US & FRENCH CONNECTION

Find below all projects and alumni selected as part of the US & FRENCH CONNECTION program.

2022 GOTHAM WEEK Overview

DANCING ON THE VOLCANO - Narrative Series

Co-Created and Executive Produced by Franck Philippon (Renaissances, Mirage), Emmanuel Paintendre (Black Butterly, Good Kids) and Jessica Mecklenburg (Stranger Things, Dopesick)

Three young women from radically different backgrounds fight to defend their freedom and that of a festive youth, in particular by the creation of underground parties, in a revisited heroic fantasy style Pompeii at the dawn of disaster where puritanism prevails within the ruling elite in reaction to the so-called moral decadence of youth denounced by growing pagan fanatics.

GANGS OF PARIS - Narrative Series

Written by Anne et Marine Rambach (Watch Me Burn, Les Mauvaises Têtes)

Produced by Sébastien Charbit (Plus Belle La Vie, Face à Face) of 3ÈME OEIL STORY, Frédéric Malègue (Neil Young, les raisons de la colère) of GOYAVES and LEONINE STUDIOS

The charismatic leader of a gang of mobsters caught up in a gang war. A young aristocrat prosecuted for killing her rapist husband. A freed ex-slave seeking to save his sisters and the slaves still trapped in the colonies. Together they attempt to steal the French Crown's treasury. Gangs of Paris is a historical series in the heist film genre.

LET’S MAKE LOVE - Feature Film

Directed by Camille Lorillon 

Produced by Clément Miserez (Belle et Sébastien, Ghostland) of RADAR FILMS

Bruce Davidson’s famous picture of a dinner between two mythical couples: Marilyn Monroe and Arthur Miller sitting with Simone Signoret and Yves Montand. From there, we imagined the night that preceded and followed this dinner.

TERRA - Feature Film

Created by Gabrielle Demeestère (Yosemite) 

Produced by Clémentine Mourão-Ferreira of SO-CLE FILMS and Luca Borghese (Okja, Diane)

One of 10 projects selected by the TorinoFilmLab for its FeatureLab that same year.

Terra, a former radical activist, arrives at a Vermont college for a teaching job in the PoliSci department with high hopes but her bubble bursts when she is housed in a dorm and realizes the school is struggling to stay afloat. There she meets Emma, a charismatic Native student, who enlists Terra in her fight against a local oil pipeline.

2022 SERIES MANIA FORUM Overview

CINNAMON - Narrative Series

Created by Joëlle Bourjolly (Happy Face, Terminal Venus, Soother)

Produced by Joëlle Bourjolly of JOJOLLY PRODUCTIONS

Fearing political persecution by François “Papa Doc” Duvalier, the Malveaux family, a wealthy mixed-race clan, flee Haïti and resettle in Canada. But even after 12 years in Québec, they still don’t feel like they belong. All that will change in the summer of 1976, when the Olympics put Montréal on the map, and landmark elections alter the course of the Malveaux’s lives forever.

RADIANT FLUX - Narrative Series

Written and created by Heather María Ács (Stowe Story Labs’ Episodic Lab Fellow ‘21, Flourish, Flu$h)

Produced by Vanessa Haroutunian (WIF Emerging Producer’s Program Fellow ‘21, Little Men, Be Here Nowish)

Executive Produced by Silas Howard (Pose, Transparent, This is Us) 

In this sexy, subversive half-hour dramedy, a group of lovable queer misfits must fight for their right to party when the eccentric landlord threatens to close their underground club. The club is the gritty, glittery home for this chosen family, where they host drag shows and band nights. Hopeful and hilarious, our earnest ensemble must rally to save their space amidst the everyday escapades of navigating polyamory, tackling addiction, securing hormones, and simply paying the rent.

