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Exclusive: Deva Cassel (Netflix’s The Leopard), Julien De Saint Jean (The Count Of Monte Cristo) and Romain Duris (Heartbreaker) are set to co-star in a contemporary, French-language version of Gaston Leroux’s classic Paris-set novel The Phantom of the Opera, aimed at a young adult audience and taking its cue from the Twilight franchise.

Snd, the film production, distribution and sales arm of French commercial free-to-air broadcaster M6, is co-producing and selling the ambitious project and will launch pre-sales at the EFM with a sizzle.

Alexandre Castagnetti is set to direct from a screenplay co-written with Camille Fontaine ( Coco Before Chanel).

Opéra Garnier

Filming will begin this summer at the world famous Palais Garnier opera house, or Opéra Garnier, in Paris, against the backdrop of its theatre, backstage areas, domed roof and subterranean vaulted cistern, sometimes referred to as its lake.

No fewer than 14 César nominations for The Count Of Monte Cristo starring Pierre Niney Photo: UniFrance

The denizens of France’s Academie des Césars (the equivalent of the Oscars or the BAFTAs) have voted for box office winners in their choices to go forward for Best Film, including the costume drama from the novel by Alexandre Dumas, The Count Of Monte Cristo, Jacques Audiard’s Mexican drugs cartel musical Emilia Pérez, and Emmanuel Courcol’s The Marching Band. Two more edgy titles, Souleymane’s Story and Miséricordia also have best picture nods in the contenders announced today.

Epic crime romance Beating Hearts scored 13 César nominations Photo: UniFrance

The Count Of Monte Cristo, which had a lacklustre performance in the recent Lumière Awards (bestowed by the foreign press working in France), trumped all-comers in the Césars with 14 nominations, while Gilles Lellouche’s epic crime romance Beating Hearts came a close second...

The Count of Monte Cristo, Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de La Patellière’s retelling of the classic French revenge tale, is the front-runner for this year’s César Awards, scoring 14 nominations, including in the best film and best directing categories.

The period drama, starring Pierre Niney, beat out Jacques Audiard’s Oscar frontrunner Emilia Pérez, which got 12 noms, and Beating Hearts, Gilles Lellouche’s contemporary reimagining of Romeo and Juliet featuring François Civil and Adèle Exarchopoulos, which earned 13 nominations.

Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de la Patelliere’s lavish adaptation of Alexandre Dumas’ classic was the biggest French box office hit of last year, drawing close to 10 million viewers for a $40 million local take. Globally, the film has grossed more than $75 million.

Sean Baker’s Palme d’Or winner, and Oscar contender, Anora, is up for the Cesar for best foreign film, against Academy Award hopefuls including Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance,...

Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre De La Patelliere’s epic literary adaptation The Count Of Monte-Cristo leads the nominations for France’s Cesar Awards with 14.

There were also strong showings from Gilles Lellouche’s Beating Hearts with 13 and Jacques Audiard’s Oscar and Bafta-nominated Emilia Perez with 12.

Scroll down for the full list of nominations

The Count Of Monte-Cristo and Emilia Perez are in the running for best film alongside Boris Lojkine’s Souleymane’s Story, Alain Guiraudie’s Misericordia and Emmanuel Courcol’s The Marching Band.

All of the films nominated for best film had their world premiere at the...

The Count of Monte Cristo has topped the nominations for France’s prestigious César awards, followed by Beating Hearts and Oscar frontrunner Emilia Pérez.

The film has made it into 14 categories in the nominations, which were announced in Paris on Wednesday morning. Beating Hearts clinched 13, followed by Emiia Pérez with 12.

Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de la Patelliere’s lavish and fast-paced adaptation of Alexandre Dumas’ classic novel starring Pierre Niney was one of France’s top performing movies at the local box office in 2024, drawing close to 10M spectators and its top international export.

Gilles Lellouche’s modern Romeo and Juliet tale Beating Hearts – co-starring François Civil and Adèle Exarchopoulos – has also performed well at home, drawing more than five million spectators.

The 12 nominations for Jacques Audiard’s Cannes Jury prize-winning musical film Emilia Pérez continue its buzzy awards season run which has seen it clinch four Golden Globes and...

Jacques Audiard’s musical film Emilia Pérez swept the 30th edition of France’s Lumière Awards on Monday evening, winning Best Film, Director and Screenplay as well Actress for Karla Sofia Gascón and Music for Camille and Clément Ducol.

The wins add further steam to the Cannes Jury Prize winner’s awards season run following its quadruple Golden Globes triumph and European Film Awards victory, where it also clinched Best Film, Director, Screenplay and Actress for Gascón.

The movie is currently on six of the 10 announced category shortlists for the 97th the Academy Awards and nominated in 11 categories for the 2025 Baftas film awards.

Further awards seasons hopefuls also featured in the Lumière prizes, with Mati Diop’s Berlinale Golden Bear winner Dahomey – which made it into Best International Feature Film (for Senegal) and Documentary Academy Award shortlists – won Best Documentary.

Latvian director Gints Zilbalodis’s Flow – which is also on...

