News

§tElise Girard directs her third film about a woman mourning her husband in Kyoto while on her book tour.

Indie Sales has unveiled the new trailer for Elise Girard’s romantic drama Sidonie In Japan starring Isabelle Huppert and has signed deals in Germany, Switzerland and Italy ahead of the film’s premiere at Giornate degli Autori in Venice.

Out of the Box will release the film in Switzerland and Majestic Filmverleih is handling German distribution, joining the film’s French distributor Art House Films and Italy’s Academy Two.

Sidonie in Japan stars Huppert as a French writer mourning...

Indie Sales has acquired “Sidonie in Japan,” Elise Girard’s romance-laced ghost movie starring Oscar-nominated Isabelle Huppert (“Elle”) and August Diehl (“A Hidden Life”).

Huppert stars Sidonie Perceval, an established French writer who mourns her deceased husband. Invited to Japan for the reedition of her first book, she is welcomed by her local editor who takes her to Kyoto, As they travel together through the Japanese spring blossoms, she slowly opens up to him. But the ghost of her husband follows Sidonie. She will have to finally let go of the past to let herself love again

Indie Sales will be introducing “Sidonie in Japan” to buyers at the European Film Market. Now in post, the movie will be completed in the Spring. Art House Films will handle the French release.

“Sidonie in Japan” was produced by Sébastien Haguenauer through his Paris-based outfit 10:15! Productions, in co-production with Lupa Film GmbH,...

True love story co-stars French actress Marina Foïs opposite rising French-Afghan actor Seear Kohi.

Brussels-based Best Friend Forever (Bff) has boarded Calais-set love story A Change Of Heart about a National Front supporter who falls in love with an Iranian teacher who is trying to get across the English Channel to the UK.

The French-language feature is the directorial debut of actor Jérémie Elkaim. He is best known internationally for his performance in Valérie Donzelli’s Declaration Of War and has also worked with the likes of Sébastien Lifshitz, Bertrand Bonello, Gilles Marchand, Catherine Corsini or Benoît Jacquot.

Based on...

MK2 Films has closed key territory deals on Sébastien Lifshitz’s timely feature documentary “Little Girl,” which world premiered in the Panorama section at the Berlin Film Festival to warm reviews.

The auteur-driven documentary revolves around the seven-year-old Sasha, who has always known she was a little girl, even though she was born a boy. Following the child and her close ones for one year, Lifshitz captures their moments of joys and challenges, and shows how Sasha’s family leads a constant battle to make her difference accepted, as society fails to treat her like the other children her age.

“Little Girl,” produced by Agat Films & Cie with Denmark’s Fine Cut For Real, was sold by MK2 Films to Benelux (Imagine), Germany (Salzgeber), Spain (La Aventura), Scandinavia (Selmer Media), Poland (Against Gravity), Switzerland (Praesens), Portugal (Nos Lusomundo), Israel (Lev Cinemas), Mexico (Piano), Brazil (Imovision), South Korea (Watcha), Taiwan...

Filming wraps up on Jérémie Elkaïm’s directorial feature debut, starring the actress alongside Laetitia Dosch and Seear Kohi. A Super 8 production sold by Totem Films. Final stretch for the shoot of Assoiffés, the first feature directed by actor Jérémie Elkaïm, which began on 19 August and will end in early October. Heading the cast are Marina Foïs, Laetitia Dosch (winner of the Lumières award for Best New Actress in 2018 and nominated that same year for the Most Promising Actress César award for Montparnasse Bienvenüe, also popular in Age of Panic, Gaspard at the Wedding and Our Struggles; who has just finished shooting in Passion simple, Valse de Vienne and...

The Brothers Grimm loved nothing more than a horrifying, gruesome, decidedly older-skewing fairy tale. While their classic stories have often been sanitized for wider audiences, it appears as if Gkids’ upcoming feature film “The Girl Without Hands” is holding on to at least a few of the more terrifying details of the original story that has inspired the animated offering.

In the film, a starving miller makes a literal deal with Devil, only to find that he’s been tricked (such is the main problem with dealing with Satan, after all) and has accidentally sold off his cherished daughter. Initially protected by her disarmingly pure heart, the Devil eventually makes off with the girl’s actual hands, forcing her to embark on a hard-won journey to redemption that involves true love, a surprising new life, and more than one more run-in with the evil being that hurt her in the first place.

The Champs-Élysées Film Festival, created by producer, distributor and exhibitor Sophie Dulac, is a commitment to Parisian audiences for a cinematic trip between France and the USA showcasing the best of French and American independent cinema and highlighting New Orleans.