THE FORTUNE TELLER’s DAUGHTER - Narrative Series

Created By Raye Levine Spielberg and Krista Donargo

Produced by Kim Veasey, Zoe 

A New York City based psychologist loses her grasp on reality after her husband’s suicide, and returns to her hometown of New Orleans where she inherits an abandoned psychic shop. Drawn into the abyss of black magic and the occult, she finds herself complicit in an illegal, underground operation.

The Fortune Teller’s Daughter is a gritty, sexy, psychological thriller with supernatural elements. Centered around a mother and daughter, this show explores the alternate realities the mind creates in order to cope, when life throws us a punch to the gut. A thrilling escape, grounded with social commentary. (think: The Craft, Baz Luhrmann's Romeo & Juliet, Breaking Bad).

THE GET - one hour drama series

Created by Steph Ouaknine (Queering the Script, The Carmilla Movie, Carmilla Series) Produced by Melanie Windle (The Carmilla Movie, Carmilla Series, Seraphim) , Steph Ouaknine (PGA), CreativeDNA

Selected for the Film Independent Episodic Lab 2021 and Gotham Week 2021

Shortlisted for the Sundance Episodic Lab and recipient of the Banff World Media Diversity of Voices Fellowship

THE GET is set in the world of ultra-Orthodox Jewish divorces - and the women taking the law into their own hands. The series follows Malka “Levi” Mendel, an outspoken divorcee in the Chabad community of Los Angeles, who sets up a clandestine service to help other women like her obtain their divorce. Whether that be through a very tense conversation at Shabbat dinner, or vigilante violence with real world consequences, depends on the target … and relies on everything going according to plan. If Netflix’s Unorthodox asks “how do you leave?” The Get asks “how can you stay?”

2021 GOTHAM WEEK Overview

GIRLS WILL BE GIRLS - Feature film

Written and directed by Shuchi Talati. 

Produced by Claire Chassagne from DOLCE VITA FILMS, Sanjay Gulati & Pooja Chauhan from CRAWLING ANGEL FILMS, and Richa Chadha & Ali Fazal from PUSHING BUTTONS STUDIOS. 

Sixteen year-old Mira finds her sexy, rebellious coming of age hijacked by her mother who never got to come-of-age herself.

GOLIATH & ME - Animated feature film 

Created by Michelle and Uri Kranot (The Hangman at Home, The Grand Jury Prize for Best VR Immersive Work at La Biennale di Venezia – 77th Venice Film Festival). 

The film is adapted from the graphic novel GOLIATH by Tom Gauld. 

Produced by Katayoun Dibamehr & Avi Amar from FLORÉAL FILMS. 

Goliath & Me is a comic retelling of the David and Goliath story. A poignant tale of heroes, genders, humanity and the pointlessness of war.

THE MYSTERIOUS GAZE OF THE FLAMINGO - Feature film

Written and directed by Diego Céspedes

Produced by Justin Pechberty from LES VALSEURS (Cannes Short Film Competition Sideral, Oscar and César nominated Nefta Football Club and César winner Vilaine Fille), Giancarlo Nasi from QUIJOTE FILMS and Pablo Zimbrón Alva from VARIOS LOBOS. 

1982. Chile. A little girl fights against the rumor of a disease said to be spread by gay men through their gaze.

2020 GOTHAM WEEK Overview

HEARTLESS (SEM CORAÇÃO)- Feature Film, in partnership with Torino Film Lab.

Directed by Nara Normande (Sem Coração, Guaxuma) & TIÃO (Sem Coração, Animal Politico)

Produced by Justin Pechberty from LES VALSEURS (Nefta Football Club, She Runs) and Émilie Lesclaux from CINEMASCÓPIO (Aquarius, Bacurau)

Summer 1996, northeast of Brazil. In the small village of Guaxuma, Tamara enjoys her last holidays before leaving for preparatory studies to enter college. One day, she hears about a girl with a scar across her chest nicknamed Heartless. Over the summer, Tamara feels a growing attraction for this mysterious girl.

