Gaumont’s French box office hit ‘Once Upon My Mother’ scores US, international deals

EXCLUSIVE: Ken Scott’s family comedy drama Once Upon My Mother (Ma Mère, Dieu, Et Sylvie Vartan) has sold to Menemsha in the US and a slew of major territories.

Gaumont has sold the film in Germany (Neue Visionen), (Australia) Moving Story Entertainment, Spain (A Contracorriente), Italy (BIM), Benelux (Athena), Latin America (California Filmes), Scandinavia (Ab Svensk), Japan (The Klockworx), Switzerland (Pathe), Portugal (Nos Lusomundo), Poland (Bestfilm), Israel (Nachshon and Red Cape), and Canada (Les Films Opale).

Further deals have closed in: Turkey (Moviebox), Greece and Cyprus (Feelgood), Indonesia (Falcon), Taiwan (Proview), Hungary (Vertigo Media), Ukraine (Svoe Kino), former Yugoslavia (MCF Megacom), Russia (Arna Media), Bulgaria (Cinelibri), and Maghreb (Retinia). O’Brien International acquired airlines rights.

Set in 1960s Paris and based on Roland Perez’s autobiographical novel, Once Upon My Mother stars Leila Bekhti as a mother of six and fan of iconic French singer Sylvie Vartan who refuses to accept a medical diagnosis that her son will never walk and defies insurmountable odds to give him a full life.

The well-known French cast includes Jonathan Cohen, Josephin Japy, Jeanne Balibar, and Vartan.

Gaumont and Egerie Productions are the production companies. The collaboration has proven to be fruitful and the film has become one of the few French titles to prosper at what has been a lacklustre 2025 at the French box office.

Since opening through Gaumont in France on March 19, Once Upon My Mother has sold 1.5 million tickets (€11.1m) and is currently the second highest-grossing French film of the year, just ahead of another Gaumont title, How To Make A Killing, which drew just under 1.5 million admissions after a January 1 release. It ranks as the 14th higest-grossing film in France so far this year.

Prime Video will debut the film on its platform in France in 2026, 17 months after the theatrical release in line with current French windowing rules. It will be Prime Video’s first French-language feature to get a theatrical release.

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