Alice Diop’s Saint Omer brings the French filmmaker into the realm of fiction for the first time, but preserves her documentary respect for the evidence of the audience’s eyes. A sober, pared-down courtroom drama, Saint Omer initially makes little effort to comment on its action, at times feeling more like presentation than representation. The unadorned quality of the film can be laborious, particularly in the early stretches of the trial that’s at the center of the story, but Diop earns the effort she asks of her audience, methodically allowing a strange, intangible, but nevertheless palpable mix of emotions to emerge from the situation itself.
It’s certainly a choice, and the expression of an ethos, that Diop keeps the viewer locked in to repeating pairs of alternating camera angles for significant portions of the trial. We see the defendant, Laurence Coly (Guslagie Malanda), a Senegalese immigrant and...
It’s certainly a choice, and the expression of an ethos, that Diop keeps the viewer locked in to repeating pairs of alternating camera angles for significant portions of the trial. We see the defendant, Laurence Coly (Guslagie Malanda), a Senegalese immigrant and...
- 3/25/2024
- by Pat Brown
- Slant Magazine
Critical Zone, an Iranian drama shot in secret by dissident director Ali Ahmadzadeh, has won the Golden Leopard honor for best film at the 2023 Locarno Film Festival.
Ahmadzadeh, who has been banned from leaving Iran, was unable to attend the awards ceremony, held at the Swiss city Saturday night. The Iranian government pressured the director to pull the film from competition. Through its story of a man and his dog, who navigate Tehran’s underworld, selling drugs and talking to troubled souls, Critical Zone depicts a nation rebelling against an oppressive regime in any way it can. Produced by Germany’s Counter Intuitive Film, Critical Zone is being sold worldwide by Luxbox.
Another proudly political filmmaker, British legend Ken Loach, won the audience award, the Ubs Prix du Public, at Locarno’s 76th annual festival for his latest (and perhaps last) feature film: The Old Oak. The drama, which premiered in Cannes,...
Ahmadzadeh, who has been banned from leaving Iran, was unable to attend the awards ceremony, held at the Swiss city Saturday night. The Iranian government pressured the director to pull the film from competition. Through its story of a man and his dog, who navigate Tehran’s underworld, selling drugs and talking to troubled souls, Critical Zone depicts a nation rebelling against an oppressive regime in any way it can. Produced by Germany’s Counter Intuitive Film, Critical Zone is being sold worldwide by Luxbox.
Another proudly political filmmaker, British legend Ken Loach, won the audience award, the Ubs Prix du Public, at Locarno’s 76th annual festival for his latest (and perhaps last) feature film: The Old Oak. The drama, which premiered in Cannes,...
- 8/13/2023
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Critical Zone.International Competition(Jury: Lambert Wilson, Zar Amir Ebrahimi, Lesli Klainberg, Charlotte Wells, Matthijs Wouter Knol)Golden Leopard: Critical Zone (Ali Ahmadzadeh)Special Jury Prize: Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World (Radu Jude)Best Direction: Stepne (Maryna Vroda)Best Performance: Dimitra Vlagopoulou (Animal)Best Performance: Renée Soutendijk (Sweet Dreams)Special Mention: Nuit Obscure - Au Revoir Ici, N'importe Où (Sylvain George)Filmmakers Of The PresentGolden Leopard: Dreaming & Dying (Nelson Yeo)Best Emerging Director: Katharina Huber (A Good Place)Special Jury Prize: Camping Du Lac (Éléonore Saintagnan)Best Performance: Clara Schwinning (A Good Place)Best Performance: Isold Halldórudóttir and Stavros Zafeiris (Touched)Special Mentions: Excursions (Una Gunjak), Negu Hurbilak (Colective Negu)First Feature(Jury: Omar El Zohairy, Devika Girish, Isabel Sandoval)First Feature Award: Dreaming & Dying (Nelson Yeo)Pardi Di Domani(Jury: Ewa Puszczyńska, Matthew Rankin, Amos Sussigan)Best...
- 8/12/2023
- MUBI
Clockwise from top left: White Men Can’t Jump (Hulu), The Old Way (Saban Films), Beetlejuice (Warner Bros.), The Last Unicorn (Jensen Farley Pictures)Image: The A.V. Club
Whether or not you think that the world needs a fresh version of White Men Can’t Jump, you’re getting a remake starring...
Whether or not you think that the world needs a fresh version of White Men Can’t Jump, you’re getting a remake starring...
- 4/26/2023
- by Robert DeSalvo
- avclub.com
Exclusive: French actress Guslagie Malanda has signed with Anonymous Content for management, on the heels of a career-elevating awards run with the acclaimed Alice Diop film, Saint Omer.
The French legal drama, billed as a contemporary version of the Medea myth, premiered to rave reviews at the 2022 Venice Film Festival, where it won the Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize, as well as the Luigi De Laurentiis Lion of the Future Award for Best Debut Feature, before going on to be named as France’s 2023 submission for the Best International Feature Oscar. It’s inspired by a true story and follows novelist Rama (Kayije Kagame) as she attends the trial of Laurence Coly (Guslagie Malanga), a young woman accused of killing her 15-month-old daughter by abandoning her to the rising tide on a beach in northern France. As the trial continues, the words of the accused and witness testimonies will shake...
The French legal drama, billed as a contemporary version of the Medea myth, premiered to rave reviews at the 2022 Venice Film Festival, where it won the Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize, as well as the Luigi De Laurentiis Lion of the Future Award for Best Debut Feature, before going on to be named as France’s 2023 submission for the Best International Feature Oscar. It’s inspired by a true story and follows novelist Rama (Kayije Kagame) as she attends the trial of Laurence Coly (Guslagie Malanga), a young woman accused of killing her 15-month-old daughter by abandoning her to the rising tide on a beach in northern France. As the trial continues, the words of the accused and witness testimonies will shake...
- 3/28/2023
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
It’s one of the stand-out highlights for us each and every year – when, at the Berlin Film Festival, European Film Promotion host their annual European Shooting Stars event. The prestigious accolade is awarded to ten promising young actors from around the continent, and has quite a pedigree in the industry, with a remarkable list of previous winners. Daniel Craig, Andrew Scott, Andrew Garfield, Carey Mulligan, Andrea Riseborough, Alicia Vikander, Riz Ahmed and many more. Told you it was impressive.
So looking at the last of stars to have won this award, it’s now time to focus on this year’s winners, the future stars of tomorrow. It’s an event close to our hearts as we’re a media partner for it, and with that we are granted access to each and every one of the ten winners – and below you can watch all of those interviews. Friend...
So looking at the last of stars to have won this award, it’s now time to focus on this year’s winners, the future stars of tomorrow. It’s an event close to our hearts as we’re a media partner for it, and with that we are granted access to each and every one of the ten winners – and below you can watch all of those interviews. Friend...
- 2/24/2023
- by Stefan Pape
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
When the Oscar nominations were announced in January, some of the most prominent omissions were films made by and starring Black women, including Gina Prince-Bythewood’s The Woman King, with a cast led by Viola Davis; Chinonye Chukwu’s Till, starring Danielle Deadwyler; and Alice Diop’s Saint Omer, which was France’s selection for international film. Prince-Bythewood opens up about what those omissions mean to her.
I am currently a producer on a project, and the executives were adamant that the director we chose be a Black Oscar-winning director. While that sounds great, who would that be? In the 95-year history of the Academy Awards, no Black filmmaker has ever won best director. No Black woman has ever been nominated.
This awards season was an eye-opener. I was thinking about how to encapsulate what it feels like to be a Black filmmaker in the awards conversation, and I thought...
I am currently a producer on a project, and the executives were adamant that the director we chose be a Black Oscar-winning director. While that sounds great, who would that be? In the 95-year history of the Academy Awards, no Black filmmaker has ever won best director. No Black woman has ever been nominated.
This awards season was an eye-opener. I was thinking about how to encapsulate what it feels like to be a Black filmmaker in the awards conversation, and I thought...
- 2/7/2023
- by Gina Prince-Bythewood, as told to Rebecca Keegan
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Alice Diop’s unnerving fiction feature is based on the true case of a Senegalese immigrant accused in the French court of murdering her 15-month-old daughter
Documentary maker Alice Diop delivers a piercing fiction feature in the form of a courtroom drama, based on a real-life case: mysterious, tragic and intimately unnerving. The severity and poise of this calmly paced movie, its emotional reserve and moral seriousness – and the elusive, implied confessional dimension concerning Diop herself – make it an extraordinary experience.
Kayije Kagame plays Rama, a bestselling author and academic who lives in Paris and is heading to the town of Saint Omer, near Calais, to write what her publishers hope will be some commercially delicious literary reportage about a shocking criminal case. Laurence Coly (superbly played by Guslagie Malanda) is a woman on trial for murdering her 15-month-old daughter, by leaving her on the beach to be drowned by the incoming tide.
Documentary maker Alice Diop delivers a piercing fiction feature in the form of a courtroom drama, based on a real-life case: mysterious, tragic and intimately unnerving. The severity and poise of this calmly paced movie, its emotional reserve and moral seriousness – and the elusive, implied confessional dimension concerning Diop herself – make it an extraordinary experience.
Kayije Kagame plays Rama, a bestselling author and academic who lives in Paris and is heading to the town of Saint Omer, near Calais, to write what her publishers hope will be some commercially delicious literary reportage about a shocking criminal case. Laurence Coly (superbly played by Guslagie Malanda) is a woman on trial for murdering her 15-month-old daughter, by leaving her on the beach to be drowned by the incoming tide.
