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Drunken Birds, the migrant drama from Serbian Canadian director Ivan Grbovic that had its world premiere in the Platform section at last month’s Toronto Film Festival, has been selected by Canada as the country’s entry into the 2022 International Feature Oscar race.

Written by Grbovic and Sara Mishara, the film (Les oiseaux ivres in French) centers on a quest for lost love that sends a man from Mexico to Canada, where he is hired as a seasonal worker. Fates intertwine, tensions grow, and moments of magical realism arise during the long workdays. Jorge Antonio Guerrero, Hélène Florent, Claude Legault, Marine Johnson, Maxime Dumontier, Amaryllis Tremblay, Karl Walcott, Yoshira Escárrega, Gilberto Barraza and Normand D’Amour star.

The film is produced by micro_scope and distributed by Les Films Opale. Wazabi Films is repping international sales. Drunken Birds was one of 10 films submitted to the pan-Canadian Oscar selection committee, Telefilm Canada said Monday.

Die-hard grunge fan (and drug dealer) Fred (Noah Parker) tells Catherine (Kelly Depeault) she can’t play her Hole CD because Courtney Love killed Kurt Cobain. It’s a remark that was probably half joke and half memorial that leads into Keven (Robin L’Houmeau) dropping the necessary wisdom of knowing Love wouldn’t have been able to stop him if she tried. Cobain wasn’t a victim. He lived hard and walked a road of his own making to an end he ultimately embraced enough to pull the trigger. It’s the same type of lives these Québécois teens lead—mescaline, sex, rock-n-roll, and rage. So when Catherine replies with an “I don’t care” after being confronted about her fast-moving downward spiral, she isn’t being flippant. She truly doesn’t. She’s embraced the risks.

This is the reality many coming-of-age films forget. You need the complexity of...

The nominations for the 26th Gémeaux Awards, Quebec's equivalent of the Emmy Awards, have been revealed today.

1. Best dramatic TV series:

* 19-2.

* Les rescapés.

* Malenfant.

* Prozac, La Maladie Du Bonheur.

2. Best soap opera:

* Destinées.

* La promesse.

* Providence.

* Yamaska.

3. Best comedy series:

* La galère.

* Les Parent.

* Mauvais Karma.

* Penthouse 5-0.

* Tout sur moi.

4. Best actor in a dramatic TV series:

* Claude Legault in 19-2.

* Réal Bossé in 19-2.

* Roy Dupuis in Les rescapés.

* Luc Picard in Malenfant.

* Éric Bruneau in Toute la vérité.

5. Best actress in a dramatic TV series:

* Maude Guérin in Belle-Baie.

* Guylaine Tremblay in Les rescapés.

* Julie McClemens in Malenfant.

* Isabelle Blais in Prozac, la maladie du bonheur.

* Maude Guérin in Toute la vérité.

6. Best actor in a soap opera:

* Sébastien Delorme in La promesse.

* Bernard Fortin in Providence.

* Hugo Dubé in Providence.

* Normand d'Amour in Yamasca.

* Denis Bernard in Yamaska.

7. Best actress in a soap opera:

* Marie-Chantal Perron in Destinées.

Yesterday, Quebec celebrated the 25th anniversary of the Gémeaux Awards (Prix Gémeaux), the Quebecker equivalent of the Emmy Awards, but also revealed the best shows in different categories. Without further ado, the winners are:

Best dramatic series:

* Aveux.

Best game show:

* Le moment de vérité.

Best reality show:

* Rock n’Road II.

Best comedy series:

* Les Parent.

Best soap opera:

* Yamaska

Best humour show:

* Infoman

Best direction in a dramatic series:

* Aveux. (Claude Desrosiers).

Best direction in a comedy series:

* François Bouvier - Les hauts et les bas de Sophie Paquin

Best leading actress in a dramatic series:

* Laurence Leboeuf (Musée Eden).

Best leading actor in a dramatic series:

* Guy Nadon (Aveux).

Best supporting actor in a dramatic series:

* Guy Nadon - Musée Eden.

Best supporting actress in a dramatic series:

* Marie-Ginette Guay - Aveux.

Best leading actor in a comedy series:

* Patrick Huard - Taxi 0-22.

Best leading actress...

Tva, a French Canadian TV network, has announced that the first season of its soap opera Yamaska will come out on DVD on September 14.

Yamaska is the story of three families from Granby, Québec, suddenly thrown into darkness. A terrible accident will in fact transform forever the life of these four friends (François Arnaud, Adam Kosh, Pascal Darilus and Emile Mailhot) and of the people around them. In one single night, their destiny is changed forever…

This soap opera written by Anne Boyer and Michel d'Astous also stars Yan England, Denis Bernard, Michel Dumont, Chantal Fontaine, Sylvie De Morais-Nogueira, Roxanne Gaudette-Loiseau, Anne-Marie Cadieux, Normand d'Amour and Élise Guilbault.

Finally, the show will return this fall for a second season on Tva.

According to Amazon.fr, a website that allows you to buy DVD online, the Canadian thriller 5150, Rue des Ormes (5150 Elm's Way), an adaptation of Patrick Senécal's bestselling novel, will be released on DVD in France on September 21.

