The Match Factory Boards Margarethe Von Trotta Biopic Starring Vicky Krieps (EXCLUSIVE)

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorThe 39th edition of the Munich Film Festival, which runs June 23-July 2, will screen 120 films from 52 countries, including 35 world premieres, such as “Paloma” by Marcelo Gomes, one of several films in the festival that tackles the subject of trans identities.The three international competition sections will feature numerous highlights from the Cannes Film Festival, including “Corsage,” which opens the event. Vicky Krieps was honored in Cannes with the best actress award in the Un Certain Regard section for her performance as Empress Elisabeth of Austria, also known as “Sissi.” Four films come to Munich fresh from Cannes’ main competition: “Leila’s Brothers” by Iranian director Saeed Roustayi, about a family’s struggle for survival in an Iran economically weakened by Western sanctions and consumed by corruption; “Pacifiction” by Albert Serra, in which Benoît Magimel excels as a conflicted police commissioner; “The Eight Mountains,” directed by Charlotte Vandermeersch and Felix van Groeningen, a touching adaptation of Paolo Cognetti’s novel about a friendship forged in the spectacular natural environment of the Western Alps; and Hirokazu Kore-eda returns with “Broker,” which received the award for best acting performance in Cannes for Song Kang-ho.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorLeading arthouse sales company The Match Factory has acquired Sophie Linnenbaum’s graduation feature “The Ordinaries,” which will have its international premiere in Karlovy Vary Film Festival’s Crystal Globe Competition, following its world premiere at Munich Film Festival. In her first foray into feature-length fiction filmmaking, Linnenbaum “playfully explores the process of identity construction within rigid power structures in a filmic meta-world,” The Match Factory said. The film follows her acclaimed documentary “Stories of Dads,” which won the FFF Talent Award at Dokfest Munich last year, and was nominated for the German Documentary Award.“The Ordinaries” depicts a repressive three class-society in which Paula, a simple Supporting Character, is about to face the most important test of her life: she has to prove she deserves to be a Lead.

Jury Prize: “Joyland,” directed by Saim SadiqBest Director Prize: Alexandru Belc for “Metronomes”Best Actor Prize (jointly awarded):Vicky Krieps in “Corsage”Adam Bessa in “Harka”Best Screenplay Prize: “Mediterranean Fever,” directed by Maha HajCoup de cœur Prize: “Rodeo,” directed by Lola Quivoron

Guy Lodge Film CriticFrench film “The Worst Ones (Les Pires)” is the surprise winner of the top prize at this year’s Un Certain Regard awards ceremony, with Italian actor-director Valeria Golino and her fellow jurors also handing prizes to Pakistani breakout “Joyland,” Romanian drama “Metronom” and “Corsage” star Vicky Krieps.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film CriticElvis Presley, with the exception of the Beatles, is the most mythological figure in the history of popular music. That makes him a singularly tempting figure to build a biopic around.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent“The Three Musketeers,” Pathé Films’s $75-million two-part adventure epic saga based on Alexandre Dumas’s masterpiece, has been bought in major international territories rolling off a busy Cannes market. Pathé unveiled a sprawling 15-minute promoreel for both “The Three Musketeers” – D’Artagnan” and “The Three Musketeers – Milady” at Cannes Marché du Film. Both movies are directed by Martin Bourboulon and boast a star-studded cast, including Vincent Cassel, Eva Green, Vicky Krieps, Romain Duris, Pio Marmaï, François Civil, Lyna Khoudri and Louis Garrel.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorWhen filmmaker Marie Kreutzer was writing “Corsage,” which chronicles a critical period in the life of Empress Elisabeth of Austria, also known as “Sissi,” she had in mind the experience of other women in the public eye, in particular Princess Diana and Meghan Markle. In recent weeks, she has been mulling the treatment of Amber Heard as well.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Paris-based Les Films D’Ici (“Waltz with Bashir”) has boarded Chilean doc “El Porvenir de la Mirada,” produced by Santiago-based Storyboard Media and associate produced by Academy Award winner Sebastian Lelio (“A Fantastic Woman”).The feature-length doc chronicles the trauma of young protesters shot in the eyes by Chilean riot police during the massive demonstrations that roiled Chile in October 2019.Said producer Charlotte Uzu of Les Films D’ici: “It’s an important film that will portray people’s brave and necessary fight against the blindness of conscience.”“We’re delighted at how our project has been received at Cannes’ Marché du Film and even more so now that we can count on the vast experience of the prestigious Les Films D’Ici as our producing partner,” said Storyboard Media’s Carlos Nunez, who founded the production company with Gabriela Sandoval. “We’re certain that their participation will give the project a global dimension,” he added.

