Le groupe est parvenu à conclure un accord avec les professionnels du 7ème art après s’être engagé à augmenter son obligation de financement du cinéma français.

Since the Academy announced that there would be 10 best picture nominees this year rather than the typical five, the Baguette’s been keeping tabs on how filmmakers feel. The reaction, in a word: mixed.

At a luncheon for the Jane Campion film “Bright Star” early in the fall, Bill Pohlad, co-founder with Bob Berney of Apparition, the new company distributing the film, said he was still on the fence. Mr. Pohlad – who’s a very smart guy - said he was confused about the math. He wondered, Would they need logarithm charts?

Mr. Berney said it was an odd year for the Academy to start the practice when 30 to 40 percent fewer movies were being made. He said he realized the Academy was “trying to be inclusive of bigger films,” like “The Dark Knight,”but worried that the move will dilute interest in the prize. Still, he conceded, “there’s a good side to it for films like ‘Bright Star’ that might get room to breathe and have a life.”

Ms. Campion, one of only three women ever nominated for an Oscar for best director (Lina Wertmuller and Sofia Coppola are the others), said she didn’t see a good side. “Like 10’s like what? One of 10. One out of five is quite different.”

And Robert Siegel, the director of “Big Fan” was a bit more adamant.

“I don’t like it,” he told us at the Gothams, where he won breakthrough director. “The idea that those other five slots are going to open up to really left-field choices, I don’t think it will.” He thought the additional spots would just get filled by films that just missed the cut in previous years, although he said movies he loved, like “Inglourious Basterds” and “A Serious Man,” “have a shot at 10 but not 5, so it’s a good thing because I like those movies. I’d like them to get attention, but I don’t know that it’s going to blow the doors open for things like ‘Frozen River’ and those real dark-horse kind of movies that would slip in,” he said. “I don’t think it’s going to change that much. It’s just going to make the debate a little less interesting.”

France, Europe’s biggest movie market, has a shot at recording its biggest B.O. year in modern times — thanks in part to a schoolboy.

Through September, Gallic B.O. was up 3.4% over 2008, with 188.82 million tickets sold, according to just-released figures from France’s CNC film board. Box office revenue was E879.6 million ($1.3 billion).

Produced by Fidelite Films, the 1950s-set Gallic family comedy “Little Nicholas,” turning on the adventures of a boy and his schoolmates, grossed $18.4 million in the 12 days following its Sept. 30 release.

Based on a beloved comicbook by Rene Goscinny and Jean Jacques Sempe, “Nicholas” dropped only 10% over its second weekend, distributor Wild Bunch reported.

Banijay buys Nordisk Film TV

“Marketing buzz from multiple March celebrations of ‘Little Nicholas’ ’ 50th anniversary really helped,” said Jean-Philippe Tirel, Wild Bunch distribution topper.

The year-on-year French B.O. rise is already a large feat: Early 2008 saw the release of “Welcome to the Sticks,” whose $184.5 million B.O. take made it the highest-grossing French film ever at Gallic hardtops.

“Nicholas” is also mainstream enough to perform well in medium- and small-sized cities, which have 40% of French theater screens.

Analysts have now upped B.O. expectations for “Nicholas.” Telerama’s Aurelien Ferenczi forecasts a total cume of $36 million-$45 million, while Ecran Total forecasts $41 million. These estimates would make “Nicholas” the highest-grossing French pic to date in 2009.

If “Nicholas” meets expectations, France would have a chance of notching the biggest B.O. year in modern times. That record stands at $1.8 billion in B.O., registered in 2004.

Prison thriller “A Prophet” has been selected to represent France in the foreign-language film category at the Academy Awards.

Directed by Jacques Audiard, a master of French genre films — notably “The Beat That My Heart Skipped” — “A Prophet” won the Grand Jury Prize in Cannes and is screening at the Toronto Film Festival in the Masters category.

The pic stars Tahar Rahim as a troubled, aimless French-Arab man who’s sent to jail where he toughens up and learns how to become a respected mob leader.

Pic was produced by Why Not Films’ prexy Pascal Caucheteux and co-produced byCelluloid Dreams, which also handles international sales.

The pic has been picked up in most territories, including in the U.S., Canada, Japan and the U.K.

In the U.S., Sony Pictures Classics plans a one-week limited run in December, followed by a wider release early next year.

Since its Gallic bow on Aug. 26, the film has attracted 769,126 admissions. UGC Distribution handled the release.