Six American indies and six French indies will judged for two separate awards and will also receive audience awards. The 2017 Jury consist of talents coming from all kinds of backgrounds and having a strong involvement in French independent cinema : — Lolita Chammah, actress, — Lola Créton, actress, — Vincent Dedienne, actor, humorist and author, — Jérémie Elkaïm, actor, screenwriter and director, — Camélia Jordana, singer and actress, — Gustave Kervern, director and actor — Karidja Touré, actress.

Classic Claude Brasseur back when…

The classic French actor Claude Brasseur will be the Guest of Honor along with the American director Alex Ross Perry and director Jerry Schatzberg. Other guests include directors Arnaud and Jean-Marie Larrieu, the French actress Aïssa Maïga.

Fashion, celebrities and film have always had a close relationship, but for Coco Chanel's latest starry advertisement/motion picture "Once And Forever," the lines get blurred with a meta-short about the making of a movie about their esteemed founder. Helmed by Chanel creative director Karl Lagerfeld, Kristen Stewart, Geraldine Chaplin, Jérémie Elkaïm, François Marthouret, Amanda Harlech, Jamie Bochert, Jake Davies, Baptiste Giabiconi and Laura Brown star in the effort that goes behind-the-scenes of the troubled production of the Coco Chanel "biopic," while also managing to inform viewers about her life in the process. It's a pretty interesting concept that largely works, though there's not much new added to making-movies-is-hell tropes that are trotted out. Check it out below.

★★☆☆☆ The second French actress turned director to enter the Palme d'Or race, Valérie Donzelli brings to Cannes an overwrought, overblown raspberry of a literary bromance in Marguerite & Julien (2015). When Baz Luhrmann made his adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, he signalled his intention to remix the Bard's tale of star-crossed lovers by replacing the 'and' with a '+'. Here, Donzelli and fellow screenwriter Jérémie Elkaïm - who also plays frère Julien - turns the 16th century tale of Julien et Marguerite into Marguerite & Julien, and with it introduces a bunch of postmodern twists, a score of pop songs and soundtracks from other movies, purposeful anachronism and visual trickery - all to little or no avail.

Cannes — Even at a more civilized festival such as Cannes, it can be hard to catch every single movie in competition. There are always a few that will slip through the cracks and you can always count on the inevitable life drama moment to rear its ugly head. Unlike other festivals, Cannes has less repeat screenings across the board. That also makes things tough for one person to chronicle it all. With less than 24 hours left in the festival we’re happy to say we've been able to cover 10 Cannes selections in depth. Here are capsule reviews for another six selections you may still be curious about. [Expect full reviews of “Macbeth,” “The Little Prince” and “Chronic” by the end of the weekend as well as some thoughts on whether Oscar stepped out on la Croisette this year.] "Louder Than Bombs" Director: Joachim Trier Cast: Jesse Eisenberg, Gabriel Byrne, Amy Ryan, Isabelle Huppert, David Strathairn, David Druid Reaction: Trier’s first English language film is sort of a mixed bag. On the one hand, he often has creative and new ideas on how to stage scenes.

Exclusive: Company racks up sales on Margarethe von Trotta’s The Misplaced World ahead of Berlinale premiere.

Paris-based sales powerhouse Wild Bunch has unveiled a packed Efm slate, including Margarethe von Trotta’s The Misplaced World, Michel Franco’s English-language debut Chronic and The Goetz Brothers’ Martyrs.

The company is already reporting strong business ahead of the Berlinale Special premiere for The Misplaced World, about a German jazz singer who discovers a family secret when she heads to New York to track down an opera singer who resembles her late mother.

It is von Trotta’s first film since her 2012 Hannah Arendt, which played successfully in theatres worldwide.

So far, The Misplaced World has been picked up for Spain (Golem Distribucion), Greece (Strada Films) Portugal (Leopardo Filmes), Hungary (Vertigo Films), Israel (Nachshon Films), Turkey (Calinos Film), Brazil (Mares Films) and Japan (Gaga Corporation). Van Trotta’s long-time distributor Concorde will release the film in Germany.

Wild Bunch co-chief...

