‘Cuties’ director defends Netflix film amid potential US government investigation

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent“Peaceful,” Emmanuelle Bercot’s Cesar-winning melodrama which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, has landed domestic distribution with New York-based banner Distrib US.Sold by Studiocanal, the movie is headlined by Benoit Magimel and Catherine Deneuve (pictured). Magimel, who won the Cesar Award for best actor — beating fellow nominee Adam Driver — stars as a man dying of cancer.

Loose Women panellist Frankie Bridge has admitted to a childhood trauma she received after visiting a war museum.The hosts Kaye Adams, Frankie Bridge, Judi Love and Nadia Sawalha were discussing a recent viral topic.A school had put on an educational display of a crime scene for their pupils and some parents were furious at the move as they didn’t think it was suitable for their children.Nadia initially said that she thought it was a “creative” way of getting children involved in learning as they are the most “voyeuristic” of people, but later changed her mind after hearing her co-hosts' answers.Judi said that she disagreed with Nadia and admitted that she would be “one of those parents down at the school” because she thought it was unnecessary to present it explicitly.She branded the performance as “ridiculous,” a “step too far” and “too close to reality because people are so “bombarded with tragedy and trauma”.Love went on to explain that different children have differing levels of emotional intelligence, meaning that they could be heavily affected by what the teacher’s thought was an engaging task.Kaye agreed that a school setting is supposed to be “a safe environment” for young learners who want to “trust and relax” without feeling “threatened in any way”.She turned to Frankie and asked her how her children would react and explained that her eldest would be “terrified” while her youngest would think it’s “great”, which she said “goes to show that all kids are different”.The mother-of two recalled an experience from her childhood: “When I was a kid, we were taken to the war museum and I still remember a lot of the things I saw there, and that caused me great anxiety for the rest of my childhood.”“My reaction to that

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorPeople who are interested in CNN Plus finally have a date when they can add it to their streaming repertoire. The WarnerMedia-owned cable-news outlet intends to launch the subscription broadband service on March 29.The detail — perhaps the last piece of information to be disclosed about the new media venue — comes ahead of a presentation CNN executives and anchors will make during the SXSW Festival this weekend.

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French cinema group UniFrance has condemned what it called the "violent reaction" online and on social media to Netflix film Cuties and has thrown its support behind the movie's director, Maïmouna Doucouré. In a memo sent out to the French industry on Friday, UniFrance, a state-backed group that supports and promotes French cinema worldwide, said it "offers its full support" to Doucouré and the film's French producers, who have come under attack from online trolls who accuse the director, Netflix, and anyone connected with the movie, of hyper-sexualizing prepubescent girls.

Cuties, a film its director argues “sounds the alarm” about sexualising pre-pubescent girls instead of exploiting ideas for art.In a memo sent out to the French industry today (September 18), the state-backed group, which supports and promotes French cinema worldwide, said it “offers its full support” to director Maïmouna Doucouré and the film’s producers.Online trolls have attacked Doucouré, Netflix and anyone connected with the movie of hyper-sexualising the movie’s young characters.As The Hollywood Reporter writes, Doucouré defended her film on Monday (September 14) at a Toronto Film Festival panel on French filmmakers sponsored by UniFrance.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentUniFrance, the French film promotion organization, released a letter on Friday supporting Maimouna Doucouré, the helmer of Netflix film “Cuties,” which has been the subject of a backlash on social media for allegedly “sexualizing” young girls.UniFrance, which also gave its support for the movie’s producer, Zangro and Paris-based distributor Bac Films, is the latest French film body to side with Doucouré.

Andreas Wiseman International EditorFrench cinema organization UniFrance, which is backed by the French government and represents hundreds of local producers, sales agents, directors and talent agents, has sent out a memo to industry expressing its support for filmmaker Maïmouna Doucouré and her film Cuties after the social media frenzy sparked by a Netflix poster for the film.

Who would have thought a small, indie French film would cause a worldwide uproar? Alas, that’s exactly what has happened with the new feature, “Cuties,” which has been making headlines for all the wrong reasons over the past couple of weeks. While the feature was acclaimed coming out of its Sundance debut earlier this year (it even won an award for its director), when Netflix released marketing for the film, featuring young pre-teen girls in tight clothes, social media went crazy saying the film was somehow inappropriate for viewers and should be banned.

The director of controversial Netflix film Cuties has defended her work, calling it feminist.

Maimouna Doucouré is speaking out following the massive backlash her movie, Cuties, is getting.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent“Cuties” filmmaker Maimouna Doucouré says that Netflix’s initial marketing campaign opened up the film to a level of criticism that it didn’t receive after its Sundance Film Festival debut in January, and that she’s fighting “the same fight” as her critics.Speaking on Monday as part of a virtual 10 Talents to Watch panel hosted by French promotion organization UniFrance, Doucouré highlighted the streaming giant’s early artwork, which depicted the film’s central characters wearing revealing dance outfits and posing provocatively.

Cuties director Maïmouna Doucouré has defended her French indie film on Netflix from accusations that it hyper-sexualizes prepubescent girls, as she argued her directorial debut aimed at social commentary and change. "It's because I saw so many things and so many issues around me lived by young girls, that I decided to make this film and sound an alarm and say, 'We need to protect our children,'" Doucouré told a TIFF panel on French filmmakers Monday.

Netflix has issued a response as the film “Cuties” (French film “Mignonnes”) continues to be slammed over its alleged sexualized portrayal of children.

Netflix has defended the controversial film Cuties as “a social commentary against the sexualisation of young children”, and encouraged people to watch the movie before passing judgment.