Screen Cannes Day 3

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SCREENINGS

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PRESENTS AT CANNES

2016

OFFICIAL SELECTION - UN CERTAIN REGARD

THE LONG NIGHT OF FRANCISCO SANCTIS A Film by ANDREA TESTA & FRANCISCO MARQUEZ

2016 - Argentina - Drama - DCP - 2.35 - 80min

SYNOPSIS

Buenos Aires, 1977. Francisco Sanctis, a family man living an eventless life, receives information about an upcoming kidnapping operation by soldiers of the dictatorship. In a race against the night, he will need to make the most important decision of his life: will he try to save innocent lives by risking his own?

SCREENINGS Sat May 14th Mon May 16th Fri May 20th Fri May 20th Sat May 21st

17:30 14:00 11:30 16:30 13:00

LERINS 4 Private - Buyers only LERINS 3 Private - Buyers only SALLE DEBUSSY Press SALLE DEBUSSY Premiere BAZIN Public

INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE

OFFICIAL SELECTION - UN CERTAIN REGARD

PERSONAL AFFAIRS

A Film by MAHA HAJ 2016 - Israel - Drama/Comedy - DCP - 1.85 - 90min

SYNOPSIS

Nazareth today: an old couple lives wearily to the rhythm of the daily routine. On the other side of the border, in Ramallah, their son Tarek wishes to remain an eternal bachelor, their daughter is about to give birth while her husband lands a movie role and the grandmother loses her head ... Between check-points and dreams, frivolity and politics, some want to leave, others want to stay but all have personal affairs to resolve.

SCREENINGS Fri May 13th Sat May 14th Mon May 16th

16:15 13:30 12:00

BAZIN Public PALAIS D Market - Buyers only LERINS 3 Market - Buyers only

WORLD PREMIERE

DIRECTORS’ FORTNIGHT

DIVINES

A Film by HOUDA BENYAMINA 2016 - France/Qatar - Drama - DCP - 2.35 - 106min

SYNOPSIS

In a ghetto near Paris where drugs and religion reign supreme, Dounia is hungry for her share of power and success. Enlisting the help of her best friend, Maimouna, she decides to follow the footsteps of a respected dealer. When Dounia meets a young sensuous dancer, her life takes a surprising turn.

SCREENINGS Fri May 13th Sun May 15th Thu May 19th Thu May 19th Fri May 20th Fri May 20th Sat May 21st Sat May 21st

16:00 10:00 11:45 20:45 15:30 22:30 14:00 18:30

WORLD PREMIERE

LERINS 3 Private - Buyers only LERINS 3 Private - Buyers only THEATRE CROISETTE Press THEATRE CROISETTE Premiere THEATRE CROISETTE Public ARCADES Public LE RAIMU Public STUDIO 13 Public

RIVIERA G3 // +33 (0)4 92 99 32 20 SALES - Jean-Christophe Simon - simon@filmsboutique.com SALES - Louis Balsan - l ou i s @f i l m s bouti qu e.com FESTIVALS - Giorgia Hülsse - giorgia@filmsboutique.com FESTIVALS (Library) - Josephine Settmacher - josephine@filmsboutique.com ACQUISITIONS - Gabor Greiner - gabor@filmsboutique.com www.filmsboutique.com

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CANNES MARKET

CALIFORNIA

Soundtrack: David Bowie, Joy Division, The Cure, New Order...

A Film by MARINA PERSON 2016 - Brazil - Comedy/Drama - DCP - 2.35 - 90min

SYNOPSIS

1984. Estela is going through the convoluted stage of adolescence.

Sex, love, friendship; everything seems so complicated. Her uncle, Carlos, is her hero, and the trip to California to visit him, her biggest dream. But everything falls apart when he comes back to Brazil looking skinny, weak and sick. Between crisis and discoveries, Estela has to face a reality that will change forever her way of seeing the world.

SCREENING Sat May 14th

11:30

GRAY 2 Market

MARKET SCREENING

CANNES MARKET

BORIS WITHOUT BEATRICE

CANNES MARKET

A LULLABY TO THE SORROWFUL MYSTERY

A Film by DENIS CÔTÉ

A Film by LAV DIAZ

2016 - Canada - Drama - DCP - 1.85 - 93min

2016 - Philippines - Drama - DCP - 1.33 - 480min

SCREENINGS Fri May 13th Tue May 17th

ONLINE SCREENER AVAILABLE

11:30 10:00

PALAIS H Market LERINS 3 Market

CANNES MARKET

THE LAND OF THE ENLIGHTENED

CANNES MARKET

A GOOD WIFE

A Film by PIETER-JAN DE PUE

A Film by MIRJANA KARANOVIC

2016 - Belgium - Documentary/Fiction - DCP - 1.85 - 87min

2016 - Serbia - Drama - DCP - 2.35 - 94min

SCREENING Tue May 17th

SCREENINGS Fri May 13th Tue May 17th

14:00

PALAIS C Market

13:30 12:00

LERINS 4 Market LERINS 3 Market

CANNES 2016

NORTH AMERICA: BITTER HARVEST will have a full theatrical release, backed by a major P&A spend, building from a minimum 200 screen platform.

SCREENING TIMES Wednesday May 11 - 3:30pm Gray 2 • Tuesday May 17th - 4 pm Gray 1 th

INTERNATIONAL SALES - Spotlight Pictures

Visit us at Riviera F10

sales@spotlight-pictures.com • www.spotlight-pictures.com

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Douglas, Jai Courtney join The God Four crew

BY ANDREAS WISEMAN Guy Pearce

Pearce takes director’s chair for Poor Boy

BY MICHAEL ROSSER

LA Confidential star Guy Pearce is to make his directorial debut with paranormal drama Poor Boy. The Australian actor, known for roles in Memento, Iron Man 3 and Cannes 2014 title The Rover, will also play the lead in the feature alongside Frances O’Connor, Richard Roxburgh, Callan Mulvey and Sarah Peirse.

The screenplay is by Matt Cameron, adapted from the stage play he created with Crowded House musician Tim Finn. Pearce starred in the play in 2009.

The story centres on a dead man, a young boy and two families mysteriously linked by synchronous events seven years earlier.

Production is planned for Melbourne in 2017.

Producer Al Clark, whose credits include The Adventures Of Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert and who will again work with Pearce in the upcoming Flammable Children, is here to meet potential sales agents.

Suicide Squad star Jai Courtney is to play alongside Michael Douglas and rising actor Brenton Thwaites in intriguing Cannes package The God Four.

Todd Komarnicki — writer of upcoming biopic Sully directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Tom Hanks, and producer on Elf — has written and will direct the feature, which is based on Ron Irwin’s novel Flat Water Tuesday.

Courtney will star as Rob Carrey, a documentary film-maker who, on

tain America: Civil War), Peter Winther (The Patriot) and Hadeel Reda (16 Blocks).

Protagonist Pictures has boarded international sales and is launching in Cannes. UTA is handling North America.

Douglas and Courtney are represented by UTA; Thwaites by WME. Komarnicki is repped by CAA. Thwaites, who has featured in Maleficent, Son Of A Gun and Gods Of Egypt, will next be seen in adventure sequel Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales.

Hubert Boesl

Amal Clooney joins Money Monster stars Jack O’Connell (back), George Clooney and Julia Roberts on the red carpet here with the film’s director, Jodie Foster. The film plays out of competition. See review, page 24.

Scientology recruits in US, UK HanWay Select has secured key deals on Louis Theroux’s doc My Scientology Movie, including Magnolia for the US and Amy distributor Altitude for the UK. Deals have also been agreed for Australia (Madman), Belgium (Dalton) and the Netherlands (Cinema Delicatessen). Directed by John Dower, the doc centres on Theroux as he immerses himself in the controversial religion’s

the eve of his 10-year school reunion, discovers that one member of their championship rowing crew has just committed suicide. The revelation prompts him to revisit his fateful senior year, a time of rivalry, romance and dangerous secrets.

Douglas will play Carrey’s former coach and Thwaites an Olympic hopeful rower. The role of the female coxswain has yet to be cast.

Shoot is due to get underway next month in Massachusetts.

Producers are Jason Speer (The Family Fang), Lars Winther (Cap-

teachings. Simon Chinn (Man On Wire) produced under his Red Box Films banner. Finance came from BBC Films and BBC Worldwide.

The UK deal was negotiated by Mark Lane for HanWay and Will Clarke and Hamish Moseley for Altitude. The US deal was negotiated by Josh Braun for Submarine and Mark Lane for HanWay with Magnolia.

Andreas Wiseman

Haigh’s Pete hits stride with A24

BY MELANIE GOODFELLOW

A24 has picked up North American rights to UK director Andrew Haigh’s Lean On Pete, ahead of its US shoot this summer.

It is among a slew of deals secured by Paris-based Le Bureau Sales and Celluloid Dreams, which are jointly selling the title.

The film has also sold to the UK (Curzon Artificial Eye), France (Ad Vitam), Benelux (Lumiere), Greece (Seven Films), Switzerland (Filmcoopi), Italy (Teodora), South

Korea (BeeTwin) and China (DDDream).

Based on Willy Vlautin’s acclaimed novel of the same name, the story follows a troubled teenager who forms an unlikely friendship with a failing racehorse.

The film reunites the Weekend and 45 Years director with longtime producer Tristan Goligher at The Bureau.

BFI and Film4, are backing the project, with the latter also having supported development.

TODAY

Buzz titles, page 30

NEWS Lorton rolls with it First interview with the financierdistributor backing Oasis and Maradona documentaries » Page 6

REVIEW Money Monster Feels five years behind the times » Page 24

FEATURE Buzz titles The best from China and Hong Kong » Page 30

Martin Freeman boards Cargo

BY ANDREAS WISEMAN

Martin Freeman is attached to zombie thriller Cargo from producer Kristina Ceyton (The Babadook). Bankside is launching international sales on the project in Cannes and has pre-sold UK rights to Icon Film Distribution. Umbrella Entertainment will release in Australia and New Zealand.

The feature is based on Yolanda Ramke and Ben Howling’s hit YouTube short of the same name.

Howling will direct with Ramke, who has also written the script.

Sam Jennings of Australia’s Causeway Films produces with Ceyton alongside Russell Ackerman and John Schoenfelder of Los Angeles-based Addictive Pictures.

The film is set to shoot in Australia in autumn 2016.

Financiers include Screen Australia, South Australian Film Commission and Head Gear Films.

CAA and Bankside co-represent North American rights.

Meanwhile, Saban Films has finalised a deal here in Cannes for North American rights to Bankside’s John Michael McDonagh comedy War On Everyone.

CANNES DEALS Bleecker Street has acquired US rights to Anthropoid, the story of the Second World War mission to assassinate chief architect of the Final Solution, Reinhard Heydrich.

Sean Ellis directed the LD Entertainment thriller.

Jeremy Kay

News

FilmRise moves for Magnus

Dumont fires up Joan

By Melanie Goodfellow Speaking at a private presentaFilmRise has acquired US rights French director Bruno Dumont tion to buyers at the Carlton, organto Benjamin Ree’s documentary has revealed first details of Jean- ised by Paris-based sales company Magnus in a deal with TrustNord- ette, his musical centred on Luxbox, Dumont said the project had initially come from a desire to isk. TrustNordisk head of sales French heroine Joan of Arc. The feature will be based on make a musical rather explore the Susan Wendt negotiated the deal with Max Einhorn, FilmRise’s The Mystery of the Charity of life of Joan of Arc. vice-president of acquisitions. Jeanne d’Arc, a poem by Charles “I was like a composer looking FilmRise plans a theatrical launch Péguy about the French icon’s for a libretto. I searched French this year. spiritual and patriotic awakening literature for a text, which was TrustNordisk has previously as a child. It is due to shoot in lyrical rather than wordy,” he said. sold Magnus to Benelux (Septem- northern France this August.

Dumont has commissioned a ber), Germany and Austria (NFP), Hong Kong (EDKO), Israel (Yes DBS) and Balkans (Discovery).

The film is about Magnus Carlsen, dubbed the ‘Mozart of has handled a non-Japanese film. chess’, who became world cham- By Liz Shackleton pion aged 22 in 2013. For his debut Japan’s Gaga Corporation has Co-produced by Participant feature, Ree compiled more than picked up international rights to Media, the film is about the Deep500 hours of footage with Carlsen Margaret Brown’s SXSW-win- water Horizon oil-rig explosion, over more than a decade. ning documentary The Great in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010.

Participant is also producing a Magnus, which had its world Invisible.

The agreement marks the first narrative feature on the same subpremiere in Tribeca, is a co-production between Moskus Film time Gaga, a Tokyo-based pro- ject with Lionsgate, scheduled for Nordisk Film Production. ducer, distributor and sales agent, release in September 2016. and ScreenDaily - Half Page 218x150 Cannes 2016.qxp_Layout 1 29/04/16 11:07 Pagina 1

By Wendy Mitchell

score from experimental electropop composer Igorrr (aka Gautier Serre). French choreographer Philippe Decouflé is also attached to the project.

Dumont is casting amateur actors from his home region of Nord-Pas-De-Calais, where he has shot most of his past films.

The film is produced by Parisbased 3 Productions with the backing of Arte.

Gaga looks to Horizon disaster The Great Invisible won the Grand Jury Award for documentary feature at SXSW in 2014.

Participant co-produced the film with ITVS, Gigantic Pictures, Passion Pictures and Motto Pictures. RADiUS-TWC released The Great Invisible domestically in 2014.

ings l a e D l a Diabolic

Koch revs for English’s Dias Koch Films has taken Germanspeaking rights on UK director Jonathan English’s Athens-set action thriller Dias, which is due to shoot in the Greek capital in September.

Paris-based Memento Film International (MFI) is handling sales on the film about Athens’ elite police motorbike force.

“It’s a fast-paced, straightforward action film with cops on motorbikes, chasing their enemies in the streets of Athens,” said Koch Films director of acquisitions Moritz Peters.

English’s last two films, Ironclad and sequel Ironclad: Battle For Blood, were set in medieval England.

Dias is a $4.5m (€4m) co-production between Athensbased View Master Films and Germany’s Black Forest Films.

Melanie Goodfellow

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Contact info@devilworks.eu devilworksales Matteo Rolleri | Director - Sales & Marketing | matteo@devilworks.eu Samantha Richardson | President - Sales & Acquisition | samantha@devilworks.eu

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News

Darin thriller sales snowball

By Jeremy Kay

FilmSharks has cut early pre-sales on the $4m Ricardo Darin thriller Black Snow (Nieve Negra), shooting in Spain and Argentina.

Buena Vista has acquired rights for South America, Paris Filmes for Brazil and Seven Films for Greece. Producer A Contracorriente Films holds Spanish rights.

Guido Rud is showing footage here of the film, by Fabian Bielinsky protégé Martin Hodara, about a man living in exile in Patagonia.

Tensions surface when he is visited by his brother and his wife. Leonardo Sbaraglia and Laia Costa costar. Pablo Bossi produces.

Black Snow

Lorton backs Gerrard, Winterbottom projects

By Andreas Wiseman

Emerging UK financier-distributor Lorton Entertainment has boarded finance on a Michael Winterbottom music film and a Steven Gerrard documentary from the producers of Amy. Winterbottom (24 Hour Party People) is in production on Love Song: Wolf Alice, about rising UK rock band Wolf Alice. Lorton will also distribute the Revolution Films production, which will feature band members alongside emerging UK actors.

The London-based outfit, which is headed by investment banker Julian Bird and a consortium of private financiers, is also set to back and distribute a documentary about revered UK footballer Gerrard, produced by James Gay-Rees, whose credits include Amy.

6 Screen International at Cannes May 13, 2016

Lorton’s Julian Bird and Dave Shear

Lorton has ramped up activities in the last two years, making its biggest investment to date in Asif Kapadia’s Maradona documentary and also backing Mat Whitecross’s anticipated Oasis documentary.

Lorton will release the latter theatrically in Q4 this year with eOne handling home entertainment rights.

Heading the company’s distribution operation is UK executive Dave Shear. “Concert docs have

done well before but Amy changed what you can do with a music doc at the box office,” Shear told Screen about the Oasis project. “We’re very excited about its prospects.”

The company said its first release will be Tribeca drama Adult Life Skills, which will hit screens in June. It added it will look to release three to five films next year, while having five to six projects in development in-house.

“Our investments [which include EIS structures] to date have been in projects of a certain scale but we have projects in house that are significantly larger,” Bird told Screen.

“We’re building this business to be around for the long term. Just because we’re from banking, it doesn’t mean we’ll be here one day and gone the next.”

Zee falls for Half Girlfriend

By Liz Shackleton

Zee Studios International has taken international rights to two titles produced by Balaji Motion Pictures: Half Girlfriend, adapted from a Chetan Bhagat novel, and superhero movie Flying Jatt.

Directed by Mohit Suri, Half Girlfriend stars Arjun Kapoor and Shraddha Kapoor. It is due for release in April 2017. Bhagat’s previous novels have been made into successful films, including 3 Idiots and 2 States.

Flying Jatt is directed by Remo D’Souza (ABCD: Any Body Can Dance) and stars Tiger Shroff and Jacqueline Fernandez. The release is scheduled for August 25.

Zee Studios International is the new international division of leading Indian broadcaster Zee, which is ramping up its film activities. The company is also selling Rustom, directed by Tinu Suresh Desai and starring Akshay Kumar.

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News

Mongrel moves into Mobile Homes drama Fly Away Home

Autlook makes dramatic pitch

By Geoffrey Macnab

Austrian documentary specialist Autlook Filmsales is making a move into dramatic features. Autlook CEO Salma Abdalla confirmed the company is building a boutique label for Austrian narratives.

The label is launching in Cannes with the market release of adaptation Fly Away Home by Mirjam Unger, produced by Gabriele Kranzelbinder of KGP Filmproduction (We Come As Friends). Kranzelbinder is one of Autlook’s founding partners.

The film is adapted from the bestselling autobiographical novel by Christine Nöstlinger about her childhood experience in war-torn Vienna. Autlook Filmsales has acquired international rights except Austria, where it is distributed by Filmladen.

The main focus of the company will remain on documentary. Here in Cannes, the company has confirmed sales on Nikolaus Geyrhalter feature doc Homo Sapiens to France (ASC), Poland (Against Gravity), North America (KimStim) and Japan (Shin Nippon) for theatrical release this autumn.

Thessaloniki finds artistic director Film critic and festival organiser Orestis Andreadakis has been named artistic director of Thessaloniki International Film Festival (TIFF), replacing Dimitri Eipides who stepped down earlier this year.

The announcement was made by recently appointed TIFF general director Elise Jalladeau and the board of directors headed by DoP Giorgos Arvanitis.

Alexis Grivas

By Jeremy Kay

Mongrel International has acquired world sales rights excluding Canada, US and France to Mobile Homes starring Imogen Poots, Callum Turner and Callum Keith Rennie.

Writer-director Vladimir de Fontenay has begun production in Ontario on the official CanadaFrance co-production.

The drama — based on his short film of the same name — follows a young drifter, her dangerous boyfriend and son,

Mobile Homes

who reappraises her role as a mother when she lands in a mobile home community.

Frédéric de Goldschmidt of Madeleine Films produces with Eric Dupont of Incognito Films

and Mike MacMillan from Lithium Studios Productions. The producers anticipate completion by early 2017.

Mongrel International president Charlotte Mickie said: “I immediately loved the short and the script. It was very clear to us what Vladimir wanted to do, and I thought it was very brave.”

De Goldschmidt added: “The film is ambitious both visually and in tone. We cannot wait to share it with audiences and industry alike throughout the world.”

Radford to direct Nevsky epic for Wacha

By Tom Grater

Two-time Oscar nominee Michael Radford (Il Postino) is attached to direct historical epic Alexander Nevsky for Manuela Noble’s Wacha Films.

Radford penned the ambitious project’s screenplay, based on this key figure of Russian history.

Born as a prince, Nevsky fled his home after his brother was murdered by crusaders, but he returned to lead his people into battle on several fronts, uniting the principalities of the medieval territory into what is now Russia.

Nevsky’s actions led him to be canonised as a saint by the Orthodox Church.

The film promises large-scale battle scenes on land and sea, as well as a romantic plot between Nevsky and a warrior princess.

The producers are in Cannes seeking potential partners for the big-budget project. Nevsky was depicted in Sergei Eisenstein’s similarly titled 1938 feature.

Cannes briefs MadRiver backs Gray

Mundial falls for Demian Bichir’s Refugio Mundial is launching sales here on Demian Bichir’s feature directorial debut Refugio. The story follows a dreamer’s romantic quest from Mexico to New Orleans, where he falls for an exotic dancer and must contend with her former lover.

Alex Garcia produces with Santiago Garcia Galvan, Demian and Bruno Bichir, and Walkiria Barbosa. The film screened on Wednesday and again on Saturday.

Mundial vice-president Cristina Garza is on the Croisette with a strong slate. Sales titles include Tomas Portella’s Rio-set action title Special Operations (Operacoes Especiais) starring Cleo Pires and Fabricio Boliveira. It screens on Monday. Other titles include Marco Dutra’s relationship drama Era El Cielo and Mario Muñoz’s film noir The Black Minutes (Los Minutos Negros).

Jeremy Kay

MadRiver Pictures is financing, producing and has started talks with international buyers here on James Gray’s sci-fi epic Ad Astra.

Gray, Keep Your Head Productions’ Anthony Katagas, Rodrigo Teixeira of Brazil’s RT Features, and MadRiver’s Marc Butan produce.

Grenier, Rogers go Public Adrian Grenier and Mimi Rogers have joined the cast of 13 Films’ sales title Public Affairs, a political thriller to start shooting in June.

Spinning to Marché

Sarajevo enlists auteurs for jury duty

By Tom Grater

Sarajevo Film Festival has revealed the juries for its 22nd edition (August 12-20).

The feature film competition jury will be presided over by Palestinian director Elia Suleiman, who has twice been in contention for the Palme d’Or, and

10 Screen International at Cannes May 13, 2016

won a Jury Prize at Cannes for his 2002 feature Divine Intervention.

Joining him on this year’s jury will be: Turkish producer Zeynep Ozbatur Atakan who worked with Nuri Bilge Ceylan on Once Upon A Time In Anatolia, Winter Sleep, Climates and Three Monkeys; Serbian actor Nikola Djuricko (World

War Z, In The Land Of Blood And Honey; Thomas Hailer, the curator of the Berlinale; and Greek actress Angeliki Papoulia, whose credits include Yorgos Lanthimos’s The Lobster and Dogtooth.

» See ScreenDaily.com for the documentary and short film juries

Film Bridge International has commenced sales on the psychological thriller Spinning Man to star Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Emma Roberts.

Snow cast beds in Lisa Loven Kongsli, Sophie Cookson and Peter Franzen have joined Bel Powley in Ashes In The Snow. Radiant Films International handles sales in Cannes.

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WORLD PREMIERE TOMORROW FRI 13 MAY | 19:00 | DEBUSSY THEATRE | PRESS SCREENING FRI 13 MAY | 21:30 | BAZIN THEATRE | PRESS SCREENING SAT 14 MAY | 15:00 | GRAND THEATRE LUMIÈRE | WORLD PREMIERE SUN 15 MAY | 08:30 | RIVIERA 2 | MARKET SCREENING SUN 15 MAY | 14:30 | SALLE DU SOIXANTIÈME | REPEAT SCREENING SUN 15 MAY | 20:00 | PALAIS J | MARKET SCREENING TUE 17 MAY | 16:00 | OLYMPIA 5 | MARKET SCREENING

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09.05.16 17:13

News

Screen to host global VoD panel

Logical Winter is coming

Screen International is partnering with Sofa Digital to present an expert panel in Cannes entitled VoD Goes Global.

The panel will be held on Sunday at 10am in the Diane room of the Majestic Barriere hotel and will examine VoD potential in emerging markets such as Latin America, Southeast Asia, China and Russia. It will also look at lessons from more mature markets and how those can be applied.

Moderated by Screen International contributing editor Wendy Mitchell, the panel comprises: MUBI CEO Efe Cakarel, Festival Scope founder and COO Mathilde Henrot, Curzon head of home entertainment and digital Steve Lewis and Sofa Digital executive director Fabio Lima.

By Melanie Goodfellow

» To register your interest in attending the panel, please visit http://bit.ly/1QXfKKR

French producer Alexis Perrin and entrepreneur Frédéric Fiore have joined forces to create mini studio Logical Pictures.

The studio aims to make English-language genre films, budgeted from $1.15m to $17m (¤1m to ¤15m), using young European directors.

Logical makes its Cannes debut with four projects led by the futuristic Ickerman, described as “Bullitt meets Blade Runner” and

Winter’s End, about four orphans in a near-future world.

Winter’s End is the debut feature of award-winning music video directorial duo Fleur & Manu and stars Dean-Charles Chapman and Brian Vernel, a 2015 Screen International Star of Tomorrow.

“The idea is to invest in elevated arthouse genre pictures with crossover potential in the vein of Let The Right One In, Green Room or The Lobster,” said Fiore, who added that the company is pulling

together a $22.8m (¤20m) capital fund. “We’ve already secured 30% and are launching the roadshow now. The idea is to gap finance about 15% of any movie,” he said.

In-house development is the early focus but gap finance for third-party projects will come later.

Fiore said: “That’s unique in France, especially for elevated genre where the focus has traditionally been on family comedies, even though there are lots of new directors who want to move into genre.”

Finecut sells The World Korean sales company Finecut has inked a slew of deals on children’s film The World Of Us. The film, which opens theatrically in Korea in June, has gone to Taiwan (AV Jet), Benelux (MOOOV) and ex-Yugoslavia (FIVIA d.o.o.). Finecut has also sold thriller Fatal Intuition to Clover Films for Singapore, AV Jet for Taiwan and New Media Rights for mainland China.

Liz Shackleton

Vertical sparks off Trash Fire

By Jeremy Kay

Trash Fire

12 Screen International at Cannes May 13, 2016

Vertical Entertainment has acquired worldwide rights to Sundance horror Trash Fire, directed by Richard Bates Jr (Excision, Suburban Gothic) and starring Adrian Grenier.

Co-president Rich Goldberg anticipates a Q4 release on the Circle Of Confusion and Snowfort Pictures production about a man who confronts his past and becomes entangled in a web of deceit and murder.

David Clarke Lawson Jr produced with Lawrence Mattis and Matt Smith, and Makan Delrahim executive produced. “The film is a wild ride. This is a team we’ve been wanting to collaborate with for some time,” said Goldberg.

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Crew flies the world Central Partnership has racked up sales on its disaster movie The Crew. The $21m film, shot in Imax, has now gone to France (Purple Pictures), Turkey (ATV), Malaysia, Philippines and Cambodia (Suraya) and the Baltic states (Garsu). The Crew, directed by Nikolay Lebedev was released last month in Russia and CIS to blockbuster box office.

Another Central Partnership production, Furious, is attracting strong interest. The historical action drama, in production with director Ivan Shuhovetsky, has pre-sold to South Korea (World Cinema), France (Purple Pictures) and Germany, Benelux, Switzerland and Austria (Splendid).

Geoffrey Macnab

Myriad serves Lucero’s Sushi

Troukens is Above The Law

By Geoffrey Macnab

Francois Troukens, the reformed gangster-turned-Belgian media celebrity, is to co-direct $6.8m crime thriller Above The Law (Au-Dessus Des Lois).

Jacques-Henri Bronckart of Belgian outfit Versus has revealed details of the production, due to shoot in the summer and handled internationally by TF1.

The film centres on a smalltime crook who is framed for murder and has to go on the run to prove his innocence.

As co-director with Jean-Francois Hensgens, Troukens will bring experience of his former life as an armed robber, sentenced to 28 years in prison while on the

run and finally caught in 2004.

He was released for good behaviour in 2010 and has since become a well-known TV personality.

Above The Law stars Olivier Gourmet, Kevin Janssens, Lubna Azabal and Natacha Régnier. Versus is co-producing with Capture The Flag and Savage Film.

Versus’ latest Joachim Lafosse feature After Love (L’Economie Du Couple), starring Bérénice Bejo, is screening in Directors’ Fortnight.

Versus is also preparing Duelles, the latest feature from Olivier Masset-Depasse (Illegal), a psychological drama to star Veerle Baetens.

Jacques-Henri and Olivier Bronckart for Versus will produce with Haut et Court’s Carole Scotta.

Myriad Pictures is in Cannes with worldwide rights excluding Latin America, South Korea and airlines for the feelgood foodie dramedy East Side Sushi.

Anthony Lucero wrote and directed the film that stars Diana Elizabeth Torres as a MexicanAmerican chef who dreams of working behind the male-dominated sushi bar. Myriad brokered the deal with Samuel Goldwyn Films, which released it theatrically in September last year.

By Jeremy Kay

A six-strong slate of sci-fi, thriller and action movies has been greenlit by Canadian producer Minds Eye Entertainment with US-based Bridgegate Pictures and VMI Worldwide.

Minds Eye will distribute the films in North America while VMI will handle international sales.

National Film Development Corporation Malaysia (FINAS) is showcasing 10 Malaysian films through a new initiative, Malaysia Goes To Cannes.

The 10 films will be presented by their producers and directors at an event in Palais 1 on Tuesday, May 17 (2pm-4pm). Around 15 minutes of footage will be screened from each film.

The line-up includes Shanjhey Kumar Perumal’s Tamil-language crime drama Jagat, selected for this year’s New York Asian Film

14 Screen International at Cannes May 13, 2016

Pekak

Festival; Mohd Khairul Azri’s Pekak, about the relationship between a drug dealer and a troubled schoolgirl; and Syamsul Yusof’s Munafik, a Malay and

The first production to go is sci-fi thriller The Recall based on a screenplay by Reggie Keyohara III and Sam Acton King. The story follows a group on holiday unaware the planet is under alien attack.

The films will be shot for the Barco Escape three-screen, panoramic theatrical format and portions will be shot in virtual reality.

Mirovision meditates on Era Trilogy

By Jean Noh

Seoul-based sales agent Mirovision has picked up The Era Trilogy from leading independent Korean animation studio Meditation With A Pencil, headed by directors Ahn Jae-hoon and Han Hye-jin of Green Days (2011) and The Road Called Life (2014).

The Era Trilogy started with coming-of-age fantasy animation

FINAS presents Malaysia’s finest

By Liz Shackleton

By Jeremy Kay

Recall leads Minds Eye, VMI wave

Arabic-language horror film, which is Malaysia’s highest-grossing local film so far this year with $4.2m (myr17.04m).

The Cannes programme is the first in a series of events planned

by FINAS, headed by director general Dato’ Kamil Othman, to increase distribution of Malaysian films overseas.

The Cannes line-up also includes two titles in post-production: Saw Teong Hin’s Hokkienlanguage You Mean The World To Me and We Jun’s Cantoneselanguage Taiping Adagio.

Green Days, which represented the ‘past’.

The ‘present’ part, A Thousand Years Together, is a fantasy drama that was showcased last year at Annecy. Asia, representing the ‘future’ in the trilogy, is a fantasy adventure that takes a boy and his AI friend on a search for their dreams. The project is due for completion in 2018.

Chin hires cast for Golden Job Hong Kong action star Chin Ka-lok has reconvened with four of his co-stars from the Young And Dangerous series for action comedy Golden Job, which Golden Network Asia is handling internationally.

Chin will both direct and star in the film, along with Ekin Cheng, Jordan Chan, Michael Tse and Jerry Lamb. Eric Tsang is producing.

