Film director auctions Palm d’Or award to fund new movie

CAIRO - 12 June 2017: Tunisian/ French film director Abdellatif Kechiche decided to sell his Palme d’Or on June 8 to fund his new drama film ‘Mektoub, My Love.’

Expected to be released in 2017, the new drama film revolves around a young screenwriter, Amin, who visits his home in the Mediterranean during the summer vacation. Amin finds himself in a complicated love story involving a girl in the village, who Amin falls in love with and Jasmine, the film producer’s wife who is interested in him.

The film was in the production process until it was halted due to financial challenges, the Hollywood Reporter said on June 7.

Other items will also be auctioned apart from the Cannes Film Festival 2013 award, such as oil paintings, that were essential in Kechiche’s romance film ‘Blue is the Warmest Color.’

Kechiche is also a screenwriter and made his first directorial appearance in 2000 with La Faute à Voltaire, which he also wrote.