This article will be updated regularly during Cannes' Marché du Film, taking place from 13-21 May.

Leos Carax will shoot Lily May B in the spring of 2027. The film will be his seventh feature after Boy Meets Girl (Cannes' Critics' Week in 1984), Bad Blood (in competition at Berlin in 1987), The Lovers on the Bridge (1991), and three films presented in Competition at Cannes: Pola X and Holy Motors in competition in 1999 and 2012 respectively, and Annette as the opening film in 2021. His next opus will notably feature American star Jenna Ortega (the series Wednesday). The pitch? "Once upon a time, there was a little girl, a young woman and a young boy. They each held a secret too heavy to bear. They met in an end-of-the-world world, and together rode a big motorcycle through empty cities, deserted freeways, immemorial forests. On their journey, they encountered many dangers, but kept going. In search of who they were; in search of a place to B, maybe?" Production is handled by Chi-Fou-Mi.

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[img 171282](l-r) Displacement Film Fund second cohort filmmakers: Rithy Panh (© Jean-François Paga), Akuol de Mabior, Mohammed Amer, Annemarie Jacir and Bao Nguyen (© DFF/IFFR)

Cate Blanchett and IFFR’s Hubert Bals Fund have announced the recipients of the Displacement Film Fund’s second round. In a panel led by the Australian actress, producer and global Goodwill Ambassador for UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, directors Mohammed Amer, Annemarie Jacir, Akuol de Mabior, Bao Nguyen and Rithy Panh were unveiled as the five selected filmmakers for the second cycle of the short-film grant scheme. The directors are preparing, respectively, Return to Sender (Palestine/USA), Deconstruction (Palestine), Traces of a Broken Line (South Africa/South Sudan), How to Ride a Bike (USA/Vietnam) and Time… Speak (France/Germany), all of which are working titles. Each of the nominated filmmakers will be rewarded with a production grant of €100,000, with their completed projects having their world premieres at IFFR 2027 (28 January-7 February).

CIRCLE has unveiled CIRCLE Expanded Orbit, a new international programme dedicated to immersive storytelling and XR practices, launched in partnership with Onassis ONX. Emmy- and Peabody Award-winning documentarian Katerina Cizek has been appointed head of studies. The initiative, developed by CIRCLE — the training platform supporting women and gender-expansive filmmakers — marks an expansion of its activities into emerging media after eight years of championing innovative and socially engaged storytelling. Co-organised with Onassis ONX, the new programme will focus on immersive and interactive forms of creation, supporting projects spanning XR, MR, VR, AR, AI and game-driven storytelling. CIRCLE Expanded Orbit will bring together a selected group of international creators and connect them with leading figures from the worlds of storytelling, technology, art and design through a tailored programme centred on mentorship, collaboration and project development at the crossroads of cinema, contemporary art and emerging media.

A UK-based Dogma filmmaking initiative has been launched under the leadership of Mia Bays, marking her first major venture following her planned departure as director of the BFI Filmmaking Funds in October. Bays is teaming up with Sigma Films producer Gillian Berrie on a slate of feature-length projects from UK filmmakers, developed under a manifesto inspired by the principles of the original Dogme 95 and the more recent Dogma 25 movement. The British chapter has received the endorsement of Zentropa, the Danish company behind the original Dogme movement, which is also backing both the Nordic Dogma 25 initiative unveiled last year (see the news) and the newly announced German iteration (see the news). [Screen International]

DOGMA 25 GERMANY will bring together five directors – İlker Çatak, Kurdwin Ayub, Nora Fingscheidt, Helene Hegemann and Tom Tykwer – who will each direct a feature film developed under a shared “vow of chastity” inspired by the original Dogme movement launched in Denmark in 1995 by Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg. TrustNordisk is set to handle international sales on the upcoming films made through the programme (read full news).

See-Saw Films, which operates out of London and Sydney, has struck a multi-year strategic slate financing partnership with French investment company Entourage Ventures. Under the agreement, Entourage Ventures will commit up to $50 million in equity financing for a slate of upcoming See-Saw feature films over the next three years. The deal is intended to provide greater flexibility in the structuring of film financing, enabling See-Saw to rely less heavily on traditional pre-sales models.

