Ioncinema

After her break-out female empowerment portraits in the Cannes Un Certain Regard selected Papicha (2019) and Houria (2022), Franco-Algerian filmmaker Mounia Meddour is moving into WWII terrain with a currently untitled project loosely based on a play by Jean-Philippe Daguerre. Variety reports that Camille Razat, Elsa Zylberstein and Meddour muse Lyna Khoudri will topline the project (one top male lead will be announced prior to moving into production for May this year. Pablo Pauly (who add a bit part in The French Dispatch) also joins the project which is produced by Daï Daï Films’ Vanessa Djian. A Cannes 2026 showcase is not impossible.… Read the rest

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Days before we find out who’ll compete for the Golden Bear, we’ve got programmes such as Panorama and Berlinale Special that have been filled-up. Bong Joon Ho‘s Mickey 17 has been confirmed, Justin Kurzel‘s series The Narrow Road to the Deep North is included and Brazilian filmmaker Anna Muylaert returns to the fest with A melhor mãe do mundo (The Best Mother in the World) – which tells the story of an escape from an abusive relationship, Gal puts her two young children into the recycling cart she uses to collect trash on the city’s streets and runs away.… Read the rest

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Back in May we had learned that Ryusuke Hamaguchi was revisiting with a feature film project that would bring us to Paris and it looks like we can now pencil this in as his next feature. titled Our Apprenticeship, with producer Teruhisa Yamamoto steering it, according to World of Reel, production we are currently in pre-production mode on what could be a L’Auberge espagnole type film of young adults with an international language twist. Don’t be surprised if casting announcements are made during EFM for pre-sales. Here is the logline and plus long synopsis:

Once an idol, a Japanese girl studies abroad at a theatre school in Paris where she gains new values and energy for her future through meeting people from different backgrounds.… Read the rest

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A Different Man pairing of Renate Reinsve and Sebastian Stan will resurface once again for 2026 with Romanian master filmmaker Cristian Mungiu moving over to Norway for his next feature film. Titled Fjord, World of Reel pieced together via multiple sources to give us the lowdown.

This tackles the relationship that develops between two neighboring families where one of the partners in each family has a nationality other than Norwegian. The families live in a small village in Norway and have children of the same age. When their views on society, values and child-rearing begin to vary, they must ask themselves complex questions about cultural differences, about the limits of privacy and tolerance, and about freedom and personal integrity.… Read the rest

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Quentin Dupieux had enlisted alumni Adèle Exarchopoulos and then add-ons Sandrine Kiberlain and Karim Leklou for L’Accident de piano (formerly L’Avant-dernière séance). As per usual, we won’t have the logline until it moves into a film fest premiere slot, but this is the filmmaker’s 14th feature film. Production began yesterday. Is Locarno or Venice in the cards?

… Read the rest

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Mia McKenna-Bruce, the face of Molly Manning Walker’s Un Certain Regard section winning How to Have Sex will take over some big shoes in Riley Keough for the new Claire Denis project set to film in Senegal. With supporting players Matt Dillon and Denis muse Isaach de Bankolé, Le Cri Des Gardes is lining up for production start date soon and will be among our most anticipated for 2026 if it bypasses Venice this year. I’m getting J’ai pas sommeil (1994) vibes.

Written by actress Spring Blossom filmmaker Suzanne Lindon, High Life and Stars at Noon Andrew Litvack and Denis, based on the play Combat de nègre et de chiens by Bernard-Marie Koltès (1980), the story spans one night near a vast construction site in Senegal.… Read the rest

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Lots of Sundance alumni will be trekking back to Park City next week with the likes of Past Song’s Celine Song, Daniel Kaluuya, Kevin Macdonald and Elijah Wood all part of the juries in the multiple sections. Here are the breakdowns: Reinaldo Marcus Green, Arian Moayed, and Celine Song for the U.S. Dramatic Competition; Steven Bognar, Vinnie Malhotra, and Marcia Smith for the U.S. Documentary Competition; Ava Cahen, Wanuri Kahiu, and Daniel Kaluuya for the World Cinema Dramatic Competition; Daniela Alatorre, Laura Kim, and Kevin Macdonald for the World Cinema Documentary Competition; Kaniehtiio Horn, Maggie Mackay, and Kibwe Tavares for the Short Film Program Competition; and Elijah Wood for the NEXT section.… Read the rest

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Selected for TIFF’s Platform section (Toronto’s only competition section), French-born filmmaker Nora El Hourch pulled from some of her own narrative for her high tempo feature debut. Known domestically as HLM Pussy and internationally as Sisterhood, El Hourch delves into the intricate dynamics of friendship as it explores how three teenage girls grapple with the implications of the #MeToo movement in the context of their lives, where factors like race, social class, and cultural privilege can occasionally create divisions. At the center of it all we find Amina (Leah Aubert) — stuck in the middle, trying to fit and desperate to belong.… Read the rest

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Nora El Hourch’s Fiery Sisterhood is La Haine for the #MeToo Generation

Arriving like a molotov cocktail thrown through a plate glass window — or more accurately, like a hashtag gone viral — Nora El Hourch makes an unforgettable first impression with her fiery feature debut Sisterhood. Where La Haine became a cinematic, mid-90s touchstone with its gritty, unblinking depiction of France’s racial tensions, El Hourch’s picture may do the same for this generation as they take hold of the next wave of feminism and the #MeToo movement and pull it into the future.

The much better, and more provocative French title, HLM Pussy, gives a better sense of the context of the picture’s electric charge.… Read the rest

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