
February 19, 2026 – Montreal – National Film Board of Canada (NFB)
The National Film Board of Canada returns to the International Festival of Films on Art (FIFA) with two titles in competition, both screening with the filmmakers in attendance. Though they come at the topic from different angles, both films highlight the importance of art in making sense of the world.
- Blending documentary and visual art, this radical film dives deep into Western society, steeped in crisis and captive to the excesses of capitalism but still not lacking in collective solutions, which are revealed by philosopher Alain Deneault.
- Wanda Nolan’s short doc The Muse will have its Quebec premiere:
- Take a road trip across Newfoundland with photographer Ting Ting Chen and her 74-year-old muse, Robert Tilley, as they explore aging, memory, identity and the power of creative connections.
FIFA 2026 runs from March 12 to 22 in venues in Montreal and Quebec City, and online on the ARTS.FILM platform from March 20 through 29.
Quick Facts
National feature competition
Plus rien n’est égal par ailleurs (All Things Are No Longer Equal) by Martin Bureau (66 min) – WORLD PREMIERE
Produced by Nathalie Cloutier for the NFB
Press kit: mediaspace.nfb.ca/all-things
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- In Montreal: Wednesday, March 18, at 7:30 p.m. at the NFB’s Alanis Obomsawin Theatre, with the filmmaker and Alain Deneault in attendance.
- In Quebec City: Saturday, March 21, at 3:10 p.m. at Musée National des Beaux-Arts du Québec, with the filmmaker and Alain Deneault in attendance.
- Blending video art, documentary and music video, Plus rien n’est égal par ailleurs explores the abuses of Western society, at once ravaged by late-stage capitalism and unable to free itself from it. A visceral image and sound experience, it juxtaposes an aesthetic of excess and domination with the measured critical commentary of philosopher Alain Deneault, calling for reinvented forms of collective and territorial solidarity.
- The creative team includes Érick d’Orion, who composed the score, and Émile Bureau as cinematographer and editor. Sound design is by Olivier Calvert, who was on Sylvain Bellemare’s team for the Denis Villeneuve film Arrival, winner of the 2017 Oscar for Sound Editing.
- Quebec filmmaker and painter Martin Bureau was born in Saint-Ubalde, grew up in Saint-Félicien and now lives and works in Quebec City. He has developed a multidisciplinary art practice that combines documentary film, painting and video installations. His films, including the feature Playa Coloniale (2012), co-directed with Luc Renaud, and the shorts Hell Runs on Gasoline! (Spirafilm/NFB, 2015) and Bonfires (2017), have been screened at over a hundred festivals in Canada and internationally, earning multiple nominations and awards.
National short film competition
The Muse by Wanda Nolan (18 min) – QUEBEC PREMIERE
Produced by Liz Cowie and Rohan Fernando for the NFB
Press kit: mediaspace.nfb.ca/epk/the-muse
- FIFA screening (version with French subtitles):
Montreal: Saturday, March 21, at 7 p.m., room H110, Henry F. Hall Building, Concordia University, with the filmmaker in attendance.
- When Robert Tilley agreed to take photographer Ting Ting Chen on a road trip across Newfoundland, neither could have predicted the deep, cross-generational friendship that would blossom between them, nor how Robert’s role in Ting Ting’s art would challenge traditional ideas of the artist-muse relationship.
- Wanda Nolan is a writer, story consultant and filmmaker based in St. John’s, Newfoundland. Her credits include the award-winning 2016 NFB animated short, The Mystery of the Secret Room, and the feature screenplay The Magic of Boxer Connors, which was selected for Telefilm’s Inspired Script program.
Free screening
In collaboration with FIFA, the Rendez-vous de la Francophonie and the NFB, Christine Chevarie-Lessard’s feature doc A Delicate Balance (2018, 76 min) will be screening free of charge on Thursday, March 19, at 7 p.m., as part of the Hello Film! series at the Alanis Obomsawin Theatre. Reserve your spot here.
FIFA Connexions at the NFB in Montreal
On March 16, 17 and 18, some events in the festival’s industry component, FIFA Connexions, will be held at the NFB Space and the Alanis Obomsawin Theatre. Details here.
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Version française ici.