Events

Cohen Media Group is proud to announce the release of STANDING TALL, writer-director Emmanuelle Bercot’s urgent and sympathetic drama about a teenage delinquent and the tireless efforts of the juvenile judge (Catherine Deneuve,) and counselor (Benoit Magimel) assigned to his case, to save him. The Opening Night selection of the 2015 Cannes Film Festival, STANDING TALL won 2 César Awards for Best Newcomer (Rod Paradot) and Best Supporting Actor (Benoit Magimel) and will open in New York on Friday, April 1 at Lincoln Plaza Cinema with a national roll out to follow.

Sixteen-year-old Malony (Rod Paradot) is surrounded by adults both callous and supportive. On the latter side is a warm-hearted court judge Florence Blaque (Catherine Deneuve) and a devoted social worker Yann (Benoît Magimel, The Piano Teacher); on the other side stand most other authority figures. Clearly a victim of circumstances and poor parenting from his basket case of a mother (Sara Forestier, The Names of Love), he’s also a bully, a brute, and a sexually violent offender. STANDING TALL refuses to entirely absolve its central character; instead, it counts on Paradot, a powerful new actor, to render him as a convincingly troubled, tempestuous soul.

Multi-hyphenate Emmanuelle Bercot is one of the few French film talents able to seamlessly shift between acting, directing and writing.  Much of her work has debuted at the Cannes Film Festival, from her 1997 Jury Prize-winning short Les vacances, to her first feature-length film Clément (2001), the award-winning dramas Polisse, which she co-wrote and stars in, as well as Mon Roi, earning her the 2015 Cannes Best Actress award. Her last feature, On My Way, starred Catherine Deneuve in her first performance in a film directed by Ms. Bercot, and debuted at the 2013 Berlin International Film Festival.  STANDING TALL marks the first time that a film directed by a woman was chosen to open the Cannes Film Festival.