Liz Shackleton

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In conversation with...

Bruno Dumont (Slack Bay, Competition)

Bruno Dumont

No Quotas Jodie Foster doesn’t believe quotas are the way forward for female film-makers Jodie Foster opened the second edition of Kering’s Women In Motion initiative on Thursday, packing out the seventhfloor penthouse suite at the Majestic.

The actress, director and producer said it was more difficult than ever for female film-makers to get their projects green-lit in a “risk-adverse climate”. But she questioned whether a quota system was the best way to get more women into the director’s chair. “I think this

discussion is going to have to be more complex than that,” said Foster. “We’re really dealing with an art form and every film is a new invention. We’re not a factory where we make shoes and we keep making shoes. We reinvent and reinvent. The conversation has to be as complex as possible for us to attend to what the real issues are because there are so many issues about lack of diversity in our culture.”

Melanie Goodfellow

Portrait of a contemporary lady Justine Triet’s In Bed With Victoria — a comedy drama about a criminal lawyer juggling single motherhood and a heavy caseload — opened Critics’ Week yesterday.

French female directors are notoriously reluctant to discuss how being a woman impacts their work. A stock response: “I am a director first, a woman second.”

But this is not the case with Triet. The 38-year-old director is refreshingly open about her desire to create a strong female protagonist for her second feature (see review, page 28).

“Questions on gender can be complicated in that you want people to talk about your film, rather than the fact you’re a woman,” says the director. “But In Bed With Victoria is undeniably a portrait of a contemporary woman with a

Slack Bay is very different from French director Bruno Dumont’s previous Competition films, L’Humanité and Flanders, serious dramas that both won the Jury Grand Prize. Set in coastal northern France, it is a surreal comedy involving two families from opposite sides of the social spectrum: the wealthy, decadent Van Peteghems and the Bréfort fishing clan. The director spoke to Screen about his newfound love of comedy.

What’s prompted your move towards comedy?

My work has always explored human nature and comedy has given me a new way to do that.

It can be as effective, direct and hard-hitting as drama when it comes to unveiling the mysteries of human nature. It’s renewed and revitalised me.

What was the thinking behind mixing big-name stars like

Juliette Binoche with amateur actors?

I’ve always worked with amateur actors but never to this extent.

It was a way of accentuating the extremes between the rich and the poor, using well-known actors — who are sort of aristocracy in the cinema world — and putting them beside ordinary people.

What is it you love about shooting in the Nord-PasDe-Calais?

It’s a region and people I know by heart. It’s where I live. It’s an exceptional place for cinema, for its population and landscape.

There is an authenticity and local life that gives me strength.

What are you working on next?

I’m preparing to shoot Jeanette, my musical about Joan of Arc as a child, and then I will make a second series of Li’l Quinquin, revisiting the central character as a teenager.

Melanie Goodfellow

In Bed With Victoria

busy life and powerful job directed by a woman, which in itself is a feminist approach.”

The role of Victoria marks a change of scene for Virginie Efira, who has made her name as the go-to actress for mainstream French rom-coms, co-starring opposite Pierre Niney in It Boy (20 Ans d’Ecart) and Jean Dujardin in Up For Love. She also appears in

18 Screen International at Cannes May 13, 2016

Paul Verhoeven’s Competition title Elle. “She is a brilliant actress. I fell in love with her not so much for her past films but rather listening to her in interviews. It’s true she hasn’t been in many films d’auteur but I could feel she wanted to move her career in another direction. In France, we’re too quick to pigeonhole actors in a certain category.”

Melanie Goodfellow

Slack Bay

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Olli Maki knocked out by love Juho Kuosmanen was feeling the pressure after he won the Cinefondation Prize in 2010 with The Painting Sellers — it meant his first feature would land a slot in Cannes. So he found a relatable story about “this character who gets this chance of a lifetime and blows it”. That character is Olli Maki, the real-life Finnish boxer who has a shot at a world boxing championship in 1962, but is more preoccupied with falling in love. “I could deal with those same issues and emotions I was having myself. It was fun to deal with this old boxing story and somehow also put myself in there,” he says.

The Happiest Day In The Life Of Olli Maki, which premieres in Un Certain Regard on May 19 and is sold by Les Films du Losange, shows more characters than right hooks. “When I started to follow boxing, I went to see the weighins and the rehearsing and press conferences. I thought those things were more interesting, the things that are hidden, not in the foreground.” Reading Joyce Carol

Aamu Film Company

Director Juho Kuosmanen focuses on life outside the ring with true-life Finnish boxing drama

Bow tie by Uber

Juho Kuosmanen

Oates’ On Boxing also helped him, as did watching cinéma vérité documentaries and old films like The Set-Up and Body And Soul.

Kuosmanen has previously worked with his leading man Jarkko Lahti on two shorts and in

the theatre. “Jarkko’s a decent boxer,” says the director. “He’s been training since 2011, when I first got the idea. One of his trainers was Olli Maki’s son.”

The black-and-white film has a refreshingly light touch. “Not

Tag your #Cannes2016 pictures, anecdotes and gossip #CannesChatter to feature on this page

Kristen Stewart finds herself in a love triangle amid the werewolves and vampires. New Twilight movie?

No, Café Society. #cannes2016 Steven Zeitchik @ZeitchikLAT

Miller, Desplechin, Paradis, Dunst, Golino, Sutherland, Shahabi, Mikkelsen, Nemes. What a jury #Cannes2016 !

Sébastien @CinephileCannes

#Cannes2016 is happening and I’m so excited for the fashion, film and fab-ness

20 Screen International at Cannes May 13, 2016

Jarkko Lahti as Olli Mäki

Dubiecki talks Money

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@jlyanga Steps from the Palais is a cinephile’s sandcastle homage — a 2 bucket job — to Georges Méliès A Trip To The Moon (1902) #Cannesfilmfestival

every film can deal with terrorism or refugees,” says Kuosmanen.

“We need other stories also.”

Wendy Mitchell

Ready to walk the red carpet in your tuxedo but forgotten to bring your bow tie?

Transportation company Uber, which is increasing its presence at Cannes this year, has you covered with its new UberPAPILLON service available via the app. For €85, you can get a choice of three bow ties, one of which is a funky flamingo number (pictured), delivered on demand by bike messenger in just five minutes, as part of a partnership with French fashion brand Cinabre.

Uber has also brought its UberCOPTER service again, offering seven-minute flights from Nice to Cannes for €160 per person.

Marking the fourth year of Uber’s presence at Cannes, the company is also the official partner of Directors’ Fortnight in 2016.

Krysten McCumber @krystenpm

Like all labours of love, bringing out of competition selection Money Monster to the screen has been a saga. “We got the script seven years ago, last week,” says Daniel Dubiecki, in town for the film’s world premiere with wife and producing partner Lara Alameddine. Finishing Up In The Air at the time, they felt George Clooney would be perfect to play Lee Gates, the brash host of a financial TV show who is taken hostage on air.

It would be another five years, though, before they approached Clooney. “We had to get the elements right first,” says Alameddine. That included bringing Jodie Foster on board as director, and landing at TriStar after a bidding war. With Julia Roberts as Gates’ producer, there was one piece left of the jigsaw: casting

Julia Roberts in Money Monster

disgruntled investor Kyle. Cue Jack O’Connell, who blew away everyone in his audition. “He read lines with Jodie,” says Dubiecki, “and right away she looked at me.

We knew we had our Kyle.”

See review, page 24.

Jeremy Kay

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Reviews

» Money Monster p24 » Stay Vertical p26 » Sieranevada p26

» In Bed With Victoria p28 » The Last Resort p28

Reviews edited by Fionnuala Halligan finn.halligan@screendaily.com

Money Monster Reviewed by Tim Grierson For a movie that is focused on current events, Money Monster feels five years behind the times.

Chronicling a hostage scenario that takes place on live television, this unpersuasive thriller wants to examine the poisonous allure of cable news, the obscenity of Wall Street corruption, and the widening gap between the haves and have-nots.

Director Jodie Foster, however, fails to bring much that is incisive to the story, and as a result her insights into these modern-day ills have little sting — even worse, the movie parades them as audacious revelations. Veteran stars George Clooney and Julia Roberts bring some gravitas to the proceedings, but this ungainly mixture of Dog Day Afternoon, Network and The Big Short neither stirs the imagination nor quickens the pulse.

Premiering at Cannes shortly before it hits US theatres on May 13, Money Monster casts Clooney as Lee Gates, the smug host of a flashy cable news show, which offers stock tips to viewers. On the day that his brilliant, long-suffering producer Patty Fenn (Roberts) will be leaving the programme, Lee is ambushed on the air by Kyle (Jack O’Connell), a desperate man with a gun, who blames the host for his money woes.

Kyle, who took Lee’s advice about investing in a seemingly can’t-miss stock, losing his savings in the process, threatens to kill Lee right

24 Screen International at Cannes May 13, 2016

Out of competition US. 2016. 98mins Director Jodie Foster Production companies TriStar Pictures, LStar Capital, Smokehouse Pictures, Allegiance Theater Worldwide distribution Sony Pictures, www.sonypictures.com Producers Daniel Dubiecki, Lara Alameddine, George Clooney, Grant Heslov Screenplay Jamie Linden, Alan DiFiore and Jim Kouf, from a story by Alan DiFiore and Jim Kouf Cinematography Matthew Libatique Production design Kevin Thompson Editor Matt Chessé Music Dominic Lewis Main cast George Clooney, Julia Roberts, Jack O’Connell, Dominic West, Caitriona Balfe, Giancarlo Esposito, Christopher Denham

there in the studio. The host tries to reason with his assailant, while a growing audience at home watches the tense standoff.

Foster’s fourth film as a director — and her first since 2011’s gutsy but flimsy satire The Beaver — shows her continuing to shift genres with each new project. But, despite capable lensing from long-time Darren Aronofsky cinematographer Matthew Libatique, Money Monster lacks the confidence behind the camera that would make this thriller taut or juicily compelling.

Whether she is depicting the controlled chaos behind the scenes of a popular live cable show or exploring the mystery of precisely why this stock collapsed, Foster shows little affinity for the fast-paced material. The movie is competently made, but also perfunctory, telling us things about the greed of rich business executives and the shallowness of cable TV that we already know.

Indicative of Money Monster’s lack of nerve, Lee is initially presented as a cynical, soullessly telegenic figure, but, as played by Clooney, it is clear that he is not really that much of a monster — in fact, he will prove himself to be a pretty decent guy soon enough.

Because our sympathies are so quickly aligned with Lee, there is no deeper conflict during his conversations with the blue-collar Kyle, who may not be bright but is aggrieved at how celebrities like Lee treat the stock market as some big game. The smarter, more daring

film would give each of these men subtle shading, so that our loyalties would be torn, but Foster and her three screenwriters make it too easy on the audience, quickly shifting the blame to a shadowy, simplistically evil CEO (Dominic West) who Patty must track down to learn the truth about the failed stock.

Working his impish smile, Clooney gives Lee the right amount of smarm, but he cannot bring much surprise to a character whose understanding of how he has contributed to the dumbing-down of investment advice is terribly trite. Roberts fares better because Patty has no arc: she is just a hardnosed, stunningly efficient producer, and so the Oscar-winning actress lends her a no-nonsense steeliness in the midst of this hostage crisis.

As for O’Connell, whose profile rose after starring in 2014’s Unbroken, he gives a weary, edgy commitment to the armed-and-dangerous Kyle, who is like a powder keg ready to explode. But the character has nowhere to go emotionally and, as Money Monster slogs along, O’Connell has to keep upping the intensity in a futile attempt to raise the stakes.

There are isolated moments in which Foster hits upon a clever idea or upends expectations.

But the flashes of intelligent, thoughtful film-making dissipate so quickly that it only makes the rest of this pedestrian, socially conscious thriller gall all the more. Money Monster is about as fresh and exciting as yesterday’s news.

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U N C E RTA I N R E G A R D

FRANCISCO SANCTIS’S LONG NIGHT Francisco Márques & Andrea Testa

C I N E ARGENTINO AT CANNES 2016

Q U I N Z A I N E D E S R É A L I S AT E U R S

NERUDA Pablo Larraín

SCREENINGS

FRANCISCO SANCTIS’S LONG NIGHT / 05.20 fri 11:30 Salle Debussy 05.20 fri 16:30 Salle Debussy BUSINESS / 05.20 fri 11:00 Salle Buñuel, Palais des Festivals NERUDA / 05.13 fri 8:45 Théâtre Croisette 05.13 fri 17:00 Théâtre Croisette GALLO ROJO / 05.12 thu 12:15

Théâtre Croisette

PARAYA / 05.12 thu 12:15

Théâtre Croisette

C I N É FO N D AT I O N / S H O RT F I L M

BUSINESS Malena Vain

S O U T H A F R I C A FAC TO R Y Q U I N Z A I N E D E S R É A L I S AT E U R S

PARAYA

Sheetal Magan & Martín Morgenfeld

S O U T H A F R I C A FAC TO R Y Q U I N Z A I N E D E S R É A L I S AT E U R S

GALLO ROJO

Zamo Mkhwanazi & Alejandro Fade

REVIEWS

Sieranevada Reviewed by Dan Fainaru Cristi Puiu’s third story from the Bucharest outskirts (following The Death Of Mr Lazarescu and Aurora) should have been another tough nut to crack. Three hours long, and shot almost entirely in one cluttered, old-fashioned apartment, family and friends celebrating the memorial of the recently departed pater familias — everything that should scare an average audience away. No wonder so many partners had to join forces before the film could reach the screen. That all these partners could end up sharing one of Cannes’ main trophies, possibly even the top one, would only be their well-deserved reward for taking the plunge.

Granted, this is not multiplex fare. But those who are not put off by extensive subtitling will find themselves swept away by this family reunion that offers not only a masterful portrait of the contemporary Romanian middle class but also a whole set of smart, perceptive reflections on the relativity of truth, the failings of memory, the interpretation of history, the significance of religion and much more.

Triggered by the memory of his father’s memorial and his own attempts to reconstruct exactly what went on, Puiu turns this family encounter into an ironic but compassionate, carefully observed clash of characters, opinions and personalities. All are locked in the confined

Competition Rom-Fr-Bos-Herz-MacCro. 2016. 173mins Director-screenplay Cristi Puiu Production companies Mandragora Film, Produkcija 2006 Sarajevo, Studioul de Creatie Cinematografica, Sisters and Brothers Mitevski, Spiritus Movens, Alcatraz Films, Iadasarecasa, Arte France Cinema International sales Elle Driver, sales@elledriver.eu Producers Anca Puiu, Mirsad Purivatra, Sabina Brankovic, Lucian Pintilie, Labina Mitevska, Zdenka Gold, Laurence Clerc, Olivier Théry-Lapiney Cinematography Barbu Balasoiu Main cast Mimi Branescu, Dana Dogaru, Judith State, Bogdan Dumitrache, Catalina Moga, Ana Ciontea

space of a flat, with its doors closing not only on rooms but on issues as well, as the camera follows the skirmishes, misunderstandings, tensions, bickering and arguments that keep this family apart and united at the same time.

Shown mostly through the eyes of Lary (Mimi Branescu), the older son of the deceased, the gathering moves from one crisis to another, brought about by the temper of Lary’s wife Laura (Catalina Moga), the barely hidden frustrations of his sister Sandra (Judith State), the anguish of his brother Relu (Bogdan Dumitrache), the wailings of his aunt Ofelia (Ana Ciontea), the cockeyed conspiracy theories of his cousin Sebi (Marin Grigore), the communist nostalgia of a relative, Evelina (Tatiana Iekel), and so on.

Puiu alternates between tempos as though

playing a musical piece, effortlessly going up and down on the decibel scale, often placing Barbu Balasoiu’s camera at eye level in the apartment’s entrance hall to move from there to one or another room. He never cuts a shot as long as it can be sustained continuously and uses the flat’s many doors not only to close down one space and move to another, but also to shift between issues.

The cast is admirable throughout. The coherent precision of their performances is bound to draw in an audience, forgetting they are watching strangers on the screen and suspecting they are at their own family get-together.

riding into the unknown. Wolves play a key role in the film and there are distant castles that stretch into the sky. On a journey through the south of France, Leo is drawn to shepherdess Marie (India Hair), but when their liaison results in the birth of a son, she is coldly indifferent and he is left to take responsibility for the boy. Fatherhood is both the making of him and the thing that spins him even further from the axis of his life.

Guiraudie is on a par with Terrence Malick in his feel for nature and landscape. The film unfolds beneath clear, starry skies and a sound mix that invites you to listen to the wind rustle through the trees or grass sway in the breeze.

The combination of harsh rural plains, hard lives and bitter truths suggests a modern twist on the novels of Thomas Hardy or Marcel Pagnol. The tale of a film-maker brought low by his encounters with the real world even suggests a link of sorts to Sullivan’s Travels, especially as Leo grows destitute, homeless and struggles to stand tall, or stay vertical, in a world that is conspiring to beat him down.

Bonnard’s lugubrious, lumbering Leo becomes an appealing figure as he sustains his curiosity about other people, grows protective towards his son and shows a generosity

towards the desires of others. He is propositioned by almost every major character, including Marie’s dour father Jean-Louis (Raphael Thiery) and the elderly, Pink Floyd-loving Marcel (Christian Bouillette).

Even as Staying Vertical strays into darker territory, Guiraudie retains a comic touch and is unafraid to tackle big themes in a film that is tinged with a nostalgia for an earlier age and way of life that is disappearing.

Screen Score

★★★★

Staying Vertical Reviewed by Allan Hunter Unless you are Federico Fellini, then weaving a film around the creative paralysis of a filmmaker rarely seems a wise move. Alain Guiraudie puts his own highly idiosyncratic stamp on the premise in Staying Vertical (Rester Vertical) as he follows a film-maker sidetracked by a sea of troubles while seeking the inspiration for a screenplay.

Sex and death have been the recurring themes of Guiraudie’s work and are in abundant evidence here along with the additional notion of the promise to be found in a new life.

Exploring a bewildering range of issues from ideas of masculinity to assisted suicide and the fraying of societal ties, Staying Vertical is wildly eccentric, darkly comic and filled with youdon’t-see-that-often moments that are liable to render it an acquired taste. The film’s unpredictability and fondness for the fluid sexuality of its characters will seem odd to some, endearing to others, making commercial prospects likely to match earlier Guiraudie features such as King Of Escape (2009) rather than his breakthrough Stranger By The Lake (2013).

There is a fairytale quality here with filmmaker Leo (Damien Bonnard) like a lost knight

26 Screen International at Cannes May 13, 2016

Competition Fr. 2016. 100mins Director-screenplay Alain Guiraudie Production company Les Films Du Worso International sales Wild Bunch, ndevide@wildbunch.eu Producers Sylvie Pialat, Benoit Quainon Cinematography Claire Mathon Editor Jean-Christophe Hym Production design Toma Baqueni Main cast Damien Bonnard, India Hair, Raphael Thiery, Christian Bouillette

Screen Score

★★★

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FILM IN SCOTLAND

FOR THE PERFECT LOCATION Join us at Pavilion 119 – UK Film Centre and find out about our fast, free, confidential location-finding service, award-winning production companies, experienced crew and great facilities. www.creativescotlandlocations.com E locations@creativescotland.com T +44 (0) 141 302 1724 Stob Dearg, Buachaille Etive Mor and the River Coupall Photo: Stewart Smith/Scottish Viewpoint

REVIEWS

The Last Resort Reviewed by Lee Marshall

In Bed With Victoria Reviewed by Lisa Nesselson A fitfully amusing contemporary romp about a single mother whose personal and professional life are as volatile as an active volcano, In Bed With Victoria (Victoria) has its moments, but too often falls short of the oomph that renders a comedy special.

As the titular lawyer going through a rough patch, the fetching Virginie Efira is in nearly every scene playing harried and overwhelmed with decent comic timing.

But it is difficult to care about her compound difficulties even when she turns out to be far less ditzy in the courtroom than she is in her private life. After opening Critics’ Week here, this well-cast venture seems destined primarily for French-language audiences and fests in search of lighter fare.

Writer-director Justine Triet attracted notice with her 2013 debut Age Of Panic, a semi-improvised feature filmed in part among the throngs at French Socialist Party headquarters the night Francois Hollande was elected president. In Bed With Victoria is a major step up in budget and tone as it continues to explore the balancing act of parenthood, romance and career for today’s women.

The film starts with Victoria at her shrink’s office, establishing that she often requires a sounding board for dissecting her disorderly existence. She also consults a fortune teller, sees an acupuncturist and sets up a fairly constant parade of one night stands via the internet.

When Victoria attends a wedding, the night takes an awkward turn with her friend Vincent (Melvil Poupaud) being accused of attempted murder by his girlfriend (Alice Daquet). Victoria reluctantly takes on the case, pushing her already strained life to breaking point.

The actors are very good but the material they are working with falls short of making Victoria’s personal chaos consistently compelling. The courtroom sequences — including the peculiar but logical process of citing a dog as a witness — are among the best.

This is the talented Efira’s sixth noteworthy role in the past year or so (she stars opposite a four-foot tall Jean Dujardin in current French hit Up For Love and has a small but crucial role in Paul Verhoeven’s Elle) and one couldn’t wish for a better choice to play Victoria, a smart woman whose confessions do not always land on the right pair of ears.

28 Screen International at Cannes May 13, 2016

CRITICS’ WEEK, OPENING FILM Fr. 2016. 97mins Director-screenplay Justine Triet Production company Ecce Films International sales Indie Sales, nesbach@ indiesales.eu Producer Emmanuel Chaumet Cinematography Simon Beaufils Editor Laurent Sénéchal Production design Olivier Meidinger Main cast Virginie Efira, Vincent Lacoste, Melvil Poupaud, Laurent Poitrenaux, Laure Calamy, Alice Daquet

In Trieste, a once-thriving multicultural port city in northeastern Italy, there is a municipal bathing establishment with a high concrete wall dividing the men’s and women’s sections of the beach. This wry, profound and tender documentary, co-directed by Trieste-based Greek auteur Thanos Anastopoulos (The Daughter) and his Italian colleague Davide del Degan, distils a year spent observing the denizens of this strange, divided sliver of old Europe. Metaphor? Yes, but not in the obvious way we might expect.

More elegiac than didactic, The Last Resort (L’ultima Spiaggia) encourages its audience to muse on borders, geographical, sexual and otherwise, while never abandoning its affectionate focus on the eccentric bunch of regulars that hang out, rain or shine, in this curious survivor of a more prudish Austro-Hungarian seaside era.

On paper, the running time looks challenging for a film with no dramatic arc to speak of, but those who settle into its gently lapping rhythms and tune into the thematic undertow may feel almost cheated when it’s over.

The film follows the flow of the season at ‘El Pedocin’, as the Bagni Comunali Lanterna bathing establishment is known locally. At first, before the summer invasion, it is just regulars — such as grumpy, pigeon-chested Vinicio — who turn up to exchange sometimes barbed badinage with other elderly habitués.

These leathery men seem like hoary old walruses, alternately bored and sparring. The women, in their section, play cards and have altogether fewer complexes.

But in both areas we sense the crackle of history in what was long a contested Italo-Slav border zone.

Men and women are not the only ones to be separated here. Anna, the stressed, ever-muttering municipal employee who mans the ticket desk and cleans up the beach, turns out to be the tragic Eleanor Rigby of the tale, while two muscular young lifeguards can, in theory, access all areas; but this charmed status seems a limbo rather than a licence for these recent immigrants, who work out on the rusting metal bars of the breakwater terrace, biding their time until something better turns up.

In the insouciance of its style and the utter lack of cinematic self-consciousness among the ‘actors’, The Last Resort is utterly engaging. Its other major achievement is in the editing of what must have been weeks of footage to create a humorous and poignant reflection on the walls that unite and divide us.

OUT OF COMPETITION It-Gr-Fr. 2016. 135mins Directors Thanos Anastopoulos, Davide del Degan Production companies Mansarda Production, Fantasia Audiovisual, Arizona Productions International sales Wide House, ac@widehouse.org Producers Nicoletta Romeo, Stella Theodorakis, Guillaume de Seille Cinematography Ilias Adamis, Debora Vrizzi Editor Bonita Papastathi

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Hot Projects Hong Kong & China

Walking tall Highly anticipated films from John Woo, Ann Hui and Johnnie To are among the vibrant line-up of Hong Kong and China projects available to international buyers on the Croisette. Liz Shackleton reports

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ainland China’s box office grew by 51% to hit $2.23bn ( rmb 14.5bn) in the first quarter of the year, boosted by mega-hits including Stephen Chow’s The Mermaid over Chinese New Year.

But it was also a period marred by allegations of box-office fraud.

In March, the Chinese distributor of Ip Man 3, Beijing Max Screen, had its licence suspended for one month for buying $8.6m worth of tickets to its own film and fabricating more than 7,600 screenings. Three electronic ticket-selling groups involved in the fraud were given formal warnings, along with 73 cinemas. Over the past month, doubts have also been cast over the reported box office of other local films.

But even without fraud, there is no doubt that a select number of local productions are raking in unprecedented revenues from Chinese cinemas. Every week, there are also smaller films that crash and burn, but the action, romance and comedy hits keep on rolling. Successes in April, usually a quiet month at the box office, included Sammo Hung’s action title The Bodyguard, which grossed around $50m; Yang Qing’s crime caper Chongqing Hotpot, which took $57m; and Xue Xiaolu’s rom-com sequel Book Of Love, which grossed $55m on its opening three-day weekend.

Both The Bodyguard and Book Of Love were produced by Edko Films founder Bill Kong, highlighting how Hong Kong producers, directors and actors continue to play a key role in mainland China’s film industry, although Beijing-based studios don’t rely on them as before.

On a local level, government initiatives and film-makers such as Johnnie To are throwing a much-needed lifeline to upand-coming Hong Kong talent working in Cantonese. Some of this was on display at this year’s Hong Kong International Film Festival, where films such as Johnnie To-produced Trivisa, Chan Chi-fat’s Weeds On Fire and Steve Yuen’s Heaven In The Dark were warmly received by critics.

Hong Kong’s beleaguered independent cinema also received an unexpected triumph at this year’s Hong Kong Film Awards, where controversial omnibus Ten Years, expressing Hong Kong’s fears about encroaching mainland influence, clinched the award for best film.

30 Screen International at Cannes May 13, 2016

Bounty Hunters

SELECTED PROJECTS in the Market

Battle Of Memories Dir Leste Chen The follow-up to Leste Chen’s 2014 psychological thriller The Great Hypnotist tells the story of a famous novelist who recovers from a nasty divorce by having a decade of his memory wiped. But when he tries to recover the lost memories, he finds himself in the mind of a serial killer.

Huang Bo, Xu Jinglei and Yang Zishan head the cast of the $22m film, which recently wrapped in Thailand and is being lined up for release in China on December 18.

Contact Annabelle Hao, Wanda Pictures haoshuang@wanda.com.cn

Book Of Love Dir Xue Xiaolu The sequel to hit romantic comedy Finding Mr Right — and also sometimes known as Finding Mr Right 2 — reunites the director with actors Tang Wei and Wu Xiubo, but tells a new story. Tang plays a worker in a Macau casino who strikes up

a correspondence with a real-estate agent helping wealthy Chinese to buy property in Los Angeles. Finding Mr Right grossed $80m in 2013 and sparked a trend for romantic comedies in mainland China.

Contact Julian Chiu, Edko Films chiujulian@edkofilms.com.hk

Bounty Hunters Dir Terra Shin Korean star Lee Min Ho (Gangnam Blues) and Hong Kong actor Wallace Chung (Monster Hunt) star in this action adventure, directed by Korea’s Terra Shin (My Girlfriend Is An Agent) and produced

by Raymond Wong. Scripted by Edmond Wong, who also wrote the Ip Man franchise, the film follows a group of bounty hunters chasing a serial bomber across Korea and Thailand. A co-production between Hong Kong, China and Korea, the film is completed and is screening in the Cannes market.

Contact Jamie Sun, Pegasus Motion Pictures jamie.sun@pegasusmovie.com

The Brink Dir Jonathan Li Soi Cheang and Paco Wong are producing this big-budget action thriller for

Hong Kong-based Sun Entertainment, Chinese streaming platform iQiyi, YL Pictures and Sil-Metropole Organisation.

Zhang Jin (Ip Man 3), Shawn Yue, Wu Yue and Janice Man star in a story about a cop who is caught in the crossfire between rival factions in a gold-smuggling ring. Currently in production, the film marks the feature debut of Jonathan Li, associate director on Overheard 2, Overheard 3 and Blind Detective.

Contact Ricky Tse, Bravos Pictures ricky.tse@bravospictures.com

Call Of Heroes Dir Benny Chan Well Go USA recently snapped up North American and UK rights to the latest epic action film from Benny Chan, whose credits include The White Storm and Shaolin. Starring Sean Lau Ching-wan, Louis Koo and Eddie Peng, it is set during the warlords era after the fall of the Qing Dynasty. The film tells the story of a group of plucky villagers standing up to a cruel young general. Now in post-production, the $32m film is produced by Universe Entertainment and has Sammo Hung on board as action choreographer.

Contact Alice Leung, Universe Films Distribution alice_leung@uih.com.hk

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HOT PROJECTS HONG KONG & CHINA

Cold War 2

fund Sonneratia Capital. Now in postproduction.

Dir Longman Leung, Sunny Luk

Contact May Yip, Emperor Motion Pictures mayyip@emperorgroup.com

Chow Yun-fat, Aaron Kwok, Tony Leung Ka-fai and Eddie Peng star in the highly anticipated sequel to Edko Films’ 2012 action thriller, which became the highest-grossing Hong Kong film of the year.

Now in post-production, the new instalment continues the story of the first film with the hijacker of the missing police van behind bars. But then a retired police chief steps forward to reveal a scheme to corrupt the police force.

Old Stone Dir Johnny Ma Johnny Ma’s feature debut impressed critics at its world premiere at this year’s Berlin International Film Festival and later at Hong Kong International Film Festival.

Produced by C2M Media and Shanghai Junrui Cultural Communication Co, the film follows a taxi driver in a small Chinese town who faces losing his job, friends and family after refusing to follow custom after a hit-and-run accident.

Contact Julian Chiu, Edko Films chiujulian@edkofilms.com.hk

Cook Up A Storm

Contact Isabelle Glachant, Asian Shadows chineseshadows@gmail.com

Dir Raymond Yip Wai-man Building on the success of his cooking and travelogue show Chef Nic, Hong Kong actor Nicholas Tse heads the cast of this foodie drama as a Cantonese street cook who goes up against a Michelinstarred chef in a cookery competition.

Directed by Raymond Yip, who made The House That Never Dies, the film also stars Korean idol Jung Yong-hwa, with a special appearance by China’s Ge You. The film started shooting on April 25.

Delusion

Railroad Tigers Dir Ding Sheng

Contact May Yip, Emperor Motion Pictures mayyip@emperorgroup.com

Delusion Dir Danny Pang Fast rising actor-singer Chau Pakho stars in Danny Pang’s latest horror, which is being developed as the first in a franchise. Produced by Vshine Brothers, Sun Wei and Huace Media Group, the film tells three interconnected stories about characters suffering from a delusional disorder: a girl who starts ‘seeing things’ after an unrequited romance; another girl and her imaginary boyfriend; and an insomniac convinced he’s witnessing a girl being tortured by a man living across from his apartment window.

