Festival du Nouveau Cinéma 2006 Preview

Official Festival Site

October 18th to the 28th, 2007
Counting Down:

Today begins the oldest film festival in Canada, and yet at age 35 the fest shows no signs of aging. Young, hip and avant-garde this year’s selection gathers the more challenging titles from Cannes and Toronto with a pinch of picks from Sundance and Berlin. In a city with an haute reputation for its fests, the Festival du Nouveau Cinéma is a gathering place for up-and-coming talents. From October 18th to 28th, there are a good chunk of films worth checking out (let us not forget the shorts, tributes, retrospectives, professional gatherings and events), below you’ll find the complete listing plus for the sake of sanity we also posted on a seperate page a top 10 suggestion list of films that are worth the price of admission.

   

   

   

   

International Selection: Louve d’Or

The International Selection includes first, second and third fiction and documentary films. True to its reputation for bringing new talent into the spotlight, the FNC’s competitive section boasts 18 strong, intense and unique movies eligible for the coveted Louve d’Or:

2:37, Murali K. Thalluri (Australia)
12:08 East of Bucharest, Corneliu Porumboiu (Romania)
13 Tzameti, Gela Babluani (France)
Avril, Gérald Hustache-Mathieu (France)
Away From Her, Sarah Polley (Canada)
The Bothersome Man, Jens Lien (Norway)
Le Chant nocturne des voyageurs, Chapour Haghighat (Iran)
Daratt, Mahamat-Saleh Haroun (France/Chad/Belgium/Austria)
Day Night, Day Night, Julia Loktev (United States/Germany/France)
Grbavica, Jasmila Zbanic (Austria/Bosnia/Germany/Croatia)
The Lives of Others, Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck (Germany)
Peter Pan Formula, Chang-ho Cho (South Korea)
Rampage, George Gittoes (Australia)
Rechercher Victor Pellerin, Sophie Deraspe (Quebec/Canada)
Red Road, Andrea Arnold (United Kingdom/Denmark)
Sept ans, Jean-Pascal Hattu (France)
Son of Man, Mark Dornford-May (South Africa)
The Violin, Francisco Vargas (Mexico)

   

   

   

Special Presentation
They’re well known, and so are their films. The 21 directors featured in this section have already built stellar reputations. These excellent filmmakers are in top form this year, making the best movies in the world. The highly anticipated films in this section are:

After the Wedding, Susanne Bier (Denmark/Sweden)
Babel, Alejandro González Iñárritu (United States)
Belle toujours, Manoel de Oliveira (France/Portugal)
The Boss of it All, Lars von Trier (Denmark)
Ces filles-là, Tahani Rached (Egypt)
Citadelle, Atom Egoyan (Canada)
Colossal Youth, Pedro Costa (Portugal)
Flandres, Bruno Dumont (France)
I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone, Tsai Ming-liang (Taiwan/France/Austria)
The Island, Pavel Lungin (Russia)
Klimt, Raoul Ruiz (Austria/France/United Kingdom)
Lights in the Dusk, Aki Kaurismäki (Finland)
News From Home / News From House, Amos Gitai (Israel/France/Belgium)
Offside, Jafar Panahi (Iran)
Stranded in Canton, William Eggleston (United States)
Ten Canoes, Rolf de Heer (Australia)
Transylvania, Tony Gatlif (France)
Armenia, Robert Guédiguian (France)
Waiter, Alex van Warmerdam (Netherlands/Belgium)
When the Levees Broke: a Requiem in Four Acts, Spike Lee (US)
The Wind that Shakes the Barley, Ken Loach (United Kingdom/Germany/France/Italy/Spain/Ireland)

   

   

   

