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PRODUCTION / FUNDING France

Guillaume Nicloux’s The Lockdown Tower scoops the CNC’s genre film support grant

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- Fantasy, sci-fi and horror films are all in line for the very specific aid put forward by the CNC, which has also selected the projects Acide by Just Philippot and Incarnation by Mael Le Mée

Guillaume Nicloux’s The Lockdown Tower scoops the CNC’s genre film support grant
Director Guillaume Nicloux (© Veeren/BestImage/UniFrance)

Created by the CNC in 2018 with a view to broadening the narrative range of French feature films, the genre film support grant, whose 3rd edition was devoted to fantasy, sci-fi and horror films, has chosen three projects (which will receive backing of up to €500,000 a-piece) from among the 80 scripts deliberated over by a jury, which was itself headed up by actress Louise Bourgoin (flanked by filmmakers Coralie Fargeat, Alexandre Aja and Zoran Boukherma, producer Caroline Bonmarchand, her counterpart Ardavan Safaee and distributor Laurent Hassid) and which interviewed fifteen or so preselected filmmaker-producer duos.

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Stealing focus among the lucky few is The Lockdown Tower [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
, which will be Guillaume Nicloux’s 16th feature film after titles such as Valley of Love [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
(in competition in Cannes in 2015), Thalasso [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
(in competition in San Sebastian in 2019), The Nun [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Guillaume Nicloux
film profile
]
(in competition in Berlin in 2013), To the Ends of the World [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Guillaume Nicloux
film profile
]
(gracing the Directors’ Fortnight in 2018), The Kidnapping of Michel Houellebecq [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
and The End [+see also:
film review
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film profile
]
(both presented at the Berlinale Forum in 2014 and 2016).

Produced by Sylvie Pialat on behalf of Les Films du Worso and by Bruno Nahon for Unité de production, La Tour d’Assitan (whose screenplay was written by the director himself) will revolve around the inhabitants of a tower block who wake one morning to find a black veil shrouding the windows and doors of the building - a black veil which devours anything and everything which tries to pass through it…

Likewise jostling within the selection is Acide, which will be the second feature film to come courtesy of Just Philippot, who was this year awarded Cannes’ Critics’ Week label for his striking work The Swarm [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Just Philippot
film profile
]
(due to be released in French cinemas on 13 January). Co-written by the director and Yacine Badday, the story of his upcoming opus unfolds at the height of a heat wave, where ominous clouds spewing acid rain have formed in the skies above France. Their inexorable advance across the entire country sends the general populace running for the roads and gives rise to a wave of generalised panic. In a world close to oblivion, a separated family (Zyed, Marie and their daughter Selma) must come together to contend with this climatic catastrophe and do everything they can to escape it… Production is steered by Yves Darondeau and Clément Renouvin on behalf of Bonne Pioche Cinéma.

Last but not least, a genre film grant will also go to Incarnation, the first feature film project by Mael Le Mée, whose story - written by the director himself - revolves around Lou who is affected by a malformation which seems to delay puberty. Between her parents, her friends and the raids carried out by "flesh pirates", Lou desperately tries to become a "real girl". Her effort prove futile, but ultimately Lou will succeed in freeing herself from human genders… Production is helmed by Claire Bonnefoy on behalf of Bobi Lux.

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(Translated from French)

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