Movies from around the world shone brightly in 2024, showing how great storytelling speaks to audiences everywhere. From the sun-drenched streets of Mexico to the neon-lit lanes of Tokyo, filmmakers created rich stories that left viewers spellbound. The year’s releases opened windows into worlds both familiar and fantastical, packed with heart-stopping drama, laugh-out-loud humor, and jaw-dropping images.

2024 brought an astonishing range of films. A French musical challenged conventions about gender and identity. A Latvian animated odyssey merged visual splendor with emotional depth. These films earned acclaim from audiences while collecting awards at Cannes, Berlin, and Venice, sparking passionate discussions along the way.

Our selection process for the top 10 focused on several key elements: critical reception, festival recognition, audience response, and distinctive creative vision. Each film carved its own place in cinema history. The selections include an underground political drama filmed secretly in Iran and a comedic exploration through Brooklyn’s grittier corners.

The Annecy animated film festival will this year honor French film iconoclast Michel Gondry.

Annecy will present the director of The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Silence of Sleep, and Be Kind Rewind with an honorary Crystal award for lifetime achievement. It will mark the first time Gondry has attended Annecy, the world’s largest animation film festival.

Gondry has used forms of stop-motion animation in his live-action features, as well as in numerous music videos — famously in Björk’s Human Behaviour, but to date has only directed two full-length animated films: The hand-drawn animated documentary Is the Man Who Is Tall Happy?: An Animated Conversation with Noam Chomsky (2013), and the upcoming feature Maya, donne-moi un titre (Maya, Give Me a Title), which will have its international premiere at the Berlin film festival next month, screening in the Generation Kplus sidebar. The film is described by Gondry...

Bille August-directed TV series “The Count of Monte Cristo,” featuring an international cast led by Sam Claflin (“Peaky Blinders”) is reaping stellar ratings in Italy, scoring on average a whopping 26% primetime share on the country’s state broadcaster Rai.

The first episode of August’s high-end adaptation of the Alexandre Dumas classic, which the two-time Palme d’Or winning director of “Pelle the Conqueror” and “Smilla’s Sense Of Snow” shot in Paris, Torino, Rome and Malta, drew more than 5 million viewers Monday on Rai’s Rai-1 flagship station, reaching peaks of more than 32% of the country’s total TV audience and marking Rai’s best ratings for a TV series in nearly a year.

Claflin stars as young sailor Edmond Dantes who is falsely accused of treason and is imprisoned without trial in the Château d’If, a grim island fortress off Marseille before escaping to seek revenge.

French movies had a banner 2024 on home turf with a 44% market share at the French box office, which broke a 15-year record; meanwhile, Gallic films saw a 11% year-on-year drop in international revenues, according to figures unveiled by the National Film Board (Cnc) and Unifrance during the Rendez-Vous in Paris market on Monday.

During the first 50 weeks of 2024, French movies generated 222.8 million euros ($227.2 million) from 33.4 million admissions outside France. Taking into account tickets sales during the second half of December, Unifrance anticipates the final box office for international will be closer to 38 million admissions and 250 million euros ($255.2 million) in revenues.

While it doesn’t represent France in the Oscar race, “The Count of Monte-Cristo,” a three-hour epic adventure film adapted from Alexandre Dumas’ classic, ranks as the biggest French film export in 2024.

The movie, produced by Dimitri Rassam’s Mediawan-owned banner Chapter 2 and sold internationally by Pathé, has grossed an...

Happy tunes at the French box office: The Musicians to open UniFrance Rendez-Vous with French Cinema in Pari Photo: UniFrance As denizens of the French film industry gather in Paris this week for the annual UniFrance Rendez-Vous with French Cinema the omens are brighter than they have been for many a year.

The last 12 months have seen two diverse successes – the feel-good comedy A Little Something Extra, directed by comedian Artus, with a cast of non-professional actors with disabilities and the epic swashbuckler The Count of Monte Christo, based on the Alexandre Dumas classic and directed by Alexandre de La Patellière and Matthieu Delaporte with a dashing star turn from Pierre Niney. Among others both are being heavily touted for Lumière and César awards.

Figures released by the Cnc (the national film body) indicate that almost half the tickets sold last year at the French box office were for French...

The Count of Monte Cristo, written and directed by Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de La Patellière, has achieved the highest Rotten Tomatoes score for a historical adaptation of Alexandre Dumas' titular novel from 1844. Starring Pierre Niney as Edmond Dantès, the film brings Dumas' iconic tale of betrayal and vengeance to life. The story follows the adventures of Dantès, a sailor wrongfully imprisoned at the behest of a malicious conspiracy. After 14 years of captivity, he escapes, uncovers a hidden treasure, and assumes the identity of the Count of Monte Cristo to exact revenge on those who wronged him.

The 2024 adaptation of The Count of Monte Cristo has shattered expectations by securing a 98% critics' score and 91% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, making it the best-rated adaptation of the story. Over a dozen adaptations, including beloved films and miniseries, have brought The Count of Monte Cristo to screens for decades, but Delaporte and Patellière version’s rich storytelling,...

After surging back from the pandemic with a 16% growth in 2023, France’s box office continued to grow in 2024 with €1.36 billion ($1.41 billion) grossed from 183.1 million admissions sold, a 0.5% year-on rise, according to Comscore and the National Film Board (Cnc).

