From Jekyll and Hyde to the Wolfman, to much more recent twists on atavistic transformations, the concept of shape-shifting has always been a popular one in fiction — with storytellers turning the dial up or down on the potential social commentary therein, according to taste and preference. In “Animale,” the closing film of this year’s Cannes Critics’ Week section, director Emma Benestan is rather more interested in the interpersonal dynamics navigated by 22-year-old female bull-runner Nejma (Oulaya Amamra) than in really savouring some promising horror implications. She gives Dr. Jekyll center stage, as it were, rather than getting too involved with Mr. Hyde.
Nejma works at a ranch in Camargue, France, where bulls are raised to compete in the arena for baying crowds of exhilarated spectators. It is a traditionally masculine environment: From the bulls to the men who wrangle them, the emphasis is on displays of physical strength and ferocity.
Nejma works at a ranch in Camargue, France, where bulls are raised to compete in the arena for baying crowds of exhilarated spectators. It is a traditionally masculine environment: From the bulls to the men who wrangle them, the emphasis is on displays of physical strength and ferocity.
- 5/23/2024
- by Catherine Bray
- Variety Film + TV
Federico Luis’ Simon Of The Mountain won the Cannes Critics’ Week Grand Prize on Wednesday night (May 22).
The Argentinian first feature is a coming-of-age story about a boy with a disability wrestling through life. Luxbox is handling international sales for the film produced by Argentina’s 20/20 in coproduction with Chile’s Planta, Uruguay’s Mother Superior and Los Angeles and Mexico City-based Twelve Thirty Media.
The jury prize went to US director Constance Tsang’s first feature Blue Sun Palace about Chinese immigrants living in Queens. Charades is handling international sales and WME has North American rights to the film...
The Argentinian first feature is a coming-of-age story about a boy with a disability wrestling through life. Luxbox is handling international sales for the film produced by Argentina’s 20/20 in coproduction with Chile’s Planta, Uruguay’s Mother Superior and Los Angeles and Mexico City-based Twelve Thirty Media.
The jury prize went to US director Constance Tsang’s first feature Blue Sun Palace about Chinese immigrants living in Queens. Charades is handling international sales and WME has North American rights to the film...
- 5/22/2024
- ScreenDaily
Argentinian director Federico Luis’s first film Simon of the Mountain has won the Grand Prize at the 63rd edition of Cannes Critics’ Week.
The coming-of-age tale stars rising Argentinian actor, singer and song writer Lorenzo Ferro as a young man grappling with the challenges of a mental disorder.
It is produced by Patricio Alvarez Casado at Argentinian production house 20/20 in coproduction with Fernando Bascuñan at Chilean company Planta, Ignacio Cucucovich’s Uruguayan company Mother Superior and L.A. and Mexico City based producer Carlos Rincones at Twelve Thirty Media, with Luxbox handling international sales.
In other key prizes, U.S.-Chinese filmmaker Constance Tsang’s won the French Touch Prize of the Jury for first feature Blue Sun Palace, a bittersweet chronicle of the tumultuous destiny of Chinese immigrants living in Queens.
It is produced by Eli Raskin at Field Trip Media and Tony Yang at Big Buddha Productions,...
The coming-of-age tale stars rising Argentinian actor, singer and song writer Lorenzo Ferro as a young man grappling with the challenges of a mental disorder.
It is produced by Patricio Alvarez Casado at Argentinian production house 20/20 in coproduction with Fernando Bascuñan at Chilean company Planta, Ignacio Cucucovich’s Uruguayan company Mother Superior and L.A. and Mexico City based producer Carlos Rincones at Twelve Thirty Media, with Luxbox handling international sales.
In other key prizes, U.S.-Chinese filmmaker Constance Tsang’s won the French Touch Prize of the Jury for first feature Blue Sun Palace, a bittersweet chronicle of the tumultuous destiny of Chinese immigrants living in Queens.
It is produced by Eli Raskin at Field Trip Media and Tony Yang at Big Buddha Productions,...
