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First Look, the work in progress section of Locarno Film Festival – spotlighting six feature films in post-production stage – is heading to Canada for its 14th edition.

“Canada was on our radar for a while, as we believe there’s a roster of great talents being produced in that territory which brings a great diversity and also a good mix of emerging and established filmmakers,” noted Locarno’s Industry Manager Daria Voumard.

“Canadian films are also very well represented in our official selection; therefore the choice was quite organic.”

In the past, First Look presented new productions from Colombia, Mexico, Chile, Brazil, Israel, Poland, Baltic countries, Portugal, Serbia, Switzerland, Germany, the U.K. and Spain.

An international jury, composed of Franck Finance-Madureira, Kim Yutani and Jacqueline Lyanga will award several prizes on Aug. 10, 2025. But before that – and thanks to a partnership with Telefilm Canada – international industry insiders will be able to...

Raymond St-Jean’s horror Veins is among six Canadian features selected for First Look, the work-in-progress section of Locarno Film Festival’s industry strand Locarno Pro.

Produced by Canada’s 1976 Productions, Veins is set in a semi-abandoned Canadian village, where a young woman unravelling the mystery of her father’s sudden death makes discoveries more sinister and horrifying than she could have imagined.

Scroll down for the full list of projects

St-Jean has previously made features including 2023 crime film Dusk for a Hitman.

Running from August 8-10 and presented in partnership with Telefilm Canada, the First Look section is for...

Six Canadian film projects have been chosen and unveiled on Tuesday for the Locarno Film Festival’s Locarno Pro First Look program, highlighting works-in-progress.

Out of more than 40 submissions, a first pre-selection was made by a committee composed of Ana David (Berlinale Panorama, Márgenes, Queer Lisboa), Tom McSorley (Canadian Film Institute), and Alex Masson (San Sebastian International Film Festival). The projects will be presented to accredited industry professionals by the producer or producers during the Locarno Film Festival.

An international jury, comprised of Franck Finance-Madureira, film critic and president and founder of the Queer Palm and the Queer Palm Lab, Kim Yutani, director of programming at the Sundance Film Festival, and Jacqueline Lyanga, co-director of film programming at the Berlin International Film Festival, will award several prizes, including one covering post-production services up to a certain price, one covering music supervision services at Music Library & SFX’s labs, and one for image finishing services,...

After sliding back into the docu realm, French Canadian filmmaker Geneviève Dulude-De Celles has returned to fiction with Petite rose (formerly titled Fleur bleue) – a co-production between Canada, Belgium and Bugaria. Filming began this week in Montreal. This was selected as part of the Venice Gap-Financing Market in 2023 and received some coin via Eurimages earlier this year. Dulude-De Celles had her fiction feature debut Une Colonie (2018) premiere at the Berlinale. Colonelle films’ Sarah Mannering and Fanny Drew will produce. We’re guessing this works with themes of themes of displacement, immigration, nostalgia, and what is ultimately gained and lost when uprooting.…...

The results of the second Eurimages Project Evaluation Session for 2024 have just been announced and we are finding some major projects in the mix that have either began filming or are getting ready for a summer, fall, winter and/or 2025 calendar shoot. Of the ones we fancy the most we see that Quebecois filmmaker Geneviève Dulude-De Celles is moving swimmingly along with a Blue Flower, a film that will be shot in Bulgaria. It was among the projects selected at last year’s Venice Gap Market. We have Visar Morina (filmmaker of 2020’s Exil – read review) working on Hatixhe and Shaban – a project that has been on our radar since 2022.…...

The Venice Gap-Financing Market (September 1-3), part of the Venice Production Bridge, will present 34 fiction and documentary projects.

The Venice Gap-Financing Market (September 1-3), part of the Venice Production Bridge, will present 34 fiction and documentary projects at the 80th Venice International Film Festival (August 30-Septmber 9), including a new project from Palestinian director Annemarie Jacir, All Before You.

All Before You offers a retelling of the 1963 farner-led revolt against British colonial rule in Palestine. Jacir’s previous director credits include The Oblivion Theory, which won the top prize at the Berlinale co-production market in 2021, Salt Of This Sea, Wajib and When I Saw You,...

The 10th edition of the Venice Gap-Financing Market, organized as part of the Venice Film Festival’s industry program Venice Production Bridge, has selected 62 projects in the final stages of development and funding.