While the increase may appear modest, it nevertheless solidifies France as Europe’s healthiest theatrical market, and one that shows the biggest signs of post-covid recovery even in a year that saw the country host the Olympic Games. Elsewhere in Europe, ticket sales dipped in 2024, per Comscore France.

The market share of French movies reached 44.4% compared to 36.7% for American movies, according to the Cnc, which notes that “it’s one of the highest level for local releases ever recorded.”

A wide-ranging duo of French movies beat Hollywood heavyweights to take the first two slots of this year’s box office chart: “A Little Something Extra” (“Un p’tit truc en plus”), a...

Brandy Corbet’s The Brutalist from A24 hammered its way into theaters this weekend with one of the best limited openings of 2024 (no. 3 after Anora and Kinds of Kindness). It sold out nearly 30 showtimes in New York and Los Angeles for a gross of $266.8k on four screens for a per screen opening of $66.7k.

The majority of audiences were under 35 and almost half heard about the film via Letterboxd as the online film-centric social network continues to be a defining force for indie word-of-mouth in the post-Covid era.

Corbet’s third feature centers on Adrien Brody’s László Toth, a Brutalist architect from Hungary attempting to rebuild his life in postwar America. Initially forced to toil in poverty, Toth soon wins a contract that will change the course of the next 30 years of his life.

The sweeping film premiered in Venice where Corbet won Best Director and has built throughout the fall season.

Fewer new openings but important ones for the indie world as the year soon to close welcomes the trio of Brady Corbet’s much-nominated The Brutalist with Adrien Brody, Pedro Almodovar’s first English outing The Room Next Door starring Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton, and a new rendition of revenge thriller The Count Of Monte Cristo. All three are starting in limited release.

Aardman Animations’ latest, Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl, is a lighter note in a handful of theaters ahead of its Netflix debut.

The Brutalist opens in four theaters in New York and LA with 70mm and Imax special engagements including Q&a’s with Corbet, co-writer Monda Fastvold and cinematographer Lol Crawley, notable for using large format VistaVision cameras in the film, which expands in January.

Corbet’s third feature centers on László Toth (Brody) a Brutalist architect...

The Count Of Monte Cristo is a classic novel that has been adapted many times for the screen, and though many might remember the title from assigned reading in high school, this new French take on the story is quite different. Of course, The Count of Monte Cristo hits the beats of revenge that are vital to the story, but it isn't afraid to use the narrative by Alexandre Dumas as a jumping-off point rather than a strict guideline. With a budget of over $46 million, this addition to the book's storied history is an epic worth committing to.

The target of a sinister plot, young Edmond Dantès is arrested on his wedding day for a crime he did not commit. After fourteen years in the island prison of Château d’If, he manages a daring escape. Now rich beyond his dreams, he assumes the identity of the Count of Monte...

French fantasist Michel Gondry (The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Science of Sleep). will return to Berlin with his latest animated feature, Maya, donne-moi un titre (Maya, Give Me a Title), screening in the Generation Kplus sidebar of the 2025 Berlin International Film Festival. Described by Gondry as a “stop-motion love letter to his daughter Maya” the film features the voices of Maya Gondry and French star Pierre Niney. It will have its international premiere in Berlin.

Berlin unveiled the first eight features and seven short films for its Generation Kplus and 14plus sections on Tuesday. They include 10 world premieres and range from minimalist chamber plays to opulent dance films. The festival will announce the full Generations lineups in early January. The 75th Berlin International Film Festival runs Feb. 13-23, 2025.

Here are the 2025 Generation titles unveiled so far:

A natureza das coisas invisíveis (The Nature of Invisible Things | Die...

The Belin Film Festival has unveiled its Panorama lineup, including new works by Denis Côté, Ira Sachs, Michel Gondry and Shatara Michelle Ford, among others.

Sachs’ movie, “Peter Hujar’s Day,” stars Ben Wishaw and Rebecca Hall. Set for an international premiere in Berlin, the film portrays a 1974 conversation between photographer Peter Hujar and his friend Linda Rosenkrantz, set against the backdrop of the New York art scene of the time.

Côté’s film, “Paul,” is a documentary about a man struggling with depression and social anxiety who found refuge in serving women who invite him to clean their homes.

Gondry’s “Maya, Give Me a Title” is described by the festival as a “stop-motion love letter to his daughter Maya brings to life a poetic and amusing journey that invites you to dream and laugh.” It features the voice of “The Count of Monte-Cristo” star Pierre Niney.

Ford’s “Dreams in Nightmares,...

“The Count of Monte Cristo” is the new France-produced, live-action feature adaptation of the classic novel by Alexandre Dumas, directed by Alexandre de La Patellière & Matthieu Delaporte, starring Pierre Niney as ‘Edmond’, Anaïs Demoustier as ‘Mercédès’, Bastien Bouillon, Anamaria Vartolomei, Laurent Lafitte and Julien De Saint, releasing December 20, 2024 in theaters:

"...in early 19th century France, 'Edmond Dantes' is betrayed, framed and falsely jailed. But while on a prison island, he befriends a fellow inmate who educates him...

