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Sylvie Pialat (“Timbuktu”), the producer of Cannes’ opening night movie “Leave One Day” directed by Amelie Bonnin, is on the roll. The Cesar-winning producer, who runs the Paris-based banner Les Films du Worso, is currently developing a raft of new projects from renown European auteurs and up-and-comers, including Alain Gomis, Emmanuelle Bercot, Atiq Rahimi, Hu Wei and Felipe Gálvez.
Pialat will be working for the first time with Emmanuelle Bercot, the critically acclaimed French actress and filmmaker whose directorial effort “Leaving” world premiered at Cannes in 2021 and earned Benoit Magimel a best actor prize at the Cesar Awards in 2022. Bercot also had her 2015 movie “Standing Tall” open the Cannes Film Festival.
Bercot’s untitled next movie, which will reteam Pialat with Pathé Films, her partner on “Leave One Day,” is an adaptation of the book called “L’Enragé,” written by journalist Sorj Chalandon. The movie will tell the gripping true story of children who escaped the penal colony for minors in Belle-Ile-en Mer on the night of Aug. 27, 1934. Bercot penned the script with Armel Gourvennec. “Those children who were incarcerated at Belle-Ile-en-Mer were called colonists, and most of them were locked up for minor offences, sometimes even just for being orphans, and they were treated quite harshly, and one day, they all escaped together in an act of rebellion,” said Pialat. “Out of 56 children who escaped the penal colony, all but one were taken back. This film will tell the story of that kid who managed to flee,” she continued.
Pathé Films will handle international sales and distribute on the movie in France. The film will start shooting in Feb. 2026.
Pialat is also producing Gustave Kervern’s “And Now It’s Over,” a drama set in Mauritius with a high-profile cast led by Suzanne Lindon, Mathieu Amalric, Léa Drucker and LoÏc Mandère.
Mandère stars as a young Mauritian man who works in tourism, like many people there, and dreams of leaving. He meets a young woman who is on holiday with her parents. When a bond forms between them, they imagine they can fly away to new horizons. The film will be released by Pyramide and will be handling international sales. The movie will wrap shooting on May 23.
“And Now It’s Over” is a passion project for Kervern who is himself Mauritian. “He knows his island well, but he still went there two or three months beforehand. He really had a keen sense of where he wanted to shoot,” said Pialat. She said the Mauritius is an interesting backdrop for this film and gives it a political and social depth because it’s “one of these countries that have turned entirely to tourism, that have been completely consumed by it.” Drucker is currently at Cannes with two movies, Laura Wandel’s “Adam’s Sake,” and Dominik Moll’s “Dossier 137.”
Les Films du Worso is looking to expand its international scope with ambitious projects set abroad, notably Atiq Rahimi’s next movie, which is based Delphine Minoui’s “Les Passeurs de livres de Daraya.” The film centers on the young Syrian revolutionaries who rebel against the regime of then-Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad’s and create an secret underground library with thousands of books buried under the ruins. The film will star Adam Bessa and will start shooting in early 2026. Le Pacte will distribute and handle international sales. Lebanese producer Georges Schoucair at About Prods. is co-producing.
Pialat’s slate also includes Alain Gomis’ “Dao,” which she’s doing with Srab Films, the banner behind Ladj Ly’s “Les Miserables,” while Jour 2 Fête and the Party Films Sales are handling distribution and international sales; Chinese filmmaker Hu Wei’s feature debut, “49 days,” which has been boarded by Memento Distribution and Art France; and is a co-producer on Felipe Gálvez’s “Impunity,” based on upcoming book “38 Londres Street” by Philippe Sands, with Quiddity films in the U.K., Snowglobe and Volos films.
Aside from these, the producer is working with a new generation of female directors, including Céline Devaux (“Everybody Love Jeanne”), Salomé Da Souza, who was nominated for a César best short film in 2025, and Flora Anna Buda, who won Cannes’ short film Palme d’Or in 2023.
“Leave One Day,” which marked the very first feature debut premiering on opening night at Cannes and only the third directed by a woman, was greeted with a long standing ovation for Bonnin and well as the film’s leading actor, Juliette Armanet, who is a famous French singer. Armanet and Bonnin, were also joined by Tewfik Jallab at the gala screening which followed the ceremony attended by Quentin Tarantino, Leonardo DiCapro and Palme d’Or honoree Robert de Niro.
English (US) ·