MARGUERITE’S THEOREM

Le Théorème de Marguerite

North American Premiere | France, Switzerland | 2023 | Drama, Romance | 112 min | In French with English subtitles
Directed by: Anna Novion
Written by: Anna Novion, Mathieu Robin, Agnès Feuvre, Marie-Stéphane Imbert
Produced by: Miléna Poylo, Gilles Sacuto (TS Productions), Adrian Blaser, Aline Schmid (Beauvoir Films)
Cinematography: Jacques Girault
Film Editing: Anne Souriau
Original Score: Pascal Bideau
Cast: Ella Rumpf (Marguerite), Jean-Pierre Darroussin (Laurent Werner), Clothilde Courau (Suzanne), Julien Frisson (Lucas), Sonia Bonny (Noa)
International Sales: Pyramide International

The only female student in her class — and head and shoulders above the boys — math whiz Marguerite Hoffman is a PhD candidate at Paris’s prestigious Ecole Normale Supérieure, an institution legendary for its genius quotient. Not only does Marguerite love math, it’s her entire life, and she’s determined to prove the famously unsolved Goldbach Conjecture. However, when an equally brilliant transfer student from Oxford points out a flaw in her hypothesis during a seminar presentation before specialists in her field, Marguerite’s entire world is shaken, all her certainties vanish, and the insecure brainiac decides to drop out of school. Nevertheless, it seems that mathematics has a different fate in store for her.

The daughter of veteran French cinematographer (and math scholar) Pierre Novion, Anna Novion is a cinema-studies graduate of the University of Paris-Saint-Denis, who began her career by writing and directing three short student films. Her first feature, Les Grandes Personnes  (2008) was presented as part of the Cannes Film Festival Critic’s Week, and lead actor Anaïs Demoustier was nominated for a César Award for Most Promising Actress. Her second feature, Rendezvous in Kiruna (COLCOA 2013) nabbed the Golden Pyramid Best Film Award at the Cairo International Film Festival. Novion also directed eleven episodes of the hit Canal+ series The Bureau (2018-2020). Marguerite’s Theorem had its premiere as a special screening at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, where production designer Anne-Sophie Delseries was honored with the CST Young Film Technician Award.