Alpha, the new, still-top-secret film from Titane director Julia Ducournau will be one of the hot projects being shopped to buyers at this year’s Cannes film market.
About Elly and Paterson actress Golshifteh Farahani and French star Tahar Rahim (A Prophet, The Mauritanian) are set to star in the feature, the plot details of which are still under wraps. Eric Altmayer and Nicolas Altmayer are producing for Mandarin & Compagnie, with Jean des Forêts and Amélie Jacquis for Petit Film, in co-production with Jean-Yves Roubin and Cassandre Warnauts of Frakas Productions. Delivery is planned for later this year.
Alpha will be Ducournau’s third feature after the one-two punch of her 2016 breakout debut Raw, which won the international film critics’ Fipresci Prize in its Cannes Critics’ Week debut; and Titane, the surprise Palme d’Or winner of 2021, which became France’s official Oscar contender that year.
Both combined elements of body horror with feminist and gender-bending themes and shocked and dazzled audiences and critics in equal measure. Both were also sleeper indie success stories, with Raw grossing $3 million worldwide and Titane close to $5 million.
In a statement, the producers called Alpha “a new page in Julia Ducournau‘s corpus that is both very consistent with the previous ones and entirely new in its tone. To match an exceptional project, it was necessary to transcend conventions, as evidenced by the exceptional combination of producers on one hand and international sales companies on the other.”
New York-based FilmNation Entertainment and France’s Charades will team up to handle worldwide sales on the film, the first collaboration between the two sales heavyweights.
“Alpha is Julia’s most personal, profound work yet, and we are looking forward to a global audience discovering the story with as much excitement as we did,” the two companies said in a statement.
Ducournau is represented by Film Talents. Farahani is represented by Agence Adequat and CAA. Rahim is represented by Agence Adequat and UTA.
