23/04/2025 - The French film centre will also be backing new films by Sébastien Lifshitz, Laetitia Masson, Michel Leclerc and Ioanis Nuguet, and by the duo composed of Ann Sirot and Raphaël Balboni

Director Radu Jude at the recent Berlinale (© Dario Caruso/Cineuropa)

Six projects have been selected within the CNC’s second advance on receipts session for 2025.

One work stealing focus among the four titles chosen by the third committee (dedicated to fourth feature films and beyond) is The Diary of a Chambermaid by Romania’s Radu Jude, which is due to be produced by Saïd Ben Saïd on behalf of SBS Productions in minority co-production with Romania. Awarded the 2021 Golden Bear for Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Radu Jude
film profile], as well as the Silver Bear for Best Director in 2015 thanks to Aferim! [+see also:
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trailer
interview: Radu Jude
film profile] in the Berlin Film Festival (where Kontinental ’25 [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] was presented in competition this year), and likewise triumphant in Karlovy Vary in 2018 (via “I Do Not Care If We Go Down in History As Barbarians” [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]) and in Locarno (thanks to the Special Jury Prize scooped by Scarred Hearts [+see also:
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interview: Radu Jude
film profile] in 2016 and by Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World [+see also:
film review
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interview: Radu Jude
film profile] in 2023), Radu Jude’s new film will follow in the wake of a young Romanian woman who has travelled to France to work for a French family and who also joins an amateur theatre company who are working on an adaptation of Octave Mirbeau’s The Diary of a Chambermaid (published in 1900). For the record, this novel has already been transposed to the big screen four times, notably by Jean Renoir in 1946 and by Luis Buñuel in 1964.

The CNC is also throwing its weight behind Ulysse by Laetitia Masson (who directed À vendre and Summer Frost [+see also:
trailer
film profile], and who co-wrote the screenplay for Richard Linklater’s Nouvelle Vague), produced by ARP Sélection; Les Caprices de l‘Enfant Roi by Michel Leclerc (The Names of Love [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], Not All Men But… [+see also:
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film profile] ), which is produced by Mandarin & Compagnie together with Elephant Story; and the documentary Je m’appelle Sophie Calle et je suis encore vivante by multiple award winner Sébastien Lifshitz (Les Invisibles [+see also:
trailer
film profile], Adolescentes [+see also:
trailer
film profile], Little Girl [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Sébastien Lifshitz
film profile]), produced by Agat Films.

As for the CNC’s second advance on receipts committee (dedicated to second and third feature films), Un détour par Diane by the duo composed of Ann Sirot and Raphaël Balboni (revealed via Madly in Life [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Raphaël Balboni & Ann Sirot
film profile] and selected in Cannes’ Critics’ Week in 2023 thanks to The (Ex)perience of Love [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ann Sirot & Raphael Balboni
film profile]), was singled out for support and is set to be produced by Marianne Productions on the French side, while Ioanis Nuguet’s documentary project Si tu n’es pas prêt pour le jour (his second feature film after Spartacus & Cassandra [+see also:
trailer
film profile]) was likewise selected and is due to be steered by Niskala Films.

(Translated from French)