"...and tells him where to find a 'fortune'.

"Following his escape Dantes re-emerges as a wealthy man in Paris society...

"...primed to take revenge…

“…against the corrupt government law-makers who tried to destroy his life, love and freedom...”

Click the images to enlarge...

Jacques Audiard’s musical film Emilia Pérez is the frontrunner at the nomination stage for the 30th edition of France’s Lumière awards.

The prizes, which are regarded as the French equivalent of the Golden Globes, will be voted on by members of the international press hailing from 38 countries this year.

They cover 13 categories spanning film, direction, screenplay, actress, actor, female revelation, male revelation, first film, animation, documentary, international co-production, cinematography and music.

Audiard’s Cannes Jury Prize winner Emilia Pérez has clinched six nominations, followed by Boris Lojkine’s Souleymane’s Story, which won the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize this year, and Alain Guiraudie’s Misericordia, with five nominations each.

Other frontrunners with four nominations each, include François Ozon’s When Fall Is Coming and Jonathan Millet’s Ghost Trail.

The winners will be announced in a ceremony at the Forum des images in Paris on January 20, 2025.

The full...

Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Perez has topped the nominations for France’s Lumière Awards.

The French-made, Spanish-language film earned six nominations for best film, director, screenplay, cinematography, music and actress for Karla Sofía Gascón in her starring role as the titular transitioning Mexican drug lord.

The Lumière nominations cap a strong week for Emilia Perez, which garnered 10 nominations for the 2025 Golden Globes,and was the big winner at the European Film Awards with five prizes.

Scroll down for full list of nominees

Boris Lojkine’s Souleymane’s Story, which tracks the daily life of an undocumented Guinean asylum seeker in Paris,...

“The Count of Monte Cristo” is the new France-produced, live-action feature adaptation of the classic novel by Alexandre Dumas, directed by Alexandre de La Patellière & Matthieu Delaporte, starring Pierre Niney as ‘Edmond’, Anaïs Demoustier as ‘Mercédès’, Bastien Bouillon, Anamaria Vartolomei, Laurent Lafitte and Julien De Saint, releasing December 20, 2024 in theaters:

"...in early 19th century France, 'Edmond Dantes' is betrayed, framed and falsely jailed. But while on a prison island, he befriends a fellow inmate who educates him...

"...and tells him where to find a 'fortune'.

"Following his escape Dantes re-emerges as a wealthy man in Paris society...

"...primed to take revenge…

“…against the corrupt government law-makers who tried to destroy his life, love and freedom...”

Click the images to enlarge...

"Will you sacrifice me for your revenge?" "It isn't revenge. It's justice." Samuel Goldwyn Films has unveiled a new official US trailer for The Count of Monte-Cristo, which first premiered at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival earlier this year. Now set for a US release in December - catch this one in theaters! It's yet another new Alexandre Dumas adaptation, written & directed by the two writers who made The Three Musketeers movies recently, though this time they're also directing. A new take on the famous novel by Dumas, about a man who gets revenge after being unfairly imprisoned. It has been adapted many times before, most notably in 2002 with Jim Caviezel & Guy Pearce; in 1975 with Richard Chamberlain & Trevor Howard; and the Og classic in 1934 with Robert Donat & Elissa Landi. Starring Pierre Niney as Edmond, Anaïs Demoustier as Mercédès, Bastien Bouillon, Anamaria Vartolomei, Laurent Lafitte, & Julien De Saint Jean. After 14 years in...

"We're in my daddy's film." Indie Sales has revealed a first look trailer for a new Michel Gondry project called Maya, Give Me a Title, which is the exact translation of the original French title Maya, donne-moi un titre. This 61-minute, stop-motion animation papercraft movie from Gondry was finished between The Book of Solutions and his upcoming Pharrell Williams film Atlantis (due out May 2025). Much like The Book of Solutions, it's another autobiographical film about his own artistic experiences. A father & daughter maintain their bond despite living in different countries through an imaginative evening ritual where she suggests a title and he then creates short animated films starring her as the hero. "Gondry once again takes us into his unique world with this poetic and enchanting declaration of love from a father to his daughter." Featuring the voice of Pierre Niney as the narrator his own daughter Maya Gondry (in...

The strange, rollercoaster of a career for Michel Gondry continues in 2025. His recent feature The Book of Solutions will finally get a U.S. release, while his Pharrell Williams-inspired Atlantis, starring the epic cast of Kelvin Harrison Jr., Halle Bailey, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Brian Tyree Henry, Quinta Brunson, Janelle Monáe, Jaboukie Young-White, Tim Meadows, Anderson .Paak, and Missy Elliott, will get a prime May release. Now, we have a trailer for the film he made in between, which finds him returning to the world of animation.

Maya, Give Me a Title is a new stop-motion film directed the Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind helmer and narrated by his recent collaborator Pierre Niney. Here’s the synopsis: “The film revolves around Gondry’s long-distance relationship with his daughter. As they live in two different countries, Gondry asks his daughter every evening, “Maya, give me a title.” Based on her answer,...

