October 24, 2023 – Moncton – National Film Board of Canada (NFB)

The NFB is back at the Festival international du cinéma francophone en Acadie (FICFA), which takes place from November 16–24, 2023, in Moncton, with Janet Perlman’s animated short La fille au béret rouge (The Girl with the Red Beret): an ode to Montreal with plenty of humour and good cheer, set to Kate and Anna McGarrigle’s timeless hit, “Complainte pour Ste-Catherine.”

About the film

La fille au béret rouge (The Girl with the Red Beret) by Janet Perlman (5 min 35 s)
Producer: Marc Bertrand for the NFB’s French Program Animation Studio
Press kit: mediaspace.nfb.ca/epk/beret

• A girl takes a wild ride on the metro in Montreal. Travelling from station to station, she encounters an array of colourful characters—including Céline Dion, Leonard Cohen and Maurice Richard!—in a bizarre musical journey that’s peppered with hilarious and unexpected incidents. This joyful, heartwarming animated film portrays Montreal in all its vitality, creativity and diversity, to the tune of Kate and Anna McGarrigle’s “Complainte pour Ste-Catherine.”
• The film had its world premiere at the Sommets du cinéma d’animation in Montreal and has screened at a number of festivals worldwide. It received an honourable mention – DGC Award for Best Canadian Animation at the Ottawa International Animation Festival.

• The short features the voices of Kate and Anna McGarrigle, Lily Lanken and Martha Wainwright. Judith Gruber-Stitzer adapted the music and created the sound design.

About the filmmaker

• Montreal-born Janet Perlman is a director of short and funny animated films. She was 22 when she completed Lady Fishbourne’s Guide to Better Table Manners (1976) at the NFB. She then made Why Me? (1978) with Derek Lamb. With her sophisticated, absurdist humour she has carved out a unique niche. Her film The Tender Tale of Cinderella Penguin(1981) earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Short Film. Perlman is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. She directed Penguins Behind Bars (2003) for Hulascope Studio, which she co-founded with Judith Gruber-Stitzer. For the NFB she examined conflict resolution in Dinner for Two (1996) and Bully Dance (2000). After Invasion of the Space Lobsters (2005) and Monsieur Pug (2014), she made The Girl with the Red Beret (2023).

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French version here | Version en anglais ici.