Cannes 2023: the buzz titles from France

Best Friend Forever market premieres Ramata Toulaye-Sy’s Senegal-set love story Banel & Adama (in Competition) and Belgian director Claude Schmitz’s The Other Laurens (Directors’ Fortnight), plus Joëlle Desjardins Paquette’s Canadian film Stampede, which blends a road trip and rodeos.

Charades kicks off sales on Sébastien Vanicek’s French spider horror film Vermin, and market premieres Rémi Bezancon’s art world comedy Paint It Gold and George Kane’s ensemble Apocalypse Clown. Also on its slate are world premieres of festival titles Little Girl Blue (Special Screening) by Mona Achache and starring Marion Cotillard; Cédric Kahn’s Directors’ Fortnight opener The Goldman Case; Kamal Lazraq’s Hounds (Un Certain Regard), Katell Quillévéré’s Along Came Love (Cannes Premiere) and Sébastien Laudenbach and Chiara Malta’s Chicken For Linda! (Acid).

Coproduction Office market premieres Jessica Hausner’s intense psychological drama Club Zero (in Competition), set in an elite school and starring Mia Wasikowska.

Elle Driver begins sales on Alexandros Avranas’s Apathy, about a mystery syndrome affecting child refugees in Sweden. It also has on its slate Pablo Berger’s animation Robot Dreams about the friendship between a dog and a robot; Arnaud des Pallieres’ period drama Party Of Fools; The Magnificent Life Of Marcel Pagnol from Sylvain Chomet; Cédric Kahn’s Making Of, with an A-list French cast; and Paul Goldman’s sibling-rivalry story Kid Snow.

France Télévisions Distribution market premieres Delphine Deloget’s All To Play For (Un Certain Regard). It also screens Gilles Legardinier’s Mr Blake At Your Service! with John Malkovich and Fanny Ardant, Bernard-Henri Lévy and Marc Roussel’s war documentary Slava Ukraini, Carlos Chahine’s Lebanese civil war-set Mother Valley and Sébastien Tulard’s Sugar And Stars about the rise of a young pastry chef.

Gaumont kicks off sales for Gilles de Maistre’s human-animal adventure tale Moon The Panda, Stéphane Brizé’s Brittany-set romantic drama Out Of Season and Lucas Bernard’s love story meets screwball comedy In The Sub For Love. It also brings a new trailer for family adventure Cat & Dog: The Great Crossing. Market premieres include Intouchables duo Eric Toledano and Olivier Nakache’s A Difficult Year, Vincent Perez’s 19th-century fencing drama The Edge Of The Blade, trans-generational holiday comedy Christmas Unplanned and mother-son comedy Yo Mama. It also has Timbuktu director Abderrahmane Sissako’s Black Tea and world premieres Tran Anh Hung’s The Pot Au Feu (in Competition) and Stéphanie Di Giusto’s Rosalie (Un Certain Regard).

Goodfellas kicks off sales on Gianluca Jodice’s starry period drama The Flood, Dea Kulumbegashvili’s sophomore feature Those Who Find Me, Nicolas Boukhrief’s French social drama Like A Son, Nico Marzano’s doc Napoli 1990, Napoli 2023, Spanish thriller Elena Manrique’s The Party’s Over and Charles Williams’ Inside. It also premieres festival titles Jeanne Du Barry by Maïwenn, Ken Loach’s The Old Oak, Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Monster, Jean-Bernard Marlin’s Salem, Valérie Donzelli’s Just The Two Of Us, Stéphan Castang’s Vincent Must Die and Caligula — The Ultimate Cut, and market premieres Bruno Podalydes’ comedy Wow!.

Indie Sales kicks off sales for Teddy Lussi-Modeste’s The Good Teacher, starring Francois Civil, and Yolande Moreau’s inspirational ensemble drama The Jolly Forgers. It market premieres Jean-Pierre Améris’ unlikely friendship story Take A Chance On Me, Pierre Jolivet’s environmental disaster movie Green Tide and Philippe Van Leeuw’s The Wall starring Vicky Krieps.

Le Pacte’s slate includes Lisandro Alonso’s Eureka, screening in Cannes Premiere. It also brings the first promo reel for Thomas Lilti’s dramatic comedy A Real Job, with a starry French cast, about a substitute teacher facing a declining public education system.

