FOCUS COMPETITION 2015

The 12 films in the running for the Grand Prix Focus presented by Air France are:

Les Êtres chers (Quebec/Canada) by Anne Émond (here making its Québec premiere after its world premiere at Locarno in August), starring Maxim Gaudette and Karelle Tremblay as a father and daughter followed over a 20-year period;

Anna (Quebec/Canada) by Charles-Olivier Michaud (with Anna Mouglalis, Pierre-Yves Cardinal and Pascale Bussières), the story of a kidnapped photojournalist who endures the same abuse as the young Asian women she’s been photographing;

the tragicomic fantasy Le coeur de madame Sabali (Quebec/Canada) by Ryan McKenna and starring Marie Brassard as Jeannette, who receives a heart transplant from a savagely murdered Malian woman;

Michael Rowe’s exploration of what it means to be a couple in 2015, Early Winter (Canada/Australia), starring Paul Doucet and Suzanne Clément;

Fatima (France/Canada) by Philippe Faucon, an account of the day-to-day life of a Moroccan immigrant woman trying to assimilate French cultural codes and values;

How Heavy This Hammer (Canada) by Kazik Radwanski, which follows Erwin, a man-child living in the world of online role-playing games;

Ninth Floor (Canada) by Mina Shum, a feature documentary about a demonstration — the largest in the history of Canada — that took place at Sir George Williams University (later a campus of Concordia University);

Patch Adams, grand rectum de l’Université de Foulosophie (Quebec/Canada) by François Gourd and Mélanie Ladouceur, a tribute to doctor/clown Patch Adams;

The Sandwich Nazi (Lebanon/Canada) by Lewis Bennett, an account of an art collector and former gigolo who hands out sandwiches to the homeless in a low-income Vancouver neighbourhood;

Sleeping Giant (Canada) by Andrew Cividino, about the summer vacation of a teenage boy living with a painful secret;

Transfixed (USA/Canada) by Alon Kol, a documentary about the life of a transgender couple with Asperger’s syndrome;

Yo (Mexico/Canada/Switzerland/Holland/Rep Dom) an adaptation of Nobel Prize in Literature winner J.M.G. Le Clézio’s by Matias Meyer.

Seven films will also be screened out of competition: Chienne de vie (Quebec/Canada) by Hélène Choquette; Le garagiste (Quebec/Canada) by Renée Beaulieu starring Normand d’Amours and Louise Portal; The Randy & Evi Quaid Compilation (Quebec/Canada) by Mathieu Grondin; The Lion’s Path (Quebec/Canada) by Stéphan Beaudoin with Sébastien Delorme; The Saver (Canada) by Wiebke von Carolsfeld, Born to be Blue (Canada/England) from Robert Budreau starring Ethan Hawke as Chet Baker and L’origine des espèces (Quebec/Canada) from Dominic Goyer with Marc Paquet et Elise Guilbeault. The 44th edition of the Festival du nouveau cinéma runs from October 7 to 18, 2015, in Montreal.

The full lineup of the 44th Festival du nouveau cinéma will be announced at a press conference on Tuesday, September 29 at 11 a.m. at the Agora in UQÀM’s Cœur des sciences (175 av. Président-Kennedy, corner of Jeanne-Mance).