Contact Elliot Tong, Easternlight Films elliot@arclightfilms.com

The Game Changer Dir Gao Xixi

The Great Escape

The Great Escape

Mission Milano

Dir Ann Hui

Dir Wong Jing

Following her critically acclaimed biopic The Golden Era, Ann Hui is tackling another historical drama, this time following a group of young people fighting for freedom during the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong. Eddie Peng, Zhou Xun and Guo Tao head the cast of the film, which recently wrapped for Bona Film Group and Class Limited.

Huang Xiaoming plays a wealthy entrepreneur who goes undercover to prevent a new invention from falling into the wrong hands in this action comedy directed by Wong Jing. Andy Lau plays an Interpol inspector who is sent to help him. Wong recently cemented his status as a hitmaker with the From Vegas To Macau franchise, which he also directed and produced. Currently in post-production, Mission Milano is being lined up for release in the fourth quarter of 2016.

Contact Virginia Leung, Distribution Workshop virginia@ distributionworkshop.com

Manhunt Dir John Woo

Starring Huang Zitao (You Are My Sunshine), Peter Ho (The Monkey King) and veteran actor Wang Xueqi, The Game Changer is a period action title about gang wars in 1930s Shanghai. Produced

by China’s YL Pictures, the film started shooting in late April. Gao previously directed top-rating TV dramas including The Legend Of Chu And Han, Three Kingdoms and Shanghai Bund.

Chinese actor Zhang Hanyu and Japan’s Masaharu Fukuyama are starring in John Woo’s action thriller Manhunt, which is scheduled to start shooting this summer for Media Asia Films. Based on Juko Nishimura’s novel Hot Pursuit, the film follows a prosecutor who is framed for robbery and rape and sets out to clear his name. Woo is directing from a script written by Chan Hing Kai and Gordon Chan.

Contact Grace Chan, Young Live Entertainment gcxfilm@gmail.com

Contact Fred Tsui, Media Asia frederick_tsui@mediaasia.com

32 Screen International at Cannes May 13, 2016

Mrs K

Contact Angela Wong, Mega-Vision Project Workshop angelaolwong@ mvphk.biz

Mrs K Dir Ho Yuhang Ho Yuhang’s action film Mrs K stars Kara Wai Ying Hung as a housewife who comes out fighting when she is hunted by enemies from her past. Also starring Simon Yam, Taiwanese rock star Wu Bai and Malaysian actor Faizal Hussein, the film is co-produced by Malaysia’s Red Films and Paperheart and Hong Kong’s Emperor Motion Pictures, with backing from Malaysian

Following their collaborations on Police Story 2013 and Little Big Soldier, Ding Sheng is directing Jackie Chan in this $50m action comedy that aims to revive the spirit of classic Chan comedies such as Project A and Drunken Master II. Chan stars as a railroad worker who leads a team of fearless fighters to derail the Japanese war machine in China in 1941.

Young idols Huang Zitao, Wang Kai and Darren Wang also star. Currently in postproduction, the film is backed by investors including Sparkle Roll and Shanghai Film Group.

Contact Clarence Tang, Golden Network Asia clarence@goldnetasia.com

Reset Dir Chang Produced by Jackie Chan and directed

by Korean film-maker Chang, Reset is a big-budget China-Korea co-production starring Yang Mi, Wallace Huo, King Shih-chieh and Liu Chang. Currently in post-production, the sci-fi action adventure follows a female scientist who travels back in time to rescue her kidnapped son. China’s New Clues Films and Jaywalk Studio are co-producing with Korean production house The Lamp.

Contact Clarence Tang, Golden Network Asia clarence@goldnetasia.com

The Rib Dir Zhang Wei The latest feature from entrepreneurturned-filmmaker Zhang Wei, who has directed a string of socially conscious films, tackles issues including transgender youth, religion and family life in contemporary China. The story follows a »

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HOT PROJECTS HONG KONG & CHINA

Someone To Talk To

teenager in a devoutly Christian household who tells his family he wants to transition from male to female. Produced

by Zhang’s Huahao Film & Media, the film is in pre-production and is scheduled to start shooting in the first quarter of 2017.

Contact Will Lin, Fortissimo Films will@fortissimo-hk.com

Shock Wave Dir Herman Yau Andy Lau is producing and stars in this crime thriller about a policeman up against a crime boss who sets off a series of bomb attacks across Hong Kong. Jiang Wu plays the crime boss, who is out for revenge because the cop has put his younger brother and several members of his crew behind bars. Universe Entertainment and Bona Film Group are backing the film, which is in production for release in 2017.

Contact Alice Leung, Universe Films Distribution alice_leung@uih.com.hk

Someone To Talk To Dir Liu Yulin The award-winning shorts film-maker Liu Yulin is adapting her father Liu Zhenyun’s novel, One Sentence Worth Ten Thousand. It is a drama about a divorced sister and her married younger brother who struggle to find somebody to confide in. The original novel won a string of awards, including the Mao Dun Literature Prize, when it was first published in 2008. Liu Yulin’s 2014 short film Door God took Silver at the Student Academy

34 Screen International at Cannes May 13, 2016

PictureOn Weeds caption Fire here

Awards and subsequently screened at Cannes.

Contact Julian Chiu, Edko Films chiujulian@edkofilms.com.hk

S Storm Dir David Lam This sequel to the 2014 action thriller Z Storm revolves around an even bigger case at Hong Kong’s graft-busting Independent Commission Against Corruption. Louis Koo reprises his role as an anti-corruption investigator, while Chilam Cheung (Triumph In The Skies) and Vic Chou (Saving General Yang) have joined the cast. The $9m film is now in post-production and is produced by Hong Kong-based Pegasus Motion Pictures.

Contact Alvina Wong, Pegasus Motion Pictures alvina.wong@pegasusmovie. com

Swordmaster Dir Derek Yee Well Go USA also pounced on North American and UK rights to Derek Yee’s long-anticipated 3D martial arts epic, produced by Tsui Hark and starring Lin Gengxin and Peter Ho. Based on Gu Long’s classic wuxia novel, the film tells the story of an elite swordsman who is haunted by his skill and forced to fight a challenger who is determined to take his place at all costs. Now in post-production, the film is produced by Bona Film Group and Yee’s Film Unlimited.

Contact Virginia Leung, Distribution Workshop virginia@ distributionworkshop.com

Three Dir Johnnie To Following his well-received foray into musical drama with Office, Johnnie To returns to hard-boiled action with this crime thriller starring Louis Koo, Wallace Chung and Vicki Zhao Wei. Currently in post-production, the film centres on a showdown in a hospital involving a criminal with a bullet in his head, a policeman about to turn rogue and a surgeon from mainland China.

Contact Fred Tsui, Media Asia frederick_tsui@mediaasia.com

Time Raiders Dir Daniel Lee Based on a popular web novel, Daniel Lee’s action adventure Time Raiders stars Jing Boran (Monster Hunt), Lu Han, Ma Sichun and Wang Jingchun in a story about explorers searching for the secrets of immortality in ancient tombs.

Produced by Visualizers and Le Vision Pictures, the $45m film is in post-production for release in July 2016.

Contact Ronan Wong, Le Vision Pictures huangguoxian@le.com

Weeds On Fire Dir Chan Chi-fat Inspired by the true story of Hong Kong’s first teenage baseball team, Weeds On Fire tells the tale of two friends coming of age in the new towns of a rapidly changing 1980s Hong Kong. Liu Kai-chi plays the baseball coach, with newcomers and real baseball players rounding out the

cast. The film is the inaugural production of the First Feature Film Initiative, a CreateHK initiative designed to support first-time feature directors, and premiered to warm reviews at Hong Kong International Film Festival.

Contact Felix Tsang, Golden Scene felix@goldenscene.com

When Larry Met Mary Dir Zhang Wen Bao Beier (Lost In Hong Kong), Jia Song (The Master) and Zhu Yawen (The Witness) star in this romantic comedy, which is the directing debut of actor Zhang Wen, best known for Journey To The West: Conquering The Demons. Larry has been in love with Mary since kindergarten but has never had the courage to tell her, even when she moves to Paris. Now in postproduction, the film will be distributed by Huayi Brothers in mainland China.

Contact IM Global com

sales@imglobalfilm.

Zombiology: Enjoy Yourself Tonight Dir Wai Lun Lo Clement Cheng, co-director of 2010 hit Gallants, is producing this adaptation of a popular Hong Kong novel about a zombie outbreak during a water shortage in Hong Kong. Wai Lun Lo is making his feature debut on the action thriller, while Louis Cheng and Michael Ning star as a pair of actors caught up in the chaos. Production is set to start in July.

Contact Grace Chan, Young Live s Entertainment gcxfilm@gmail.com ■

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Screen int full page output3.pdf 3 3/5/2016 下午3:47

@ CANNES 2016 Cannes office: Palais 01, 19.06

Contact: Julian Chiu / +852 9739 8628 / chiujulian@edkofilm.com.hk

MARKET SCREENING May 15 (Sun) / 13:30 / Palais B

THE BODYGUARD GENRE ACTION DIRECTOR SAMMO HUNG (Ip Man 2, Rise of the Legend) CAST SAMMO HUNG, ANDY LAU (Infernal Affairs, Detective Dee)

A retired bodyguard settles down in a small town on the Russia-China border. He befriends a young girl whose life is threatened when her father falls in with the local crime world. When the girl and her father disappear, the bodyguard sets out on a ruthless trail to take down the mob and rescue the girl.

MARKET SCREENING TODAY May 13 (Fri) / 15:30 / Palais B

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KEEPER OF DARKNESS GENRE HORROR DIRECTOR NICK CHEUNG (Unbeatable, The White Storm) CAST NICK CHEUNG, AMBER KUO (Au Revoir Taipei), SHI XING YU (Kung Fu Jungle)

Streetwise exorcist Fat becomes an overnight sensation when his extraordinary exorcism is recorded and gone viral, which catches not only a lot of attention from the media, but also the underworld.

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BOOK OF LOVE GENRE ROMANCE DIRECTOR XUE XIAOLU (Finding Mr. Right, Ocean Heaven) CAST TANG WEI (Lust Caution), WU XIUBO (The Four)

After setting box office record as the highest-grossing Chinese romantic comedy 3 years ago, the creative team and cast of FINDING MR. RIGHT return to the big screen with an entirely new tale about destiny and chance encounter in the contemporary world, spanning across three continents.

IN POST-PRODUCTION

COLD WAR 2 GENRE ACTION DIRECTOR LONGMAN LEUNG, SUNNY LUK (Cold War, Helios) CAST CHOW YUN FAT (Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon) AARON KWOK (The Monkey King) TONY LEUNG KA FAI (Bodyguards and Assassins) EDDIE PENG YUYAN (Rise of the Legend)

The follow-up to the highest-grossing HK film of 2012, the story continues as the conspirator behind the disappeared police vehicle is behind bar. But the true motive remains unclear, until the resurface of a retired police chief who unveils an unprecedented scheme to corrupt the police force.

Promotional Feature

Courage under fire Prolific Hong Kong director Benny Chan tackles themes of chivalry and heroism in his upcoming period martial-arts epic Call Of Heroes

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all Of Heroes marks a departure for Hong Kong director Benny Chan.

The film-maker is an icon of contemporary action and cop thrillers, including the award-winning Connected, Divergence and New Police Story. The new film is a lush martial-arts epic set in China in the early 20th century. “The 1960s saw a wave of films depicting the traditional acts of chivalry and heroism,” says Chan, who used Akira Kurosawa’s early films Yojimbo and Sanjuro as well as Chang Cheh’s One-Armed Swordsman as points of reference. “But hardly any in recent Chinese cinema.”

With his mind set on the theme of chivalry, Chan explores how ordinary people muster their courage to stand up to oppression in his new film. Call Of Heroes is set in the 1910s right after the collapse of the Qing dynasty, with the story taking place in a small village where a group of locals risk everything to confront a bloodthirsty general. “The subject matter is not bound by any period of time or geographical location,” says Chan. “It can also happen in our modern society. I chose the 1910s because China was in turmoil, racked by foreign invasion and warlords fighting each other for control. It’s the most turbulent time, which provides the most appropriate backdrop for a classic tale of chivalry.”

Hit maker Call Of Heroes, which is Chan’s 21st feature as a director, contains a plethora of action scenes, which were choreographed by martial-arts master Sammo Hung. Although it is their first collaboration, they complement each other well. “Sammo not only choreographs the actions well, but more importantly makes sure each fight serves a narrative purpose and enhances the dramatic beats,” says Chan.

The film-maker reunites with top actors Sean Lau Ching Wan and Louis Koo from his narcotics thriller The White Storm, which closed Rome Film Festival in 2013. Both actors are pulled out of their comfort zone in Call Of Heroes, with Lau taking on an action role that required him to perform many of his own stunts, including the use of a long whip as a weapon, while Koo is cast in a rare part as the lead villain. Joining them in the cast as a pair of fearsome fighters are rising actor Eddie Peng and action star Wu Jing.

To recreate the era, a purpose-built set was constructed at Keyan Scenic Area in Shaoxing, near Hangzhou in China. The

36 Screen International at Cannes May 13, 2016

Benny Chan (right) directs Louis Koo on the set of Call Of Heroes

sprawling set covered 20,000 sq metres alongside a scenic river at the foot of a mountain range, with an entire village created with architecture that captures the look and feel of the period. “We chose to build our own set because of scenes that involve explosions and fire. We can’t easily film these scenes in a studio,” says Chan.

The film’s production designer is Ben Lau, whose credits include Chan’s last film Shaolin and Tsui Hark’s Flying Swords Of Dragon Gate, which won the best art direction prize at the Hong Kong Film Awards in 2012. The set took five months to complete. Lau and his team even designed and built an underground rainwater drainage system, as filming took place during the summer rainy season.

While wet weather is always a challenge, Chan says the most difficult part of making the film was conveying the spirit of chivalry.

“The film is ultimately about a battle between good and evil,” he says. “I hope the audience will walk away feeling touched.” Chan, who is also one of the screenwriters, worked on the script for a year with his team — it is an original story — and he has plans to make a sequel if the film is successful at the box office.

The $32m production is mainly financed

The purpose-built set was located at the foot of a mountain range

‘Sammo Hung makes sure each fight serves a narrative purpose and enhances the dramatic beats’ Benny Chan

by Hong Kong-based Universe Entertainment, in association with Bona Film Group, Sun Entertainment Culture and iQIYI Motion Pictures. It is set to be Universe’s tentpole film for 2016. Last year, Universe’s Little Big Master, produced by Chan for director Adrian Kwan, emerged as the highestgrossing local film and the fifth overall in Hong Kong with box office of more than $6m (hk$46m).

Call Of Heroes is due for release in the third quarter of this year in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea and Southeast Asia. The film has also been sold to North America, the UK, Germany, Spain, Benelux and Latin America.

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Shayne Laverdiere

Interview Xavier Dolan

Marion Cotillard in It’s Only The End Of The World

Full circle After his 2014 Jury Prize for Mommy and serving on the Competition jury last year, Quebec writer-director Xavier Dolan returns to Cannes with It’s Only The End Of The World.

He tells John Hazelton why his starry film marks a career turning point

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xpectations will be running high when Xavier Dolan walks up the red carpet to introduce his Cannes Competition title It’s Only The End Of The World (Juste La Fin Du Monde). Besides being the prolific Quebec writer-director’s follow-up to his widely acclaimed 2014 Cannes Jury Prize winner Mommy, Dolan’s new film — which features several generations of leading French acting talent — could be an important stepping stone into a bigger, broader career for the 27-year-old, Montreal-born wunderkind. As such, it could also deliver another boost to the rising international

38 Screen International at Cannes May 13, 2016

reputation of French-Canadian cinema.

It is hard to tell if Dolan is feeling the pressure. Answering Screen’s questions by e-mail in the busy run-up to the festival, he skips a query on his feelings about presenting the film, with its Gallic allstar cast and theatrical pedigree, at a French institution as revered as Cannes.

Quite possibly Dolan remains unfazed by the prospect of the close attention the new work is likely to attract. He has been dealing with attention for two decades now, first as a child actor and more recently as the creator of six intensely emotional yet finely balanced Frenchlanguage dramas that deal with subjects

‘This will mark the end of a very personal series of films and whatever follows will be a little more exotic’ Xavier Dolan

including adolescence, maternity, homophobia and transsexualism.

Dolan first staked his claim with his 2009 directing debut and Directors’ Fortnight prize winner I Killed My Mother, which he also wrote, produced

and starred in. The following year, Heartbeats earned a spot in Un Certain Regard, and two years after that Laurence Anyways was in Un Certain Regard, winning the Queer Palm award.

Tom At The Farm took a side trip to Venice in 2013, where it won the Fipresci prize, before Dolan returned to Cannes with Mommy, which went on to take the César for best foreign film and a clutch of other awards around the world. Most recently, Dolan cemented his relationship with Cannes by serving on the 2015 Competition jury and upped his popculture cred by shooting the moody black-and-white video for Adele hit Hello. »

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Mommy was at one time to have been followed by The Death And Life Of John F Donovan, Dolan’s planned English-language feature debut. But, he now explains, “I could feel Donovan would be hard to finance and I felt that It’s Only The End Of The World would be an intelligent transitional piece — to attract actors to Donovan, and financiers, I guess. I also knew that it was too soon to shoot The Death And Life. I would’ve hit a wall. I still wonder, at times, if I will. But I don’t think so.”

Based on a dialogue-heavy 1990 play by French actor-director-playwright Jean-Luc Lagarce (who died of Aids in 1995, aged 38), It’s Only The End Of The World stars Nathalie Baye, Marion Cotillard, Vincent Cassel, Léa Seydoux and Gaspard Ulliel in the story of a writer who, after a 12-year absence, goes back to his home town planning to announce his impending death to his family. “I tried reading the play in 2010, but unfortunately I never got past page five,” Dolan admits.

“Lagarce’s style is so sophisticated it bored me at the time. I just didn’t get it. But four years later, right after Mommy, I felt the need to shoot something before Donovan. I went back to the play, knowing who I would cast and how to shoot it if I connected with the material this time.

“Suddenly, I understood it. And loved it.

How the characters talked, how unlikeable they often were, their prolixity and nervousness. I loved every single bit of it and thought it would be a challenging exercise to have such a strong cast saying those things to each other, and with the specificity and singularity of Lagarce’s dialogue.”

Class acts The cast of It’s Only The End Of The World represents something of a departure for Dolan, who in the past has worked mostly with a troupe of French-Canadian actors not well known outside that region. Working with Ulliel, Seydoux (both from Saint Laurent), Cassel, Cotillard and Baye (who appeared in Laurence Anyways) was, reports Dolan, “extraordinary. But what was even more extraordinary is how identical it was to working with actors I’ve worked with before. The same rigour, the same passion, the same laughs.

“To me, working with actors is the greatest privilege in directing movies,” he continues.

“Whether they’re famous is irrelevant. I’ll always make movies with Anne Dorval, Suzanne Clément [both from Mommy, Laurence Anyways and I Killed My Mother] and my friends in Quebec. But some stories take place in different countries and in other tongues. That’s when I get to work with other people.”

While aficionados of Dolan’s earlier work probably will not see any radical thematic departures in the film, they might sense the writer-director is beginning to broaden his horizons. “The movie is, quite simply, about

40 Screen International at Cannes May 13, 2016

Shayne Laverdiere

INTERVIEW XAVIER DOLAN

Music video for Adele’s ‘Hello’

Xavier Dolan

family and the difficulty of loving one another,” he says. “I guess it isn’t much of a change for me, but I’ve always been tentative about venturing into unknown territory. It’s always about mothers and sons, intimate dynamics, unrequited love, the struggle of different people to fit within the mould of society. All these things interest me because they matter to me and resonate with my life.

But I’ve also shied away from the things and themes I felt unfamiliar with. I guess that’s about to change.”

Dolan appears wary of identifying himself with the burgeoning French-Canadian cinema movement that has recently launched directors including Denis Villeneuve and Jean-Marc Vallée into the world of bigger budget Hollywood film-making (another subject he skirts over). But he is aware that he now has the opportunity to work on a bigger canvas with more resources at his disposal.

The Death And Life Of John F Donovan, set to star Jessica (Right) Cannes 2014 Jury Prize winner Mommy

Tom At The Farm

‘Working with actors is the greatest privilege in directing movies’ Xavier Dolan

Chastain, Kit Harington, Susan Sarandon and Kathy Bates (with Adele reportedly in talks to make her film debut), certainly has dramatic scope. Set in the US and the UK, it is the story of a movie star who finds his correspondence with an 11-year-old actor prompting assumptions that begin to destroy his life and career. Dolan is set to begin shooting the project in July, in Montreal, Prague, London and New York.

The film-maker does acknowledge the film he is bringing to the Palais this year could eventually lead him into storytelling arenas well beyond those in which he has built his reputation. “In my heart, I always knew it’d be a turning point,” he says. “A change of tone, and perhaps style. I’ll never change and will always care about saying certain things, but I know that It’s Only The End Of The World and even Donovan mark the end of a very personal series of films and that whatever follows will be a little more exotic. Thrillers, genre films, TV… “The truth is, for the first time, I don’t know what’s next. But I know that, although it will always be personal, it will not, for a while, be as intimate. In terms of talking about myself and my demons, I’ve pretty s much gone full circle.” ■

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ON LOCATION HOW TO TALK TO GIRLS AT PARTIES

Alien invaders Director John Cameron Mitchell brings Elle Fanning and Nicole Kidman to a seedy east London location for his latest feature, a punk-alien love story. Wendy Mitchell reports from the set

J

ohn Cameron Mitchell looks to be in his element. It is December 2015 and he is on an industrial site in Wapping, east London, surrounded by aliens, punks and Nicole Kidman in a spiky white wig. The US actor-writer-director is instructing teenagers on how to dance, asking for the music to be turned up loud. He looks thrilled to be in the middle of it all.

The set-up is for Mitchell’s fourth feature as a director, How To Talk To Girls At Parties, which he adapted from a Neil Gaiman short story alongside Little Ashes screenwriter Philippa Goslett.

The film marks the director’s second collaboration with Nicole Kidman, who also starred in his 2010 drama Rabbit Hole. If the seedy surroundings do not really match the A-list star, Mitchell is enjoying the contrast.

“It’s madness,” he smiles. “I feel like I’m dragging Nicole into the depths of hell after her West End triumph [her award-winning role in Photograph 51].

It’s straight into punk filth, and she’s kicking ass.”

He is also proud of the film’s other leading lady, Elle Fanning. “Elle is almost perfect on the first take. She knows exactly what the scene needs. If this is her at 17, imagine her at 45. I believe she’s going to be one of the great actresses of all time.”

Set in 1970s suburban England, the story is about Enn, played by Tony award-winner Alex Sharp, a shy young guy who sneaks into an underground party with his punk-loving friends, where they meet a group of mysterious young women. Even after they discover the girls are part of an alien colony with sinister intentions, Enn cannot stop himself falling in love with Zan (Fanning). Kidman plays a fashion and music impresario who is worried she is losing her influence and sees Fanning’s character as a potential protégé.

As with any production, there have been challenges. “It feels harder than Hedwig [And The Angry Inch], in (Right) director John Cameron Mitchell

42 Screen International at Cannes May 13, 2016

Elle Fanning and Alex Sharp star in How To Talk To Girls At Parties

terms of the scale and there being way more scenes,” Mitchell says.

Producer Howard Gertler of New York-based Little Punk, who worked with Mitchell on Shortbus, enjoyed the foray into the UK, describing the local crews as “incredible”. But Gertler knows the vibe on set starts with the director: “The tone set by John is that everyone is an important collaborator.”

See-Saw’s Iain Canning and Emile Sherman also produced alongside Mitchell and Gertler, who calls Canning a “hometown hero” with knowledge of how to navigate financing. UK backers include Film4, Screen Yorkshire and Delish Films. HanWay is handling international sales, with Studiocanal on board for UK rights and A24 for the US. A launch is planned for 2017.

The 30-day shoot spanned Wapping, London suburbs Richmond and Ham, Sheffield and Croydon, all used to represent the 1970s-era Croydon of the original tale. Gertler first read the short story in Gaiman’s Fragile Things collection and loved it.

“It was a punk alien love story in

‘It’s a risky role for Nicole, but she trusted John’ Howard Gertler, Little Punk

10 pages. There was mystery to it, there was fun, there are some scary moments, — it was all there.” The adaptation, he felt, “could bring together these two visions of John and Neil… it feels totally new.”

Gaiman is an executive producer.

Canning adds: “I love that a story like this can entice a wonderful film-maker like John to the UK. The combination of such a singular director as John mixed with some very British elements — punk, Croydon, the incredible costumes by Sandy Powell — was an irresistible combination.”

Styling punk It is certainly new terrain for Kidman. As Gertler says: “Nicole trusts John to bring her into this world. It’s a risky role for her, but she trusted John after working with him on Rabbit Hole.

“The only thing we’re battling on production is timing,” he continues. “We

prepared it rigorously and we were ready but time is a battle.”

Bringing style to the film’s punks and aliens is veteran costume designer Powell. “It’s rare to have a director who can let it rip and lets you push boundaries,” says Powell, who put the aliens in brightly coloured latex and rubber outfits while trying hard to make sure they did not look “too S&M” or “too children’s TV”.

The right sound was also crucial, since music is central to the story. Nico Muhly (Me And Earl And The Dying Girl), Jamie Stewart of Xiu Xiu, Matmos and AC Newman of The New Pornographers contributed songs. Martin Tomlinson and Bryan Weller also wrote songs for the in-film band The Dyschords.

The creative team also includes director of photography Frank DeMarco (All Is Lost, Rabbit Hole), production designer Helen Scott (The Selfish Giant) and editor Brian A Kates (Shortbus, The Butler).

The supporting cast features Ruth Wilson, Matt Lucas and Joanna Scanlan.

And has Mitchell learned anything unique shooting in the UK? He certainly picked up a local crew expression: “DFI”, which he says translates as “disregard first instruction” in polite terms, or else

“different fucking idea”.

“We’ve been using that a lot,” he says s with a grin. ■

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UN CERTAIN REGARD

OFFICIAL & MARKET SCREENINGS OF MAY 13TH

A film by Kirill Serebrennikov

“THOSE WHO FOLLOW THE LIGHT HAVE ONLY EVER INVENTED DARKNESS” ROBERT DESNOS DCP/HD • 2016 • RUSSIA • 118MIN • DRAMA 13/05 11.15AM Salle Debussy

13/05 4.30PM Salle Debussy Official screening

14/05 4PM Salle Bazin Official screening

15/05 9.15AM Palais D

Market screening - Buyers only

16/05 9.15AM Palais D

Market screening - Buyers only

MARKET & SPECIAL SCREENINGS OF MAY 14TH

MARKET & SPECIAL SCREENINGS

Official screening

A film by Chloé Leriche

A film by Elia K. Schneider

A film by Shoja Azari

13/05 9.30AM Palais B

13/05 1.30PM Palais F

INVITATION ONLY

A film by Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov

A film by Nevio Marasović

INVITATION ONLY

14/05 3.30PM Palais B

BOOTH RIVIERA G2

Cannes2016_Daily1_245x335_CMJN.indd 1

LOÏC MAGNERON +33 6 60 43 96 86 FREDERIC GENTET +33 6 84 26 06 73 · DIANE FERRANDEZ +33 7 61 57 96 86

04/05/2016 16:19

Hot Projects Spain

The Spanish Armada Led by Pedro Almodovar’s return to Competition, expectations are high for the new films from several renowned Spanish directors in the market and festival. Elisabet Cabeza reports

W

hile Pedro Almodovar is grabbing the headlines for his return to Competition with Julieta, two more Spanish directors are also screening films in the official selection. Albert Serra’s Last Days Of Louis XIV is being showcased in Special Screenings, while Oliver Laxe’s Mimosas is screening in Critics’ Week.

Latin American co-productions are making a strong appearance too, with Pablo Larrain’s much-anticipated ­N eruda premiering in Directors’ ­Fortnight.

Expectations are also high for new projects from renowned Spanish directors that are currently in the works and being sold in the market. These include Fernando Trueba’s The Queen Of Spain, which stars Penelope Cruz, and JA Bayona’s A ­Monster Calls, with Liam Neeson.

Meanwhile, Jaime Rosales is working on Petra, which is set to star Alex Brendemuhl and Barbara Lennie, and is a coproduction between Wanda Vision and Oberon Cinematografica in Spain and Balthazar Productions in France.

The Chosen

SELECTED Spanish PROJECTS IN THE MARKET and festival Julieta

A Monster Calls

Abracadabra

Dir JA Bayona

Dir Pablo Berger

A Monster Calls completes director JA Bayona’s trilogy exploring motherhood, after The Orphanage and The Impossible. Patrick Ness has adapted his novel about a boy who seeks refuge in a fantasy world. The English-language film, which shot in Spain and the UK, stars Liam Neeson. It is a Spain-US co-production between Apaches Entertainment with Telecinco Cinema, Peliculas La Trini, Participant Media, River Road Entertainment and Lionsgate. Set for release in the autumn, A Monster Calls will be distributed in Spain by Universal Pictures International, in the US by Focus and in the UK via Entertainment One.

Pablo Berger’s follow-up to Blancanieves again stars Maribel Verdu, this time as a housewife determined to fight the spirit possessing her husband. Currently shooting, Abracadabra is a co-production between Spain’s Arcadia Motion Pictures and Atresmedia Cine with France’s Noodles Production. Sony Pictures Spain has local rights.

Contact Lionsgate International www.lionsgate.com

44 Screen International at Cannes May 13, 2016

Contact Films Distribution info@filmsdistribution.com

The Bar Dir Alex de la Iglesia Black comedy is Alex de la Iglesia’s natural habitat. He explores the genre again in The Bar, starring Mario Casas and Blanca Suarez. Nadie es Perfecto and

The Distinguished Citizen

Atresmedia Cine are behind the film, which is now in post-production.

Contact Film Factory Entertainment v.canales@filmfactory.es

The Chosen Dir Antonio Chavarrias The director of Childish Games follows the steps that took Ramon Mercader to Mexico to murder Trotsky. The film is a co-production between Spain’s Oberon Cinematografica and Ikiru Films, and Mexico’s Alebrije, and is scheduled to be released in Spain in September.

Contact Filmax International www.filmaxinternational.com

The Distinguished Citizen Dirs Gaston Duprat, Mariano Cohn The directors of The Man Next Door reu-

nite for a black comedy about a prizewinning novelist who decides to pay a visit to his home town, which is the source of his inspiration. Oscar Martinez, last seen in Wild Tales, stars. The project is an Argentina-Spain co-production between A Contracorriente Films, Television Abierta, Magma Cine, Aleph Cine and Afrodita Audiovisual AIE. Latido Films is handling sales.

Contact Latido Films www.latidofilms.com

Julieta Dir Pedro Almodovar In Competition at this year’s festival, the latest from Pedro Almodovar revolves around a woman desperately trying to get back in touch with her daughter.

With Emma Suarez and Adriana Ugarte playing the title role of Julieta at different »

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Hot Projects Spain focus

Oro

Mimosas

times of her life, Almodovar explores motherhood, loss and grief inspired by three short stories by Alice Munro. Julieta was released to positive reviews in Spain in April. Sony Pictures Classics has US rights.

