The Main Selections
Two Canadian productions are being featured in major festival categories this year:
Jorge Thielen Armand: This filmmaker is presenting Death Has No Master (La muerte no tiene dueño) at the Directors’ Fortnight on May 20. It is a thriller about a woman trying to reclaim her family’s cocoa plantation in Venezuela.
Antoine Rivard-Nolin & Guillaume Laurin: From the Montreal company Couronne Nord, they are at the Critics’ Week on May 18 with the court-métrage Skinny Bottines. The film tells the story of a talented pickpocket and his young cousin.
Documentaries at “Cannes Docs” (May 15)
Four producers are presenting new documentary projects as part of the “Canada Showcase”:
Ina Fichman: An Oscar-nominated producer showing Ba’s Book, which follows a family’s journey back to Vietnam to trace a father’s war memories.
Isabelle Grignon-Francke: She is presenting Parrandas, a look at a Cuban tradition involving neighborhood “firework battles”.
Sofia Bohdanowicz: The director and producer is showing Steve’s Version, a personal tribute to her musician grandfather.
Line Sander Egede: Based in Montreal, she is presenting Sisters of the Union, which uses mixed archives to explore a childhood in Soviet Romania.
Genre Films: Horror and Thrillers
Three projects are being pitched at the Frontières Platform, focusing on horror and suspense:
Amber Ripley: On May 16, she is pitching Spiral, described as a “feminized, Canadian version of American Psycho“ set in Paris.
Nancy Morski: Also on May 16, she is presenting Baldoon, a horror-comedy based on a real 19th-century Canadian witchcraft trial.
Shayne Putzlocher: He is showing The Wrath on May 17, a film about documentarians who get trapped by a local monster in Thailand.
One to Watch in Animation
Brice Garnier: While not at Cannes, this producer is heading to the Annecy Festival in June to present Dog My Cats! (Les Chiens ne font pas des chats). It’s a story about two children who inherit the ability to speak to animals.