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The American French Film Festival unveiled the full-line up of its upcoming edition at a press conference at the Résidence de France in Beverly Hills on Wednesday, as the event returns after a one-year hiatus due to the Hollywood strikes.

The 28th edition, running October 29 to November 3 in the Director’s Guild of America Theatre Complex, will showcase 60 films and series, with 14 shorts, 14 Series and TV movies, and 32 feature films and documentaries, many of which are International, North American and U.S. premiere presentations.

As previously announced the event will be book-ended by Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Pérez as the opening film and The Count of Monte Cristo, which will close the event.

The American French Film Festival was created and is produced by the Franco-American Cultural Fund, a collaboration between the Directors Guild of America (DGA), the Motion Picture Association (MPA), France’s Society of Authors, Composers and Publishers...

Through The Night. Delphine Girard: 'The characters stuck with me and so for months after the screening of the short film, I was like, but what would happen to those characters?' Delphine Girard’s debut film Through The Night expands on her short Sister to explore the aftermath of a rape. Beginning with a tense night-time scene in which Aly (Selma Alaoui), who has just been assaulted, is in contact with an emergency call centre as her attacker Dary (Guillaume Duhesme) drives the car. On the other end of the phone is Anna (Veerle Baetens). Soon the film will split into a three-part character study that holds the effects of the slow-moving legal system up to the light while also calling in to question society’s expectations of “good victimhood”. We caught up with Girard after the film’s premiere at San Sebastian Film Festival to talk about its themes.

Belgian filmmaker Delphine Girard‘s debut film takes a plunge into the murky world she created with her 2018 short film Une sœur – an Academy Award nominee for Best Live Action Short Film. Using the identical ensemble welcoming back players Veerle Baetens, Selma Alaoui, and Guillaume Duhesme, Quitter la nuit (Through the Night) broadens their horizons by delving deeper into the humanity of the trio. Similar to the recent wave of intricate courtroom dramas, this first feature discards simplistic characterizations and favors a more complex journey into the nigh….and collective psyche.

Selected in the Giornate degli Autori at the Venice Film Festival where the film won the Audience Award, Quitter la nuit is impactful cinema — its a complex thinking piece of a text.…...

Prior selections Close, Drive My Car, The Worst Person In The World all garnered international feature film Oscar submissions.

Aki Kaurismäki’s Cannes jury prize winner Fallen Leaves and Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s About Dry Grasses starring Cannes best actress winner Merve Dizdar – both Oscar submissions this year – are among the international line-up at the upcoming 59th Chicago International Film Festival (October 11–22).

Alice Rohrwacher’s La Chimera and Kleber Mendonça Filho’s Pictures Of Ghosts are two other Cannes selections to feature in the roster, while Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Evil Does Not Exist and Lina Soualem’s Bye Bye Tiberias both launched in Venice.

Ariane Louis-Seize’s “Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person” has picked up the director’s award at Venice Days.

“It bravely addresses crucial themes such as depression, mental health, euthanasia and neurodiversity. Nevertheless, it is able to do so with a light-hearted feel, which makes the film radical and courageous,” noted the jury, composed of European cinephiles from the 27 Times Cinema program and led by Portugal’s João Pedro Rodrigues, behind “The Ornithologist” and “Will-o’-the-Wisp.”

“While the film has unique tone and style, it joyfully reaches a wider audience thanks to its tenderness and emotional engagement,” they added, praising Louis-Seize’s “strong directorial vision.”

In the film, a young vampire has a problem: she is too sensitive to kill. When her parents cut off her blood supply, Sasha meets Paul, a teenager with suicidal tendencies who is willing to give his life to save hers.

It’s produced by...

Canadian director Ariane Louis-Seize’s comedy-drama Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person has scooped the Director’s Award at the Venice Film Festival parallel section Giornate degli Autori.

The coming-of-age tale revolves around a teenage vampire Sasha, who is too sensitive to kill. When her concerned parents decide to cut off her blood supply, her life is in peril.

Fortunately, she crosses paths with Paul, a desolate teenager with suicidal tendencies who willingly offers his life to save hers. However, what begins as a mutual agreement soon evolves into a nocturnal journey to fulfil Paul’s final desires before the break of day.

It was among 10 titles playing in the GdA competition this year.

The jury was composed of young European cinephiles from the 27 Times Cinema program, a joint initiative between the GdA, the European Parliament’s Lux Audience Award and Europa Cinemas.

It was presided over by Portuguese director...

French director Edouard Bergeon, whose Cesar-nominated debut feature “In the Name of the Land” was a box office hit in 2019, has penned another eco-thriller, “The Green Deal.”

The movie, which is partly set in the Indonesian forest, has been boarded by Playtime and will be pitched to buyers at the Toronto Film Festival.

“The Green Deal” explores crimes and colliding interests in the exploitation of a palm oil and the production of biofuels. The movie is produced by Christophe Rossignon and Philip Böeffard at Nord-Ouest Films, the well-established banner behind “Merry Christmas” and more recently Thomas Cailley’s “The Animal Kingdom,” which was produced by Pierre Guyard.

“The Green Deal” stars Alexandra Lamy as Carole, an English professor leading a tranquil life in rural France. Her world crumbles when she learns that her son, Martin, conducting research for his Ph.D. in Indonesia, has been arrested in Borneo on drug...

The Creatives – the Fremantle-backed alliance of 10 leading production companies – have shared the results of the first edition of “The Creative Connection” at the Venice Film Festival.

The companies – which include Lemming Film (Locarno premiere “Sweet Dreams”), Versus Production (Venice’s “Through the Night”), Maipo Film (“Elling”), Razor Film, Komplizen Film (“Spencer”), Spiro (“Foxtrot”), Unité (“Salem”), Haut et Court (“Perfect Days”), Masha (“No Man’s Land”) and Good Chaos (“Triangle of Sadness”) – invited writers and producers to join forces over the course of three workshops.

“Some of [the writers] were surprised we are actually normal people,” joked Haut et Court’s Carole Scotta during a panel at the Venice Production Bridge on Sunday. “We want to create a safe space for the writers to be able to work freely.”

Called “Inspiration,” “Brainstorming” – a series of experimental exercises led by Le Groupe Ouest – and “Collaboration,” the workshops took place in France, Greece and Germany. They...

The strand is free of style or length constraints.

Films from Jean-Luc Godard, Delphine Girard and Bas Devos will screen in San Sebastian International Film Festival’s Zabaltegi-Tabakalera, a strand of the festival free of style or length constraints.

Godard’s posthumous short film Trailer Of The Film That Will Never Exist: ‘Phony Wars’, which premiered in Cannes, will open the strand alongside Yui Kiyohara’s debut Remerging Every Night which first screened at Berlinale.

Girard’s debut Through The Night is developed from her Oscar-nominated short A Sister (2020) and will premiere at Venice before heading to San Sebastian.

The...