EFM 2024: The buzz titles from France

The Bureau Film Sales kicks off sales for Encounters title A Family, Christine Angot’s personal documentary that explores the incest she endured as a child. Its slate also includes Stefan Liberski’s Art Or F-Art?, a satirical look at the world of contemporary art starring Camille Cottin and Benoit Poelvoorde; Laura Piani’s off‑beat contemporary romantic comedy Jane Austen Wrecked My Life about a bookseller navigating between literary fantasy and real life; and Sylvain Estibal’s madcap comedy Popemobile starring Kad Merad as the Pope.

Charades brings Norwegian school-set feature debut Armand starring Cannes prize-winning actress Renate Reinsve. It is also repping Adam Elliot’s stop-motion animated family drama Memoir Of A Snail featuring a starry voice cast that includes Sarah Snook, Eric Bana, Jacki Weaver and Kodi Smit-McPhee. Also on the slate is Yoko Kuno and Nobuhiro Yamashita’s animation Ghost Cat Anzu from Chicken For Linda! producer Miyu Productions and Shin-Ei Animation. It is the atory of a young girl in a small Japanese town who is looked after by a jovial yet capricious feline spirit.

Elle Driver kicks off sales on Alante Kavaite’s remote-island mystery drama The Islanders with a starry French cast of Nadia Teresz­kiewicz, Dali Benssalah, Daphne Patakia, Miou-Miou and Patrick Chesnais. It also brings Venice-winning Greek filmmaker Alexandros Avranas’s Apathy, a fiction film based on the mysterious real-life phenomenon ‘resignation syndrome’ among refugee children in Sweden. It is also hosting market-premiere screenings of period drama Party Of Fools and Cédric Kahn’s Venice premiere Making Of. Two animations also sit on the slate: Sarah Van Den Boom’s stop-motion 3D animation Seraphine, set in 18th-century Paris, and Sylvain Chomet’s vintage burlesque The Magnificent Life Of Marcel Pagnol about the legendary titular novelist and filmmaker.

Les Films du Losange market premieres two Competition titles: Gustav Möller’s prison-set psychological thriller Sons and Mati Diop’s documentary Dahomey about the French colonisation of Africa told through a story about royal artifacts stolen centuries earlier. It is also selling Nicolas Philibert’s Berlinale Special title At Averroes & Rosa Parks, the filmmaker’s follow-up to last year’s Golden Bear-winning On The Adamant. Among the titles it is launching are Arnaud Desplechin’s Spectateurs!, Patricia Mazuy’s Les Prisonnières starring Isabelle Huppert and Leos Carax’s anticipated autobiographical freeform film It’s Not Me.

Ginger & Fed heads to its first EFM to launch the French artist known as Diastème’s 1970s-set musical romance Hear Me Love (Joli Joli) starring famed French singer Clara Luciani with a score from Cesar-winning Alex Beaupain. It also kicks off sales on Olivier Casas’ fraternal tale Brothers (Frères) starring Mathieu Kassovitz and Yvan Attal, which traces two siblings over the years when one disappears, and Ivan Calbéracs reconciliation comedy Riviera Revenge (N’Avoue Jamais) about a 75-year-old man who confronts his cheating wife’s beau 50 years later.

Goodfellas kicks off sales on Emilio Estevez’s The Way: Chapter 2 starring Martin Sheen, Yorick van Wageningen and James Nesbitt. It launches Grammy award-winning Somali-Canadian rapper and singer K’naan Warsame’s feature directorial debut Mother Mother from Republic Pictures. Other new titles on its massive slate include Cannes Camera d’Or-winning filmmaker Cesar Diaz’s thriller Mexico 86, Laura Carreira’s debut feature On Falling produced by Ken Loach and Rebecca O’Brien’s Sixteen Films, and Eric Khoo’s Spirit World, starring Catherine Deneuve as a legendary singer who dies after performing in a sold-out show in Japan. It also market premieres Claire Burger’s Competition feature Langue Étrangère about teenage pen pals in France and Germany, and Qiu Yang’s debut feature Some Rain Must Fall, selected in Encounters.

Indie Sales brings Generation 14plus competition opener Last Swim, Sasha Nathwani’s feature debut about a British-Iranian teenager during a hot summer day in London as she battles adolescent angst and prepares for a life-changing event. It is also selling Come Back, the directorial debut from Flemish brothers Jan and Raf Roosens. Veerle Baetens and her real-life daughter Billie Vlegels star in the coming-of-age, mother-daughter relationship drama set in the nocturnal world of electro music. Indie Sales will also continue sales on Teddy Lussi-Modeste’s The Good Teacher co-written with Audrey Diwan and starring Francois Civil as a teacher fighting to clear his name after being wrongfully accused of sexual misconduct.