International Panorama
This new FNC section includes 24 films that have all earned critical or commercial success in their home countries and are just waiting to find audiences here in Canada. Twenty-four films that will take you around the world; 24 films for every taste:
Les Amitiés maléfiques, Emmanuel Bourdieu (France)
Angry Monk: Reflections on Tibet, Luc Schaedler (Switzerland)
Blind Love, Janghun Troy Choi (United States)
Bosta, Philippe Aractingi (Lebanon)
Candy, Neil Armfield (Australia)
Comme des voleurs, Lionel Baier (Switzerland)
Being Jacques Chirac, Karl Zéro, Michel Royer (France)
Darkon, Andrew Neel, Luke Meyer (United States)
L’Enfant d’une autre, Virginie Wagon (France)
Infamous, Douglas McGrath (United States)
Iraq in Fragments, James Longley (United States/Iraq)
Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis, Mary Jordan (United States)
August Days, Marc Recha (Spain)
Mainline, Mohsen Abdolvahab, Rakhshan Bani Etemad (Iran)
Man Push Cart, Ramin Bahrani (United States/Iran)
Notes on Marie Menken, Martina Kudlacek (Austria)
On Air, Christophe Joly (France)
Les Particules élémentaires, Oskar Roehler (Germany)
Rwanda : à travers nous, l’humanité…, Marie-France Collard (Belgium)
Shortbus, John Cameron Mitchell (United States)
Technocalyps, Frank Theys (Belgium)
La Tourneuse de pages, Denis Dercourt (France)
Winter Journey, Hans Steinbichler (Germany)
Wristcutters – A Love Story, Goran Dukic (United States)

   

   

   

   

   

   

Focus Québec/Canada
With this all-new section, the FNC demonstrates that after 35 years, it’s still able to adapt to changes in the film industry. With Canadian and Quebec independent cinema a hotbed of talent, the FNC is pleased to showcase 22 of this year’s best new movies, including 11 premieres:

Sur la Trace d’Igor Rizzi, Noël Mitrani (Quebec/Canada)
Anger me, Elio Gelmini (Canada)
Atheism, Julian Samuel (Quebec/Canada)
La belle Bête, Karim Hussain (Quebec/Canada)
Les Cavaliers de la canette, Louis Champagne (Quebec/Canada)
Chez Schwartz, Gary Beitel (Quebec/Canada)
La Coupure, Jean Châteauvert (Quebec/Canada)
Dans les villes, Catherine Martin (Quebec/Canada)
Entre les mains de Michel Tremblay, Adrian Wills (Quebec/Canada)
L’Extrême frontière, Rodrigue Jean (Quebec/Canada)
Fascination, Mike Hoolboom (Canada)
Le Fugitif ou les vérités d’Hassan, Jean-Daniel Lafond (Quebec/Canada)
In Between Days, So Yong Kim (Canada/United States)
Jouer Ponette (work in progress)
Jeanne Crépeau (Quebec/Canada/France)
Manufactured Landscapes, Jennifer Baichwal (Canada)
Masturbation libre – le Manifeste, François Gourd, Miguel Medina (Quebec/Canada)
The Point, Joshua Dorsey (Quebec/Canada)
Punk le vote, Éric Roach Denis (Quebec/Canada)
Remembering Arthur, Martin Lavut (Canada)
Rêves de poussière, Laurent Salgues (Quebec/Canada/France)
Snow, Hakan Sahin (Canada)
Superspectre, Istvan Kantor (Canada/Germany)

Temps Ø
A third anniversary is worth a party, isn’t it? Sure it is. To mark its third edition, the Temps Ø section brings together the hottest names in genre cinema and animated film, movies from two new Quebec filmmakers who are so very different from all their colleagues, and tomorrow’s top talents. With 14 features, including no less than eight premieres, Temps Ø will make sparks fly right from the first frame of Paprika, Satoshi Kon (Japan)
. The movies on the menu are playful, avant-garde, incisive, shocking – sometimes all at once:

