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Exclusive: Canadian Filmmaker Mélanie Charbonneau has rolled cameras on her sophomore feature Out Standing, which will shoot on location in Montreal, Quebec, and Hamilton, Ontario, throughout April and May.

The pic stars Nina Kiri ((The Handmaid’s Tale) alongside Vincent Leclerc (The Revenant) and Antoine Pilon (Matthias & Maxime). Rounding out the cast are Adrian Walters (Star Trek: Discovery), Stephen Kalyn (Essex Country), Noah Parker (30 Vies), Anthony Therrien (Falcon Lake), and Nicolas Fontaine (Victoire).

The film follows Officer Sandra Perron, who at the height of a brilliant career with the Armed Forces, resigns unexpectedly. The brass launch an investigation that revs up when a photo circulates of Sandra in uniform tied to a tree apparently unconscious. This was not how the career of the first female officer in the Canadian infantry was supposed to end. Besieged by journalists, struggling to adapt to civilian life, and pursued by the investigation, she denies...

Loosely based on a graphic novel by Bastien Vives, Falcon Lake is another in a long line of coming-of-age tales about the discovery of first love. But Charlotte Le Bon, an actor making her feature directing debut, cloaks her take on youthful summer romance in an aura of ominous foreboding. The titular Quebecois lake is the setting for the budding relationship between Bastien (Joseph Engel) and Chloé (Sara Montpetit), which is complicated by the latter’s insistence that the place is haunted by the ghost of a boy who drowned there.

It’s this macabre tale that informs the tenor of Falcon Lake, as Le Bon blurs genre to craft a bildungsroman whose deeply pensive tone and eerie sound design and visual compositions lend it the rhythms of a ghost story. But Le Bon’s genre-bending maneuvers also prove to be frustrating at times, as the film feels just as...

Whether it’s Michel Gondry’s Mood Indigo, Robert Zemeckis’ The Walk, The Hundred-Foot Journey, Anthropoid, The Promise, or last year’s Fresh, chances are you’ve seen Charlotte Le Bon’s work as an actor. She’s now helmed her feature with Falcon Lake, which premiered at Cannes Film Festival and will now arrive in theaters next month from Yellow Veil Pictures.

Following a shy teenager on a summer vacation who experiences the joy and pain of young adulthood when he forges an unlikely bond with an older girl, the cast features Joseph Engel, Sara Montpetit, Monia Chokri, Arthur Igual, Karine Gonthier-Hyndman, Thomas Laperrière, Anthony Therrien, Pierre-Luc Lafontaine, Lévi Doré, and Jeff Roop.

The director also touched on the ghostly element of the film, saying, “I am a fan of horror films. They are my first visceral memories of cinema. When I was younger in Quebec, my friends and...

Memento International has boarded “Falcon Lake,” the feature debut of Quebec-born artist and actor Charlotte Le Bon which will world premiere at Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight.

Penned by Le Bon, François Choquet and Karim Boucherka, “Falcon Lake” is adapted from Bastien Vivès’s graphic novel “A Sister.” The story follows Bastien, a 13-year old boy who moves with his family from Paris to a lakeside chalet in Quebec where he bonds in an unexpected way with Chloé, 16.

Joseph Engel and Sara Montpetit (“Maria Chapdelaine”) star in the film alongside Monia Chokri (“A Brother’s Love”), Arthur Igual, Karine Gonthier-Hyndman, Thomas Laperrière, Anthony Therrien, Pierre-Luc Lafontaine and Jeff Roop.

“When we are teenagers, our love life becomes the center of everything and it is easy to find ourselves in a turmoil of euphoria, fear and pain,” said Le Bon who has starred in films by Michel Gondry (“Mood Indigo”), Jalil Lespert (“Yves Saint...

Filmax series “The Red Band Society,” one of the TV fiction formats with most international adaptations in recent years, is now getting a French-language Canadian version.

Multi-award-winning Quebec producer Encore Television, the company led by François Rozon, Vincent Gagné and Louis Bolduc, will produce in collaboration with Quebecor Content. The series is due to be released on Canadian broadcaster Tva in winter, 2022.

The new remake was negotiated by the Barcelona-based mini-major Filmax’s international sales arm, headed by Iván Díaz, and French distributor Ace Entertainment.

