Vil et misérable
feature | fiction
Written by Jean-François Leblanc and Samuel Cantin, directed by Jean-François Leblanc | produced by Sarah Mannering & Fanny Drew
Lucien is the bookseller of a used book store located in a used car dealership. A demon who descended to earth more than 350 years ago, he is a lonely, morose and misanthropic man. Lucien's life is completely turned upside down the day his boss forces him to work with an assistant bookseller in order to expand the dealership's bookstore. Cherishing the solitude that his bookstore provides him, he has no desire to share it with a human being, feeling an aversion to the human race in general. However, in contact with this new colleague, Lucien gradually opens up to the world and finds in this human colleague an unusual ally.
Fleur bleue
feature | fiction
Written and directed by Geneviève Dulude-De Celles | produced by Sarah Mannering and Fanny Drew
The viral video of a 7 year old Bulgarian artist, a painting prodigy, is circulating on the internet. This phenomenon attracts the attention of a wealthy man who wishes to acquire her paintings. Mihai will be sent to evaluate the value of the young girl's production. He will have to return to his country of origin for the first time, almost 30 years after having left.
The Hive
short film | fiction
directed by Clara Milo | produced by Léonie Hurtubise
Adeline is the new member of a cult-like commune made up of several other pregnant girls. Tasked with delivering a jug of milk to the nearby chapel, she falls upon a sordid truth which will make her doubt the benevolence of her peers.
Le goût de tes écailles
short film | fiction
Written and directed by Rafaël Beauchamp | produced by Léonie Hurtubise
The titanic and disturbing Lambert & Fils factory, run with an iron fist by its founder René Lambert Junior, has the Quebec monopoly on the trade in seafood and ocean products. René's son, Jasmin Lambert, is particularly proud of his father. But when one evening, the latter invites Jasmin for the first time to explore his future heritage, the young boy will begin, despite himself, a slow descent towards a sticky and disturbing reality while the perfect facade of his idol slowly disintegrates. THE TASTE OF YOUR SCALES is an environmentalist fable that uses the textured and dark visual lexicon of the film noir to tell its story.
Latences
feature | fiction
Written and directed by Andrée-Anne Roussel | produced by Sarah Mannering & Fanny Drew
APRIL 3, 2058 - EASTERN COMMUNES NETWORK
363 DAYS AFTER THE CYBER ATTACK
A mysterious drone disrupts the daily life of Commune 7 - a self-sufficient community located in the Bas-du-Fleuve. Worried, Eli flees to New Brunswick to join her best friend Aleks, with whom she shares an history of cyber activism. Wanted, the duo decides to head to Nova Scotia to seek refuge at the Open Source Community headquarters. Through a harrowing journey, their true motives will come to light, shaking their convictions and friendship.
Céleste
feature | fiction
Written and directed by Kalina Bertin | produced by Sarah Mannering & Fanny Drew
In the early 90's, Celeste, 10 years old, adventurous by nature and endowed with a fertile imagination, moves with her family to her father's childhood home on the island of Montserrat in the Caribbean. Following this move to the isolated area, her father quietly sinks into a psychosis and the secrets of his past resurface against his will. Left to her own devices to interpret her patriarch's descent into hell, Céleste draws on her imaginary world to rework reality. She develops a fascination for the volcano at the foot of which the house is located. Although it has been asleep for 300 years, she becomes convinced that it has awakened and is about to erupt. Céleste is a psychological, impressionistic and immersive film that explores the language of magical realism.
Goodbye Forever
feature | fiction
Written by Trevor Anderson and Fish Griwkowski, directed by Trevor Anderson | produced by Sarah Mannering & Fanny Drew
Goodbye Forever is a dramatic feature that alternates between two stories – one in English and one in French – both set in Montreal in the autumn of 1995. Tadpole is a 20-something anglophone photographer who arrives in Quebec from Northern Alberta to start his fabulous queer life, despite not speaking any French. Lovelie is a 30-something francophone nurse who grows stifled in the shadow of her successful novelist boyfriend. Though they never meet, Tadpole and Lovelie’s lives collide in a way that changes them both forever.
Le chant des nuages
short film | animation
Written and directed by Marie-Noëlle Moreau Robidas | produced by Léonie Hurtubise, Sarah Mannering and Fanny Drew
In a busy park, Miss Weatherman's weather report is interrupted by a sudden storm. She finds refuge under a pavilion where a little boy wonders why the sky is so nasty. The meteorologist gives him a refreshing answer. Le Chant des nuages is a 12-minute animated short that combines fiction and popular science to tell young and old how meteorology connects us to the world.
