French cinema's B.O. returns in 2012 have set a record with over $1BN in ticket sales, an increase of 88% compared to the previous year, according to a statement released Friday by Unifrance, the Paris-based lobby and trade representation group. This new record beats the previous one established in 2008, by a lot. According to Unifrance, which is also responsible for the promotion of French cinema abroad, record performance in 2012

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Not ones to be outdone Iran’s government is funding a film about the American hostage crisis of 1979 in response to what they consider the “distorted” vision put forth in “Argo,” directed by Ben Affleck and which garnered major accolades at the Golden Globes this past weekend. "The screenplay for ‘Setad Moshtarak’ (‘Chiefs of Staff’ in Farsi) was approved by the authorities and we expect to get the shooting budget shortly," Iranian director Ata

Gallic cinema's three most visible actresses, Juliette Binoche, Catherine Deneuve and Isabelle Huppert, will be present at Berlin next month, their latest films having been selected for the festival as announced by the festival’s organizers just before the weekend. Catherine Deneuve will be presenting “Elle S’en Va” (“She’s leaving,” in French) by Emmanuelle Bercot, Huppert appears in “La Religieuse” (The Nun) dir-

Paris was the scene of 988 film shoots in 2012, 5% more than in 2011, the emergence of the advertising business and short film industries offsetting a decline in feature films and fictions, as was announced by the French capital's mayor Bertrand Delanoë today. These 988 films represent 3307 days of filming. In 2011, Paris had served as backdrop for 940 films, which corresponds to 3707 days of shooting. French and

Throughout 2012 I found myself drawn more toward world cinema--particularly European films--and less to American ones. Reasons are numerous, among which the number of rote big-budget efforts, repeated from one movie to the next, totally predictable, with nothing to surprise viewers, let alone engage them. Full disclosure: I don’t live on the planet where audiences flock to the "Harry Potter" and "Twilight" franchises, nor Pixar-created

In an op-ed published on December 28 in the French [...]