Valérie Donzelli, the actress-turned director who we most recently caught as a supporting player in the garishly dressed Saint Laurent, Bertrand Bonello’s stylized biopic might have found a taste for risky content as cameras are set to lense next week on her fourth feature film. The Cineuropa folks report that Donzelli has completed the casting on Marguerite et Julien, a project that François Truffaut flirted with but ultimately passed on. Completing the cast we find Aurélia Petit (The Science of Sleep), vet thesps Sami Frey and Geraldine Chaplin, reuniting with her fellow Declaration of War‘s Frédéric Pierrot and Bastien Bouillon who join the previously announced duo of Anaïs Demoustier (you can find her in Ozon’s latest, the recently acquired Cohen Media’s The New Girlfriend) and Jérémie Elkaïm (full-time collaborator with Donzelli who we also discovered in Declaration of War). Rectangle Productions’ Edouard Weil (Benoît Jacquot’s...

Sometimes in life, it's those that are closest to us that provide the biggest complications. And in Nicolas Mercier's upcoming "Grand Départ," he dives right into the messiness of sibling relationships, aging parents and new love that could change everything. Starring Pio Marmaï, Jérémie Elkaïm, and Eddy Mitchell, the film follows Romain, who has to team with this difficult brother to take of their father, whose health is slowly declining. These are some very adult decisions to be making for the not-yet 30 year-old, who also has the prospect of a new relationship on the horizon, if he can get himself together. You can see it all unfold in this exclusive trailer for the film, which highlights the comedy and drama that run throughout the coming-of-age tale. "Grand Départ" opens in New York City on May 23rd and will expand across the country in the weeks that follow. Watch below.

Main Competition

Golden Marc.Aurelio for Best Film: "Marfa Girl" by Larry Clark

Best Director Award: Paolo Franchi, "And They Call It Summer" ("E la Chiamano Estate")

Special Jury Prize: "Ali Has Blue Eyes" ("Alì ha gli occhi azzurri") by Claudio Giovannesi

Best Actor Award: Jérémie Elkaïm, "Hand in Hand" ("Main dans la main")

Best Actress Award: Isabella Ferrari, "And They Call It Summer" ("E la Chiamano Estate")

Best Emerging Actor Award: Marilyne Fontaine, "A Child With You" ("Un enfant de toi")

Best Technical Contribution: Arnau Valls Colomer, for the cinematography of "Never Die" ("Mai morire")

Best Screenplay Award: Noah Harpster and Micah Fitzerman-Blue for "The Motel Life"

Cinemaxxi Competition

The International Jury, chaired by Douglas Gordon and composed of Hans Hurch, Ed Lachman, Andrea Lissoni and Emily Jacir, awarded:

CinemaXXI Award (for feature-length films): "Avanti Popolo" by Michael Wahrmann

Special Jury Prize . CinemaXXI (for feature-length films): "Picas...

Larry Clark's tale of wild teens in Texas crowned best film, with awards also going to Stephen Dorff-starring The Motel Life

The losers, boozers and casual users of Marfa Girl found a happy ending of sorts as Larry Clark's new picture took the top prize at the seventh Rome film festival. Marfa Girl, a tale of wild teens in small-town Texas, took the Golden Marc'Aurelio award, bringing the curtain down on an event that has faced criticism for both the quality of its films and a perceived lack of big-name guests.

Marfa Girl paints a portrait of a Texas melting-pot near the Mexican border, inhabited by Hispanics, working-class white families and hippie artists. It stars Adam Mediano as the mixed-up teenage hero, Drake Burnette as a libidinous art student and Jeremy St James as a border patrolman on the brink of a meltdown. Clark – whose previous films...

Larry Clark's "Marfa Girl" won the top prize at the Rome Film Festival, which came to an end this weekend. Read Indiewire's review of the film here. Full press release below. The Prizes Awarded To The Films In Competition The International Jury, chaired by Jeff Nichols and composed of Timur Bekmambetov, Valentina Cervi, Edgardo Cozarinsky, Chris Fujiwara, Leila Hatami and P.J.Hogan, has conferred the following awards: - Golden Marc’Aurelio for Best Film: Marfa Girl by Larry Clark - Best Director Award: Paolo Franchi for E la chiamano estate - Special Jury Prize: Alì ha gli occhi azzurri by Claudio Giovannesi - Best Actor Award: Jérémie Elkaïm by Main dans la main - Best Actress Award: Isabella Ferrarifor E la chiamano estate - Best Emerging Actor or Actress Award: Marilyne Fontaine for Un enfant de toi - Best Technical Contribution: Arnau Valls Colomer, for the cinematography of Mai.