Paris-based sales agent Indie Sales has boarded “Maya, Give Me a Title,” a stop-motion project directed by Michel Gondry (“Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”) and narrated by Pierre Niney (“The Count of Monte Cristo”).

The film revolves around Gondry’s long-distance relationship with his daughter. As they live in two different countries, Gondry asks his daughter every evening, “Maya, give me a title.” Based on her answer, he creates a short animated reply in which Maya is the hero. Gondry’s long-time partner, Georges Bermann at Partizan Films, is producing, while The Jokers Films will release it in France.

Besides “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” Gondry’s well known films also include “The Science of Sleep,” “Be Kind Rewind” and more recently “The Book of Solutions.”

Stop-motion has been a personal trademark of the director since his early music videos such as Björk’s “Human Behaviour” and The...

Following a pair of box office hits “Black Box” and “A Perfect Man,” hot French filmmaker Yann Gozlan is now directing Cécile de France (“The Young Pope”), Lars Mikkelsen (“House of Cards”) and French music icon Mylène Farmer in “The Residence,” a tense psychological thriller revolving around AI.

Gaumont is co-producing and handling international sales on the high-concept movie whose first still is being unveiled by Variety. Gaumont’s EVP of international sales and distribution Alexis Cassanet and his team will be teasing the buzzy French project to buyers at the AFM.

Set in a near future, “The Residence” follows Clarissa (De France), a novelist with writer’s block who joins a prestigious, state-of-the-art artist residency where she’s been assigned an AI assistant named Dalloway (Farmer). The latter quickly becomes more than a simple assistant and turns into a true confidante for Clarissa. Feeling unsettled by Dalloway’s increasingly intrusive presence,...

French actor-director Nicolas Bedos has received a one-year prison sentence, with six months suspended and compulsory treatment, for the sexual assaults of two women last year, according to Le Parisien.

However, Bedos — who was not present at the sentencing in Paris on Tuesday — was acquitted on a count of sexual harassment in 2018. His attorney, Julia Monkowski, said that she would appeal the sentence, Le Parisien reported.

Bedos is best known for directing “La Belle Epoque,” which played at the Cannes Film Festival and won three Cesar Awards in 2020. Bedos’ latest film, “Mascarade,” a heist romance starring Pierre Niney, Marine Vacth, Isabelle Adjani and Francois Cluzet, played out-of-competition at Cannes in 2022.

The charges against Bedos stemmed from a complaint filed by a woman for an alleged sexual assault on June 1 in a Parisian nightclub. Bedos allegedly put his hand on the crotch of the woman, who was wearing jeans. Two more...

French actor-filmmaker Nicolas Bedos is facing a one-year suspended prison sentence on charges of alleged sexual assault and sexual harassment under the influence of alcohol, Variety has confirmed.

During a criminal court hearing on Sept. 26, the Paris prosecutor requested a one-year suspended sentence for Bedos, as well as “an obligation of care for a period of two years,” the prosecutor’s office said in a statement sent to Variety. Bedos’ attorney Julia Minkowski had no comment.

Charges against Bedos stem from a complaint filed by a woman for an alleged sexual assault which is alleged to have occurred on June 1 in a Parisian nightclub. Bedos allegedly put his hand on the crotch of the woman who was wearing jeans. Two more women since came forward accusing Bedos of sexual misconduct but neither filed a police complaint. One woman said Bedos grabbed her by the waist and kissed her on the...

“The Count of Monte Cristo,” one of four films on France’s shortlist for the country’s official submission to the Academy Awards, will open on Dec. 20 in U.S. theaters. Samuel Goldwyn Films plans to campaign the three-hour adventure drama in all categories including best picture, with the release to roll out nationwide after its bow.

In the classic Alexandre Dumas story, Pierre Niney stars as young Edmond Dantès, who is arrested on his wedding day for a crime he did not commit. After 14 years in the island prison of Château d’If, he makes a daring escape and assumes the identity of the Count of Monte Cristo, taking revenge on the three men who betrayed him.

Alexandre de La Patellière and Matthieu Delaporte wrote and directed the film, which co-stars Anaïs Demoustier and Anamaria Vartolemei.

“The Count of Monte Cristo” premiered at this year’s Cannes Film Festival,...

The American French Film Festival (previously called Colcoa) is back with a bang after being canceled last year due to the WGA and SAG/AFTRA strikes.

The 28th edition of the festival will play two of the year’s most buzzed-about French movies, Jacques Audiard’s redemption thriller “Emilia Pérez” and epic adventure film “The Count of Monte Cristo.” They’re also two of the four films submitted by France’s Oscars committee for the international feature film race.

“Emilia Pérez,” which won two prizes at Cannes and played at both Telluride and Toronto, will kick off festivities on opening night, as part of a red-carpet event presented in association with Netflix on Oct. 29; and “The Count of Monte Cristo,” a sweeping three-hour period film starring Pierre Niney in the titular role, be play on closing night on Nov. 3.

A genre-defying musical thriller, “Emilia Perez” won the jury prize at...

France has unveiled the four titles in the running to represent it in the Best International Feature Film category at the 97th Academy Awards.