JORO - Narrative TV Series

Created by Sophie Reine (Cigarette & Chocolat, The First Day of the Rest of Your Life) & Maxime Motte (Les Naufragés, Comment j’ai rencontré mon père). 

Produced by Virginie Lacombe of VIRGINIE FILMS (The Other Son, Faith Connection, Blockbuster, Port Authority, Mobile Homes)

What if the animals decided to recover what is rightfully theirs: the Earth? What if they had the power to take on a human appearance and to mingle with men in order to give them one last chance before declaring war on them? What if fate wanted this mission to be led by four misfit animals in their teens ?

OUR LITTLE PALESTINE - Documentary Feature

Directed by Abdallah Al-Khatib. 

Produced by Ali Atassi, Bidayyat for AUDIOVISUAL ARTS (Our Terrible Country, The Taste of Cement, Still Recording), Jean-Laurent Csinidis of FILMS DE FORCE MAJEURE (A Land Imagined, Still Recording, Game Girls)

The story of a group of Palestinian civilian activists from Yarmouk, the biggest camp for Palestinian refugees in the world, near Damascus in Syria, who decided to face bombing, displacement and hunger that hit their small-besieged community through civil work, agriculture, study, music, theater, love and joy.

THE FIFTH STRING - Feature Film

Directed by Diana Toucedo (Thirty Souls). 

Produced by Andrés Díaz of ZERKALO FILMS (Vacío, Land Of Milk and Honey)

The cellist and composer Felix Simonian (one of the icons of music of the former USSR) has fulfilled all of his great dreams, except for one: to play his music in space. Inspired by an ancient Armenian legend of four strings, Felix begins the search for the fifth string, the invisible one, which will lead him to fulfill his desire, and travel the world of ancient sounds.

2020 SERIES MANIA FORUM Overview

BOA - Narrative Series 

Created by Taiye Selasi (Ghana must Go)

Co-written by Tiago Santos

Directed by Pedro Varela

Executive produced by Debra Martin Chase (Harriet). 

When two jet-set Londoners move to Lisbon, Europe's hottest city, they find themselves entwined in a web of sex and murder. 

DOMAIN - Narrative Series 

Created by Amy Koppelman (A mouth full of air)

Produced by Michael Harrop (Billions)

Executive produced by John Sloss (Boyhood, GreenBook). 

In this one-hour drama series, the battle for control of a real estate empire plays out in the boardrooms and bedrooms of Manhattan—and the streets of the South Bronx.

THE FUGITIVE GAME - Narrative Series

Created by Martha Swetzoff (Theme: murder) & Christian Baker (Roman Empire). 

Executive produced by Ryan Cunningham (Broad City, Search Party) & Olivia Wingate (Maron, It started as a joke). 

The true story of poet, performer, activist, prostitute and thief Emmy Hennings who in the early days of WWI, in neutral Switzerland, created the Cabaret Voltaire and birthed DADA, the original punk art movement.

2019 GOTHAM WEEK Overview

A ROOSTER ON THE FIRE ESCAPE - Feature Film

Directed and written by Guetty Felin

Produced by Danielle Dreis and Murielle Thierrin. 

Hector Celestin uproots his family from Haiti to protect them, but can he really keep them safe in America as past secrets threaten to destroy them.

MOOCHIE – Six-part documentary mini-series

Written by Catherine Paillé et Léa Fehner

Directed by Samuel Collardey

Produced by Grégroire Debailly and Martine Dorin of GEKO FILMS and Joachim Landau of EMPREINTE DIGITALE for CANAL +

Moochie is a six-part documentary miniseries about a murder case, shot as events unfold, from police investigation to the jury’s final verdict. The series follows the case of Dayonte Resiles, a young black man accused of the murder of Jill Halliburton Su, a wealthy heiress living in Forst Lauderdale, Florida. Through the eyes of six main characters, all having a different look on the case, the troubling personality of the character unfolds. 