Whimsical and high-concept, and featuring a standout performance from our new boyfriend Jérémie Elkaïm, who has just won Best Actor at the Rome Film Festival for this role (clearly the jury was crushin' on him too), "Hand in Hand" ("Main dans la Main") is a gentle, quirky take on the mystical and somewhat random power of attraction and love. By contrast with the artifice of the other French rom-com we reviewed in Rome, "Populaire," writer-director (and supporting star and Elkaïm's wife) Valérie Donzelli's lightness of touch evokes more the sensibility of a loved-up Miranda July in its attention to off-kilter but grounded detail. Or maybe it's just that lead actress, well-respected French thesp Valérie Lemercier, also excellent, here reminds us of July. It's the hair. Whatever the case, the film bubbles along nicely, with our two appealing leads bringing nuance to an idea that in the wrong hands...

Happy Independence Day! We're taking stock and talking 2012 crop now that the year is half over. If you asked me to nominate for "Best Picture" right now, here are the titles I'd scribble in the air with sparklers... in alpha order.  I fully expect 2 or 3 of them to be written in ink at the end of the year in my top ten list.

 

The Avengers (review)

Let's not overstate. Popcorn entertainment occassionally does come better than this but The Avengers is still pretty damn fun and clever as it hurdles the complicated 'how on earth do you combine all these franchises into one?' question with confidence and humor. It's easy to forget how wrong this could have gone. Well done Joss Whedon. Extra bonus points for redeeming the two most previously disappointing characters (The Black Widow and The Hulk) by making them the unexpected key pieces of this jigsaw puzzle.

Bérénice Bejo as Peppy Miller in Michel Hazanavicius' The Artist The Artist, Michel Hazanavicius, A Separation: César Winners Pt.1 Best Actor Sami Bouajila, Omar m'a tuer / Omar Killed Me François Cluzet, Intouchables / Untouchable Jean Dujardin, The Artist Olivier Gourmet, L'exercice de l'État / The Minister Denis Podalydes, La conquête / The Conquest * Omar Sy, Intouchables / Untouchable Philippe Torreton, Présumé coupable / Guilty Best Actress Ariane Asquaride, Les neiges du Kilimanjaro / The Snows of Kilimanjaro * Bérénice Bejo, The Artist Leila Bekhti, La Source des femmes / The Source Valérie Donzelli, La guerre est déclarée / Declaration of War Marina Foïs, Polisse Marie Gilain, Toutes nos envies / All Our Desires Karin Viard, Polisse Best Supporting Actor * Michel Blanc, L'exercice de l'État / The Minister Nicolas Duvauchelle, Polisse Joey Starr, Polisse Bernard Lecoq, La conquête / The Conquest Frédéric Pierrot, Polisse Best Supporting Actress Zabou Breitman, L'exercice de l'État / The Minister Anne Le Ny, Intouchables / Untouchable Noémie Lvovsky, L'Apollonide,...

Bérénice Bejo, Malcolm McDowell, The Artist The Artist, Polisse, Intouchables: César Nominations Pt.1 Best Actor Sami Bouajila, Omar m'a tuer / Omar Killed Me François Cluzet, Intouchables / Untouchable Jean Dujardin, The Artist Olivier Gourmet, L'exercice de l'État / The Minister Denis Podalydes, La conquête / The Conquest Omar Sy, Intouchables / Untouchable Philippe Torreton, Présumé coupable / Guilty Best Actress Ariane Asquaride, Les neiges du Kilimanjaro / The Snows of Kilimanjaro Bérénice Bejo, The Artist Leila Bekhti, La Source des femmes / The Source Valérie Donzelli, La guerre est déclarée / Declaration of War Marina Foïs, Polisse Marie Gilain, Toutes nos envies / All Our Desires Karin Viard, Polisse Best Supporting Actor Michel Blanc, L'exercice de l'État / The Minister Nicolas Duvauchelle, Polisse Joey Starr, Polisse Bernard Lecoq, La conquête / The Conquest Frédéric Pierrot, Polisse Best Supporting Actress Zabou Breitman, L'exercice de l'État / The Minister Anne Le Ny, Intouchables / Untouchable Noémie Lvovsky, L'Apollonide, souvenirs de la maison close / House of Tolerance Carmen Maura,...

There are few things in life as devastating and traumatic as having to watch your child confront a life-threatening illness. I assume so anyway. My own kids were booted out of the house at the age of seven in the hopes that they would go make something of themselves, so they may have already kicked the bucket for all I know. But from what I understand a deathly ill child is an all around terrible experience. Romeo and Juliette learn this first hand after they meet, make sweet love, give birth to their son Adam nine months later, and soon begin to take serious notice of his behavior. He’s vomiting more than would be considered normal, his head has a constant tilt, and one side of his face seems slightly swollen. Upon their first meeting they joked incredulously about their names commenting that they’re most likely doomed to a terrible fate, but...

