14/12/2009

Often dubbed “the Goncourt of cinema”, the Louis-Delluc Prize for 2009 was awarded to Jacques Audiard’s A Prophet [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jacques Audiard
interview: Jacques Audiard and Tahar R…
film profile] by a jury of 13 critics, presided by Gilles Jacob.

The title for Best Debut Feature went to Silent Voices [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Qu'un seul tienne et les au…
film profile] by Léa Fehner (see video interview), which came as a surprise for it wasn’t among the list of nominees (see news).

"I think of the critics", commented Audiard, who paid homage to Bazin, Truffaut and Daney. "For my generation, seeing and reading were one and the same thing. Nowadays, it’s not as good: we read less and critics don’t play the role they used to play in the film industry. But I’ve travelled a lot with my films and in the countries where there are no critics left, there is no cinema."

Produced by Chic Films, Why Not Productions and Page 114, A Prophet was co-produced by France 2 Cinéma and Italy’s Bim (10% investment), pre-bought by Canal + and Ciné Cinéma, and backed by the Ile-de-France region.

Winner of the Grand Prize at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival and French representative in the nomination race for the 2010 Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, A Prophet garnered 1.22m admissions in France (UGC Distribution). Sold internationally by Celluloid Dreams, the film will be released in the UK on January 22, the Netherlands on February 4, North America on February 12, Spain on February 19 and Italy on February 26.

Selected in the Cinéfondation Workshop at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival, Silent Voices was unveiled in this year’s Venice Days (see review). Produced by Rezo, the film received an advance on receipts from the National Film and Moving Image Centre (CNC) and pre-sales from Canal+ and Ciné Cinéma. It was released in French theatres last Wednesday.

(Translated from French)