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CANNES 2009 Competition / France

Resnais, Audiard and Giannoli in line-up

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Three generations of French directors – Alain Resnais, Jacques Audiard and Xavier Giannoli – will represent their country in the race for the Palme d’Or at the 62nd Cannes Film Festival (May 13-24).

Twenty-nine years after My American Uncle (Grand Jury Prize in 1980), Resnais (86) returns to the competition in which he also participated in 1959 with Hiroshima, My Love and in 1974 with Stavisky.... Winner of the Golden Lion at Venice in 1961, the director scooped Best Director at the same festival in 2006 and picked up awards at Berlin in 1994 and 1998.

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Resnais’ new film, Les Herbes Folles [+see also:
film review
trailer
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]
(“Wild Grasses”), stars Sabine Azéma, André Dussollier, Emmanuelle Devos, Anne Consigny, Mathieu Amalric and Michel Vuillermoz. Produced by F Comme Film for €11.15m, the title received co-production support from France 2 Cinéma and Italy’s Bim Distribuzione (10% investment), backing from Eurimages and the Ile-de-France region, an advance on receipts from the National Film Centre (CNC), as well as pre-sales from Canal + and TPS.

StudioCanal (also co-producer) will release the film domestically, while international sales are being handled by Coach 14.

Audiard (57) won Best Screenplay at Cannes 1996 for his original competition entry A Self-Made Hero. His latest film, A Prophet [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jacques Audiard
interview: Jacques Audiard and Tahar R…
film profile
]
(see news), stars Tahar Rahim, Niels Arestrup, Adel Bencherif, Reda Kateb, Jean-Philippe Ricci Michelangeli, Hichem Yacoubi and Gilles Cohen.

Produced by Chic Films, Why Not Productions and Page 114 for €12.49m, the feature received co-production support from France 2 Cinéma and Italy’s Bim (10% investment), pre-sales from Canal + and Ciné Cinéma, as well as a grant from the Ile-de-France region.

UGC will release the film domestically on August 26, while Celluloïd Dreams are managing international sales.

Giannoli (37) also makes his second competition appearance after The Singer [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
in 2006. With a cast headed by François Cluzet, Emmanuelle Devos and Gérard Depardieu, In the Beginning [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
(see news) was produced by Rectangle and EuropaCorp (who are also handling domestic distribution and international sales).

The €10.25m film received co-production support from France 3 Cinéma and Studio 37, as well as pre-sales from Canal + and Ciné Cinéma.

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(Translated from French)

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