Annual Top Films Lists

Top 150 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2020: #125. Gagarine – Fanny Liatard / Jérémy Trouilh

Published on December 30, 2019

Gagarine

Fanny Liatard and Jérémy Trouilh make their directorial debut with Gagarine (based on their 2015 short), produced by Julie Billy and Carole Scotta. Their feature stars Alséni Bathily, Jamil Mc Craven, Lyna Khoudri (remarkable in 2019’s Papicha), Finnegan Oldfield, Farida Rahouadj and the iconoclast Denis Lavant. Winner at the prestigious Clermont-Ferrand film festival for shorts, Liatard and Trouilh have received acclaim for this year’s “Blue Dog” and “La République des enchanteurs” in 2017.

Gist: Co-written by Benjamin Charbit (The Trouble With You), 17-year-old Youri, native of the Gagarine housing project in Ivry-sur-Seine, dreams of a space conquest while awaiting the return of his mother. But when the neighborhood is threatened with demolition, Youri attempts to resist the eviction, throwing himself into rescuing his home.

Release Date/Prediction: Completed in September 2019, Gagarine could potentially premiere in Critics’ Week at Cannes 2020.

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.