Films News

New films and festivals

25 Aug 2010

September means it's that time of the year when the Hopscotch Acquisition team head off overseas to the Venice and Toronto Film Festivals - with the aim of finding new films to distribute and to see some we've already bought for the first time (which is quite a nerve-racking process, seeing how a script turned out on the big screen!).
The Venice Film Festival starts next week, and then Toronto kicks off September 9.

We're seeing two new Hopscotch films in Toronto for the first time. The first is our newest acquisition, Guillaume Canet's new film Little White Lies, screening in the Gala section of the festival. Canet is back in the director's chair after the critically lauded Tell No One (and after recently starring in our July cinema release Farewell). Little White Lies stars an outstanding cast of some of France's finest actors, including Academy Award winner Marion Cotillard, Francois Cluzet and Benoit Magimel. It follows a group of friends who decide to go on their annual beach holiday despite a traumatic event. It's kinda like a contemporary French Big Chill. Pics of Canet and Cotillard on set above.
The other film we're seeing for the first time is Africa United, a joyous journey of a group of young Rwandan kids and their bid to achieve their lifelong dream - the take part in the opening ceremony of the 2010 Football World Cup in Johannesburg. Through their 3000 mile journey, we encounter an Africa few people have ever seen; experience an epic adventure through seven countries; and feel the joy, laughter and hope that comes from making an incredible journey together.

Also premiering at Toronto is L'Amour Fou, the fascinating and moving documentary about the life of fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent, which is sheer opulent pleasure for fans of Valentino: The Last Emperor and The September Issue. Yves Saint Laurent built one of fashion's most celebrated empires and is heralded as one of the greatest fashion designers of the 20th Century. Together with his once-lover and longtime business partner Pierre Berge, the Yves Saint Laurent Couture House forever changed the way women dressed. The documentary also looks at the incredible art collection that Saint Laurent and Berge amassed over 40 years, and Berge's decision to auction it all after Saint Laurent's death in 2008.
Watch the L'Amour Fou trailer below.

Also screening at Toronto, after its world premiere in Cannes in May, is Gregg Araki's latest, the outrageously over-the-top Kaboom, which harks back to the director's early hyper-stylised films. He describes the film as "a bisexual Twin Peaks in college". 
Cannes interview with Araki below, and then a Kaboom clip.