- 2/2/2023
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Guslagie Malanda: "Much of the script was based on what she had actually said in court and learning those lines was one of the most visceral experiences of my life." Photo: UniFrance
The awards buzz around documentary filmmaker Alice Diop’s first narrative feature, Saint Omer (named after the French town where it is set), continues to grow ahead of the BAFTAs and the French Césars. The film already has won the Silver Lion and Luigi de Laurentiis Award for Best Début Film at the Venice International Film Festival. Although chosen to represent France in the Oscars race as Best International Feature, a first for a black woman filmmaker, it failed to make the final mix of five nominees.
It was possibly simply too gritty for the sensibilities of the Academy Award voters in Hollywood. Set mainly in a court-room in a Northern provincial town, it sees Diop employ...
The awards buzz around documentary filmmaker Alice Diop’s first narrative feature, Saint Omer (named after the French town where it is set), continues to grow ahead of the BAFTAs and the French Césars. The film already has won the Silver Lion and Luigi de Laurentiis Award for Best Début Film at the Venice International Film Festival. Although chosen to represent France in the Oscars race as Best International Feature, a first for a black woman filmmaker, it failed to make the final mix of five nominees.
It was possibly simply too gritty for the sensibilities of the Academy Award voters in Hollywood. Set mainly in a court-room in a Northern provincial town, it sees Diop employ...
- 2/1/2023
- by Richard Mowe
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Chicago – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com audio film review for “Saint Omer,” the French film narrative debut of documentary maker Alice Diop, based on a real trial that she had observed. Currently in select theaters, see local listings.
Rating: 4.0/5.0
Centered on a murder trial that focuses on Rama (Kayiije Kagame), a literature professor who wants to write about Laurence Coly (Guslagie Malanda), who is about to be judged in court for drowning her toddler daughter in the ocean. As the trial proceeds, Rama increases her own anxiety about being newly pregnant and the relationship with her mother … Laurence and Rama are both in France through roots in African Senegal, and that circumstance unite the two characters together.
”Saint Omer” is currently in select theaters. See local listings. Featuring Kayije Kagame, Guslagie Malanda, Valérie Dréville, Aurélia Petit and Xavier Maly. Screenplay by Alice Diop, Amrita David and Marie N’Diaye. Directed by Alice Diop.
Rating: 4.0/5.0
Centered on a murder trial that focuses on Rama (Kayiije Kagame), a literature professor who wants to write about Laurence Coly (Guslagie Malanda), who is about to be judged in court for drowning her toddler daughter in the ocean. As the trial proceeds, Rama increases her own anxiety about being newly pregnant and the relationship with her mother … Laurence and Rama are both in France through roots in African Senegal, and that circumstance unite the two characters together.
”Saint Omer” is currently in select theaters. See local listings. Featuring Kayije Kagame, Guslagie Malanda, Valérie Dréville, Aurélia Petit and Xavier Maly. Screenplay by Alice Diop, Amrita David and Marie N’Diaye. Directed by Alice Diop.
- 1/26/2023
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
The 30 talents are in the running for the most promising actor and actress awards at the 2023 Cesar awards.
Les Révélations 2023, par Audrey Diwan (Sous-titre Anglais) from Académie des César on Vimeo.
France’s Cesar Academy has joined forces with Happening director Audrey Diwan for a short film honouring the 30 ‘Revelations’, the emerging French talents in the running for the most promising actor and actress awards at this year’s Cesar film awards.
Diwan presented the four-minute short film she wrote and directed at a dinner in Paris on January 16 attended by the Revelations, each of whom chose a mentor to accompany them.
Les Révélations 2023, par Audrey Diwan (Sous-titre Anglais) from Académie des César on Vimeo.
France’s Cesar Academy has joined forces with Happening director Audrey Diwan for a short film honouring the 30 ‘Revelations’, the emerging French talents in the running for the most promising actor and actress awards at this year’s Cesar film awards.
Diwan presented the four-minute short film she wrote and directed at a dinner in Paris on January 16 attended by the Revelations, each of whom chose a mentor to accompany them.
- 1/18/2023
- by Rebecca Leffler
- ScreenDaily
Saint Omer Review — Saint Omer (2022) Film Review, a movie directed by Alice Diop, written by Amrita David and Alice Diop and starring Kayije Kagame, Guslagie Malanda, Xavier Maly, Thomas de Pourquery, Salimata Kamate, Robert Cantarella, Aurelia Petit and Louise Lemoine Torres. Alice Diop’s heavy but absorbing dramatic French film, Saint Omer, is certainly [...]
Continue reading: Film Review: Saint Omer (2022): Filmmaker Alice Diop’s Courtroom Drama is Captivating and Marvelously Acted...
Continue reading: Film Review: Saint Omer (2022): Filmmaker Alice Diop’s Courtroom Drama is Captivating and Marvelously Acted...
- 1/17/2023
- by Thomas Duffy
- Film-Book
The Palm Springs International Film Festival announced the juried winners of the 34th edition Sunday, with “Saint Omer,” directed by Alice Diop, receiving the Fipresci prize for foreign film from the jury of international film critics. The courtroom drama is France’s Oscar submission. “To Kill a Tiger” took the documentary award, while “The Damned Don’t Cry” was awarded the New Voices New Visions award.
The Fipresci jury statement for “Saint Omer” said, “Alice Diop, as screenwriter and director, delivers a film that explores different dynamics of Black women in contemporary France, drawing empathetic lead performances from Kayije Kagame and Guslagie Malanga.”
The jury said of “To Kill a Tiger,” directed by Nisha Pahuja, “The filmmakers sensitivity to the subjects’ experience and their poignant capture of shifting tones is a superb use of the genre, resulting in a remarkable story profiling an enduring father-daughter bond exemplifying a social evolution.
The Fipresci jury statement for “Saint Omer” said, “Alice Diop, as screenwriter and director, delivers a film that explores different dynamics of Black women in contemporary France, drawing empathetic lead performances from Kayije Kagame and Guslagie Malanga.”
The jury said of “To Kill a Tiger,” directed by Nisha Pahuja, “The filmmakers sensitivity to the subjects’ experience and their poignant capture of shifting tones is a superb use of the genre, resulting in a remarkable story profiling an enduring father-daughter bond exemplifying a social evolution.
- 1/16/2023
- by William Earl
- Variety Film + TV
Legal docudrama Saint Omer was voted Best Picture at the 34th Annual Palm Springs International Film Festival, which announced this year’s juried award winners today.
Saint Omer wins for its ability “to expertly interrogate issues of society, culture, race, and gender,” the festival release stated. “Alice Diop, as screenwriter and director, delivers a film that explores different dynamics of Black women in contemporary France, drawing empathetic lead performances from Kayije Kagame and Guslagie Malanga. By harnessing the skills of her technical team, Diop turns Saint Omer into a shrewd, cogent, ambitious, and overwhelming film which teases a metafictional awareness while remaining clear-eyed and unsentimental.”
The Palm Springs festival took place from January 5-16 and screened 134 films from 64 countries, including 27 premieres. The lineup includes 35 of the International Feature Film Oscar submissions.
The jury award categories included the Fipresci Prize for films...
Saint Omer wins for its ability “to expertly interrogate issues of society, culture, race, and gender,” the festival release stated. “Alice Diop, as screenwriter and director, delivers a film that explores different dynamics of Black women in contemporary France, drawing empathetic lead performances from Kayije Kagame and Guslagie Malanga. By harnessing the skills of her technical team, Diop turns Saint Omer into a shrewd, cogent, ambitious, and overwhelming film which teases a metafictional awareness while remaining clear-eyed and unsentimental.”
The Palm Springs festival took place from January 5-16 and screened 134 films from 64 countries, including 27 premieres. The lineup includes 35 of the International Feature Film Oscar submissions.
The jury award categories included the Fipresci Prize for films...
- 1/15/2023
- by Bruce Haring
- Deadline Film + TV
There are a thousand ways to shoot a true crime story, but maybe really only one – if the goal is to focus the audience on the nuance of the characters in a way that inspires self-reflection, not judgement. “Saint Omer” does just that, in no small part because of how director Alice Diop approaches film form with a blend of documentary and narrative techniques. The film is based on the real-life trial of a woman accused of killing her infant daughter, but this fictionalized account relies not at all on the strategic feints of the prosecution and the defense, thrilling reveals of withheld information, or crime scene recreations. Instead, Diop’s precisely composed long takes simply force us to sit and to listen to the story Laurence Coly (Guslagie Malanda) tells.
In scripted features, usually there’s a lot of invisible work done to help the audience focus on the...
In scripted features, usually there’s a lot of invisible work done to help the audience focus on the...
- 1/14/2023
- by Sarah Shachat
- Indiewire
Alice Diop’s Saint Omer is a movie about a trial. But it is not strictly concerned with the question of innocence or guilt as a problem of the law. Far more complex, the movie finds, is the problem of how we should feel about the moral authority of the question — and the moral authority of the domain in which it can be asked. It is a movie about language and testimony, mothers and daughters, and the specific burden of a Black immigrant woman who finds herself subjected to the French legal gaze.
- 1/14/2023
- by K. Austin Collins
- Rollingstone.com
Alice Diop’s French drama Saint Omer opens in theaters today, and I remember the emotions I felt when I saw the film at Venice last year. It was a very personal experience for me — as if someone was telling my story on screen. At the beginning of my eventual interview with Diop, I asked where she sees herself within the French film industry. She made it clear she has stopped contemplating how she fits in. “It’s a question that I’m asked a lot, but I no longer ask myself where I fit in with French cinema,” she said. Can’t blame her for thinking that way. Creators of color often are asked those questions — or about the state of inclusion in Hollywood and how they would improve it. Questions that their white counterparts frequently and unfairly avoid.