- 5/22/2024
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
Toro Toro Toro: Amamra Grabs the Bull By the Horns in Transformative Role
For those who champion the bull in Spain’s electrifying yet antiquated tradition of the running of the bulls, there’s a fresh perspective awaiting in a genre-blending narrative that redefines and realigns the boundaries between genders and species. Departing from her beginnings in young adult romantic comedy with Fragile (2021), French-Algerian filmmaker Emma Benestan reunites with Oulaya Amamra for their third collaboration—a sophomore film that exudes a Cocteau-esque spirit with hints of whac-a-mole horror genre elements. An exploration of crossed boundaries and crossing over, Animale is reminiscent of last year’s Le Règne animal and especially Julia Ducournau’s Raw, despite embracing what is a familiar, well-trodden path, we find a fresh take on violence as redemption and salvation.…...
For those who champion the bull in Spain’s electrifying yet antiquated tradition of the running of the bulls, there’s a fresh perspective awaiting in a genre-blending narrative that redefines and realigns the boundaries between genders and species. Departing from her beginnings in young adult romantic comedy with Fragile (2021), French-Algerian filmmaker Emma Benestan reunites with Oulaya Amamra for their third collaboration—a sophomore film that exudes a Cocteau-esque spirit with hints of whac-a-mole horror genre elements. An exploration of crossed boundaries and crossing over, Animale is reminiscent of last year’s Le Règne animal and especially Julia Ducournau’s Raw, despite embracing what is a familiar, well-trodden path, we find a fresh take on violence as redemption and salvation.…...
- 5/22/2024
- by Eric Lavallée
- IONCINEMA.com
Midsommar producer Patrik Andersson, Infinity Pool SFX artist Dan Martin and All Quiet On The Western Front sound editor/designer Frank Kruse are among the first wave of contributors to the inaugural UK Next Wave Genre Lab.
The Lab is run by UK sales firm Film Constellation, French production and consultancy company Tatino Films and development and packaging event Maskoon Fantastic Lab.
Hoard producer Andy Starke, Pelican Blood producer Verena Grafe-Hoft and Piggy filmmaker Carlota Pereda are also among the group of international contributors, mentors and tutors, with further participants to be announced soon.
The Lab will be led by...
The Lab is run by UK sales firm Film Constellation, French production and consultancy company Tatino Films and development and packaging event Maskoon Fantastic Lab.
Hoard producer Andy Starke, Pelican Blood producer Verena Grafe-Hoft and Piggy filmmaker Carlota Pereda are also among the group of international contributors, mentors and tutors, with further participants to be announced soon.
The Lab will be led by...
- 5/19/2024
- ScreenDaily
The anarchic spirit of Julia Ducournau’s Palme d’Or winner Titane lives on in Emma Benestan’s Critics’ Week closer Animale, the genre-busting debut of a director who cites Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Kathryn Bigelow’s Near Dark, and the naturalist films of Chloé Zhao as influences. More surprisingly, she also credits Abdellatif Kechiche, since her first break was as assistant editor on his 2013 Palme d’Or winner Blue Is the Warmest Color.
Emma Benestan
Benestan — who would later take a full-blown editor credit on Kechiche’s 2017 feature Mektoub, My Love — was then finishing her studies at France’s prestigious La Fémis film school, but observing Kechiche’s directorial style, and witnessing his penchant for mixing professional and amateur actors, was an education in itself. “It’s the way he marries professionals and amateurs that gives his films a certain spontaneity,” she explains. “I’d been taught the director had to control everything,...
Emma Benestan
Benestan — who would later take a full-blown editor credit on Kechiche’s 2017 feature Mektoub, My Love — was then finishing her studies at France’s prestigious La Fémis film school, but observing Kechiche’s directorial style, and witnessing his penchant for mixing professional and amateur actors, was an education in itself. “It’s the way he marries professionals and amateurs that gives his films a certain spontaneity,” she explains. “I’d been taught the director had to control everything,...