EXCLUSIVE: Marking her first feature since she won a Best Actress Oscar for The Eyes Of Tammy Faye, Jessica Chastain and Dopesick and The Batman star Peter Sarsgaard have just wrapped on Michel Franco’s (New Order) new film, which we can reveal is called Memory.

Director Emily Atef’s Cannes Un Certain Regard drama More Than Ever is a careful, fastidious, Tradition of Quality film about impending death that’s easy to admire but won’t exactly pack ‘em in.

Naman Ramachandran Studio Soho International has acquired worldwide rights to “A Bird Flew In” and has launched sales at the Cannes Film Market. “Quant” producer Kirsty Bell, the founder of production company Goldfinch Entertainment, makes her directorial debut with the film, which stars Sadie Frost, Derek Jacobi, Morgana Robinson, Jeff Fahey, Frances Barber, Julie Dray, Sophie Kennedy Clark and Camilla Rutherford. It is produced by Ben Charles Edwards (“Quant”) for Goldfinch with Phil McKenzie (“Twist”) serving as executive producer.Composed of seven interlinked narratives, the film is set in the U.K.’s COVID-19 lockdown.

review, Nicholas Barber wrote that “Corsage” stylistically resembles the dreamy Kristen Stewart film “Spencer.” “Whenever the film seems to be settling into an atmospheric but conventionally good-looking period piece, Kreutzer throws in an amusing and jarring reminder of the modern world, as if Elisabeth were breaking out of her allotted role by time-traveling, momentarily, to the present day,” Barber wrote. “Corsage” follows Elisabeth around her 40th birthday at a time when her role in the empire is slowly becoming more performative and has to fight to maintain her public image by lacing her corset ever tighter and tighter.

For all their faults, the 2020s are shaping up to be a welcome celebration of actor Vicky Krieps. The Luxembourg actress is perhaps best-known with domestic audiences for her performance in Paul Thomas Anderson‘s “Phantom Thread,” but with 2021’s “Bergman Island” and a pair of 2022 Cannes Film Festival titles (“Corsage,” “More Than Ever“) under her belt, she seems poised to enter that rare stratosphere of performers who move between national cinema and Hollywood with ease.

IFC Films has nabbed North American rights to “Corsage,” Marie Kreutzer’s bold costume drama starring Vicky Krieps as the Empress Elisabeth of Austria known as Sissi. Represented in international markets by MK2 Films, the movie world premiered at Cannes’ Un Certain Regard and earned unanimous praises.

Here are some of the key talking points from the Cannes Film Festival and market at half-way.

Inspired by her own late mother’s long battle with multiple sclerosis, writer/director Emily Atef’s (“Molly’s Way,” “3 Days in Quiberon”) latest work, “More Than Ever,” delivers a poignant and well-acted story. Featuring Gaspard Ulliel’s last performance, the film asks its audience to face the reality of and ponder the inevitability of death as well as the line between those who have experienced a type of suffering and those who haven’t.

A silver spoon clunks loudly inside a bowl of beef broth. The meal — well, barely a meal — is served to Empress Elisabeth of Austria (Vicky Krieps) twice a day, her diet a strict combination of insipid soup and wafer-thin slices of lemon.

Jessica Kiang The Empress is unimpressed. Introduced to us at the beginning of Marie Kreutzer’s sneaky and terrific Un Certain Regard premiere “Corsage,” submerged in a bathtub during one of her many self-imposed endurance training rituals, Duchess Elisabeth Amalie Eugenie in Bavaria, Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary, is holding her breath underwater for as long as she can.