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Every summer, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences invites a deluge of new members to join its ranks. Since #OscarsSoWhite back in 2015, the Academy has moved away from its elitist tendencies and toward embracing younger and more diverse artists and executives from all over the world. This year’s invited class is no exception.

If the invitees all accept Academy membership, the total members will number 10,910 and voting members 9,934. And with the addition of the 2024 members, 35 percent of Academy members identify as women, 20 percent of Academy members are from underrepresented ethnic and racial communities, and 20 percent of Academy members are from countries or territories outside the U.S.

As usual, a slew of Oscar nominees and winners are gaining admittance to the club (71 Oscar nominees and 19 winners), including actors Lily Gladstone (“Killers of the Flower Moon”), Sandra Hüller, and Da’Vine Joy Randolph (“The Holdovers”), costume designer Holly Waddington...

Jessica Alba, Lily Gladstone, Greta Lee, Catherine O’Hara, and S.S. Rajamouli, director of “Rrr,” are among the 487 artists and executives invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. With all expected acceptances, AMPAS membership will rise to 10,910 from 10,817 last year, with 9,934 members eligible to vote in the upcoming 97th Oscars in 2025—an increase from last year’s 9,375.

This year’s invitees include 44% women, a 4% increase from 2023, and 41% from underrepresented ethnic and racial communities, marking a significant 7% rise. The actors, casting directors, costume designers, documentary, executives, makeup artists and hairstylists branches have invited more women than men. The actors, directors, documentary, and writers branches mainly comprised artists from underrepresented communities.

The directors branch features the most impressive array of filmmakers from both international and domestic spheres, such as Lila Avilés (“Totem”), Jayro Bustamante (“La Llorona”), Jd Dillard (“Devotion”), Alice Diop (“Saint Omer”), Boots Riley (“Sorry to Bother You...

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said Tuesday that it is extending invitations to 487 to join the membership ranks of the Oscar organizer. If all accept, it will bring the Academy’s total membership to 10,910, of which 9,934 would be voting members.

This year’s list across 19 branches include 2024 Oscar winners Da’Vine Joy Randolph from The Holdovers; Poor Things costume designer Holly Waddington and production design team James Price, Shona Heath and Zsuzsa Mihalek; 20 Days in Mariupol director Mstyslav Chernov, War Is Over! producer Brad Booker; The Zone of Interest sound duo Tarn Willers and Johnnie Burn; the Godzilla Minus One VFX team Tatsuji Nojima, Kiyoko Shibuya, Masaki Takahashi and Takashi Yamazaki; American Fiction writer-director Cord Jefferson; and Anatomy of a Fall writing duo Justine Triet and Arthur Harari.

Jefferson and Triet are among eight names on the list who were invited to more than one branch (noted...

Richard Linklater’s Nouvelle Vague, which reconstructs the genesis and filming of Breathless by Jean-Luc Godard, is among the recipients of the first round of Cnc’s ‘avance sur recettes’ (advance on receipts) grants of 2024.

The film, the first entirely in French from US director Linklater, is now in production in Paris. It is being produced by Paris-based Arp Productions and stars Zooey Deutsch as American Breathless star Jean Seberg.

Vince Palmo, Holly Gent, Michèle Halberstadt, and Laetitia Masson join Linklater as co-writers.

The Cnc’s refundable grant is broken into three categories. Asr 1 gives funds to directors’ first films,...

“The Atomic Adventure,” a contender in UniFrance’s online MyFrenchFilmFestival, is the third short from Loïc Barché. Variety talked to the director about the short, and his feature debut “Feu de Paille.”

“The Atomic Adventure,” produced by young French outfits Punchline Cinéma and Leonis Productions, is set in 1961 in Algeria, where France has just detonated an atomic bomb, and a group of soldiers is sent to the zero zone to measure the radioactivity.

With touches of humor, documentary moments and an occasionally festive soundtrack that underscores the thoughtlessness of the atomic mission, “The Atomic Adventure” has a tragic, near surreal ending, offering a reflection about how progress evolves.

The story is inspired by true events. France carried out around 30 nuclear tests in the 1960s, mainly in the former French colonies of Algeria and Mururoa, an atoll in the French Polynesia. The tests ended in 1996.

Barché is working on his feature debut,...