- 5/18/2024
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
The world premiere of Agathe Riedinger’s Wild Diamond in Cannes Competition is the only one by a first-time filmmaker and heralds Riedinger as part of a new wave of French female directors to arrive en force on the Croisette.
The film explores western society’s obsession with beauty and fame and the omnipresence of social media through the story of a 19 year-old girl who sets out to earn a spot on a reality TV show.
Also in Competitoin is France-born Coralie Fargeat’s second feature The Substance. The body horror is produced by the UK’s Working Title Films and stars Demi Moore,...
The film explores western society’s obsession with beauty and fame and the omnipresence of social media through the story of a 19 year-old girl who sets out to earn a spot on a reality TV show.
Also in Competitoin is France-born Coralie Fargeat’s second feature The Substance. The body horror is produced by the UK’s Working Title Films and stars Demi Moore,...
- 5/17/2024
- ScreenDaily
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. Taunting and evading the animals with increasing boldness, Nejma seeks to prove herself the equal of the men – inside and outside of the arena. But both situations put Nejma at risk, as a different threat looms over the community of riders: a bull is on the loose and young men are being killed. The film is designed as a supernatural fable that blends with the classic body horror, and the revenge thriller.
After several shorts and a documentary, “Animale” is Benestan’s second fiction feature after the acclaimed “Fragile” aka “Hard Shell, Soft Shell...
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. Taunting and evading the animals with increasing boldness, Nejma seeks to prove herself the equal of the men – inside and outside of the arena. But both situations put Nejma at risk, as a different threat looms over the community of riders: a bull is on the loose and young men are being killed. The film is designed as a supernatural fable that blends with the classic body horror, and the revenge thriller.
After several shorts and a documentary, “Animale” is Benestan’s second fiction feature after the acclaimed “Fragile” aka “Hard Shell, Soft Shell...
- 5/15/2024
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
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.
Running from May 15 to 23, the compact line-up will showcase 11 first and second works features by emerging directors, seven in competition, as well as 13 short films.
Deadline caught up with Artistic Director Ava Cahen on the eve of the 63rd edition.
Deadline: You’re on your third selection as Critics’ Week artistic director. How was it this year?
Ava Cahen: We always put the counters back to zero. So everything felt new, even if it’s my third year. We received a few more films than normal and screened 1,050 features. It’s hard when you’ve only got 11 slots. Obviously there were a lot more than 11 films that we would have liked to have welcomed. There was a lot of discussion.
Running from May 15 to 23, the compact line-up will showcase 11 first and second works features by emerging directors, seven in competition, as well as 13 short films.
Deadline caught up with Artistic Director Ava Cahen on the eve of the 63rd edition.
Deadline: You’re on your third selection as Critics’ Week artistic director. How was it this year?
Ava Cahen: We always put the counters back to zero. So everything felt new, even if it’s my third year. We received a few more films than normal and screened 1,050 features. It’s hard when you’ve only got 11 slots. Obviously there were a lot more than 11 films that we would have liked to have welcomed. There was a lot of discussion.
- 5/15/2024
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
European production and sales studio Vuelta Group has bought German producer Telepool from Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith’s Westbrook.
The deal, struck through Vuelta subsidiary SquareOne, will see a combined business operating under the SquareOne banner. SquareOne and Vuelta Group Germany CEO Al Munteanu will lead the banner, with Michael Heyd serving as CFO and COO.
Financial terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, but the combined group will boast a library of over 1,200 titles such as Drive, Intouchables, Olympus Has Fallen, Transporter 3 and the recently released One Life. It will form part of the growing Vuelta Group, which in July last year we revealed had formed through the acquisitions of SquareOne, Paris-based international sales firm Playtime Group and Nordic distributor-producer Scanbox.
Vuelta Group Chairman Jeromt Levy, who launched the group with $50M backing from an unnamed U.S. private equity firm, announced the news today along with Munteanu.
The deal, struck through Vuelta subsidiary SquareOne, will see a combined business operating under the SquareOne banner. SquareOne and Vuelta Group Germany CEO Al Munteanu will lead the banner, with Michael Heyd serving as CFO and COO.