Director Paolo Sorrentino (© 2024 Fabrizio de Gennaro for Cineuropa - fadege.it, @fadege.it)

Paolo Sorrentino has started production on a documentary centred on Carlo Ancelotti, with the project being produced alongside The Apartment. FilmNation Entertainment is handling worldwide sales excluding Italy and has kicked off negotiations in Cannes. The as-yet-untitled documentary will provide access to Ancelotti’s private life as he prepares to lead the Brazilian national team into next month’s World Cup, set to take place across the United States, Mexico and Canada. [Screen International]

French international sales agent Loco Films has added Stand Up to its line-up, the debut feature by Dutch filmmaker Mari Sanders, which will have its world premiere in the International Narrative Competition at the upcoming Tribeca Film Festival. Penned by the director, the script is centred on Vera, a 23-year-old full of joie de vivre whose life is upended when an accident forces her to use a wheelchair. No longer recognising herself in her former life, she is drawn to the world of Xander, a young man who has always lived with a disability… Production was steered by The Film Kitchen, with Greek company Neda Film on board as co-producer. [Variety]

Asia Argento has boarded Rosita Larocca’s debut feature-length documentary, Gia – The Shadow of Beauty, as executive producer. The film explores the life of late US supermodel Gia Carangi (1960–1986). First unveiled earlier this year (see the news), the US-Italian co-production seeks to reframe Carangi’s story “not as a pop-cultural icon but as a young woman navigating desire, abandonment and visibility in 1980s New York”. Produced by Italy’s Artex, the documentary is executive-produced in the USA by Lizzy Harris through her banner Pool Creative. International financing for the project remains open, with the documentary currently being introduced to potential partners at Cannes. [The Hollywood Reporter]

Siberian director Stepan Burnashev’s new feature project Almost There has brought together Japan's Cloud11 Studios, France's Les Films du Sillon and Hong Kong's Saidam Baryl Ltd. Currently in development and targeting a 2027 shoot, the Japanese-set arthouse road movie follows a Japanese man and a visitor from the Sakha Republic who bond over their shared inability to move on from the past. Their chance encounter gradually turns into an emotional journey marked by growing human connection and self-discovery. Burnashev described the project as an exploration of male vulnerability, inner conflict and unspoken emotions. [The Hollywood Reporter]

Director Lone Scherfig (© Av gdcgraphics/Flickr W.)

Lone Scherfig is set to direct the romantic spy thriller Honeytrap. Set in Stockholm in 1968, the film follows Inger, who falls for the charismatic Max, unaware he is a Stasi “Romeo” agent tasked with seducing her to obtain sensitive corporate information. But the mission spirals when Max genuinely falls in love, putting both the operation and their lives at risk. Inspired by the real-life “Romeo” agents deployed by the Stasi across Europe during the Cold War, Honeytrap explores emotional manipulation, espionage and betrayal. The pic is penned and directed by Scherfig, and produced by Lizette Jonjic for Zentropa Sweden alongside Rebecka Hamberger, with co-producers Sisse Graum Jørgensen, Charlotte Hjordt and Solmaz Azizi. The project is a co-production between Zentropa Sweden, Zentropa Entertainments, Zentropa Berlin and Film i Väst, backed by the Swedish Film Institute and DR. Nordic distribution will be handled by Nordisk Film Distribution, while TrustNordisk oversees international sales.

The first details have been revealed about the next film by Hungarian helmer Gábor Reisz (winner in Venice Orizzonti in 2023 with Explanation for Everything). The filmmaker has just wrapped a hush-hush shoot in Budapest for Ember Végez (working title), which is being produced by Proton Cinema together with Italy’s All at Once (the production arm of distributor I Wonder Pictures). The plot centres on a burnt-out painter-turned-bank employee, who learns he is going to become a father just as he is swept up in a tragicomic domestic revolution triggered by the appearance of mould in his condominium apartment. The film already has an Instagram account. Films Boutique handles international sales. [Variety]

Actress Ana de Armas (© 2022 Dario Caruso for Cineuropa - @studio.photo.dar, Dario Caruso) and actor Sebastian Stan (© 2025 Fabrizio de Gennaro for Cineuropa - fadege.it, @fadege.it)

Spanish production company Zeta Studios and Rei Pictures, based in Buenos Aires, Madrid and Mexico City, have announced the upcoming production of Impunity, a high-octane spy thriller to be directed by Chilean filmmaker Felipe Gálvez (The Settlers). Impunity will star Sebastian Stan and Ana de Armas, alongside Alfredo Castro, Antonia Zegers and Alejandro Goic (see the full news).

