France goes to Cannes all guns blazing

by Fabien Lemercier

16/05/2012 - The French film industry is hosting the Cannes Film Festival once again, and is looking very well prepared for this 65th edition opening today.

In the competition, beyond the national filmmaker trio (read more) made up of Jacques Audiard (Rust & Bone [trailer, film focus]), Alain Resnais (Vous n'avez encore rien vu [trailer]), and Leos Carax (Holy Motors), France also participated in the funding of ten other Palme d'Or contenders. France produced up to 70% of Love [trailer, film focus] by Austrian filmmaker Michael Haneke (via Les Films du Losange), up to 17 % of Reality [trailer, film focus] by Italian director Matteo Garrone (Le Pacte), up to 30 % of Cosmopolis [trailer] by Canadian filmmaker David Cronenberg (Alfama Films), up to 49.5 % of Like Someone in Love [trailer] by Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami (MK2), and up to 48 % of After the Battle by Egyptian director Yousry Nasrallah (Siècle Productions and MK2). Finally, the Société Parisienne de Production co-produced Paradise: Love [trailer] by Austrian filmmaker Ulrich Seidl, and MK2 led on Franco-Brazilian project On the Road [trailer] by Walter Salles. And let's not forget Post Tenebras Lux [trailer] by Mexican director Carlos Reygadas (co-produced by Le Pacte), and two films co-produced by Why Not Productions: Beyond the Hills [trailer, film focus] by Romanian director Cristian Mungiu and Angel's Share [trailer, film focus] by English director Ken Loach.

The French productions and co-productions to be screened at the Certain Regard (read more here and here), at the Directors' Fortnight (read more), and at the Critics' Week (news), also show the drive of French professionals, and their openness to films from the whole world (from China to Latin America, via Africa). All this, and we haven't even mentioned the special screenings, or indeed the masterclasses, including one by Alexandre Desplat.

At the Film Market, a veritable boom of French international sales agencies will present their dazzling line-ups already presented by Cineuropa, including Kinology (read more), Gaumont (read more), MK2 International (read more, Memento Films International (readmore), Pathé International (read more), Pyramide International (read more), Celluloid Dreams (read more), Le Pacte (read more), Films Distribution (read more), Doc & Film (read more), StudioCanal (read more), Urban Distribution (read more - with the addition of Argentinian-Dutch-French co-production Villegas in a special screening), and Les films du Losange (read more).

Others are also preparing themselves for good business, including TF1 International (with among others Thérèse Desqueyroux [trailer] by Claude Miller to close the festival and Antiviral at the Certain Regard), Coproduction Office (with Ulrich Seidl's film in the competition), Funny Balloons (with Le grand soir [trailer] by the Delépine-Kervern duo at the Certain Regard and No by Pablo Larrain at the Directors' Fortnight), Elle Driver (selling Indian films, Gangs of Wasseypur at the Directors' Fortnight and Peddlers at the Critics' Week), Wide Management (3 by Pablo Stoll Ward, at the Directors' Fortnight), Artscope (Memento's label, to sell Argentinian film Los Salvajes, at the Critics' Week), SND, Insomnia, Other Angle Picture, and even Pascale Ramonda who will negotiate sales for the documentary Fogo (Directors' Fortnight), without forgetting young additions Alpha Violet (read more) and MPM Film (read more).

(Translated from French)