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Montreal sales agent also adds The Vinland Club to the roster.

Montreal-based WaZabi Films has picked up worldwide sales rights excluding Canada to Tracey Deer’s feature debut Beans, which will premiere in TIFF Next Wave Discovery section next month.

Beans is inspired by true events and centres on a young Mohawk girl who comes of age during the 1990 Oka Crisis armed stand-off over land rights.

Straddling childhood and adolescence, the youngster struggles to build her own identity amid the chaos of the uprising and a world that views her as different.

“Beans is a very timely film,” said WaZabi...

The “foreign” film, product of another world where people converse in odd dialects and act in peculiar ways. We need to be honest that the vast majority of films that most people consume every year are either American mainstream blockbusters or studio distributed independent (Sundance) films. There are of course, every year, a few foreign films that do get released in the American market, The selected films that get a push from their government hoping to get that Foreign Language film Oscar nom or other films that manage to make some noise at Cannes might eventually get released in our great Na. But for every Incendies or 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 days, that are released to the rabid American market there are dozens of other films that never make it outside of their home market save in the occasional film festival. The Quebec film market produces 30+ films every year, a lot...

Today, Montreal's Festival du nouveau cinéma (Fnc), which will take place between October 12 to 23. Here's the complete line-up of feature films according to the press release we received.

Opening and closing

The 40th edition of the Fnc kicks off on Wednesday, October 12, with Declaration of War by Valérie Donzelli (France) at Cinéma Impérial (Centre Sandra & Leo Kolber, Salle Lucie & André Chagnon). This critically-acclaimed second feature by Valérie Donzelli (The Queen of Hearts) tells the love story of Roméo and Juliette who are battling to save their sick child. The director and her producer Edouard Weil will be in attendance.

Ten days later, on Saturday, October 22, Monsieur Lazhar (Quebec/Canada) by Philippe Falardeau will close the Festival. Selected to represent Canada at the Oscars for Best Foreign Language Film, Monsieur Lahzar shows the efforts of an Algerian schoolteacher to help his Grade 6 students come to terms with their teacher’s death.

I will soon post a list of films I have already seen that I highly recommend as well as a list of my most anticipated films screening at this year’s Festival du Nouveau Cinema. For now here is the press release from the festival. Make sure you read carefully because there are a ton of great films to check out.

Montreal, Tuesday September 27, 2011– Montreal’s Festival du nouveau cinéma will be celebrating its 40th edition from October 12 to 23. For the past 40 years, Canada’s oldest film festival has offered film buffs a selection of the year’s most exciting new films — a bold lineup with plenty of whimsical and surprising elements, but one that also turns its lens on social realities and the evolution of film and new technologies. Over the course of this year’s 11-day Festival, audiences of all ages can take in features and shorts, fiction films and documentaries,...

Yesterday, the Harold Greenberg Fund revealed the identity of French Quebecker feature films that will get its financial backing.

Spirit Lake, novel by Sylvie Brien

Studio: Vent d’Est Films

Scriptwriter: Roger Cantin

Le troisième orchestre, roman de Sylvain Lelièvre

Demande déposée par Productions Vic Pelletier

Scriptwriters: Alain Chartrand et Patrick Lowe

L'ange gardien

Studio: Couzin Films

Scriptwriter and director: Jean-Sébastien Lord

Le jardin de cendres

Adapted from the novel The Ash Garden, by Dennis Bock

Studio: Productions Thalie

Scriptwriter and director: Diane Poitras

La mort raisonnable

Studio: Productions Par’Ici

Scriptwriter: Sébastien Gagné et Julier Gauthier

Director: Benoît Pilon

Sang d’encre

Studio: Les Productions Rivard

Scriptwriter and director: Pascal Boutroy

Les femmes de ma vie

Studio: Witness Productions

Scriptwriter and director: Carole Ducharme

La plus belle chose du monde

Studio: Les Productions Vic Pelletier

Scriptwriter and director: Fernand Dansereau...

The 16th annual Bradford International Film Festival, which will run March 18-28, is a total celebration of all forms of cinema, from classic films to modern world cinema to a tribute to Cinerama and more. But, most excitingly, is a bombastic collection of some of the best, most exciting underground films being made today.

From Bad Lit’s perspective, the most thrilling screening of the entire 10-day affair is the new film by British filmmaker Peter Whitehead, Terrorism Considered as One of the Fine Arts. In the U.S., Whitehead is a “lost” filmmaker from the underground’s heyday in the ’60s, being left out of most histories of the underground movement. Whitehead directed several influential films, including Wholly Communion and The Fall, before dropping out of filmmaking in the mid-’70s.

Film historian Jack Sargeant wrote extensively about and interviewed Whitehead for his wonderful book on Beat cinema, Naked Lens.

The Société de développement des entreprises culturelles (Sodec), Quebec's cultural sponsor for the film industry, announced the 12 lucky feature films that will be subsidized. Speaking of homegrown films, eight will be in French and one will be in English. The rest of the films are co-productions.

Homegrown films in French:

Bo$$É: Directed by Claude Desrosiers, this film is a satirical comedy about financial scandals seen through the eyes of a corrupt man, Bernard Bossé. The film will be scripted by André Ducharme, Luc Déry and Yves Lapierre. The film is produced by Les productions Équinoxe and will be distributed by Alliance Atlantis.

Décharge: A criminal who found redemption randomly meets a prostitute. However, the meeting, brings back in the criminal things from his past. Written by Benoît Pilon and Pierre Szalowski. Directed by Benoît Pilon (Ce qu'il faut pour vivre). Produced by Forum Films and distributed by Remstar Distribution.

A record 67 countries have submitted films for consideration for best foreign-language film for the 81st Academy Awards, Academy president Sid Ganis said Friday. Nominations will be announced on Thursday, Jan. 22, and the awards will be presented on Sunday, Feb. 22.

The complete list of foreign-language submissions follows. For more details on some of the films, visit THR.com/foreignoscars.

Afghanistan, "Opium War," Siddiq Barmak

Albania, "The Sorrow of Mrs. Schneider," Piro Milkani and Eno Milkani

Algeria, "Masquerades," Lyes Salem

Argentina, "Lion's Den," Pablo Trapero

Austria, "Revanche," Gotz Spielmann

Azerbaijan, "Fortress," Shamil Nacafzada

Bangladesh, "Aha!," Enamul Karim Nirjhar

Belgium, "Eldorado," Bouli Lanners

Bosnia and Herzegovina, "Snow," Aida Begic

Brazil, "Last Stop 174," Bruno Barreto

Bulgaria, "Zift," Javor Gardev

Canada, "The Necessities of Life," Benoit Pilon

Chile, "Tony Manero," Pablo Larrain

China, "Dream Weavers," Jun Gu

Colombia, "Dog Eat Dog," Carlos Moreno

Croatia, "No One's Son," Arsen Anton Ostojic

Czech Republic, "The Karamazovs," Petr Zelenka

Denmark,...

Yojiro Takita’s “Okuribito” (Departures) won top honors at the 2008 edition of the Montreal World Film Festival, taking home the grand prize of the Americas.

Starring Masahiro Motoki, Ryoko Hirosue, the drama focuses on a cellist who loses his job and decides to move back to his hometown, where he starts to work as the local undertaker.

Meanwhile, the jury awarded its special prize to Benoît Pilon’s Canadian drama “Ce qu’il faut pour vivre” (The Necessities of Life), about an Inuit hunter who forms a special bond with a youngster while he’s being treated for tuberculosis at a sanatorium in Quebec.