Annual Top Films Lists

Top 100 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2016: #43. François Ozon’s Franz

Published on January 10, 2016

Franz

Director: François Ozon
Writer: François Ozon

Ex-terrible enfant is a perennial favorite on the festival circuit (2015 was only the third year in the past fifteen years of filmmaking where François Ozon didn’t unveil a new title). His prolific output sees him unveiling at a variety of prestigious festivals, having competed twice at Cannes (2003, 2013), four times in Berlin, and twice in Venice. His latest was 2014’s The New Girlfriend, a playful if rather anachronistic narrative featuring outmoded psychological presentations of gender identity (it premiered in Toronto, another platform Ozon has been known to premiere at). In time for 2016, Ozon has been working on a historical drama, the German co-production Franz, headlined by recent Cesar winner Pierre Niney (Yves Saint Laurent). As usual, confirmations of the exact narrative have been kept under wraps by Ozon.

Cast: Pierre Niney, Paula Beer, Cyrielle Claire

Production Co./Producers: Mandarin’s Eric and Nicolas Altmayer, X Filme Creative Pool’s Stefan Arndt and Uwe Schott

U.S. Distributor: Rights Available. TBD (domestic/international).

Release Date: With filming taking place in August, 2015, we are assuming Ozon will be ready to return to either Berlin or Cannes.

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.