American Hardcore, Paul Rachman (United States)
Arrivederci Amore Ciao, Michele Soavi (Italy)
Avida, Benoît Delépine, Gustave Kervern (France)
Bobby, François Blouin (Quebec/Canada)
Heads of Control, Pat Tremblay (Quebec/Canada)
Invisible Waves, Pen-Ek Ratanaruang (Netherlands/Thailand/South Korea/Hong Kong)
Linda Linda Linda, Nobuhiro Yamashita (Japan)
Princess, Anders Morgenthaler (Denmark)
Sisters, Douglas Buck (United States)
Tachigui: the Amazing Lives of the Fast-Food Grifters, Mamoru Oshii (Japan)
Taxidermia, György Pálfi (Hungary/Austria/France)
The Whispering of the Gods, Tatsushi Ômori (Japan)
Wild Tigers I Have Known, Cam Archer (United States)

Shorts
Shorts bust out of their shell for this 35th FNC, becoming part of three sections: International Selection, Special Presentation and Temps Ø. The Festival is even launching an official competition for shorts by up-and-coming filmmakers in parallel with the International Selection official feature film competition. Twenty-two first, second and third shorts, presented in three programs, will be in the running for the NFB Short Film Award.

The Special Presentation section includes the latest from established masters of short film, presented in six programs exploring fiction, documentary and experimental works including:

Miranda Pennell’s You Made Me Love You (United Kingdom)
Regina Pessoa’s Histoire tragique avec fin heureuse (Portugal)
Deco Dawson’s Elizabeth Short (Canada)
Michel Lemieux’s Les Yeux de ma mère (Quebec/Canada)
Guy Maddin’s Workbooks (Canada)
Mathias Müller and Christoph Girardet’s Kristall (Germany)
Bill Morrison’s The Highwater Trilogy (United States)
Théodore Ushev’s L’Homme qui attendait (Quebec/Canada)

Temps Ø includes a dazzling selection of cinematic curiosities presented in three programs. The films include Even Kids Started Small by Yaniv Berman (Israel)
an Israeli variation on Werner Herzog’s first film; Apocalypse Oz by Ewan Telford (United States)
a campy cross between Apocalypse Now and the Wizard of Oz; and Revolutionary Song by Istvan Kantor, an experimental piece that short-circuits the music video.

Retrospectives / Tributes
This year the FNC honours four 20th-century filmmakers who each made a distinctive contribution to the cinematic arts.

GUY DEBORD – INTERNATIONAL SITUATIONIST: for the first time in North America, the complete works of the celebrated French filmmaker/philosopher will be screened at one event, with seven films to be shown in four programs: Against Cinema, Society of the Spectacle, In girum imus nocte et consumimur igni and Guy Debord, son art et son temps. In collaboration with Jacques LeGlou, Olivier Assayas and Alice Debord.

DANIEL SCHMID – “THE DÉBONNAIRE”: a tribute to the most acclaimed Swiss-German filmmaker, who passed away in August of this year. Three of his films will be screened: La Paloma (1974), Le Baiser de la Tosca (1984), and his final film, Beresina or the Last Days of Switzerland (1999). In collaboration with the Centre du cinéma suisse and the Cinémathèque québécoise.

NORMAN MCLAREN, THE COMPLETE WORKS: a world-premiere presentation from the National Film Board of Canada in partnership with the FNC and the Cinémathèque québécoise, the complete works of the beloved animator Norman McLaren will be shown in 11 programs of 12 films each.

CARLOS SAURA: this retrospective is produced by the Cinémathèque québécoise in partnership with the FNC and the Consulate General of Spain. It includes 16 films made between 1956 and 1979 by one of Spain’s greatest filmmakers.

Open Source / Events
To mark its 35th anniversary, the FNC invites the public to come to the Just For Laughs Museum to revel in our explorations and discoveries. The OPEN SOURCE series of events is a forum for interaction between industry professionals and the public. It includes exhibits, talks and workshops focused on issues related to the development of new distribution platforms and Web 2.0 as well as competitions, parties and performances. On October 19, 20 and 23, Open Source will get underway with luncheons sponsored by INIS. From Artegonia : Dérapage-Dubuffet to Wapikoni Mobile and MinuteMoments, from McLaren OOF to Notre cinéma à Radio-Canada and the White Label TV evening and the very first IPODVIDEOBATTLE, the roster of events is packed with unique demonstrations and captivating experimentation. Come one, come all to discover new ways to appreciate cinema!

