Netflix has struck a deal worth about $4 million for U.S. rights to Richard Linklater’s French-language “Nouvelle Vague,” landing the picture hours after its Cannes competition debut and setting a domestic price record for a foreign-language film second only to last year’s “Emilia Pérez.”
The black-and-white feature, shot in the 4:3 ratio, re-creates the frenetic 1959 shoot of Jean-Luc Godard’s “Breathless” with Guillaume Marbeck as Godard, Zoey Deutch as Jean Seberg and Aubry Dullin as Jean-Paul Belmondo.
Linklater told reporters in Cannes, “If you do it long enough, you should make one film about making films—this is mine,” underscoring a career-long admiration for French New Wave aesthetics.
Festival buzz was immediate: the premiere drew an 11-minute standing ovation inside the Grand Théâtre Lumière and placed third on ScreenDaily’s critics’ jury grid with a 2.7 average.
Although “Nouvelle Vague” left Cannes empty-handed, writers at Awards Radar noted it was “one of the most widely praised films of the festival,” fuelling early awards speculation.
The New Yorker highlighted the film’s “humorous yet reverent portrayal” of New Wave pioneers, calling it a standout in a competitive year for international cinema.
The Netflix pact follows the streamer’s buys of Linklater’s “Hit Man” and “Apollo 10½,” extending a relationship that has steered the director’s recent work toward limited theatrical windows before landing online.
Industry outlet Vulture listed “Nouvelle Vague” among the most significant acquisitions of Cannes 2025, alongside Mubi’s $24 million purchase of Lynne Ramsay’s “Die My Love,” underscoring an aggressive market for prestige international fare.
Under the deal, the film will receive a brief awards-qualifying run in U.S. theaters this autumn before streaming exclusively on Netflix; French distribution remains with ARP Sélection, which plans an 8 October domestic release.
Financing included support from France’s CNC fund, making “Nouvelle Vague” Linklater’s first project shot entirely in French and a rare U.S.–France co-production to secure such backing.
For Netflix, the pickup adds another potential contender to an awards slate that already features Yorgos Lanthimos’s “Frankenstein” and Annette Bening’s “Ballad of a Small Player,” signalling the platform’s continued investment in international filmmaker-driven cinema.