Contact FilmNation info@filmnation.com

Last Days Of Louis XIV Dir Albert Serra The director of Story Of My Death is back in Cannes with Last Days Of Louis XIV, which has been selected as a Special Screenings title. Produced by Andergraun Films, Capricci Films and Rosa Filmes, the latest from the Catalan auteur stars Jean-Pierre Leaud as the almighty Sun King in the last days of his life, after a hunting injury confines him to bed. Capricci is handling sales.

Contact Capricci Films www.capricci.fr

May God Help Us Dir Rodrigo Sorogoyen Antonio de la Torre and Roberto Alamo play the policemen in charge of investigating a wave of murders in Madrid on the eve of the Pope’s visit in 2011. The thriller is directed by Rodrigo Sorogoyen, whose credits include Stockholm, and is presently in post-production. Tornasol Films and Atresmedia Cine are producing with Latido Films handling sales.

Contact Latido Films www.latidofilms.com

Mimosas Dir Oliver Laxe Winner of the Fipresci prize in 2010 with You Are All Captains, director Oliver Laxe’s Mimosas is screening here in Crit-

46 Screen International at Cannes May 13, 2016

Last Days Of Louis XIV

The Olive Tree

ics’ Week. A Spain-France-MoroccoQatar collaboration between Zeitun Films, Rouge International and La Prod, the feature follows a caravan as it crosses the Moroccan Atlas Mountains. Luxbox is in charge of sales.

Contact Luxbox www.luxboxfilms.com

The Olive Tree Dir Iciar Bollain Following their award-wining collaboration on Even The Rain in 2010, director Bollain and UK screenwriter Paul Laverty have reunited for this story of a spirited young woman who is determined to give hope to her beloved grandfather. A Spain-Germany co-production between Juan Gordon’s Morena Films and Match Factory Productions, The Olive Tree was released by Entertainment One in Spain on May 6.

Contact Seville Films International sevilleinternational@filmsseville.com

Oro Dir Agustin Diaz Yanes Agustin Diaz Yanes has adapted a short story by Spanish author Arturo PerezReverte about an expedition led by conquistadors in the Amazon jungle in the 16th century. The cast is headed by Raul Arevalo, Oscar Jaenada and Barbara Lennie. Oro is being produced by Atresmedia Cine, Sony Pictures Spain and Apache Films. It is in now in production and is aiming for a release at the end of 2016. Sony Pictures International has worldwide rights.

Contact Sony Pictures www.sonypictures.com

The Queen Of Spain Dir Fernando Trueba Fernando Trueba and Penelope Cruz reunite 18 years after The Girl Of Your Dreams for a sequel, the much-awaited The Queen Of Spain in which Cruz plays,

fittingly, an actress who has made it in Hollywood and goes back to Spain to shoot a film. The story is set in the 1950s.

Trueba, who directs and produces through Atresmedia Cine, is currently shooting the film. Universal Pictures has Spanish rights and Myriad Pictures is handling international rights.

Contact Myriad Pictures www. myriadpictures.com

Smoke And Mirrors Dir Alberto Rodriguez Last year, Alberto Rodriguez savoured success with Marshland, which picked up 10 Goyas, excellent reviews and $8m at the local box office. Now he is back with Smoke And Mirrors (El Hombre De Las Mil Caras), a corruption thriller ripped from the headlines. Biutiful’s Eduard Fernandez stars as notorious Spanish secret agent Francisco Paesa. Atipica Films, Zeta Cinema, Atresmedia Cine and Sacromonte Films are behind the film, which is now in post-production. Warner Bros will release in Spain.

Contact Film Factory Entertainment s v.canales@filmfactory.es n

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EIGHTH EDITION / MONTREAL / JULY 21–24, 2016 For its 2016 return to the Fantasia International Film Festival, Frontières is pleased to announce a first wave of selected projects. The complete line-up will be announced in early June.

Brain Freeze

Darius

Mars Camp

The Profundis

(CANADA) DIRECTOR/WRITER: Julien Knafo PRODUCER: Barbara Shrier (Palomar)

(CANADA) DIRECTOR/WRITER: Alexandre Franchi PRODUCERS: Ménaic Raoul, Alexandre

(USA/ISRAEL) DIRECTORS: Yoav & Doron Paz

(NETHERLANDS) DIRECTOR: Richard Raaphorst WRITERS: Shane Berryhill and

Franchi, Gabrielle Tougas-Fréchette (Voyelles Films / Les Films de la Mancha)

(PAZ brothers) WRITERS: Yoav & Doron Paz (PAZ brothers), Lauri Donahue PRODUCERS: PAZ Films, Epic Pictures

Richard Raaphorst

PRODUCER: Richard Raaphorst

Room Service

Soulless

The Squall

Striguni

(USA) DIRECTOR: Yedidya Gorsetman WRITERS: Mark Leidner and

(IRELAND) DIRECTOR: Brian O’Malley WRITER: Tony Philpott PRODUCERS: Brendan McCarthy,

(CANADA) DIRECTOR/WRITERS: Jason Krawczyk PRODUCER: Zach Hagen (Alternate

(CROATIA) DIRECTOR/WRITER: Aldo Tardozzi PRODUCER: Barbara Jukopila, Damir

Yedidya Gorsetman

PRODUCERS: Josh Itzkowitz, Matthew

Smaglik and Mark Leidner

For the first time, Frontières will present two TV series projects as part of its line-up:

John McDonnell (Fantastic Films)

Ending Studios)

Ibrahimovic (Ziva produkcija) and Jasmila Zbanic

House of Psychotic Women

Untold Horror

(UNITED KINGDOM) DIRECTORS: Various TBA WRITERS: Sean Hogan (pilot), Kier-La Janisse (book) PRODUCERS: Andy Starke (Rook Films), Kier-La Janisse

(CANADA) DIRECTOR: Bob Barrett WRITERS: Mark Pollesel, Dave Alexander PRODUCERS: Bob Barrett, Dave Alexander,

Kevin Burke, Andrea Butler (Post No Joes Productions)

INDUSTRY REGISTRATION NOW OPEN Visit frontieresmarket.com for more information Co-funded by the European Union

20 EDITION

th

INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

14 JULY TO 2 AUGUST 2016

MONTREAL www.fantasiafestival.com

MARCH 30–APRIL 1 IN BRUSSELS

2016

JULY 21–24 IN MONTREAL

FRONTIÈRES DAY IN CANNES SUNDAY MAY 15 · MARCHÉ DU FILM Frontières Day marks the start of a new partnership between Frontières and the Cannes’ Marché du Film which will provide dedicated industry events for the genre film community.

CANADIAN GENRE-VR FILM SERIES Time: 10am – 12pm · Venue: NEXT Pavilion · Access: Market badges only From award-winning cyberpunk adventures to homoerotic horror, the Canadian Genre-VR Film Series presented

by CFC Media Lab in association with Fantasia, Frontières and Telefilm Canada brings three world-premieres to Cannes from the CFC Media Lab and award-winning studios OccupiedVR and CreamVR Productions.

FRONTIÈRES GOES TO CANNES Time: 4pm – 6pm · Venue: Palais K – J.L. Bory · Access: Market badges An exclusive presentation of 4 Works-In-Progress of genre films in post-production presently seeking contact with sales agents, distributors, film funds, post-production services and international film festival programmers.

ARE WE NOT CATS

(USA)

Xander Robin PRODUCERS: Theo Brooks, Xander Robin, Joshua Sobel (F (llc) and Greatest Planet on Earth) DIRECTOR:

BODOM

(Finland)

Taneli Mustonen PRODUCER: Aleksi Hyvärinen DIRECTOR:

(DON FILMS)

ONE DROP

(Canada)

Tricia Lee PRODUCER: Tricia Lee, Chris Luckhardt (A Film Monkey Production) EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Brigitte Kingsley, Michael Baker DIRECTOR:

THE FANTASTIC FANATICS MIXER Time: 6pm – 8pm · Venue: Plage des Palmes · Access: On invitation (for market badges only) The very popular Marché du Film networking cocktail at the Plage des Palmes tailored to the genre community.

A co-presentation with the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival, Blood Window (Ventana Sur) and Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival.

Frontières would like to extend special thanks to its presenting partners on these events, Telefilm Canada and the Canadian Film Centre Frontières is made possible thanks to the generous support of Creative Europe, Telefilm Canada and SODEC

INTERVIEW AGUSTIN ALMODOVAR

P

edro and Agustin Almodovar, brothers and business partners at production company El Deseo, will share another Cannes experience with Julieta. It is the fifth of Pedro’s films to compete for the Palme d’Or and while the older Almodovar has yet to receive that Cannes honour, he has won best director for All About My Mother (1999) and best screenplay for Volver (2006).

Speaking in El Deseo’s Madrid headquarters, producer Agustin is delighted to be returning to the Croisette, seeing it as an opportunity to work on the international marketing campaign for Julieta and look for new projects after the company’s successful co-production ventures on Damian Szifron’s Wild Tales and Pablo Trapero’s The Clan. It is especially welcome in the wake of Julieta’s release in Spain, where the film did not perform to expectations — something Agustin puts down to the film’s genre, a tough drama, and headlines linking the brothers to the Panama Papers scandal the week the film came out. While it received largely positive reviews in Spain, Agustin admits he always felt Julieta might prove a challenge for some audiences.

“Pedro has always mixed genres in his films, but with Julieta there’s been a change,” he says. “It’s a pure drama. If I had to compare it to wine, I’d say it’s a single varietal. My first goal as producer is to find a way for Pedro to make the film he dreams of. He made it and we’re very happy with the result.”

With Bad Education opening the 2004 festival, this marks the sixth time a Pedro Almodovar film has played Cannes. But Agustin explains that El Deseo’s link with the festival started much earlier than Pedro’s first Competition berth with All About My Mother.

“Cannes is part of El Deseo’s life. Even films that were not in Competition like Women On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown owed a good part of its international success to this festival. I remember they all went crazy about it. Cannes is a festival that believes in auteurs and helps promote their cinema, something that’s getting harder and harder to produce, sell and distribute.”

The Julieta strategy On this occasion, international sales for Julieta are in place but the festival offers the Almodovars the chance to meet international distributors and help formulate the selling strategies in their respective territories.

“Pedro Almodovar’s cinema is both very Spanish and universal so it’s important their localism is not misinterpreted,” says Agustin.

For Agustin and El Deseo, Cannes is also about finding new talents and projects, since the Madrid-based production company is increasingly involved in producing the work of directors other than Pedro. In 2013, the trail of Oscar-nominated Wild Tales, co-produced by Argentina’s K&S, started in Cannes.

“We came with the screenplay but it hardly

50 Screen International at Cannes May 13, 2016

Pedro Almodovar on the set of Julieta

Relative values

With brother Pedro in Cannes Competition with Julieta, Agustin Almodovar reflects on their role as international producers and why he is less than thrilled with Spain’s film landscape. By Elisabet Cabeza sold,” Agustin recalls. A year later, when the film was selected for Competition, “it got wild — all the big territories wanted it. All the main projects in which we have got involved were started in Cannes.”

The Almodovars are avid cinema-goers, and when something catches their eye they make a move. It happened with Szifron when they saw On Probation (2005) and it happened with two other Argentinian directors, Pablo Trapero and Lucrecia Martel. They leapt at the chance to work with Trapero on The Clan, also a co-production with K&S, with Matanza Cine and Telefonica Studios; El Deseo also produced Martel’s The Headless Woman (in Competition in Cannes 2008) and is behind her latest feature Zama, currently in post-production. Based on a novel by Argentina’s Antonio Di Benedetto, Zama is produced by El Deseo, Benjamin Domenech and Santiago Gallelli from Argentina’s Rei Cine, Brazil’s Bananeira Filmes and France’s MPM Film.

When asked about new co-productions, Almodovar says nothing has been decided yet, but they are meeting about projects. So far, Argentina has been their country of choice, but Agustin is not limiting El Deseo’s horizons. “We are interested in all Latin America.

I’m very drawn to what Chile is doing,” he says, describing Pablo Larrain’s previous fea-

ture, The Club, as a masterpiece. “Spain has to wake up because the best cinema in Spanish is nowadays being made outside Spain.”

When it comes to the Spanish industry, where TV companies play an increasingly pivotal role in film production, Agustin sees problems despite the fact that market share for local productions rose to 19% in 2015.

Agustin Almodovar, “They have managed to bring a mainEl Deseo stream audience back to the cinemas, but it’s a product very close to what you find on TV,” he says. “I’m not sure how much it’s bringing to Spanish cinema. I envy the situation of some countries in Europe like Germany or Italy where a local mainstream cinema co-exists with riskier, more experimental options — a cinema that nurtures future talents. I’m not criticising anybody, I just wish this more mainstream cinema could coexist with auteur films. The mediumsized budget film has virtually disapAgustin Almodovar dressed for s his cameo appearance in Julieta peared in Spain.” ■

‘The best cinema in Spanish is nowadays being made outside Spain’

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Analysis Brexit

Together ...but for how much longer?

Alamy

A devastating loss of influence and financial support or a liberating release from knotty European regulations? Geoffrey Macnab plunges into the Brexit debate to explore the potential impact of a UK withdrawal from the EU on the country’s film industry

O

n June 23, the UK will vote in a referendum on whether it should stay in the European Union. At the time of writing, the odds suggest the answer will be “yes”. Most betting companies have the “stay” option at a narrow 1-3 on and the “leave” option at 9-4 against. The government’s position is clear, namely that “the UK should remain in a reformed EU”.

Nonetheless, with heavyweight politicians from all sides of the political spectrum campaigning for a UK exit (known colloquially as ‘Brexit’), the possibility the UK might withdraw from the EU is very real.

Underlining the divisions in UK politics over the issue, the secretary of state for culture, media and sport John Whittingdale is campaigning in favour of the UK leaving the EU while, in the same department, Ed Vaizey, minister of state for culture, communications and creative industries, is a strong advocate of staying in Europe.

If a Brexit does happen, there will undoubtedly be consequences for the UK film industry. The challenge is working out just what they will be.

In normal circumstances, organisations such as the British Film Institute and Creative England, and broadcasters Channel 4 and the BBC would be expected to lead the debate over an event that could have such a far-reaching impact on the film and TV sector. But as publicly funded organisations they are required to remain neutral. The result is a vacuum at the heart of the debate.

And a spokesperson for the European

52 Screen International at Cannes May 13, 2016

Commission (the executive body of the EU) told Screen: “We do not speculate on what may or may not happen after the referendum.”

It is not hard to turn up details of the extent of Creative Europe MEDIA programme support to the UK audiovisual industry, however, both in the past and on a continuing basis. Among the notable UK films backed by Creative Europe MEDIA at development or distribution level are the Oscar-winning documentary Amy and such recent critics’ favourites as Carol, Brooklyn and High-Rise.

MEDIA also invested more than $732,800 (¤660,000) in the European theatrical distribution of Paul King’s Paddington.

Funding from MEDIA for the UK audiovisual industry amounted to $111m (¤100m) for the period 2007-13. Together with the former Culture Programme, MEDIA is now part of Creative Europe, which has a $1.62bn (¤1.46bn) budget for the period 2014-20 — a 9% increase compared with the previous funding programmes combined. The UK continues to benefit.

“Creative Europe has supported 227 UK cultural and creative organisations and audiovisual companies, including 52 UK cinemas in the Europa Cinemas network, and the cinema distribution of 84 UK films in other European countries, with grants totalling ¤40m [$44m],” says the EC spokesperson of the first two years — 2014 and 2015 — of the new programme.

Of this $44m, $31.6m (¤28.5m) was invested in the audiovisual sector through

the MEDIA sub-programme. Some 85 UK companies benefited directly from grants totalling $17.7m (¤16m), while 84 UK films had their distribution supported in other European countries to the tune of $13.9m (¤12.5m) of investment from Creative Europe MEDIA.

‘If we leave, we lose a lot of the glue that makes our business successful’ Rebecca O’Brien, Sixteen Films

Deep pockets It is not just MEDIA money the UK film industry risks losing. There are other pockets of EU financing from which the UK film and TV industries draw regularly. These include the European Regional Development Fund (which has invested in Screen Yorkshire, among others), the European Investment Fund and the various highly regarded EU training schemes such as EAVE and ACE. (UK film executives and film-makers could potentially still attend these if the UK moves out of the EU, as up to 20% of spaces are reserved for non-EU participants. But they would be on the margins of the schemes, rather than at the heart of them.)

“If we leave, we lose a lot of the glue that makes our business successful,” suggests producer Rebecca O’Brien, whose films with director Ken Loach are often made with the support of multiple European partners.

Sixteen Films, for which O’Brien works, has received MEDIA slate funding on several occasions. “It is wonderful money because if you get it, you can recycle it,” O’Brien says.

“It is invaluable, because development money is so hard to come by. To lose that would be a real shame. That has really helped us stay afloat in the leaner times.” »

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OFFICIAL SELECTION - SÉANCE SPÉCIALE

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THE LAST RESORT A film by Thanos Anastopoulos and Davide Del Degan

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THE GRADUATION A film by Claire Simon

INVITATION ONLY DCP/HD • 2016 • FRANCE • 115’ • DOCUMENTARY

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From Academy Award®-Nominated Director Daniel Raim and Executive Producer Danny DeVito

FROM THE ACCLAIMED DIRECTOR OF DOUBLE TAKE AND DIAL H-I-S-T-O-R-Y

INSIDE THE GLOBAL ARMS TRADE

A FILM BY

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ANDREW FEINSTEIN DAVID LEIGH HELEN GARLICK RICCARDO PRIVITERA PIERRE SPREY VIJAY PRASHAD JEREMY SCAHILL MARTA BENAVIDES LAWRENCE WILKERSON CHRIS HEDGES FRANKLIN C. SPINNEY CYNTHIA McKINNEY MICHAEL HARDT JAMES DER DERIAN ROBERT FISK CLARE SHORT DAVID LAWLEY-WAKELIN MUNTAZER AL-ZAIDI TRITA PARSI WESLEY CLARK SHIR HEVER WIDE HOUSE presents a DILLYWOOD and LOUVERTURE FILMS production co produced by ONOMATOPEE FILMS and FINAL CUT FOR REAL in association with BERTHA FOUNDATION FORK FILMS VITAL PROJECTS FUND ITVS RTBF TELEVISION BELGE BRITDOC CIRCLE DANISH FILM INSTITUTE DR ZAP-0-MATIK a JOHAN GRIMONPREZ film SHADOW WORLD based on the book “the shadow world” by ANDREW FEINSTEIN story by JOHAN GRIMONPREZ ANDREW FEINSTEIN director of photography NICOLE MACKINLAY HAHN edited by PER K. KIRKEGAARD PEDRO COLLANTES DIETER DIEPENDAELE original music by KARSTEN FUNDAL co executive producers DAVID MENSCHEL for VITAL PROJECTS FUND MICHAEL J. ZAK DONALD RUBIN JODIE EVANS MATTHEW PALEVSKY SUSAN ROCKEFELLER executive producers BERTHA FOUNDATION ABIGAIL DISNEY DANNY GLOVER DRISS BENYAKLEF SALLY JO FIFER WILBER LEGUEBE co produced by SIGNE BYRGE SØRENSEN EMMY OOST produced by JOSLYN BARNES ANADIL HOSSAIN directed by JOHAN GRIMONPREZ

DANNY DEVITO AND ADAMA FILMS PRESENT A FILM BY DANIEL RAIM “HAROLD AND LILLIAN: A HOLLYWOOD LOVE STORY” HAROLD MICHELSON LILLIAN MICHELSON MEL BROOKS FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA DANNY DEVITO ORIGINAL STORYBOARDS BY PATRICK MATE CINEMATOGRAPHY BY BATTISTE FENWICK DANIEL RAIM PRODUCED AND EDITED BY DANIEL RAIM JENNIFER RAIM ORIGINAL MUSIC BY DAVE LEBOLT EXECUTIVE PRODUCED BY DANNY DEVITO WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY DANIEL RAIM © ADAMA

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ANALYSIS BREXIT

One agency that has looked in detail at the potential impact of a UK exit on the audiovisual industries is the British Screen Advisory Council (BSAC). Last year, at the time of the referendum on Scottish independence, BSAC published a paper drafted by Moullier (now updated) examining how the regulatory and policy framework might be affected. The report highlights how heavily dependent the UK’s film and audiovisual content sectors are on UK public money in the form of direct aid, investment from the broadcasters and tax credits.

According to the report, all sources of state aid combined reached $564m (£390m) in the financial year 2013-14. The BFI’s Lottery funds alone channelled $36.5m (£25.5m) into UK production, development, exports and training. There would be no reason for this funding to be affected by a UK exit. As BSAC chief executive Fiona Clarke-Hackston explains however, “what you would get [from Brexit] is uncertainty about the pound”.

Questions, she suggests, should be raised as to whether “big American businesses would continue to use London as their hub”.

Indeed, it is possible the $1.69bn (£1.18bn) earned by inward investment in 2015 would be at risk, as it is questionable whether the Hollywood studios would want to base their big productions in the UK if they could not freely and easily move their cast and crew around to other European locations.

Amy Paddington received $700,00 for European distribution from MEDIA

It is not as if the UK film industry would grind to a halt if the country does vote to leave the EU. UK producers should still be able to use the Council of Europe Convention on Cinematographic Co-Production, to which non-European countries can now sign up. The UK has its own bilateral coproduction treaties as well but has not been part of Eurimages (the Council of Europe’s Cinema Support Fund) since the mid-1990s.

But if it were to leave the EU the likelihood is the UK would become even less active as a co-production partner on European films. As media analyst Bertrand Moullier puts it, “Britain is not a great co-producer right now.

We are more of a pre-sales-driven independent film sector.”

Speaking on the eve of this year’s Cannes Film Festival, Roberto Olla, executive director of Eurimages, suggested the UK could exit the EU but still rejoin Eurimages. “It [Brexit] would make no difference. As long as the UK is part of the Council of Europe, which is different from the European Union, then there wouldn’t be a problem,” Olla suggested of the UK coming back into Eurimages. Even if the UK left the Council of Europe, the country would still be able to apply for associate membership of Eurimages (and would have a similar status to that of Canada, currently in throes of joining Eurimages.)

54 Screen International at Cannes May 13, 2016

‘The European Commission, when we engage, listens to us’ Fiona Clarke-Hackston, BSAC

HAVE YOUR SAY What’s your opinion on the Brexit debate?

Take our survey on Screendaily.com/news/ have-your-say-brexit-areyou-in-or-out/5101304. article

What about the tax credit?

In recent months, amid the turbulence brought on by the impending referendum, the pound has weakened against the dollar and the euro. This, though, has made the UK yet more attractive for inward investment, at least in this interim period.

“People are in London because we speak English, because of our copyright laws, our legal system, high-quality executives and good connections,” John McVay, the chief executive of PACT recently told Broadcast magazine. “London is a strong base anyway.

I don’t think everyone would get on the next flight to Paris or Madrid.”

The consensus is the much-vaunted tax credit, which has helped galvanise the huge boom in film and TV production that is ongoing in the UK, will be preserved in or out of the EU. “If we left [the EU], we would still be left with British legislation that has all the rules of the tax relief [in it],” one well-placed source comments. “The government has done tremendously well for us in recent years. Whatever we’ve asked for, [Chancellor of the Exchequer] George Osborne has put his hand in his pocket and paid for, in terms of the tax relief at least.”

The observer suggests the tax credit could even be strengthened if the UK were outside the EU. There would no longer be the need for a cultural test or a cap at 80% of the budget, which are both EU requirements.

Others are not so sanguine. “Whatever happens, you’re subject to the [EU] competition rules,” one analyst notes. “If [the EU] feel any of this affects intra-community trade or your trade with them, they may put pressure or adopt retaliatory measures.

“I wouldn’t say the tax credit is safe because policy may change. The rules of the game may change. No scenario that you look at comes up with the UK [after a Brexit] not having to live with some measure of regulation that it is absolutely not able to influence.

It would cast a huge doubt on the notion of good old-fashioned British exceptionalism.”

Some within the UK media industries might welcome a Brexit on the grounds it would help them escape the immensely frustrating negotiations around the EC’s proposals for a Digital Single Market (DSM). In particular, the threat of the erosion of ‘territoriality of rights’, the tradition of films being licensed and released on a country-by-country basis, long regarded as a core part of film financing and distribution.

Then again, some experts suggest the UK’s position regarding the DSM and many other issues would be weakened if the country was outside the EU and therefore unable to influence policy decisions directly. The example of Norway hardly inspires confidence.

“Over the years, people who run [UK] trade associations have had calls from the Norwegians saying, ‘Certain things are about to happen at a European level, and is there any way we can lobby on their behalf?’,” one analyst relates. “Asking others to advance your point of view dictates how far you are outside the club.”

Others point to the pragmatism of EU ministers and their willingness to listen.

Speaking after a keynote address to the Film Distributors’ Association last month, Lord Putnam drew a sharp contrast between the flexibility in Brussels and the rigid attitudes often taken in Westminster. “It’s one of the reasons I remain a really ardent pro-European. My experiences with the European Union is that they do end up with evidencebased solutions. The quality of the staff in the Commission is excellent,” the celebrated producer turned politician commented. “These are not stupid people. I don’t think a ridiculous decision like Jeremy Hunt’s decision to scrap the UK Film Council would have been made in Europe. I think the checks and balances, the amount of evidence required to make a decision like that — it wouldn’t have happened. I get much more concerned about off-the-hoof decisions made by our own politicians than I am about Europe.”

“The European Commission, when we engage, listens to us,” Clarke-Hackston states of the present situation, with the UK still at the EU table. The danger of withdrawal lies in losing the ability to affect key debates and policy formulations. “In that case,” she suggests, “we would just have to take what is s dished out to us.” ■

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Analysis Directors UK gender report

Hidden gender Radical change is needed to redress the imbalance of female directors in the UK, according to a new report by Directors UK. But what does the industry make of the findings? Nikki Baughan reports

Amma Asante’s United Kingdom

G

ender equality has long been a topic for industry discussion, with debate intensifying over the past 12 months. “Where are the women?” is an oft-heard lament. An extensive report, commissioned by London-based campaigning body Directors UK and authored by analyst ­Stephen Follows, is ­published this month.

It attempts to answer the ­question of the UK’s missing female directors and makes pro­active suggestions as to where to find them.

‘Cut Out of the Picture: A study into the gender and inequality amongst directors in UK film’ examines all 2,591 films made in the UK from 2004 to 2014, using data from sources including the British Film Institute (BFI), HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) and educational institutions to explore how female film-makers are faring at all levels. It ­discovers that only 13.6% of working film directors in the UK ­during the time period were women. The report comes hot on the heels of the European ­Audiovisual Observatory’s 2014 report ‘Female Directors in European Film Productions’, which found just 16.3% of European films made between 2003 and 2012 were directed by women. A further

58 Screen International at Cannes May 13, 2016

report on gender equality in the European film industry has also been published by the European Women’s Audiovisual Network. It found that just 21% of the films in seven European countries including the UK between 2006 and 2013 were directed by a woman.

Directors UK avoids accusations of deliberate ­misogyny, suggesting the lack of female film-makers can be attributed to an “unconscious, ­systemic bias” towards male directors.

“The fact that [as the report reveals] women are ­better represented in sectors like hair and make-up, ­costume and production design leads me to agree,” says Elizabeth Karlsen, cofounder of Number 9 Films, whose credits include Carol, Youth and the upcoming Colette.

“Ultimately, it’s the fact we live in a ­patriarchal society ­governed primarily by white males.

And, in the industry, these are the stories that are told, about white males, made by white males and, seemingly, for white males.”

Director Amma Asante, who is putting the finishing touches to her third film, A United Kingdom, describes her experiences of ­working in the UK film industry as “divided”.

She has first-hand ­experience of this bias.

“The straight-white-male default is, some-

‘If we’re going to bring real change, then maybe it has to be forced. These suggestions are perfectly realistic, as long as there’s a will’ Amma Asante, film-maker

times, passed through both male and female gatekeepers,” she ­suggests. “Women also have the tendency to believe the default existence is straight, white and male. My issue is that as a woman, and as a woman of colour, lots of ­people want to talk.

“People want to have conversations, to ask me what I want to do next. But it’s the outcome that matters. Don’t pat yourself on the back because you’ve chatted to lots of women about their projects; pat yourselves on the back if you have actually managed to bring some of those projects to fruition.”

Fall in funding support The report also reveals that public funding for female-directed films between 2004 and 2014 declined. During this decade, 21.7% of films receiving public funding had a woman at the helm. Among the top 12 UK-based ­public ­funding bodies included in the study, the percentage of female-directed projects backed over the period ranged from a low of zero (Screen East) to a high of 42.1% (Creative England).

In total, however, overall public funding support for films with female directors fell dramatically in the seven years from 2008 to 2014, from 32.9% to 17%.

Ben Roberts, director of BFI Film Fund, welcomes the work of Directors UK in this area, but he points to the BFI’s ongoing commitment to equality in all roles in the film industry and the BFI’s ‘Three Ticks’ initiative.

“The ­introduction of our BFI Three Ticks initiative in 2014, since revised as the BFI Diversity Standards [in 2015], and the dialogue generated through reports such as this and the upcoming ‘Calling the Shots’ report from the University of Southampton, rightly ensure a continued focus on issues of under-representation across the screen industries,” he says.

“In the 2015-16 full funding year, the number of BFI-supported feature films directed by women rose to 34%, our aim being that with further effort this will ­continue to rise.

We are also interested in improving representation for women in other roles and departments, and we hope the BFI Diversity Standards will encourage this. It’s interesting to note the number of ­features we support that are produced by women is consistently around 50%.”

Bold suggestions The report is bold in its assertion that institutional change is needed, suggesting a target of 50% gender parity for all public funding of film by 2020, the ­development of UK tax relief to establish formalised diversity requirements and an industry-wide campaign to rebalance gender equality.

“There’s a lot of wordplay about quotas and targets, but we need to be setting a benchmark. We have to look at it globally,” says Kate Kinninmont, head of Londonbased Women in Film and Television. She cites the Swedish Film Institute’s success »

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ANALYSIS DIRECTORS UK GENDER REPORT

WOMEN DIRECTORS AT FILM FESTIVALS Alamy

‘The number of BFIsupported feature films directed by women rose to 34% in the 2015-16 full funding year, our aim being that with further effort this will continue to rise’ Ben Roberts, BFI Film Fund

with gender parity in public funding. “Do we in the UK, who have had a film industry for a very long time, really want to be left behind?” she asks.

For Asante, such affirmative action is no longer a choice, but a necessity. “In the past I’ve talked of my concern about quotas,” she says. “I’ve always wanted the feeling that I’m in the room because I deserve to be there. I totally understand, however, that if we’re going to bring real change, then maybe it has to be forced. And these suggestions are perfectly realistic, as long as there’s a will.

Diversity has become the buzzword of the industry, but if there isn’t a will to take up good suggestions that come out of solid research, then what has all this been about?”

Cameron McCracken, managing director of Pathé UK, and a backer of Asante’s A United Kingdom, believes the report’s recommendations make solid financial, as well as ethical, sense. “If you’re smart and picking the right material, you can engage with a broader audience,” he points out. “It’s very important to do that because these progressive films not only entertain, they move the dial a little bit. It’s important those public institutions support change, and the commercial entities look at it and realise they can make money. That will help broaden the sorts of stories being told.”