Kinology kicks off sales for Quentin Dupieux’s anticipated — and always highly secretive — next feature, titled A Notre Beau Métier. Currently in post, it stars Yannick’s Raphaël Quenard alongside French A-listers Louis Garrel, Léa Seydoux and Vincent Lindon.

Best Friend Forever market premieres Min Bahadur Bham’s Shambhala, the first Nepalese film to be selected in Berlin’s Competition, and Bruce LaBruce’s edgy Panorama premiere The Visitor, a tribute to Pier Paolo Pasolini’s classic Teorema, with a pornographic twist. It also brings a new promo reel for Jean-Baptiste Saurel’s kung-fu action romance Zénithal and screens Michael Dichter’s The Fantastic Three for buyers.

Loco Films is selling Eva Trobisch’s Ivo, which world premieres in Encounters. The German filmmaker’s second feature centres around a palliative homecare nurse and her tough end-of-life decisions.

Luxbox market premieres Meryam Joobeur’s Tunisian family drama Who Do I Belong To, which plays in the festival’s Competition. Luxbox is also selling Franco Garcia Becerra’s Through Rocks And Clouds, in Generation KPlus, about an eight-year-old alpaca herder with World Cup aspirations. Its slate also includes Argentinian artist Lola Arias’ second feature and collective work Reas in Forum, featuring performers dancing and singing about their past in prison, and Shuchi Talati’s Sundance 2024 world cinema dramatic competition winner Girls Will Be Girls, about a young girl undergoing a sexual awakening in a strict boarding school in the Himalayas. It kicks off sales on Karim Dridi’s female-focused road movie Lazy Girls and Bruno Dumont’s Les Roches Rouges.

Memento International brings an English-language script and first images from Guillaume Nicloux’s The Divine Sarah Bernhardt, starring Sandrine Kiberlain as the titular French stage actress, and a promoreel of Camille Perton’s feature debut Arenas, a thriller set in the world of pro soccer starring Edgar Ramirez. It also continues sales on Bruno Dumont’s sci-fi auteur The Empire, set to world premiere in Competition at the festival.

mk2 Films kicks off sales on Nabil Ayouch’s Touda, his follow-up to Cannes 2021 Competition title Casablanca Beats, about a traditional Moroccan performer and poet who leaves her small town for Casablanca with her son. It launches director Keff’s feature debut Locust, a David and Goliath tale set in Taiwan amid Hong Kong protests. mk2 is also selling biopic Samia about Somali Olympic athlete and activist Samia Yusuf Omar; Karim Moussaoui’s genre-tinted thriller The Vanishing starring Cannes best actress winner Amir Ebrahimi; Sandhya Suri’s India-set crime drama Santosh; Jonathan Millet’s manhunt thriller Ghost Trail; and Laetitia Dosch’s high-concept courtroom comedy Who Let The Dog Bite?. It also brings new promos for Noémie Merlant’s genre-bending The Balconettes — co-written with Celine Sciamma and starring Merlant, Dune: Part 2 star Souheila Yacoub, Sanda Codreanu and Lucas Bravo — and for Christophe Honoré’s Marcello Mio, starring mother-daughter duo Catherine Deneuve and Chiara Mastroianni alongside an A-list French cast playing versions of themselves.

MPM Premium is world-premiering Marcelo Botta’s Panorama selection Betânia, about a widow who moves back to her small native Brazilian village where tradition and modernity collide. Its slate also includes Liu Yaonan’s Generation 14plus debut feature The Great Phuket, about a 14-year-old who discovers an underground shelter where strange things happen, and is launching Georgian filmmaker Rusudan Glurjidze’s drama The Antique, set amid the unlawful deportation of thousands of Georgians from Russia.

Newen Connect premieres Piero Messina’s Berlin Competition sci-fi feature Another End starring Gael Garcia Bernal alongside Cannes Best Actress-winning Renate Reinsve and Bérénice Béjo in a near future-set story about technology that can put a dead person’s consciousness back into a living body to ease grief. It also launches sales on Gilles Bourdos’ Cross Away produced by Curiosa Films and starring Vincent Lindon as the head of a construction company faced with a life-changing decision as he drives along, and kicks off sales on Marie-Helene Roux’s Mending Lives inspired by real-life doctors in the Congo who risked their lives to defend and treat countless female survivors of sexual violence.

Orange Studio brings a star-powered slate. Aude Léa Rapin’s female-driven dystopian action thriller Planet Bstars Adele Exarchopoulos and Souheila Yacoub; Jessica Palud’s Being Maria stars Anamaria Vartolomei as actress Maria Schneider alongside Yvan Attal and Matt Dillon; and Daniel Auteuil’s legal thriller An Ordinary Case (Le Fil) sees the veteran French actor co-write and star alongside Grégory Gadebois.

Jean-Claude Van Damme stars in Other Angle action comedy Le Jardinier from The Last Mercenary director David Charhon. Other Angle also brings a vast French comedy-powered slate headlined by Nicolas Benamou’s Corsica-set ensemble We Should Have Gone To Greece, Artus’ feature debut A Little Something Extra, and Christophe Duthuron’s Happiness Therapy, set in a community centre for psychologically fragile residents.

