12/07/2012 - Pascale Ferran's new film is one of seven projects selected by the region's film fund.

Currently in the last stages of its very secretive filming, Pascale Ferran's (photo) Bird People is one of seven feature-length film projects that the Ile-de-France Regional Support Fund for Technical Film and Audiovisual Industries recently selected for funding during its second 2012 session.

After winning the Caméra d'Or in Cannes in 1994 for Coming to Terms with the Dead, Pascale Ferran then only made the television fiction film L'âge des possibles (selected for the Venice Film Festival in 1996) and Lady Chatterley [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (five Cesar awards in 2007 including Best Film, Best Actress, and Best Adaptation). For her new film, she has now cast American actor Josh Charles, the rising star Anaïs Desmoutiers (two Cesar nominations for most promising actress in 2009 and 2011 for Grown Ups [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] and Living on Love Alone [+see also:
trailer
film profile], Shooting Star 2010, and recently in Elles [+see also:
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interview: Malgorzata Sumowska
film profile]), the young singer Camélia Jordana, the charismatic Roschdy Zem (awarded in Cannes for Days of Glory [+see also:
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interview: Jean Bréhat
interview: Rachid Bouchareb
film profile] and currently in cinemas in Mains armées [+see also:
trailer
film profile]), as well as Anne Azoulay.

Written by the director and Guillaume Bréaud, the screenplay focuses on two people whose destinies cross one day in an international hotel, near the Roissy Airport. A young hotel maid and an American businessman feel the need to escape. They will live a singular experience, from which they will emerge more grown-up and perceptive. How humanity is enviable when we have just risked losing it! And how our ties with everyone are precious...

Produced by Archipel 35 (read the interview with Denis Freyd), Bird People has a €6.9m budget, notably from a co-production by France 2 Cinéma, a pre-acquisition from Canal +, an advance on receipts from the National Film and Moving Image Centre (CNC), the support of Cofinova, and a €560,000 grant from the Ile-de-France region. Diaphana is handling the film's distribution in France, and Films Distribution is in charge of international sales.

The Ile-de-France fund will also support Frédéric Proust's first feature, a dramatic comedy titled Les belles années (lit. "The beautiful years") and produced by Lionceau Films (read the interview with Hélène Cases, Producer On the Move 2012 in the European Film Promotion) who supported the film with up to €450,000.

The other projects that were selected are Le temps de l'aventure (lit. "A time for adventure") by Jérôme Bonnell (read more - Rectangle Productions - €480,000), Les petits princes (lit. "The little princes") by Vianney Lebasque (article - production Mes Films - €480,000), Dominique Montféry's Franco-Belgian animation film project Gus (production: Teamto - €560,000), and two feature-length documentaries that have been allocated €90,000 each: Le dernier des injustes (lit. "The last of the unjust") by Claude Lanzmann (production: Synecdoche) and Comment j'ai détesté les maths (lit. "How I came to hate maths") by Olivier Peyon (Zadig Films).

(Translated from French)