23/07/2025 - Benjamin Voisin, Rebecca Marder, Pierre Lottin, Denis Lavant and Swann Arlaud all grace the cast of this production steered by Gaumont, who are also managing world sales

After 5x2 [+see also:
trailer
film profile] in 2004, Potiche [+see also:
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film profile] in 2010 and Frantz [+see also:
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Q&A: François Ozon
film profile] in 2016, François Ozon is set to battle it out for the Golden Lion for the 4th time, as he’ll be unveiling his 24th feature film L’Étranger - adapted from Albert Camus’ famous novel (published in 1942) - in competition at the 82nd  Venice International Film Festival (running 27 August to 6 September).

For the record, the filmmaker is a regular at the world’s major festivals, having been selected six times in competition in Berlin (in 2000, 2002, 2007, 2009, 2019 and 2022), four times in Cannes (in 2003, 2013, 2017 and 2021) and five times in San Sebastian (in 2009, in 2012 when he scooped the Golden Shell for In The House [+see also:
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film profile], in 2014, 2020, and in 2024 with his most recent film to date When Fall Is Coming [+see also:
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film profile]).

Dazzling in the cast of his latest opus are four actors with previous experience of working with the filmmaker: Benjamin Voisin (awarded the 2021 Best Newcomer Lumière and nominated for the Best Newcomer César that same year via Summer of 85 [+see also:
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film profile], nominated for 2022’s Best Actor César via Lost Illusions [+see also:
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interview: Xavier Giannoli
film profile] and well-received in Venice last year via The Quiet Son [+see also:
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interview: Delphine and Muriel Coulin
film profile]), Rebecca Marder (nominated for the 2023 and 2024 Best Newcomer Césars via A Radiant Girl [+see also:
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film profile] and Grand Expectations [+see also:
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film profile], and reuniting with the director after The Crime is Mine [+see also:
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interview: François Ozon
film profile]), Pierre Lottin (named Best Supporting Actor in San Sebastian last year, nominated for this year’s Best Newcomer Lumière via When Fall Is Coming, and nominated for the 2024 Best Newcomer César via The Marching Band [+see also:
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interview: Emmanuel Courcol
film profile]) and Swann Arlaud (awarded 2018’s Best Actor César for Bloody Milk [+see also:
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interview: Hubert Charuel
film profile] and the Best Supporting Actor César of 2018 for By the Grace of God [+see also:
film review
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Q&A: François Ozon
film profile], and nominated in the same category last year for Anatomy of a Fall [+see also:
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interview: Justine Triet
film profile]), with Denis Lavant (nominated for 2013’s Best Actor César via Holy Motors [+see also:
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interview: Leos Carax
film profile]) also in on the action.

Adapted by François Ozon himself, the story takes us to Algiers in 1938. Meursault, a young thirty-something man and a lowly employee, buries his mother without showing the slightest emotion. The following day, he embarks on an affair with an office colleague called Marie, and then he gets back to everyday life. But his neighbour, Raymond Sintès, upsets his daily routine by dragging him into some shady business, until a tragedy takes place on a beach beneath the blazing sun...

L’Étranger was produced by Gaumont (who’ll be releasing the film in French cinemas on 29 October 2025 and who are steering world sales) and by FOZ (the filmmaker’s own firm) in co-production with France 2 Cinéma and Belgian outfit Scope Pictures, together with Morocco’s Lions Production et Services. Photography was entrusted to Belgium’s Manu Dacosse (rewarded in San Sebastián in 2015 for Evolution [+see also:
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film profile], nominated for Best Cinematography at the Lumière Awards in 2020 via By the Grace of God, and the winner of three Magrittes in his speciality).

(Translated from French)