Pathé market premieres Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de la Patelliere’s long-anticipated The Count Of Monte Cristo for international buyers. The big-budget period epic brings Alexandre Dumas’ famed novel back to the big screen, and features a starry local cast including Pierre Niney, Bastien Bouillon and Anaïs Demoustier.

The Party Film Sales kicks off sales on Senegalese filmmaker Mamadou Dias’ Encounters feature Demba, about a man with deteriorating mental health who reconnects with his estranged son. The firm is also repping A Son director Mehdi M Barsaoui’s Aicha, about a girl who flees to Tunis to start a new life, but ends up a witness to a police blunder. Its EFM slate includes late French filmmaker Sophie Fillieres’ posthumous feature This Life Of Mine and Alessandra Celesia’s The Flats about a group of neighbours re-enacting memories of their troubled childhood in Belfast.

Playtime launches sales for sister directing duo Delphine and Muriel Coulin’s The Quiet Son, starring Vincent Lindon as a father whose son gets entangled in far-right extremist groups. It is also selling Francois Ozon’s Burgundy-set family drama When Fall Is Coming, starring Helene Vincent, Josiane Balasko and Ludivine Sagnier, and Olivier Assayas’ Suspended Time, world-premiering in the festival’s Competition. The meta tale stars Vincent Macaigne as the filmmaker’s alter ago and is produced by Curiosa Films.

Pulsar Content kicks off sales for Michele Placido’s Eternal Visionary, starring Fabrizio Bentivoglio and Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, about a man whose life passes before his eyes as he travels on a train to receive a Nobel prize. It market premieres David Moreau’s continuous-shot genre film MadS and brings a new promo ­reel for Davide Livermore and Paolo Gep Cucco’s musical Opera! starring Vincent Cassel and Caterina Murino alongside real opera stars Mariam Battistelli and Valentino Buzza.

Pyramide International brings an eclectic slate heavy on new titles, including Emmanuel Mouret’s Three Friends (Trois Amies), starring Camille Cottin, Sara Forestier and India Hair, about a trio of women with different views on love; André Téchiné’s Panorama drama My New Friends starring Isabelle Huppert and Hafsia Herzi; Pascal Bonitzer’s dramatic comedy Auction, about looted paintings, starring Alex Lutz and Léa Drucker; and Johanna Pyykkö’s My Wonderful Stranger about a lonely woman in Oslo who tricks a man with amnesia into believing they are lovers.

Reservoir Docs begins sales on Mark Cousins’ documentary A Sudden Glimpse To Deeper Things about Scottish painter Wilhelmina Barns-Graham and voiced by Tilda Swinton; family-focused thriller Ghosts Of The Sea from debut filmmaker Virginia Tangvald; and A Hip Hop Minute, directed by Flemish DJ Pascal Garnier, which revisits the rap revolution of the 1980s and features icons such as LL Cool J, Run DMC and Beastie Boys.

SND’s slate includes Barbara Schulz’s Treasure Hunters: On The Tracks Of Khufu, described as a French take on Indiana Jones, starring Fabrice Luchini as an archaeologist with unorthodox methods on a quest for a hidden treasure. It launches Fabien Onteniente’s The Playmakers (4 Zeros), sequel to the filmmaker’s 2001 hit Shooting Stars (3 Zeros), which stars Gérard Lanvin, Isabelle Nanty and Didier Bourdon in a football-centred story produced by Curiosa Films with SND. The company also market premieres Boléro, Anne Fontaine’s Maurice Ravel biopic starring Raphaël Personnaz, following the film’s world premiere at IFFR.

Totem Films is selling Queen Mom, the second feature from Arab Blues director Manele Labidi. The social drama and bittersweet comedy tells of a Tunisian family living in France and stars Camélia Jordana and Sofiane Zermani. Totem market premieres romantic drama My Favourite Cake (playing in Competition) from Iranian writing-directing duo Maryam Moghaddam and Behtash Sanaeeha, and Levan Akin’s Pano­rama opener Crossing, a moving drama about a teacher searching for her lost niece in Istanbul.

Urban Sales launches Konstantin Bojanov’s third feature The Shameless, a love story between two women in India grappling with an oppressive society anchored in tradition. Bojanov follows his Cannes Critics’ Week title Avé and IFFR’s Light Thereafter with the Switzerland-France-Bulgaria-Taiwan co-production.

WTFilms market premieres Flip van der Kuil and Steffen Haars’ Krazy House, an English-language parody presented at Sundance, and Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo’s IFFR-premiering horror The Soul Eater. It also kicks off international sales on Fabrice du Welz’s true-crime thriller Maldoror and screens Saïd Belktibia’s Hood Witch and Abel Danan’s Don’t Watch!

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