Filmmakers taking projects to Venice include Jim Sheridan, an Oscar nominee with “In America,” “In the Name of the Father” and “My Left Foot”; Annemarie Jacir, whose credits include Cannes’ “Salt of This Sea,” Berlin’s “When I Saw You” and Locarno’s “Wajib”; Aisling Walsh, who directed “Maudie” with Sally Hawkins and Ethan Hawke, and “Elizabeth Is Missing” with Glenda Jackson; and Kim Mordaunt, who won best debut at Berlin with “The Rocket.”

Also selected are Roberto Minervini, who directed Cannes’ “The Other Side” and Venice’s “What You Gonna Do When the World’s on Fire?”; Laurynas Bareisa, who won the Venice Horizons Award for “Pilgrims”; Måns Månsson, who was in Berlin competition with “The Real Estate”; György Pálfi,...

Palestinian filmmaker Annemarie Jacir, Canadian filmmaker Geneviève Dulude-De Celles, Brazilian filmmaker Ricardo Alves Jr., veteran Hungarian filmmaker György Palfi and Italian filmmaker Roberto Minervini are five filmmakers among the 62 projects selected for the 2023 edition of the Venice Gap-Financing Market (September 1st to the 3rd).

The filmmaker behind Wajib in Annemarie Jacir (who also has the book to screen project The Oblivion Theory in the works), will present All Before You at the market. Docu-fiction blending helmer Roberto Minervini (who is among the producers on Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine as Light) is going full fiction with The Damned.…...

New Feature projects by Palestinian director Annemarie Jacir, Ireland’s Aisling Walsh and Jim Sheridan as well as Romanian filmmaker Anca Damian have been selected for the upcoming edition of the Venice Gap-Financing Market.

The 10th edition of the co-financing meeting will run from Sept. 1 to 3 as part as of the Venice Production Bridge, which is the industry component of the Venice Film Festival (Aug 30 to Sept. 9)

The market will present 62 projects in the final stages of development and funding, selected from 280 submissions.

The selection spans 34 feature-length fiction Film and documentary projects, 14 Immersive projects, 11 Biennale College Cinema – Virtual Reality projects and three Biennale College Cinema projects.

To be eligible for inclusion, the fiction films must have at least 70% of funding in place and be looking for minority partners only.

Full List of Feature Film Projects:

After The Evil (doc) by Tamara Erde, Gloria Films Production All Before You (fiction), by Annemarie Jacir,...

Geneviève Dulude-De Celles’ portrait of a shy girl in Quebec shines a gentle but beguiling light on the trials of becoming a teenager

This is a gorgeously gentle feature debut by the Canadian film-maker Geneviève Dulude-De Celles: a calm and tender portrait of a shy 12-year-old as she yo-yos between childhood and adolescence. It is beautifully acted and full of emotional complexity, although at times the storytelling seems a little derivative, with scenes half-familiar from indie’s back catalogue of coming-of-age movies.

Emilie Bierre is lovely as Mylia, who is so painfully self-conscious that she hides in a toilet cubicle until the bell rings on her first day at a new school. Mylia lives in the sticks with her parents and younger sister Camille, a little scamp who sits at the breakfast table shoving cereal up her nose. There’s a pang of sadness seeing the two girls together:...

Line-up also includes the new project from two-time Oscar nominee Lucy Walker.

Danish documentary festival Cph:dox has revealed the 35 projects set to be presented at Cph:forum, its financing and co-production event that will take place online-only from April 26-30.

Scroll down for full list of titles

The selection includes new projects from two-time Oscar nominee Lucy Walker (Waste Land), Sundance winners Mads Brügger (Cold Case Hammarskjöld) and Eugene Jarecki (The House I Live In), Berlin Crystal Bear winner Geneviève Dulude-De Celle (A Colony) and Venice Horizons winner Lech Kowalski (East Of Paradise).

Further notable filmmakers include Radu Ciorniciuc, whose Acasa,...

Exclusive: Sarah Sutherland (Veep), Jared Abrahamson (American Animals), Dominique Provost-Chalkley (Wyonna Earp), Amanda Brugel (The Handmaid’s Tale) and musician Hubert Lenoir have been set to star in Canadian feature drama Like A House On Fire from writer-director Jesse Noah Klein (We’re Still Together).

