France: Last News

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent With one week to go before the press conference unveiling the 77th Cannes Film Festival Official Selection, director Thierry Fremaux is pledging to remain zen — despite wrestling with submission delays, reverberations of Hollywood’s double strikes and high expectations after last year’s edition unveiled Oscar winners “The Zone of Interest” and “Anatomy of a Fall.” This year’s edition is already heating up, with George Miller’s “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” confirmed to premiere at the festival and Quentin Dupieux’s “A Second Act,” starring Léa Seydoux, set as the opening night film. In his first and only interview ahead of the lineup reveal, Fremaux tells Variety all about this year’s edition, including his hopes to welcome back Francis Ford Coppola with “Megalopolis” and Yorgos Lanthimos with “Kinds of Kindness,” his appeal to Ted Sarandos to lure Netflix back on the Croisette, his stance on France’s new #MeToo reckoning, the presence of female directors at the festival and how geopolitical turmoil may shape the Official Selection. Last year was a milestone year for the Cannes Film Festival. How did you approach this year’s lineup, and how many films have been selected so far? The unanimous feedback we got is that 2023 was a really great year.

EXCLUSIVE: MPI Media Group has acquired North American distribution rights for Saïd Belktibia’s French thriller Hood Witch starring Golshifteh Farahani and Denis Lavant.

The 77th Cannes Film Festival (May 14-25) will open with Quentin Dupieux‘s French-language comedy road movie Le Deuxième Acte (The Second Act).

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent The 77th edition of the Cannes Film Festival will kick off with Quentin Dupieux‘s “The Second Act,” a star-studded surreal French comedy headlined by Léa Seydoux, Vincent Lindon, Louis Garrel and Raphaël Quenard, Variety has learned. The anticipated movie is produced by Hugo Selignac at Chi-Fou-Mi, a Mediawan company, and is represented in international markets by Kinology.

Anna Marie de la Fuente While a number of films have been made about Panama’s Indigenous communities, few are by native filmmakers themselves. To date, perhaps only three Indigenous Panamanian filmmakers have ventured into filmmaking. Duiren Wagua, whose documentary feature debut “Bila Burba” plays at this year’s 12th Panama International Film Festival (IFF Panama), running April 4-7, is hoping to change the status quo.

Molly-Mae Hague has said 'it'll happen' as she was quizzed on one of her daughter's milestones. It came as the former Love Island star implored her followers to ask her 'anything' as she took part in a question and answer session following her latest trip out the country.

American superstar singer, Taylor Swift, has joined the billionaire club. The 34-year-old's earnings have surpassed $1.1 billion dollars (£875 million), thanks to her successful 'Eras Tour' and her well-regarded music assortment, Forbes magazine reports.

EXCLUSIVE: Upcoming Filipino crime drama series Sellblock has wrapped principal photography and is headed for MIPTV. You can see four first-look images above.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Mario Van Peebles has been tapped to direct “That’ll Be the Day,” the story of how Buddy Holly and other musicians of the late 1950s helped give birth to rock ‘n’ roll and influence the wider societal and cultural landscape, including the civil rights movement. Music has been central to much of Van Peebles’ work, from his 1991 gangster movie “New Jack City” to his work on “Wu-Tang: An American Saga,” which he co-executive produced for Hulu.

Movistar Plus+ original film and the awaited next feature from Spain’s Iciar Bollaín (“Take My Eyes,” “Maixabel”), has closed its earliest pre-sales, struck by Film Factory Entertainment, including a bellwether deal in France. The deals come as “I’m Nevenka” has wrapped production, shooting in the Basque city of Bilbao before transferring to rural Zamora, western Spain.

A father and son have been locked up over a plot to supply cocaine and cannabis worth £4million.

Annika Pham On the eve of the global content market MipTV in Cannes, Viaplay Group’s Vanda Rapti, EVP Viaplay Select and Content Distribution, has offered a confident outlook on the Scandi streamer’s international activities and content sales. The sales executive, who joined the group in 2003, was able to announce exclusively to Variety a string of new deals on Viaplay’s premium Nordic scripted content.

Shrek star Jean-Paul Vignon has died at the age of 89.

EXCLUSIVE: Top Belgian distribution and production company Belga Films Group is teaming up with French director Cédric Nicolas-Troyan on an English-language, live action adaptation of the iconic, European comic book The Yellow M.

AMC Networks has released a sneak peek for Season 2 of “The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon,” this time subtitled “The Book of Carol.” Normal Reedus is reunited with “The Walking Dead” co-star Melissa McBride in the new season, which is set to premiere this summer on AMC and AMC+. Reedus and McBride reprise their roles as Daryl Dixon and Carol Peletier in the series. The official Season 2 description reveals that “they both confront old demons while she fights to find her friend and he struggles with his decision to stay in France, causing tension at the Nest.” The rest of the cast includes Clémence Poésy, Louis Puech Scigliuzzi, Laika Blanc Francard, Anne Charrier, Romain Levi and Eriq Ebouaney.

Jaden Thompson Jean-Paul Vignon, a French actor and vocalist who frequently lent his Gallic accent to Hollywood productions, died of liver cancer on March 22 in Beverly Hills, Calif. He was 89. Among his notable work, Vignon lent his voice to Marc Webb’s romantic comedy “(500) Days of Summer” as the French narrator.

Selena Kuznikov Cinespia has announced the first screenings to kick off its 23rd summer season of outdoor screenings around Los Angeles, and will host a first-time screening at Pasadena’s Rose Bowl Stadium. Upcoming viewings include “Mamma Mia!” on May 10, “Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers” on May 17 at Los Angeles State Historic Park and “Almost Famous” on May 25 at the Rose Bowl Stadium. “We’re thrilled to be back for our 2024 summer season with an amazing initial lineup of films,” said John Wyatt, founder of Cinespia.

It’s official: Taylor Swift is a billionaire!

, but the Oscar-winner was just spotted on a night out in New York City with her longtime pal, Jennifer Aniston. The two were photographed leaving the Broadway play Appropriate , who is a .Per the pics, published in the , Bullock opted for a corporate chic look for her evening at the theater. She wore a black pinstriped suit over a very Y2K-coded lacy camisole, which she paired with a pair of pointed-toe black heels and a black clutch.

cute for spring.Sheer pink and pale pink have become the go-to uniform of looking for something soft and subtle, but if you want to keep the clean look while introducing a little more color into your look, bubblegum nails are where it's at.As the name suggests, the trend taps into a bubblegum pink color palette, taking things a little brighter than French pinks. But to keep it fresh, delicate and dewy, the look also channels a slightly sheer, see-through bubblegum texture (like when you blow a bubble versus fresh out of the wrapper).It's a subtle shift, but we don't need here to explain how the nuances between the two shades can shift the whole mood (remember cerulean, people).

EXCLUSIVE: Paris-based Superprod Group has acquired top Luxembourgish animation companies Studio 352 and Mélusine Productions in a move that consolidates its position as one of Europe’s leading animation production groups.