Hafsia Herzi will be setting her sights on her third outing as early as next year. We’ve known Herzi as the face of Abdellatif Kechiche’s The Secret of the Grain and in Mark Jackson’s last pair of films in War Story and This Teacher, but she has firmly made her place as a filmmaker with two Cannes Film Festival selected films of You Deserve a Lover (2019) and Bonne Mère (2021).
Currently toplining Stéphane Demoustier’s Ibiza (formerly titled Borgo), and with the status of Patricia Mazuy’s Portraits trompeurs unknown, Herzi recently received some coin for La Petite Dernière (back in March) and will likely be going through some extensive casting to find the film’s lead.…...
Currently toplining Stéphane Demoustier’s Ibiza (formerly titled Borgo), and with the status of Patricia Mazuy’s Portraits trompeurs unknown, Herzi recently received some coin for La Petite Dernière (back in March) and will likely be going through some extensive casting to find the film’s lead.…...
- 6/3/2022
- by Eric Lavallée
- IONCINEMA.com
Exclusive: French industry execs Naomi Denamur and Julie Billy are launching Paris-based independent production company June Films with a bustling film and TV slate. Scroll down for the company’s current lineup.
After meeting at Celluloid Dreams 15 years ago, the duo have been putting together their first slate over the past 18 months and are now making movies with talent including Clémence Poésy (The Tunnel), Ariane Labed (Mary Magdalene) and Hafsia Herzi (Good Mother). The idea is to be director-driven and genre agnostic and the company will leverage the duo’s extensive experience in production and international distribution to elevate the prospects for their projects. Billy previously worked at Haut et Court where she produced more than a dozen films including Cannes 2020 title Gagarine, Jonas Carpignano’s Cannes Directors’ Fortnight movie A Chiara and The Night Eats The World by Dominique Rocher. Denamur is known for her work in international sales and in acquisitions for distribution companies such as Ad Vitam in France and Elastica in Spain. As a producer, the company is largely working on female-fronted French and English-language projects, but the company will also look to do co-productions with foreign directors. Both Denamur and Billy are fluent English speakers. June’s lineup includes five features as lead producer: Hafsia Herzi’s third feature, after Good Mother (Un Certain Regard 2021) and You Deserve A Lover (Critics’ Week 2019), is adapted from La Petite Dernière (The Last One) by Fatima Daas. Shooting is planned for Q2, 2023. The 2021 novel, which generated much conversation in France, charts the travails of a lesbian Muslim woman who grows up in a banlieue [suburb] outside of Paris. She not only encounters institutional racism and misogyny but must also contend with a family which wanted a son instead of a daughter. Amazons, directed by Emma Benestan (Fragiles), is an elevated genre film which will shoot in the ranches and wide open spaces of the Camargue region, exploring the world of bull racing. The three following films are being co-developed with Haut et Court:
Actress Clémence Poésy’s English-language directorial debut, co-written by Georgia Oakley (Blue Jean), is adapted from Anna Hope’s well-received novel Expectation, which was translated into 20 languages. The well-received 2019 novel charts the dreams and disappointments of a group of East London women. The film is a co-production between June, Haut et Court and Andrea Calderwood and Gail Egan’s UK banner Potboiler, whose credits include The Last King Of Scotland and The Constant Gardener.
Gagarine directors Fanny Liatard and Jérémy Trouilh’s are working with June on a French language feature which is being co-written by Amélie, I Lost My Body and Big Bug writer Guillaume Laurent; and an English-language film with a U.S. producing partner, whose details are being kept under wraps. June’s co-production slate also comprises two features which are due to shoot before year’s end:
Carlo Sironi’s second feature after Sole, produced by Giovanni Pompili, co-producer of Alcarras;
And actress Ariane Labed’s debut feature Sisters, an English-language genre film produced by The Favourite outfit Element Pictures in Ireland. The Souvenir, Mary Magdalene and The Lobster actress Labed directed short Olla which won best first fiction at Clermont-Ferrand in 2020. June is also working on TV projects. The outfit is developing a limited series, adapted from The Mythomaniac Of The Bataclan by Alexander Kauffmann (who will also co-write the series), alongside The Prayer writers Fanny Burdino and Samuel Doux. Developed alongside Studiofact, the series has already generated strong interest from potential buyers. The plot follows a woman who falsely claimed to be a victim of a terrorist attack. Billy and Denamur told us: “June brings together a family of filmmakers we’ve met over the years. We will foster the emergence of new talent, while offering a modern production model. The company aims to protect the vision of its filmmakers, while guiding them in the international market, and our line-up focuses on director-driven cinema which puts forward a diverse range of views of the world.” The continued: “The pandemic has shown that there will always be a need for new content. At a moment when streamers, studios and financiers are seeking exciting European filmmakers, our talent relationships and access to emerging voices put us in an opportune position in the market.”...
