EXCLUSIVE: France’s Celluloid Dreams, which was relaunched at the European Film Market (EFM) in 2025 by Saliha Guemraoui, is back with a slate headed by a quartet of anticipated auteur-driven projects.
Swiss-Argentinian-Belgian director Stéphanie Argerich’s Kyushu Moon stars Alba Rohrwacher as a recently divorced journalist tasked with shooting a documentary for Swiss television about masculine identity. While filming men attending a retreat to improve their communication skills with women, she falls for a Japanese man who shakes up her life.
The French and Japanese-language co-production is set on the island of Kyushu in Japan. It is produced by Switzerland’s Intermezzo Films and France’s Les Films du Belier. It is now in pre-production and set to shoot later this year. KMBO has French rights.
Celluloid Dreams is also launching sales on Renaud Le Bas and Fabrice Sebille’s The Missing Dream, starring Arthur Dupont and Judith Chemla as a couple forced to put aside their dreams to focus on their family when their son is born with an intellectual disability.
When the son turns 10 and announces he wants to go on a ski trip with his community centre, it shakes up his parents’ fragile balance as they struggle to give him independence and face their own fears.
The Missing Dream is produced by France’s Nolita Cinema and Les Films De La Capitaine with Belgium’s Versus Production. Moonlight Films Distribution has French rights.
Celluloid is also talking to buyers about Alissa Descotes-Toyosaki and Jean-Pierre Limosin’s documentary Tokyoi’s Fireflies, which it is producing with Zadig Films. Now in production in Kabukicho, Tokyo’s red-light district, it follows 14-year-old sex workers who are rescued by a fellow survivor and join an organisation to protect and support girls facing sexual exploitation.
The fourth project is Philippe Aractingi’s Casserola, about a young woman planning to emigrate from Lebanon who asks her great-grandmother, Laure, for a cookbook. It ends up blending recipes with memories passed through three generations of women, marked by war, loss, and resilience and reveals long-buried family secrets.
Casserola is being produced by Lebanon’s Fantascope Production, Germany’s Mayana Films, the UK’s New Sparta Productions and France’s Special Touch Studios. Casting is now underway.
Celluloid Dreams, known for its championing of auteur cinema, was a force on the international circuit since Hengameh Panahi founded the company in Paris in 1993. Following Panahi’s death in 2023, the company has slowly been making a comeback and is now run by Panahi’s former colleague Guemraoui, who is heading international sales.
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