Kino Lorber announced that it has acquired all North American distribution rights to the final short film by Jean-Luc Godard, Trailer of a Film That Will Never Exist: Phony Wars. The 20-minute short was an official selection at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival and will next screen at the Toronto International Film Festival and the New York Film Festival. Kino Lorber will present the film on a national theatrical tour this fall, followed by a run at New York’s Film Forum in December alongside Cyril Leuthy’s documentary Godard Cinema.
At the time of his passing in September 2022 at age 93, Jean-Luc Godard was in the midst of working on a new feature film project. Though the film was never completed, the resulting Trailer of a Film That Will Never Exist: Phony Wars is composed of the ideas, references, and visuals that Godard envisioned for the new film, a complex mixed-media collage of history, politics, and cinema that gives the viewer rare insight into Godard’s genius mind and process.
Trailer of a Film That Will Never Exist: Phony Wars is the fourteenth film directed by Jean-Luc Godard to join the Kino Lorber catalog, which contains films from throughout his fifty-plus year career including New Wave classics A Married Woman, Alphaville, and La Chinoise and his final three feature films Film Socialisme, Goodbye to Language, and The Image Book.
Alongside Godard’s final film, Kino Lorber has also acquired North American rights to Cyril Leuthy’s documentary Godard Cinema, spanning the years from Godard’s 1960 breakthrough with Breathless to his late magnum opus Histoire(s) du cinéma. Weaving together iconic scenes from his films – from the celebrated to the esoteric – alongside interviews with his many collaborators, friends and critics, Godard Cinema is a portrait of a man whose constant reinvention of himself and the boundaries of the medium changed the fabric of the filmic art form. Godard Cinema will screen with Trailer of a Film That Will Never Exist: Phony Wars at Film Forum and theaters throughout the US.
The deal for Trailer of a Film That Will Never Exist: Phony Wars was negotiated by Kino Lorber Senior Vice President Wendy Lidell and Eva Diederix of Goodfellas. The deal for Godard Cinema was negotiated by Lidell with Arianna Castoldi and Arnaud Chevallier of Mediawan.
Trailer of a Film That Will Never Exist: Phony Wars is written by Jean-Luc Godard in collaboration with Jean-Paul Battaggia, Fabrice Aragno and Nicole Brenez. The film is produced by Anthony Vaccarello for Saint Laurent and Gary Farkas, Olivier Muller, and Clément Lepoutre for Vixens, and co-produced by L’Atelier. Godard Cinema is written and directed by Cyril Leuthy and produced by Cathy Palumbo and Victor Robert.