Written by Diop, Amrita David, and Marie N’Diaye, Saint Omer...
Written by Diop, Amrita David, and Marie N’Diaye, Saint Omer...
- 1/13/2023
- by Valerie Complex
- Deadline Film + TV
Shudder and IFC Midnight are launching microbudget Skinamarink on a not-so-micro 629 screens, giving the viral horror pic a major push after a well-received premiere back at Fantasia-fest that just kept snowballing with strong reviews and social media love.
“I was over the moon. For a horror filmmaker in Canada, [Fantasia] is like getting a Cannes screening,” says first-time filmmaker Kyle Edward Ball about the leadup to this weekend’s buzzy specialty opening. He shot the 15k feature at his parents’ home in Edmonton, Canada.
In it, two children wake up in the middle of the night to find their father is missing and all the windows and doors in their home have vanished. “I’d had a nightmare when I was little. I was in my parents’ house, my parents were missing, and there was a monster. And lots of people have shared this exact same dream,” Ball tells Deadline.
“I was over the moon. For a horror filmmaker in Canada, [Fantasia] is like getting a Cannes screening,” says first-time filmmaker Kyle Edward Ball about the leadup to this weekend’s buzzy specialty opening. He shot the 15k feature at his parents’ home in Edmonton, Canada.
In it, two children wake up in the middle of the night to find their father is missing and all the windows and doors in their home have vanished. “I’d had a nightmare when I was little. I was in my parents’ house, my parents were missing, and there was a monster. And lots of people have shared this exact same dream,” Ball tells Deadline.
- 1/13/2023
- by Jill Goldsmith
- Deadline Film + TV
This review originally ran September 7, 2022, in conjunction with the film’s premiere at the Venice Film Festival.
“A woman who has killed her baby can’t really expect any sympathy,” says Laurence Coly, who is accused of that very crime, in celebrated documentarian Alice Diop’s narrative debut “Saint Omer,” making its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival. So, the logical question is: Why would anyone watch such a film? Fortunately, Diop gives us many reasons.
Diop — whose 2021 documentary “We” (“Nous”), revolving around Black immigrant communities in the Paris suburbs, won top honors at the Berlin International Film Festival — doesn’t abandon her nonfiction roots. Truth also fuels her feature film. In it, well-spoken, educated Senegalese immigrant Laurence Coly, like the real Fabienne Kabou only a few years back, stands trial in quaint Saint-Omer in northeastern France for killing her 15-month-old daughter.
There to capture it all is pregnant...
“A woman who has killed her baby can’t really expect any sympathy,” says Laurence Coly, who is accused of that very crime, in celebrated documentarian Alice Diop’s narrative debut “Saint Omer,” making its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival. So, the logical question is: Why would anyone watch such a film? Fortunately, Diop gives us many reasons.
Diop — whose 2021 documentary “We” (“Nous”), revolving around Black immigrant communities in the Paris suburbs, won top honors at the Berlin International Film Festival — doesn’t abandon her nonfiction roots. Truth also fuels her feature film. In it, well-spoken, educated Senegalese immigrant Laurence Coly, like the real Fabienne Kabou only a few years back, stands trial in quaint Saint-Omer in northeastern France for killing her 15-month-old daughter.
There to capture it all is pregnant...
- 1/12/2023
- by Ronda Racha Penrice
- The Wrap
There’s a lot of talk about how 2022 was a ‘flop’ year for film. The quality of the movies was constantly called into question without considering that many of these films were shot during the height of the pandemic where money, space, and resources were limited. Regardless of what anyone thinks, this year produced some phenomenal cinema, with even better performances. My best of 2022 list is meant to highlight some of the titles that left an impression on me. The choices range across genres from action, drama, documentary, and animation.
What are your top ten films of the year? Did you struggle finding movies to fill slots? Let me know in the comments!
Eo
Give these Donkeys an Academy Award today! I have never seen live-action animals perform with more personality, and emotion than the ones in Eo. With his own take on Au Hasard Balthazar, director Jerzy Skolimowski follows...
What are your top ten films of the year? Did you struggle finding movies to fill slots? Let me know in the comments!
Eo
Give these Donkeys an Academy Award today! I have never seen live-action animals perform with more personality, and emotion than the ones in Eo. With his own take on Au Hasard Balthazar, director Jerzy Skolimowski follows...
- 12/28/2022
- by Valerie Complex
- Deadline Film + TV
The film debuted in Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes.
Ukrainian smuggling drama Pamfir, which debuted in Cannes Directors’ Fortnight in May, has secured a UK-Ireland theatrical release deal with Conic.
Having acquired the film from sales agent Indie Sales, Conic is planning a Spring 2023 release for the film.
Pamfir is the debut feature of writer-director Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk. The film’s development received support from the TorinoFilmLab, Midpoint and Cannes’ Cinefondation; Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk has participated in the Berlinale Talents and Locarno Film Academy programmes.
Set in the run-up to a traditional carnival in rural Western Ukraine, Pamfir follows an eponymous smuggler whose plans...
Ukrainian smuggling drama Pamfir, which debuted in Cannes Directors’ Fortnight in May, has secured a UK-Ireland theatrical release deal with Conic.
Having acquired the film from sales agent Indie Sales, Conic is planning a Spring 2023 release for the film.
Pamfir is the debut feature of writer-director Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk. The film’s development received support from the TorinoFilmLab, Midpoint and Cannes’ Cinefondation; Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk has participated in the Berlinale Talents and Locarno Film Academy programmes.
Set in the run-up to a traditional carnival in rural Western Ukraine, Pamfir follows an eponymous smuggler whose plans...
- 12/15/2022
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
David Zaslav’s mission to cut costs gets more expensive.
Warner Bros Discovery (Wbd) has estimated its write-offs will go up by 800m-1bn as the company revised pre-tax restructuring charges in an ongoing bid to rein in content spend and make Wall Street happy.
In a filing with the US Securities And Exchange Commission on Wednesday the company disclosed it was revising upwards its previously disclosed pre-tax restructuring charges estimates from 3.2bn-4.3bn to 4.1bn-5.3bn.
Estimated content impairment and development write-offs are going up from 2bn-2.5bn to 2.8bn-3.5bn and Wbd said the number could go up.
Warner Bros Discovery (Wbd) has estimated its write-offs will go up by 800m-1bn as the company revised pre-tax restructuring charges in an ongoing bid to rein in content spend and make Wall Street happy.
In a filing with the US Securities And Exchange Commission on Wednesday the company disclosed it was revising upwards its previously disclosed pre-tax restructuring charges estimates from 3.2bn-4.3bn to 4.1bn-5.3bn.
Estimated content impairment and development write-offs are going up from 2bn-2.5bn to 2.8bn-3.5bn and Wbd said the number could go up.
- 12/14/2022
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
European Film Promotion Unveils 2023 European Shooting Stars
Belgian actress Joely Mbundu, co-star of Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne’s Cannes 2022 feature Tori And Lokita, is among the eight rising talents selected for the 2023 edition of European Film Promotion’s European Shooting Stars initiative. The selection also includes Italy’s Benedetta Porcaroli, seen recently in Venice Horizons 2022 title Amanda, and Norway’s Kristine Kujath Thorp, who previously made her mark in Fanny, The Burning Sea and Ninjababy, and also won praise for her performance in Cannes Certain Regard 2022 selection Sick of Myself. The other spotlighted titles comprise Alina Tomnikov (Finland), Leonie Benesch (Germany), Yannick Jozefzoon (The Netherlands), Judith State(Romania), Gizem Erdogan (Sweden) and Kayije Kagame (Switzerland) Thorvaldur Kristjansson (Iceland). This year’s talents were selected by an eight-person jury featuring Polish director Jan Komasa, Dutch casting director Rebecca van Unen and Norwegian producer Maria Ekerhovd. The eight talents will participate in...
Belgian actress Joely Mbundu, co-star of Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne’s Cannes 2022 feature Tori And Lokita, is among the eight rising talents selected for the 2023 edition of European Film Promotion’s European Shooting Stars initiative. The selection also includes Italy’s Benedetta Porcaroli, seen recently in Venice Horizons 2022 title Amanda, and Norway’s Kristine Kujath Thorp, who previously made her mark in Fanny, The Burning Sea and Ninjababy, and also won praise for her performance in Cannes Certain Regard 2022 selection Sick of Myself. The other spotlighted titles comprise Alina Tomnikov (Finland), Leonie Benesch (Germany), Yannick Jozefzoon (The Netherlands), Judith State(Romania), Gizem Erdogan (Sweden) and Kayije Kagame (Switzerland) Thorvaldur Kristjansson (Iceland). This year’s talents were selected by an eight-person jury featuring Polish director Jan Komasa, Dutch casting director Rebecca van Unen and Norwegian producer Maria Ekerhovd. The eight talents will participate in...
- 12/14/2022
- by Melanie Goodfellow and Max Goldbart
- Deadline Film + TV
Click here to read the full article.
Breakout talents from festival favorites Saint Omer and Tori and Lokita, new faces from Netflix hits The Playlist and Babylon Berlin, and discoveries from arthouse features from across Europe are among the top 10 talents picked to be the 2023 European Shooting Stars.
The annual list of up-and-coming actors from across Europe — which has proved a reliable talent spotter over the years — was unveiled Wednesday by European Film Promotion, which organizes the selection.