Chicago – Few semi-autobiographical explorations of high-stakes drama have ever been as playfully exuberant as Valérie Donzelli’s “Declaration of War.” Like Jonathan Levine and Will Reiser’s equally sublime “50/50,” this film is based directly on the real-life experiences of people who faced a cancer diagnosis and lived to tell the tale. Both pictures resist mawkish sentiment while delving into the rich textures and eccentricities of life.

Rating: 4.0/5.0

Whereas Reiser’s script was reminiscent of Judd Apatow’s signature brand of humanistic and improvisational comedy, Donzelli’s script (which she wrote with her co-star and real-life lover, Jérémie Elkaïm) appears to have been inspired largely by the experimental whimsy of François Truffaut. Initially, the dramatic tonal shifts are somewhat jarring, and there are moments when the film veers into distractingly twee territory. Yet for the most part, Donzelli strikes a remarkable balance between seriousness and irreverence, with occasional doses of unexpected surrealism.

It premiered at Cannes (Critics' Week; see Marie-Pierre Duhamel's review), it's screened at Sundance, it was France's horse in the Oscar race (though it didn't make the final round), it's just been nominated for six Césars (Best Picture, Director, Actress, Original Screenplay, Sound and Editing), and we begin this roundup with Karina Longworth in the Voice: "The gorgeously scruffy Juliette (director/co-writer Valérie Donzelli) and Roméo (co-writer Jérémie Elkaïm) — yes, the improbability is noted — move from dive-bar love-at-first-sight to proud parents of a newborn boy in the first few minutes of Declaration of War. Then their 18-month-old son, Adam, is diagnosed with a brain tumor. Shot in the actual hospital where Donzelli and Elkaïm's actual son was treated for cancer, Declaration of War turns autobiography into thrilling expressionist art."

The diagnosis "is the point at which most films would start scrupulously wringing every emotional moment for maximum cancersploitation," writes...

When the young couple whose relationship is the fond focus of Declaration Of War first meet in a punk club, they discover to their amusement that they are Romeo (Jérémie Elkaïm) and Juliette (Valérie Donzelli). “So we’re doomed to a terrible fate?” Elkaïm asks before planting a kiss on Donzelli. As it turns out, they are, though not one involving feuding families and faked deaths. They fall in love, move in together, and have a son, who isn’t yet 2 years old when he’s diagnosed with a brain tumor. The film is ...

With so many foreign films launching at Cannes, more than a few are bound to get lost in the shuffle. One of those, absent on my personal radar, was the French film Declaration of War, directed by Valérie Donzelli. It looks like it made it through the pack, as France declared (!) it their entry for the Best Foreign Film Oscar. IFC also picked it up for distribution, and ahead of their late January release, we have the first trailer. With 50/50, cancer and comedy seems to be tied together this year and for this foreign film, it looks to be a well-told story with some beautiful visuals, worthy of its praise so far. Check it out below via Apple for the film also starring Donzelli and Jérémie Elkaïm.

Synopsis:

The opening night film at this year’s Critics Week at the Cannes Film Festival and France’s Official Entry for Best...

Valérie Donzelli's Declaration of War made a splash this summer as the opening night film of Critics Week at Cannes. It has since been selected as France's entry for the Best Foreign Language Oscar. Now it has the distinction of being chosen in Sundance's Spotlight section ahead of its January 27th Us release from IFC's Sundance Selects. Check out the trailer below. Declaration Of War is an exuberant ride, a complex and life-affirming autobiographical tale of a young couple who surprise even themselves with their ability to fight for the life of their ill child, and for each other. Director/Writer/Star Valérie Donzelli and her co-writer/star Jérémie Elkaïm infuse the tale with unexpected verve using a host of cinematic techniques, music and heartbreaking performances....

Following up their initial competition announcement the folks at the Sundance Film Festival have released the names of thirty additional 2012 selections, in the Spotlight, Park City at Midnight, Next, and New Frontiers sections.

Although these sections tend to focus more on young and up-and-coming filmmakers (particularly the Next sidebar, which was created just a few years ago with that specific mandate), you might find a few names you recognize in the full list of invited films below. Next is where you'll find the new film from "Great World of Sound" director Craig Zobel; it's called "Compliance" and it's described as the (based-on-a-)true story of what happens "when a prank caller convinces a fast food restaurant manager to interrogate an innocent young employee." Lynn Shelton, director of "Humpday," will premiere "Your Sister's Sister" starring Emily Blunt, Rosemarie DeWitt and "Humpday"s Mark Duplass. Duplass also wrote his wife Katie Aselton...

