Paris-based sales house Charades will represent international sales rights to French star-powered adaptation And Their Children After Them and dark comedy Lucky Winners. Both titles will be released by Warner Bros. Pictures in France and Benelux.
And Their Children After Them (Leurs Enfants Après Eux) is directed by French twin brother writing-directing duo Ludovic and Zoran Boukherma and adapted from Nicolas Mathieu’s Prix Goncourt-winning book of the same name. The Boukhermas made their debut in Cannes’ ACID with Willy the 1st then followed with 2020 Official Selection Teddy.
Set August 1992, the story follows a 14-year-old boy and his cousin growing up in Eastern France. The teenagers steal a canoe and head to the other side of a lake for what will be a summer to remember. The coming-of-age film follows its protagonists across several subsequent summers and paints a portrait of life in a post-industrial region.
The film stars Gilles Lellouche, Ludivine Sagnier and rising star Paul Kircher (Animal Kingdom, Winter Boy). Warner Bros will release it in France on September 18, 2024.
Alain Attal’s Tresor Films and Hugo Selignac’s Mediawan-owned Chi-Fou-Mi have partnered to produce the film. Attal and Selignac have previously partnered on The Wolf’s Call, Sink Or Swim and more recently for 2023 release All Your Faces, also co-starring Lellouche, which was among the top French films at the 2023 box office and an awards season favourite.
They told Screen: “We are certain that And Their Children After Them will captivate film enthusiasts worldwide with its universal true love story set against a backdrop of social restlessness.”
Olivier Snanoudj, senior vice president theatrical at Warner Bros Discovery France & Benelux called And Their Children After Them “the living testimony of our renewed ambition in local production, with talented partners such as producers Alain Attal and Hugo Selignac, visionary directors Ludovic and Zoran Boukherma and international sales company Charades. We are very proud to be associated with one of the most exciting event French films of the year 2024, featuring rising talents Paul Kircher and Angelina Woreth and seasoned stars Gilles Lellouche and Ludivine Sagnier.”
Meanwhile, Lucky Winners (Heureux Gagnants) is a dark comedy from another directing duo, Maxime Govare and Romain Choay. The film is produced by Les Improductibles, the Paris-based production house notably behind The Shiny Shrimps and its sequel The Revenge Of The Shiny Shrimps, both of which were repped by Charades.
The film’s ensemble cast includes Fabrice Eboué, Audrey Lamy, Anouk Grinberg, Pauline Clement, Louise Coldefy, Sami Outabali and Victor Meutelet. Warner Bros will release the film in France on March 13, following its world premiere at the Alpe d’Huez film festival in January.
Warner Bros Discovery’s streaming service Max and France Televisions are also financing the film that, per France’s current media chronology, will land on Max 17 months after its theatrical release then broadcast on France Televisions after 22 months.
Charades previously teamed with Warner Bros on live action comedy Little Nicholas’ Treasure. But it marks the first time the sales company has teamed up with Attal and Selignac for what Charades co-founders Pierre Mazars, Yohann Comte and Carole Baraton call “their new artistically and commercially ambitious production.”
While known for being a force in the arthouse space, the films mark a continued foray into more crowd-pleasing commercial fare for Charades. “While the films are totally different, they both are the voices of innovative duos and the young directors Charades always want to work with,” the founding trio told Screen.
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