Unifrance Showbiz and Celebrity Breaking News

“Papicha” filmmaker Mounia Meddour was awarded the 2020 Academy Gold Fellowship Award for Women from the AMPAS during a luncheon hosted by French actress Juliette Binoche in Paris.

One of the widest-selling titles at the UniFrance Rendez-Vous, a showcase of French cinema that wraps Monday, is Claus Drexel’s “Under the Stars of Paris.” The French-German speaks to Variety about the pic and his upcoming prostitution documentary “The Amazons.”

“The Atomic Adventure,” a contender in UniFrance’s online MyFrenchFilmFestival, is the third short from Loïc Barché (“Goliath,” “Le Commencement”). Variety talked to the director about the short, and his feature debut “Feu de Paille.”

France has a burgeoning eco-system of virtual reality and augmented reality producers, and is one of Europe’s leading VR/AR hubs. The UniFrance Rendez-Vous with French Cinema in Paris, a showcase of French projects that wraps Monday, included a VR/AR showcase, with recent projects demonstrated by Wide Management VR, VRrOOm and Atlas V.

A mix of comedies such as Isabelle Huppert starrer “Mama Weed” (pictured) and Michaël Youn’s “Divorce Club,” and director-driven titles like Claus Drexel’s “Under The Stars of Paris” were among the most buzzed-about market premieres of the UniFrance Rendez-Vous with French Cinema. The five-day showcase kicked off Jan. 17 with the world premiere of Martin Provost’s “How To Be A Good Wife” with Juliette Binoche” and wrapped Monday.

With his first short film, the animated “Yùl and the Snake,” Gabriel Harel won Europe’s Cartoon d’Or for the continent’s best animated short film, given at the 2016 Cartoon Forum in Toulouse. Now, Harel’s awaited sophomore effort, the animated “The Night of the Plastic Bags,” competes at UniFrance’s MyFrenchFilmFestival, and is available on a swathe of VOD platforms around the world. The short world-premiered at last year’s Cannes Festival, in Directors’ Fortnight.

Winner of Locarno’s Signs of Life section, Benjamin Crotty’s “The Glorious Acceptance of Nicolas Chauvin” has enjoyed more than 12 months of festival success and critical acclaim as it reaches the end of its festival run at UniFrance’s MyFrenchFilmFestival.

French VR company VRrOOm is launching a six degrees of freedom (6-DoF) social VR platform that operates within the VRChat live platform, and enables multiple users to take part in live events, and includes the possibility of real-time photo-realistic representation.

Unifrance’s MyFrenchFilmFestival (MFFF) is back this year, giving thousands of fans of French-speaking cinema from around the world an opportunity to see films reaching the end of their festival runs. This year’s competition received a late boost when Delphine Girard’s “A Sister,” one of the 10 shorts in competition, was nominated for the best live-action short Oscar on Monday.

Delphine Girard’s 16-minute Belgian thriller “A Sister” gave this year’s MyFrenchFilmFestival (MFFF) shorts competition a shot in the arm earlier this week, when the film received an Academy Award nomination for Best Live Action Short Film.

Jan Kounen’s comedy “My Cousin,” starring Vincent Lindon and François Damiens, will be one of the biggest French releases of the year. The film screens Friday at the Unifrance Rendez-Vous in Paris. In an exclusive interview with Variety, he talks about his key motivations for the project.

Debut filmmaker Marine Levéel’s “Magnetic Harvest” arrives at the MyFrenchFilmFestival, the online film festival that runs Jan. 16-Feb. 16, capping a whirlwind year of awards and recognition. It first premiered at the Angers Film Festival, scooping the audience prize, before competing at the Hof Film Festival and France’s prestigious Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival.

On par with 2018, the overseas box office revenue of French movies reached an estimated €244.4 millions ($272 million) from 40 million admissions in 2019, according to a report unveiled by UniFrance.

Guillaume Nicloux’s “To the Ends of the World,” Erwan Le Duc’s “The Bare Necessity” and Caroline Poggi & Jonathan Vinel’s “Jessica Forever” are among the ten French and French-language films set to compete at the 10th edition of MyFrenchFilmFestival, the online film showcase created by UniFrance.