28/07/2016 - Produced by F Comme Film and Trois Brigands Productions, the director’s first feature will be distributed in France and sold internationally by Bac Films

Director Léa Mysius

1 August will mark the beginning of shooting for Léa Mysius’ first feature, Ava [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Léa Mysius
film profile]. An ex-La Fémis screenwriting student, the director was acclaimed for her shorts Cadavre exquis (winner of the Clermont-Ferrand Best First Film Award in 2013), Thunderbirds (presented as part of the Cinéfondation selection at Cannes in 2014) and L'île jaune (winner of Clermont-Ferrand’s Best Cinematography Award in 2016). For this plunge into the world of feature films, Mysius has called upon a cast featuring Noée Abita, Laure Calamy (whose performance in the short film Back Alley was heralded at the last Sundance Film Festival, and who recently graced the Croisette in Staying Vertical [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Alain Guiraudie
film profile] and In Bed with Victoria [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Justine Triet
film profile]) and Juan Cano. 

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Written by the director (who also wrote the screenplay for Arnaud Desplechin’s next film, Les Fantômes d’Ismaël) and Paul Guilhaume, the script (which won the Sopadin Junior Award in 2014) follows Ava, 14 years old, who learns that her days of sight are fewer than first anticipated. In just one month, there will be nothing but darkness for her. Her mother, Maud, decides to act as if it were nothing and takes her with her on the best summer holiday ever. Ava chooses to deal with this problem in her own way… starting with stealing a black dog she meets on the beach.

Produced by Jean-Louis Livi for F Comme Film and Fanny Yvonnet for Trois Brigands Productions, Ava has been pre-purchased by Canal+. The CNC (through an advance on receipts), the Aquitaine-Limousin-Poitou-Charentes region, the Landes department and the Cofinova and Cinémage Soficas have all thrown their support behind the project. Principal photography is slated to run from 1 August to 23 September in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques, Gironde and Landes departments. Bac Films will be responsible for the film’s domestic distribution as well as its international sales.

(Translated from French)