Organised by the Delegation of the European Union with the support of Cineuropa, this year’s edition included panels, master classes and a diverse range of movies. The Chaplin Mega Park theatre in Almaty hosted the fourth edition of the European Film Festival, organised by the European Union Delegation to Kazakhstan with the support of Cineuropa. The festival ran from 5-7 November and presented 16 films produced by the European Union member states, as well as organising exclusive master classes led by European filmmakers. The goal of the festival was to present the premieres of films that best represented European cultural heritage, to increase the general public's interest in cinematographic art and to enhance international cooperation. All of the movies selected have been the winners of high-level international film awards, including Hubert Charuel’s Bloody Milk, Jonas Carpignano’s A Ciambra, Edoardo De Angelis’ The Vice of Hope, Gabriel Abrantes and Daniel Schmidt’s.

A perfectly charmant way to, as the song has it, forget about your worries and your strife for 100 airy minutes, writer-director Erwan le Duc’s “The Bare Necessity” is a breezy little sweetheart of a debut, that threatens to give the rather ominous description “quirky French romantic comedy” a good name. In its dappled countryside sunlight, even the most ostensibly twee elements — a bumbling local police force; a nudist colony; a historical reenactment society; an eccentric rural family with a matriarch whose radio show is dedicated to the breathy discussion of, what else, l’amour — are treated with an amiably deadpan affection that is infectious without ever becoming ingratiating.

“Love Is Real” is the title of the radio phone-in hosted by Thérèse Perdrix (Fanny Ardant) during which she offers callers husky words of advice and encouragement in pursuing their various romantic follies. She is unaware, however, that the show is...

New films by Robert Eggers, Takashi Miike, Luca Guadagnino and Rebecca Zlotowski to premiere.

Cannes Directors’ Fortnight has unveiled the line-up for its 51st edition, running May 15-25, overseen for the first time by artistic director Paolo Moretti.

Scroll down for full line-up

For his debut edition, Moretti and his programming team have pulled together an auteur-driven selection, mixing established and emerging filmmakers, genre fare and a dash of star power.

“Directors’ Fortnight was born out of a collective and this collective spirit is still alive. The support of the team that I found in place has really touched me,...

Playtime, the Paris-based co-production and sales company which will be presenting Francois Ozon’s anticipated “By the Grace of God” in competition at the Berlin Film Festival, has acquired three offbeat French comedies: Geraldine Nakache’s “I’ll Go Where You Go,” “The Bare Necessity” with Fanny Ardant, and Valerie Donzelli’s “Our Lady of Paris.”

“Our Lady of Paris” marks Donzelli’s fifth feature film, following “Marguerite & Julien,” which competed at the Cannes Film Festival; “Hand in Hand”; “Declaration of War,” which played at Cannes’ Critics’ Week and earned six Cesar nominations; and “Queen of Hearts.”

Donzelli stars in the film as Maud Crayon, a failing architect and single mom of two who unexpectedly wins the contest to spearhead the renovation of the esplanade of Notre-Dame de Paris, and who has to deal with a pair of exes – both of whom she still has feelings for.

Written by...

Sink Or Swim Photo: Mika Cotellon The French Film Festival - which runs from November 7 to December 16 at cinemas across the country - has announced its line-up.

The festival, which has announced will screen films from across the Francophone world, will feature the latest films from established names - including Jean-Luc Godard's The Image Book, Jean Becker's The Red Collar and Christophe Honoré's Sorry Angel - as well as new directors. The up-and-comers in the Discovery Horizons section include Marie Monge’s thriller Treat Me Like Fire, Hubert Charuel’s Bloody Milk and Dany, which is the directorial debut of actor François Damiens.

Other films screening include Gilles Lelouche's crowdpleaser Sink Or Swim - based on the same real-life story as UK production Swimming With Men - and Stéphane Brizé's At War, starring Vincent Lindon.

Festival director Richard Mowe said: “Serendipity and, of course, careful planning has...

Rosa Attab

Producer, Why Not Productions

Although she likes to keep a low profile, Attab is a key producer at Parisian outfit Why Not Prods., where she works with top filmmakers such as Cristian Mungiu, Arnaud Desplechin and Jacques Audiard, whose latest film “The Sisters Brothers” played at Venice and will screen next at Toronto. Attab’s first experience as a full-on producer was on Lynne Ramsay’s “You Were Never Really Here,” which world premiered in competition at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival and won prizes for actor (Joaquin Phoenix) and screenplay. Attab is developing an English-language feature with BAFTA-nominated helmer Yann Demange, who recently directed “White Boy Rick,” which unspooled at Telluride, and the feature debut of actor Samir Guesmi (“The Returned”).

