May 7, 2025 – Montreal – National Film Board of Canada (NFB)
The NFB will be prominently featured at this year’s Sommets du cinéma d’animation, taking place May 26 to 31 at the Cinémathèque québécoise in Montreal. Highlights include an Artist’s Talk, a closing film and six short films in the festival’s Canadian Competition, spotlighting new voices in animation. Montreal audiences will be among the first to see Montreal-based filmmaker Martine Frossard’s Hypersensible (Hypersensitive), which will be shown a few days after its screening in Official Competition at the Cannes Film Festival. The Sommets will also feature the world premiere of Le bruit des choses qui brûlent (The Sounds of Things Ablaze), directed by Hayat Najm, with an original score by pianist Jean-Michel Blais.
The NFB at the 2025 Sommets
- Participation in the professional program: An Artist’s Talk with Eloi Champagne, the NFB’s Technical Director
- Event: A special screening of the cult film L’affaire Bronswik (The Bronswik Affair) by Robert Awad and André Leduc, with the filmmakers in attendance
- L’écran d’épingles: nouvelles avenues program, including three NFB productions made using the legendary pinscreen
- Free outdoor screening: Two NFB shorts screening as part of the Sommets à la belle étoile program
- Canadian Competition, professional category: Six short films selected – Le bruit des choses qui brûlent (The Sounds of Things Ablaze) by Hayat Najm, Hypersensible (Hypersensitive) by Martine Frossard, Inkwo for When the Starving Return by Amanda Strong, Imprint by Duncan Major, Hairy Legs by Andrea Dorfman and Samaa by Ehsan Gharib
Sommets x NFB Artist’s Talk: Eloi Champagne, Technical Director, NFB
Saturday, May 31, at 1:30 p.m., Fernand Seguin screening room
- What does a technical director actually do when it comes to animation? For this Artist’s Talk, Eloi Champagne will draw on his experience at the NFB to explore the unique ways in which technology and creativity intersect in the genre, using recent films he and his team have worked on as examples, such as Inkwo for When the Starving Return by Amanda Strong and Bread Will Walk by Alex Boya.
- Champagne will describe how specific artistic challenges have yielded innovative technical approaches and how technical problems have resulted in unexpected creative breakthroughs.
L’affaire Bronswik (The Bronswik Affair)
Wednesday, May 28, at 5 p.m., Norman McLaren screening room – free admission
- In today’s era of fake news and disinformation, Robert Awad and André Leduc’s The Bronswik Affair is as topical as ever, whether on a first or a repeat viewing. The screening will be attended by the filmmakers as well as Vincent Zikkar, the grandson of Antonio Zikkar, a victim of the Bronswik affair.
- With a deft blend of fiction and reality, this mockumentary is a harsh critique of the power of television advertising. It won nine Canadian and international awards and was selected for the short film competition at Cannes in 1978.
Closing Film
Pourquoi l’écran d’épingles? by Brice Vincent (a Bastille Films production, 2024, 55 min 46 s, distributed by the NFB in Canada and the United States)
Saturday, May 31, at 7:30 p.m., Main screening room
The pinscreen is an iconic device created in the 1930s to produce animated films. This film explores the painstaking act of creating by hand in an era when speedy digital technology dominates. Among the artists featured are NFB filmmakers Jacques Drouin, to whom the film is dedicated, and Michèle Lemieux.
L’écran d’épingles: nouvelles avenues program
Tuesday, May 27, at 8 :15 p.m., Fernand Seguin screening room (repeat screening on Thursday, May 29, at 8 p.m.)
Three NFB productions are part of this program:
Les Sommets à la belle étoile – Free outdoor screening
Friday, May 30, at 9:30 p.m., Cinémathèque québécoise terrasse
The short films Samaa by Ehsan Gharib and Imprint by Duncan Major, both of which are also in the Canadian Competition, are part of the lineup for this outdoor screening.
Canadian Competition, professional category:
- Imprint by Duncan Major (NFB, 5 min)
Canadian Competition 1 – Tuesday, May 27, at 6 p.m., Main screening room (repeat screening the next day at 8:30 p.m.)
- Hypersensible (Hypersensitive) by Martine Frossard (NFB, 6 min 44 s) and Hairy Legs by Andrea Dorfman (NFB, 17 min)
Canadian Competition 2 – Wednesday, May 28, at 6:30 p.m., Main screening room (repeat screening the next day at 5:30 p.m.)
- Le bruit des choses qui brûlent (The Sounds of Things Ablaze) by Hayat Najm (NFB, 6 min 35 s)
Canadian Competition 3 – Thursday, May 29, at 7:15 p.m., Main screening room (repeat screening the next day at 9:15 p.m.)
- Inkwo for When the Starving Return by Amanda Strong (Spotted Fawn Productions/NFB, 18 min 27 s) and Samaa by Ehsan Gharib (NFB, 2 min 27 s)
Canadian Competition 4 – Friday, May 30, at 7:30 p.m., Main screening room (repeat screening the next day at 3 p.m.)
– 30 –
French version here | Version française ici.