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Exclusive: Golden Globe winner Emma Corrin (The Crown) and Cesar nominee Lucie Zhang are set to star in Jenny Suen’s English language feature debut Peaches, which Coco Francini (Fingernails) will produce and Oscar winner Cate Blanchett and Andrew Upton will executive-produce for Dirty Films.

Set in contemporary Hong Kong, the movie will follow two spoiled best friends who scam sugar daddies for a living. When they discover a Hermes Birkin bag they were gifted is a fake, their “boyfriends” and crimes catch up with them.

The film is an adaptation of Vera Chitylova’s 1966 Czech New Wave comedy Daisies.

Paris-based MK2 Films, whose slate includes Cannes Palme d’Or winner Anatomy of a Fall and Cannes Un Certain Regard winner How to Have Sex, is handling international sales and discussed the project with buyers at last week’s AFM. The film will start production early next year in Hong Kong.

Spanish distributors will present their international titles to exhibitors, broadcasters and platforms st the Merci market.

Seminci, the Valladolid International Film Week, will host an expanded third edition of Spain’s Independent Film Market for the first time from October 25-27.

Known as Merci Valladolid, the market is jointly organised by Seminci and the Association of Independent Film Distributors (Adicine).

The market used to be held at the Seville European Film Festival, which was previously run by Seminici’s new director José Luis Cienfuegos.

Sixteen Spanish independent distributors will present their international titles to exhibitors, television networks and platforms at Merci Valladolid.

”“September is always low,” said Fncf’s Marc-Olivier Sebbag, “People have other things to do.”

Despite a promising summer blockbuster boost and August upswing, France’s September box office struggled with just 8.8m ticket sales and a total gross of approximately €63.2m, based on an average ticket price of €7.

The September slump was down 21.1% compared to the pre-pandemic 2017-2019 average and the lowest since 2005 (8.4m).

However it was up 16.1% from last year’s abysmal 7.6m admissions. Last September’s record low marked the worst month at the French box office since 1980, excluding the pandemic-ridden 2020 when cinemas were closed for most of the year.

The San Sebastian Film Festival added six movies to its competition lineup on Friday.

Joining the list of contenders for the Golden Shell award at the Spanish fest’s 71st edition are the latest films from directors Kitty Green (The Assistant), Isabella Eklöf (Holiday), Xavier Legrand (Jusqu’à la garde/Custody), Kei Chika-Ura (Complicity) and Christos Nikou (Apples), as well as the debut from Tzu-Hui Peng and Ping-Wen Wang. Nikou’s new movie features a star-studded cast, including Riz Ahmed, Jessie Buckley, Luke Wilson, Jeremy Allen White and Annie Murphy.

They join a competition program that includes two American titles in Ex-Husbands from director Noah Pritzker (Quitters) and Raven Jackson’s first feature, All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt.

In addition, Thomas Lilti’s Un métier sérieux (A Real Job) will be part of the special screenings in the San Sabastian official selection, fest organizers said. The new film from...