The eight women and two men picked by the Shooting Star jury will attend the Berlin International Film Festival in February, where they will be introduced to the international industry, and meet with talent agents, directors and producers.
Previous European Shooting Stars have included the likes of Michaela Coel (2018), Luca Marinelli (2013), Riz Ahmed (2012), Alica Vikander (2011), Daniel Brühl (2003), Ruth Negga (2006) and Matthias Schoenaerts (2003).
Here’s a short introduction to next year’s class:...
Breakout talents from festival favorites Saint Omer and Tori and Lokita, new faces from Netflix hits The Playlist and Babylon Berlin, and discoveries from arthouse features from across Europe are among the top 10 talents picked to be the 2023 European Shooting Stars.
The annual list of up-and-coming actors from across Europe — which has proved a reliable talent spotter over the years — was unveiled Wednesday by European Film Promotion, which organizes the selection.
The eight women and two men picked by the Shooting Star jury will attend the Berlin International Film Festival in February, where they will be introduced to the international industry, and meet with talent agents, directors and producers.
Previous European Shooting Stars have included the likes of Michaela Coel (2018), Luca Marinelli (2013), Riz Ahmed (2012), Alica Vikander (2011), Daniel Brühl (2003), Ruth Negga (2006) and Matthias Schoenaerts (2003).
Here’s a short introduction to next year’s class:...
- 12/14/2022
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Film is first feature animation from director Karla Nor Holmbäck.
LevelK has boarded international sales rights for the Danish animation Rosa And The Stone Troll, the first feature animation from director Karla Nor Holmbäck
The film, written by Toke Westmark Steensen, is based on characters from the Rosa children’s book series by author Josefine Ottesen.
The story is about a flower fairy who lives alone in a rosebush and becomes friends with an adventurous butterfly. When the butterfly is kidnapped by an evil stone troll, the fairy has to set out on a dangerous journey to save her friend.
LevelK has boarded international sales rights for the Danish animation Rosa And The Stone Troll, the first feature animation from director Karla Nor Holmbäck
The film, written by Toke Westmark Steensen, is based on characters from the Rosa children’s book series by author Josefine Ottesen.
The story is about a flower fairy who lives alone in a rosebush and becomes friends with an adventurous butterfly. When the butterfly is kidnapped by an evil stone troll, the fairy has to set out on a dangerous journey to save her friend.
- 12/14/2022
- by Wendy Mitchell
- ScreenDaily
Each year we are proud to partner with the European Film Promotion to celebrate ten emerging European talents as part of their ongoing Efp Shooting Stars programme. Today we’re pleased to join the reveal of 2023’s cohort, who we’ll be getting to know better next year at the 73rd Berlinale.
Here are 2023’s European Shooting Stars:
Joely Mbundu (Belgium), Alina Tomnikov (Finland), Leonie Benesch (Germany), Thorvaldur Kristjansson (Iceland), Benedetta Porcaroli (Italy), Yannick Jozefzoon (The Netherlands), Kristine Kujath Thorp (Norway), Judith State (Romania), Gizem Erdogan (Sweden) and Kayije Kagame (Switzerland).
We’ll be meeting with each of the Shooting Stars out in Berlin next February and speaking to them. So, remember to check back next year for those interviews.
In the meantime, here are more details about each of the intake from the Efp themselves.
Belgium / Joely Mbundu ©Tina Herbots
Joely Mbundu hails from Villeneuve-St-Georges, France and attended school in Flanders,...
Here are 2023’s European Shooting Stars:
Joely Mbundu (Belgium), Alina Tomnikov (Finland), Leonie Benesch (Germany), Thorvaldur Kristjansson (Iceland), Benedetta Porcaroli (Italy), Yannick Jozefzoon (The Netherlands), Kristine Kujath Thorp (Norway), Judith State (Romania), Gizem Erdogan (Sweden) and Kayije Kagame (Switzerland).
We’ll be meeting with each of the Shooting Stars out in Berlin next February and speaking to them. So, remember to check back next year for those interviews.
In the meantime, here are more details about each of the intake from the Efp themselves.
Belgium / Joely Mbundu ©Tina Herbots
Joely Mbundu hails from Villeneuve-St-Georges, France and attended school in Flanders,...
- 12/14/2022
- by Jon Lyus
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Joely Mbundu from ‘Tori And Lokita’, Kristine Kujath Thorp from ‘Sick Of Myself’ also in.
European Film Promotion (Efp) has selected 10 young actors for the 2023 edition of Shooting Stars, its talent portfolio for promising on-screen talent from the continent.
Selected actors for 2023 include Swiss actress Kayije Kagame, who made her feature debut in Alice Diop’s Venice 2022 feature Saint Omer. Kagame has received plaudits for her role as Rama, a novelist attending a trial at the Saint-Omer Criminal Court which she plans to use for a modern-day adaptation of the ancient myth of Medea.
Scroll down for the full list...
European Film Promotion (Efp) has selected 10 young actors for the 2023 edition of Shooting Stars, its talent portfolio for promising on-screen talent from the continent.
Selected actors for 2023 include Swiss actress Kayije Kagame, who made her feature debut in Alice Diop’s Venice 2022 feature Saint Omer. Kagame has received plaudits for her role as Rama, a novelist attending a trial at the Saint-Omer Criminal Court which she plans to use for a modern-day adaptation of the ancient myth of Medea.
Scroll down for the full list...
- 12/14/2022
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
European Film Promotion, which represents film organizations in 37 countries, has revealed the up-and-coming acting talent who have been selected for the next edition of European Shooting Stars. They will be introduced to the international press, film industry and the audience during the 73rd Berlin Film Festival.
The four-day tailormade promotion and networking program, running Feb. 17-20, culminates with a celebration of the talent at an awards ceremony at the Berlinale Palast.
The European Shooting Stars 2023 — which includes eight women and two men — were selected from a pool of 27 nominees by an international jury, comprised of Polish director Jan Komasa, Dutch casting director Rebecca van Unen, Norwegian producer Maria Ekerhovd, former Spanish Shooting Star Veronica Echegui, and Variety’s international features editor Leo Barraclough from the U.K.. These five experts recognized the talents’ potential for an international career based on several factors, including their stellar work in feature films and drama series,...
The four-day tailormade promotion and networking program, running Feb. 17-20, culminates with a celebration of the talent at an awards ceremony at the Berlinale Palast.
The European Shooting Stars 2023 — which includes eight women and two men — were selected from a pool of 27 nominees by an international jury, comprised of Polish director Jan Komasa, Dutch casting director Rebecca van Unen, Norwegian producer Maria Ekerhovd, former Spanish Shooting Star Veronica Echegui, and Variety’s international features editor Leo Barraclough from the U.K.. These five experts recognized the talents’ potential for an international career based on several factors, including their stellar work in feature films and drama series,...
- 12/14/2022
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
Saint Omer Trailer — Alice Diop‘s Saint Omer (2022) movie trailer has been released by Super Ltd. The Saint Omer trailer stars Kayije Kagame, Guslagie Malanda, Valérie Dréville, Aurélia Petit, and Xavier Maly. Crew Amrita David, Alice Diop, and Marie Ndiaye wrote the screenplay for Saint Omer. Plot Synopsis Saint Omer‘s plot synopsis: “Saint Omer court of law. [...]
Continue reading: Saint Omer (2022) Movie Trailer: A Murder Case Shakes a Young Novelist’s Convictions in Alice Diop’s Film...
Continue reading: Saint Omer (2022) Movie Trailer: A Murder Case Shakes a Young Novelist’s Convictions in Alice Diop’s Film...
- 12/6/2022
- by Rollo Tomasi
- Film-Book
Alice Diop is turning the camera inward on the constructs of insanity, motherhood, and infanticide.
Diop’s first narrative feature, “Saint Omer,” is France’s official Oscar entry. Named after the northern French town where the film is set, “Saint Omer” is inspired by the harrowing true crime story of mother Fabienne Kabou, accused of killing her 15-month-old daughter by abandoning her to the rising tide on a beach. Diop gives her own take on the court case through the eyes of pregnant novelist Rama (Kayije Kagame), who sits in the audience of the trial prosecuting Senegalese immigrant Laurence Coly (Guslagie Malanga) as part of research on the Greek mythical figure Medea.
“Saint Omer” descends into generational trauma and what it means to be a mother. The official synopsis teases that as the trial continues, the words of the accused and witness testimonies shake Rama’s convictions and call into question her own judgment.
Diop’s first narrative feature, “Saint Omer,” is France’s official Oscar entry. Named after the northern French town where the film is set, “Saint Omer” is inspired by the harrowing true crime story of mother Fabienne Kabou, accused of killing her 15-month-old daughter by abandoning her to the rising tide on a beach. Diop gives her own take on the court case through the eyes of pregnant novelist Rama (Kayije Kagame), who sits in the audience of the trial prosecuting Senegalese immigrant Laurence Coly (Guslagie Malanga) as part of research on the Greek mythical figure Medea.
“Saint Omer” descends into generational trauma and what it means to be a mother. The official synopsis teases that as the trial continues, the words of the accused and witness testimonies shake Rama’s convictions and call into question her own judgment.