Here's the description of the synopsis taken from a review I wrote:

Yannick Bérubé (Marc-André Grondin) just got accepted at a cinema school. After he had moved in an appartment, he begins to film his first film project for school. While he was bycicling in a residential neighbourhood, Yannick falls of his bike. Because of the scratches on his hands and his elbow, he asks Jacques Beaulieu (Normand D'Amour), a cab driver who is not on a shift, to call a cab for him.

Since he has to wash the blood off his hands, Yannick does the mistake of entering Jacques's house. Furthermore, because he discovered an agonizing man kept in an empty room,...

Yesterday, the Quebecker section of the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television revealed its full list of nominees at the 2010 Gémeaux Awards, the Quebecker equivalent of the Emmy Awards. Moreover, the award ceremony will be held in September. The following is a list of nominees mostly related to the entertainment sector of Quebecker television.

Best dramatic series:

* Aveux.

* C.A.

* Le Gentleman.

* Mirador.

* Musée Eden.

Best game show:

* Bluff.

* L'union fait la force.

* Le cercle

* Le moment de vérité.

* Tous pour un.

Best reality show:

* En route vers mon premier gala.

* Loft Story 6 - La revanche.

* Ma maison Rona.

* Rock n’Road II.

* VJ recherché.

Best comedy series:

* La galère.

* Les hauts et les bas de Sophie Paquin.

* Les Parent.

* Rock et Rolland.

* Taxi 0-22.

Best soap opera:

* Destinées

* L'auberge du chien noir

* Providence

* Yamaska

Best humour show:

* 3600 secondes d'extase

* Comicographie

* Et Dieu créa... Laflaque

* Infoman

* Les appendices

Best direction in a dramatic series:

* Aveux.

5150 Elm's Way is a French language film that was shot in Saint-Hubert, Quebec and now the film is travelling to the sunnier shores of Newport, California. 5150 Elm's Way is a definitive horror film, as the innocent are tortured, dozens of captives are kept in a dank basement, and one man takes insanity, or religious fervor to ecstatic levels. This film will have one showing. Beginning at 2:30pm on Friday April 23, 5150 Elm's Way will be displayed and this film will likely be the shocker of the festival. Canadian filmmakers will show off their penchant for horror cinema and your attendance, or thoughts on the film would be welcomed. A trailer and further details are below.

The plot line for 5150 Elm's Way aka 5150, Rue Des Ormes:

"At the end of a quiet street in a small town is 5150 Elms Way. Yannick knocks on the door of a house after falling off his bike,...

Don't miscontrue my words: I'm a total fan of Patrick Senécal's novels and I own all of them. However, the mention of Éric Tessier, the director who slaughtered Sur le seuil, in the credit left me icy. Honestly, 5150, Rue des Ormes sure has its strong moments, but it remains an entertaining film at most.

Yannick Bérubé (Marc-André Grondin) just got accepted at a cinema school. After he had moved in an appartment, he begins to film his first film project for school. While he was bycicling in a residential neighbourhood, Yannick falls of his bike. Because of the scratches on his hands and his elbow, he asks Jacques Beaulieu (Normand D'Amour), a cab driver who is not on a shift, to call a cab for him.

Since he has to wash the blood off his hands, Yannick does the mistake of entering Jacques's house. Furthermore, because he discovered an...

Year: 2009

Directors: Éric Tessier

Writers: Patrick Senécal

IMDb: link

Trailer: link

Review by: projectcyclops

Rating: 8 out of 10

[Editor's note: This is some holdover coverage from the Leeds International Film Festival]

I don't think I expected to like 5150 Elm's Way all that much, so it came as a very welcome surprise that it is in fact, an incredibly well directed and acted thriller that blew me away. The story is deceptively simple: Film student Yannick is making a documentary about his new neighbourhood when a black cat causes him to crash his bike. Knocking on the door of local taxi driver Jacques, he wanders into the house at 5150 Elm's Way, a place you really don't want to go snooping about. It seems that the fanatical Christian and part-time vigilante Jacques was in the middle of teaching the local drug dealer a lesson when Yannick interrupted them, and now Yannick faces kidnapping in order to protect Jacques' secret hobby. As Jacques and his family try to continue a normal routine,...

The Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television (Acct) have announced the nominees for the 29th Annual Genie Awards. Leading the pack for the awards honoring the best in Canadian film was "The Necessities of Life". The movie about an Inuit hunter stranded in a Quebec hospital collected eight gongs, including best picture, best director for Benoit Pilon and best original screenplay for Bernard Emond.

In the category of best pictures, Pilon's film will be up against "Amal", "Normal", "Passchendaele" and "Everything Is Fine". Meanwhile, for the best original screenplay title, it placed Bernard Emond in competition with Deepa Mehta of "Heaven on Earth", Travis McDonald of "Normal", Randall Cole of "Real Time" and Guillaume Vigneault of "Everything Is Fine".

While "The Necessities of Life" took the most nominations, "Fugitive Pieces", the Samuel Goldwyn Films drama based on best-selling novel by Canadian poet Anne Michaels grabbed six nods. Some of the...