They are:

All We Imagine as Light by Payal Kapadia The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre de La Patellière, Matthieu Delaporte Emilia Pérez by Jacques Audiard Misericordia by Alain Guiraudie

This year’s candidate is being decided by a restructured selection committee – featuring Venice Golden Lion winner Audrey Diwan and Oscar winners, writer, director and producer Florian Zeller and producer Patrick Wachsberger – as...

French studio Pathé has seen its marketing and programming strategy pay off with “The Count of Monte Cristo,” an epic adventure film adapted from Alexandre Dumas’ classic which struck box office gold in France during a competitive summer marked by the Olympics.

Helmed by Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de la Patellière (“The Three Musketeers”), the sweeping three-hour movie has become a proper French blockbuster, selling more than 8 million tickets locally (as of Sept. 9) and grossing over $75 million internationally with most major markets yet to open. These include the U.S where Samuel Goldwyn Films will release “The Count of Monte Cristo” in December.

The movie, produced by Dimitri Rassam’s Chapter 2 with a budget of €43 million, world premiered at the Cannes Film Festival where it earned unanimous praise with Variety’s Peter Debruge calling it a “genuine triumph” and “a stunning, emotionally satisfying adventure tale.”

Although it’s based on a classic of French literature,...

The Count of Monte Cristo, directed by Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de La Patellière, made its world premiere at the 77th Cannes Film Festival, where it received a resounding 11-minute standing ovation.

Produced by Pathé Films, the same company behind the acclaimed The Three Musketeers: D’Artagnan (2023), this film continues the studio’s tradition of bringing classic French literature to life with grandiosity and meticulous attention to detail. In France, the film has been both a box office success and a cultural event, celebrated for its faithful adaptation of a beloved classic.

The film follows the tragic tale of Edmond Dantès (played by Pierre Niney), a young and promising sailor who is falsely accused of treason and imprisoned in the dreaded Château d’If. After years of enduring unimaginable hardship, he escapes and reinvents himself as the mysterious and wealthy Count of Monte Cristo, bent on exacting revenge against those who betrayed him.

Pierre Niney plays the man behind the multiple masks in this fast-moving adaptation that needs a touch more finesse

There have been dozens of (mostly inadequate) attempts to adapt Alexandre Dumas’ behemoth payback yarn on film and TV, but it doesn’t stop people trying; this time, it’s the team behind the recent two-part Three Musketeers adaptation. Compared to the saturnine Gérard Depardieu in the well-regarded 1998 TV miniseries, lead actor Pierre Niney is a lightweight proposition as the count, playing his second major French icon after Yves Saint Laurent in 2014. But Niney’s physical slightness and poise lend something distinctive here, a hint of vulnerability underneath the multiple masks, a mortal psychological wound that can never be healed.

There’s no improving on Dumas’ timeless setup: young mariner Edmond Dantès (Niney) is imprisoned ad eternum in the Chateau d’If, Marseille’s own Devil’s Island, after being framed...

Disney’s “Alien: Romulus” maintained its grip on the U.K. and Ireland box office, earning a shade over £2 million ($2.6 million) in its second week of release for a cumulative total of £8.2 million ($10.8 million), per numbers from Comscore.

The sci-fi horror entry scared off strong competition over the Bank Holiday long weekend in the territory from holdovers and new releases alike. Sony’s “It Ends With Us” remained in second place with £1.8 million in its third week, bringing its total to £15.8 million. Walt Disney’s “Deadpool & Wolverine” continued to draw audiences in its fifth week, landing at No. 3 with £1.7 million and pushing its total to more than £52 million.

Universal’s “Despicable Me 4” held steady at fourth place, adding £1.4 million in its seventh week for a £41.9 million cume. Curzon’s “Kneecap” made a strong debut at No. 5 with just over £1 million while Warner Bros.’ “Blink Twice” opened at No.

While watching the latest take on Alexandre Dumas’ literary classic, this time by directors Alexandre de La Patellière and Matthieu Delaporte (who just adapted Dumas’ The Three Musketeers in 2023), I wondered if I was enjoying myself for the wrong reasons. With a high budget (making it the most-expensive French film of 2024), a starry cast, and all the grandeur of a full-blown cinematic epic, The Count of Monte Cristo is big, blockbuster filmmaking of the French kind. And while these large-scale productions typically get the life taken from them by committee in Hollywood, this film’s stone-faced commitment to executing such silly spectacle makes for an uneven, mostly good time.

Directors de La Patellière and Delaporte, who also wrote the screenplay, keep the general story largely the same, with various tweaks to characters and subplots that streamline the narrative (even its nearly three-hour runtime wouldn’t be enough to cover the...

Disaster Documentaries

Content creation and distribution company BossaNova has sold two documentaries to Channel 4 in the U.K. The deals, brokered by Channel 4 acquisitions executive Felix Jones and BossaNova head of sales Holly Cowdery, feature shows from ITN Productions and BriteSpark Films.

ITN’s “MH17: The Plane Crash that Shook the World” marks the 10th anniversary of the Malaysian Airlines tragedy. The one-hour special includes interviews with victims’ families, journalist Matt Frei, and prosecutor Digna van Boetzelaer. It explores the incident’s impact on Ukraine’s war readiness and international relations. BriteSpark’s two-part series “Tsunami, The Day The Wave Hit” chronicles the 2004 Indian Ocean disaster. Using firsthand accounts and archival footage, it details the immediate aftermath and long-term consequences of the event that claimed nearly 230,000 lives.