Stephanie Bermann (pictured center)

Co-Founder, Domino Films

Bermann founded Domino Films with Alexis Dulguerian six years ago after heading acquisitions at leading independent distribution company Mars Films for eight years.

Eric Barbier’s “Promise at Dawn” will headline the 2018 Colcoa French Film Festival on April 23, the Franco-American Cultural Fund announced Tuesday.

“Promise at Dawn” is an adaptation of French author Romain Gary’s autobiography that stars Pierre Niney and Charlotte Gainsbourg. The film will kick off the screenings of 37 new features and documentaries competing for the Colcoa Cinema Awards at the Directors Guild of America in Los Angeles. The event will present a record total of 86 films, TV shows, digital series, and virtual reality programs, 75 of which will be considered for the Colcoa awards throughout the week’s festivities, which will culminate on May 1.

Colcoa executive producer and artistic director Francois Truffart also announced that this year’s festival will set aside a day exclusively for screening first films made by female writers and directors. The day, titled “Focus on a Filmmaker Day,” will honor writer, director, and actor Melanie...

Politically-charged annual celebration of French cinema highlights female rights, fight against Aids and plight of refugees.

Robin Campillo’s AIDS activism drama Bpm topped the awards at the 43rd edition of the French Césars on Friday evening (March 2), with the director clinching best film, editing and screenplay.

The film won in six of its 13 nominated categories, with additional awards for best original music for Arnaud Rebotini, best supporting actor for Antoine Reinartz and best male newcomer for Nahuel Pérez Biscayart.

The César triumph follows an award-winning run in France for the film charting the activities of the Paris branch of...

As awards season takes over Hollywood, keep up with all the ins, outs, and big accolades with our bi-weekly Awards Roundup column.

– France’s Academy of Cinema Arts and Sciences has unveiled the nominees for this year’s Cesar Awards – considered the country’s equivalent to the Oscars – with Cannes Grand Prize winner “BPM (Beats Per Minute)” leading the pack with 13 nods, including best film, best director, best editing, and best original screenplay. Other standouts included Albert Dupontel’s “See You Up There” (13 nominations), Mathieu Amalric’s “Barbara” (9 nominations), and “Bloody Milk” (8 nominations). Also of note, Julia Ducornau’s debut film, the vicious horror outing “Raw,” picked up 6 nods.

You can see the full list of Cesar nominations right here. This year’s ceremony will be held on March 2 at Paris’ Salle Pleyel.

Check out the rest of our Awards Roundup below.

– The Santa Barbara International Film Festival (Sbiff) has...

Other leading contenders include See You You There, Barbara and Bloody Milk.

Source: Cannes

‘Bpm (Beats Per Minute)’

Robin Campillo’s Aids activism drama Bpm (Beats Per Minute) leads nominations in France’s 2018 César awards which were announced in Paris on Wednesday morning (Jan 31).

Scroll down for the key nominations

The feature drama took 13 nominations including best film, best director and best screenplay and best male newcomer for its co-stars Nahuel Pérez Biscayart and Arnaud Valois.

France’s Academy of Cinema Arts and Sciences unveiled the nominations at its traditional news conference at the Le Fouquet’s restaurant on the Champs-Elysées.

The popularity of Campillo’s film among the academy’s members came as little surprise. Although ignored by Oscar and Golden Globe, the Cannes Grand Prix winner has been a critical and box office success in France where the film has drawn more than 800,000 spectators for Memento Distribution.

It also leads the nominations in the upcoming...

Mafia tale Sicilian Ghost Story to open sidebar, Sundance hit Brigsby Bear selected as closer.

Cannes Critics’ Week, devoted to first and second features as well as shorts, has unveiled the line-up of its 56th edition, running May 18-26.

Italian directors Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza will open the selection with their second feature Sicilian Ghost Story, a genre-mixing work following a teenage girl as she searches for the boy she loves after he is kidnapped by the Mafia.

It is inspired by the real-life tale of Giuseppe Di Matteo, the son of a former Mafia hitman-turned-informant, who was abducted in 1993.

Critics’ Week artistic director Charles Tesson described it as a “staggering crossover between cinema genres, combining politics, fantasy and terrible teen love.”

The directorial duo premiered their debut feature Salvo in competition in Critics’ Week in 2013, winning the €15,000 Nespresso Grand Prize.

The screenplay for Sicilian Ghost Story was developed at the Sundance Screenwriting Lab and went...