Production is under way in Toronto until July 15 on the story of a woman (Sutherland) who returns home to reconnect with the young daughter and estranged husband (Abrahamson) she left two years before. She soon finds that her daughter does not remember her and her husband is with a woman now seven-months pregnant (Provost-Chalkley).

Sarah Mannering and Fanny Drew of Colonelle Films (A Colony) are producing with William Woods (Mean Dreams) of Woods Entertainment. Finance comes from Crave, Telefilm, Sodec, Ontario Creates, and Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation (Nohfc). Entract Films will distribute in Canada.

Montreal-based Colonelle Films is run by Geneviève Dulude-De Celles, Fanny Drew and Sarah Mannering.

Ricardo Trogi’s 1991 was the top prize winner at 2019 Gala Quebec Cinema Awards. Winning Best Film, Best Director and Best Supporting Actress (Sandrine Bisson), the film edged out Une colonie picked up a pair of awards in Best Supporting Actor (Robin Aubert) and Best Newcomer (Émilie Bierre) and Yan Giroux who won Best First Feature, Best Actor and Best Screenplay for À tous ceux qui ne me lisent pas. Here are the noms and winners:

Best Film

1991 – Go Films – Nicole Robert – Winner

À tous ceux qui ne me lisent pas – micro_scope – Luc Déry, Élaine Hébert, Kim McCraw

La Bolduc – Caramel Films – Valérie d’Auteuil, André Rouleau

Genèse – L’Unité centrale – Galilé Marion-Gauvin

La grande noirceur – Metafilms – Sylvain Corbeil

Répertoire des villes disparues – Couzin Films – Ziad Touma

Une colonie – Colonelle films – Fanny Drew, Sarah Mannering

Best Director

Denis Côté – Répertoire des villes disparues

Geneviève Dulude-De Celles – Une colonie

Maxime Giroux...

Best Friend Forever (Bff) was launched by Martin Gondre and Charlie Bin.

New Brussels-based sales and production services company Best Friend Forever (Bff) has boarded sales on Ukrainian producer and director Valentyn Vasyanovych’s dystopian drama Atlantis ahead of Cannes.

Set in near future, war-torn eastern Ukraine, the drama revolves around a former soldier suffering from Ptsd, working at a local smelter and struggling to adapt to the reality of a life in pieces and a land in ruins.

When the smelter shuts down and he loses his job he finds salvation by volunteer Black Tulip mission dedicated to exhuming war corpses.

Paris-based company Indie Sales has acquired Martin Lund’s Norwegian coming-of-age drama “Psychobitch” which is headlined by Elli Rhiannon Müller Osbourne (“Utoya: July 22”).

“Psychobitch” marks the third feature film of Martin Lund, who made his debut with “Twigson Ties the Knot,” a local box office hit, and followed up with “The Almost Man,” which won best Film and best actor at Karlovy Vary Film Festival. Lund also directed the successful TV series “The Game,” which sold in over 40 countries.

Set in the small city of Gjøvik in Norway, “Psychobitch” follows the turbulent relationship between Frida, a 15 years-old self-chosen class outsider, and Marius, the most perfect boy in class, who are paired up as study buddies.

The film also stars Jonas Tidemann (“The Game”) and Henrik Rafaelsen.

“‘Psychobitch’ is a very sensitive and topical Nordic coming of age, in the vein of ‘Skam,’ which resonated strongly locally and internationally, and shows...

Paris-based company Indie Sales has acquired the coming-of-age drama “A Colony” which will be making its international premiere at the Berlin Film Festival in the generation section.

“A Colony” marks the feature debut of Geneviève Dulude-De Celles, whose short film “The Cut” won a prize at Sundance in 2014.

Set in Sorel Tracy, a Quebec town, at the end of summer, “A Colony” follows Mylia, a timid 12-year-old who must leave her little sister and native countryside to enter high school. Lost in this new environment, she meets Jacinthe, who introduces her to teenage rituals and absurdities, and Jimmy, a fierce young native from the neighboring reservation whom encourages her to cross boundaries, and ultimately form her personal identity.

“A Colony” previously won six awards in Quebec, including the best film and audience awards at the Quebec City Film. Festival.

Martin Gondre, Indie Sales’ head of marketing and festivals, said “A...

The first films in the Generation section at the 2019 Berlin Film Festival have been unveiled. The 16 movies will play in the Kplus and 14plus competition at the Berlinale, with organizers highlighting the recurring theme of young people looking for meaning in an uncertain world, and the number of female-centric stories that will be told.

