannes.

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentAfter a virtual edition in 2020 and a hybrid outing last year, this week’s Annecy International Animation Film Festival looks set be back with a bang, fully and only onsite.It also says a lot about the animation industry’s robust fundamentals. This and nine other takes on this week’s huge French animation reunion, which runs June 13—18:Annecy’s Biggest Fest EverFrance’s Annecy Festival, the biggest event in the animation world, looks set for its largest edition ever. Accreditation numbers were heading towards a final 13,000, artistic director Marcel Jean told Variety mid-week.

Martin Dale ContributorJosé Miguel Ribeiro’s feature debut “Nayola,” one of two Portuguese full-length animation pics screening at Annecy Animation Film Festival, portrays the fate of a grandmother, a mother and her daughter – Lelena, Nayola and Yara – in the aftermath of the Angolan civil war.Nayola searches for her husband, Ekumbi, who went missing during the war. She abandons her daughter, Yara, at the age of only two, who is then brought up by her grandmother, Lelena.