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My Salinger Year

Quebec’s Philippe Falardeau will unleash his highest profile project to date next year with My Salinger Year, an adaptation of Joanna Rakoff’s 2014 memoir. Sigourney Weaver and Margaret Qualley headline, while Douglas Booth, Colm Feore and Théodore Pellerin are among the supporting cast members. Lensed by Sara Mishara (of Maxime Giroux’s Felix & Meira and The Great Darkened Days), the project was produced by micro_scope’s Luc Dery and Kim McCraw with Ruth Coady and Susan Mullen. Falardeau’s breakout was 2011’s Monsieur Lazhar, which premiered in Locarno and went on to nab an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Film.…...

Los Cabos, Mexico — Ringing its options as one of Canada’s most internationally-minded companies, Yanick Letourneau’s Quebec-based Périphéria has boarded “Viaje al País de los Tarahumaras” and English-language “In Cold Light.”

Directed by Federico Cecchetti, “Viaje,” which won the best pitch Talent On The Road Award at Los Cabos Film Festival on Saturday, is set up at Edher Campos’ Mexico-City based Machete Producciones, and co-produced by Périphéria and Thierry Lenouvel’s Paris-based Ciné-Sud Promotion.

Mike MacMillan’s Toronto-based Lithium Studios is producing “In Cold Light” with Périphéria and “I Am Not a Witch’s” Emily Morgan, at London-based Quiggety Productions.

“Viaje” is Périphéria’s second co-production with Machete, after “V-500,”a three-part take on migration and transformation in Canada, Mexico and Colombia which Périphéria majority-produced, with Machete as its Mexican partner.

For Périphéria, and indeed Giroux, “In Cold Light” marks a move toward the mainstream in a broader audience movie.

What exactly is The Great Darkened Days (La Grande Noirceur)? Is it a minimalist Western? A pared-down period piece? An anti-war diatribe? A twisted Lynchian voyage through American abandon?

Actually, this fourth feature from Quebecois writer-director Maxime Giroux is all of these rolled into one, and then some. Hard to define — and at times, to follow — yet intoxicatingly made and extremely easy on the eyes, this story of a Canadian hobo wandering the far west as war wages on in Europe offers up rewards for those willing to hang on through the last, beautifully realized shot. Premiering in Toronto, the ...

Other titles on slate include Firecrackers, and Toronto world premiere The Death And Life Of John F. Donovan.

Anick Poirier’s Montreal-based Seville International arrives in Toronto with a sales roster comprising the previously unannounced The Great Darkened Days and Broken Mirrors, as well as Firecrackers, and Toronto world premiere The Death And Life Of John F. Donovan.

The world premiere of Maxime Giroux’s The Great Darkened Days receives its first public screening on September 10 and hails from the director of former Canadian Oscar submission Felix And Meira. The P+I screening is set for September 8.

Martin Dubreuil, Sara Gadon,...

Exclusive: Here’s the first trailer for Maxime Giroux’s Tiff-bound absurdist allegory The Great Darkened Days, starring Martin Dubreuil, Romain Duris, Reda Kateb and Sarah Gadon.

Seville International is selling the drama, which follows a draft-dodger from Quebec who during a world war takes refuge in the American West, surviving by competing in Charlie Chaplin impersonation contests. On his long journey home, he encounters various characters under the sway of a fascist leader.

Metafilms’ Sylvain Corbeil and Nancy Grant produced the pic. Grant is also at Tiff with Xavier Dolan’s The Death And Life Of John F. Donovan. Giroux’s well-traveled previous film Felix & Meira won Toronto’s Best Canadian Feature Film Award in 2014 and scored five Canadian Screen Award nominations.

Emerging Producer Award renamed Kevin Tierney Emerging Producer Award.

The Canadian Media Producers Association (Cmpa) on Tuesday (August 21) announced the nominees for the 2018 Indiescreen Awards, which will kick off the Tiff Industry Conference on September 6.

The Cmpa, which represents the country’s independent producers, also announced that its Emerging Producer Award will be renamed the Kevin Tierney Emerging Producer Award in honour of the producer of Bon Cop Bad Cop and The Trotsky who died last spring.

“This year’s Indiescreen Awards nominees have each made important contributions to the rich fabric of our national cinematic tapestry,” said Cmpa president and CEO Reynolds Mastin.

The Toronto Intl. Film Festival has added Denys Arcand’s crime thriller “The Fall of the American Empire” and 18 other Canadian films to its lineup.

Nine of the films are directed by women and 14 are world premieres.

“We’re especially proud to present such a diverse group of films,” said Steve Gravestock, senior programmer. “Ranging from science fiction to fantasy, myth to documentary, and romance to a dystopic vision of our neighbours to the south, this year’s Canadian films come from every region in the country, stretching from east to west and north to south.”

“The Fall of the American Empire” stars Alexandre Landry, Maxim Roy, Yan England, and Rémy Girard and centers Landry’s character discovering two bags of money and facing a moral dilemma. Arcand was inspired to make the film after learning about the 2010 murder of two people in a Montreal boutique.

Sony Classics bought the...

The Toronto International Film Festival​ has added another 19 new titles to its 2018 festival lineup, comprised entirely of features directed by Canadian filmmakers. Each year, Tiff highlights the films that hail from its own shores in a standalone announcement, and this year it includes nine new films from female directors, six debut features, a number of titles from fixtures of the Canadian film scene, and the world premiere of three films that showcase some of the country’s Indigenous talent.

The festival will also play home to a special event world premiere and tribute dedicated to the late filmmaker and conservationist Rob Stewart, centered around his final film, “Sharkwater Extinction.” Stewart passed away in 2017 while working on the film, a followup to his 2006 documentary “Sharkwater.”

“We’re especially proud to present such a diverse group of films,” said Steve Gravestock, Tiff Senior Programmer, in an official statement. “Ranging from science fiction to fantasy,...

New films from Canadian filmmakers Denys Arcand, Maxime Giroux, Jennifer Baichwal and Bruce Sweeney have been added to 2018 Toronto International Film Festival lineup, which announced its slate of Canadian films on Wednesday.

Nine of the films are directed by women, fsix are debut features and 14 are world premieres.

Canadian features will include Arcand’s “The Fall of the American Empire,” Giroux’s “The Great Darkened Days” and Sweeney’s “Kingsway.”

Also Read: 'Beautiful Boy,' 'A Star Is Born' Highlight Toronto Film Festival Lineup

The Canadian documentaries include Baichwal, Nicholas de Pencier and Edward Burtynsky’s “Anthropocene,” Ron Mann’s “Carmine Street Guitars” and Thom Fitzgerald’s “Splinters.”

Three of the films – Gwaii Edenshaw and Helen Haig-Brown’s “Edge of the Knife,” Darlene Naponse’s “Falls Around Her” and Miranda de Pencier’s “The Grizzlies” – feature indigenous talent.

A special event will screen the documentary “Sharkwater Extinction,...