The international sales department (headed up by Alice Lesort) of French outfit Les Films du Losange is shortly due to jet off to the 81st Venice Film Festival (28 August-7 September). On the Lido, and subsequently at the Toronto Film Festival (5-15 September), the team has every intention of continuing a year that is already proving highly lucrative, considering the Golden Bear won by Dahomey [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by Mati Diop and the seven films then featured in the Cannes selection.

Spearheading the line-up is a superb Italian-French co-production that will be duking it out for the Golden Lion at Venice 2024: Sicilian Letters [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Fabio Grassadonia e Antoni…
scheda film] by Italy’s Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza (see the article). The third feature by the duo comes in the wake of two films that took part in the Cannes Critics’ Week: Salvo [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Fabio Grassadonia e Antoni…
scheda film] (winner of the Grand Prix in 2013) and Sicilian Ghost Story [+leggi anche:
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making of
scheda film] (2017). Featuring superstars Toni Servillo and Elio Germano among the cast, their new opus is set in Sicily in the early 2000s. After a number of years in prison for mafia offences, Catello, a seasoned politician, has lost everything. When the Italian Secret Services seek his help in capturing Matteo, the last major Cosa Nostra boss on the run, whom he has known all his life, Catello sees an opportunity to stage a comeback. A sly man of a hundred masks, a tireless illusionist who turns truth into falsehood and falsehood into truth, Catello begins an improbable and unique exchange of letters with the fugitive, exploiting his emotional emptiness. A risky game which, with one of the most wanted criminals in the world, is always going to involve a degree of risk... This production by Indigo Film together with RAI and Les Films du Losange will be world-premiered on the Lido on 5 September.

At Venice, Les Films du Losange will also be selling a title partaking in the Orizzonti competition: My Everything [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Anne-Sophie Bailly
scheda film] by French helmer Anne-Sophie Bailly (see the article). The filmmaker’s feature debut is toplined by Laure Calamy (who won the Orizzonti Best Actress Award in 2021 with Full Time [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Eric Gravel
scheda film]), who is flanked by Charles Peccia-Galletto, Julie Froger and Belgium’s Geert Van Rampelberg. The plot revolves around Mona, who lives with her adult son, Joël, who is "slow", as they say. He works in a specialised facility and is passionately in love with his co-worker Oceane, who is also disabled. While Mona knows nothing of their relationship, she learns that Oceane is pregnant. The symbiotic bond between mother and son falters. The production staged by Les Films Pelléas will be world-premiered on 31 August.

The Les Films du Losange team will follow this up straight away with a visit to Toronto, where it will boast three titles from its line-up screening on the programme: Dahomey by Mati Diop and Misericordia [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Alain Guiraudie
scheda film] by France’s Alain Guiraudie (a Cannes Première star attraction) as Special Presentations, and The Damned [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by Italy’s Roberto Minervini (Best Director Award in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard) in the Wavelengths strand. Finally, it’s worth noting that these three movies will then be featured in the New York Film Festival showcase (27 September-14 October), as will It’s Not Me, the medium-length film by Leos Carax, which was first unveiled at Cannes.