- 12/6/2022
- by Samantha Bergeson
- Indiewire
"Sorcery was the only logical conclusion." Super Ltd has revealed the official US trailer for the acclaimed French drama Saint Omer, which first premiered at the 2022 Venice Film Festival this fall a few months ago. It won the Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize at that fest, before going on to screen at the Toronto, New York, London, Busan, Hamptons, Ghent, and Chicago Film Festivals. The fictional film follows Rama, a novelist who attends the trial of Laurence Coly at the Saint-Omer Criminal Court to use her story to write a modern-day adaptation of the ancient myth of "Medea", but things don't go as expected. As the trial continues, the words of the accused and witness testimonies will shake Rama's convictions. Starring Kayije Kagame, Guslagie Malanda, Valérie Dréville, Aurélia Petit, and Xavier Maly. While many critics are fans of this film, I did not like it much at all. It's excruciatingly dry and dull,...
- 12/6/2022
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
“It’s an absolute honor and a source of pride for me,” says Alice Diop, the director and co-writer of “Saint Omer,” France’s entry for Best International Feature at the 95th Academy Awards. “It says something about the tradition of cinema that made me want to make films in the first place. I’m particularly happy to be chosen with ‘Saint Omer,’ which is a film that, like the kinds of cinema that I defend, places the formal concern at the center of the making process, and that is carried by two fantastic Black actresses that, in their characters and in themselves, carry absolutely universal concerns. I’m very happy that I was chosen to represent French cinema.” Watch our exclusive interview above.
“Saint Omer” follows Rama (Kayije Kagame), a novelist who attends the trial of Laurence Coly (Guslagie Malanda) at the Saint-Omer Criminal Court to use her story...
“Saint Omer” follows Rama (Kayije Kagame), a novelist who attends the trial of Laurence Coly (Guslagie Malanda) at the Saint-Omer Criminal Court to use her story...
- 12/5/2022
- by Denton Davidson
- Gold Derby
Since it debuted at the Venice Film Festival where it won the Grand Jury prize, Alice Diop’s first feature Saint Omer has had a robust life on the fall festival circuit. An austere, tightly scripted and subtly acted drama, in which a novelist (Kayije Kagame) becomes fascinated by the trial of an immigrant mother for the murder of her own daughter, the film nevertheless draws deeply on the director’s previous experience as a documentary filmmaker.
Related: The Contenders International – Deadline’s Full Coverage
Speaking at Deadline’s Contenders Film: International award-season event, Diop revealed that the events depicted in the film reflect her own interest in a real-life court case that took place in the French town that gives the film its name. “The inspiration was a personal experience,” she said, “which I had when I attended the trial of a Senegalese woman who killed her infant daughter...
Related: The Contenders International – Deadline’s Full Coverage
Speaking at Deadline’s Contenders Film: International award-season event, Diop revealed that the events depicted in the film reflect her own interest in a real-life court case that took place in the French town that gives the film its name. “The inspiration was a personal experience,” she said, “which I had when I attended the trial of a Senegalese woman who killed her infant daughter...
- 12/3/2022
- by Damon Wise
- Deadline Film + TV
“We are happy and honored that we have been chosen by France,” says producer Christophe Barral, whose movie “Saint Omer,” directed by Alice Diop, has been selected as the country’s official entry for Best International Feature at the 95th Academy Awards. “France can be a bit conservative in the movie that it chooses, so we’re very happy to have the first Black female director to represent France. It changes the representation in France of who should be making cinema and it’s giving hope to a lot of people.”
We talked with Barral and his co-producer Toufik Ayadi as part of Gold Derby’s special “Meet the Experts” Q&a event with 2022/2023 awards contenders. Watch our exclusive video interview above.
“Saint Omer” from Super Neon follows Rama (played by Kayije Kagame), a novelist who attends the trial of Laurence Coly (played by Guslagie Malanda) at the Saint-Omer Criminal...
We talked with Barral and his co-producer Toufik Ayadi as part of Gold Derby’s special “Meet the Experts” Q&a event with 2022/2023 awards contenders. Watch our exclusive video interview above.
“Saint Omer” from Super Neon follows Rama (played by Kayije Kagame), a novelist who attends the trial of Laurence Coly (played by Guslagie Malanda) at the Saint-Omer Criminal...
- 11/29/2022
- by Denton Davidson
- Gold Derby
Selected actors will vie for five coveted spots in each of the most promising actor and actress categories.
France’s Academy of Cinema Arts and Techniques, which runs the prestigious César awards, has unveiled its annual Revelations shortlist of local rising stars. They will vie for five coveted spots in each of the most promising actor and actress categories that will make the official nominees selection ahead of the 48th annual Cesars ceremony in Paris on February 24.
Among this year’s breakout stars are Saint Omer actresses Guslagie Malanda and Kayije Kagame, Cannes’ title Forever Young stars Nadia Tereszkiewicz, Clara Bretheau and Sofiane Bennacer,...
France’s Academy of Cinema Arts and Techniques, which runs the prestigious César awards, has unveiled its annual Revelations shortlist of local rising stars. They will vie for five coveted spots in each of the most promising actor and actress categories that will make the official nominees selection ahead of the 48th annual Cesars ceremony in Paris on February 24.
Among this year’s breakout stars are Saint Omer actresses Guslagie Malanda and Kayije Kagame, Cannes’ title Forever Young stars Nadia Tereszkiewicz, Clara Bretheau and Sofiane Bennacer,...
- 11/17/2022
- by Rebecca Leffler
- ScreenDaily
Click here to read the full article.
When Guslagie Malanda landed the co-starring role in the acclaimed French courtroom drama Saint Omer — winner of the Venice Film Festival’s Silver Lion and France’s official submission for the best international film Oscar race — she had appeared in just one movie (French director Jean-Paul Civeyrac’s 2014 drama My Friend Victoria) and hadn’t acted in more than seven years.
Although obsessed with cinema and the theater — she estimates she’s gone to plays or movies three times a week since she was 14 — Malanda, now 30, says acting was never something that was even remotely on her radar. “It’s a bit of an unrealistic dream, becoming an actress,” she says. “I grew up in France, where none of the big actresses are Black — none.”
Malanda won the part in My Friend Victoria after attending open auditions on a whim when a makeup...
When Guslagie Malanda landed the co-starring role in the acclaimed French courtroom drama Saint Omer — winner of the Venice Film Festival’s Silver Lion and France’s official submission for the best international film Oscar race — she had appeared in just one movie (French director Jean-Paul Civeyrac’s 2014 drama My Friend Victoria) and hadn’t acted in more than seven years.
Although obsessed with cinema and the theater — she estimates she’s gone to plays or movies three times a week since she was 14 — Malanda, now 30, says acting was never something that was even remotely on her radar. “It’s a bit of an unrealistic dream, becoming an actress,” she says. “I grew up in France, where none of the big actresses are Black — none.”
Malanda won the part in My Friend Victoria after attending open auditions on a whim when a makeup...
- 11/16/2022
- by Patrick Brzeski
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
In "Saint Omer," the fiction debut of French filmmaker Alice Diop, Rama (Kayije Kagame) is a literature professor at a prestigious French university. She seems disconnected from her family -- when she's at dinner with them, she barely speaks, and when she does, her responses are short and deliberately non-descript. There's the sense that Rama would very much rather keep things to herself than share with her family. She's traveling to witness a high-profile court case, with the hopes of using the case to write a contemporary adaptation of the Medea myth.
The case in question involves Laurence Coly (Guslagie Malanga), a Ph.D. student studying philosophy and a Senegalese immigrant. She's accused of something unthinkable -- when her child was just 15 months old, she abandoned her on the beach with the intention of leaving her to be swept away by the tide to die. To put it simply, and no less brutally,...
The case in question involves Laurence Coly (Guslagie Malanga), a Ph.D. student studying philosophy and a Senegalese immigrant. She's accused of something unthinkable -- when her child was just 15 months old, she abandoned her on the beach with the intention of leaving her to be swept away by the tide to die. To put it simply, and no less brutally,...
- 11/7/2022
- by Barry Levitt
- Slash Film
Alice Diop was never interested in the outcome. In 2016, the filmmaker attended the trial of Senegalese mother Fabienne Kabou, who walked to the beach in Berck-Sur-Mar and left her 15-month-old daughter to get swept away by the ocean. Throughout Kabou’s emotional testimony and the court’s search to obtain a motivation, however, Diop—born to Senegalese parents—had embarked on her own emotional journey, wrestling with more personal anxieties about race, class, and maternity. There was no question of guilt—only questions about how this could happen and who else might be capable of it.
Those bigger, deeper insecurities make up the emotional arc of Saint Omer, Diop’s first narrative feature and attempt to process and translate her courtroom experience. She centers it through the eyes of Rama (Kayije Kagame), a pregnant academic who visits the eponymous French town to witness immigrant Laurence Coly (Guslagie Malanga) stand trial for infanticide.
Those bigger, deeper insecurities make up the emotional arc of Saint Omer, Diop’s first narrative feature and attempt to process and translate her courtroom experience. She centers it through the eyes of Rama (Kayije Kagame), a pregnant academic who visits the eponymous French town to witness immigrant Laurence Coly (Guslagie Malanga) stand trial for infanticide.
- 10/12/2022
- by Jake Kring-Schreifels
- The Film Stage
In 2016, documentary filmmaker Alice Diop (We) felt compelled to attend the trial of Fabienne Kabou, a Senegalese mother accused of infanticide. Pregnant at the time, Diop followed and read about the details of the three-year-old case wherein Kabou had taken her 15-month-old child to the beach in Berck-Sur-Mer and left her to be claimed by rising tides. As Diop watched testimony of Kabou’s unthinkable crime, she began wrestling with her own feelings—about immigrants, about prejudice, about her mother, about her own impending motherhood, and about the chemical bonds of that deeply rooted relationship. Soon a movie was born.