Expecting
feature | fiction
Written by Holly Brace-Lavoie and Geneviève Dulude-De Celles, directed by Geneviève Dulude-De Celles | produced by Sarah Mannering & Fanny Drew
Emma, a stubborn and feisty woman in her thirties, has been trying to have a baby for a few years. But when she does, doubt creeps in, anxiety takes over, and when she miscarries, Emma knows for sure that she doesn't want to be a mother. Can she come to terms with her taboo decision, share it with her partner, and get through it unscathed?
Ceux qui se sont évaporés
feature | fiction
Written by Ariane Louis-Seize and Rébecca Déraspe,directed by Ariane Louis-Seize | produced by Sarah Mannering & Fanny Drew
Emma, a 35-year-old mother and palliative care nurse in a hospital, is slowly dying in a life surrounded by suffocating social constructions. When she sees a report on the Japanese evaporated, a phenomenon in which thousands of Japanese people are organizing their own voluntary disappearance, Emma has an epiphany: leaving is her only chance of survival. This radical decision will have devastating consequences on her daughter Nina, who will grow up and develop an eating disorder that threatens to make her disappear as well. If she is to break the cycle of abandonment in her family, Nina will have to find the strength to face the void left by her ghostly mother and make the decision to move forward with her own life. A baroque and poetic drama, CEUX QUI SE SONT ÉVAPORÉS takes a singular look at the deep desire to disappear from one's own existence.
Catch and Release
feature | fiction
Written and directed by Kaveh Nabatian | produced by Sarah Mannering & Fanny Drew
A neo-noir fairy tale about a self-loathing celebrity TV host, Christophe, who falls in love with a mysterious woman from a parallel world, Noémie, while filming an episode of a television show in Mexico. When Noémie’s world comes under threat, Christophe becomes convinced that he can find redemption from past misdeeds by rescuing her, but she isn’t looking for a saviour. As he navigates a dangerous city that exists on the border of fantasy and reality, he realizes that only by letting go and accepting the vicissitudes of life will he be able to be free of the darkness that surrounds him.
Koden’n
short film | fiction
Written and directed by Daniel Chérubin | produced by Léonie Hurtubise
A young man of Haitian origin and his partner from Quebec have a deep desire to start a family, but are having difficulty conceiving a child. To cope with this, the woman suggests that she be followed by a doctor and have recourse to assisted reproduction. Despite the treatment, successive miscarriages cause the couple a great deal of grief. This painful stage in their lives coincides with the appearance of a mysterious bird. The young man, although Cartesian in spirit, is unable to shake off the idea that the beast is the cause of their misfortune. Traditions, steeped in the voodoo beliefs of his homeland, forbid it. He decides to take matters into his own hands.
La grande fugue
feature | fiction
Written and directed by Carmine Pierre-Dufour | produced by Sarah Mannering & Fanny Drew
Set in Montreal in 2002, Naomi, an ambitious yet insecure Haitian Canadian teenage girl, plans on running away to Idaho with her best friend Sabrina to meet up with a boy they met in a chatroom.
Frère lumière
short film | fiction
Directed by Carmine Pierre-Dufour | produced by Léonie Hurtubise
Feder Augustin shows up at his niece's wedding with his old video camera, determined to film the event even though a professional cameraman has been hired to do so. During the wedding, Feder will have to face his family and friends’ comments about his recent divorce. All the more reason to hide behind his camera, the only place where he feels useful.
Gaëlle la belle
Written by Emilie Mannering and Carmine Pierre-Dufour | produced by Sarah Mannering and Fanny Drew
After winning the Oscar for Best Actress, Gaëlle Gauthier returns to Quebec to take refuge with her childhood best friend Paul-Antoine, to deal with her existential crisis and... write her first novel.
Trials of Alien Life
feature | fiction
Written and directed by Ian Lagarde | produced by Sarah Mannering & Fanny Drew
The trials of alien life is a supernatural thriller in which two immortal siblings are pitted against each other in a death-defying race to protect a cosmic tadpole whose fate will determine that of humankind.
Montreal you’re beautiful tonight
feature | fiction
Written and directed by Carmine Pierre-Dufour | produced by Sarah Mannering & Fanny Drew
Of Quebec and Caribbean descent, Ava is a Montreal-based R&B singer-songwriter who is well known in the English underground music scene, but has yet to be noticed by the French Canadian mainstream media. As she struggles to define what success means to her, she navigates as a woman and a person of color in an industry that likes to put people in boxes. When she discovers that Jay, her toxic ex-boyfriend and former musical collaborator, is performing with an R&B superstar, Ava becomes determined to prove that she can create an EP that represents her unique voice. During her journey of self-discovery, Ava will be introduced to a different genre of music and learn to assert herself.