“These are brave films from courageous filmmakers, with their fingers on the pulse of the time and an acute feel for the social, cultural and political developments of our present moment,” said section head Maryanne Redpath.

An initial eight films were announced for 14plus, with projects hailing from China, India, South Korea and the U.S. They will all have their European or world premieres in Berlin. The lineup includes “Stupid Young Heart” from Oscar-nominated director Selma Vilhunen and “Goldie” from Sam de Jong, whose “Prins” was the opening film for Generation 14plus in 2015.

The Generation...

Seven world premieres amongst 16 films.

The first 16 titles from the 2019 Berlin Film Festival (Feb 7-17) Generation section have been revealed.

For the 42nd edition of the Generation strand, there are eight films for Generation 14plus and eight for Generation Kplus so far.

Titles in the former include the European premiere of Stupid Young Heart from Finland’s Selma Vilhunen, who was nominated for the best live action short Oscar for Do I Have To Take Care Of Everything? in 2014.

There will also be a European premiere of Bulbul Can Sing from Indian director Rima Das. Das’ previous film Village Rockstars...

The film support body said on Tuesday it will support three French projects to the tune of $1.4m through its Canada Feature Film Fund.

Drama L’Amour comes from writer-director Marc Bisaillon, and is a Les Films Camera Oscura production. Filmoption International will distribute in Canada.

Toujours Ensemble is a Bravo Charlie thriller written and directed by Sophie Dupuis. FunFilm Distribution is set to release in Canada.

Pour Toujours, written and directed by Geneviève Dulude-De Celles, is a Colonelle films drama.

In April Telefilm announced 17 French-language projects to receive funding amounting to $17m.

Dulude-De Celles also obtained funding for Bienvenue à F.L. in the 2014-2015 cycle via Telefilm’s Micro-Budget Production Program.

Though it’s a harder film festival to regulate and therefore tabulate a comprehensively genuine list reflecting the totality of the fest’s offering per any individual’s perspective, the Toronto Film Festival manages to be a healthy platform for new and developing voices for those willing to sift through the multitude of titles. Of course, many new exciting voices were present that debuted at earlier film festivals, like Berlin, Sundance, and Cannes. From Guy Maddin’s co-director Evan Johnson on The Forbidden Room and Josh Mond’s stunning debut James White out of Sundance, to notable Cannes berths like Laszlo Nemes of Son of Saul, Deniz Gamz Erguven of Mustang, and Thomas Bidegain’s Les Cowboys, 2015 brought a wide variety of new filmmakers to light. In deliberating the Top Ten New Voices out of Tiff, we focused on offerings either unique to the festival or near concurrent premieres with Locarno and Venice.

Alma Matters: Dulude-De Celles Yields Heartrending Results with Docu Debut

Following last year’s Sundance award-winning selected fictional short La Coupe, Geneviève Dulude-De Celles makes her feature debut splash in the non-fiction form with a film that draws on the stylistic virtues of Errol Morris, the woozy observational lyricism found in Rich Hill and the intimacy and eclecticism on display in Tinatin Gurchiani’s The Machine Which Makes Everything Disappear. And despite all the subconscious cinema quoting, the Quebec helmer’s portrait of Sorel-Tracy’s middle class high school encapsulated within Welcome to F.L. is of its own unique fibre full of color, meaning, beauty and emotion.

Ten years after graduating, Dulude-De Celles returned to her alma mater with the intention of making a film about bullying, but once she embarked on the project she realized that the topic of the teenage experience is much more rich and heartrending,...

Films set to show at the 40th Toronto International Film Festival (Tiff), updated as announcements are made in the run up to the event.

Tiff will open on September 10 with Jean-Marc Vallée’s Demolition starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Naomi Watts.

Tiff 40

Key: Wp = world premiere; Nap = North American premiere; IP = international premiere; Cp = Canadian premiere.