Sundance continues to announce their lineups for each program and now we have the list of movies featured in the Spotlight section – the non-competition section where the festival screens some of their favourite films from other fests. Here is the lineup for 2012.

Corpo Celeste / Italy (Director and screenwriter: Alice Rohrwacher) — After moving back to southern Italy with her mother and older sister, 13-year-old Marta struggles to find her place, restlessly testing the boundaries of an unfamiliar city and the catechism of the Catholic church. Cast: Yle Vianello, Salvatore Cantalupo, Anita Caprioli, Renato Carpentiere.

Declaration Of War / Belgium (Director: Valérie Donzelli, Screenwriters: Jérémie Elkaïm, Valérie Donzelli) — A young couple embark upon a painful, enlightening journey when they discover that their newborn child is very ill. Cast: Valérie Donzelli, Jérémie Elkaïm, César Desseix. North American Premiere.

Elena / Russia (Director: Andrei Zvyagintsev, Screenwriter: Oleg Negin) — A meditative, modern-noir tale about an older woman,...

Yesterday Sundance released their films up for competition for the 2012 festival. But that was only one half of the festival slate. Now Sundance has released the second half of films that will be released as part of the festivities. Films in competition are just as interesting as those not in competition and with titles The Raid and Wuthering Heights are all on the list, it will be a fun watch this year.

Check out the list for the Out of Competition film that can be seen at the Sundance Film Festival 2012 below.

Spotlight

Corpo Celeste / Italy (Director and screenwriter: Alice Rohrwacher) — After moving back to southern Italy with her mother and older sister, 13-year-old Marta struggles to find her place, restlessly testing the boundaries of an unfamiliar city and the catechism of the Catholic church.Cast: Yle Vianello, Salvatore Cantalupo, Anita Caprioli, Renato Carpentiere.

Declaration Of War / Belgium (Director: Valérie Donzelli,...

Yesterday The Sundance Film Festival released their list of In-Competition films, today they have released their line-up of Non-Competition films. I've had a blast every year that I've attended The Sundance Film Festival, it's always a surprise! You never know what movie you are going to see until you see it. If you ever get a chance to go I highly recommend that you do. Each film on the list has a little description next to it. The festival will take place January 19th to the 29th.

Check out the list of movies below and let us know of any that you are interested in watching or hearing about so that we can get it covered for you. Some of the films might look familiar to you such as The Raid, Grabbers and Tim and Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie, and Wuthering Heights. The Raid is at the top of...

Yesterday the Sundance Film Festival announced the core lineup of films [1] that will be spotlit in the Competition slates at the 2012 festival. Now we've got a lineup of films that will play out of competition in the Spotlight, Park City at Midnight, Next <=> and New Frontier schedules. There are a few films in here with which you might be nominally familiar, like The Raid, Grabbers and Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie, not to mention Andrea Arnold's new version of Wuthering Heights. But many are new announcements. While the competition lineups are always a good place to look for some of the films that will be the most talked-about in the year following each Sundance fest, these schedules are where some of the more unique and provocative films live. There are still some big premieres to be announced next week, but if I was making a big Sundance wishlist,...

Sundance continues to roll out the lineup announcements with the Spotlight section. The non-competition section where the festival screens favorites from other festivals around the world this is a great way to catch up on the best of what you may have missed elsewhere:Corpo Celeste / Italy (Director and screenwriter: Alice Rohrwacher) -- After moving back to southern Italy with her mother and older sister, 13-year-old Marta struggles to find her place, restlessly testing the boundaries of an unfamiliar city and the catechism of the Catholic church. Cast: Yle Vianello, Salvatore Cantalupo, Anita Caprioli, Renato Carpentiere. Declaration Of War / Belgium (Director: Valérie Donzelli, Screenwriters: Jérémie Elkaïm, Valérie Donzelli) -- A young couple embark upon a painful, enlightening journey when they discover that their...

Getty Images The marquee of the Egyptian Theater announces the Sundance Film Festival

Yesterday, the Sundance Institute announced its in-competition narrative and documentary films for the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. Today, they announced their out-of-competition film in the Spotlight, Midnight, Next and New Frontier sections. The full list is below:

Spotlight

Regardless of where these films have played throughout the world, the Spotlight program is a tribute to the cinema we love.

Corpo Celeste / Italy (Director and screenwriter: Alice Rohrwacher) — After...

