PAOLO

Special Screening| Series | France | 2026 | Thriller | 7 x 52 min | Episodes 1 & 2 | In French with English subtitles

Directed by: Sébastien Marnier
Created by: Sébastien Marnier
Written by: Sébastien Marnier, Juliette Soubrier
Based on the Book by: Sébastien Marnier
Produced by: Floriane Cortes, Gaspard de Chavagnac (Mintee Productions)
Cinematography: Romain Carcanade
Original Score: Pyrit
Film Editing: Léa Masson, Jean-Baptiste Beaudoin et Valentin Féron
Cast: Jérôme Niel (Paolo), Yoann Gasiorowski (Téophane), Magalie Lépine Blondeau (Géraldine), Guslagie Malanda (Winnie), Salif Cissé (Jean-Baptiste), Marie Oppert, Léo Chalié, Véronique Ruggia Saura, Françoise Lebrun, Philippe Katerine, Guilaine Londez, David Ayala
International Sales: Warner Bros. Discovery
Original Broadcasting: HBO Max

Synopsis

Paolo is astonished to discover that his childhood schoolmate, Teóphane, is now running for local mayor. The celebrated author-turned-politician seems to have the world in his hands. What begins as genuine admiration and a desire to be seen and valued, soon becomes Paolo’s all-consuming obsession. Inspired by the director’s own 2011 novel, Mimi, Sébastien Marnier‘s polished, highly suspenseful HBO series takes us on a tense rollercoaster ride of repressed rage and deception, juxtaposing Paolo’s gritty working-class roots and the glossy, moneyed world his relationship with Teóphane ushers him into.

Director’s bio

Writer/director Sébastien Marnier cowrote and co-directed two short films with Élise Griffon, The Main Game (2002) and Handsome Jack (2003), before turning his hand to literature. In 2011, he published the novel Mimi, which won the Prix de Roman Gai as best LGBT-themed French or Belgian novel of the previous five years. In 2013, he collaborated with three fellow writers on the collective novel Qu4tre, published the novella Une vie de petits fours, and co-wrote the graphic novel Salaire net et monde de brutes with Élise Griffon. Returning to the cinema, he then wrote and directed three feature films: Faultless (2016), School’s Out (2018), and The Origin of Evil (2022), which premiered in Venice and won the Audience Award at the 2023 Frameline San Francisco LGBTQ Film Festival. He most recently directed three episodes of the 6-part miniseries The Disappearance of Kimmy Dore (TAFFF 2024). Paolo bowed at this year’s Series Mania festival in Lille.