– Rebecca Marder, Nadia Melliti, Antoine Reinartz and the filmmaker himself are starring in this Christmas in July production set to be sold worldwide by Le Pacte
Actresses Rebecca Marder (© 2025 Fabrizio de Gennaro for Cineuropa – fadege.it, @fadege.it) and Nadia Melliti (© 2025 Fabrizio de Gennaro for Cineuropa – fadege.it, @fadege.it) and actor Antoine Reinartz (© 2023 Fabrizio de Gennaro for Cineuropa – fadege.it, @fadege.it)
Having kicked off in Paris on 25 May, shooting on Chercher la fille – Thomas Salvador’s 3rd feature film after Vincent (screened in San Sebastián’s New Directors section in 2014 and nominated Best First Film at the 2016 Lumières Awards) and The Mountain (selected in the 2022 Directors’ Fortnight, nominated for the 2024 Best Visual Effects César as well as for the Best Music Lumière in the same year) – is continuing in Brittany where it’s due to wrap in early July.
Eye-catching names in the cast include Rebecca Marder (nominated for the Most Promising Newcomer César via A Radiant Girl and Grand Expectations, and hitting screens next year in Immortelle and Les quatre rendez-vous de Françoise), rising star Nadia Melliti (named Best Actress in Cannes and awarded the Best Acting Revelation César and Lumière trophies this year thanks to The Little Sister), Antoine Reinartz (the winner of the César for Best Supporting Actor via BPM (Beats Per Minute) and nominated in the same category for Anatomy of a Fall, acclaimed in Cannes last month in Forsaken and When the Night Falls) and the director himself (who led the cast of his previous two feature films). They’re joined by Maxence Tual (Diary of a Fleeting Affair) and Sophie Cattani (November).
Written by Thomas Salvador and Naïla Guiguet, a duo who nabbed the SACD Prize in the 2002 Directors’ Fortnight thanks to The Mountain (the latter was also nominated for the 2023 Best Original Screenplay César by way of The Innocent), the story revolves around 30-year-old Chloe who’s convinced that something has happened to the girl she’s just met. She randomly crosses paths with a man whom she believes is connected to this girl’s “disappearance” and she sets about following him. This only lead of hers results in Chloe travelling to Brittany where she meets Nicolas, who she also drags into her adventure…
Chercher la fille was produced by Julie Salvador on behalf of Christmas in July, and is financially co-produced by Minéral Films. Pre-purchased by Canal+ and Ciné+ OCS, the feature film also enjoys support from the Brittany region (with shooting taking place in Roscoff and on the island of Batz) and the SOFICA company Indéfilms. A total of six weeks of filming are on the agenda, with Alexis Kavyrchine (awarded the César in his speciality for Bye Bye Morons and nominated a further two times) heading up photography. Music will be composed by Olivier Marguerit (César-nominated for The Night of the 12th and Case 137), while world sales and distribution in France will fall to Le Pacte.
For the record, Christmas in July recently handled the short film Love Story (a 42-minute work presented in a Critics’ Week special screening last month) by Laïs Decaster, whose first feature film the Parisian firm are also set to produce.
(Translated from French)
