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The NFB at the 2025 Festival du nouveau cinéma. Alex Boya’s animated short Bread Will Walk (Le pain se lève) making its Quebec premiere in competition.

PRESS RELEASE
23/09/2025

September 23, 2025 – Montreal – National Film Board of Canada (NFB)

The National Film Board of Canada returns to Montreal’s Festival du nouveau cinéma (FNC) with Bread Will Walk (Le pain se lève), directed by Bulgarian-born Montreal filmmaker Alex Boya, presented in competition and as a Quebec premiere. Local audiences will at last have the chance to view this darkly delicious slice of satire on the big screen, following its screenings at the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight and Annecy International Animation Film Festival. Actor Jay Baruchel lends his voice to all the characters in the original English version, which will be shown at the FNC with French subtitles.

The festival will also feature special screenings of Virginia Tangvald’s Les enfants du large (Ghosts of the Sea, micro_scope / NFB / Urban Factory), screening with closed captions for hearing-impaired people, and the NFB classics Le chat dans le sac (The Cat in the Bag, 1964) by Gilles Groulx and Mon amie Pierrette (1968) by Jean-Pierre Lefebvre, in the Histoire(s) du cinéma section.

The 54th FNC takes place in Montreal from October 8 to 19, 2025.

Les nouveaux alchimistes Short Film Competition 

Bread Will Walk (Le pain se lève) d’Alex Boya (NFB, 11 min 17 s) – QUEBEC PREMIERE
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?
  • This frenetic, surrealist satire, designed as a continuous shot, was born of director Alex Boya’s reflection on overconsumption and its dehumanizing effects. Subverting the symbolism of bread, Boya created a parable in which a staple food becomes propaganda, and love tries to defy hunger.

Accessible screenings

Les enfants du large (Ghosts of the Sea) by Virginia Tangvald (micro_scope/NFB/Urban Factory, 97 min)
Press kit: mediaspace.nfb.ca/epk/ghosts-of-the-sea
Schedule: Saturday, October 18, 10:30 a.m., NFB’s Alanis Obomsawin Theatre – with closed captions for hearing-impaired people

  • While searching for clues about the death of her brother Thomas, who was lost at sea, the filmmaker embarks on a fascinating investigation into her family’s dark secrets. Calling into question the idyllic life of her father, legendary sailor Peter Tangvald, her quest dismantles the myth of absolute freedom.
  • The film won the TV5 Audience Award at the 2024 FNC. 

Histoire(s) du cinéma

Le chat dans le sac (The Cat in the Bag) by Gilles Groulx (NFB, 1964, 73 min)
Presented as part of a tribute to Barbara Ulrich

A seminal work of Quebec cinema, starring Claude Godbout and Barbara Ulrich, with music by John Coltrane.

Mon amie Pierrette by Jean-Pierre Lefebvre (NFB, 1968, 68 min)
Presented as part of a tribute to the filmmaker 

A remarkable work by a major filmmaker, the film features the debut of a key figure in the performing arts in Quebec, Raoul Duguay.

Special Presentation

Écothérapie: journal d’un cataclysme by Cédric Chabuel (Radio-Canada OHdio)
Presented by Radio-Canada in collaboration with the NFB
Schedule: Friday, October 10, 7:30 p.m., NFB’s Alanis Obomsawin Theatre

  • The immersive audio fiction work Écothérapie will be presented as a group listening experience for the first time. Radio-Canada called on experts at the NFB for the mastering in Dolby ATMOS theatrical. In French.
  • Preceded by the animated short Marche-dans-la-forêt (Walk-in-the-Forest) by Diane Obomsawin (NFB, 2009, 3 min).

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Version française ici.

Media Relations

  • About the NFB

    For more than 80 years, the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) has produced, distributed and preserved those stories, which now form a vast audiovisual collection—an important part of our cultural heritage that represents all Canadians.

    To tell these stories, the NFB works with filmmakers of all ages and backgrounds, from across the country. It harnesses their creativity to produce relevant and groundbreaking content for curious, engaged and diverse audiences. The NFB also collaborates with industry experts to foster innovation in every aspect of storytelling, from formats to distribution models.

    Every year, another 50 or so powerful new animated and documentary films are added to the NFB’s extensive collection of more than 14,000 titles, half of which are available to watch for free on nfb.ca.

    Through its mandate, its stature and its productions, the NFB contributes to Canada’s cultural identity and is helping to build the Canada of tomorrow.