GALASBeeba Boys (Canada), Deepa Mehta, WPDemolition, Jean-Marc Vallée WPDisorder (Maryland) (France-Belgium), Alice Winocour NAPThe Dressmaker (Aus), Jocelyn Moorhouse, WPEye In The Sky (UK), Gavin Hood WPForsaken (Canada), Jon Cassar, WPFreeheld (Us), Peter Sollett, WPHyena Road (Canada), Paul Gross, WPLolo (France), Julie Delpy, NAPLegend (UK), Brian Helgeland, IPMan Down (Us), Dito Montiel NAPThe Man Who Knew Infinity (UK), Matt Brown, WPThe Martian (Us), Ridley Scott, WPMiss You Already (UK), Catherine Hardwicke WPMississippi Grind (Us), Ryan Fleck, Anna Boden CPMr. Right (Us), Paco Cabezas WPThe Program (UK), Stephen Frears, WPRemember (Canada), Atom Egoyan, NAPSeptembers Of Shiraz (Us), Wayne Blair, WPStonewall ([link...

Films set to show at the 40th Toronto International Film Festival (Tiff), updated as announcements are made in the run up to the event.

Tiff will open on September 10 with Jean-Marc Vallée’s Demolition starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Naomi Watts.

Tiff 40

Key: Wp = world premiere; Nap = North American premiere; IP = international premiere; Cp = Canadian premiere.

GALASBeeba Boys (Canada), Deepa Mehta, WPDemolition, Jean-Marc Vallée WPThe Dressmaker (Aus), Jocelyn Moorhouse, WPEye In The Sky (UK), Gavin Hood WPForsaken (Canada), Jon Cassar, WPFreeheld (Us), Peter Sollett, WPHyena Road (Canada), Paul Gross, WPLolo (France), Julie Delpy, NAPLegend (UK), Brian Helgeland, IPThe Man Who Knew Infinity (UK), Matt Brown, WPThe Martian (Us), Ridley Scott, WPThe Program (UK), Stephen Frears, WPRemember (Canada), Atom Egoyan, NAPSeptembers Of Shiraz (Us), Wayne Blair, WPStonewall (Us), Roland Emmerich, Wpspecial PRESENTATIONSAnomalisa (Us), Charlie Kaufman, Duke Johnson, CPBeasts of No Nation (Ghana), Cary Fukunaga, CPBlack Mass (Us), Scott Cooper, CPBorn To Be Blue (Canada-uk), Robert Budreau WPBrooklyn (UK-Ireland-Canada), John...

The fall festival rush is upon us. Locarno is currently ramping up. Venice has released their line-up and Thom Powers and the Toronto International Film Festival team have dropped a bomb with a previously unannounced new feature from powerhouse docu-provocateur Michael Moore. It is truly a miracle that the production of a film such as Moore’s upcoming Where To Invade Next (see still above) managed to go completely undetected by the filmmaking community until it was literally announced to world premiere at one of the largest film festivals in the world. Programmed as a one of the key films in the Special Presentations section at Tiff, the film sees Moore telling “the Pentagon to ‘stand down’ — he will do the invading for America from now on.” Also announced to premiere at Tiff was Avi Lewis’ This Changes Everything, which has slowly been rising up this list, as well as...

Hayao Miyazaki is directing his first computer animated film, reports Cartoon Brew. More projects in the works: Takeshi Kitano is starring in Wayne Wang’s While the Women Are Sleeping. Taylor Hackford will direct Robert De Niro in The Comedian. J.K. Simmons joins Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone in Damien Chazelle's La La Land. Ennio Morricone will score Quentin Tarantino's The Hateful Eight. Christopher Miller and Phil Lord (The Lego Movie) are working on a Hans Solo project, yet another Star Wars spinoff. Jennifer Lawrence has signed up for The Rosie Project. Ellen Page is attached to star in Lioness. Gerard Depardieu will take the lead in Marseille. And Geneviève Dulude-Decelles will direct a movie based on Stacey May Fowles’s novel Infidelity. » - David Hudson...

Hayao Miyazaki is directing his first computer animated film, reports Cartoon Brew. More projects in the works: Takeshi Kitano is starring in Wayne Wang’s While the Women Are Sleeping. Taylor Hackford will direct Robert De Niro in The Comedian. J.K. Simmons joins Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone in Damien Chazelle's La La Land. Ennio Morricone will score Quentin Tarantino's The Hateful Eight. Christopher Miller and Phil Lord (The Lego Movie) are working on a Hans Solo project, yet another Star Wars spinoff. Jennifer Lawrence has signed up for The Rosie Project. Ellen Page is attached to star in Lioness. Gerard Depardieu will take the lead in Marseille. And Geneviève Dulude-Decelles will direct a movie based on Stacey May Fowles’s novel Infidelity. » - David Hudson...