Gender parity as commercial good sense is a view shared by Roberts. “Last year’s Suffragette, not only written, produced, directed and starring women, but the film that opened the BFI London Film Festival and took $14.6m (£10m) at the UK box office, was evidence, if needed, of the commercial reasons for films made by and for women. Diversity in film unlocks creative and commercial opportunities, and is a subject that demands serious engagement from all sides of the film sector.”

Andrew Chowns, CEO of Directors UK, is hopeful real change is achievable and tangibly close. “People are sick of nothing happening,” he says. “We’re not just paying lip service to it with schemes that don’t really lead anywhere — what we’re thinking about is how we can get more women actually working on a film or TV show. That’s the end s result we want.” ■

60 Screen International at Cannes May 13, 2016

Suffragette, directed by Sarah Gavron (left with stars Carey Mulligan and Meryl Streep) opened the BFI London Film Festival in 2015

Women directors remain painfully sparse in the main strands of major film festivals. Cannes — the world’s leading film showcase — boasts three women directors among its 21-strong Competition line-up, comprising just 14%. Remarkably, that is the highest number of women directors in Competition in five years.

The number of films directed by women in the entire official selection is down on last year, at seven out of 56 (12.5%) compared with last year’s eight of 54 (14.8%).

“Around 20% of the selection are women,” says Cannes chief Thierry Frémaux, who is taking into account films with multiple directors. “What percentage of film-makers in the world are women?

According to a recent report, it’s 7%.”

Frémaux believes the problem takes root at an earlier stage: “What you see in Cannes is a consequence, not the cause.

More needs to be done in film schools, universities and production houses to favour women.”

It is an argument proffered by many,

despite numerous major film schools now turning out a 50/50 gender split across all their courses. “It starts way before the festival stage. It all starts with the financing,” says director Sue Brooks, who was one of two women among the 21 film-makers in Venice’s main competition last year.

“There is very little we can do,” said Venice head Alberto Barbera ahead of last year’s festival. “We receive a lot of submissions and women’s films are already in the minority. It’s true that cinema is behind contemporary society.”

But positive discrimination is not the answer, according to Barbera. “I don’t think it would be fair to women. The best way to support female film-makers is to treat them the same as male filmmakers,” he says.

But many believe that with great power comes great responsibility — and even greater opportunity. Film festivals have a significant platform through which to effect and showcase change.

Even if they are not part of the problem, they can be part of the solution.

“What’s more shocking [than the sparsity of women in Competition] is that in the 65 years of Cannes only two women have opened the festival,” said UK producer Elizabeth Karlsen late last year.

One festival that went out of its way to foreground women this year was the BFI London Film Festival, which hosted 46 films by women, multiple galas from women directors and a Global Symposium on Gender in Media. “It’s about programming priorities,” says festival director Clare Stewart. “There is an environment of predominantly male directors of festivals.”

Despite that emphasis, women directors still only accounted for 20% of the festival’s programme.

One long-time festival programmer sees changes on the horizon: “I’ve been a scout for Cannes for 14 years and for Venice for 10 years, and I’ve seen a rise in films directed by women, so hope starts there at the pre-selection process. There will be more and more women films in selection, it’s just a question of time.”

Andreas Wiseman

DIRECTORS UK REPORT A ‘FUNNEL’ EFFECT The Directors UK report aims to explore the root causes behind the statistics, and make recommendations as to how the imbalance can be corrected. By looking at figures across film-related courses and entry-level industry roles, it finds women make up 50.1% of film students and account for 49.4% of runners and production assistants.

The resulting observation, that women are entering the industry in the same numbers as men only to disappear within it, is described by Directors UK

CEO Andrew Chowns as a ‘funnel’ effect.

“The workforce is 50/50 at the point where people enter,” he says. “But at every stage of their career as a director, women are being removed to such a progressive extent that by the time you get to major features [the number of women] is absolutely negligible.”

The statistics on this displacement are stark. Although only a small percentage of directors in the study made a second film (14.6% of women, compared to 18.9% of men), this gender divide widens

to a chasm as budgets increase. While 16.1% of directors of films budgeted at less than $220,000 (£150,000) were female, women accounted for just 3.3% of films more than $44m (£30m).

“The fact it’s twice as difficult for a woman to make subsequent films means there’s something illogical, in market terms, going on,” says Beryl Richards, chair of Directors UK. “You can’t get away from the fact the system is definitely skewed against women.”

Nikki Baughan

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SCREENTECH VIRTUAL REALITY

Vision statement

While experts predict virtual reality will transform everything from education to commerce, how to monetise VR for the entertainment industry is the million-dollar question. Jeremy Kay reports

A

s you prepare to watch a movie today, executives at the Hollywood studios and their counterparts around the world are thinking very hard about how you will do the same thing in 15 years’ time.

The virtual reality (VR) wave has returned after what seemed like a promising surge in the 1990s dissolved. Suddenly, everyone is excited again. Fuelled by exponential advances in technology, forecasts by futurists and hefty investment by venture capitalists, the brightest minds across a number of industries are betting the medium will facilitate far-reaching lifestyle changes in the years ahead.

Some experts predict transformative shifts in education, the military and commerce.

And if fundamental changes on how we experience the world around us are indeed in our future, then the entertainment industry wants in. Gone are the unsightly game pods of 25 years ago that took up way too much space in theatre lobbies and spat out nau-

64 Screen International at Cannes May 13, 2016

seous customers after overcharging them for short, poorly rendered games.

It is time to address the present. Content creators are feeling bullish about the return of VR, even if privately some studio executives are not so sure what form it will take, what will work, and how it will make money.

“The technology is there now to fulfil the promise of VR,” says Mike Dunn, president, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment. “It’s on multiple platforms and there’s a ton of investment money flowing into it. A picture is worth a thousand words; a VR experience might be worth a million words.”

Dunn, his colleagues at the studio and its new Fox Innovation Lab are behind an early Hollywood VR experience that has already earned plaudits. They partnered with Ridley Scott’s RSA Films and The VR Company on The Martian VR Experience. A slick, entertaining 30-minute adventure based on Scott’s global blockbuster, the piece generated five-hour lines when it took part in a busy VR showcase at Sundance Film Festival

in January. It is available to view on the smartphone-operated Samsung Gear VR and will be available on tethered headsets such as the Oculus, HTC’s Vive and Sony’s PlayStation VR later this year. Fox has not disclosed the transactional cost.

‘The technology is there now to fulfil the promise of VR’ Mike Dunn, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment

Wider acceptance “There seems to be this zeitgeist moment where there’s less resistance [to VR],” says Adam May, head of production at Londonbased 3D specialists Vision3, which is now playing in the VR space. “With 3D, there was a lot of convincing we had to do with creative.

With VR, everyone from high-end directors to my mother-in-law is interested in trying it.

The experiments of the early ’90s are completely different because technology is so good that the brain can be convinced this is real. The next stage is the content side. It’s a much healthier conversation.”

The question is what form will that content take and how will it be monetised? May admits he will need to see proof of the viabil- »

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YOUNG AUDIENCE FILMS AVAILABLE & SCREENINGS

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Eye to Eye is a pan-European initiative dedicated to young audiences aiming at facilitating the circulation of European independent films on various distribution platforms.

The project is based on a strong network of partners, including European film festivals, cinemas, distributors and VoD platforms, gathered around the will to experiment innovative ways of promotion and distribution.

Local partners work together on the implementation of specific actions and marketing campaigns, with the objective to improve the visibility and accessibility of European independent films towards young audiences while participating in their knowledge about this cinema.

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• Facilitate the transnational circulation of a panorama of European films and mutualize the communication of local platforms partners • Develop innovative ways of promotion and distribution thanks to partnerships with local key actors from the industry and by using the digital technology

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JURIES Eye to Eye also involves the young audience in the initiative itself through a system of juries. A selection of European independent films from the Eye to Eye catalogue is submitted to juries made of students and/or schoolchildren and coordinated by partners in different European countries.

In each country participating, the juries select one or several films to be screened all year long within the frame of festivals or in theatres as well as on VoD platform partners of the Eye to Eye network. Alongside the screenings, young audiences have the opportunity to participate in Q&A sessions, masterclasses and workshops with directors and actors from the films they voted for.

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SCREENTECH VIRTUAL REALITY

VR AT THE MARCHÉ

Inside The Box Of Curios

What’s in store at the NEXT programme’s VR Days showcase in Cannes?

VR is on the Croisette in a big way during Cannes Film Festival, albeit in an industry-only way in the form of the NEXT programme’s VR Days showcase housed at the entrance to the Village International. A cluster of 35-plus screenings, talks and meetings between attendees and content creators is scheduled over May 15-16. Among the presenters will be Felix & Paul from Montreal, Denmark’s Makropol, Madagascar director Eric Darnell and ARTE France. Marché executive director Jérome Paillard describes the showcase as a “spectacular” calling card for a creative and technological medium that has captured the imagination.

“For film-makers, [VR is] really powerful,” says Julie Bergeron, the Marché’s head of industry programmes. “In two or three minutes, you understand physically and intellectually and emotionally everything about the subject. Film-makers understand very fast that they can tell the story with empathy. It’s a new way of storytelling.”

This being a market environment, it will be critical to see what type and volume of business is done at VR Days. Monetisation is the subject of a roundtable session today, moderated by Screen International. “There’s more and more content but it’s not the same model as film and it needs to be worked out,” says Bergeron. “Who is going to pay for it and make money out of it?”

Before those conversations take place in a conference room, visitors can sample the screening programme in rotating seats in the adjoining screening room. VR Days screenings include Notes On Blindness, a 20-minute journey through “a world beyond sight” that plays in one of two Made In France VR programmes. The 10-minute Jours De Tournage — Ma Loute De Bruno Dumont offers a chance to observe Dumont as he directs Competition entry Slack Bay, while Felix & Paul’s Inside The Box Of Curios invites the viewer to immerse themselves in the world of Cirque du Soleil and screens under the Made In Quebec VR banner.

From the Canadian Genre — VR Film Series comes Body/Mind/Change Redux Teaser, a glimpse by J Lee Williams and Blair Renaud into the world of David Cronenberg’s Videodrome. Made In USA VR selections include Invasion! from Eric Darnell, in which the viewer becomes an animated fluffy bunny during an alien attack. The section features two episodes from Defrost, a 12-parter that turns the viewer into a woman who awakens after 30 years in suspended animation.

ity of VR feature films, believing instead that 30 minutes may be the upper limit, at least for now. He is keeping an open mind.

“Studios are looking at their catalogues and release schedules to explore what would translate into great VR experiences,” says Jake Zim, SVP digital marketing at Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group. “The VR platform is completely different. It’s not linear narrative or pure gaming, it’s something in between. VR plays on the idea of presence, so experiences need to transport people somewhere they otherwise could never go.”

Sony and Lionsgate are also dabbling. The latter has partnered with Sweden’s Starbreeze on a first-person shooter John Wick experience to complement the February 2017 release of John Wick: Chapter 2. Lionsgate and producer Thunder Road hope that exploring the crime thriller’s murky milieu in more depth will grow the property’s fanbase.

Sony, meanwhile, built in-lobby VR pieces based on The Walk and Goosebumps that complemented the theatrical releases, and converted the experiences into mobile apps for smartphone-compatible headsets to promote the home entertainment launches. Studios and theatre chains are exploring in-lobby entertainment and some executives advocate up to $20 a pop.

The Walk is also being developed into a game for the Sony PlayStation VR that is scheduled to ship in October. To coincide with the July release of the all-female Ghostbusters reboot, the studio is collaborating on an experience with The Void, a buzzy creator of theme-park style VR entertainment. This, however, is slightly different: whereas VR creates an entirely synthetic visual experience, The Void’s mixed reality overlays synthetic visuals onto actual surroundings.

Think zombies in your living room.

Regardless of the type of experience being offered, the game plan at the studios so far seems to be to leverage a film’s marketing campaign to drive customers to scalable VR experiences, which in turn extend the brand.

Right now the revenue model remains rooted firmly in the film and its various windows.

One studio executive says it may take 15 years to find a viable economic model, once the industry settles into a groove with sales of mobile headsets, the more expensive tethered headsets that require expensive computers to run them, and location-based experiences.

“The hype is becoming a story by itself,” the executive says of the VR craze, noting that sales of Facebook’s Oculus headset have not gone through the roof. The executive estimates sales of the big three tethered devices — Oculus ($599), (Right) Sony PlayStation VR

66 Screen International at Cannes May 13, 2016

‘VR needs to transport people somewhere they could never go’ Jake Zim, Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group

HTC’s Vive ($799) and Sony PlayStation VR ($399) — will be between 2 million and 4 million by the end of the year.

Chris Dixon of venture capitalist Andreessen Horowitz was recently quoted in Wired saying he believes VR will eventually become “nearly unstoppable”. But he forecasts “the inevitable trough of disillusionment in the hype cycle” will define the next five years.

“There’s not been that title yet to define the genre,” one Hollywood executive says, noting that until there is a must-have piece of product — indeed, many — customer adoption of expensive headsets could be slow. May’s reservations about the suitability of VR to feature film-making expresses a commonly held view. While the studios experiment and practitioners such as Felix & Paul and Chris Milk churn out acclaimed short-form content, conceiving VR features presents challenges.

Vital elements When content creators talk about VR storytelling they stress two elements. Presence is one: the notion of transporting someone, as Sony’s Zim says, into an environment or mindset they might never otherwise experience. The other component is agency. The idea here is the user actively engages with the world and is not simply a passive receiver.

The point is not lost on Alex Barder and Russell Naftal, co-founders of VRWERX. The partners bring a wealth of experience from the film and TV worlds and have learned a lot during the creation of their Paranormal Activity VR game. Barder and Naftal obtained the property rights from Paramount Pictures last year after they had the idea to continue the hugely popular horror franchise on a non-film platform. VRWERX collaborated with Paramount and is preparing to release the game on tethered all major VR headsets later this summer.

“The challenge and the opportunity with this is how do you tell a story with VR, which is completely different to telling a story in film or TV because we cannot tell people where to look,” says Naftal. “The importance of VR is giving people complete agency, which amplifies the feeling of physical »

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ScreenTech Virtual Reality

The Martian VR Experience

presence in the world as the story unfolds around them.”

“VR enables the perfect convergence of the incredible interactivity of gaming with the amazing storytelling of movies,” says Barder.

“We tried to limit dialogue because we didn’t want to add a voice to you. Utilising our deep experience from other mediums, our goal is to organically develop an entirely new storytelling language from the ground up.”

Barder and Naftal believe it best to remove technological barriers to the VR experience to minimise distraction and are not fans of multiple buttons. Their players will use

68 Screen International at Cannes May 13, 2016

wands, which will be seen a lot in VR controls, that become in-game hands to pick up items, open doors and so forth.

“To make this a business,” says Zim, “the experiences need to be rich, satisfying and repeatable. People will come back if the first experience is in some way transformative.”

“Everyone’s looking for the magic formula,” says Wesley ter Haar, COO of creative digital production company MediaMonks. “The medium changes with every project. There’s so much happening, we’ve stopped defining it. It’s stuff for people to be inspired by.”

So far MediaMonks, a Dutch company

‘The medium changes with every project.

We’ve stopped defining it’ Wesley ter Haar, MediaMonks

that recently opened a Los Angeles outpost, has focused on working with brands and advertising clients. “LA is the nexus or ­battleground of production, depending on how you want to say it,” says the Dutchman.

“Every production company knows just enough to be dangerous.”

While the content pioneers sharpen their creative instincts, their peers in China have raced ahead with virtual arcades, renting out spaces and charging customers to wear cutting-edge headsets while they enjoy VR experiences. This kind of social VR could hold the key to monetisation. The Void and Starbreeze are making serious in-roads into communal experiences set in physical spaces.

Location-based VR is key to the strategy behind Starbreeze’s StarVR headset. The company’s StarCade in Los Angeles is expected to open soon and will provide a forum for users to run around while playing Starbreeze’s Overkill: The Walking Dead VR Experience or content from other developers.

These are early days in VR and entertainment may play only a small part. “There are lots of industries that are going to drive this,” says Fox’s Dunn. “Education is going to be huge — you can go to the Amazon; you can visit the Louvre. It’s going to be a huge news medium because you’re going to be able to s feel it.” n

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ScreenTech High-Frame-Rate Filming

Shot in the

arm for HFR

Shot with extreme frame rates, Ang Lee’s upcoming Sony Pictures release Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk is challenging Hollywood to revise decades-old production and distribution models. By Adrian Pennington

Keynote address on the making of Ang Lee’s film Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk during NAB’s Future of Cinema conference

T

he first studio feature to be produced in a groundbreaking combination of 3D, 4K resolution and projected at 120 frames per second (fps) is testing the limits of technology but could shift the dial from production to distribution. So innovative is the format that director Ang Lee and Sony’s Tri-Star Pictures have chosen to make Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, it cannot be played back in any conventional cinema. Even to get the film made, a whole pipeline for post-production and mastering had to be developed and built specifically for the project, which has a relatively modest $50m budget.

“The industry has been brainwashed into how to make movies,” said Lee, presenting an 11-minute preview at the SMPTE Future of Cinema Conference in Las Vegas in April.

“Nothing has changed for such a long time.

We are all dying for change so that we can go back to being a kid in the cinema again, looking forward to something exciting.”

TriStar partnered with Film4 and Jeff Robinov’s Studio 8 on the film, which centres on 19-year-old private Billy Lynn (played by 2015 Screen Star of Tomorrow Joe Alwyn) and his company, who survive a harrowing battle in Iraq. On their return to the US, they are sent on a heroes’ promotional tour, the centrepiece of which is an American football game. “It was a perfect chance to test new media,” said Lee. “It’s all about experiencing

70 Screen International at Cannes May 13, 2016

what [war] veterans feel and people don’t understand. I thought if I can bring that sensation to the Dallas halftime show, that will be incredible and freak people out.”

“It’s rare that a film-maker will come to us with a technical challenge that will change a lot of different parts of the industry at once,” added Scott Barbour, vice-president, production technology at Sony, speaking at SMPTE with Lee and the film’s key creatives. “Usually a film might push one aspect, like VFX, but this pushes boundaries lens to lens.”

Instead of shooting at 24fps, the production has ramped up the speed by five times.

Not only does this eliminate the strobing and motion blur that can blight 3D presentations, it delivers a hyper-realistic look which, for Lee, bonds the audience closer to the story.

“The motivation for using high frame rate [HFR] emerged when filming Life Of Pi,” he explained. “In scenes where the raft is bouncing on the water, you couldn’t see the actor’s performance because there was too much motion blur on his face. At 60fps, and more so with 120fps, the viewer has a more natural, spiritual connection to the story.”

While Lee stressed the need to bend technology to his vision in adapting Ben Fountain’s novel, the use of HFR and 4K plays into a wider movement to entice audiences with premium cinema experiences. This includes introducing wider colour

‘The industry has been brainwashed into how to make movies. Nothing has changed for such a long time’ Ang Lee

and contrast ranges (high dynamic range/ HDR) and laser projection which further enhances visual clarity. “We are at the beginning of finding out what digital cinema means,” argued Lee. “It means more realism, greater detail, higher resolution and proper brightness.”

Richard Welsh, CEO of Sundog Media Toolkit, whose software systems were used to manage the project’s data, suggests that audiences will find such extreme frame rates a big change in their cinema experience.

“From the exhibitor side, it needs to be part of a whole package of image enhancements including resolution, HDR and HFR to really give the audience something they will notice and come back for,” he says.

However, the film’s native specification will likely have very limited availability on release in November since the format exceeds the capacity of existing DCI-compliant projection equipment. The experimental system used to preview clips at SMPTE is designed for theme parks. It paired two Christie Mirage 4K projectors with servers from 7th Sense. The installed base of Series 2 Sony F65s: Billy Lynn was filmed on the camera, with a 360-degree shutter (open continuously) to capture fractional motion

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»

ALWAYS SHINE

Director: Sophia Takal (Green) Cast: Mackenzie Davis (Halt and Catch Fire, The Martian), Caitlin FitzGerald (Masters of Sex) Two actresses embark on a road trip to Big Sur to mend their damaged friendship, but jealousy begins to open old wounds in this twisted thriller about obsession, fame, and femininity.

“Unsettling, unshakable (...) reveals Takal as a remarkably assured filmmaker.” – Vanity Fair WINNER

NARRATIVE COMPETITION

“Echoes of De Palma, Lynch, and Bergman, though it simultaneously maintains a presence all its own.” – Indiewire

SPECIAL JURY PRIZE: DIRECTION

MONTCLAIR FILM FESTIVAL 2016

US Distributor: Oscilloscope Laboratories

FROM NOWHERE

MARKET SCREENINGS: TODAY / 13:30 / Lerins 2 May 15 / 12:00 / Riviera 1 Director: Matthew Newton (Three Blind Mice) Cast: Julianne Nicholson (Law and Order, August: Osage County), Denis O’Hare (Dallas Buyers Club, American Horror Story), J. Mallory McCree, Raquel Castro (Jersey Girl) Nearing their high school graduation, three undocumented Bronx teenagers navigate the difficulties of adolescence while living with the threat of being discovered by the authorities and their friends.

“Urgent and relevant (...) [McCree] impressively evinces charismatic screen presence and implosive intensity.” – Variety MARKET SCREENING: May 16 / 17:30 / Lerins 4

CLAIRE IN MOTION

Directors: Lisa Robinson, Annie J. Howell (Small, Beautifully Moving Parts) Cast: Betsy Brandt (Breaking Bad), Anna Margaret Hollyman (White Reindeer) When Claire’s search for her missing husband leads her to an alluring and manipulative graduate student, she uncovers a world of secrets that threatens to shatter her family. “[With] powerful performances from its ensemble of actors, the movie is a gentle tour-de-force.”

– Vanity Fair “A profound and engrossing character study riddled with the subtle undertones of a psychological thriller.” – Smells Like Screen Spirit MARKET SCREENING: May 14 / 15:30 / Lerins 2

MAZE

STAGE: POST-PRODUCTION Director: Stephen Burke (Happy Ever Afters) Producers: Jane Doolan, Brendan J. Byrne Cast: Tom Vaughan-Lawlor (Love/Hate), Barry Ward (Jimmy’s Hall), Martin McCann (The Survivalist) Based on the true story of the 1983 mass break-out of 38 prisoners from the HMP Maze high security prison, Maze is a gripping prison break film that follows the relationship between two men on opposite sides of the prison bars.

EST. DELIVERY: Q1 2017

MORRIS FROM AMERICA

US Distributor: A24

MY REVOLUTION

Director: Chad Hartigan (This Is Martin Bonner) Cast: Craig Robinson (This Is the End)

SUNTAN

Director: Argyris Papadimitropoulos (Wasted Youth) Cast: Makis Papadimitriou (Chevalier, L)

When a black teen moves to Germany with his single father, he must deal with culture shock and his infatuation with a rebellious girl, all while dreaming of becoming a hip hop star.

On a hedonistic Greek island, a doctor becomes obsessed with a young tourist when she lets him tag along with her group of hard-partying friends.

“Irresistibly sweet.” – Entertainment Weekly

“Confident, unflinching filmmaking.”

– Screen International

MARKET SCREENING: May 15 / 9:30 / Lerins 2

US Distributor: Strand Releasing

Director: Ramzi Ben Sliman Cast: Lubna Azabal (Incendies), Samir Guesmi (Camille Rewinds, The Returned)

ANOTHER COUNTRY

While trying to impress his crush, a FrenchTunisian teenager accidentally becomes the face of the Arab Spring in Paris.

French Distributor: Memento

MARKET SCREENING: May 14 / 13:30 / Lerins 2 Director: Molly Reynolds (Twelve Canoes) Producers: Rolf de Heer (Charlie’s Country, Ten Canoes), Molly Reynolds, Peter Djigirr Narrator: David Gulpilil (Walkabout, Crocodile Dundee, Charlie’s Country)

“A fun and fresh take on France’s Arab diaspora.” – The Hollywood Reporter

The great Australian Aboriginal actor David Gulpilil tells the tale about when his people’s way of life was interrupted by ours.

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SCREENTECH HIGH-FRAME-RATE FILMING

digital projectors capable of showing any form of HFR content is also hard to quantify, according to analysts IHS. Estimates range from as low as 3,000 screens that upgraded to show The Hobbit in 2012 to as many as 60,000 screens, or 40% of all DCI-compliant screens, which have upgraded since.

HFR capabilities Systems from vendors NEC, Christie, Barco and Sony will be able to play back either 120fps in 2D 2K or 60fps 3D 2K, according to Ben Gervais, the film’s production systems supervisor. If two projectors are used, then 120fps 3D 2K is also possible, he believes.

Even at 60 frames, it would be the highest frame rate ever seen in a major release.

Dolby Vision projection systems, which deploy dual Christie 4K laser projectors and Dolby’s proprietary HDR technology, is also capable of playing back 120fps 3D 2K. There are 22 Dolby Vision projectors installed worldwide (18 of which are in the US), with Chinese company Dalian Wanda on track to build 100 sites in China by 2020. Texas Instruments is reportedly developing technology to upgrade projectors to play the format and there is work being done on more compression algorithms to improve the efficiency of systems without damaging the image quality. “The bottom line is that we will need adoption of these better encoders and upgrades to the projection systems to get to the point where 120fps 3D 4K can be distributed as a playable DCP,” says Welsh.

Hindering Billy Lynn’s commercial prospects further is the negative perception that many film-goers and exhibitors have had with HFR. This stems from the mixed critical reception to Peter Jackson’s use of 48fps for The Hobbit. “The Hobbit has damaged the HFR brand,” says David Hancock, director, head of film and cinema, IHS Technology.

“Exhibitors were disappointed there was not a continuation in the availability of HFR releases. Many will be hesitant about the Ang Lee film, questioning whether this will be a one-off or whether there will be more HFR movies in the pipe to justify investment.”

“The industry failed to join forces to communicate HFR as a positive new way of presenting movies,” agrees Oliver Pasch, Sony sales director, digital cinema Europe. “Ang Lee is trying to show what is possible and is helping put HFR back on the agenda. Technically, any combination of technology including 120fps in 4K can be built into a projector. The question is whether audiences want it and who will pay for it.”

“Conversations with exhibitors about HFR are starting up again,” reports Tom Bert, Barco senior product manager, digital cinema. “We need to rethink how to get HFR into the market because it has been overtaken by other attributes like HDR, laser and 4D cinema.”

Those closer to Billy Lynn’s production are promoting the format’s potential to give

72 Screen International at Cannes May 13, 2016

‘Exhibitors will be hesitant about Ang Lee’s film and question whether there will be more HFR movies to justify investment’ David Hancock, IHS Technology

more control to both film-makers and distributors by extracting multiple versions for all platforms, from cinema to iPhones.

“When you shoot in this manner, it allows you a lot of different options for exhibition which could change the entire industry,” claims Barbour.

The sheer amount of data recorded on set, 10 times more than a conventional 4K film, gives the production greater latitude to tinker with the image in post. “Instead of throwing away information from 120fps to get to 24fps, we are frame blending to give us a crisper image than if we had originally shot at 24fps,” says Gervais. “We have the ability to change shutter angle in post so we can add motion blur to just one part of the frame or one character and leave the rest of it sharp.”

Delivery options The same technique will allow Lee to select frame rates for different scenes within the finished film using the same raw material. “It’s a science project,” says editor Tim Squyres. He cut the picture in 3D, at 60fps, using beta soft-

Above: The Hobbit was shot in 48fps and 3,000 screens upgraded to show the film in 2012 Below: 2015 Screen Star of Tomorrow Joe Alwyn plays Billy Lynn in Ang Lee’s film

ware from Avid, projected onto a 12-foot screen to reproduce the theatrical experience as closely as possible. “We can make some scenes look more normal —like they were shot at 24fps in the context of a film, where others are at 120fps. It allows us to create many different delivery formats.”

Lee admits he is anxious about the audience’s reaction to Billy Lynn. “It was a long, difficult, uphill road. Focus pulling, lighting, performance, make-up are different. It’s very complicated, terrifying and exciting at the same time.” Given his pedigree, the film is a potential awards season contender. Its success would give Lee the confidence to return to the Muhammad Ali project he abandoned for Billy Lynn, when he felt the proposed 24fps 3D production was not of sufficient clarity to reveal the micro-expression of an actor’s performance during fast action.

High frame rates are not confined to cinema. Computer games are produced over 100fps and virtual-reality experiences will also benefit from the continuous movement. Broadcasters plan to produce content with frame rates at 60 and higher on 4K TV sets.

While a wartime drama may be too niche to lift HFR out of the shadows, director James Cameron is on track to deliver the first of four Avatar sequels in higher frame rates from 2017. It could be the franchise that proponents of the technology will look towards to reignite mainstream s exhibition. ■

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E D I W D L R O W 6 1 I 0 2 M V CANNES ODAY ING T N E E R C S

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Screenings Edited by Paul Lindsell

Jury grid, page 112

paullindsell@gmail.com » Screening times and venues are correct at the time of going to press but subject to alteration

even reunited with his charismatic older brother, Solei, who disappeared five years ago. Solei introduces Bora to the exciting world of Cambodia’s privileged urban youth, with its girls, its nightlife and its illusions.

FestivaL

and press

08:30 ALBuM

(Turkey) 104mins. Dir: Mehmet Can Mertoglu.

Cast: Sebnem Bozoklu, Murat Kilic, Muttalip Mujdeci, Mufit Kayacan, Zuhal Gencer Erkaya.

A couple in their late 30s set out to prepare a fake photo album of a pseudo pregnancy in order to prove their biological ties to the baby they are planning to adopt.

Critics’ Week Miramar

IN BED WITH VICTORIA

(France) 99mins. Dir: Justine Triet. Cast: Virginie Efira, Vincent Lacoste, Melvil Poupaud, Laurent Poitrenaux.

Victoria is a beautiful Parisian criminal lawyer in her late 30s. Sex-addict, workaholic, totally selfcentered… But everything is about the change. An hilarious and tender comedy.

Critics’ Week Salle Bunuel

MA LOUTE

(France) 122mins. Dir: Bruno Dumont. Cast: Juliette Binoche, Fabrice Luchini, Valeria Bruni Tedeschi.

A couple of inspectors investigate the mysterious disappearance of tourists in Slack Bay, where young fisherman Ma Loute mingles with Billie Van Peteghem’s bourgeois family.

Competition Grand Theatre Lumiere Press, ticket required

08:45 NERUDA See box, above

11:00 CLASH

(Egypt) 97mins. Dir: Mohamed Diab. Cast: Ahmed Malek, Tarek Abdel Aziz, Nelly Karim.

Critics’ Week Miramar

12:30 AFTER LOVE

Festival & Press 08:45 NERUDA

(Chile) 106mins. Dir: Pablo Larrain. Cast: Gael Garcia Bernal, Luis Gnecco, Mercedes Moran, Pablo Derqui, Alfredo Castro.

It’s 1948 and the Cold War has reached Chile.

In congress, senator Pablo Neruda accuses the government of betraying the Communist Party and is swiftly impeached by president Gonzalez Videla.

Police prefect Oscar Peluchonneau is assigned to arrest the poet. Neruda

Explores the confrontations between pro- and antiMuslim Brotherhood demonstrators that emerged following the removal of president Mohamed Morsi from power on July 3, 2013.

Un Certain Regard Salle Bazin

THE LAST CHANCE

(Switzerland) 113mins.

Dir: Leopold Lindtberg.

Cast: Ewart G Morrison, John Hoy, Ray Reagan, Luisa Rossi, Giuseppe Galeati, Romano Calo.

