Top 150 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2020: #50. Un petit-fils – Xavier Beauvois

Un petit-fils

Director Xavier Beauvois will be ready with his eighth feature, Un petit-fils (A Grandson) in 2020. Sylvie Pialat (we featured the producer as part of our The Conversation series) and Benoit Quainon are producing through Les Films du Worso and the project is being shot by Julien Hirsch (an Andre Techine favored DP who also shot Lady Chatterley, 2006; The Minister, 2012). Beauvois’ latest starts Jeremie Renier, Victor Belmondo, Olivier Pequery, Madeleine Beauvois, and a pair from his 2017 The Guardians cast, Marie Julie Maille and Iris Bry. Beauvois also scripted with his Guardians writers Maille and Frederique Moreau.

Whilst appearing in many other auteur projects (Bonello’s House of Tolerance, 2011; Denis’ Let the Sunshine In, 2017), Beauvois has consistently remained a noted director throughout the past three decades. Receiving a Cesar nomination for his 1993 debut Nord, he went straight to the Cannes competition in 1995 with Don’t Forget You’re Going to Die, which received the Jury Prize. He returned to Cannes competition in 2010 with Of Gods and Men, which took home the Grand Prize and won the Cesar for Best Film. Meanwhile, he’s also competed in Venice with 2000’s To Matthieu and 2014’s The Price of Fame. 2005’s The Young Lieutenant went to Venice Days (and won Nathalie Baye a Cesar), while 2017’s The Guardians bowed in Toronto.

Gist: A Grandson turns on the world of Laurent, captain of a police squad in Etretat. In the midst of attempting to marry his partner and mother of their daughter, a tragedy at work turns life into a tailspin.

Release Date/Prediction: Beauvois’ nine-week shoot for Un petit-fils began in October, wrapping principal photography in December. Logically, Beauvois could potentially compete for the third time in Cannes 2020 or in Venice 2020, but we’re thinking he has on edge on the Croisette.