Annual Top Films Lists

Top 150 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2019: #141. The Lost Prince – Michel Hazanavicius

Published on January 1, 2019

The Lost Prince

Oscar winning director Michel Hazanavicius (The Artist, 2011) embarks on his seventh feature, The Lost Prince (Le prince oublié), set to star his usual collaborator and wife Berenice Bejo alongside Omar Sy and Francois Damiens. Produced by Philippe Rousselet and Jonathan Blumental. Written by Hazanavicius, Bruno Merle and Noe Debre (Dheepan; The Racer and the Jailbird), the project is lensed by Guillaume Schiffman, who has been Hazanavicius’ cinematographer since his OSS 117 films. Hazanacivius notably won Best Director for 2011’s The Artist, which also took home the Academy Award for Best Picture. Jean Dujardin won an Academy Award as well as Best Actor at Cannes. Hazanavicius would go on to compete twice more in Cannes with 2014’s The Search and 2017’s Le Redoutable which was released in the US as Godard Mon Amour (here is our interview with the filmmaker).

Gist: Djibi lives alone with 8-year-old daughter Sofia. Every night he tells her a fantastic stories to help her sleep, filled with knights, dragons and pirates. She is always the princess and he is always the brave prince. But when Sofia reaches high-school, she no longer needs her father’s stories, leaving him alone in his world of stories.

Release Date/Prediction: Hazanavicius filmed from July to October in 2018, and a French release date is listed as early 2020. Cannes 2019 still seems the best bet for Hazanavicius unless post-production brings him to Venice, which would be his first time potentially competing for the Lion.

Nicholas Bell

Los Angeles based Nicholas Bell is IONCINEMA.com's Chief Film Critic and covers film festivals such as Sundance, Berlin, Cannes and TIFF. He is part of the critic groups on Rotten Tomatoes, The Los Angeles Film Critics Association (LAFCA), the Online Film Critics Society (OFCS) and GALECA. His top 3 for 2021: France (Bruno Dumont), Passing (Rebecca Hall) and Nightmare Alley (Guillermo Del Toro). He was a jury member at the 2019 Cleveland International Film Festival.