In Saint Omer, Diop has created a fictionalized version of that trial, centering her debut narrative feature through the eyes of her alter-ego Rama (Kayije Kagame), a journalist, professor and expectant mother living in Paris. Authoring a book inspired by the Medea myth, Rama decides to visit the eponymous town...
In Saint Omer, Diop has created a fictionalized version of that trial, centering her debut narrative feature through the eyes of her alter-ego Rama (Kayije Kagame), a journalist, professor and expectant mother living in Paris. Authoring a book inspired by the Medea myth, Rama decides to visit the eponymous town...
- 10/6/2022
- by Jake Kring-Schreifels
- The Film Stage
French film and TV trade ‘Le Film Français’ has posted a public apology after the cover photo for its latest weekly publication featuring seven men prompted anger from top female cinema professionals in France, including Venice Golden Lion winner Audrey Diwan and actress Alexandra Lamy.
Alluding to the annual conference of France’s National Federation of French Cinemas (Fncf) in Deauville this week, the cover photo for the September 30 issue features Pathé President Jérome Seydoux, surrounded by Pio Marmaï, Guillaume Canet, Vincent Cassel, François Civil, Pierre Niney and Danny Boon under the headline of “Objective: Reconquest”.
‘Le Film Français’ is a must-read for the French film industry so it was not long before the cover started prompting reactions from top female film professionals in the sector as it landed in their mailboxes on Friday morning.
Director and screenwriter Diwan, who won Venice’s top prize last year for abortion drama Happening,...
Alluding to the annual conference of France’s National Federation of French Cinemas (Fncf) in Deauville this week, the cover photo for the September 30 issue features Pathé President Jérome Seydoux, surrounded by Pio Marmaï, Guillaume Canet, Vincent Cassel, François Civil, Pierre Niney and Danny Boon under the headline of “Objective: Reconquest”.
‘Le Film Français’ is a must-read for the French film industry so it was not long before the cover started prompting reactions from top female film professionals in the sector as it landed in their mailboxes on Friday morning.
Director and screenwriter Diwan, who won Venice’s top prize last year for abortion drama Happening,...
- 9/30/2022
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
Country’s selectors hoping to end 30-year barren streak since last Oscar win.
France is hoping to break a 30-year barren streak and has selected Alice Diop’s Saint Omer to represent the country in the best international feature film category for the 95th Academy Awards.
‘Saint Omer’: Venice Review
The film was announced by the Cnc on Friday evening (September 23) after a day of deliberations by a recently revamped selection committee who chose it from a shortlist of titles that also included Mia Hansen-Løve’s One Fine Morning, Alice Winocour’s Paris Memories, Eric Gravel’s Full Time,...
France is hoping to break a 30-year barren streak and has selected Alice Diop’s Saint Omer to represent the country in the best international feature film category for the 95th Academy Awards.
‘Saint Omer’: Venice Review
The film was announced by the Cnc on Friday evening (September 23) after a day of deliberations by a recently revamped selection committee who chose it from a shortlist of titles that also included Mia Hansen-Løve’s One Fine Morning, Alice Winocour’s Paris Memories, Eric Gravel’s Full Time,...
- 9/23/2022
- by Rebecca Leffler
- ScreenDaily
Exclusive: French director Alice Diop’s breakout feature Saint Omer has secured distribution in a raft of territories for Paris-based Wild Bunch International (Wbi) following its Venice Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize win.
In Western Europe, the film has been sold to the U.K. (Picturehouse), Italy (Minerva Pictures), Spain (Surtsey Films), Greece (One From The Heart), Benelux (Cherry Pickers Film Distribution), Switzerland (Cineworx) and Pan-Scandinavia (Edge Entertainment).
In Eastern Europe, the title has been acquired for Yugoslavia (McF), the Czech Republic (Film Europe), Lithuania (Kino Pavazaris) and Poland (New Horizon).
In the rest of the world, it has been bought for Canada (Films We Love), Australia and New Zealand (Palace Films), Japan (Transformer), Taiwan (Hooray Films), Israel (Lev Cinemas) and Middle East (Teleview).
Les Films du Losange pre-bought rights for France and is gearing up for a theatrical release in November.
The international sales announcement follows hot on the...
In Western Europe, the film has been sold to the U.K. (Picturehouse), Italy (Minerva Pictures), Spain (Surtsey Films), Greece (One From The Heart), Benelux (Cherry Pickers Film Distribution), Switzerland (Cineworx) and Pan-Scandinavia (Edge Entertainment).
In Eastern Europe, the title has been acquired for Yugoslavia (McF), the Czech Republic (Film Europe), Lithuania (Kino Pavazaris) and Poland (New Horizon).
In the rest of the world, it has been bought for Canada (Films We Love), Australia and New Zealand (Palace Films), Japan (Transformer), Taiwan (Hooray Films), Israel (Lev Cinemas) and Middle East (Teleview).
Les Films du Losange pre-bought rights for France and is gearing up for a theatrical release in November.
The international sales announcement follows hot on the...
- 9/22/2022
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
Click here to read the full article.
Neon’s boutique label Super has acquired the U.S. rights to Alice Diop’s Saint Omer after a bow at Venice.
The film picked up the Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize, played in Toronto and is headed to a U.S. premiere at the New York Film Festival. Super plans to release the film theatrically.
Diop co-wrote her debut fiction feature alongside Amrita David and Marie Ndiaye. Saint Omer stars Kayije Kagame, Guslagie Malanda, Valérie Dréville and Aurélia Petit.
The courtroom drama allowed Diop to make her first narrative feature with Saint Omer. The film follows Rama (Kagame), a pregnant young novelist who attends the trial of Laurence Coly (Malanda), a Senegalese woman accused of murdering her 15-month-old baby by leaving her on a beach to be swept away by the tide.
Rama arrives in the northern French town of Saint Omer,...
Neon’s boutique label Super has acquired the U.S. rights to Alice Diop’s Saint Omer after a bow at Venice.
The film picked up the Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize, played in Toronto and is headed to a U.S. premiere at the New York Film Festival. Super plans to release the film theatrically.
Diop co-wrote her debut fiction feature alongside Amrita David and Marie Ndiaye. Saint Omer stars Kayije Kagame, Guslagie Malanda, Valérie Dréville and Aurélia Petit.
The courtroom drama allowed Diop to make her first narrative feature with Saint Omer. The film follows Rama (Kagame), a pregnant young novelist who attends the trial of Laurence Coly (Malanda), a Senegalese woman accused of murdering her 15-month-old baby by leaving her on a beach to be swept away by the tide.
Rama arrives in the northern French town of Saint Omer,...
- 9/16/2022
- by Etan Vlessing
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Alice Diop’s “Saint Omer” has scored U.S. distribution with Neon’s boutique label Super after making its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival, where it won two major competition awards.
Super will release the film in theaters, following its U.S. premiere at the New York Film Festival and screening at the BFI London Film Festival, both in October. “Saint Omer” won the Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize and the Luigi De Laurentiis Lion of the Future Award for Best Debut Feature at Venice; it also played at TIFF earlier this month, making it one of only four films to compete at NYFF, TIFF and Venice.
“Saint Omer” is the first narrative feature from Diop, the documentary filmmaker of “We,” “La Permanence” and “La Mort de Danton.” Inspired by a true story, the film revolves around the trial of Laurence Coly, a Senagalese woman accused of killing...
Super will release the film in theaters, following its U.S. premiere at the New York Film Festival and screening at the BFI London Film Festival, both in October. “Saint Omer” won the Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize and the Luigi De Laurentiis Lion of the Future Award for Best Debut Feature at Venice; it also played at TIFF earlier this month, making it one of only four films to compete at NYFF, TIFF and Venice.
“Saint Omer” is the first narrative feature from Diop, the documentary filmmaker of “We,” “La Permanence” and “La Mort de Danton.” Inspired by a true story, the film revolves around the trial of Laurence Coly, a Senagalese woman accused of killing...
- 9/16/2022
- by Harper Lambert
- The Wrap
Neon’s boutique label Super has secured U.S. rights to Alice Diop’s acclaimed drama Saint Omer, following its world premiere earlier this month at the Venice Film Festival, where the film won the Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize, as well as the Luigi De Laurentiis Lion of the Future Award for Best Debut Feature.
Inspired by a true story, Saint Omer is billed as a contemporary version of the Medea myth. The film follows the novelist Rama (Kayije Kagame) as she attends the trial of Laurence Coly (Guslagie Malanga), a young woman accused of killing her 15-month-old daughter by abandoning her to the rising tide on a beach in northern France. As the trial continues, the words of the accused and witness testimonies will shake Rama’s convictions and call into question our own judgment.
One of just four films selected to competition this year at the Venice,...
Inspired by a true story, Saint Omer is billed as a contemporary version of the Medea myth. The film follows the novelist Rama (Kayije Kagame) as she attends the trial of Laurence Coly (Guslagie Malanga), a young woman accused of killing her 15-month-old daughter by abandoning her to the rising tide on a beach in northern France. As the trial continues, the words of the accused and witness testimonies will shake Rama’s convictions and call into question our own judgment.
One of just four films selected to competition this year at the Venice,...
- 9/16/2022
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
US premiere set for New York Film Festival.
Neon’s boutique label Super has acquired US rights to Alice Diop’s Venice Silver Lion winner and Toronto selection Saint Omer, one of five films shortlisted for France’s international feature film Oscar submission.
‘Saint Omer’: Venice Review
Diop’s fiction feature debut is inspired by a true story and plays on the Medea mythology about the mother who kills her child. It follows Rama, a young novellist researching her next book, who reflects on her relationship with her mother as she attends the trial of a woman accused of infanticide.