MEET KENNETH ANGER: The cult director of Scorpio Rising, Kenneth Anger, has led a resolutely independent life and career. He will be present to meet the public, particularly students, on Thursday, October 19 at Concordia University. The event will be followed by a screening of Anger Me, a documentary by Elio Gemini, in which Anger talks about his love for his inspirations and dishes secrets about his unique, almost mystical films. Imperial Cinema, 3 p.m.

EXHIBITIONS: throughout the Festival, the Just For Laughs Museum will host two exhibitions: Rejouer à Pong pays tribute to the first hit video game and invites visitors to rediscover it through interactive installations. The exhibition includes the North American premieres of Painstation by Volker Morawe and Tilman Reiff, TFT Tennis by Dirk Eijsbouts, Paris Pong by Djeff Regottaz and Rockstar Table Tennis, which is not only an interactive installation but the venue for a competition on Sunday, October 22 including a special visit from Dave Kim of Rock Star Games. The other exhibition is Des mondes parfaits, co-programmed by the New Forms Festival (Vancouver) in collaboration with ED for the Salon Livingstones and Corlab. It invites visitors into the visual worlds of several video artists: the variously sublimated, idealized and hyper-real universes of Malcolm Daniel, the NomIg collective, Aleksandra Dulic and Kenneth Newby, Yuki Kawamura, Julio Soto, Christophe Luxereau and Benjamin Nuel.

9 EVENINGS, THEATRE AND ENGINEERING: The Daniel Langlois Foundation joins the FNC in presenting three films from the Foundation’s collection. 9 EVENINGS: THEATRE AND ENGINEERING, by Alfons Schilling, ROBERT RAUSCHENBERG, OPEN SCORE and JOHN CAGE, VARIATIONS VII, Experiments in Art and Technology by Barbro Schultz Lundestam are a record of the performances of a large number of artists in October 1966 at the 69th Regiment Armory in New York.

Awards and Juries
This year, there are three awards for feature films in the International Selection. As always, the Louve d’Or and the Radio-Canada Audience Award ($5,000) will be presented to the best first, second or third feature in the official competition. New this year is the Acting Award for the best performance in an International Selection feature. The jury for these awards is composed of: Natacha de la Fouchardière, projectionist/archivist at the Cinémathèque de Toulouse; producer Barbara Shrier; and filmmaker Denis Vileneuve.

The Prix de la critique (AQCC)
is the critics’ prize for a feature film from the International Selection. The AQCC jury is composed of: John Anderson, Pierre Pageau and Sandro Forte.

The NFB Short Film Award ($1,000)
is a new award to be presented for short films in the International Selection, as selected by a jury composed of director Micheline Lanctôt; Danny Lennon, the director of the Prends ça court! short film series; and director Jeremy Peter Allen.

Films in the Temps Ø section will vie for the Grand Prix Z-Télé ($1,000)
to be awarded based on audience votes.

OPEN SOURCE will feature the Grand Prix Formule i, which will recognize up-and-coming new media artists with a $5,000 grant presented by the Bell Broadcast and New Media Fund, access to $5,000 worth of production and postproduction equipment and materials at Vidéographe, and a consulting and services package worth up to $5,000 from Fjord Marketing interactif+technologie, a Cossette Group company. The Cours écrire ton court! competition will also be held as part of OPEN SOURCE. The winner will receive a Grand Prix of a $55,000 production grant from SODEC, a TÉLÉ-QUÉBEC broadcast licence and $2,000 worth of Kodak film stock, as well as the $5,000 Prix de l’écriture cinématographique presented by the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec. The SARTEC special mention will be awarded for the best French-language script, while the CBC/WGC Prize will recognize the best English-language script. The Prix coup de cœur du public TÉLÉ-QUÉBEC rounds out the laurels to be presented as part of the competition.