October 13, 2026 – Montreal – National Film Board of Canada (NFB)

Now available to stream free of charge worldwide on NFB platforms, including the National Film Board of Canada’s YouTube channel, Bread Will Walk is a timely social satire and absurd dark comedy from Montreal animator and filmmaker Alex Boya, in which a devoted sister flees with her brother, a benevolent bread-turned zombie pursued by a hungry mob. Designed as a continuous shot, this frenetic, surrealist satire of our dehumanizing society features acclaimed Canadian actor and filmmaker Jay Baruchel voicing all the characters in the original English version.

With more than 50 festival selections, including a world premiere in the Directors’ Fortnight section at Cannes in 2025, Bread Will Walk is produced for the NFB by Jelena Popović, a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

This award-winning short has screened extensively on the international festival circuit at leading events such as Annecy, Animafest Zagreb, the Ottawa International Animation Festival, Raindance and the Festival du nouveau cinéma. Honours to date include:

• Best International Experimental Short, Los Angeles Animation Festival;
• DNP Award, New Chitose Airport International Animation Festival, Hokkaido, Japan;
• Best Short with Environmental Themes (ex aequo), VIEW Conference, Torino, Italy;
• Canadian Screen Awards nominee, Best Animated Short.

About the film

Bread Will Walk by Alex Boya (11 min 18 s)

Press kit: mediaspace.nfb.ca/epk/bread-will-walk

• A devoted sister flees with her brother, a benevolent, bread-turned zombie. A mob pursues, mouths agape. Streets twist into mazes, reason dissolves, hunger reigns. Can love defy appetite?
• The sound design is by Olivier Calvert and the score was composed by Martin Floyd Cesar.
• To learn more about the film, readers are invited to explore Bread Will Walk: The “Baking-of,” which offers just a taste of the unique recipe that Boya and the NFB team cooked up to give his latest creation its unmistakable flavour.
• Following the film’s 2025 award for Best Short with Environmental Themes in Torino, producer Jelena Popović and filmmaker Alex Boya will join global industry leaders at VIEW Conference 2026 for The Baking-of Bread Will Walk: Inside the NFB’s Animation Laboratory, a panel discussion offering a behind-the-scenes case study on October 13.

About Alex Boya

• Alex Boya graduated from the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema at Concordia University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) in Film Production. The Bulgarian-born Montreal animator and filmmaker is known for his surreal, hand-drawn storytelling. His films with the NFB include Focus (2014) and Turbine (2018), both of which earned Special Mentions at the Ottawa International Animation Festival, with Turbine also winning Best Animation Short at NYC Shorts. Bread Will Walk sees him continue to craft worlds where poetry, technology and absurdity intertwine.
• Boya is also very active on the animation scene, taking part in conferences and other events. He has grown a sizeable community of social media followers who eagerly keep up with his works as they are made.

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Media Relations

Nadine Viau
NFB Publicist
C. : 514-458-9745
n.viau@nfb.ca | @Nadine Viau | Linkedin | Instagram | Blusky

Magalie Boutin
Director, Communications, Public and Cultural Relations, NFB
C.: 514-233-8646
m.boutin@nfb.ca | @NFB_Magalie

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