Northern Italy, September 1943. Two allied prisoners of war, an Englishman and an American, escape when

74 Screen International at Cannes May 13, 2016

tries to flee the country with his wife but is forced into hiding. Inspired by life as a fugitive, Neruda writes his epic collection of poems, ‘Canto General’.

Meanwhile, in Europe, the legend of the poet hounded by the policeman grows and artists led by Pablo Picasso clamour for his freedom. Neruda, however, sees this struggle with his nemesis Peluchonneau as an opportunity to reinvent himself.

Directors’ Fortnight Theatre Croisette

the train transporting them to Germany is bombed. Taken in by a village priest who smuggles into Switzerland everyone trying to escape the Germans, the two prisoners become smugglers in turn, leading a group of Jewish refugees of all ages and 10 different nationalities.

Cannes Classics Salle Bunuel

11:15

invented darkness” – Robert Desnos.

Un Certain Regard Theatre Claude Debussy Press

11:30 I, DANIEL BLAKE

(UK) 97mins. Dir: Ken Loach. Cast: Dave Johns, Hayley Squires.

Daniel Blake (59) has worked as a joiner most of his life in Newcastle.

Now, for the first time ever, he needs help from the state. He crosses paths with a single mother, Katie, and her two young children, Daisy and Dylan. Katie’s only chance to escape a oneroom homeless hostel in London has been to accept a flat in a city she doesn’t know, some 300 miles away. Daniel and Katie find themselves in no-man’s land, caught in the barbed wire of welfare bureaucracy as played out against the rhetoric of “striver and skiver” in modern-day Britain.

Competition Grand Theatre Lumiere Ticket required

THE STUDENT

STAYING VERTICAL

(Russia) 118mins.

Dir: Kirill Serebrennikov.

Cast: Petr Skvortsov, Victoria Isakova, Julia Aug. “Those who follow the light have only ever

(France) 100mins. Dir: Alain Guiraudie. Cast: Damien Bonnard, India Hair, Raphael Thierry, Laure Calamy.

Film-maker Leo is in

the south of France.

During a scouting excursion, he is seduced

by Marie, a free-spirited and dynamic shepherdess.

Nine months later she gives birth to their child.

Suffering from postnatal depression and with no faith in Leo, who comes and goes without warning, Marie abandons both of them. Leo finds himself alone with a baby.

It is not easy but deep down he loves it. Through a series of unexpected and unusual encounters, struggling to find inspiration for his next film, Leo will do whatever it takes to stay standing.

Competition Salle Du Soixantieme

11:45 DIAMOND ISLAND

(France) 101mins.

Dir: Davy Chou.

Cast: Sobon Noun, Cheanik Nov, Madezza Chhem, Mean Korn, Somnang Nut. Diamond Island is a symbol of Cambodia’s future, a sprawling, ultramodern paradise for the rich on the river in Phnom Penh. Like many other country boys, Bora, 18, is lured from his village to work on the construction of this property developer’s dream. There, he forges new friendships and is

(France) 98mins.

Dir: Joachim Lafosse.

Cast: Berenice Bejo, Cedric Kahn.

After 10 years of living together, Marie and Boris have decided to get a divorce. Marie is going to buy the apartment in which they live with their two daughters. But it was Boris who had completely renovated it, and since he cannot afford to find another place to live, they must share it. When all is said and done, neither of the two is willing to give up.

Directors’ Fortnight Theatre Croisette

13:00 EXIL

(Cambodia) 77mins.

Dir: Rithy Panh.

Cast: Rithy Panh.

Rithy Panh goes back to his childhood and depicts the decisive moment when one has to go in exile.

Questions the reality, and the passion of reality, but also ideology.

Out of Competition Salle Bazin Press

THE LONG NIGHT OF FRANCISCO SANCTIS

(Argentina) 80mins.

Dir: Andrea Testa, Francisco Marquez. Cast: Diego Velazquez, Laura Paredes, Valeria Lois, Marcelo Subiotto, Rafael Federman.

Buenos Aires, 1977.

Francisco Sanctis, a family man living an eventless life, receives information about an upcoming kidnapping operation by soldiers of the dictatorship.

In a race against the clock, he will need to make the most important decision of » www.screendaily.com

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Camille Neel: c.neel@le-pacte.com - Nathalie Jeung: n.jeung@le-pacte.com - Alice Lesort : a.lesort@le-pacte.com

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© 2016 - Galatée Films - France 2 Cinéma - Le Pacte - Gecko Films - Outside Films - Logline Studios

Photo : © 2016 - Jean-Marie Leroy / Galatée Films • Design : Benjamin Seznec / TROÏKA

MARKET SCREENINGS

06/05/2016 12:24

Screenings

17:30 EXIL

(Cambodia) 77mins.

Dir: Rithy Panh.

Cast: Rithy Panh.

Out of Competition Salle Du Soixantieme

18:30

Cannes Classics Salle Bunuel

MA LOUTE

(France) 122mins. Dir: Bruno Dumont. Cast: Juliette Binoche, Fabrice Luchini, Valeria Bruni Tedeschi.

Competition Grand Theatre Lumiere Ticket required

19:00 CLOSE ENCOUNTERS WITH VILMOS ZSIGMOND

Festival & Press 14:00 MA LOUTE

(France) 122mins.

Dir: Bruno Dumont.

Cast: Juliette Binoche, Fabrice Luchini, Valeria Bruni Tedeschi.

A couple of inspectors investigate the mysterious

his life: will he try to save innocent lives by risking his own?

Un Certain Regard Salle Bazin

13:45 SIERANEVADA

(Romania) 175mins.

Dir: Cristi Puiu. Cast: Mimi Branescu, Judith State, Tatiana Iekel.

Larry, a neurologist at the top of his career, and his wife, are attending a family meal in Bucharest to commemorate the death of his father, who died 40 days earlier. All the guests are waiting for the priest’s arrival.

In the meantime, they argue about the events of 9/11. Larry tries to calm the debate but opinions are so divided not even the priest’s flying visit succeeds in reconciling the two camps. Just when things seem to be settling down, the arrival of an uninvited guest throws the commemoration into turmoil, which

MA LOUTE

disappearance of tourists in Slack Bay, where young fisherman Ma Loute mingles with Billie Van Peteghem’s bourgeois family.

Competition Grand Theatre Lumiere Ticket required

deteriorates into a settling of old scores.

Competition Salle Du Soixantieme

14:00 THE DANCER

(France) 108mins. Dir: Stephanie Di Giusto.

Cast: Soko, Gaspard Ulliel, Lily-Rose Depp.

Born in the American midwest, nothing in her background destined farm girl Loie Fuller to become the toast of Europe’s Belle Epoque cabarets, even less to dance at the Paris Opera. Dazzling the capital, she becomes an icon, the blazing symbol of a generation. Eminent admirers fall at her feet.

But her meeting with Isadora Duncan — a young prodigy hungry for glory — will lead to the downfall of this icon of the early 20th century. The remarkable destiny of a modern woman who revolutionised her era.

Un Certain Regard Theatre Claude Debussy Press

76 Screen International at Cannes May 13, 2016

See box, left

15:10 Momotaro’s Divine Sea Warriors

(Japan) 74mins.

Dir: Mitsuyo Seo. An animated propaganda film made to show the public how the Japanese military achieved such decisive victories in the South Pacific during the Second World War. Cannes Classics Salle Bunuel

of a large urban hospital with the emphasis on the emergency ward and outpatient clinics.

Cannes Classics Salle Bunuel

NERUDA

(Chile) 106mins. Dir: Pablo Larrain. Cast: Gael Garcia Bernal, Luis Gnecco, Mercedes Moran, Pablo Derqui, Alfredo Castro.

Directors’ Fortnight Theatre Croisette

movie developed: a movie in which the cameraman is pictured in the frame.

A documentary about a cinematographer, shot in Paris, in California and his homeland Hungary, about his life and works, starring his friends.

(France) 80mins.

Dir: Pierre Filmon.

Cast: Peter Fonda, John Travolta, Peter Schatzberg, John Boorman, Nancy Allen, Vittorio Storaro, Darius Khondji, Vilmos Zsigmond.

‘Close Encounters With Vilmos Zsigmond’ is the result of a special encounter between legendary American cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond, 85 years old, and Pierre Filmon, a young french director. Pierre wanted Vilmos to shoot his first feature film: a beginner asking a veteran to stand behind his camera. After many encounters, another

FARREBIQUE

(France) 91mins.

Dir: Georges Rouquier.

Cast: Georges Rouquier.

Between 1944 and 1945, Georges Rouquier spent a year with a family of farmers — his own relatives — on the farm Farrebique, situated in Goutrens in the Rouergue.

The film takes us inside a family whose life is governed by the seasons, by the dinnertime ritual of the grandfather cutting and handing out slices of bread.

Rouquier shows the hardships of this peasant existence on the eve of the introduction of electricity — and of the arrival of the forces of modernity about to change it radically. At the same time, Rouquier has a keen eye for the beauty of the characters, their simple ways and their closeness to their animals and to nature.

Cannes Classics Salle Bunuel

16:15 PERSONAL AFFAIRS See box, right

16:30 DIAMOND ISLAND

(France) 101mins. Dir: Davy Chou. Cast: Sobon Noun, Cheanik Nov, Madezza Chhem, Mean Korn, Somnang Nut. Critics’ Week Miramar

THE STUDENT

(Russia) 118mins.

Dir: Kirill Serebrennikov.

Cast: Petr Skvortsov, Victoria Isakova, Julia Aug. Un Certain Regard Theatre Claude Debussy Press

17:00 HOSPITAL

(US) 84mins. Dir: Frederick Wiseman.

Shows the daily activities

Festival & Press 16:15 PERSONAL AFFAIRS

(Israel) 90mins. Dir: Maha Haj. In Nazareth, an old couple live wearily to the rhythm of the daily routine. On the other side of the border, in Ramallah, their son Tarek wishes to remain an eternal bachelor, their daughter is about

to give birth while her husband lands a movie role and the grandmother loses her head. Between check-points and dreams, frivolity and politics, some want to leave, others want to stay but all have personal affairs to resolve.

Un Certain Regard Salle Bazin

»

www.screendaily.com

Witness found-footage that has been restored and compiled as a document of horrifying and unexplained events.

SCREENING IN CANNES Friday, May 13th • 11:00 pm • Olympia 2 Saturday, May 14th • 12:00 pm • Olympia 2 Olympia Cinema, 5 Rue de la Pompe, 06400 Cannes

Please RSVP for the date you will attend at rsvp@mistersmithent.com Due to the classified nature of this footage, this invitation is strictly private and non-transferable. Only those on the RSVP list will be admitted and security will be enforced.

MSE_DD13.5flpg.indd 1

5/10/16 12:15 PM

Screenings

Market screenings

09:15 AGNUS DEI

(France) 115mins. Films Distribution. Dir: Anne Fontaine. Cast: Lou De Laage, Agata Buzek, Agata Kulesza, Vincent Macaigne.

Poland, 1945. Mathilde, a young French Red Cross doctor, is on a mission to help the war survivors.

When a nun seeks her help, she is brought to a convent where several pregnant sisters are hiding, unable to concile their faith with their pregnancy. Mathilde becomes their only hope.

Festival & Press 20:00 AFTER LOVE

(France) 98mins. Dir: Joachim Lafosse. Cast: Berenice Bejo, Cedric Kahn.

After 10 years of living together, Marie and Boris have decided to get a divorce. Marie is going

TONI ERDMANN

(Germany) 162mins.

Dir: Maren Ade. Cast: Sandra Huller, Peter Simonischek.

Practical joker Winfried disguises himself as flashy “Toni Erdmann” to get busy Ines’ attention and change her corporate lifestyle. The father-daughter challenge reaches absurd proportions until Ines begins to see that her eccentric father deserves a place in her life.

Competition Theatre Claude Debussy Press

19:30 MONEY MONSTER

(US) 100mins. Dir: Jodie Foster. Cast: George Clooney, Julia Roberts, Jack O’Connell, Dominic West, Caitriona Balfe, Giancarlo Esposito.

In a real-time, high-stakes thriller, financial TV host Lee Gates and his producer Patty are put in an extreme situation when an irate investor who has lost everything forcefully takes over their studio. During a tense

to buy the apartment in which they live with their two daughters. But it was Boris who had completely renovated it, and since he cannot afford to find another place to live, they must share it.

Directors’ Fortnight Theatre Croisette

standoff, broadcast to millions on live TV, Lee and Patty must work furiously against the clock to unravel the mystery behind a conspiracy at the heart of today’s fast-paced, hi-tech global markets.

Out of Competition Salle Du Soixantieme

20:00 AFTER LOVE See box, above

21:00 A TIME TO DIE

(Mexico) 90mins.

Dir: Arturo Ripstein.

Cast: Marga Lopez, Jorge Martinez De Hoyos, Enrique Rocha, Alfredo Leal, Blanca Sanchez.

Juan Sayago returns to his hometown after 18 years in prison, accused of killing Raul Trueba, a horse dealer. Juan wants to live peacefully but knows that Julian and Pedro, Raul’s sons, have sworn to seek revenge for their father. Juan visits Mariana, a widowed woman who used to be Juan’s girlfriend.

78 Screen International at Cannes May 13, 2016

Everyone’s advice to Juan is that he needs to leave town.

Dir: Stephanie Di Giusto.

Cast: Soko, Gaspard Ulliel, Lily-Rose Depp.

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Cannes Classics Salle Bunuel

Un Certain Regard Theatre Claude Debussy Press

(France) 155mins. Films Boutique. Dir: Philippe Grandrieux.

A feverish story of love, passion and jealousy.

21:30 I, DANIEL BLAKE

(UK) 97mins. Dir: Ken Loach. Cast: Dave Johns, Hayley Squires.

Competition Grand Theatre Lumiere Ticket required

I, DANIEL BLAKE

(UK) 97mins. Dir: Ken Loach. Cast: Dave Johns, Hayley Squires.

23:45 TRAIN TO BUSAN

(South Korea) 118mins.

Contents Panda. Dir: Yeon Sang-Ho. Cast: Gong Yoo, Jung Yu-Mi, Kim Su-An. Life-or-death struggles on a KTX train to Busan.

Midnight Screenings Grand Theatre Lumiere Ticket required

MALGRe LA NUIT

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late mother always told him that he was the result of a casual encounter. One day, Mathieu receives a call telling him that his father was Canadian, and that he has just passed away.

He also discovers that he has two stepbrothers and decides to go to the funeral in order to meet them.

But once in Montreal, he realises that nobody is aware of his existence or even interested in it. He is alone, in hostile territory.

Olympia 3

ARES

(France) 85mins.

Gaumont. Dir: Jean Patrick Benes. Cast: Ola Rapace, Micha Lescot, Helene Fillieres.

Guerilla warfare rages in a post-apocalyptic Paris. A free-fighter, with nothing left to lose, attempts at any cost, including his own life, to save his family. A well-meaning, humane, hero caught up in the disconnect of a violent, twisted society.

Arcades 1 Priority badges only

09:30 A KID

BEFORE THE STREETS

(France) 98mins. Le Pacte.

Dir: Philippe Lioret. Cast: Pierre Deladonchamps, Gabriel Arcand.

Mathieu is 35 but he has never met his father. His

(Canada) 97mins. Wide.

Dir: Chloe Leriche.

Cast: Rykko Bellemare, Kwena Bellemare Boivin, Jacques Newashish.

The first dramatic feature

Competition Olympia 1 Marché badge holders only

THE KING’S HEART

(France) 102mins.

Dir: Phillipe De Broca.

Cast: Alan Bates.

Escaped asylum inmates take over an abandoned French village during the First World War. Cinema on the Beach Plage Mace

TONI ERDMANN

(Germany) 162mins.

Dir: Maren Ade. Cast: Sandra Huller, Peter Simonischek.

Competition Salle Bazin Press

22:00 DIAMOND ISLAND See box, right

22:15 THE DANCER

Festival & Press 22:00 DIAMOND ISLAND

(France) 101mins. Dir: Davy Chou.

Cast: Sobon Noun, Cheanik Nov, Madezza Chhem, Mean Korn.

Diamond Island is a symbol of Cambodia’s future, a sprawling, ultra-

modern paradise for the rich on the river in Phnom Penh. Like many other country boys, Bora, 18, is lured from his village to work on the construction of this property developer’s dream.

Critics’ Week Miramar

(France) 108mins.

»

www.screendaily.com

Touching the hearts of the world

Studio Meditation With a Pencil We at Meditation with a Pencil do our best to reach out to our audience with drawings and colours that can heal and touch their hearts.

Korea's Favourite Novel Meets a Nobel Prize Nominee Korean Short Literature Animated Feature 2016

“The AHN Jae-Hoon Era Trilogy: Present”

The Shower, The Shaman Sorceress

A Thousand Years Together

2016 | 90 mins. feature film

2018 | 90 mins. feature film

Genre| Drama, Omnibus, Musical

Genre| Drama, Fantasy

International Sales :Mirovision Inc. (Riviera D2) The main theme of the 2016 edition of Korean Short Literature Animation is love. The feeling

A girl who didn’ t know how to love herself meets

depicted in <The Shower> is arguably even too pure to be classified as ‘love’ , <The Shaman

a mystical creature who didn’t love the world.

Sorceress> handles conflicted emotions of love among a mother, her son, and their competing religions in a musical-like spectacle, whilst <The Shower> deals with fluttering emotions of a boy and a girl in watercolour-like background.

Awards 2015 Annecy International Animated Film Festival - Mifa Pitches

Director, Jae Hoon Ahn

“The AHN Jae-Hoon Era Trilogy: Future”

Melody of a sad love song,Let it play once more.

“The AHN Jae-Hoon Era Trilogy: Past”

Korean Short Literature Animated Feature 2014

Asia

Moonlit Heart

Green Days

The Road Called Life

90 mins. feature film

2018 | 90 mins. feature film

Jun, 2011 | 98 mins. feature film

Aug, 2014 | 90 mins. feature film

Genre| Fantasy, Adventure

Genre| Drama, Fantasy

Genre| Drama, Fantasy

Genre| Drama, Omnibus

Finding Hope For Tomorrow

Teresa Teng, a singer who was admired from Asia

“ What will I be able to leave behind on all

on the Road of Yesterday

to Europe and all around the world. We now

40,000km of Earth? Giving life to Korea’ s finest

delve into the unseen pages of her life.

short literature pieces.

4F, 17, Ihwajang 1gil, Jongnogu, Seoul, S.Korea 03088 / http://studiomwp.blogspot.kr http://www.weibo.com/u/5396416207 t. +82-2-318-4564 f. +82-303-318-4564 / Studio Meditation With a Pencil

Screenings

MIMOSAS See box, left

THE MORNING AFTER

(US) 78mins. Princ Films. Dir: Shanra J Kehl. Cast: Michelle Lombardo, Vanessa Evigan, Ben Esler, Philipp Karner, Sarah Otey, Sterling Jones, Markie Adams, Mason Trueblood, Christina Collard, Cameron Jebo.

A dramedy that follows eight individuals who wake up in someone else’s bed and need to make that decision about whether they should stay or they should sneak out.

Gray 4

NOTES ON BLINDNESS

Market 09:30 MIMOSAS

(Spain) 93mins. Luxbox.

Dir: Oliver Laxe. Cast: Ahmed Hammoud, Shakib Ben Omar, Said Aagli, Ikram Anzouli, Ahmed El Othemani, Hamid Fardjad, Margarita Albores.

A caravan escorts an elderly and dying Sheikh through the Moroccan Atlas. His last wish is to be buried with his loved ones. But death does not wait. The caravaneers, fearful of the mountain

shot in the Atikamekw native language.

Palais B

pass, refuse to continue transporting the corpse.

Ahmed and Said, two rogues travelling with the caravan, promise to take the body to its destination. But do they really know the way? In another world, parallel and remote, Shakib is chosen to travel to the mountains where the caravan is. His assignment is clear: he has to help the improvised caravaneers reach their destination.

Arcades 3

against the Nazis near the end of the Second World War.

this to himself, he pursues the beautiful Camille, whom he intends to seduce and abandon. But Camille puts a spell on Paul, whom she desires for herself alone. And, while falling under Camille’s charms, Paul has to deal with the memory of his past love.

Olympia 6

FORCE OF DESTINY

(France) 85mins.

Doc & Film International.

Dir: Avi Mograbi.

Avi Mograbi goes to meet African asylum-seekers in a camp in the middle of the Neguev desert where they are confined by the state of Israel.

DESTINY

Riviera 2

(France) 109mins.

Alfama Films. Dir: Gregoire LeprinceRinguet. Cast: Gregoire Leprince-Ringuet, Pauline Caupenne, Amandine Truffy.

Ondine and Paul have loved each other. When she leaves him, he swears not to love again. To prove

(Finland) 92mins. Les Films Du Losange. Dir: Juho Kuosmanen. Cast: Jarkko Lahti, Oona Airola, Eero Milonoff.

Summer 1962, Olli Maki has a shot at the featherweight boxing world championship title. From the Finnish countryside to the bright lights of Helsinki, everything has been prepared for his fame and fortune. All Olli has to do is lose weight and concentrate. But there is a problem — he has fallen in love with Raija.

CHOSEN

(Romania) 101mins.

Premiere Entertainment Group. Dir: Jasmin Dizdar. Cast: Harvey Keitel, Luke Mably, Ana Ularu.

An unassuming young lawyer leads a fight

Olympia 9

FOOL MOON

80 Screen International at Cannes May 13, 2016

Palais D By invitation only

Doc Corner

TIGER, BLOOD IN MOUTH See box, below

Palais F

THE HAPPIEST DAY IN THE LIFE OF OLLI MaKI

(China) 97mins.

Fortissimo Films. Dir: Zhang Wei. Destiny is one’s fate sealed at birth.

(US) 95mins. Dogwoof.

Dir: Maura Axelrod.

Cast: Maurizio Cattelan, Massimiliano Gioni, Nancy Spector, Francesco Bonami, Marian Goodman, Giada Cattelan Cattelan, Sarah Thornton.

An art world upstart, provocative and elusive artist Maurizio Cattelan

made a career creating playful and subversive works that sent up the artistic establishment, until a retrospective at the Guggenheim in 2011 finally solidified his place in the contemporary art canon. Axelrod’s equally playful profile leaves no stone unturned in trying to figure out: who is Maurizio Cattelan?

(Australia) 92mins.

Galloping Films. Dir: Paul Cox. Cast: David Wenham, Jacqueline Mckenzie, Shahana Goswami.

A story of love on a transplant waiting list.

Palais H

BETWEEN FENCES

MAURIZIO CATTELAN: BE RIGHT BACK

(UK) 90mins. Cinephil.

Dir: James Spinney, Peter Middleton.

After losing his sight, John Hull knew that if he did not try to understand blindness it would destroy him. In 1983, he began keeping an audio diary. His recordings form a unique testimony of loss, rebirth and renewal, documenting his extraordinary journey into a world beyond sight.

Market 09:30 TIGER, BLOOD IN MOUTH

(Argentina) 97mins. Film Factory Entertainment. Dir: Hernan Belon.

Cast: Leonardo Sbaraglia, Eva De Dominici, Erica Banchi, Osmar Nunez.

A high-octane, sex-fuelled boxing drama. ‘Tiger, Blood In Mouth’ plunges the audience into the world of boxing through an ardent love story of sex and self-improvement.

Gray 2

»

Palais J By invitation only

www.screendaily.com

Screenings

TOO HARD TO HANDLE See box, left

09:45 CROMO

Market 09:30 TOO HARD TO HANDLE

(Germany) 112mins. Beta Cinema.

Dir: Laura Lackmann. Cast: Claudia Eisinger, Katja Riemann, Barbara Schone.

It’s no surprise when Karo is fired. She is loud, over-emotional and egocentric, more so than the average Berliner wiseass. Karo is not one to give up easily,

though: she opts for radical change and goes into therapy. But it’s all too much in one go — her witty facade breaks and she slides into a depressive mood, to the extent that neither her closest confidant Max nor her grandmother Bille can help her. It is only when her mother takes Karo in that she slowly pulls herself together again.

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(Argentina) 120mins.

Pyramide International.

Dir: Lucia Puenzo, Nicolas Puenzo, Pablo Fendrik. Cast: German Palacios, Guillermo Pfening, Emilia Attias, Malena Sanchez.

On a mission to expose environmental crimes in the rural areas of northern Argentina, idealistic scientist Valentina travels to the swamp town of Corrientes to test the local water supply. Relying on remote support from her student Nina, who’s analysing the data from her potentially contaminated samples, Valentina embarks on a quest into the dangerous Ibera wetlands.

Meanwhile, Valentina’s husband Diego and his research partner Simon

SAVE THE DATE 15-24/10/16 82 Screen International at Cannes May 13, 2016

are on an expedition of their own at the South Pole, but their work is interrupted by the news that something’s gone wrong for Valentina. As they rush to the wetlands, hoping they are not too late to keep her safe, evidence of an ecological cover-up comes to light — as does the truth about a love triangle that threatens to break the bond of trust between Diego and Simon.

reality technology to conduct an illicit affair with his best friend’s girlfriend… or so it seems.

Palais C

Gray 3

10:00 CREATIVE CONTROL

(US) 97mins.

Coproduction Office (Paris). Dir: Benjamin Dickinson. Cast: Benjamin Dickinson, Nora Zehetner, Reggie Watts, Dan Gill, Alexia Rasmussen, Paul Manza, Gavin McInnes.

In near future Brooklyn, an advertising executive uses a new augmented

Riviera 1

DARK SHOW

(UK) 80mins. Dark Show. Dir: Olivier Parthonnaud. Cast: Joanne Mccallin, Malcolm Conrath, Matthew Mellalieu, Tony Simonneau.

A TV reality show turns into a nightmare.

GHASHANG & FARANG

(Iran) 90mins. Farabi Cinema Foundation.

Dir: Vahid Mousaian.

Cast: Reza Kianian, Afshin Hashemi, Sorush Sehat, Raena Azadvar, Manzar Lashkari, Omid Rohani, Jean Damien Barbin, Hossein Moheb Ahari, Ladan Mostofi, Bita Farahi.

Ghashang and Farang are two elderly sisters living

ISRAEL'S FIRST INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 100,000 ADMISSIONS 3 INTERNATIONAL COMPETITIONS ISRAELI FILM COMPETITIONS & PREMIERES 13th INTERNATIONAL PITCHING FORUM 3rd INT. CONFERENCE TV SERIES VS. FEATURES LIVELY OUTDOOR EVENTS

www.screendaily.com

with their sons Bahman and Vahid. Farang’s son, Bahman, is a film critic and Ghashang’s son, Vahid, is a dentist.

Although Vahid is married, he is not very committed to his marriage.

As a result, his wife has left him and moved to France to continue studying. On the other hand, Bahman and his wife have separated and she has moved to Dubai in an attempt to sell her paintings. One night, after hosting a party, Bahman goes for a walk and is hit by a car and falls into a coma. His mother and aunt try to bring him back to life.

Palais G

IN BED WITH VICTORIA

(France) 99mins. Indie Sales. Dir: Justine Triet.

Cast: Virginie Efira, Vincent Lacoste, Melvil Poupaud, Laurent Poitrenaux.

Victoria is a beautiful Parisian criminal lawyer in her late 30s. Sex addict, workaholic, totally selfcentered… But everything is about the change. An hilarious and tender comedy.

This went on for so long that Rosario became known as La Reina de los Jueves: the Queen of Thursdays.

encounters, struggling to find inspiration for his next film, Leo will do whatever it takes to stay standing.

Gray 5

Olympia 5 Press allowed

Olympia 8 Priority badges only

(France) 100mins.

Wild Bunch. Dir: Alain Guiraudie. Cast: Damien Bonnard, India Hair, Raphael Thierry, Laure Calamy.

Film-maker Leo is in the south of France. During a scouting excursion, he is seduced by Marie, a free-spirited and dynamic shepherdess. Nine months later she gives birth to their child. Suffering from post-natal depression and with no faith in Leo, who comes and goes without warning, Marie abandons both of them.

Leo finds himself alone with a baby. It is not easy but deep down he loves it. Through a series of unexpected and unusual

MISBEHAVIOR

(South Korea) 81mins.

Finecut Co. Dir: Kim Tae-Yong. Cast: Kim Ha-Neul, Yoo In-Young, Lee Won-Gun. Lerins 1

QUEEN OF THURSDAYS

(US) 79mins. Habanero.

Dir: Orlando Rojas. Cast: Rosario Suarez, Paula Roque, Alicia Alonso, Fernando Alonso.

She was the very pinnacle of grace and talent — yet for years Rosario Suarez, prima ballerina of the Cuban National Ballet, was only showcased on the Thursday programmes.

STAYING VERTICAL

11:15 THE OUTSIDER See box, right

11:30 4 KINGS

(Germany) 99mins.

Global Screen.

Dir: Theresa Von Eltz.

Cast: Jannis Niewohner, Paula Beer, Jella Haase, Moritz Leu. Alex, Lara, Fedja and Timo, four very different teens, have to spend Christmas in a psychiatric clinic for adolescents.

Locked up with each other, their own quirks and an unconventional psychiatrist, they experience an unforgettable Christmas full of surprises, pain, and laughs.

Market 11:15 THE OUTSIDER

(France) 117mins. Le Pacte. Dir: Christophe Barratier. Cast: FrancoisXavier Demaison.

Based on a true story, in 2008 the world economy is hit by the worst crisis since 1929. A young star trader, Jerome

Kerviel (nicknamed “the cash machine”), is allegedly responsible for the biggest banking loss in history, hitting France’s Societe Generale for ¤5bn. How could he gamble supposedly alone and in secret with ¤50bn?

Olympia 3

Lerins 2

32nd International

‫ חיפה‬32‫פסטיבל הסרטים הבינלאומי ה־‬

w w w . h a i f a f f . c o . i l

»

www.screendaily.com

May 13, 2016 Screen International at Cannes 83

Screenings

and almost commits the unthinkable. Because she is still a minor, the judge allows her to return home under the surveillance of her parents and special educators. As Melanie is gradually indoctrinated, Sonia follows the opposite path, the return path. Will she be able to leave the spiral and rebuild her life?

Arcades 1 Priority badges only

LIVE AND BREATHE IT

Market 11:30 RADIO DREAMS

(US) 91mins. Reel Suspects. Dir: Babak Jalali. Cast: Mohsen Namjoo, Lars Ulrich, Sulyman Qardash, Siddique Ahmed, Raby Adib, Mohamamad Talani, Boshra Dastournezhad

A PETTY BOURGEOIS DREAM

(Lebanon) 103mins.

Fondation Liban Cinema.

Dir: Mazen Khaled. Cast: Wissam Fares, Jamal Jaafar, Souraya Baghdadi, Ahmad Kaabour.

A mother moves in with her son, Ramzi, and his life-long friend, Tarek. The situation precipitates events and conclusions that lead the two to re-examine their relationship. Their attempts to protect their bubble will bring them closer as they struggle against family pressure, taboos and conflict.

Gray 4

ADULT LIFE SKILLS pic

(UK) 96mins.

Independent. Dir: Rachel Tunnard. Cast: Jodie Whittaker, Edward Hogg, Lorraine Ashbourne, Alice Lowe, Brett Goldstein.

Anna is stuck: she’s approaching 30, living

Dastournezhad.

A brilliant and misunderstood Iranian writer struggles to pursue his ambitious goal of bringing together Metallica and Kabul Dreams, Afghanistan’s first rock band.