Pic was tapped to rep France at the Oscars by a committee that included Cannes fest topper Thierry Fremaux, prexy of the Cesar Academy Alain Terzian, thesp Jeanne Moreau, and helmers Jean-Jacques Annaud, Costa-Gavras and Regis Wargnier.

Toronto – The 34th Toronto International Film Festival announced its awards at the Awards Reception at the Intercontinental on Front Street today.

AWARD FOR BEST CANADIAN SHORT FILM
The award for Best Canadian Short Film goes to Pedro Pires forDanse Macabre. Based on a concept by Robert Lepage, director Pires’s exquisitely photographed morbid ballet pushes the traditional dance film to new cinematic heights. The jury remarked: “There was one film that had such devastating beauty, that watching it was having fireworks shattering your heart. A prayer for the dying, a love song to the living, everyone must see this beautiful work.” The jury would like to recognize and support Jamie Travis for The Armoirewith an honourable mention, an exciting filmmaker with an original voice and an exquisite vision. The award offers a $10,000 cash prize and is supported by the National Film Board of Canada. 

THE SKYY Vodka AWARD FOR BEST CANADIAN FIRST FEATURE FILM
The SKYY Vodka Award for Best Canadian First Feature Film goes to Alexandre Franchi for The Wild Hunt for its assured, inventive and bold command of film form traversing contemporary and mythic landscapes marking the launch of an audacious new talent. Set in the fantasy-reality of a large role-playing game, this film captures the culture of costume play and the potentially dangerous intersection of the real and made-up worlds. The award carries a cash prize of $15,000. 

THE CITY OF TORONTO AND ASTRAL MEDIA’S THE MOVIE NETWORK AWARD FOR BEST CANADIAN FEATURE FILM
The City of Toronto and Astral Media’s The Movie Network Award for Best Canadian Feature Film goes to Ruba Nadda for Cairo Time. Described by the jury as a superbly directed lyrical waltz of longing and desire across disparate worlds, with exquisite performances by Patricia Clarkson, Tom McCamus and Alexander Siddig. The film evocatively serves as an analogy for the intricacies of passionate romance that, for practical reasons, can never be realized. The jury is also honoured to recognize with a Special Jury Citation, the work of a master, Bernard Émond’s La Donation (The Legacy). Generously co-sponsored by the City of Toronto and Astral Media’s The Movie Network, the award carries a cash prize of $30,000. 

CANADIAN FEATURE FILM AWARDS JURY
All three awards are selected by a jury of film professionals. The feature films jury consists of filmmaker Jerry Ciccoritti (Blood, Trudeau, Chasing Cain, The Life Before This), Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival Director of Programming Sean Farnel, Canadian novelist Kerri Sakamoto (One Hundred Million Hearts, The Electrical Field), and filmmaker Peter Lynch (Project Grizzly, Cyberman). The short film jury members are Executive Producer of in-flight entertainment at Spafax and a Sundance programmer, Shane Smith, filmmakers Ingrid Veninger and Shane Belcourt. 

PRIZE OF THE INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION OF FILM CRITICS (FIPRESCI PRIZE)
The Festival welcomed an international FIPRESCI jury for the 18th consecutive year. The jury members consist of jury president Diego Lerer (Argentina), Jan Schulz-Ojala (Germany), Hynek Pallas (Sweden), Kirill Razlogov (Russia), Denis Seguin (Canada) and Jorge Gutman (Canada). 

The Prize of the International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI Prize) for Discovery is awarded to Laxmikant Shetgaonkar for The Man Beyond the Bridge (India). Far from the sensory overload of India’s big cities, this film explores smaller but enduring dilemmas, drawing together keen environmental sensitivity with a nuanced view of village dynamics. A widowed forest ranger Vinayak develops an intimate relationship with a mentally ill woman, risking becoming an outcast. Director Shetgaonkar, immersed in the culture of the region, tells his tale with grace and attentiveness, taking the villages traditions and beliefs seriously, while casting a jaundiced eye on those who exploit them. 

The Prize of the International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI Prize) for Special Presentations is awarded to Bruno Dumont forHadewijch (France). This film is a hypnotic study of the possibilities and consequences that arise from an absolute belief in God, and the fascinating dynamic that emerges. Hadewijch is beautifully conceived and rigorously developed and speaks to the present with care and insight. Dumont has previously played at the Festival with La Vie de Jésus (99), Twentynine Palms (03) and Flandres (06). L’humanité and Flandres were both awarded the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival. 

