Audrey Diwan’s ‘Emmanuelle’ To Open San Sebastian Film Festival

Audrey Diwan’s Emmanuelle has been announced as the opening film of the 72nd San Sebastian Festival, in competition.

The feature film will world premiere on September 20 in a gala screening attended by the director and the cast, led by French actress Noémie Merlant (Portrait of a Woman on Fire, Tár) in the titular role.

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Further cast members include Naomi Watts (Mulholland Drive, 21 Grams, The Impossible), Will Sharpe (The White Lotus), Jamie Campbell Bower (Stranger Things), Chacha Huang and Anthony Wong.

Diwan, who won the Venice Film Festival’s Golden Lion with Happening in 2021, co-wrote the screenplay with filmmaker Rebecca Zlotowski.

The English-language feature is inspired by the character and world created by writer Emmanuelle Arsan, whose 1967 erotic novel was adapted into the cult 1970s movie starring Sylvia Kristel.

Plot details have been largely under wraps, but the festival revealed on Tuesday that the film “follows the steps of a woman in search of a lost pleasure, whose business trip to Hong Kong will initiate numerous encounters including her meeting with Kei, a man who constantly eludes her.”

Diwan teased a further detail in a post on X, following the San Sebastian announcement, writing “Emmanuelle is a woman who doesn’t climax, she is in a search of lost pleasure.”

Emmanuelle was shot during the autumn of 2023 in Hong Kong and Paris and was produced by Chantelouve, Rectangle Productions and Goodfellas. Beta Fiction Spain will distribute the film in Spain. The film will be released in France by Pathé on 25 September.

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