Palais D

in a shed in her mum’s garden and making videos with her thumbs. Her mum wants her to get on with her life and get a haircut that doesn’t put her gender in question; Anna wants her mum “to back the F-off ”.

world view and put his achievements and his certainties to the test.

Palais H

BREAK THE SILENCE — SHORT FILM PROGRAM

(Sweden) 58mins.

Premium Films.

An international film project with the overall objective to combat sexual abuse of children at a global level.

Gray 2

BURDEN

BAD GIRL

(US) 86mins. Dogwoof.

Dir: Tim Marrinan, Richard Dewey.

A probing portrait of Chris Burden, an artist who pushed the limits of creative expression and risked his life in the name of art.

90mins. Arclight Films.

Palais F

Olympia 6

16 years old. She ponders the meaning of life and the state of the world. She wants to be a doctor. She lives in Creteil, a suburb of Paris, with her mother, who is raising her on her own. Like her friends, Melanie is constantly “connected” via social networks. Spotted by recruiters, she falls in love with one of them before converting and growing increasingly radical, one by one cutting off ties with her former life.

Sonia is 17. She is caught trying to leave for Syria

(France) 90mins. Upside Distribution. Dir: Claire Patronik. Cast: Anna Chirescu, Louise Djabri, Hugo Mbeng, Claire Patronik, Claire Tran.

Forget about the fantasy of a ballerina with satin slippers or the bohemian lifestyle of “Fame.” This film takes us into the daily lives of five characters whose paths may be very different, but are united by a common past, a common drive, a common need — dancing.

Palais J

RADIO DREAMS See box, left

RARA

(Chile) 92mins. Latido Films. Dir: Pepa San Martin. Cast: Mariana Loyola, Agustina Munoz, Julia Lubbert, Emilia Ossandon, Daniel Munoz, Sigrid Alegria, Coca Guazzini.

“So ... do your Mom and Lia kiss in public?”

“Sometimes. Not that much.”

Riviera 2

TORO

(Spain) 100mins. Film Factory Entertainment.

Dir: Kike Maillo. Cast: Mario Casas, Luis Tosar, Ingrid Garcia Jonsson.

A former con man must go back to his old habits to save his older brother and niece from his ex-boss and mentor.

Olympia 9

TSUKIJI WONDERLAND

(Japan) Shochiku Co. Dir: Endo Naotaro.

Doc Corner

UNDER THE SHADOW

(UK) 84mins. Xyz Films.

Dir: Babak Anvari. Cast: Narges Rashidi, Avin Manshadi, Bobby Naderi, Ray Haratian, Arash Marandi.

Tehran, 1988: as the IranIraq War rumbles into its eighth year, a mother and daughter are slowly torn apart by the bombing campaigns on the city coupled with the country’s bloody revolution. As they struggle to stay together amid these terrors, a mysterious evil stalks through their apartment.

Arcades 3

WORLDS APART See box, below

Lerins 4

HEAVEN WILL WAIT BORIS WITHOUT BEATRICE

(Canada) 90mins.

Films Boutique. Dir: Denis Cote. Cast: James Hyndman, Simone-elise Girard, Denis Lavant.

Boris Malinovsky has achieved all of his life goals: he’s strong-willed, independent, proud, and arrogant. After his wife Beatrice falls into a mysterious depression, Boris indulges in a love affair with his colleague Helga. When a mystical stranger appears, Boris must confront his

84 Screen International at Cannes May 13, 2016

(France) 105mins.

Gaumont. Dir: MarieCastille Mention-Schaar.

Cast: Noemie Merlant, Naomi Amarger, Ariane Arscaride, Clotilde Courau, Sandrine Bonnaire.

How French minors, teenagers from all sociocultural backgrounds, can be brainwashed to the point of attempting to leave for Syria and what are the challenges facing those who try to help and turn them around before it’s too late. Melanie is

Market 11:30 WORLDS APART

(Greece) 110mins. 13 Films. Dir: Christopher Papakaliatis. Cast: JK Simmons, Christopher Papakaliatis, Andrea Osvart.

Follows three separate narratives, each

a unique love story. Each story depicts a different generation falling in love during a time of socioeconomic turmoil that dominates southern Europe as a whole, only to connect as a single story in the end.

Palais B By invitation only

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FESTIVAL DE CANNES 2016 QUINZAINE DES RÉALISATEURS

Screenings

exorcism gone horribly wrong.

Lerins 3

PROMOS

100mins. Wild Bunch.

Olympia 1 Priority badges only

13:30 A GOOD WIFE

Market 12:00 ALBuM

(Turkey) 104mins. Dir: Mehmet Can Mertoglu.

Cast: Sebnem Bozoklu, Murat Kilic, Muttalip Mujdeci, Mufit Kayacan, Zuhal Gencer Erkaya.

11:45

MAGNUS

A couple in their late 30s set out to prepare a fake photo album of a pseudo pregnancy in order to prove their biological ties to the baby they are planning to adopt.

Palais K

(Iran) 117mins. Farabi Cinema Foundation. Dir: Mohammad Rahmanian.

Cast: Ali Omrani, Mahtab Nasirpour, Ashkan Khatibi, Hooman Barghnavard.

Set in an era in which videos were against the law in Iran in the 1980s

Alaskan town leaving a trail of death and destruction as it passes from host to host. The only hope of survival lies with a grizzled demon hunter who has faced this terror before. Together with a reluctant FBI agent, he has to figure out how to destroy a demon with the ability to possess its killer.

Palais G

Lerins 1

BENCH CINEMA

12:00 ALBuM See box, above

DOGS NIGHT

(Argentina) 85mins. Lupercal Communication. Dir: Ignacio Sesma. Cast: Nicolas Goldschmidt, Facundo Cardosi.

A road movie with a lot of car and not much road.

Palais C

FROM A HOUSE ON WILLOW STREET

(South Africa) 90mins.

The Exchange. Dir: Alastair Orr. Cast: Sharni Vinson, Carlyn Burchell, Steve Ward.

Roguish kidnappers abduct the daughter of a wealthy diamond distributor. When they have her locked up in their hideout, they realise she’s been possessed by a sinister demon.

Gray 3

DON’T KILL IT

(US) 93mins. Archstone Distribution. Dir: Mike Mendez. Cast: Dolph Lundgren, Kristina Klebe.

An ancient evil is unleashed in a small

LAPUTA

(Czech Republic) 93mins. Summerside International. Dir: Jakub Smíd.

Gray 5

86 Screen International at Cannes May 13, 2016

(Norway) 75mins.

Trustnordisk. Dir: Benjamin Ree. Cast: Magnus Carlsen, Viswanathan Anand, Garry Kasparov.

The incredible story of a boy who went from being bullied by his classmates to become the World Chess Champion. For a decade the film-makers have captured the decisive moments of Magnus Carlsen’s life, one of the world’s most intelligent people.

bridges with his wives and children and whose only company, even on harsh winter nights, are the sheep, cows and pigs he tends on his Vermont farm. Peter is also one of the most complicated, sympathetic documentary subjects to come along in some time, a product of the 1960s counterculture whose poetic idealism has since soured. For all his candor, he slips into drunken self-destructive habits, cursing the splendors of a pastoral

landscape that he has spent decades nurturing.

Palais I

(Serbia) 94mins. Films Boutique. Dir: Mirjana Karanovic. Cast: Ksenija Marinkovic, Hristina Popovic, Bojan Navojec, Jasna Djuricic, Boris Isakovic, Mirjana Karanovic.

Milena, a middle-aged wife and mother, is living comfortably in an upscale neighbourhood in Belgrade. She quietly tends to her looks, dutifully cooks and entertains her friends. But unsettling realities are beginning to seep into her when she finds out about the hidden past of her seemingly ideal husband.

THE POSSESSION EXPERIMENT

Lerins 4

(US) 85mins. Cinema Management Group. Dir: Scott B Hansen. Cast: Chris Minor, Jake Brinn, Nicky Jasper.

When Brandon explores the dark world of exorcisms, he teams up with a classmate to investigate a multiple homicide/suicide, which turns out to have been an

THE AFRICAN DOCTOR

(France) 96mins. Other Angle Pictures. Dir: Julien Rambaldi, Marc Zinga, Aissa Maiga.

A brilliant doctor from the Congo, who wants to get away from the dictatorship in his country, is hired by the mayor of a small village in the North of France. The locals are

Olympia 5

THE MISSING PAPER See box, right

OUR LOVERS

(Spain) 90mins. Filmax International. Dir: Miguel Angel Lamata.

Cast: Eduardo Noriega, Michelle Jenner.

His heart has been broken.

Hers has been shattered.

Now they only have each other, their love for books and their sense of humour.

Riviera 1

PETER AND THE FARM

(US) 92mins. Magnolia Pictures & Magnet Releasing. Dir: Tony Stone. Cast: Peter Dunning.

Peter Dunning is a rugged individualist in the extreme, a harddrinking loner and former artist who has burned

Market 11:45 THE MISSING PAPER (Italy) 112mins.

Intramovies. Dir: Renzo Martinelli.

Cast: Marco Leonardi, Lubna Azabal, Caterina Murino, Tomas Arana.

On June 27, 1980, an Italian civil airplane, ITAVIA flight DC9, crashes into the sea. Eighty one people died. Up to now nobody knows the truth.

Palais E

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Screenings

Abelanski, Virgile Bramly.

Suspenseful tale of endearing characters caught up in an investigation.

Olympia 6 Press allowed

THE NEW LIFE OF PAUL SNEIJDER

Market 13:30 PAT & MAT

(Czech Republic) 83mins. Attraction Distribution. Dir: Marek Benes.

Pat and Mat, best neighbours for 40 years, decide to look back at their crazy life. What can be better than a home cinema showcasing a series of their everyday life stories recorded on 35mm reels? As the old-style 35mm movie projector

afraid as they have never seen a black person before, and he and his family struggle to adapt to this new life. Nothing is like they dreamed of but they end up finding something good they didn’t expect.

Based on a true story.

Olympia 7

ALWAYS SHINE

(US) 85mins. Visit Films.

Dir: Sophia Takal.

Follows two friends, both actresses living in LA, who take a trip to Big Sur to re-establish a bond that has been broken by years of competition and jealousy. Once alone, the two women discover their formerly intimate friendship has become a series of strained interactions, marred by perceived betrayals, competition and resentment. The

starts to roll and lights dim, they are amazed at how exciting their life has been. They have never been short of problems, nor solutions. They constantly fix something, even when nothing is broke. Life to them seems full of adventures and misadventures. They may not be the smoothest builders in the world; however, they surely are the most optimistic.

Palais D

mutual jealousy and rage eventually rise to the surface, leading to an utterly unexpected, yet inevitable confrontation that will change both of their lives forever.

Lerins 2

AS YOU ARE

(US) 105mins. Alma Cinema. Dir: Miles JorisPeyrafitte. Cast: Charlie Heaton, Owen Campbell, Amanda Stenberg.

Set in the early 1990s, the telling and retelling of a relationship between three teenagers as it traces the course of their friendship through a construction of disparate memories prompted by a police investigation.

Gray 4

AWAY

(UK) 109mins. 7&7 Producers’ Sales Service.

88 Screen International at Cannes May 13, 2016

Dir: David Blair. Cast: Timothy Spall, Juno Temple, Matt Ryan, Hayley Squires, Terry Stone, Susan Lynch.

In order to evade her violent pursuer, a troubled girl seeking a new life forms an unlikely friendship with a middleaged man longing for death in the coastal town where their fates intertwine.

Palais B

France with 10 other Jewish children to escape deportation.

Olympia 3

THE FIRST, THE LAST

(Belgium) 98mins.

Wild Bunch. Dir: Bouli Lanners. Cast: Albert Dupontel, Bouli Lanners, Suzanne Clement, Michael Lonsdale, David Murgia, Aurore Broutin, Philippe Rebbot, Serge Riaboukine, Lionel

(France) 115mins.

Snd — Groupe M6.

Dir: Thomas Vincent.

Cast: Thierry Lhermitte, Geraldine Pailhas.

Paul Sneijder leads a decent, uneventful life in Montreal. Until his eldest daughter dies in a tragic and absurd elevator accident. Devastated, he has no one to turn to.

His wife is focused on her job. Their twin sons are self-absorbed teenagers.

Paul needs a dramatic change and quits his job.

During his many walks and encounters in the city parks, he becomes a dog walker. If Paul can survive the wacky canines and their equally crazy owners, the cold Canadian winter and his wife’s strange obsession for organic chicken, he might be on a journey to self-recovery.

Arcades 3 Priority badges only

THE RIFT

(Serbia) 90mins. Jinga Films. Dir: Dejan Zecevic. Cast: Ken Foree, Katarina Cas, Dragan Micanovic, Monte Markham.

‘The Man Who Fell To Earth’ meets ‘The Quatermass Experiment’.

Palais H

TAMARA

(Venezuela) 110mins.

Wide. Dir: Elia K. Schneider. Cast: Luis Fernadez, Pakriti Maduro, Karina Velazquez.

A man’s struggle to become the woman he truly is.

Palais F

WELCOME TO NORWAY

(Norway) 90mins.

Beta Cinema. Dir: Rune Denstad Langlo.

Cast: Andres Baasmo Christiansen, Olivier Mukuta, Slimane Dazi, Henriette Steenstrup.

A comedy about a racist and broke hotel owner who starts a refugee reception centre at the family’s mountain resort in order to save their business.

Palais J

PAT & MAT

YOUTH IN OREGON

See box, left

See box, below

THE BANKSY JOB

(UK) 80mins.

Metro International Entertainment. Dir: Dylan Harvey, Ian Roderick Gray.

Cast: Ak 47.

About art, crime, authentication, ongoing feuds and a familiar statue that, when it’s reintroduced to the marketplace, could be worth millions.

Gray 2

EXIL

(Cambodia) 77mins.

Films Distribution.

Dir: Rithy Panh.

Rithy Panh goes back to his childhood and depicts the decisive moment when one has to go in exile.

Riviera 2

Market 13:30

FANNY’S JOURNEY

YOUTH IN OREGON

(France) 98mins. Indie Sales. Dir: Lola Doillon.

Cast: Cecile De France.

France, 1943. The true story of Fanny Ben Ami, 13 years old, who crossed

(US) 100mins. Content Media Corporation. Dir: Joel David Moore.

Cast: Frank Langella, Billy Crudup, Mary Kay Place, Christina Applegate, Josh Lucas, Nicola Peltz.

‘Little Miss Sunshine’ meets ‘Sideways’ in an emotional, lifeaffirming road-trip comedy about a man tasked with helping his embittered father-in-law rediscover his love for life.

Olympia 9

»

www.screendaily.com

Screenings

Rocky understands that if he wants to regain his dignity, he must act. The next morning, he arrives at the office wearing a promotional owl costume, yet nobody pays him the least attention. Until the day comes when he meets a panda in the street.

When an owl meets a panda, everything becomes possible.

Palais K

THERE ARE MONSTERS

Market 14:00 THE DRAGON SPELL (AKA NICKY TANNER)

(Ukraine) 73mins. Sola Media. Dir: Vladimir Mikhailov.

Ten-year-old Nicky is a kind-hearted dreamer who cannot seem to live up to the expectations of his father, a famous dragon hunter. Riding on his pet calf Draco, he makes believe he is soaring through the air on a dragon’s back.

When Nicky hears about

14:00 AFTER LOVE

(France) 98mins. Le Pacte. Dir: Joachim Lafosse. Cast: Berenice Bejo, Cedric Kahn.

After 10 years of living together, Marie and Boris have decided to get a divorce. Marie is going to buy the apartment in which they live with their two daughters. But it was Boris who had completely renovated it, and since he cannot afford to find another place to live, they must share it. When all is said and done, neither of the two is willing to give up.

Arcades 2

BACK IN THE DAY

(US) 117mins. Bleiberg Entertainment. Dir: Paul Borghese. Cast: William Demeo, Alec Baldwin, Michael Madsen, Mike Tyson, Danny Glover.

the legend of the fire flower and its magical powers, he and Draco are drawn into an incredible adventure. In the enchanted forest, Nicky encounters a scary giant, befriends a mischievous wood goblin, enters the cave of the last dragon and is charmed by the mysterious water princess.

Will he and his new friends find the fire flower in time to prevent the evil plans of the swamp witch?

Lerins 1

A young boxer is taken under the wing of a mob boss after his mother dies and his father is run out of town.

Gray 3

coach of Finland’s worst competitive cheerleading team, is sick of losing and being stuck in Rovaniemi in the Arctic Circle. So she takes a trip to the motherland, Texas, where she’s inspired by the American mindset and focus of the world’s best cheerleaders.

Palais E

DANCER

(UK) 85mins. Westend Films. Dir: Steven Cantor. Cast: Sergei Polunin.

An immersive personal portrait of controversial ballet superstar Sergei Polunin.

KOKORO See box, below

OWL YOU NEED IS LOVE

(France) 83mins.

Gaumont. Dir: Ramzy Bedia. Cast: Ramzy Bedia, Elodie Bouchez.

Rocky leads the life of a model employee in a pharmaceutical laboratory.

He is happy apart from the fact that nobody is aware of his existence.

He is transparent. On returning home one evening, he discovers a Eurasian eagle owl, which stares intently at him.

(US) 110mins.

Embankment Films.

Dir: Bryan Bertino.

Cast: Zoe Kazan.

Their relationship at breaking point, 10-yearold Lizzy is all out of faith in her mother Kathy but tries to stay brave and fearless. Kathy, on the edge, barely keeping it together, knows that only a mother’s protective love, her most primal instinct, can save her daughter from what’s lurking in the darkness.

Olympia 2 By invitation only

THIS IS HELl

(Poland) 92mins.

Eastwest Filmdistribution. Dir: Katia Priwieziencew, Pawel Tarasiewicz. Cast: Jack Philip Lenkowsky, Kail Marcin Kowalczyk,

Mila Malgorzata Krukowska, Esma Katarzyna Paskuda.

Lerins 3

THE WINDMILL MASSACRE

(Netherlands) 85mins.

Kaleidoscope Film Distribution. Dir: Nick Jongerius. Cast: Noah Taylor, Charlotte Beaumont, Patrick Baladi, Tanroh Ishida.

A group of unsuspecting tourists awakens a mysterious evil while on a trip through the Dutch countryside.

Palais G

15:15 AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL

(Spain) 120mins. Latido Films. Dir: Rodrigo Grande. Cast: Leonardo Sbaraglia, Clara Lago, Federico Luppi, Pablo Echarri, Uma Salduende, Javier Godino.

From his wheelchair, Joaquin discovers that his neighbours are digging a tunnel to rob the bank next to his apartment.

He also finds out that the lady renting the room in his own house is an accomplice. He eventually realises that he is at serious risk, and also in love.

Palais D

Olympia 4

THE DRAGON SPELL (AKA NICKY TANNER) See box, above

BLIND SUN

(France) 88mins.

Reel Suspects. Dir: Joyce Nashawati.

Cast: Ziad Bakri, Yannis Stankoglou, Mimi Denissi, Louis Do De Lencquesaing, Gwendoline Hamon, Yorgos Gallos, Laurene Brun, Thodoris Kandiliotis, Andreas Marianos, Sarah Krebs.

Greece is plagued by an extrem heat wave. Water is scarce and violence is ready to explode.

Gray 5

CHEER UP

(Finland) 75mins.

Wide House. Dir: Christy Garland.

Miia, the ambitious

90 Screen International at Cannes May 13, 2016

I.T.

(US) 101mins. Voltage Pictures. Dir: John Moore. Cast: Pierce Brosnan.

Olympia 5

THE JOURNEY TO GREENLAND

(France) 98mins. Acid.

Dir: Sebastien Betbeder.

Cast: Thomas Blanchard, Thomas Scimeca, Francois Chattot, Ole Eliassen, Adam Eskildsen, Benedikte Eliassen, Mathias Petersen, Judith Henry, Martin Jensen.

An ice odyssey starring two not-so-adventurous friends, Thomas and Thomas.

Market 14:00 KOKORO

(France) 90mins. Doc & Film International. Dir: Vanja D’Alcantarra.

After her brother dies, Lucie feels like a stranger in her own life, “so perfect” until then. She decides to leave for Japan and finds refuge in a small village by the

cliffs. Nathan said he had found peace there, thanks to a man called Daisuke.

As she follows her brother’s footsteps, Lucie hopes to come closer to him one last time. But in this strange place, both hostile and welcoming, it’s her own story she will discover.

Riviera 1

»

Palais I

www.screendaily.com

Screenings

15:30

Management Group.

Lerins 4

47 METERS DOWN

(UK) 87mins. Altitude Film Sales. Dir: Johannes Roberts. Cast: Mandy Moore, Claire Holt, Matthew Modine.

A cage-diving expedition goes catastrophically wrong when two divers are trapped and must ascend through 47m of sharkinfested waters to get back to the surface.

Arcades 1 By invitation only

BLOOD FATHER

(US) 88mins. Wild Bunch. Dir: JeanFrancois Richet. Cast: Erin Moriarty, Diego Luna, Michael Parks, William H Macy, Dale Dickey, Thomas Mann.

After her drug kingpin boyfriend frames her for stealing a fortune in cartel cash, 17-year-old Lydia goes on the run, with only one ally in the whole wide world: her perennial screwup of a dad, John Link.

He has been a motorcycle outlaw and a convict in his time, and now is determined to keep his little girl from harm and, for once in his life, do the right thing.

THE DEVIL AND THE DEEP BLUE SEA

(US) 107mins. Content Media Corporation.

Dir: Bill Purple. Cast: Jason Sudeikis, Maisie Williams, Jessica Biel, Orlando Jones, Paul Reiser, Mary Steenburgen, Bryan Batt.

An emotional, funny and life-affirming story of how a widower’s life is given new meaning thanks to a friendship with a most unusual young drifter.

Olympia 9

FUKUSHIMA, MON AMOUR

(Germany) 104mins. The Match Factory. Dir: Doris Doerrie. Cast: Rosalie Thomass, Kaori Momoi, Nami Kamata, Moshe Cohen.

Young German woman Marie and cantankerous old Satomi — two women who couldn’t be more different — are trapped in the past and must learn to liberate themselves from guilt and the burden of memory in post-disaster Fukushima.

Lerins 2

Olympia 6 By invitation only

CMG ANIMATION PROMOREEL

36mins. Cinema

Shankhajeet Dey. A tree is felled to make new idols for the Hindu God Jagannath worshipped in Odisha, India. A group of temple servants conduct the ritual with joyous abandonment. But for the lady of the household who nurtured the tree, it’s a moment of loss, longing, devotion and faith.

Doc Corner

INTERROGATION

(US) 87mins. Voltage Pictures. Dir: Stephen Reynolds. Cast: Adam Copeland, CJ Perry.

WWE superstar Adam “Edge” Copeland and WWE diva CJ “Lana” Perry deliver a one-two action punch in this electrifying thriller that crackles with edge-ofyour-seat suspense. After the FBI receives a threat that multiple bombs will be detonated across Las Vegas, an interrogator and an IT specialist are plunged into a deadly game of cat-andmouse with a criminal mastermind, desperately racing against time to uncover the bomber’s true agenda as they fight to save their city.

GOD’S OWN PEOPLE

Gray 4

(India) 80mins.

Eleeanora Images. Dir: Nilamadhab Panda,

KEEPER OF DARKNESS See box, below

Market 15:30 KEEPER OF DARKNESS

(Hong Kong/China) 110mins. Edko Films. Dir: Nick Cheung. Cast: Nick Cheung, Amber Kuo, Louis Cheung, Sisley Choi.

Streetwise exorcist Fat becomes an overnight sensation when his extraordinary exorcism is recorded and goes viral. It not only catches attention from the media but also the underworld.

Palais B

» UKF_CANNES_SCREEN_107X304_DAY3.indd 2

92 Screen International at Cannes May 13, 2016

09/05/2016 17:05

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PRE-PRODUCTION

PRESENTS

RAVEN BANNER ENTERTAINMENT | RIVIERA LEVEL | STAND B4 Michael Paszt +16479970600 mpaszt@ravenbanner.ca

Sonia Lowe +14168292373 slowe@ravenbanner.ca

James Fler +14164283537 jfler@ravenbanner.ca

www.ravenbannerentertainment.com

SCREENINGS

WINNER

NARRATIVE COMPETITION SPECIAL JURY PRIZE: DIRECTION

MONTCLAIR FILM FESTIVAL 2016

MARKET 15:30 MOSTLY SUNNY

(Canada) 90mins. Mongrel International. Dir: Dilip Mehta.

Growing up in small-town Sarnia as the daughter of strict Sikh parents, no one anticipated Sunny Leone’s remarkable transformation into an adult film star

LONDON RAMPAGE

Director: Sophia Takal (Green) Cast: Mackenzie Davis (Halt and Catch Fire), Caitlin FitzGerald (Masters of Sex) Two actresses embark on a road trip to Big Sur to mend their damaged friendship, but jealousy begins to open old wounds in this twisted thriller about obsession, fame and femininity.

US Distributor: Oscilloscope Laboratories

“Unsettling, unshakable (...) reveals Takal as a remarkably assured filmmaker.” – Vanity Fair “Echoes of De Palma, Lynch, and Bergman, though it simultaneously maintains a presence all its own.” – Indiewire “Ridiculously entertaining.”

– Time Out New York “A highbrow thriller.”

– The Hollywood Reporter

(UK) 100mins. California Pictures. Dir: Greg Burridge. Cast: Greg Burridge, Steve Patten, William Ospreay.

Takes you on a dangerous journey through a city that carefully hides its dark underbelly of drugs, extortion, guns and illegal fight tournaments. Darren returns to his home turf in east London after a 10-year hiatus. The estate is in decay and rival gangs run the show, making it tough for his younger brother and sister to avoid the inevitable dangers of their perilous home town.

It’s sink or swim as he tries to create a better world for his only remaining family, while the nefarious leaders on the estate make it difficult for him to walk the straight and narrow.

Palais H

94 Screen International at Cannes May 13, 2016

Olympia 7

Cast: Tata Milouda, Brigitte Rouan, Claire Wauthion.

After she decides to venture outside of her neighbourhood for the first time in her life, 70-year-old Zayane Millia, a traditional, illiterate Algerian mother, sets events in motion that will bring her children together for the first time in more than 10 years at their mother’s home.

Meanwhile, their elderly mother has taken a trip with a friend to see her first employer in Algeria, a woman she hasn’t seen in more than 50 years and who has a mysterious box to give her. Culture shock and family histories are interwoven with everpresent memories of the war in Algeria, the country that binds these three women together.

Arcades 3

MERCI PATRON !

(France) 84mins.

Jour2Fete. Dir: Francois Ruffin.

Gray 2

MOSTLY SUNNY See box, above

MARKET SCREENINGS: TODAY / 13:30 / Lerins 2 May 15 / 12:00 / Riviera 1

and ‘Penthouse’ cover girl — not even Sunny herself. More astonishing still, Leone has reinvented herself in India as a mainstream reality TV star and Bollywood actress beloved by millions of men and women, despite widespread awareness of her spicy past.

CANNES OFFICE Lerins L4

OUT MOTHER

+1 347 662 9577

(France) 82mins. Loco Films. Dir: Fejria Deliba.

SADAKO VS. KAYAKO

(Japan) 98mins.

Kadokawa Corporation.

Dir: Koji Shiraishi.

Cast: Mizuki Yamamoto, Tina Tamashiro, Masanobu Ando.

Natsumi and Yuri buy a video recorder in a recycle shop one winter day and play back the

VHS tape in it. Its images are horrifying to behold.

Natsumi watches the images, and from that time it is if she is possessed by a strange phenomenon.

Yuri consults with Tokiwa, who is the most powerful spirit medium. He discloses the terrible reality to Yuri, that Natsumi’s life will be snatched away “after two days”. Tokiwa and Yuri struggle valiantly together to try to save Natsumi. Meanwhile, a female high school student named Suzuka and her family have just moved in a few days earlier, and she develops an interest in the abandoned house across the street. It is rumoured that if you enter the house, you will go missing.

Although it is supposed to be unoccupied, sometimes there seems to be some kind of presence there.

When these two seemingly unrelated incidents become intertwined, the reality of the mysterious house, and the truth behind the inexplicable phenomena occurring around Yuri and Suzuka are revealed.

Palais F

TWISTING FATE

(France) 107mins. Be For Films. Dir: Christophe »

www.screendaily.com

Screenings

Market 15:30 WALK WITH ME

(Denmark) 105mins. Trustnordisk.

Dir: Lisa Ohlin. Cast: Mikkel Boe Folsgaard, Cecilie Lassen, Morten Holst, Silja Eriksen, Karen-Lise Mynster.

Deployed on mission in Helmand, Afghanistan, 25-year-old Thomas steps on a landmine and loses both his legs. At the local rehabilitation centre he meets Sofie,

an ascending ballerina, who is helping a relative after a long-term sickness.

Thomas desperately wants to be back in the field and gets impatient as progress does not happen as fast as he wants it.

When Sofie offers to help him with a more intense rehabilitation plan, he accepts.

Despite their differences, they develop a special bond and a mutual affection.

Olympia 3 By invitation only

Lioud. Cast: Noemie Merlant, Caroline Jurczak, Marie-Christine Barrault.

Claire is 17. While vacationing together in South Africa, her family die in a terrible accident. She is the only one to survive the tragedy. Utterly distraught, convinced she is responsible for the death of her loved ones, devastated and guiltridden, she flees and decides to let fate, which saved her from death, now guide her life. Will this initiatory journey give her the means to return home and face the scrutiny of others?

Over the course of her adventures and encounters, some happy and others tragic, she skips over life stages, finally realising that she carries within her the strength to shape her own destiny.

16:00 #THE JEWS

WALK WITH ME

(France) 100mins. Other Angle Pictures. Dir: Yvan Attal. Cast: Dany Boon, Gilles Lelouche, Gregory Gadebois, Benoit Poelvoorde, Francois Damiens, Denys Podalydes, Valerie Bonneton, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Yvan Attal.

Yvan feels persecuted by a growing anti-Semitism and is used to being told that he is overreacting, that he is being paranoid.

During his counselling sessions, Yvan speaks of his particular concerns: his identity, to be French and Jew today. But these sessions are above all a key thread that links together several short stories, which are intended to dismantle, in a tragi-comic style, the most persistent antiSemitism cliches.

See box, left

Arcades 2

Riviera 2

THE CHINESE LIVES OF ULI SIGG

93mins. Autlook Filmsales. Dir: Ponte Cremenaga, Michael Schindhelm.

Palais I

DELUSION

(China) Arclight Films.

Dir: Danny Pang. Cast: Hu An, Chow Pak Ho, Yuan Yuan Cheng, Hong Chen.

A lonely-heart has recently found new love or has she? A social misfit daydreams about her co-workerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s perfect boyfriend, and a hardcore insomniac finds a girl being forcibly imprisoned in a room across the street.

Lerins 1

DETOUR

(UK) 90mins. Bankside Films. Dir: Chris Smith.

Cast: Tye Sheridan, Emory Cohen, Bel Powley.

Âť

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“An exceptionally engaging and gripping film.”

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Screenings

Market 16:00 MAMMAL

(Ireland) 99mins. Picture Tree International Gmbh. Dir: Rebecca Daly. Cast: Rachel Griffiths, Barry Keoghan, Michael Mcelhatton.