Neon’s boutique label Super has acquired US rights to Alice Diop’s Venice Silver Lion winner and Toronto selection Saint Omer, one of five films shortlisted for France’s international feature film Oscar submission.
‘Saint Omer’: Venice Review
Diop’s fiction feature debut is inspired by a true story and plays on the Medea mythology about the mother who kills her child. It follows Rama, a young novellist researching her next book, who reflects on her relationship with her mother as she attends the trial of a woman accused of infanticide.
- 9/16/2022
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
Super, the boutique distribution label from Neon, has acquired U.S. rights to Alice Diop’s “Saint Omer” after it won the Silver Lion Grand Jury prize in Venice along with the Luigi De Laurentiis Lion of the Future award.
“Saint Omer” was recently shortlisted for France’s submission to the Academy Awards and will premiere at the New York Film Festival and play the BFI London Festival. Neon plans a theatrical release.
“Saint Omer” is Diop’s debut fiction feature, which she co-wrote with Amrita David and Marie NDiaye, and it stars Kayije Kagame, Guslagie Malanda, Valérie Dréville and Aurélia Petit. Toufik Ayadi and Christophe Barral of Srab Films produced alongside Arte France Cinéma and Pictanovo Hauts-de-France.
Inspired by a true story, “Saint Omer” revolves around Rama, a young novelist who attends the trial of a women who is accused of killing her 15-month-old daughter by abandoning her on a beach.
“Saint Omer” was recently shortlisted for France’s submission to the Academy Awards and will premiere at the New York Film Festival and play the BFI London Festival. Neon plans a theatrical release.
“Saint Omer” is Diop’s debut fiction feature, which she co-wrote with Amrita David and Marie NDiaye, and it stars Kayije Kagame, Guslagie Malanda, Valérie Dréville and Aurélia Petit. Toufik Ayadi and Christophe Barral of Srab Films produced alongside Arte France Cinéma and Pictanovo Hauts-de-France.
Inspired by a true story, “Saint Omer” revolves around Rama, a young novelist who attends the trial of a women who is accused of killing her 15-month-old daughter by abandoning her on a beach.
- 9/16/2022
- by Pat Saperstein
- Variety Film + TV
The Film Circuit begins with Telluride, a small but perfect film festival in the mountains of Colorado as simultaneously Venice unfurls the films that will soon be released in the wonderful arthouse cinemas of Europe, followed closely by Toronto whose films foretell the coming year’s Oscars nominees. It is a very exciting time to be on the festival circuit.
And simultaneously with these great screenings are sidebars, panel discussions, workshops, master classes and all around great networking for filmmakers around the world.
Venezia 79 Competition
Il Signore Delle Formiche
Director Gianni Amelio
Main Cast Luigi Lo Cascio, Elio Germano, Leonardo Maltese, Sara Serraiocco / Italy / 134’
The Whale
Director Darren Aronofsky
Main Cast Brendan Fraser, Sadie Sink, Hong Chau, Samantha Morton, Ty Simpkins / USA / 117’
White Noise
Director Noah Baumbach
Main Cast Adam Driver, Greta Gerwig, Don Cheadle, Raffey Cassidy, Sam Nivola, May Nivola, Jodie Turner-Smith, André L. Benjamin and Lars Eidinger / USA / 136’
L’IMMENSITÀ
Director Emanuele Crialese
Main Cast Penélope Cruz, Luana Giuliani, Vincenzo Amato, Patrizio Francioni / Italy, France / 97’
Saint Omer
Director Alice Diop
Main Cast Kayije Kagame, Guslagie Malanda, Valérie Dréville, Aurélia Petit / France / 123’
Blonde
Director Andrew Dominik
Main Cast Ana de Armas, Adrien Brody, Bobby Cannavale, Xavier Samuel, Julianne Nicholson, Lily Fisher / USA / 166’
TÁR
Director Todd Field
Main Cast Cate Blanchett, Noémie Merlant, Nina Hoss, Sophie Kauer, Julian Glover, Allan Corduner, Mark Strong / USA / 158’
Love Life
Director Kôji Fukada
Main Cast Fumino Kimura, Kento Nagayama, Atom Sunada / Japan, France / 123’
Bardo, Falsa CRÓNICA De Unas Cuantas Verdades
Director Alejandro G. Iñárritu
Main Cast Daniel Giménez Cacho, Griselda Siciliani, Ximena Lamadrid, Iker Sanchez Solano, Andrés Almeida, Francisco Rubio / Mexico / 174’
Athena
Director Romain Gavras
Main Cast Dali Benssalah, Sami Slimane, Anthony Bajon, Ouassini Embarek, Alexis Manenti / France / 97’
Bones And All
Director Luca Guadagnino
Main Cast Taylor Russell, Timothée Chalamet, Mark Rylance, André Holland, Chloë Sevigny, Jessica Harper, David Gordon Green, Michael Stuhlbarg, Jake Horowitz / USA / 130’
The Eternal Daughter
Director Joanna Hogg
Main Cast Tilda Swinton, Joseph Mydell, Carly-Sophia Davies / UK, USA / 96’
Shab, Dakheli, Divar (Beyond The Wall)
Director Vahid Jalilvand
Main Cast Navid Mohammadzadeh, Diana Habibi, Amir Aghaee / Iran / 126’
The Banshees Of Inisherin
Director Martin McDonagh
Main Cast Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Kerry Condon, Barry Keoghan / Ireland, UK, USA / 109’
Argentina, 1985
Director Santiago Mitre
Main Cast Ricardo Darín, Peter Lanzani, Alejandra Flechner, Norman Briski / Argentina, USA / 140’
Chiara
Director Susanna Nicchiarelli
Main Cast Margherita Mazzucco, Andrea Carpenzano, Carlotta Natoli, Paola Tiziana Cruciani, Luigi Lo Cascio / Italy, Belgium / 106’
Monica
Director Andrea Pallaoro
Main Cast Trace Lysette, Patricia Clarkson, Adriana Barraza, Emily Browning, Joshua Close / USA, Italy / 113’
Khers Nist (No Bears)
Director Jafar Panahi
Main Cast Jafar Panahi, Naser Hashemi, Vahid Mobaseri, Bakhtiar Panjeei, Mina Kavani, Reza Heydari / Iran / 107’
All The Beauty And The Bloodshed
Director Laura Poitras
USA / 117’
Un Couple
Director Frederick Wiseman
Main Cast Nathalie Boutefeu / France, USA / 64’
The Son
Director Florian Zeller
Main Cast Hugh Jackman, Laura Dern, Vanessa Kirby, Zen McGrath, Anthony Hopkins, Hugh Quarshie / UK / 124’
Les Miens
Director Roschdy Zem
Main Cast Sami Bouajila, Roschdy Zem, Meriem Serbah, Maïwenn, Rachid Bouchareb, Abel Jafrei, Nina Zem / France / 85’
Les Enfants Des Autres
Director Rebecca Zlotowski
Main Cast Virginie Efira, Roschdy Zem, Chiara Mastroianni, Callie Ferreira / France / 104’
Toronto is in spite of itself in a civilized sort of way in competition for the premieres with Venice, though the sequential festivals are serving different constituencies. Still, The Whale, for example is premiering in Venice and then traveling to TIFF.
TIFF Gala Presentations:
The Whale directed by Darren Aronofsky, produced and to be distributed in U.S. and actng as international sales agent A24.
TIFF says: “Brendan Fraser gives a career-defining performance in Darren Aronofsky’s arrestingly intimate drama about a reclusive English professor struggling with personal relationships and self-acceptance, adapted from the stage play by Samuel D. Hunter.”
Alice, Darling by Mary Nighy
Also playing are Alice, Darling (Mary Nighy) in which Anna Kendrick captures the anxious psychology of a woman in an abusive relationship as her friends try to reconnect with her while on a cottage getaway.
Black Ice(Hubert Davis) about Black hockey players facing systemic racism in the sport.
The Greatest Beer Run Ever (Peter Farrelly) about man’s story of leaving New York in 1967 to bring beer to his childhood buddies in the Army while they are fighting in Vietnam. An Apple TV+ production.
Butcher’s Crossing (Gabe Polsky) is a frontier epic about an Ivy League drop-out as he travels to the Colorado wilderness, where he joins a team of buffalo hunters on a journey that puts his life and sanity at risk. Based on the highly acclaimed novel by John Williams. Isa Altitude
The Hummingbird (Francesca Archibugi)Hunt (Jung-jae Lee)A Jazzman’s Blues (Tyler Perry)Kacchey Limbu (Shubham Yogi)Moving On (Paul Weitz)Paris Memories (Alice Winocour)Prisoner’s Daughter (Catherine Hardwicke)Raymond & Ray (Rodrigo García)Roost (Amy Redford)Sidney (Reginald Hudlin)The Son (Florian Zeller)The Swimmers (Sally El Hosaini)What’s Love Got to Do With It? (Shekhar Kapur)The Woman King(Gina Prince-Bythewood)
Special PRESENTATIONSAllelujah (Sir Richard Eyre)All Quiet on the Western Front (Edward Berger)The Banshees Of Inisherin (Martin McDonagh)Blueback (Robert Connolly)The Blue Caftan (Maryam Touzani)Broker (Hirokazu Kore-eda)Brother (Clement Virgo)Bros (Nicholas Stoller)Catherine Called Birdy (Lena Dunham)Causeway (Lila Neugebauer)Chevalier (Stephen Williams)Corsage (Marie Kreutzer)Decision to Leave (Park Chan-wook)Devotion (Jd Dillard)Driving (Madeleine Christian Carion)El Suplente (Diego Lerman)Empire of Light...
