Investment In Movie Production In France Jumped 13.6% To $1.45B In 2023

Russian filmmaker Kirill Serebrennikov returns to Cannes once again this year with Limonov: The Ballad starring Ben Whishaw, for which we can share a first-look image from above. 

EXCLUSIVE: Lumanity Productions announced that a feature film adaptation deal has been inked with Christine Mangan for her novel The Continental Affair.  

Alex Ritman Rwandan actress Eliane Umuhire (“Augure by Baloji,” “My New Friends”), French producer Sylvie Pialat (“Timbuktu,” “Staying Vertical”), Belgian cinematographer Virginie Surdej (“The Blue Caftan,” “Our Mothers,” “Casablanca Beats”) and Canadian film critic, journalist and frequent Variety contributor Ben Croll have been named on the jury for the Critics’ Week section of the Cannes Film Festival. The four will now join Spanish filmmaker Rodrigo Sorogoyen, who last week was named Critics’ Week jury president, with the group set to choose the sidebar competition’s award winners, including the Grand Prize for best feature film, the French Touch Prize of the Jury, the Louis Roederer Foundation Rising Star award for best actor or actress and the Leitz Ciné Discovery Prize for best short film.

EXCLUSIVE: La Haine filmmaker Mathieu Kassovitz is returning to the director’s chair to make English-language passion project The Big War, which will mark the first movie he has helmed in 13 years.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Filming has begun on “Return to Paradise,” an Australian spin-off series of the global hit murder mystery franchise “Death in Paradise.” With filming in locations across Sydney and the Illawarra coastal region, the six-part whodunit is produced by BBC Studios Productions Australia with Red Planet Pictures for the ABC in association with the BBC. The BBC will screen the series on BBC One and iPlayer in the U.K.

EXCLUSIVE: MGM+ has cast Jessica Frances Dukes (Ozark) as the female lead opposite Alexander Ludwig in Earth Abides, a limited series that promises to offer an imaginative new take on George R. Stewart’s classic sci-fi novel of the same name.

58 years after making his debut feature, Woody Allen is sitting “on the fence” about whether his latest movie Coup de Chance, his 50th feature, will be his last cinematic outing.

Studiocanal has signed the person responsible for setting up Netflix production hubs around Europe as its new TV boss.

EXCLUSIVE: Upcoming Filipino crime drama series Sellblock has wrapped principal photography and is headed for MIPTV. You can see four first-look images above.

Movistar Plus+ original film and the awaited next feature from Spain’s Iciar Bollaín (“Take My Eyes,” “Maixabel”), has closed its earliest pre-sales, struck by Film Factory Entertainment, including a bellwether deal in France. The deals come as “I’m Nevenka” has wrapped production, shooting in the Basque city of Bilbao before transferring to rural Zamora, western Spain.

EXCLUSIVE: Paris-based Superprod Group has acquired top Luxembourgish animation companies Studio 352 and Mélusine Productions in a move that consolidates its position as one of Europe’s leading animation production groups.

Highlander icon Christopher Lambert has opened up on the cult movie which catapulted him to stardom and his love for Scotland, where the film was shot and set.

Now hear this: Sales of recorded music in the U.S. grew for the eighth consecutive year in 2023, with streams accounting for a dominant 84% and vinyl up by double digits again, the RIAA said in its full-year report released Tuesday. The sector overall grew by 8% over 2022 to $17.1 billion.

TM. Don't get me wrong: The has fantastic style and a closet anyone would be lucky to raid—it's just that she's more likely to get papped wearing well-known, accessible brands like and than high-fashion It-girl options like .Much like her close friend , Swift gives off the vibes of a celebrity that for a night out rather than rely on a stylist off the red carpet.

Canal+ Group has acquired a stake in Senegalese production company Marodi TV, which is a key player in the West African drama series scene.

Ed Meza @edmezavar Underscoring the growing ties between France and Taiwan in the film and television sector, French and Taiwanese producers CinéFrance, Alef One and Yoosonn Entertainment have presented two new series co-productions at Series Mania. “Fly,” co-produced by Paris-based CinéFrance and Taipei’s Yoosonn Entertainment, is a spy drama series adapted from Taiwanese author Chang Kuo-Li’s original IP that is set to shoot in France and Taiwan.

HBO was built on the back of showrunners such as David Chase, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss and Jesse Armstrong but is now facing a new dilemma involving directors.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor A panel moderated by the European Audiovisual Observatory at Series Mania Tuesday looked at four key trends in series production in Europe. Warning Signs?Gilles Fontaine, EAO’s head of department for market information, said there were warning signs of a downward trend in the number of seasons being produced, first in the U.S.

Roll up, roll up for part two of our Cannes preview, this time with a focus on international, mainly non-English language fare. If you didn’t catch Andreas’ English-language focused part one, check it out here.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent After creating a U.K. genre label with Jed Benedict, Studiocanal has forged a partnership with French production company WTFilms to focus on genre films.