CADILLAC PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD
The Cadillac People’s Choice Award is voted on by Festival audiences. This year’s award goes to Lee Daniels’s Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire. From director Lee Daniels comes a vibrant, honest and resoundingly hopeful film about the human capacity to grow and overcome. Set in 1987 Harlem, it is the story of Claireece “Precious” Jones, an illiterate African-American teenager who is pregnant for the second time by her absent father and abused by a poisonously angry mother. Despite her experiences, Precious has a dream that other possibilities exist for her and jumps at the chance to enroll in an alternative school. There she encounters Ms. Rain, a teacher who will start her on a journey from pain and powerlessness to self-respect and determination. The film stars Mo’Nique, Paula Patton, Mariah Carey, Sherri Shepherd, Lenny Kravitz and introduces Gabourey Sidibe. The award offers a $15,000 cash prize and custom award, sponsored by Cadillac. 

First runner-up is Bruce Beresford Mao’s Last Dancer and the second runner-up is Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Micmacs (Micmacs à tirelarigot). The Cadillac People’s Choice Award presents a free screening of the Cadillac People’s Choice Award-winning film tonight. The screening takes place at 9 p.m. in the Visa Screening Room at the Elgin. Tickets will be available on a first-come, first served basis beginning at 7 p.m. at the Visa Screening Room at the Elgin. For more information on this screening, visit tiff.net. 

New this year is a Cadillac People’s Choice Award for Documentary and Midnight Madness. The Cadillac People’s Choice Award – Documentary goes to Leanne Pooley’s The Topp Twins. Fun, disarming and musically provocative, the Topp Twins are New Zealand’s finest lesbian country-and-western singers and the country’s greatest export since rack of lamb and the Lord of the Ringsmovie trilogy. Runner-up is Michael Moore’s Capitalism: A Love Story. 

The Cadillac People’s Choice Award – Midnight Madness goes to Sean Byrne’s The Loved Ones. A troubled teen’s prom dreams are shattered by a series of painful events that take place under the mirrored disco ball, involving syringes, nails, power drills and a secret admirer in this wild mash-up of Pretty in Pink and Misery. Runner-up is Michael Spierig and Peter Spierig’s Daybreakers.

Nicole Kidman, Aaron Eckhart, in “Rabbit Hole”, directed by John cameron Mitchell

Nicole Kidman took on another demanding new role in “Rabbit Hole,” an adaptation of David Lindsay-Abaire’s Pulitzer prize-winning drama about a fraying family“Rabbit Hole,” as well, as a producer of the movie, the first from her production company, Blossom Films. With a modest budget of less than $10 million, a brisk 28-day shoot, a surprising director in John Cameron Mitchell, few frills (no trailers for the stars) and many interns, “Rabbit Hole” is more like an indie than a Hollywood production. Make no mistake: it was Ms. Kidman’s wattage that got it made, and quickly. But it does not yet have distribution.

“This is a passion project for Nicole,” Aaron Eckhart, who plays her husband, said after shooting a scene at Papazzio restaurant in Bayside. “The reason why I’m in the movie is Nicole. If she wants to work with somebody, then that’s what happens.”(Dianne Wiest, Tammy Blanchard and Sandra Oh are also in the cast.)

Mr. Mitchell noted that he received the call to direct in February and began working soon after. “That never happens,” he said, “but it was a priority for her.”

A downtown actor known for adapting his own often raucous and sexually explicit work — “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” and “Shortbus” — Mr. Mitchell was an unorthodox choice to direct an intimate story about the differing ways a couple cope with the accidental death of their young son. (In fact he was the second unorthodox choice: Sam Raimi was originally attached, but withdrew to do the next “Spider-Man.”) And it was strange for him to want to do it. “It’s the first thing since ‘Hedwig’ 10 years ago that made me drop everything,” Mr. Mitchell said.

He was attracted by Mr. Lindsay-Abaire’s taut script, and by a personal connection. “When I was 14,” he said, “we lost our brother, who was 4, to a heart problem. It was a sudden, unexpected event. It defined a family forever and recovering from it was something we’re still doing.”

But Ms. Kidman said Mr. Mitchell hardly needed to pitch her to get the job. “He already had it,” even before the phone call when he told her his story, she said. “Talking to someone, I don’t think words and talking is ultimately the way that you choose to do a piece,” she added over a cappuccino in the back of the set. “It’s all based on a sensation, on an instinct. That’s what my whole life’s been based on, a gut instinct. And either it goes way off and it’s something else, or it’s exactly what I thought it would be, or it’s way more.”