2017 GOTHAM WEEK Overview

BRAZEN, REBEL LADIES WHO ROCK THE WORLD - Animated TV series 30×3′

Produced by AGAT FILMS & CIE (Notes on Blindness) and SILEX FILMS (Connasse). 

Based on the comics by Pénélope Bagieu.

Directed by Sarah Saidan (Beach Flag, Home of the Heart). 



The mini-biopics portray 30 women, each revolutionary, extravagant and adventurous in her own way, whether they invented the modern bathing suit in prudish times for practicality’s sake, took arms to defend the Apache people against Mexican oppression, or was the first woman to fly into space.

GAME GIRLS – Documentary Feature

Produced by Jean-Laurent Csinidis of FILMS DE FORCE MAJEURE (A Land Imagined, Still Recording)

Directed by Alina Skrzeszewska (Songs from the Nickel).  



GAME GIRLS sheds light on the unseen and unheard stories of Los Angeles’ Skid Row, best known as “the homeless capital of the US”. By following Teri as she struggles to transform her life, it reveals the hopes and dreams of women living on the margins of contemporary US society.

THE MAN WHO SOLD HIS SKIN –  Feature Film

Produced by Nadim Cheikhrouha of TANIT FILMS (Hedi, Fatima, Benda Billi!). 

Directed by Kaouther Ben Hania (Beauty and the dogs). 

Nominated for Best Foreign Film at the 2021 Academy Awards

A Syrian refugee who has been refused entrance in Europe cannot join his fiancee in Italy. He meets an American artist, popular and controversial, with whom he makes a Faustian deal: the artist tattoos a Shengen visa on his back, turning him into an international work of art that can now circulate freely and legally. Conversely, he becomes a piece of property.

THE ROOM –  Feature Film

Produced by LES FILMS DU POISSON (The Tree, Last News of the Cosmos, On tour). 

Directed by Christian Volckman (Renaissance).

Kate and Matt move into a house deep in the New Hampshire woods. Soon, they discover an Aladdin’s lamp of a Room hidden behind a closet on the top floor of the house, with the power to satisfy every whim.  Only when Kate asks for a baby, the dream becomes a nightmare. 

2016 GOTHAM WEEK Overview

Big Fun – Historical drama series, 12x56’

Written by David Elkaïm and Vincent Poymiro (The Churchmen, Gone for Good, In Therapy) and Cyril Gély (Diplomacy, Monsieur Chocolat)

Produced by Xavier Matthieu of CALT STUDIO (Chefs, Moloch, Loin de Chez Nous, Les Amateurs) 

1953. In the middle of the Cold War, unoccupied Europe is protecting itself from the communist threat. The base of Grand Fons (Big Fun) welcomes 2000 American soldiers and their families, a few miles from Equirolles, a small peaceful French town. Two universes that everything opposes. Until a series of murders forces these worlds to confront each other. 

Corail – Animated series, 10x5’

Written by Joëlle Oosterlinck (The Man-Woman Case, The Man with a Thousand Faces) et Amaury Montrichard

Directed by Anaïs Caura (The Man-Woman Case, The Man with a Thousand Faces)

Produced by Antoine Piwnik of MY FANTASY (La Vie Secrète des Jeunes)

Inspired by a true story, that of Eugene, born Eugenia, one of the first transsexual criminals in 1920s Australia. Suspected of having killed his wife, then caught by the law after having changed his identity several times and remarried, he must face the reality of a double prison: his cell and his female body.

Panama Al Brown – Feature Film

Written by Gregory Boutboul (Andy, 30 days Left)

Produced by Pierre Garnier (La Corde, Bankale) and Jérôme Boucher of STORNER PROD

A biopic telling the extraordinary journey of the first black-Hispanic world champion in cockerelweight boxing, from New York to Paris in the Roaring Twenties. He inspired Jean Cocteau, who became his coach and manager, and helped repair the betrayal of which 'the black wonder' had been victim.