LevelK has boarded Torpedo, the new thriller by Frederik Louis Hviid exploring the growing criminal phenomenon of young “torpedoes” recruited into organised crime (read news). Produced by SF Studios’ Marcella Dichmann, the film is written by Hviid (Shorta, The Quiet Ones) and Tobias Lindholm (A War, Another Round, The Hunt), with Hviid also directing. Set in present-day Scandinavia, the youth-driven street-crime thriller follows 16-year-old Kian, who believes gang violence offers him a fast track to money and status. Sent to Copenhagen for his first job, he soon discovers he is expected to kill a man within 24 hours. Refusing the assignment would not only endanger him, but also his family. [Deadline]

Mike Downey and Emir Kuelal Haznevi, executive producers on Cannes Competition titles Parallel Tales and All of a Sudden, have teamed up to launch Saudade Ink, a new boutique financing outfit focused on developing, producing and backing auteur-driven fiction and documentary films from around the world. Backed by a consortium of private investors from Turkey and the Middle East, the company plans to invest up to €2 million annually during its first two years, with individual contributions ranging between €150,000 and €200,000 per project.

Urban Sales has announced the addition to its line-up of Spacetime Chronicles by Italian filmmaker Stefano Bertelli, which will be screened in the Contrechamp competition of the 45th Annecy International Animation Film Festival. Produced by Seen Film, the feature is a surreal, dreamlike tale following Fred’s inner journey, suspended between reality, dreams and limbo. [Screen International]

Reinvent Yellow Sales has picked up international rights to Norwegian-Finnish disaster thriller The Man, penned and directed by Stig Svendsen (Kings Bay, Netflix thriller Viking Wolf), produced by Finn Gjerdrum and Torkild Ziegler for Norway's Paradox and Max Barkman for Finland's 255 Pix Studio, and starring Eili Harboe (Thelma), Stig Henrik Hoff and Vebjørn Enger (see the full news).

Isabelle Huppert (© Marie Rouge/Unifrance), Dali Benssalah (© Marie Rouge/Unifrance), Adam Bessa (© Unifrance) and Raye (© Mathieu Bitton), who will star in Yann Demange's Lineage

French-born, UK-based filmmaker Yann Demange, who competed at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2014 with '71, is set to begin shooting Lineage in early August, with Isabelle Huppert, Dali Benssalah, Adam Bessa and singer Raye among the cast. Written by Enda Walsh from an idea by the director, the screenplay is set in today’s multicultural London and follows Tariq, a man trying to rebuild his life after serving a prison sentence and striving to create a new future for himself and his young son, Amine. But when his brother asks for help, Tariq is drawn back into London’s criminal underworld and into the dangerous orbit of their mother, a gang leader. The return threatens everything he has built, forcing him to confront his family loyalties and the legacy of violence that has shaped his life… The film will be produced by the British companies Wayward Films and Crab Apple Films, alongside the French outfits Carrousel Studios and Why Not Productions, and Belgian company Beside Productions, with support from LPI, Lumina Studios and BBC Film. International sales are being handled by The Veterans, the US-based outfit founded by Vincent Maraval and Kim Fox.

StudioCanal has launched pre-sales for The Midnight Library, directed by Australian filmmaker Garth Davis and starring British actress Florence Pugh. Adapted by Laura Wade and Nick Payne from the eponymous novel by Matt Haig, the screenplay follows Nora Seed, who finds herself suspended between life and death in a library with the chance to experience all the potential lives she could have lived. Filming is set to begin in early 2027, with production led by Blueprint Pictures alongside Anita Overland and Florence Pugh herself.

StudioCanal is launching sales for a biopic (as-yet-untitled) directed by Maïmouna Doucouré (Cuties, Hawa) about Joséphine Baker, the American-born artist who became an iconic figure of 1920s Paris during the Roaring Twenties. She will be portrayed by British musician FKA twigs. Filming for the project, produced by Studiocanal and Bien ou Bien Productions, is scheduled to take place this autumn. StudioCanal will distribute the film in the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, the Benelux territories, Poland, Australia and New Zealand.

Polish-Swedish filmmaker Magnus von Horn (the Oscar-nominated The Girl with the Needle, Sweat) is readying The Passenger, his fourth feature and his first in English. The movie is a historical escape thriller and an adaptation of the eponymous 1938 novel by Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz, which received positive reviews for portraying the atmosphere of antisemitic persecution in Nazi Germany in the wake of World War II. The story revolves around established businessman Otto Silbermann, who must flee Berlin after the Night of Broken Glass pogroms. US thesp Jeremy Strong (Succession, The Apprentice) will play the lead, while the rest of the cast is being kept under wraps (read full news). [Variety]