AI Embraced by France’s Classic Film Industry, With Caveats: ‘AI Can Restore and Improve Damaged Images,’ Says Mac Guff’s Rodolphe Chabrier

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent “Casino Royale” Bond villain Mads Mikkelsen and Moroccan actor-director Faouzi Bensaïdi will be celebrated with career achievement awards at the upcoming 20th Marrakech International Film Festival that will run Nov. 24- Dec.

Finnish filmmaker Aki Kaurismäki’s Fallen Leaves and UK director Jonathan Glazer The Zone Of Interest lead the nominations in the main categories of the 36th European Film Awards which will take place in Berlin on December 9.

Sarvnik Kaur’s documentary Against The Tide won the Golden Gateway Award at this year’s Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival, while the Silver Gateway Award went to Bahadur – The Brave, directed by Diwa Shah. The Special Jury Award went to Kanu Behl’s Agra. 

Swedish director Ruben Östlund has been announced as a guest of honor at the 15th edition of France’s Les Arcs Film Festival, in the role of its Talent Village Ambassador.

Savina Petkova There is an ample tradition of historical dramas set in Interwar Poland, but there’s rarely one made by a woman director. Anna Jadowska wants to fill in this gap with her new project, “Tethys Ocean,” which will be presented at Thessaloniki Film Festival’s Agora Crossroads Co-production Forum next week. The story unfolds in 1938, as seven-year-old Wiktoria is being sent from a village near Kraków to become a servant at the mansion of a wealthy family where her older cousin also works.

John Bleasdale Guest Contributor Nurturing young talent and promoting film education is the name of the game at the Black Nights Film Festival in Tallinn, Estonia. The festival will feature a range of events specifically aimed at education promoting both film literacy in schools and vocational training in front of and behind the camera.

K.J. Yossman Trinity Creative Partnership have snapped up U.K. sales rights for historical war film “Love, Courage and the Battle for Bushy Run,” which is launching at AFM.

Ben Croll International production spending in France hit record highs in 2022, resulting in 2,220 shooting days that crested above $1 billion in promised investment — and public initiatives had a major role to play. In early 2020, for example, France updated its Tax Rebate for International Production scheme, supplementing a 30% across-the-board rebate with an additional 10% — applicable on all eligible expenses — for productions that spent $2.2 million with local VFX and post houses.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Arnold Schwarzenegger admitted on a new episode of “The Graham Norton Show” (via NME) that his rivalry with Sylvester Stallone “got out of control” during the 1980s and ’90s. The two actors emerged as action movie icons around the same time that Schwarzenegger released “The Terminator” and Stallone starred in “Rambo.” “We were movie rivals, but we took the competitiveness to the extreme – we each had to have the best body, we had to kill more people in our films and we had to have the biggest guns,” Schwarzenegger said. “It got out of control and we tried to derail each other.” “Then when we both invested in Planet Hollywood, we started flying around the world together to promote it and we became fantastic friends,” he continued.

Naman Ramachandran India’s Film Bazaar, South Asia’s largest film market, has selected a range of projects from around the world for its annual co-production market. The 20 selected projects are from 11 countries, most are already structured as co-productions, and they are all South Asian-themed.

Federation Studios has launched an international theatrical film sales division with Sabine Chemaly.

Mark Schilling Japan Correspondent French-Vietnamese director Tran Anh Hung spoke about the making of “The Taste of Things” (previously titled “The Pot-au-Feu”) the food-themed romantic drama that won him best director award at Cannes this year, at the master class held Tuesday at the Tokyo International Film Festival. Screening in TIFF’s Gala section, the film stars Juliette Binoche and Benoît Magimel as respectively a chef and gourmet.

Thierry Frémaux is best known internationally as the long-time head of France’s Cannes Film Festival, which is organized out of its offices in Paris’s trendy Marais neighborhood.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Dwayne Johnson announced on Instagram that he is reaching out to the Musée Grévin in Paris after it unveiled a botched wax figure of the A-list Hollywood star. Fans reacted in horror earlier this month at the museum’s light-skinned wax figure of Johnson, complete with a suburban dad kind of outfit that Johnson is almost never seen in. The wax figure drew instant comparisons to Mr.

Eric Cantona has suggested that The Rolling Stones should support him at one of his live shows following the launch of his music career.The former Manchester United icon released his debut, four-track EP ‘I’ll Make My Own Heaven’ today (October 20) via Decca.Cantona announced that he had set his sights on a musical venture back in May, when he teased the single ‘The Friends We Lost’ ahead of sharing the song in full the following month.The ex-professional footballer has since described his new life as an artist as the next best thing from being on the pitch. “If you have a dream it should be a big dream,” he explained.“I’ve done sport, cinema, but I think after sport the closest thing is singing live on stage.”During a new interview with BBC News, Cantona was asked which artists he would consider opening for as a support act, with the outlet noting that he is “just starting out”. He responded: “I do not understand what you mean.”The interviewer then attempted to “explain musical hierarchy” to Cantona.“No,” he said.

New behind-the-scenes photos of the 1997 blockbuster smash “Titanic” have been released — and they look like they were taken 84 years ago.Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet — just 21 and 20, respectively, at the time — boarded the fictional S.O.S. Titanic as production kicked off in summer 1996.

Lise Pedersen Lyon’s impressive Roman-style auditorium, normally used by the city’s symphonic orchestra, was sold out as U.S. writer and director Wes Anderson took to the stage as guest of honor of the Lumière Film Festival.

Filmmaker Alexander Payne (“Sideways,” “The Descendants,”) recently held a Q&A session during the Lumière Film Festival in Lyon, France (via Variety), with Los Angeles-based French film journalist Didier Allouch overseeing that conversation. Payne gave the French audience a big tease about what he’s currently working on, which could allow him to tackle a dream film genre.

“Practical Magic” was released in theaters 25 years ago on October 16, 1998 — and Alice Hoffman can’t believe it either.The author, who brought the story of the Owens sisters to life in the 1995 novel of the same name, says it “feels like it was yesterday” that the film was being made.“I think the reason why is because it’s more popular every year,” she tells the Post. “It’s kind of become a cult movie. And I think it’s a movie that really matters to people.”“Practical Magic” was directed by Griffin Dunne, starring Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman as witch sisters Sally and Gillian Owens, respectively.

Lise Pedersen Two-time Oscar-winning filmmaker Alexander Payne shared his passion for film and his thoughts on contemporary American cinema with the audience at the Lumière Film Festival in Lyon where he is premiering his eighth feature film, “The Holdovers,” under the French title “Winter Break,” on October 15th. In a conversation skilfully led and translated by Los Angeles-based French film journalist Didier Allouch, Payne drew laughs from the Lumière crowd when he explained that the secret to making good films was “keeping your budgets low.” “John Huston approached Luis Buñuel one day and asked him, ‘How is it that you make these wonderful films, like “Viridiana” and “The Exterminating Angel”?’ And Buñuel replied, ‘How much money do you make and how much money do you think I make?’” said Payne with a smile.