2 Canadian shorts to screen in International Critics' Week

A couple of Canadian short films have been selected for International Critics' Week, a parallel program of the Cannes Film Festival in France that taps emerging talent.

Next Floor, directed by Denis Villeneuve, is in competition in the short film category, and Ondée, written and directed by David Coquard-Dassault, has a special screening out of competition.

Villeneuve, whose 2000 feature film Maelstrom screened at more than 40 film festivals, including Toronto and Sundance, is also director of Polytechnique, the film about the 1989 Montreal massacre to be released in 2009.

His short Next Floor is set in a grotesque universe in which an unexpected sequence of events interrupts an opulent banquet.

L'Ondée is an animated film co-produced by Pascal Le Nôtre of France's Folimage and René Chénier of the National Film Board.

The six-minute film is about a man and woman recalling the beginning of their family life together, including the arrival of their daughter, at a time when the man is losing his ability to see because of an accident.

International Critics' Week is showcasing five features and five short and medium-length films, selected from among hundreds of entries.

The program, running parallel to the prestigious Cannes Film Festival, highlights first and second features by promising directors, including some such as Ken Loach, Wong Kar Wai and François Ozon who have gone on to greater recognition at Cannes.

Multi-award-winning animated Canadian short Madame Tutli-Putli was selected for International Critics' Week last year.

Canadian co-production Blindness, written by Don McKellar, and Adoration, a film shot in Toronto by Canadian director Atom Egoyan, have been selected for the official Cannes competition.

In addition, Telefilm, the Canadian film funding and promotional agency is highlighting eight recent works by Canadian filmmakers at its Perspectives Canada showcase at Cannes.

They are:

• Borderline, directed by Lyne Charlebois.
• Down to the Dirt, directed by Justin Simms.
• Everything is Fine (Tout est parfait), directed by Yves-Christian Fournier.
• Finn on the Fly, directed by Mark Jean.
• A No-Hit No-Run Summer (Un Été sans point ni coup sûr), directed by Francis Leclerc.
• Saving Luna, directed by Suzanne Chisholm and Michael Parfit.
• Sheltered Life, directed by Carl Laudan.
• Surviving My Mother, directed by Émile Gaudreault.

The Cannes Film Festival runs May 14-25 and International Critics' Week runs May 15-23 in Cannes, France.