A first Canadian season will be 10 hours long and directed by actor-director Yan England. The script, which will largely stick to the original, will be penned by “Félix, Maude et la fin du monde” writers Michel Brouillette and Stephanie Perreault.

The series also boasts a very strong cast of actors such as Noah Parker (“La déesse des mouches à feu”), Anthony Therrien (“Les faux tatouages...

Sexual power plays and slut-shaming are the central themes of “Slut in a Good Way,” director Sophie Lorain’s slight but amiable story of three straight teenage girls and their romantic lives. Shot in black and white and set mostly in a retail environment, the French-Canadian film gives off a “Clerks” vibe as the trio of protagonists slack off, bitch about pay, and talk about life and love.

Catherine Léger’s story starts off in a sex shop as 17-year-old Charlotte (Marguerite Bouchard) looks for a bustier that matches one she saw in one of her boyfriend’s porn clips. What she buys doesn’t have the desired effect, though it wouldn’t have mattered what she chose: Her boyfriend tells her that he’s gay. So she gets drunk on a playground with friends Mégane (Romane Denis) and Aube (Rose Adam), lamenting that he’s “perfect” and she loves him.

Talks to continue on Behold My Heart, Madeline’s Madeline.

Ryan Kampe’s Visit Films heads to the Croisette with a sales slate that encompasses SXSW selection 1985, Tribeca entries Maine and Slut In A Good Way, and documentary City Of Joel, among others.

Kampe and his team will continue talks on Behold My Heart starring Marisa Tomei, and Sundance and Berlinale selection Madeline’s Madeline.

1985 (pictured) stars Cory Michael Smith, Virginia Madsen (Sideways), Michael Chiklis, and Jamie Chung and follows a closeted young man returning to his Texas hometown for Christmas during the first wave of the AIDS crisis.

Burdened...

Whilst not Pascal Plante's first feature film, having previously made doc La génération porn in 2014, Fake Tattoos (Les faux tatouages) is the director's first step into feature-length drama. And it's quite the first step - one that definitely carries all of the do-or-die energy of what feels like a debut. Having admirably worked as writer, director and editor on this project, Plante now continues his clearly profound interest in youth culture, presenting the seductive tale of a new romance between music superfans Mag (Rose-Marie Perreault) and Théo (Anthony Therrien). Lead character Théo is the brooding teenage outsider, whose excellent wardrobe is made up exclusively of retro band t-shirts - picture everything from Dead Kennedys to The Clash. Music defines almost every aspect of his...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Pascal Plante’s Slamdance selection heads to Berlin.

Seville International has acquired sales rights to Pascal Plante’s Slamdance selection Fake Tattoos (Les Faux Tatouages) and will commence sales at the Efm in Berlin next month.

The sexy romance is the first French-Canadian feature to screen at Slamdance and was named best Canadian feature at the 2017 Festival du Nouveau Cinema.

Plante’s first full-length feature – his short Nonna screened in Slamdance 2016 – stars Anthony Therrien and Rose-Marie Perreault as youngsters who meet at a punk concert and fall in love. Katerine Lefrancois produced through Bal Masqué Productions.

“I couldn’t have hoped for a better partner than the fierce Anick Poirier and her passionate team to represent my first feature film internationally,” Plante said. “Les Faux Tatouages (Fake Tattoos) is such a special film for me and it’s an honour to have partners that care about it as much as I do.”

“We are delighted...

Pascal Plante’s Slamdance selection heads to Berlin.

Seville International has acquired sales rights to Pascal Plante’s Slamdance selection Fake Tattoos (Les Faux Tatouages) and will commence sales at the Efm in Berlin next month.

The sexy romance is the first French-Canadian feature to screen at Slamdance and was named best Canadian feature at the 2017 Festival du Nouveau Cinema.

Plante’s first full-length feature – his short Nonna screened in Slamdance 2016 – stars Anthony Therrien and Rose-Marie Perreault as youngsters who meet at a punk concert and fall in love. Katerine Lefrancois produced through Bal Masqué Productions.

“I couldn’t have hoped for a better partner than the fierce Anick Poirier and her passionate team to represent my first feature film internationally,” Plante said. “Les Faux Tatouages (Fake Tattoos) is such a special film for me and it’s an honour to have partners that care about it as much as I do.”

“We are delighted...

Pascal Plante’s Slamdance selection heads to Berlin.