After Margaret, a divorced woman living

in Dublin, loses her teenage son, she develops an unorthodox relationship with Joe, a homeless youth. Their tentative trust is threatened by his involvement with a violent gang and the escalation of her ex-husband’s grieving rage.

Palais G

Law student and allround good guy Harper suspects that his scheming step-father, Vincent, is responsible for the car crash that sent his mother into a coma. Drowning his sorrows one evening in a seedy LA whiskey bar, Harper is interrupted by a tough looking redneck called Johnny Ray who offers to “take care” of his stepdad for $20,000.

Angry, intent on revenge and fuelled by alcohol, Harper agrees and spends the rest of his evening downing shots with Johnny Ray. The next morning, Harper awakes to the mother of all hangovers with hazy memory of the previous night’s events.

Answering a knock at the front door, he is surprised to find Johnny Ray and his beautiful but distant girlfriend, Cherry, ready and waiting to drive to Vegas to kill Vincent.

Harper quickly realises

that there is no easy way out; if he wants to survive this, he has no choice but to go along with the plan.

Olympia 1

I MARRIED A DUMBASS

Lucia Guerrero.

Two wealthy businessmen are about to get away with $5 million in illgotten money until their plans are revealed by an uninvited house guest.

(Argentina) 100mins.

Filmsharks International.

Dir: Taratuto Juan. Cast: Adrian Suar, Valeria Bertucelli.

Fabian and Florencia are actors. They meet during the shooting of a film and get married. Shortly afterwards, she discovers that she actually fell in love with the character of the film and not the real person.

Gray 5

Riviera 1

ROCK DOG

MAMMAL See box, left

MONEY

(US) 86mins. Red Sea Media. Dir: Martin Rosete. Cast: Kellan Lutz, Jesse Williams, Jamie Bamber, Jess Weixler,

NY84

(France) 80mins. Media In Sync. Dir: Cyril Morin.

Cast: Chris Schellenger, Sam Quartin, David Marr Iii. Follows the adventures of three young artists in the downtown art scene in the early 1980s.

Gray 3

(US) 88mins. Timeless Films. Dir: Ash Brannon. Cast: Luke Wilson, Eddie Izzard, Jk Simmons, Lewis Black, Kenan Thompson, Mae Whitman, Jorge Garcia, Matt Dillon, Sam Elliott.

Bodi, a naive mastiff from the Himalayas bent on

»

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Screenings

becoming a musician, forms an unlikely friendship with a cat, British rock legend Angus Scattergood.

Olympia 2

TERMINATOR 2: JUDGMENT DAY 3D

(US) Studiocanal.

Dir: James Cameron. Cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Edward Furlong.

Olympia 5

VINCENT-N-ROXXY

Market 17:30 A YELLOW BIRD

(Singapore) 112mins. Alpha Violet.

Dir: K Rajagopal. Cast: Sivakumar Palakrishnan, Huang Lu, Seema Biswas, Udaya Soundari.

Siva, a Singaporean Indian man released from jail, begins a quest to locate his ex-wife and daughter. How far can he go to redeem himself from guilt?

Palais F

(US) 105mins. Fortitude International. Dir: Gary Michael Schultz. Cast: Emile Hirsch, Zoe Kravitz.

A story about a pure love fighting to survive in a brutal and chaotic world.

The film follows down-ontheir-luck rebels Vincent and Roxxy who fall in love and fall apart when their violent pasts catch up with them.

Olympia 8

WHILE THE WOMEN ARE SLEEPING

(Japan) 103mins.

Toei Company. Dir: Wayne Wang. Cast: Takeshi Beat (Kitano), Hidetoshi Nishijima, Shioli Kutsuna, Sayuri Oyamada, Lily Franky.

While on vacation at a seaside resort, novelist Kenji’s curiosity is sparked by an intriguing couple.

Kenji’s fixation with them spirals, and he stalks the couple in search of answers. But the more he discovers, the less he understands, except for an escalating sense of danger.

Palais E

16:15 CMG ANIMATION PROMOREEL

36mins. Cinema Management Group.

Lerins 4

CENTER OF MY WORLD

(Germany) 115mins.

M-Appeal World Sales Ug. Dir: Jakob M. Erwa.

Cast: Louis Hoffman, Sabine Timoteo, Jannik Schumann, Ada Philine Stappenbeck.

When confronted with his past and present, will Phil fight — or take flight?

Lerins 2 Priority badges only

CLASH

(Egypt) 97mins.

Pyramide International.

Dir: Mohamed Diab.

Cast: Ahmed Malek, Tarek Abdel Aziz, Nelly Karim.

Explores the confrontations between pro- and antiMuslim Brotherhood demonstrators that emerged following the removal of president Mohamed Morsi from power on July 3, 2013.

Riviera 2

17:30 A YELLOW BIRD

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(UK) 140mins. Cohen

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Screenings

are waiting for the priest’s arrival. In the meantime, they argue about the events of 9/11. Larry tries to calm the debate but opinions are so divided not even the priest’s flying visit succeeds in reconciling the two camps. Just when things seem to be settling down, the arrival of an uninvited guest throws the commemoration into turmoil, which deteriorates into a settling of old scores.

Olympia 3

STRIKE A POSE

Market 17:30 THE MASTER

(China) 109mins.

Golden Network Asia.

Dir: Haofeng Xu. Cast: Fan Liao, Jia Song, Wenli Jiang, Shih-Chieh Chin, Jue Huang, Media Group. Dir: James Ivory. Cast: Anthony Hopkins, Emma Thompson, Vanessa Redgrave, Helena Bonham Carter, James Wilby, Samuel West.

One of Merchant Ivory’s undisputed masterpieces, this adaptation of EM Forster’s classic 1910 novel is a saga of class relations and changing times in Edwardian England. Margaret Schlegel and her sister Helen become involved with two couples: a wealthy, conservative industrialist and his wife; and a working-class man and his mistress.

The interwoven fates and misfortunes of these three families and the diverging trajectories of the two sisters’ lives are connected to the ownership of Howards End, a beloved country home. A compelling, brilliantly acted study of one woman’s struggle to maintain her ideals and integrity in the face of Edwardian society’s moribund conformist values.

Palais J Priority badges only

Yang Song.

A Wing Chun master must train — then sacrifice — a disciple to establish his martial arts school, only to become a pawn in a political conspiracy.

Palais D

IN THE FOREST OF SIBERIA

(Italy) 100mins. Other Angle Pictures. Dir: Safy Nebbou. Cast: Raphael Personnaz, Evgenyi Sidikhin.

Teddy has decided to run away from his superficial life and to search for new air to breathe far from everything. He returns to Lake Baikal (Siberia), in the middle of winter. Alone, in a hut on the banks of the lake, he tries to find himself.

One night, lost in the blizzard and ready to die, he is helped by Aleksei, a Russian hidden in the forest. A magnificent story of friendship develops between two men who are complete opposites.

Arcades 3

MOOR

(Pakistan) 120mins.

Adler And Associates Entertainment. Dir: Jamshed Mahmood Raza.

Cast: Hameed Sheikh, Samiya Mumtaz, Shaz Khan, Abdul Qadir, Shabbir Rana, Sultan Hussain.

After the death of the family’s matriarch, her husband and son must

102 Screen International at Cannes May 13, 2016

TRUE CONNECTION

(Argentina) 4mins. Blood Window. Dir: Jose Cicala, Nicolas Cuno. Cast: Guillermo Francella, Nicolas Francella.

Olympia 6

WE GO ON

(US) 89mins. Metrodome International. Dir: Jesse Holland, Andy Mitton.

Cast: Annette O’Toole, John Glover, Clark Freeman.

Some doors, once opened, can never be closed again.

Olympia 7

(Netherlands) 83mins.

Cinephil. Dir: Ester Gould, Reijer Zwaan.

What does it take to express yourself ? The surprising and moving story of Madonna’s most famous troupe of dancers.

confront not only the corruption in society around them but the corruption within themselves.

and everything it entails — betrayal, cruelty, and death — making killers out of boys, and enemies out of friends.

Palais H

Gray 4

See box, left

THE POWER

SIERANEVADA

TOMCAT

(UK) 119mins.

Moviehouse Entertainment. Dir: Paul Hills. Cast: Grace Vallorani, Constance Carter, Valentine Pelka, Jonnie Hurn.

Abducted and imprisoned by a cult, Magda awakens in a filthy cell. Despite hearing distant voices, her screams for help go unanswered. She’s a prisoner, seemingly without hope... In time, she befriends another hostage, a girl who provides some comfort.

However, as the weeks pass, the cult prepares Magda for participation in a dark ritual with demonic, religious and sexual overtones and her despair grows. Her only hope is that she’ll be discovered by those searching for her or find some way to escape. In the meantime, she must face an horrific and terrifying climax to her fate.

(Romania) 175mins. Elle Driver. Dir: Cristi Puiu.

Cast: Mimi Branescu, Judith State, Tatiana Iekel.

Larry, a neurologist at the top of his career, and his wife, are attending a family meal in Bucharest to commemorate the death of his father, who died 40 days earlier. All the guests

(Austria) 114mins. Films Distribution. Dir: Klaus Handl. Cast: Lukas Turtur, Philipp Hochmair.

Together with their tomcat Moses, Andreas and Stefan live as if they are in paradise. An inexplicable outburst of violence calls everything into question.

Doc Corner

THE MASTER

Lerins 4

17:34 TERROR 5

(Argentina) 90mins.

Blood Window.

Dir: Sebastian Rotstein, Federico Rotstein.

The night that ‘Terror 5’ takes place is the conmemoration of the 10th anniversary of the tragedy of Camargo Street. That night Gabriela and Hernan decide to go to a motel for a “crazy” night.

Paulo and Luciano try to convince Mariana and Marina to go swinging.

Gene gets a strange dvd.

Olympia 6

18:00 BIRTHDAY WISHES See box, below

Gray 2

RICE SOLDIERS

(Philippines) 120mins.

Tele Up. Tells the story of a group of boys, playing at being soldiers during the Japanese occupation, only to find themselves face to face with the real war

Market 18:00 BIRTHDAY WISHES

(Japan) 123mins. Kadokawa Corporation. Dir: Yasuhiro

Yoshida. Cast: Ai Hashimoto, Aoi Miyazaki, Yusuke Santamaria.

A mother’s words live on in her daughter.

Palais G

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Helsinki International Film Festival - Love and Anarchy presents the hottest film affair...

THE 5th FINNISH FILM AFFAIR Helsinki 20-22 September

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Screen.indd 1

11.5.2016 11.44

Screenings

BLOOD ROAD

(Vietnam) 90mins. Red Bull Media House. Dir: Nicholas Schrunk. Cast: Rebecca Rusch.

The epic journey of Rebecca Rusch, cycling the Ho Chi Minh Trail through modern Vietnam.

Palais K By invitation only

FEMALE FIGHT CLUB / FFC

Market 18:00

the last few days of the Tsar’s rule. After a short courtship, the two star-crossed lovers are engulfed by the war, which will separate them. Nearly 100 years later, a new Aleksander is still looking for Vera on the streets of Paris.

THE HERITAGE OF LOVE

(Russia) 86mins. Montecristo International. Dir: Yuriy Vassiliev. Cast: Andrey Adabashyan, Marat Basharov, Aleksander Baluev, Svetlana Ivanova.

Vera and Aleksander fall in love during

Lerins 1

(US) 95mins. Cineville International. Dir: Miguel Ferrer. Cast: Amy Johnston, Dolph Lundgren, Sean Faris, Chuck Zito, Cortney Palm, Levy Tran, Folake Olowofoyeku, Jeanette Samano, Rey Goyos.

A former fighter reluctantly returns to the life she abandoned in order to help her sister survive the sadistic world of illegal fighting and the maniac who runs it.

Gray 1

FIVE

(France) 102mins.

Studiocanal. Dir: Igor Gotesman. Cast: Pierre Niney, Francois Civil, Igor Gotesman, Margot Bancilhon, Idrissa Hanrot.

Sam, Tim, Nestor, Vadim and Julia are inseparable friends who realise their teenage dream: sharing a cool apartment in Paris.

Things are going well until Sam is financially cut off by his parents and unable to pay the rent.

Olympia 5

THE CIRCLES OF THE VICIOUS

(France) 110mins.

Films Du Toucan. Dir: Philippe Vallois. Cast: Alexis Sageot, Philippe Vallois, Tony Zarouel, Belen Ferris, Maellise Banton, Alice Oliot, Laurent Estimbre, Thea Foudrinier.

May 1973: Coming back from the Cannes film festival, a young hitch-

hiker is lost at nightfall and finds refuge in a farm where an old man claims to be a homosexual and pretends to come from the future.

Gray 3

THE HERITAGE OF LOVE See box, left

THE LAST RESORT

(Italy) 135mins. Wide House. Dir: Thanos Anastopoulos, Davide Del Degan.

Revolves around a very popular beach in Trieste, in the northeast of Italy, where a wall still separates men from women. A film about boundaries, identities and discrimination.

Palais E

THE LEGEND OF BEN HALL

(Australia) 135mins.

Odin’S Eye Entertainment. Dir: Matthew Holmes. Cast: Jack Martin, Jamie Coffa,

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Screenings

William Lee. Ben Hall is drawn back into bushranging by the reappearance of his old friend John Gilbert.

Reforming the gang, they soon become the most wanted men in Australian history.

Olympia 4

PRIVATE SCREENINGS — EUROPA CORP 2

108mins. Europacorp.

Olympia 1

RUMBOS

96mins. Film Factory Entertainment.

Riviera 1

TIE THE KNOT See box, right

WHO’S YOUR DADDY

(France) 89mins. Bac Films. Dir: Sylvain Descloux. Cast: Gilbert Melki, Pio Marmai, Sara Giraudeau.

Serge is one of the best kitchen salesmen in France. For the past 30 years he’s been operating in shopping areas and department stores, securing his employers an immediate, spectacular return on investment. He’s sacrificed everything for his career, including his friends, the women he loved and his son Gerald, who he hardly ever sees.

Not to mention his health!

When Gerald reaches out to him to help him get a job so that he can fund the renovation of his future restaurant, Serge gives it some thought before getting him hired as a salesman. Against all odds, Gerald finds out he has a gift.

Palais C

WINTER’S DREAM

(US) 100mins. Sc Films International. Dir: Joey Curtis. Cast: Paul Sidhu, Branden Coles, Brad Potts, Anne-Solenne Hatte.

In 2307, a future soldier is sent on a mission to hunt down the leader of the humanoid rebellion.

Arcades 2

19:45 24 WEEKS

(Germany) 102mins. Beta Cinema. Dir: Anne Zohra Berrached. Cast: Julia

Market 18:00 TIE THE KNOT

(US) 95mins. Starlight Global Films. Dir: Shuja Paul. Cast: Tara Reid.

A comedic drama set in Los Angeles and Mumbai. It reflects the Jentsch, Bjarne Madel, Johanna Gastdorf, Emilia Pieske.

Cabaret performer Astrid is six months pregnant when she learns that her unborn child will be severely disabled. She and her husband have little time to take a decision of enormous significance.

Lerins 2

20:00 CONSPIRACY

(US) Vmi Worldwide.

Dir: Aram Rappaport.

Cast: Minnie Driver, John Leguizamo, Frank Grillo, Maggie Q, Dianna Agron, Annasophia Robb.

In the not-so-distant future, a team of whitecollar criminals are enlisted by the Federal government to thwart a cyber-attack that threatens to bankrupt the USA. Gray 3

struggles of two modern women (one East Indian American and one American) who have to balance their career ambitions with families and cultural pressures.

Gray 5

E Vaiz, Celalcan Orhan.

“Nothing is as it seems” is the motto of Dr Dilara.

This is the story of a woman who has to risk everything to rescue her daughter from kidnappers after the unexpected suicide by her husband Antonio. Dr Dilara moves to Cyprus with her fouryear-old daughter and begins to research the mass graves.

Palais H

THE FINAL BARRIER

Films. Dir: Michael McCarthy. Cast: Robb Taft, Haley Johnson, Michael Applegate.

As the apocalypse evolves, US marshals are sent to a remote farmhouse in Colorado to retrieve a scientist in the witness protection programme who may hold the key to solving the unfolding pandemic.

Manar struggle, love and make music in their crimeridden ghetto and in Tel Aviv’s hip-hop club scene.

Gray 5

(UK) 98mins. Carnaby International Sales And Distribution. Dir: Dan Berk. Cast: Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, John Hurt, Olivia Thirlby, Jurgen Prochnow.

A veteran spy is sent undercover in Syria to smuggle a chemical weapons scientist and his family out of Damascus.

Diane is a beautiful woman. A very beautiful woman. The kind that turns heads wherever she goes. She is a brilliant lawyer with a good sense of humour and a strong personality. And since she’s just walked out of an unhappy marriage, she’s free to meet the man of her dreams. There’s no such thing as a coincidence. One evening Diane receives a phone call from a certain Alexandre who has found her cell phone. Something clicks between them almost instantly during this phone call. Alexandre is polite, funny and visibly cultivated.

Diane is under his spell.

They rapidly make a date.

But their meeting doesn’t go quite as expected.

Olympia 8

Arcades 2

LAURENT AND SAFI

USS INDIANAPOLIS: MEN OF COURAGE

HOW TO BREAK UP WITH MY CAT

(South Korea) 102mins.

Mirovision. Dir: Cho Sung-Kyu. Cast: Seo Jun Young, Park Gyuri.

A man, who communicates with a cat, and a woman, who lives with a cat, start dating and living together.

One day, their cat gets cancer so they prepare to say goodbye.

(Austria) 84mins.

Artdeluxe. Dir: Jasmin Durakovic. Cast: Michael Kristof.

In a refugee camp in Serbia, a film-maker from Austria experiences first hand the distress, anxiety but also hope of a group of refugees from Syria and their longing for a better life in Europe.

Palais F

Gray 4

Arcades 1

FINECUT PRIVATE SCREENING 2

JUNCTION 48

ISOLA

(France) 93mins.

Acid. Dir: Fabianny Deschamps. Cast: Yilin Yang, Yassine Fadel, Enrico Roccaforte.

A story made of dreams without fairies, where individuals must reinvent themselves.

DR DILARA

(Cyprus) 85mins. Sweet Orange Productions.

Dir: Tamer Garip.

Cast: Ruhsan Ankay, Cengiz Bozkurt, Buse Kirpala, Pembegul Bayram, Ercan Saymen, Metin Erduran, Mehmet

106 Screen International at Cannes May 13, 2016

(South Korea) 115mins.

Finecut Co. Lerins 1

GENESIS

(US) 76mins. Killgore

(Israel) 96mins. The Match Factory. Dir: Udi Aloni. Cast: Tamer Nafar, Samar Qupty, Salwa Nakkara, Saeed Dassuki.

Palestinian rapper Kareem and his singer girlfriend

Palais J VALLEY INN

110mins. Medallion Releasing.

Palais D

20:30 DAMASCUS COVER

(France) 115mins. B-Mol Productions. Dir: Anton Vassil. Cast: Tatiana Rojo, Nico Rogner, Michel Gohou, Xavier Jozelon, Habib Dembele, Teeyah Teeyah, Guimba Guimba, M Wayne, Innocent Versace, Fantani Toure.

Arcades 3

TOKYO SUNRISE

(Japan) 83mins. Tokyo New Cinema. Dir: Ryutaro Nakagawa.

Palais G

UP FOR LOVE

(France) 98mins.

Gaumont. Dir: Laurent Tirard. Cast: Jean Dujardin, Virginie Efira.

(US) 119mins. Hannibal Classics. Dir: Mario Van Peebles. Cast: Nicolas Cage, Tom Sizemore, Brian Presley, Thomas Jane, Matt Lanter, Cody Walker.

The incredible true story of the worst Naval disaster in US history brought to the screen for the first time.

Palais K By invitation only

22:30 ISOLA

(France) 93mins.

Acid. Dir: Fabianny Deschamps. Cast: Yilin Yang, Yassine Fadel, Enrico Roccaforte.

Arcades 2

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miamifilmfestival.com SUBMISSIONS DEADLINE

SEPTEMBER 30, 2016

GEMS FILM FESTIVAL

OCTOBER 13-16, 2016

INDUSTRY REGISTRATION OPENS

NOVEMBER 15, 2016

Jury Grid

★★

★

★★

★ ★★

★ ★★

★ ★★

★★ ★★

★★ ★★

3

★★

★ ★★

★★

★★

★★

★ ★★

2.1

average

★ ★★

screen international

★ ★★

Anton Dolin Afisha, Russia

★

Good

Tim Robey and Robbie Collin The Daily Telegraph, UK

★

★ ★★

★★★

Nick James Sight & Sound, UK

Staying Vertical (Fr) Alain Guiraudie

★★

★ ★★

Excellent

Justin Chang Los Angeles Times, US

★ ★★

Stephanie Zacharek Time, US

★ ★★

Manohla Dargis The New York Times, US

Kong Rithdee The Bangkok Post, Thailand

★ ★★

Jan Schulz-Ojala Der Tagesspiegel, Germany

Fabio Ferzetti Il Messaggero, Italy

Sieranevada (Rom-Fr) Cristi Puiu

The Screen jury at Cannes

Julien Gester AND Didier Peron Libération, France

Michel Ciment Positif, France Culture, France

★★★★

★★ Average ★ Poor

✖ Bad

Screen office Majestic Barriere, 1st floor, Suites Joy and Alexandre, 10 Boulevard De La Croisette, 06400 Cannes E-mail: firstname.lastname@ screendaily.com (unless stated) Editorial +33 4 9706 8458 Editor Matt Mueller US editor Jeremy Kay (jeremykay67@gmail. com)

Slack Bay (Fr-Ger) Bruno Dumont

Dumont Juliette Binoche★★ for an offbeat on northern Coast in 1910, ★★ reunites ★★ with ★★ ★★ ★★ comedy ★★ set★★ ★★France’s ★★Opal ★★ ★★ in a tale that of holidaymakers.

Fabrice★★ Luchini and Bruni Tedeschi ★★pits locals ★★ against ★★a snooty ★★family★★ ★★ ★★ ★★Valeria ★★ ★★ co-star. ★★

I, Daniel Blake (UK) Ken Loach

The veteran British★★ director returns a record★★ 13th Competition berth with of an injured ★★ ★★ ★★ for ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★this tale ★★ ★★ carpenter ★★ and a single up in the bureaucratic the UK’s welfare★★ system. ★★ ★★ mother ★★who are ★★caught ★★ ★★ ★★ nightmare ★★ of ★★ ★★ ★★

Reviews editor and chief film critic Fionnuala Halligan (finn.halligan@ screendaily.com)

Toni Erdmann (Ger-Aust) Maren Ade

An in-depth character study★★ about a music Peter Simonischek) who tries to ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ teacher ★★ (veteran ★★ Austrian ★★ theatre ★★actor★★ ★★ ★★ correct over-serious career-focused a barrage of jokes. ★★ the★★ ★★ nature ★★of his★★ ★★ daughter ★★ (Sandra ★★ Hüller) ★★ with★★ ★★ ★★

Head of news and chief reporter Andreas Wiseman

The Handmaiden (S Kor) Park Chan-wook

An adaptation novel ★★ Fingersmith , Park’s film relocates erotic drama Victorian London to ★★ ★★of Sarah ★★Waters’ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ the★★ ★★ from ★★ ★★ Korea Japan in ★★ the 1930s, for the ★★ story of a★★ Japanese heiress★★ who falls★★ in love with thief. ★★ and★★ ★★ ★★ ★★a female ★★petty★★

American Honey (UK-US) Andrea Arnold

Texas-born newcomer Lane stars alongside LaBeouf ★★ and Riley★★ Keough ★★ in the British ★★ ★★ ★★Sasha★★ ★★ ★★Shia ★★ ★★director’s ★★ tale of a gang Midwest selling magazine subscriptions day and partying ★★of teens ★★who travel ★★ across ★★the US★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ by ★★ ★★ hard ★★by night.

From The Land Of The Moon (Fr) Nicole Garcia

Garcia’s of Milena★★ Agus’s novel, years in the a woman★★ in a loveless ★★ adaptation ★★ ★★ ★★ following ★★ 20★★ ★★life of★★ ★★marriage ★★ who falls for another★★ man in the Second★★ World War. Cotillard and Louis star. ★★ ★★ ★★aftermath ★★ of the ★★ ★★Marion ★★ ★★ ★★Garrel★★

Paterson (US) Jim Jarmusch

Bus driver★★ Paterson★★ (Adam Driver) his daily route, writing notebook and ★★ ★★ follows ★★ a simple ★★ routine, ★★driving ★★ ★★ ★★ poetry ★★ in a★★ drinking single beer in a bar.

By contrast Laura (Golshifteh Farahani), ever-changing ★★ a ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ his loving ★★ wife, ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★lives an ★★ ★★ life.

Advertising and publishing

Loving (US-UK) Jeff Nichols

A★★ civil-rights drama★★ based on★★ the true★★ story of ★★ an interracial Negga★★ and Joel★★ Edgerton — ★★ ★★couple — played ★★by Ruth ★★ who 1958 for ★★ breaking ★★ state laws by getting married.

Shannon co-stars. ★★were jailed ★★ in Virginia ★★ in ★★ ★★ ★★Michael ★★ ★★ ★★

Senior sales manager Scott Benfold +44 7765 257 260

Aquarius (Bra-Fr) Kleber Mendonca Filho

Sonia stars in★★ the Brazilian debut, the tale of★★ a 65-year-old ★★ Braga ★★ ★★ director’s ★★ Competition ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ widow ★★who ponders ★★ the past engages★★ in a war★★ of attrition with developers who want to throw her out★★ of her home. ★★as she★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★

Julieta (Sp) Pedro Almodovar

A★★ story of loss three short

by Canadian Alice Munro, woman (played ★★and grief ★★adapted ★★from★★ ★★stories★★ ★★ writer ★★ ★★ following ★★ a ★★ at★★ different★★ ages by★★ Adriana Ugarte Emma★★ Suarez) on the verge overwhelmed her mysterious ★★ and ★★ ★★ ★★of being ★★ ★★ by ★★ ★★ past.

Personal Shopper (Fr) Olivier Assayas

The French★★ director★★ reteams★★ with Kristen in Clouds Maria in★★ 2014, for★★ his fourth ★★ ★★Stewart, ★★who also ★★starred ★★ ★★Of Sils★★ appearance in Competition set in Paris’s ★★ ★★ ★★ with ★★this ghost ★★ story ★★ ★★ fashion ★★ underworld. ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★

Ma’ Rosa (Phil) Brillante Mendoza

Filipino highlight★★ the plight★★ of those★★ living on★★ the margins his fifth film ★★ auteur ★★Mendoza ★★ continues ★★ to★★ ★★of society ★★ with★★ to★★ screen at Cannes, the tale★★ of a poor★★ mother-of-four Manila who the side to make ends ★★ ★★ ★★ in★★ ★★sells drugs ★★ on ★★ ★★ ★★meet.

The Unknown Girl (Bel-Fr) Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne

The tenth ★★ feature from brothers,★★ who have★★ been Competition fixtures★★ since Rosetta the Palme ★★ ★★the Dardenne ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ won ★★ d’Or stars Adele changed★★ by the death young girl near her practice. ★★in 1999, ★★ ★★ Haenel ★★as a doctor ★★ whose ★★life is★★ ★★ of a★★ ★★ ★★

Graduation (Rom-Fr) Cristian Mungiu

The winner★★ of the 2007 d’Or for★★ 4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days returns with a family ★★ ★★Palme ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ drama ★★focusing ★★on a small-town doctor and student★★ daughter,★★ who is assaulted just before an important ★★ ★★ ★★his psychology ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ exam. ★★

It’s Only The End Of The World (Can-Fr) Xavier Dolan

The 27-year-old third Competition a drama ★★ about a terminally ill writer★★ returning to ★★ ★★ director ★★ is back ★★with his ★★ ★★ ★★entry,★★ ★★ ★★ his family after Seydoux,★★ Gaspard★★ Ulliel and★★ Vincent★★ Cassel star. ★★ ★★ a 12-year ★★ absence. ★★ Marion ★★Cotillard, ★★ Léa★★ ★★

The Last Face (US) Sean Penn

The director of an international for a relief aid doctor Bardem) in war-torn ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★aid agency ★★ (Charlize ★★ Theron) ★★ falls★★ ★★ ★★(Javier ★★ ★★ Liberia finds their relationship as a result of their★★ differing★★ views on★★ how to solve crisis. ★★ but★★ ★★ ★★ under ★★strain★★ ★★ ★★ the ★★

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Fanning stars as★★ a teenage ingenue trying to crack Los Jena Malone ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★Angeles’ ★★cutthroat ★★modelling ★★ scene, ★★while ★★ The Neon Demon (Fr-US-Den) Elle Nicolas Winding Refn plays takes her under her in an exploration the city’s vicious★★ obsession with beauty. ★★the make-up ★★ artist ★★ who★★ ★★ ★★wing, ★★ ★★ of★★ ★★ ★★

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Elle (Fr-Ger-Bel) Paul Verhoeven

Verhoeven’s psychological first Competition entry since Basic Instinct 1992, sees Isabelle Huppert star ★★ ★★ thriller, ★★ his★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ in★★ ★★ ★★ as★★ a videogame company who is★★ attacked★★ by an intruder her home★★ and vows to track★★ down the assailant. ★★ boss ★★ ★★ at ★★ ★★ ★★

The Salesman (Iran-Fr) Asghar Farhadi

Forced of their apartment due to dangerous works on a neighbouring building, ★★ Emad and★★ Rana move ★★ out★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★into a new flat in the centre Tehran. An incident★★ linked to the previous change★★ the young couple’s life. ★★ ★★ of ★★ ★★ ★★ ★★ tenant ★★will dramatically ★★ ★★ ★★

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112 Screen International at Cannes May 13, 2016

Managing editor and news editor Michael Rosser

Group head of production and art Mark Mowbray

Reporters Melanie Goodfellow (melanie. goodfellow@btinternet.com), Tom Grater, Geoffrey Macnab (geoffrey@ macnab.demon.co.uk), Liz Shackleton (lizshackleton@gmail.com) Sub-editors Sam Andrews, Paul Lindsell, Adam Richmond, Richard Young Group art editor Peter Gingell Screenings Kelly Gibbens, Ben Sillis Publishing director Nadia Romdhani +44 7540 100 315

International account managers Ingrid Hammond +44 7880 584 182 (ingridhammond@mac.com) Pierre-Louis Manes +44 7768 237 487 Gunter Zerbich +44 7540 100 254 VP business development, North America Nigel Daly +1 213 447 5120 (nigeldalymail@gmail.com) Sales and business development executive, North America Nikki Tilmouth (nikki. screeninternational@gmail.com) Production manager Jonathon Cooke +44 7584 335 148 (jonathon.cooke@mb-insight.com) Production assistant Neil Sinclair +44 7826 942 693 (neil.sinclair@mb-insight.com) Festival and events manager Mai Thornley +44 7753 300 909 (mai.thornley@mb-insight.com) Events co-ordinator Sophie Moar (sophie.moar@ mb-insight.com) +44 7834 902 528 Managing director, publishing and events Alison Pitchford Chief executive, MBI Conor Dignam Printer Riccobono Imprimeur ZA Les Ferrieres, 83490 Le Muy Screen International, London Zetland House, 5-25 Scrutton Street, London EC2A 4HJ Subscription enquiries Tel +44 1604 828 706 help@subscribe.screendaily.com

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