After meeting at Celluloid Dreams 15 years ago, the duo have been putting together their first slate over the past 18 months and are now making movies with talent including Clémence Poésy (The Tunnel), Ariane Labed (Mary Magdalene) and Hafsia Herzi (Good Mother). The idea is to be director-driven and genre agnostic and the company will leverage the duo’s extensive experience in production and international distribution to elevate the prospects for their projects. Billy previously worked at Haut et Court where she produced more than a dozen films including Cannes 2020 title Gagarine, Jonas Carpignano’s Cannes Directors’ Fortnight movie A Chiara and The Night Eats The World by Dominique Rocher. Denamur is known for her work in international sales and in acquisitions for distribution companies such as Ad Vitam in France and Elastica in Spain. As a producer, the company is largely working on female-fronted French and English-language projects, but the company will also look to do co-productions with foreign directors. Both Denamur and Billy are fluent English speakers. June’s lineup includes five features as lead producer: Hafsia Herzi’s third feature, after Good Mother (Un Certain Regard 2021) and You Deserve A Lover (Critics’ Week 2019), is adapted from La Petite Dernière (The Last One) by Fatima Daas. Shooting is planned for Q2, 2023. The 2021 novel, which generated much conversation in France, charts the travails of a lesbian Muslim woman who grows up in a banlieue [suburb] outside of Paris. She not only encounters institutional racism and misogyny but must also contend with a family which wanted a son instead of a daughter. Amazons, directed by Emma Benestan (Fragiles), is an elevated genre film which will shoot in the ranches and wide open spaces of the Camargue region, exploring the world of bull racing. The three following films are being co-developed with Haut et Court:
Actress Clémence Poésy’s English-language directorial debut, co-written by Georgia Oakley (Blue Jean), is adapted from Anna Hope’s well-received novel Expectation, which was translated into 20 languages. The well-received 2019 novel charts the dreams and disappointments of a group of East London women. The film is a co-production between June, Haut et Court and Andrea Calderwood and Gail Egan’s UK banner Potboiler, whose credits include The Last King Of Scotland and The Constant Gardener.
Gagarine directors Fanny Liatard and Jérémy Trouilh’s are working with June on a French language feature which is being co-written by Amélie, I Lost My Body and Big Bug writer Guillaume Laurent; and an English-language film with a U.S. producing partner, whose details are being kept under wraps. June’s co-production slate also comprises two features which are due to shoot before year’s end:
Carlo Sironi’s second feature after Sole, produced by Giovanni Pompili, co-producer of Alcarras;
And actress Ariane Labed’s debut feature Sisters, an English-language genre film produced by The Favourite outfit Element Pictures in Ireland. The Souvenir, Mary Magdalene and The Lobster actress Labed directed short Olla which won best first fiction at Clermont-Ferrand in 2020. June is also working on TV projects. The outfit is developing a limited series, adapted from The Mythomaniac Of The Bataclan by Alexander Kauffmann (who will also co-write the series), alongside The Prayer writers Fanny Burdino and Samuel Doux. Developed alongside Studiofact, the series has already generated strong interest from potential buyers. The plot follows a woman who falsely claimed to be a victim of a terrorist attack. Billy and Denamur told us: “June brings together a family of filmmakers we’ve met over the years. We will foster the emergence of new talent, while offering a modern production model. The company aims to protect the vision of its filmmakers, while guiding them in the international market, and our line-up focuses on director-driven cinema which puts forward a diverse range of views of the world.” The continued: “The pandemic has shown that there will always be a need for new content. At a moment when streamers, studios and financiers are seeking exciting European filmmakers, our talent relationships and access to emerging voices put us in an opportune position in the market.”...