Les Films du Losange market premieres Alain Gagnol and Jean-Loup Felicioli’s animated adventure Nina And The Hedgehog’s Secret and brings Gustav Moller’s prison ward psychological thriller Vogter (working title).

Luxbox kicks off sales for Ali Ahmadzadeh’s Critical Zone set in the underworld of Tehran. It also brings a new promo reel for Mohamed Ben Attia’s father-son redemption journey Behind The Mountains, and market premieres Elena Martin Gimeno’s Spanish self-exploration drama Creatura and Filipa Reis and Joao Miller Guerra’s Portugal-set trans-generational drama Légua, both in Directors’ Fortnight

MPM Premium market premieres Jean-Pierre Dutilleux’s Raoni: An Unusual Friendship, about Amazon Indian warrior Raoni Metuktire, and brings Caye Casas’s Spanish genre film The Coffee Table.

Memento International has new acquisitions Omen, an Africa-set drama from director Baloji (Un Certain Regard), and Lost Country by Vladimir Perisic (Critics’ Week). It also has Cannes Premiere title Bonnard, Pierre And Marthe by Martin Provost, Bruno Dumont’s star-powered The Empire and Liu Jian’s animation Art College, 1994.

mk2 Films has a slate that includes Justine Triet’s Competition title Anatomy Of A Fall, and Un Certain Regard’s How To Have Sex by Molly Manning Walker, The Settlers from Felipe Galvez, The Nature Of Love by Monia Chokri, Only The River Flows from Wei Shujun and Mars Express by Jérémie Périn. It also kicks off sales for Noémie Merlant’s second feature The Balconettes, executive produced by Céline Sciamma.

Newen Connect launches Karine Blanc and Michel Tavares’ Take Me Home, starring Clovis Cornillac, and Bryan Marciano’s Under The Rainbow, starring Valérie Lemercier and Finnegan Oldfield. It brings new materials for Guillaume Maidatchevsky’s Kina & Yuk, Piero Messina’s Another End starring Gael Garcia Bernal and Bérénice Bejo, Kevin Macdonald’s High & Low — John Galliano, Funny Birds with Andrea Riseborough and Catherine Deneuve, and local-language comedy Mr Putifar’s Wacky Plan. It also market premieres Olivier Van Hoofstadt’s The Madness Express and Antonin Fourlon’s ensemble comedy Open Season.

Orange Studio kicks off sales on Eric Besnard’s Miss Violet starring Alexandra Lamy, Carine Tardieu’s L’Attachement, Simon Buisson’s thriller Drone, Baptiste Debraux’s Chasing Johnny starring César winner Bastien Bouillon (The Night Of The 12th) and Tamer Ruggli’s road movie Back To Alexandria with Nadine Labaki and Fanny Ardant. It also market premieres Philippe Lefebvre’s New Beginnings and brings a new promo reel of The President’s Wife, Léa Domenach’s Bernadette Chirac biopic starring Catherine Deneuve.

Other Angle market premieres Géraldine Danon’s Flo (Cinéma de la Plage) and kicks off sales for Reda Kateb’s dramatic comedy On The Edge, Adeline Picot’s Sirens and Philippe Pollet-Villard’s Fallen From The Truck. It also brings a first promo reel for Benoit Cohen’s My Own France starring Fanny Ardant and market premieres Jonathan Barré’s Serial Driver starring Laure Calamy.

Pathé premieres Just Philippot’s second feature Acid, a survival thriller playing in official selection’s Midnight Screenings starring Guillaume Canet. Pathé will also screen Dany Boon’s latest film Life For Real. It unveils a new promo reel for Matteo Garrone’s epic adventure tale spanning Senegal and Europe Io Capitano, plus exclusive images of Albert Dupontel’s political fable Second Round starring Dupontel opposite Cecile de France. It also brings new images of Normandy-set The Great Escaper starring Sir Michael Caine and Glenda Jackson.