Following yesterday's announcement of the titles lined up for the four programs of the Competition, the Sundance Film Festival has unveiled the lineups of its out-of-competition sections: Spotlight, Park City at Midnight, Next <=> and New Frontier. This time, I'm going to go ahead and copy-n-paste the release nearly in full because, well, these are, potentially at least, the more interesting batches.

We'll cut in just as Trevor Groth, Director of Programming for the Sundance Film Festival, is saying, “In many ways, the extremes of the Festival’s program are most readily apparent in our out-of-competition sections, which showcase the wildest comedies, the most terrifying horror films and uncompromised visions from singular voices springing up from around the country and the world. We hope audiences experiment with their film selections to an equal degree as these filmmakers have experimented with their storytelling.”

Spotlight

Regardless of where these films have played throughout the world,...

It'll be a Tiff does Sundance this year in the Spotlight Program as the majority of the films programmed in the section (which staffers state, "regardless of where these films have played throughout the world, the Spotlight program is a tribute to the cinema we love") are films that moved from Cannes to Tiff en route to Sundance or had their world premieres at Tiff and are moving into Park City. Among the highlights we have have several Foreign Oscar submissions in Declaration Of War (France), Monsieur Lazhar (Canada) and Where Do We Go Now? (Lebanon), we have heavyweight audience favorites from Tiff in Lynn Shelton's Your Sister's Sister and Gareth Evans' The Raid and Andrea Arnold will have her U.S premiere for Wuthering Heights in Park City. Among the "must see" titles in the batch of nine is Andrei Zvyagintsev's Elena - (see pic above...

Following yesterday’s announcement of competition titles, Sundance Film Festival 2012 have announced the line-up for a few more sections today. In their Spotlight section we have a few of my favorite Tiff titles, including Wuthering Heights (pictured above), Your Sister’s Sister, as well as audience-winners The Raid and Where Do We Go Now? We also get the insane-looking Tim and Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie in the midnight section. Check out the list below.

Park City, Ut — Sundance Institute announced today the films selected to screen in the 2012 Sundance Film Festival out-of-competition sections Spotlight, Park City at Midnight, Next <=> and New Frontier. The Festival takes place from January 19 through 29 in Park City, Salt Lake City, Ogden and Sundance, Utah. The complete list of films is available at www.sundance.org/festival.

Trevor Groth, Director of Programming for the Sundance Film Festival, said, “In many ways, the extremes of the...

2012 Sundance Film Festival Sets Competition Slate The Sundance Institute has added to the 2012 Sundance Film Festival program by announcing the films for its out-of-competition sections Spotlight, Midnight, Next and New Frontier categories. There are surely more films to come — rumors are that titles including the Stephen Frears-directed Lay The Favorite are expected to premiere in Park City. The festival program is shaping up nicely, with a ton of films that don’t have distribution deals and have a decidedly independent flavor. “In many ways, the extremes of thefFestival’s program are most readily apparent in our out-of-competition sections, which showcase the wildest comedies, the most terrifying horror films and uncompromised visions from singular voices spring up from around the country and the world,” said festival programming director Trevor Groth. Here are the program additions: Spotlight Corpo Celeste / Italy (Director and screenwriter: Alice Rohrwacher) — After moving back to southern Italy...

Today the out-of-competition films were announced for the 2012 Sundance Film Festival.

The complete list of titles are below. See the films in competition here.

Some of the highlights here include the U.S. premiere of Lynn Shelton‘s Your Sister’s Sister, which received a lot of buzz at Toronto; Katie Aselton‘s thriller Black Rock starring Lake Bell and Kate Bosworth; found footage horror V/H/S directed by Adam Wingard, David Bruckner, Ti West, Glenn McQuaid, Joe Swanberg and Radio Silence; and Craig Zobel‘s follow-up to The Great World of Sound, Compliance and Tim and Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie (no further description needed).

Films in the Premieres sections will be announced Dec. 5. The 2012 Sundance Film Festival takes place Jan. 19-29.

Spotlight

Corpo Celeste / Italy (Director and screenwriter: Alice Rohrwacher) — After moving back to southern Italy with her mother and older sister, 13-year-old Marta struggles to find her place,...