Her instincts have not always served her well lately. Ms. Kidman’s last three big-budget films, “Australia,” “The Golden Compass” and “The Invasion” were box-office disappointments, and an auteur-directed indie, Noah Baumbach’s “Margot at the Wedding,” was a moderate success at best. So while her red-carpet appeal is undiminished (her life in Nashville with her husband, the country star Keith Urban, and their daughter, Sunday Rose, is still tabloid worthy), her big-screen clout may be. That there are fewer boutique studios releasing the “odd stories” Ms. Kidman says she’s interested in — Paramount Vantage, which distributed “Margot,” is much diminished, for example — means she may have a harder time following her gut.

“It’s definitely a rough time,” said Bob Berney, the former president of Picturehouse, a division of Time Warner that was shut down last year. “There’s fewer buyers than ever before. On the other hand, I think the market in terms of audience is stronger than ever, in terms of the number of theaters there are, in terms of people who are interested in something unique or different.” (Mr. Berney has just opened a new distribution company, Apparition.)

Blossom Films has a first-look deal with 20th Century Fox, Fox Searchlight specifically for “Rabbit Hole.” “We get to finish at the pace that we want to,” Ms. Kidman said, “and then if people respond to it, we get to place it somewhere, with people that we feel are as passionate about it as we are.”

Ms. Kidman did not see “Rabbit Hole” on Broadway in 2006, but after reading a review, she called Per Saari, Blossom Films’ producer, and he flew to New York from Los Angeles that night, he said. He saw the show, for which Cynthia Nixon won a Tony in the role of the grieving mother, and set up a meeting with Mr. Lindsay-Abaire. Ms. Kidman read the play and later saw an Australian production.

“When I first responded to it, it was because I read it, and it was about grief, which fascinates me,” she said. “Loss and love seem to be themes that run through my work.” This film is about “a marriage and the way that people fuse through pain, that you can either be pulled apart or you can come together. In the same way that ‘Birth,’ a film that I did, was about loss of the loved one who’s your partner in life, this is the most profound loss, and it’s the worst place to tread. And so my nature tends to be to explore something that I’m terrified of.”

Shooting a tense scene at the restaurant, Ms. Kidman and Mr. Eckhart remained in character between takes, continuing their conversation as husband and wife or staring intently down in concentration. Ms. Kidman didn’t deviate from the text, but made subtle changes in her inflection, giving the moment, in which she reveals that she no longer wants to attend a support group for grieving parents, a tinge of sadness or bitter resignation.

Asked if making a smaller-scale movie was a refreshing change, Ms. Kidman seemed to bristle. “I’ve always done them,” she said. “I mean, I won the Academy Award” — in 2003, for “The Hours” — “and I went straight into making ‘Birth.’ ”

True: for an A-list star, her career is a patchwork of quirky choices. And in conversation she was personable and down to earth, asking for recommendations of things to do in New York. “A good jazz club is what I need,” she said, “something that is really underground.”

Mr. Saari said she reminded him of his last boss, Robert Redford. “Redford has always had one foot outside of Hollywood,” he said. “I think Nicole, although she’s known to be a movie star, she has this independent spirit to her. It’s the same part of her that lives in Nashville and has a farm. She brings in these giant squash, and says, ‘Look what I grew in my garden.’ She wanted to enter them in a competition.”

Ms. Kidman said her goal with Blossom Films was to promote the vision of directors like Mr. Mitchell and writers like Mr. Lindsay-Abaire, who was surprised to find himself a part of the production even after he submitted his draft. “They haven’t changed anything without my permission, which in my experience never happens,” he said.

Of course vanity production companies in Hollywood are nothing new, nor are pet projects. Most of the films that Blossom is developing, including “The Danish Girl,” based on a novel about the first man to have a sex change operation, have roles for Ms. Kidman. (One that doesn’t is a remake of “How to Marry a Millionaire” in which a man is the gold digger; Ms. Kidman said it was her idea.) But surprise: Ms. Kidman said she has no plans to direct, though she would like to write. “I’m not interested in just producing movies,” she said. “I’m actually interested in protecting the material, because you don’t want this stuff to get hacked to pieces and commercialized and taken into a place that isn’t authentic and real.”

That may be true as an actor, but as a producer, doesn’t she want her films to be commercially successful? Ms. Kidman dismissed the question.

“Films are so ephemeral,” she said. “You can have all of the components and still miss horribly. That’s the beauty of art.”