- 5/18/2022
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
Amazon Prime Video has ordered Lisa Azuelos’s “I Love America,” an L.A.-set modern comedy with French star Sophie Marceau as its next French Original movie.
Azuelos, a well-established filmmaker who previously directed Marceau in the hit French movie “Lol” (Laughing Out Loud) co-wrote “I Love America” with Gael Fierro. Autopilot is producing the film which will launch exclusively on Amazon Prime Video in France, and around the world in 2022. The cast also includes Djanis Bouzyani, the actor of Hafsia Herzi’s “You Deserve a Lover.”
Marceau stars as Lisa, a single woman who decides to take a chance on love again by catapulting her life from Paris to Los Angeles. Her children flew the coop and her famous, yet absent mother just passed, so Lisa needs a big change.
While in Los Angeles, Lisa reunites with her best friend Luka (Bouzyani), who found success in America with...
Azuelos, a well-established filmmaker who previously directed Marceau in the hit French movie “Lol” (Laughing Out Loud) co-wrote “I Love America” with Gael Fierro. Autopilot is producing the film which will launch exclusively on Amazon Prime Video in France, and around the world in 2022. The cast also includes Djanis Bouzyani, the actor of Hafsia Herzi’s “You Deserve a Lover.”
Marceau stars as Lisa, a single woman who decides to take a chance on love again by catapulting her life from Paris to Los Angeles. Her children flew the coop and her famous, yet absent mother just passed, so Lisa needs a big change.
While in Los Angeles, Lisa reunites with her best friend Luka (Bouzyani), who found success in America with...
- 6/29/2021
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
With a half dozen filmmakers vying for the Palme d’Or next month (and worth mentioning actress turned director Hafsia Herzi made the move from the section with her debut 2019 Tu mérites un amour and into the Un Certain Regard section this year), Cannes Critic’s Week (the section dedicated to first and second time filmmakers only) has been uncovering filmmaker talent now for six decades. After last edition’s lost in a Covid sea, this will be Artistic Director Charles Tesson’s final year.…...
- 6/7/2021
- by Eric Lavallée
- IONCINEMA.com
MyFrenchFilmFestival, an online film festival dedicated to French movies launched by the promotion org UniFrance, will showcase 33 titles, including a competitive lineup of 10 feature films and 10 shorts.
Set to run Jan. 15 to Feb. 15, the 11th edition of the festival will collaborate with more than 60 platforms around the world to allow movies to be watched across more than 200 territories.
The roster of films selected to compete as part of this year’s MyFrenchFilmFestival includes Sébastien Lifshitz’s “Adolescents,” a documentary exploring the evolving friendship of two young women through the years; Hafsia Herzi’s “You Deserve a Lover,” a drama about a young woman struggling to overcome a breakup; and Frédéric Fonteyne’s “Filles de joie,” a social drama about family women leading double lives to make ends meet.
The rest of the lineup comprises Bruno Merle’s “Felicita,” a family dramedy about an eccentric couple raising a child; Stéphane Batut...
Set to run Jan. 15 to Feb. 15, the 11th edition of the festival will collaborate with more than 60 platforms around the world to allow movies to be watched across more than 200 territories.
The roster of films selected to compete as part of this year’s MyFrenchFilmFestival includes Sébastien Lifshitz’s “Adolescents,” a documentary exploring the evolving friendship of two young women through the years; Hafsia Herzi’s “You Deserve a Lover,” a drama about a young woman struggling to overcome a breakup; and Frédéric Fonteyne’s “Filles de joie,” a social drama about family women leading double lives to make ends meet.
The rest of the lineup comprises Bruno Merle’s “Felicita,” a family dramedy about an eccentric couple raising a child; Stéphane Batut...
- 1/5/2021
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Nora
Hafsia Herzi returns with her sophomore feature Nora in 2021, produced by Said Ben Said. Starring Sabrina Benhamed, Halima Benhamed, Justine Gregory and Noemie Casari, she reunites with cinematographer Jeremie Attard (Spring Blossom). Herzi’s 2019 debut Tu mérites un amour (You Deserve a Lover) premiered in Critic’s Week at the Cannes Film Festival, but she is best known for her sterling work with Abdellatif Kechiche, her performance in his 2007 film The Secret of the Grain netting her the Marcello Mastroianni Award at the Venice Film Festival as well as a Cesar for Most Promising Actress.…...