This season, 63 countries have submitted films for consideration in the Foreign Language Film category for the 84th Academy Awards. The 2011 submissions are vying to be among the 9 long-listed by the Academy Of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences before the 5 finalists are announced with Oscar nominations on January 24. Here are the films that AwardsLine London Contributor Tim Adler believes will make the semifinal round: Declaration Of War (France) Sundance Selects, U.S. release date: January 27 Valérie Donzelli’s Declaration Of War has been a huge hit with critics and the public alike. The movie, which opened Cannes Critics’ Week this year, has sold to more than 30 territories and has already generated over 810,000 admissions in France for distributor-sales agent Wild Bunch. Declaration Of War is based on Donzelli’s own life story. She and her former partner Jérémie Elkaïm play themselves in the film, which charts their fight to save the baby they...

Jérémie Elkaïm, Valérie Donzelli, Declaration of War La Guerre est déclarée / Declaration of War is France's submission for the 2012 Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award. The second feature film directed by actress-turned-filmmaker Valérie Donzelli (Who Killed Bambi?, The Untouchable), who also co-wrote it with her former real-life companion Jérémie Elkaïm (perhaps best known in the Us for the 2000 gay drama Come Undone), Declaration of War is a tear-jerking family drama inspired by events in their own lives. In the film, Donzelli and Elkaïm play a young couple, Roméo and Juliette, whose baby (at the age of 8 played by the couple's real-life son, Gabriel Elkaïm) has been diagnosed with a brain tumor. Roméo and Juliette then proceed to declare war against death while struggling to save their own relationship as well. (The French-language title sounds like a pun on the title of Alain Resnais' 1966 classic La guerre est finie / The War Is Over.

If France worries about such thing -- which they probably don't given their justifiable pride in their celluloid history -- they'd probably be frustrated by now that that 10th Oscar win for Best Foreign Language Film continues to elude them. It's now been 19 years since they've managed a win (Indochine) in the Oscar category they once owned. Their best shot since then (Amélie) suffered a surprise loss. Their best nominated film in many years (Un Prophete) had the misfortune of arriving in an atypically strong year for the category. Then just last year they missed what most expected was an easy-get nomination for the international hit Of Gods and Men. It all adds up to a strange golden drought given their much-statued history; they've received the most Best Foreign Language Film Nominations in history (36) but Italy still surpasses them in wins (10). 

Valerie Donzelli and Jérémie Elkaïm in "War is Declared"

Oh yes,...

Declarations of War (La guerre est déclarée), which opened Cannes Critics' Week, has gone to Sundance Selects for U.S. distribution. Valérie Donzelli wrote, directed and stars in the film alongside Jérémie Elkaïm (who also co-wrote). Based on their own true love story, the movie follows Romeo and Juliette, a couple battling against their child's illness. Sundance Selects has now acquired five films out of the Cannes selection, including Maiwenn's jury-prize winning policier Poliss, Julia Leigh's provocative Sleeping Beauty, the Dardenne brothers' Grand Prix-sharing The Kid with a Bike and Bertrand Bonello's competition entry House of Tolerance; IFC Midnight picked up Aussie serial killer thriller Snowtown. The trailer is below: The film "won us over with their completely heartfelt, life affirming film that announces them as ...

The opening film of the 2011 Critics' Week, War is Declared (La guerre est déclarée) is the second feature from French writer-director-actress Valérie Donzelli, and is both a deeply personal family affair and a consistently inventive artistic triumph. Which meant that I was very excited to speak to she and her co-star, co-writer and real-life partner Jérémie Elkaïm in Cannes last Saturday.

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Declaration of War (Valérie Donzelli, France) — Opening Night, Critics' Week

It’s a love story, an action and war movie, where fantasy fights against a descent into hell. After La Reine des pommes (The Queen of Hearts), her first feature with a hint of Chaplin and French New Wave, Valérie Donzelli proves with La Guerre est déclarée (Declaration of War) that we were right to bet on her. The film is the hand-to-hand fight between a carefree couple – his name is Romeo (Jérémie Elkaïm), her name is Juliet (Valérie Donzelli) – and their son’s brain tumor. A declaration of war on this enduring illness, devouring cells, all kinds of cells and even family units. Donzelli films this moral and physical marathon (running, fainting, slipping from a French cancan to an open kiss, a tender version of the open bar) like a comedy. People sing like in The Queen of Hearts...

Valérie Donzelli presents Queen of Hearts, which begins as Mathieu (Jérémie Elkaïm) breaks up with Adèle (Valérie Donzelli), leaving her devastated. All she wants to do is die. But unwilling to go that far and also unwilling to ask her parents for help, Adèle turns to her distant cousin Rachel (Béatrice De Staël) for help. Against her better judgement, Rachel begrudgingly agrees to help Adèle. Rachel and Adèle become friends and start sharing confidences. Rachel is perplexed, exasperated and concerned about...