Financial terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, but the combined group will boast a library of over 1,200 titles such as Drive, Intouchables, Olympus Has Fallen, Transporter 3 and the recently released One Life. It will form part of the growing Vuelta Group, which in July last year we revealed had formed through the acquisitions of SquareOne, Paris-based international sales firm Playtime Group and Nordic distributor-producer Scanbox.
Vuelta Group Chairman Jeromt Levy, who launched the group with $50M backing from an unnamed U.S. private equity firm, announced the news today along with Munteanu.
- 5/8/2024
- by Jesse Whittock
- Deadline Film + TV
German distributor-producer SquareOne Entertainment, part of rising European film studio Vuelta Group, has acquired German film and TV production, distribution and licensing company Telepool, which was owned by Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith’s Westbrook.
The news was announced Wednesday by Vuelta Group chairman Jerome Levy and CEO of SquareOne and Vuelta Group Germany Al Munteanu.
Munteanu will spearhead the newly combined entity under the SquareOne banner with Michael Heyd serving as CFO/COO.
The newly combined SquareOne entity will boast a library consisting of over 1,200 titles such as “Drive,” “Intouchables,” “The Olympus Has Fallen,” “The Hitman’s Bodyguard,” “Imitation Game,” “Lone Survivor,” “Book Club,” “Transporter 3,” “King Richard,” “Maurice the Tomcat” and the recently released “One Life” among others.
“For over 60 years, Telepool has been one of the leading global content houses and we are proud of the work we did with the company,” said Westbrook CEO Kosaku Yada.
The news was announced Wednesday by Vuelta Group chairman Jerome Levy and CEO of SquareOne and Vuelta Group Germany Al Munteanu.
Munteanu will spearhead the newly combined entity under the SquareOne banner with Michael Heyd serving as CFO/COO.
The newly combined SquareOne entity will boast a library consisting of over 1,200 titles such as “Drive,” “Intouchables,” “The Olympus Has Fallen,” “The Hitman’s Bodyguard,” “Imitation Game,” “Lone Survivor,” “Book Club,” “Transporter 3,” “King Richard,” “Maurice the Tomcat” and the recently released “One Life” among others.
“For over 60 years, Telepool has been one of the leading global content houses and we are proud of the work we did with the company,” said Westbrook CEO Kosaku Yada.
- 5/8/2024
- by Elsa Keslassy and Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
London- and Paris-based production, finance and sales outfit Film Constellation has boarded international sales on Titus Kaphar’s drama “Exhibiting Forgiveness.”
The film received strong reviews after its January premiere at Sundance in the U.S. Dramatic Competition section, and was picked up for North American distribution by Roadside Attractions, with plans for a wide theatrical release in the fall and awards campaign.
Film Constellation will screen the film for buyers in Cannes.
In the film, an artist finds his path to success derailed by an unexpected visit from his estranged father, a troubled man desperate to reconcile. Together, they learn that forgetting may be harder than forgiving.
The directorial debut of visual artist Kaphar, “Exhibiting Forgiveness” stars André Holland, Andra Day, John Earl Jelks and Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor.
Variety’s Owen Gleiberman gave the film a positive review, describing it as “a forceful drama free of feel-good fakery” and praising Holland’s performance as “fierce,...
The film received strong reviews after its January premiere at Sundance in the U.S. Dramatic Competition section, and was picked up for North American distribution by Roadside Attractions, with plans for a wide theatrical release in the fall and awards campaign.
Film Constellation will screen the film for buyers in Cannes.
In the film, an artist finds his path to success derailed by an unexpected visit from his estranged father, a troubled man desperate to reconcile. Together, they learn that forgetting may be harder than forgiving.
The directorial debut of visual artist Kaphar, “Exhibiting Forgiveness” stars André Holland, Andra Day, John Earl Jelks and Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor.
Variety’s Owen Gleiberman gave the film a positive review, describing it as “a forceful drama free of feel-good fakery” and praising Holland’s performance as “fierce,...
- 5/3/2024
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
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