16/08/2016 - The two-time Palme d'Or winner has wrapped the Northern French part of the shoot for his new film starring Isabelle Huppert and Jean-Louis Trintignant

If you were to predict the identities of the films that should most easily be able to get hold of a ticket for the official competition of the 70th Cannes Film Festival (17-28 May 2017), Happy End [+see also:
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interview: Michael Haneke
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Written by the director himself, the story of Happy End revolves around the life of a middle-class family in Northern France who are faced with a number of setbacks but pay little attention to the dire situation in the refugee camps just a few miles away from their house.

Having won the Palme d'Or in 2009 and 2012 with The White Ribbon [+see also:
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interview: Michael Haneke
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interview: Margaret Menegoz
interview: Michael Haneke
film profile] and the Grand Prize there in 2001 with The Piano Teacher [+see also:
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film profile] (which also won the Best Actor and Actress Awards). The filmmaker took part in the Cannes competition with Funny Games in 1997 and Code Unknown in 2000, and presented The Time of the Wolf out of competition in 2003, after being showcased three times in the Directors’ Fortnight (The Seventh Continent in 1989, Benny's Video in 1992 and 71 Fragments of a Chronology of Chance in 1997).

Produced by Margaret Menegoz for Paris-based outfit Les Films du Losange, Happy End is being co-produced by France 3 Cinéma, German firm X Filme Creative Pool and Austria’s Wega Film. Having been pre-purchased by Canal+, the feature also boasts backing from the Eurimages fund, the CNC’s advance on receipts, Pictanovo and the French-German mini co-production treaty. Its distribution in France and its international sales are being managed by Les Films du Losange, and more than 20 territories have already pre-purchased Happy End.

(Translated from French)