The first clapperboard will slam on 19 June for Happy Birthday [+lee también:
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ficha de la película], the 11^th feature by Cédric Kahn, the director of such movies as Bar des rails (Venice Critics’ Week in 1991), Trop de bonheur (French Cinema section at Cannes in 1994), L'ennui (Perspectives section at Venice and Louis Delluc Award in 1998), Roberto Succo (in competition at Cannes in 2001), Red Lights (in competition at Berlin in 2004), A Better Life [+lee también:
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entrevista: Cédric Kahn
ficha de la película] (Toronto in 2011), Wild Life [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] (Special Jury Prize at San Sebastián in 2014) and The Prayer [+lee también:
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entrevista: Cédric Kahn
ficha de la película] (Silver Bear for Best Actor at Berlin this year). 

For his new opus, the filmmaker has assembled a cast comprising Catherine Deneuve (nominated for the Oscar for Best Actress in 1993, Special Award at Cannes in 2008, Silver Bear at Berlin in 2002, Volpi Cup at Venice in 1998, César Award for Best Actress in 1981 and 1993, and nominated a further 11 times in the same category; set to grace screens soon in Claire Darling and Bad Seeds [+lee también:
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ficha de la película]), Emmanuelle Bercot (Best Actress Award at Cannes in 2015 for My King [+lee también:
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ficha de la película]; on the bill at Cannes a couple of weeks ago in Girls of the Sun [+lee también:
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entrevista: Eva Husson
ficha de la película], and who has recently been shooting both School’s Out and Jumbo), Vincent Macaigne (nominated for the César Award for Most Promising Actor in 2014 for The Rendez-Vous of Déjà-Vu [+lee también:
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ficha de la película], for the Lumière Award for Best Actor in 2016 for Les Deux Amis [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] and for the César Award for Best Supporting Actor in 2018 for C’est la vie! [+lee también:
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ficha de la película]; hitting screens later this year in Non Fiction and Pure as Snow), Laetitia Colombani and Alain Artur. The director (who made an appearance in Cold War [+lee también:
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Q&A: Pawel Pawlikowski
ficha de la película] and gave some fine performances in Alyah [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] and After Love [+lee también:
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entrevista: Joachim Lafosse
ficha de la película]) is also among the main actors.

The story, written by Cédric Kahn with contributions from Fanny Burdino and Samuel Doux (who previously worked with the filmmaker on The Prayer), revolves around a group of family members who get together one summer’s day to celebrate their mother’s (Deneuve's) birthday: her husband (Artur), her two sons, one (Kahn) accompanied by his wife (Colombani) and their two little boys, the other (Macaigne) with his brand-new fiancée, a video camera in order to record the day for posterity, and a young, 18-year-old girl who seems to have grown up there. All seems to be calm and cheerful until the unexpected arrival of the younger sister (Bercot), who disappeared four years prior. Although she is hailed as a heroine, she is about to sow the seeds of chaos...

Produced by Sylvie Pialat and Benoît Quainon for Les Films du Worso, Happy Birthday will have a budget of €5.35 million, including co-productions by France 2 Cinéma, Tropdebonheur Productions and Belgium’s Scope Pictures. Having been pre-purchased by Canal+ and Ciné+, the feature is also being backed by the Cofinova, Cinéventure, Cofimage, Cinémage and Cinécap Soficas, as well as by the Procirep. The shoot will take place from 19 June-2 August in the Lot-et-Garonne department of the Nouvelle Aquitaine region. The French distribution will be handled by Le Pacte, while Elle Driver is in charge of the international sales. 

As a reminder, Les Films du Worso has just unveiled the excellent To the Ends of the World [+lee también:
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entrevista: Guillaume Nicloux
ficha de la película] by Guillaume Nicloux in the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight and has the co-productions Keep Going [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] by Belgium’s Joachim Lafosse (see the article) and The Whistlers [+lee también:
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entrevista: Corneliu Porumboiu
ficha de la película] by Romania’s Corneliu Porumboiu in post-production.