Annual Top Films Lists

Top 200 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2023: #28. Thomas Cailley’s Le Règne animal

Published on January 18, 2023

Le Règne animal

Thomas Cailley couldn’t have asked for a better springboard with how 2014’s Directors’ Fortnight selected Love at First Fight was received – it would go onto win three César Awards including Best First Feature Film. After working in television Cailley returns with his sophomore film which sounds like Lanthimos territory. Production on Le Règne animal began in June and he was surrounded by Adèle Exarchopoulos, Romain Duris and new golden boy Paul Kircher in a tale of humans who first start showing signs of mutating into animals. Nord-Ouest Films’ Pierre Guyard produced the film.

Gist: Society is adapting to, taking charge of and trying to treat these “creatures” in specialized facilities. But one such convoy gets caught up in an accident and the Creatures disappear into the countryside…

Release Date/Prediction: They’ll try for Cannes, but maybe Venice is the more logical path.

Eric Lavallée

Eric Lavallée is the founder, CEO, editor-in-chief, film journalist and critic at IONCINEMA.com (founded in 2000). Eric is a regular at Sundance, Cannes and TIFF. He has a BFA in Film Studies at the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema. In 2013 he served as a Narrative Competition Jury Member at the SXSW Film Festival. He was an associate producer on Mark Jackson's This Teacher (2018 LA Film Festival, 2018 BFI London). In 2022 he served as a New Flesh Comp for Best First Feature at the 2022 Fantasia Intl. Film Festival. Current top films for 2022 include Tár (Todd Field), All That Breathes (Shaunak Sen), Aftersun (Charlotte Wells).