And simultaneously with these great screenings are sidebars, panel discussions, workshops, master classes and all around great networking for filmmakers around the world.
Venezia 79 Competition
Il Signore Delle Formiche
Director Gianni Amelio
Main Cast Luigi Lo Cascio, Elio Germano, Leonardo Maltese, Sara Serraiocco / Italy / 134’
The Whale
Director Darren Aronofsky
Main Cast Brendan Fraser, Sadie Sink, Hong Chau, Samantha Morton, Ty Simpkins / USA / 117’
White Noise
Director Noah Baumbach
Main Cast Adam Driver, Greta Gerwig, Don Cheadle, Raffey Cassidy, Sam Nivola, May Nivola, Jodie Turner-Smith, André L. Benjamin and Lars Eidinger / USA / 136’
L’IMMENSITÀ
Director Emanuele Crialese
Main Cast Penélope Cruz, Luana Giuliani, Vincenzo Amato, Patrizio Francioni / Italy, France / 97’
Saint Omer
Director Alice Diop
Main Cast Kayije Kagame, Guslagie Malanda, Valérie Dréville, Aurélia Petit / France / 123’
Blonde
Director Andrew Dominik
Main Cast Ana de Armas, Adrien Brody, Bobby Cannavale, Xavier Samuel, Julianne Nicholson, Lily Fisher / USA / 166’
TÁR
Director Todd Field
Main Cast Cate Blanchett, Noémie Merlant, Nina Hoss, Sophie Kauer, Julian Glover, Allan Corduner, Mark Strong / USA / 158’
Love Life
Director Kôji Fukada
Main Cast Fumino Kimura, Kento Nagayama, Atom Sunada / Japan, France / 123’
Bardo, Falsa CRÓNICA De Unas Cuantas Verdades
Director Alejandro G. Iñárritu
Main Cast Daniel Giménez Cacho, Griselda Siciliani, Ximena Lamadrid, Iker Sanchez Solano, Andrés Almeida, Francisco Rubio / Mexico / 174’
Athena
Director Romain Gavras
Main Cast Dali Benssalah, Sami Slimane, Anthony Bajon, Ouassini Embarek, Alexis Manenti / France / 97’
Bones And All
Director Luca Guadagnino
Main Cast Taylor Russell, Timothée Chalamet, Mark Rylance, André Holland, Chloë Sevigny, Jessica Harper, David Gordon Green, Michael Stuhlbarg, Jake Horowitz / USA / 130’
The Eternal Daughter
Director Joanna Hogg
Main Cast Tilda Swinton, Joseph Mydell, Carly-Sophia Davies / UK, USA / 96’
Shab, Dakheli, Divar (Beyond The Wall)
Director Vahid Jalilvand
Main Cast Navid Mohammadzadeh, Diana Habibi, Amir Aghaee / Iran / 126’
The Banshees Of Inisherin
Director Martin McDonagh
Main Cast Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Kerry Condon, Barry Keoghan / Ireland, UK, USA / 109’
Argentina, 1985
Director Santiago Mitre
Main Cast Ricardo Darín, Peter Lanzani, Alejandra Flechner, Norman Briski / Argentina, USA / 140’
Chiara
Director Susanna Nicchiarelli
Main Cast Margherita Mazzucco, Andrea Carpenzano, Carlotta Natoli, Paola Tiziana Cruciani, Luigi Lo Cascio / Italy, Belgium / 106’
Monica
Director Andrea Pallaoro
Main Cast Trace Lysette, Patricia Clarkson, Adriana Barraza, Emily Browning, Joshua Close / USA, Italy / 113’
Khers Nist (No Bears)
Director Jafar Panahi
Main Cast Jafar Panahi, Naser Hashemi, Vahid Mobaseri, Bakhtiar Panjeei, Mina Kavani, Reza Heydari / Iran / 107’
All The Beauty And The Bloodshed
Director Laura Poitras
USA / 117’
Un Couple
Director Frederick Wiseman
Main Cast Nathalie Boutefeu / France, USA / 64’
The Son
Director Florian Zeller
Main Cast Hugh Jackman, Laura Dern, Vanessa Kirby, Zen McGrath, Anthony Hopkins, Hugh Quarshie / UK / 124’
Les Miens
Director Roschdy Zem
Main Cast Sami Bouajila, Roschdy Zem, Meriem Serbah, Maïwenn, Rachid Bouchareb, Abel Jafrei, Nina Zem / France / 85’
Les Enfants Des Autres
Director Rebecca Zlotowski
Main Cast Virginie Efira, Roschdy Zem, Chiara Mastroianni, Callie Ferreira / France / 104’
Toronto is in spite of itself in a civilized sort of way in competition for the premieres with Venice, though the sequential festivals are serving different constituencies. Still, The Whale, for example is premiering in Venice and then traveling to TIFF.
TIFF Gala Presentations:
The Whale directed by Darren Aronofsky, produced and to be distributed in U.S. and actng as international sales agent A24.
TIFF says: “Brendan Fraser gives a career-defining performance in Darren Aronofsky’s arrestingly intimate drama about a reclusive English professor struggling with personal relationships and self-acceptance, adapted from the stage play by Samuel D. Hunter.”
Alice, Darling by Mary Nighy
Also playing are Alice, Darling (Mary Nighy) in which Anna Kendrick captures the anxious psychology of a woman in an abusive relationship as her friends try to reconnect with her while on a cottage getaway.
Black Ice(Hubert Davis) about Black hockey players facing systemic racism in the sport.
The Greatest Beer Run Ever (Peter Farrelly) about man’s story of leaving New York in 1967 to bring beer to his childhood buddies in the Army while they are fighting in Vietnam. An Apple TV+ production.
Butcher’s Crossing (Gabe Polsky) is a frontier epic about an Ivy League drop-out as he travels to the Colorado wilderness, where he joins a team of buffalo hunters on a journey that puts his life and sanity at risk. Based on the highly acclaimed novel by John Williams. Isa Altitude
The Hummingbird (Francesca Archibugi)Hunt (Jung-jae Lee)A Jazzman’s Blues (Tyler Perry)Kacchey Limbu (Shubham Yogi)Moving On (Paul Weitz)Paris Memories (Alice Winocour)Prisoner’s Daughter (Catherine Hardwicke)Raymond & Ray (Rodrigo García)Roost (Amy Redford)Sidney (Reginald Hudlin)The Son (Florian Zeller)The Swimmers (Sally El Hosaini)What’s Love Got to Do With It? (Shekhar Kapur)The Woman King(Gina Prince-Bythewood)
Special PRESENTATIONSAllelujah (Sir Richard Eyre)All Quiet on the Western Front (Edward Berger)The Banshees Of Inisherin (Martin McDonagh)Blueback (Robert Connolly)The Blue Caftan (Maryam Touzani)Broker (Hirokazu Kore-eda)Brother (Clement Virgo)Bros (Nicholas Stoller)Catherine Called Birdy (Lena Dunham)Causeway (Lila Neugebauer)Chevalier (Stephen Williams)Corsage (Marie Kreutzer)Decision to Leave (Park Chan-wook)Devotion (Jd Dillard)Driving (Madeleine Christian Carion)El Suplente (Diego Lerman)Empire of Light...
- 9/10/2022
- by Sydney
- Sydney's Buzz
Acclaimed documentarian Alice Diop marks her narrative debut with “Saint Omer,” a pulled-from-the-headlines legal drama that won the Grand Jury Prize and the award for best debut feature at the Venice Film Festival. High profile slots in Toronto, New York, and London are to come — making the French title one of the real breakouts of this fall season.
The wrenching film follows Rama (Kayije Kagame), a young novelist covering the trial of an immigrant mother accused of infanticide. With major elements never in doubt – the accused, Laurence (Guslagie Malanda), admits to the act, though she still pleads not guilty – the Venice winner turns around more intimate, philosophical, and unsettling questions.
Like Rama in the film, you attended the real trial upon which “Saint Omer” is based. Did you do so with this project in mind?
I’m still trying to understand what drove me. Originally, I attended the trial out...
The wrenching film follows Rama (Kayije Kagame), a young novelist covering the trial of an immigrant mother accused of infanticide. With major elements never in doubt – the accused, Laurence (Guslagie Malanda), admits to the act, though she still pleads not guilty – the Venice winner turns around more intimate, philosophical, and unsettling questions.
Like Rama in the film, you attended the real trial upon which “Saint Omer” is based. Did you do so with this project in mind?
I’m still trying to understand what drove me. Originally, I attended the trial out...
- 9/10/2022
- by Ben Croll
- Variety Film + TV
The Kiev Trial.His second film of the year—and seventh since the start of the decade—Sergei Loznitsa’s latest archival documentary, The Kiev Trial, is a chronicle of the titular 1946 hearing that saw fifteen Nazi officers convicted of crimes against humanity in a ruling that would predate the Nuremberg sentences by a few months. “If The Natural History of Destruction was a symphony,” Loznitsa told me as we sat to discuss his latest halfway through the fest, “The Kiev Trial is a chamber piece.” Unveiled in Cannes just a few months ago, Natural History cartwheeled across a vast and lugubrious canvas of carpet-bombings during World War II. Where that film was sprawling, the narrative here is much more straightforward. We begin with a brief parade of post-war, rubble-littered Kiev before venturing into the courtroom, which we’ll only leave to witness the Nazis’ executions together with a crowd of 200,000 besieging Kalinin Square.
- 9/10/2022
- MUBI
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