The academy has changed the game again for the next Oscars, reports Steve Pond at The Wrap. Now, not only will they have 10 best picture nominees to choose from, but they also will have a new way of deciding the winner. Instead of having voters make their top pick in the best picture race, they will be asked to rank the 10 best picture nominees in order of preference.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today took the long expected step to ensure that this year’s best picture winner won’t be hated by 90% of its members by going with a preferential voting system for members.

In a preferential voting system, votes for the least popular first choice movie are eliminated and those members’ second choices are taken into account. The process continues until a nominee receives more than 50% of the votes.

Academy spokesperson Leslie Unger confirmed that the organization will apply the same preferential voting system it uses in the Oscar nomination process to best picture voting starting this winter. The news was first reported by The Wrap.

Under the old system, members simply voted for their first choice. With 10 nominees, that would mean a movie with one vote more than 10% could theoretically be named best picture.

Other categories will continue to utilize the traditional single-vote process to pick winners.

The change marks the first time that the Academy has used preferential voting for best picture since at least 1944, when it reduced the number of nominees from 10 to five.

Update (6:10 PM): Unger clarified that in fact that last time preferential voting was used to select the best picture was in 1945.

Credit:Getty Images

The Toronto Film Festival completed its slate Thursday, adding 45 titles to various programs to bring the overall number of feature-length pics in the 2009 edition to 271, including nearly 100 world preems.

Fest also released a 500-plus list of guests expected to walk the red carpet includingGeorge Clooney, Penelope Cruz, Demi Moore and Oprah Winfrey plus directors the Coen brothers, Steven Soderbergh and Claire Denis.

World preems in Masters include Amos Gitai’s “Carmel,” reflecting his own past as a soldier; Suzana Amaral’s “Hotel Atlantico,” following an unnamed actor wandering through southern Brazil; Francois Ozon’s “Le Refuge,” exploring the relationship between a pregnant woman and the brother of her late boyfriend; and Buddhadeb Dasgupta’s “The Window,” in which plans for a man’s charitable act go awry.

Masters is rounded out by North American preems of helmer Michael Haneke’s Palme d’Or winner “The White Ribbon”; Lars von Trier’s erotic-horror pic “Antichrist”; Denis’ story of French expats in Africa, “White Material”; Marco Bellocchio’s fictionalized portrait of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, “Vincere”; Kira Muratova’s “Melody for a Street Organ”; and Goran Paskaljevic’s “Honeymoons.” Margarethe von Trotta’s “Vision” has its Canadian preem.

Discovery adds world preems of Oscar Ruiz Navia’s “Crab Trap” and Laxmikant Shetgaonkar’s “The Man Beyond the Bridge.”

Belgian helmer Jaco Van Dormael’s Venice-bound “Mr. Nobody,” a sci-fi fantasy starring Jared Leto, joins Special Presentations.

Contemporary World Cinema adds 24 titles, all international or North American preems, including pics from helmers Robert Connolly (“Balibo”), Lee Hae-joon (“Castaway on the Moon”), Ole Bornedal (“Deliver Us From Evil”), Alex van Warmerdam (“The Last Days of Emma Blank”), Sarah Watt (“My Year Without Sex”),Mia Hansen-Love (“Le Pere de mes enfants”), Wanma Caidan (“The Search”) and Romanian omnibus film “Tales From the Golden Age.”

Pic opens to $65.1 million at worldwide B.O.

aCinema attendance in France is now tracking 2.6% up on 2008, according to France’s CNC film board. The stellar result is being driven, in part, by the 3-D digital revolution.

French theaters recorded 117.9 admissions, which equates to a B.O. of around Euros 707.5 million ($1 billion), for the period January through July.

The fact that this year’s B.O. has surpassed last year’s result is all the more remarkable given that early 2008 saw the bow of the highest-grossing Gallic movie of all time, theDany Boon-directed comedy “Welcome to the Sticks,” which grossed $193 million in France.

With a total 20.7 million tickets sold, July’s B.O. was a massive 56.1% up on July 2008.

The uptick is largely thanks to bumper bows from Fox’s digital 3-D heavyweight “Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs,” which grossed $55 million in July, and WB’s “Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince,” which took just under $40 million for the month.

Late July also caught the first three days of another digital 3-D tentpole, Disney-Pixar’s“Up,” which made a sterling first-five day $8.9 million.

“Distributors used to release titles of no interest in July,” said Manuel Chiche, chief operating officer of French indie distributor Wild Side Films. But now July is increasingly appreciated as a strong release date.

Also, Chiche added, “Very good results can be obtained for specialty titles. Audiences are increasingly curious and open-minded at this time of the year.”