Playtime premieres Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s About Dry Grasses and Catherine Corsini’s Homecoming in Competition, as well as Erwan Le Duc’s Critics’ Week closer No Love Lost and Robin Campillo’s buzzy Red Island. The company kicks off sales on Denys Arcand’s Testament, Olivier Py’s Molière’s Last Stage and Pierre Godeau’s Headwind, and unveils two new films in post: Delphine Girard’s Through The Night and Céline Rouzet’s For Night Will Come.

Pulsar Content brings musical adaptation The Opera! and Céline Sallette’s debut feature Niki, a biopic of artist Niki de Saint Phalle. It market premieres Matthew Rosenbaum’s first feature The Damning Of A Country Merchant starring Peter Sarsgaard, Morgan Simon’s second feature A Free Woman starring Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, Virginie Verrier’s female footballer biopic Marinette, Easter animation Bim, and Gregg Simon’s thriller The Patience Of Vultures from Mandalay Pictures.

Pyramide International market premieres Catherine Breillat’s erotic thriller Last Summer and Wang Bing’s documentary Youth (Spring) from Competition, plus Anna Novion’s Marguerite’s Theorem (Special Screening) and Critics’ Week titles Ama Gloria by Marie Amachoukeli’s and Inshallah A Boy from first-time director Amjad Al Rasheed. Market premieres include Marie Garel-Weiss’s A Wonderful Girl.

SND kicks off sales for Anne Fontaine’s 1920s-set Boléro, about the birth of the famed orchestral work from Maurice Ravel, and queer romance Solo from Canadian filmmaker Sophie Dupuis. It market premieres Frédéric Tellier’s biopic Abbé Pierre — A Century Of Devotion (out of Competition), Yann Gozlan’s buzzy fifth feature Visions starring Diane Kruger and Mathieu Kas­sovitz, Laetitia Colombani’s The Braid and Guillaume Nicloux’s drama The Baby.

The Party Film Sales market premieres Kaouther Ben Hania’s Competition feature Four Daughters and Rosine Mbakam’s Directors’ Fortnight title Mambar Pierrette. It also market premieres We Have A Dream from César-winning documentarist Pascal Plisson.

The Reel Suspects kicks off sales for Jérome Vandewattyne’s sci-fi comedy The Belgian Wave and Gary Huggins’ black comedy Kick Me. It also brings Taiwanese animation title 2049+ Voice Of Rebirth from director Chun-Hsu Su, Keishi Kondo’s New Religion and a first promo reel for Victor Ginzburg’s fantasy horror Empire V.

Studiocanal’s extensive slate includes sci-fi tale The Animal Kingdom by Thomas Cailley, which opens Un Certain Regard. Also new is RKSS’s slasher movie Wake Up and Tarek Boudali’s action comedy Only 3 Days Left. Studiocanal is also selling several titles in production, including Jonny Campbell’s darkly funny sci-fi actioner Cold Storage and John Crowley’s love story We Live In Time, starring Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield. In post is Hayley Easton Street’s all-female survival thriller Something In The Water, Gilles de Maistre’s family adventure Autumn And The Black Jaguar, Nimrod Antal’s action thriller Retribution starring Liam Neeson, Alberto Corredor’s horror pic Baghead, Thomas Vincent’s thriller Role Play and Thea Sharrock’s Wicked Little Letters starring Olivia Colman, Jessie Buckley and Timothy Spall.

Totem Films market premieres Geng Zihan’s A Song Sung Blue and Elene Naveriani’s Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry, both in Directors’ Fortnight. It also brings three new films to the market co-produced by Totem Atelier: Anna Roller’s Italy-set road movie Dead Girls Dancing, Slovenian filmmaker Kukla’s first feature Fantasy and Vytautas Katkus’s first feature The Visitor.

Urban Sales market premieres Brazilian director Kleber Mendonca Filho’s Pictures Of Ghosts in addition to Zoljargal Purevdash’s If Only I Could Hibernate (Un Certain Regard) and Faouzi Bensaïdi’s Deserts (Directors’ Fortnight). New titles include animated feature The Hermit And The Bear by Marine Blin, and new promo reels for Mascha Halberstad’s Fox & Hare Save The Forest and Vincent Paronnaud and Alexis Ducord’s Into The Wonderwoods.

• Cannes 2023: the buzz titles from the UK