Hafsia Herzi returns with her sophomore feature Nora in 2021, produced by Said Ben Said. Starring Sabrina Benhamed, Halima Benhamed, Justine Gregory and Noemie Casari, she reunites with cinematographer Jeremie Attard (Spring Blossom). Herzi’s 2019 debut Tu mérites un amour (You Deserve a Lover) premiered in Critic’s Week at the Cannes Film Festival, but she is best known for her sterling work with Abdellatif Kechiche, her performance in his 2007 film The Secret of the Grain netting her the Marcello Mastroianni Award at the Venice Film Festival as well as a Cesar for Most Promising Actress.…...
- 1/4/2021
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
International distribution and sales outfit Kew Media Distribution has upped Graham Begg to the newly-created role of Svp Acquisitions & Business Development. In his position, Begg will oversee a portfolio of acquisitions across scripted, non-scripted, documentary and factual entertainment properties, and will advise on corporate activities and business development. He will also work with the 13 production companies owned by Kew, looking to further exploiting their owned IP globally. Begg joined Kew in 2018 as VP, Business Development and Producer Relations.
The 2019 International Film Festival & Awards Macao (Iffam) has added several titles to its program, including Todd Haynes’ Dark Waters starring Mark Ruffalo and Anne Hathaway, and Terrence Malick’s A Hidden Life, which bowed in Cannes and will have its Asian premiere in Macao. Also joining the festival list are Wong Hing-Fan’s Hong Kong drama I’m Living It, Tiago Guedes’ Portuguese feature The Domain (A Herdade), and the newly-restored...
The 2019 International Film Festival & Awards Macao (Iffam) has added several titles to its program, including Todd Haynes’ Dark Waters starring Mark Ruffalo and Anne Hathaway, and Terrence Malick’s A Hidden Life, which bowed in Cannes and will have its Asian premiere in Macao. Also joining the festival list are Wong Hing-Fan’s Hong Kong drama I’m Living It, Tiago Guedes’ Portuguese feature The Domain (A Herdade), and the newly-restored...
- 11/18/2019
- by Tom Grater
- Deadline Film + TV
Netflix unveils new Nordic deals at Stockholm’s Industry Days.
Peruvian director Melina Leon’s debut feature Song Without A Name won the bronze horse for best film at the 30th Stockholm International Film Festival. The film, about baby trafficking in 1980s Peru, also won for best cinematography by Inti Briones.
The jury said Song Without A Name (which premiered at Cannes Directors’ Fortnight) is “a visual and challenging portrayal of society characterized by both a low and impactful intensity. A quiet and untamable anger can be sensed below the surface. In this film we meet a director with a sharp,...
Peruvian director Melina Leon’s debut feature Song Without A Name won the bronze horse for best film at the 30th Stockholm International Film Festival. The film, about baby trafficking in 1980s Peru, also won for best cinematography by Inti Briones.
The jury said Song Without A Name (which premiered at Cannes Directors’ Fortnight) is “a visual and challenging portrayal of society characterized by both a low and impactful intensity. A quiet and untamable anger can be sensed below the surface. In this film we meet a director with a sharp,...
- 11/18/2019
- by 1100142¦Wendy Mitchell¦0¦
- ScreenDaily
We all know that person — maybe we’ve been there ourselves — hopelessly in love with an undeserving partner. Let’s call this person Lila. Lila’s backbone has dissolved into jelly; she mopes all the time and wallows in her masochism. It’s tough being around this acquaintance who keeps testing our capacity for sympathy, just as it’s tough being around Lila, the protagonist in Hafsia Herzi’s first feature as actress, director, writer and producer. Sure, it helps that Lila/Herzi has an impressive eye for male pulchritude, and she’s learned enough about filmmaking to deliver a perfectly respectable product, but it’s tedious watching Lila’s pouting irrationality without any sense of why this woman is catnip apart from her physical attractions. She’s merely the negative sum of her broken relationship, with all its storms and drama, and as such, “You Deserve a Lover” is...
- 6/2/2019
- by Jay Weissberg
- Variety Film + TV
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