Annual Top Films Lists

Top 150 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2020: #103. Petite Nature – Samuel Theis

Published on December 31, 2019

Petite Nature

Samuel Theis, who co-directed 2014’s Party Girl alongside Marie Amachoukeli and Claire Burger (we chatted with the filmmaker on her solo debut, Real Love), branches out on his own for his next directorial effort, Petite Nature. Produced by Caroline Bonmarchand and lensed by Jacques Girault (Sauvage, 2018), Theis employs Antoine Reinartz (BPM, 2017) and Izia Higelin (Rodin, 2017) alongside newcomer Aliocha Reinert. Party Girl opened Un Certain Regard at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival, nabbing the Golden Camera award as well as Best Ensemble out of the sidebar. The title also received a Cesar nod for Best First Film.

Gist: Co-written by Theis and Gaelle Mace, ten-year-old Johnny is enamoured with the world of adults. Living on a social housing estate in Lorraine, Johnny’s curious about his mother’s seemingly turbulent love life and sets out to find a love of his own, a destiny fulfilled while he enters a new teacher’s class.

Release Date/Prediction: Theis completed principal photography in November 2019. If Theis does not return to Cannes, which could either be in one of the sidebars (even potentially Critics’ Week since it’s his second feature), we predict Locarno to be a potential option as well.

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.