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Sébastian Marnier’s psychological thriller Origin of Evil, starring Call My Agent! actress Laure Calamy as a factory worker who discovers the father she never knew is a wealthy businessman, opens Venice’s Horizons Extra sidebar on Thursday.

Embarrassed by her humble background when she meets her father and stepmother and sister in their luxury Mediterranean mansion, Calamy’s character pretends she is an entrepreneur on the verge of success. But nothing is as it seems and the lies begin to pile up.

Calamy was in Venice last year in Horizons title A Plein Temps for which she won the best actress award for her performance as a single mother trying to get to a job interview during a transport strike. Marnier was previously at Venice with the chilling drama School’s Out, starring Laurent Lafitte as a teacher in charge of a class of disturbed teenagers who witnessed his predecessor commit suicide.

Exclusive: Emmanuelle Bercot also cast; Celluloid Dreams, Avenue B pact for feature.

Paris-based Celluloid Dreams has boarded French director Sebastien Marnier’s high-school-set thriller School’s Out, featuring Laurent Lafitte and Emmanuelle Bercot in the cast (pictured).

Caroline Bonmarchand of Avenue B is producing. She previously collaborated with Marnier on his well-received debut thriller Faultless (Irréprochable), starring Marina Foïs as a down-on-her-luck estate agent who is hell-bent on getting her old job back at an agency in her provincial home-town, whatever it takes.

For School’s Out, Elle co-star Laurent Lafitte is set to play protagonist Pierre Hoffman, a substitute form tutor, brought in after his predecessor commits suicide by throwing himself out of the classroom window in front of his teenage students.

Actress and film-maker Emmanuelle Bercot will play another teacher in the school. Other cast members will include French rapper Gringe, Pascal Greggory, Greg Montel, Thomas Scimeca and Véronique Ruggia.

Lafitte’s character...

France's César Awards announced their nominations this morning. As expected Elle and Divines (currently streaming on Netflix) have much reason to celebrate. Other hits with César including François Ozon's gorgeous black and white feature about Post-War relations and guilt called Frantz (which opens in the Us in March), The Innocents (an arthouse hit in the Us this year) and My Life as a Zucchini which was just nominated for the Animated Feature Oscar and receives 3 nominations here. 

Their foreign film category also has two Oscar players Manchester by the Sea and Toni Erdmann.

Best Film

Divines (on Netflix)

Elle (now playing)

Frantz (opening in Us in March)

Les Innocentes (available on blu-ray)

Ma Loute

From The Land Of The Moon

Victoria 

Ma Loute is from Bruno Dumont and is called Slack Bay in some markets. From the Land of the Moon stars Marion Cotillard among others.

Best Actress

Judith Chemla...

Guests attending this year to include Bernardo Bertolucci, Don DeLillo, Ralph Fiennes.Scroll down for full line-up

The Rome Film Festival (Oct 13-23) has revealed its line-up for 2016.

The festival will present 44 films and documentaries in its official programme, selected from 26 countries.

Rome will open with Barry Jenkins’ Moonlight, which premiered in Toronto.

Further titles in the Official Selection include Gavin O’Connor’s The Accountant [pictured], starring Ben Affleck and Anna Kendrick, Nate Parker’s The Birth Of A Nation, Kenneth Lonergan’s Manchester By The Sea, and Oliver Stone’s Snowden.

The festival’s previously announced Alice In The City line-up will include John Carney’s Sing Street and Matt Ross’s Captain Fantastic.

The Everybody’s Talking About It strand, which highlights films that has generated exceptional buzz following their international debuts, will showcase Yeon Sang-ho’s Train To Busan, Michael Grandage’s Genius, David Mackenzie’s Hell Or High Water, and [link=nm...

What do men know about women? According to Faultless (original title: Irréprochable), some women are beyond understanding. Directed by Sébastien Marnier, the film follows Constance (Marina Foïs) as she slinks back to her hometown in rural France after losing her job as a real estate agent in Paris. She presents a self-confident, brassy attitude as she begins looking up her old friends, only to be met with universal scorn for daring to show her face again. It seems that she did not depart on the best of terms with anyone, not only burning her bridges but throwing the ashes on the faces of her former workmates and lovers. Constance is a firm, determined woman, entering middle age without any real prospects. She tells everyone that...

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