Seville International has acquired sales rights to Pascal Plante’s Slamdance selection Fake Tattoos (Les Faux Tatouages) and will commence sales at the Efm in Berlin next month.

The sexy romance is the first French-Canadian feature to screen at Slamdance and was named best Canadian feature at the 2017 Festival du Nouveau Cinema.

Plante’s first full-length feature – his short Nonna screened in Slamdance 2016 – stars Anthony Therrien and Rose-Marie Perreault as youngsters who meet at a punk concert and fall in love. Katerine Lefrancois produced through Bal Masqué Productions.

“I couldn’t have hoped for a better partner than the fierce Anick Poirier and her passionate team to represent my first feature film internationally,” Plante said. “Les Faux Tatouages (Fake Tattoos) is such a special film for me and it’s an honour to have partners that care about it as much as I do.”

“We are delighted...

16 films for youth strand announced.

Source: Zeca Miranda

‘Unicórnio’

The first batch of titles for the 2018 Berlin International Film Festival’s Generation strand have been released.

The sidebar focuses on youth and children’s films. The festival takes place from 15 - 25 February 2018.

The 16 films are equally split between the Generation 14plus and Generation Kplus categories. The complete Generations programme will be released mid-January.

The first batch of Berlin competition titles was announced earlier this week.

Full list of titles

Synopses provided by Berlinale press office.

Generation 14plus

303

Germany

By Hans Weingartner

World premiere

303 tells the story of two university students, Jule (Mala Emde) and Jan (Anton Spieker) who leave Berlin together in an old camper on a road trip south, but for different reasons. As they philosophise on the world and themselves in passionate discussions, director Hans Weingartner maintains a natural closeness to the two young people against breathtaking backgrounds.

16 films for youth strand announced.

Source: Zeca Miranda

‘Unicórnio’

The first batch of titles for the 2018 Berlin International Film Festival’s Generation strand have been released.

The sidebar focuses on youth and children’s films. The festival takes place from 15 - 25 February 2018.

The 16 films are equally split between the Generation 14plus and Generation Kplus categories. The complete Generations programme will be released mid-January.

The first batch of Berlin competition titles was announced earlier this week.

Full list of titles

Synopses provided by Berlinale press office.

Generation 14plus

303

Germany

By Hans Weingartner

World premiere

303 tells the story of two university students, Jule (Mala Emde) and Jan (Anton Spieker) who leave Berlin together in an old camper on a road trip south, but for different reasons. As they philosophise on the world and themselves in passionate discussions, director Hans Weingartner maintains a natural closeness to the two young people against breathtaking backgrounds. After his contribution...

The Slamdance Film Festival announced today their narrative and documentary feature film competition for its 24th Festival edition, taking place January 19-25, 2018 in Park City. Established in 1995 by a group of filmmakers whose work had been rejected by the Sundance Film Festival, Slamdance is dedicated to fostering a community for independent emerging artists, fashioning itself “the premiere film festival by filmmakers, for filmmakers.”

The feature competition includes 16 premieres, mostly produced in the U.S. All competition films are feature length directorial debuts with budgets of less than $1 million Usd, and without Us distribution. In addition, the festival announced a new partnership with alumni Anthony and Joe Russo (“Captain America: Civil War,” and “Avengers: Infinity War”) to establish the inaugural Russo Fellowship award. Every participating filmmaker will be eligible for a $25,000 cash prize and mentorship from the Russos in the development of the winner’s next project at the brothers’ Los Angeles studio.

Vive la Flq: Revolutionary Tactics as Performance of Identity

With Corbo, Mathieu Denis’ second feature-length film, the Quebecois director has established an auteur focus on the nature of identity. He’s also raises some potentially incendiary subjects by depicting the events leading up to the October Crisis without necessarily criticizing the use of violence to incite social revolution. It’s a very fine line that he walks, making a rather serviceable, mostly flat, film about the psychology of aggressive activists, while tethering it to a larger, overriding cultural ethos in modern day Francophone Quebec.

The vessel for these didactics is 16-year-old Jean Corbo (Anthony Therrien), an idealistic adolescent trapped in the vicious cycle of lacking a clear sense of community and identity. Born of Quebecois and Italian descent, he’s marginalized by merit of being Francophone but removed from the plight of those mired in the issue by sheer merit of coming from a mixed,...