Olivier Assayas finally gets an award at Cannes
- CANNES 2016: The filmmaker has won the Best Director Award with Personal Shopper; several French co-productions were also singled out with prizes
Olivier Assayas has won the Best Director Award at the 69th Cannes Film Festival with Personal Shopper [+see also:
film review
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interview: Artemio Benki
interview: Olivier Assayas
film profile], thus finally being singled out in a personal capacity for this, his fifth appearance in competition, following Les destinées (2000), Demonlover [+see also:
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film profile] (2002), Clean [+see also:
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film profile] (Best Actress Award in 2004) and Clouds of Sils Maria [+see also:
film review
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interview: Charles Gillibert
interview: Olivier Assayas
film profile] (2014). Personal Shopper was produced by Charles Gillibert for CG Cinéma, and co-produced by Arte France Cinéma, German outfit Detail Film, Belgium’s Scope Invest and Czech firm Sirena Film. Pre-purchased by Canal+, the feature will be distributed in France by Les Films du Losange on 19 October, while the international sales are handled by MK2.
France also stands out in the winners’ list through its involvement in four films by British, Romanian, Iranian and Canadian filmmakers.
The 2016 Palme d'Or winner, I, Daniel Blake [+see also:
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film profile] by British director Ken Loach,was 25% produced by France via Why Not Productions, together with the United Kingdom (65%) and Belgium (10%). Co-produced by France 2 Cinéma, and pre-purchased by Canal+ and Ciné+, the film will be distributed in France by Le Pacte and is being sold by Wild Bunch.
With Why Not as its co-producer, Le Pacte as its French distributor and Wild Bunch as its international sales agent, the French co-produced Graduation [+see also:
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Q&A: Cristian Mungiu
interview: Cristian Mungiu
film profile] earned Romanian director Cristian Mungiu the Best Director Award ex-aequo with Assayas’ film. 25% produced by France, with a 65% stake for Romania and 10% for Belgium, the feature was also co-produced by France 3 Cinéma, with pre-purchases by Canal+ and Ciné+.
Memento Films also ranked very highly in the winners’ list with The Salesman [+see also:
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film profile] by Iranian director Asghar Farhadi, as Alexandre Mallet-Guy’s Paris-based outfit produced it, will distribute it in France on 2 November and is selling it overseas. The title snagged the Best Actor and Best Screenplay Awards at Cannes.
It’s Only the End of the World [+see also:
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film profile] by Canada’s Xavier Dolan, which took home the Grand Prix, was 36% co-produced by France via MK2 and France 2 Cinéma, with pre-purchases by Canal+ and Ciné+. Its French release will be handled by Diaphana on 21 September.
Another tip of the hat went to Marc-Benoît Créancier’s relatively new company Easy Tiger, with the Caméra d'Or pocketed by Divines [+see also:
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interview: Houda Benyamina
film profile] by Houda Benyamina. Co-produced by France 2 Cinéma and backed by the CNC’s advance on receipts, and the Centre and Ile-de-France regions, the movie will be distributed in France by Diaphana and is being sold by German company Films Boutique.
(Translated from French)
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