BBC Breadth

The Beeb’s international audience remains robust, hitting 450 million weekly viewers in 2024, according to its latest Global Audience Measurement.

While Hollywood has been exploiting comic books and YA novels as intellectual property for a long time, French cinema has only recently begun to feed its wealth of 19th century novels into the content machine, churning big-budget epics out of classic books in the public domain.

Last year, a two-part version of Alexandre Dumas’ The Three Musketeers hit local screens, raking in $45 million off a combined $80 million budget for both films. Directed by Martin Bourboulon and featuring a who’s who of Gallic stars, including Vincent Cassel, Eva Green, Romain Duris and Louis Garrel, the Musketeers movies were marked by nonstop action and relentless storytelling tailor-made for the streaming age.

Both films were written by the duo of Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de la Patellière, who previously helmed a series of hit comedies (Daddy or Mommy, Divorce French Style, What’s in a Name?) with a fast-paced Hollywood edge to them.

Europe is in a flux. Two sets of elections taking place within days of each other could see two of the continent’s most powerful countries — both with influential entertainment industries — head in opposite directions.

In the U.K., the Labour Party is expected to claim a landslide victory following Thursday’s election, shifting the country towards the center and, potentially, a period of political calm after years of turbulent Conservative rule that has leant further to the right. In France, however, following a wind of populism across Europe, the far-right could come into power for the first time since the pro-Nazi Vichy Regime during World War II. And it’s a move that many fear could threaten cultural policies, progressive agendas and economic standings across key countries.

Boasting one of the world’s biggest economies, France also has a vibrant film and TV industry and ranks as Europe’s...

Last year, in bold defiance of post-pandemic doomsayers, French distributor Pathé doubled down on its commitment to the big-screen experience with its extravagant, no-expense-spared adaptation of Alexandre Dumas’ “The Three Musketeers” — a starry two-part tentpole that featured dynamic single-take swashbuckling sequences and a delectably wicked turn from Eva Green. As theatrical events go, it was fun, if not especially faithful to the book, demonstrating that the French could rival the Americans in showmanship.

This year, by way of an encore, Pathé delivered a sweeping three-hour retelling of Dumas’ crowning achievement, “The Count of Monte Cristo,” at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival. Whereas “Megalopolis” and “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” swallowed up much of the oxygen at Cannes, “Count” premiered with far less fanfare but felt like a genuine triumph: a stunning, emotionally satisfying adventure tale, built on rock-solid source material. Compared to earlier adaptations (including an overlong miniseries with Gérard Depardieu...

The Fantasia International Film Festival returns with its 28th edition from July 18 through August 4, 2024, returning to the Concordia Hall and J.A. de Sève cinemas, with additional screens and events at Montreal’s Cinémathèque québécoise and Cinéma du Musée. The second wave of programming has been unveiled, adding even more genre premieres to an already packed slate.

Come To Daddy director Ant Timpson‘s Bookworm (starring Elijah Wood and Evil Dead Rise‘s Nell Fisher) is the fest’s 2024 Opening Film. Fantasia is also hosting the World Premieres of the dark fantasy The Beast Within, starring “Game of Thrones” actor Kit Harington, Cannes’ hit The Count of Monte-Cristo, and more. The festival is also giving their Canadian Trailblazer Award to Vincenzo Natali, to be presented before the premiere of the new 4K restoration of his 1997 classic Cube.

The second wave of titles, from the press release:

Bookworm

Fantasia’s 28th...

French producer Dimitri Rassam is enjoying a high-profile Cannes Film Festival as producer of Competition title Limonov: The Ballad and The Count Of Monte Cristo, which scored a rousing 12-minute ovation at its Out of Competition debut.

“It’s my first film in Competition, it has been a tremendous ride,” says Rassam, who is a producer on Limonov under his Paris-based Chapter 2 banner, alongside Italy’s Lorenzo Gangarossa and Mario Gianani as well as director Kirill Serebrennikov’s long-time collaborator Ilya Stewart.

Rassam is no stranger to the Cannes red carpet having regularly accompanied his actress mother Carole Bouquet in his early 20s, before mounting the festival’s famed steps in his own right as the producer of The Little Prince and co-producer of L’Immensità.

Cinema is also in his blood on his paternal side through late producer father Jean-Pierre Rassam, and uncle Paul Rassam, the long-time friend and collaborator...

Take your pick. There have been countless film and TV productions adapting Alexandre Dumas’ classic 19th century tale of revenge and deception, The Count of Monte Cristo. We have seen it in different versions in 1934, 1954, 1975, 2002 and probably up to 15 more iterations. Now we have the latest, the lavish widescreen French production Le Comte de Monte-Cristo, which had its world premiere Wednesday night Out of Competition to a wildly approving full audience at the Grand Lumiere — an appropriate place to launch this film as the screen might be the best in the world, and this movie is big.

