10/02/2023 - With Giacomo Abbruzzese’s movie in competition and six other new works gracing a copious line up approaching 20 titles, the French sales agent is gearing up for roaring trade at the EFM

The beginning of the year looks to be smiling upon the French international sales agent Charades and the films in its line-up, judging by Paul Mescal’s nomination for the upcoming Best Actor Oscar for his performance in Charlotte Wells’ Aftersun [+see also:
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film profile], the Grand Jury Prize won by Charlotte Regan’s Scrapper [+see also:
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film profile] in the World Cinema Dramatic competition, and the selection in competition in Berlin – an all-time first in Charades’ young history - of Disco Boy [+see also:
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interview: Giacomo Abbruzzese
film profile] by Italian director Giacomo Abbruzzese. It’s safe to say the European Film Market unspooling within the 73rd Berlinale (running 16 – 26 February) is shaping up to be a good one for the team composed of Yohann Comte, Carole Baraton, Pierre Mazars and Constantin Briest, who also have a few other aces up their sleeves.

In terms of the latter movie, Disco Boy, which is the first fiction feature film by Italy’s Giacomo Abbruzzese, Charades will be selling the Golden Bear candidate in selection in Berlin. Starring Germany’s Franz Rogowski, Gambia’s Morr N’Diaye and the Ivory Coast’s Laetitia Ky, the movie is produced by French firm Films Grand Huit in co-production with another French firm, Division, alongside Italy’s Dugong Films, Belgium’s Panache Productions and la Compagnie Cinématographique, and Poland’s Donten & Lacroix. The film will be released in French cinemas on 5 April via KMBO.

Jérémy Clapin’s film in post-production Meanwhile on Earth [+see also:
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interview: Jérémy Clapin
film profile] (notably nominated for 2020’s Best Animated Film Oscar and awarded Cannes’ Critics’ Week’s Grand Prize in 2019).

Pre-sales are likewise set to kick off on Along Came Love [+see also:
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interview: Katell Quillévéré
film profile] by Katell Quillévéré, and another new French work in post-production comes in the form of A Good Jewish Boy, which is screenwriter Noé Debré’s first feature-length directorial effort. Starring Michael Zindel and Agnès Jaoui, the film revolves around Bellisha who’s a good Jewish boy. He’s a young, curly-haired 27-year-old man who’s weak, laid back and struggling to become an adult. He still lives with his mother Giselle in a poor neighbourhood. Once the last synagogue has closed, it’s the turn of the last Kosher grocery to shut up shop. Before they know it, they’re the last Jewish family in the region. But much to Giselle’s dismay, Bellisha doesn’t really want to leave. He feels happy there and remains positive, despite the tensions arising in the community and his mother’s health which is rapidly deteriorating…

Paint It Gold by Rémi Bezançon (The First Day of the Rest of Your Life [+see also:
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film profile]) also features in the line-up, with a cast led by Vincent Macaigne and Bouli Lanners. Produced by Mandarin in league with Kinovista and Belgium’s Scope Pictures and Proximus, the film is scheduled for release in France on 16 August. The story homes in on Arthur, a passionate Parisian art gallery owner who represents Renzo, a long-time friend and a radical figurative painter trapped in an existential crisis. Dejected and suffering from painter’s block, Renzo slides into a state of total and utter ennui. But Arthur devises an audacious plan to thrust them both back into the limelight…

Charades’ film slate is further enhanced by the French animated movie currently in production Chicken For Linda! [+see also:
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film profile], by directorial duo Chiara Malta and Sébastien Laudenbach, and Alejandro Rojas and Juan Sebastián Vásquez’s Spanish feature film Upon Entry [+see also:
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interview: Alejandro Rojas and Juan Se…
film profile] (awarded the Fipresci Prize in Tallin and selected for Austin’s SXSW Festival), which is set to be screened in the market.

Market premieres set to steal focus include Laurent Tirard’s comedy Oh My Goodness! , which will be released in France on 15 February courtesy of Le Pacte, as well as French director Baya Kasmi’s The (In)Famous Youssef Salem and English helmer Charlotte Regan’s Scrapper.

Worth a final mention are three titles in production (Magnus Martens’ Norwegian comedy horror There’s Something in the Barn [+see also:
interview: Magnus Martens
film profile], and animated movies The Glassworker by Pakistan’s Usman Riaz and Spermageddon by Tommy Wirkola) and two comedies in post-production (Ireland’s Apocalypse Clown [+see also:
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film profile] by George Kane and the Icelandic-German-British movie Northern Comfort [+see also:
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film profile] by Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurdsson). The Charades team will definitely be keeping themselves busy in Berlin…

(Translated from French)