It’s official: all three women-directed features to screen in Competition at Cannes 2018 have secured U.S. distribution. Sony Pictures Classics snagged rights to Nadine Labaki’s “Capernaum” a week before it debuted at Cannes. Now comes word that Alice Rohrwacher’s “Happy as Lazzaro” and Eva Husson’s “Girls of the Sun” are also headed stateside.
Best Screenplay winner “Happy as Lazzaro” landed at Netflix, according to Deadline. Penned by Rohrwacher, the drama with fantastical elements centers on an unlikely friendship between a peasant (newcomer Adriano Tardiolo) and a nobleman (musician Luca Chikovani). No word on when to expect the pic to hit the streamer. Rohrwatcher’s last feature, coming-of-age story “The Wonders,” took home the Grand Jury Prize at Cannes in 2014.
Cohen Media Group nabbed “Girls of the Sun.” Based on a true story and written by Husson, the drama centers on an all-female Kurdish battalion that takes on ISIS. Golshifteh Farahani (“Paterson”) and Emmanuelle Bercot (“My King”) star. Deadline confirmed the deal. The project marks a major departure from Husson’s last credit, 2015’s “Bang Gang (A Modern Love Story),” an explicit look into the sex lives of teens.
Women-helmed films accounted for just 14 percent of the features competing for the Palme d’Or this year.