In addition to all those past film versions on the book, there are countless other movies that have stolen from this complexly plotted tale. For some reason I kept thinking of the Ocean’s movies as, like this, they involve lots of complicated plotting, and once our title character begins planning his revenge...

Exclusive: AI firm Flawless, distributor-financier XYZ Films (Mandy), and producer Tea Shop Productions (The Fall) have acquired Michel Gondry’s 2023 Cannes Directors’ Fortnight movie The Book Of Solutions for all English-speaking territories.

Directed and written by Gondry, the French-language comedy is the first film in seven years from the Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and The Science of Sleep filmmaker.

It will be releases simultaneously in the original French language and converted to a director-approved English-language version using Flawless’ TrueSync AI technology, which became known after movies like The Fall. You can read about Flawless’ “visual translation” techniques and acquisitions strategy in our story here.

Pic stars Pierre Niney, Blanche Gardin, Francoise Lebrun and Vincent Elbaz and was produced by George Bermann at Partizan.

In the film, Marc (Niney), a bipolar and paranoid filmmaker, is having trouble with his latest project. With his editor as an accomplice, he manages...

Laurent Lafitte who stars in the latest version of France’s feature take of Alexandre Dumas’ The Count of Monte Cristo thinks there’s twentysomething adaptations of the classic, but each one offers something different on the 1,400 page novel.

“You have to make certain choices,” said the pic’s co-director and co-scribe Matthieu Delaporte who sprung to the project with collaborator Alexandre de La Patelliere after their work on the two-part feature version of Dumas’ The Three Musketeers.

“We had a conversation with (our producer) Dimitri (Rassam). He asked ‘What’s your dream? It wasn’t deliberate and dreamt but we walked about The Count of Monte Cristo, and then it took off like a rocket,” says de La Patellliere.

The Count of Monte Cristo tells the story of a young man, Edmond Dantes (Pierre Niney), who becomes the target of a sinister plot and is arrested on his wedding...

Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de la Patellière’s three-hour French epic The Count Of Monte-Cristo had its world premiere screening Out of Competition at the Cannes Film Festival on Wednesday night, eliciting an enthusiastic nearly 12 minutes of applause.

This latest adaptation based on the classic adventure novel by Alexandre Dumas stars Pierre Niney, Anaïs Demoustier, Laurent Lafitte, Pierfrancesco Favino (also a member of the Cannes jury this year), Anamaria Vartolomei and Bastien Bouillon — all of whom were in attendance for the premiere.

Star of ‘Le Comte De Monte-Cristo’ Pierre Niney blows the audience a kiss during an enthusiastic applause after the world premiere of the film #Cannes2024 pic.twitter.com/CpHOIGXrmz

— Deadline Hollywood (@Deadline) May 22, 2024

The film tells the story of Edmond Dantes (Niney), a young man who becomes the target of a sinister plot and is arrested on his wedding day for a crime he did not commit. After...

The first time Donna Langley came to the Cannes Film Festival she was a junior executive working on 1999’s “Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me.”

“I had just been promoted and I was fortunate enough to get picked to come on this trip to be part of the support team, and it was great! It was very different to this experience, I will say,” Langley said, eliciting a laugh from the well-heeled crowd at the Kering Women in Motion dinner, held at the Place de la Castre high above the Croisette. “[But] we had the time of our lives. We were just in so much awe to be in the cinema capital of the world.”

Indeed, the chairman of NBC Universal Studio Group no longer needs to share an apartment with four other young women — especially not one situated behind the fancy hotels. After all — and as Cannes president Iris Knobloch...

Exclusive: Ahead of its premiere out of competition at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, Samuel Goldwyn Films has acquired U.S. rights to The Count of Monte Cristo, a new French film based on the classic adventure novel by Alexandre Dumas, which it will release later this year.

Pic is directed Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de la Patellière, who previously scripted two-part Dumas adaptation The Three Musketeers. Samuel Goldwyn Films released both installments, with Part I: D’Atagnan unspooling to critical acclaim in December 2023 before continuing to success on home entertainment and Part II: Milady releasing this past April.

Produced by Dimitri Rassam, who also produced The Three Musketeers, the film tells the story of a young man, Edmond Dantes (Pierre Niney), who becomes the target of a sinister plot and is arrested on his wedding day for a crime he did not commit. After 14 years in the island prison of Château d’If,...

"Will you do good or will hate fill your heart?" Pathe in France has revealed the main official trailer for The Count of Monte-Cristo, which is premiering at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival next week. It's yet another new Alexandre Dumas adaptation, written & directed by the two writers who made The Three Musketeers movies recently, though this time they're also directing. A new take on the famous novel by Dumas, about a man who gets revenge after being unfairly imprisoned. It has been adapted many times before, most notably in 2002 with Jim Caviezel & Guy Pearce; in 1975 with Richard Chamberlain & Trevor Howard; and the original classic in 1934 with Robert Donat & Elissa Landi. There's also another new Italian-French TV series version of Monte Cristo in the works. Starring Pierre Niney as Edmond, Anaïs Demoustier as Mercédès, Bastien Bouillon, Anamaria Vartolomei, with Laurent Lafitte, & Julien De Saint Jean. After 14 years in the island prison of Château d'If,...