Telefilm Canada announces its support for the production of eight English- and French-language feature films from all regions of the country through the Canada Feature Film Fund. The total amount granted to produce the projects retained, for the third quarter of 2024-2013, is $6.2 million.
"The quarter will be marked by a varied portfolio of projects and talents, including, notably, Trailer Park Boys III; a big-screen adaptation of Amélie Nothomb's best-selling book, Ni d'Ève, ni d'Adam; and starring roles for such talented Canadian actors as François Arnaud, Guylaine Tremblay and Emily Hampshire," said Carolle Brabant, Executive Director of Telefilm Canada. "We also had the opportunity to collaborate with renowned production houses like Item 7, which was recently at the Oscars with its film War Witch, and finance two minority coproductions with Belgium."
Atlantic Region
Trailer Park Boys III
Director and writer: Mike Clattenburg
Production: Trailer Park Productions
Distribution: Alliance Films Confirmed actors: Robb Wells, John Paul Tremblay, Mike Smith, John Dunsworth and Jonathan Torrens
Trailer Park Boys is about love, friends and family, or perhaps all that can go wrong with love, friends and family. At the centre of Trailer Park Boys are Ricky, Julian and Bubbles, three guys whose lives were shaped by their experiences growing up in the Trailer Park. The Boys have had their share of trouble with the law and with life. Much of their adult life has been spent behind bars of one kind or another. The boys try throughout the series to do the right thing, but the right thing rarely presents itself.
Quebec Region
La Garde
Director: Sylvain Archambault
Writers: Ian Lauzon, Daniel Diaz and Ludovic Huot
Production: Cité-Amérique
Distribution: Les Films Christal
Confirmed actors: Antoine L'Écuyer and Paul Doucet
A 45-year-old father, who lost the right to see his 14-year-old son five years ago, abducts the boy so that he can take him hunting. The son is terrified of his father, but manages to get hold of the rifle during the hunting outing and shoot him. The father is seriously injured. The boy must now, following the instructions of his father (who is an ambulance attendant), learn to disinfect a wound, build a stretcher and find the strength to transport a man over two kilometres in the forest.
Meetings with a Young Poet
Director and writer: Rudy Barichello
Production: Item 7
Distribution: TVA Films
Confirmed actors: Stephen McHattie, Maria de Medeiros and Vincent Hoss-Desmarais
A young poet, Paul Susser, meets his master, the great author Samuel Beckett, in a small café. The two men initiate a complex friendship that spans the last two decades of Beckett's life and forever changes Paul's future. Later in life, he meets an actress who wants to play, Krapp, one of Beckett's latest male characters. Only by opening himself up to this woman will he become to truly grasp Beckett's elusive character. This feature-length fiction allows for the first time ever a glimpse into the Nobel Prize winner's work and life. It is a surprisingly fresh and intimate portrait which follows the crisscrossed destinies of two creators attempting to say the unsayable. A study in humanity, poetry, and the process of creation.
Morrocan Gigolos
Belgium-Canada coproduction (minority Canadian)
Director and writer: Ismael Saidi
Production: Frakas Productions, Boréal Films and Savage Film
Distribution: Filmoption International
Confirmed actors: François Arnaud, Eddy King, Guylaine Tremblay and Reda Chebchoubi
Dreaming of opening a snack bar in downtown Brussels, Samir, Dédé and Nicolas, three childhood friends with active imaginations, are prepared to do whatever it takes to find the cash to make their dream come true. Tired of working for peanuts in their go-nowhere jobs, they decide to transform themselves into high-priced escorts called the "Morrocan Gigolos." Life soon becomes good for our sympathetic trio, but quickly descends into a real race against time…
Rhymes for Young Ghouls
Director and writer: Jeff Barnaby
Prospector Films with the support of CFC Features
Distribution: Seville Pictures and Entertainment One
Confirmed actors: Kawennahere Devery Jacobs, Glenn Gould and Brandon Oakes
Rhymes for Young Ghouls tells the story of Aila, a 14-year-old Mi'gMaq girl who has been rendered parentless by the suicide of her mother and imprisonment of her father Joseph. Aila's been left to the pathological parenting of her drug addled, dope-slinging uncle Burner, who's raised her to become the weed princess of Red Crow. When Joseph is released from prison, he's determined to right past wrongs. But he faces a brother who doesn't want him upsetting the drug trade, a daughter who doesn't need him, and Popper, a psychotic Indian Agent who wants him back in prison or dead. In a bid to restore order on the reserve, AILA hatches a plot to rob Popper blind and get her revenge.
Tokyo Fiancee
Belgium-Canada coproduction (minority Canadian)
Director and writer: Stefan Liberski
Production: Versus Productions (Belgium) and Forum Films 2024 (Canada)
Distribution: Axia Films
Confirmed actors: Pauline Étienne
Adapted from the book Ni d'Ève ni d'Adam by Amélie Nothomb
A 20-year-old Belgian woman comes back to Japan where she spent her early childhood. Upon her arrival in Tokyo, she starts to give private French lessons. Her first student, Rinri, will become her lover. He will show her the undiscovered Japan, the real and colorful country miles away from postcards. She revels in this adventure where eroticism and Japanese gastronomy are interlaced. Meanwhile, Rinri is falling in love and wants to marry her. Troubled, she remains evasive, and does not know what to do. Her heart swings between yes and no, Japan and Europe, adolescence and adulthood. Then turmoil comes in the face of the Fukushima catastrophe. Rinri pleads for her to leave Japan for the safety of Europe. In a heart-rending reversal, the disaster will show her what she was blind to: the love she had for this young man.
Ontario and Nunavut Region
Baby How'd We Ever Get This Way
Director: Bruce McDonald
Writer: Maxwell McCabe-Lokos
Production: Phenomenal Films and Scythia Films
Confirmed actors: Maxwell McCabe-Lokos, August Diehl, Sarah Allen and Jodi Balfour
With his wife Alyssa behind bars for having sex with an underage student, 30-something Henry is left raising their 16-month old son alone. Feeling the world is laughing at him, Henry decides he's going to take control and reclaim his manhood. After a chance encounter, Henry begins to obsess over Colin, the cuckolding teen. His visits to Alyssa swing from manic to angry as he struggles with her crime - he stills loves her, but can he forgive her? With Alyssa's release from prison looming, Henry must figure out how to hold his head high in order to save his family.
Western Region
That Burning Feeling
Director: Jason James
Writer: Nicolas Citton
Production: Burning Pictures
Confirmed actors: Paulo Costanzo, Ingrid Haas, Emily Hampshire, Tyler Labine and John Cho
That Burning Feeling is a romantic comedy about the least romantic thing possible... Adam Murphy - a real estate hotshot and confirmed bachelor - feels the burn of failed love(s), when a social disease takes him face-to-face with a handful of one-night stands, revealing the shortcomings of his own image.