Netflix Lands Cannes Award Winners ‘Happy as Lazzaro’ and ‘Girl’

Streaming service previously closed a $30 million worldwide deal for animated film “Next Gen”

Happy as Lazzaro
Cannes Film Festival

Netflix has acquired Cannes Film Festival award winners “Happy as Lazzaro” and “Girl.”

Just ahead of Cannes, the streaming service had closed a $30 million worldwide deal for the animated film “Next Gen.”

Below are the official descriptions and all of the relevant details for Netflix’s newest acquisitions and the latest Cannes sales.

“Happy as Lazzaro” (pictured above)

  • Alice Rohrwacher was awarded Best Screenplay for “Happy as Lazzaro” (in a tie with Nader Saeivar for ‘3 Faces”)

  • Synopsis: This is the tale of a meeting between Lazzaro, a young peasant so good that he is often mistaken for simple-minded, and Tancredi, a young nobleman cursed  by his imagination. Life in their isolated pastoral village Inviolata is dominated by the terrible ­Marchesa­ Alfonsina de Luna, the queen of cigarettes. A loyal bond is sealed when Tancredi asks Lazzaro to help him orchestrate his own kidnapping. This strange and improbable alliance is a revelation for Lazzaro. A friendship so precious that it will travel in time and transport Lazzaro in search of Tancredi. His first time in the big city, Lazzaro is like a fragment of the past lost in the modern world.

  • Writer & Director: Alice Rohrwacher

  • Cast: Adriano Tardiolo, Luca Chikovani, Alba Rohrwacher, Agnese Graziani, Tommaso Ragno, Sergi Lopez, Natalino Balasso, Gala Othero Winter, David Bennent, Nicoletta Braschi

  • Producer: Carlo Cresto-Dina

  • Co-producers: Tiziana Soudani, Alexandra Henochsberg, Grégory Gajos, Arthur Hallereau, Pierre-François Piet, Michel Merkt, Michael Weber, Viola Fügen

  • Production Companies: A Tempesta production with Rai Cinema in co-production with Amka Films Prods., Ad Vitam Production, KNM, Pola Pandora, RSI Radiotelevisione Svizzera, ARTE France Cinéma, ZDF/ARTE

  • International Sales: The Match Factory

“Girl”

  • The Camera d’Or, for best first film, was awarded to “Girl”

  • Vincent Polster won the Best Actor Prize for Un Certain Regard for his performance in “Girl”

  • Lukas Dhont’s Un Certain Regard entry “Girl” was awarded this year’s Queer Palm award. (The Queer Palm launched in 2010 and selects its winner from all LGBTQ-themed films across the official selection of the Cannes film festival, Un Certain Regard, Directors’ Fortnight, Critics’ Week and the unofficial ACID section.)

  • Synopsis: Determined 15-year-old Lara is committed to becoming a professional ballerina. With the support of her father, she throws herself into this quest for the absolute at a new school. Lara’s adolescent frustrations and impatience are heightened as she realizes her body does not bend so easily to the strict discipline because she was born a boy.

  • Director: Lukas Dhont

  • Cast: Victor Polster, Arieh Worthalter, Oliver Bodart, Tijmen Govaerts, Katelijne Damen, Valentijn Dhaenens, Magali Elali, Alice de Broqueville

  • Screenwriters: Lukas Dhont, Angelo Tijssens

  • Producer: Dirk Impens

  • Production companies: Menuet, Frakas Productions, Topkapi Films

  • International Sales: The Match Factory

Comments