On March 22, the National Film Board of Canada will launch Indigenous Cinema (#NFBIndigenous), an NFB Web page offering free streaming of more than 200 new and classic titles from its unparalleled collection of films by Indigenous directors—including 20 new and recently added films.
This year’s lineup of National Film Board of Canada (NFB) documentaries at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival (April 26–May 6, 2018) showcases diverse stories of people facing life’s biggest challenges—with premieres of five major new feature documentaries in the festival’s Canadian Spectrum program.
The immersive documentary Roxham will make its world premiere as a virtual reality (VR) installation in Particles of Existence, an exhibition of 10 first-class immersive works at Montreal’s Phi Centre from March 27 to August 12, 2018. As of March 24, the work (which is approximately 15 minutes long) can also be viewed in both English and French online in VR and 360-degree at nfb.ca/roxham.
The National Film Board of Canada’s Quebec and Atlantic Studio and LJH Films are reaching out to emerging and established Nunatsiavummiut filmmakers from or in Labrador who have an interest in documentary storytelling, with a call for submissions for the Labrador Doc Project.
Samara Grace Chadwick’s National Film Board of Canada co-produced feature documentary 1999 (Parabola Films/Beauvoir Films/NFB) will have its international premiere at Switzerland’s prestigious Visions du Réel International Film Festival, April 13 to 21.
From June 11 to 16, 2018, the National Film Board of Canada is taking part in the Annecy International Animated Film Festival, with five shorts in competition. The NFB roster includes the return of renowned filmmakers Alison Snowden and David Fine with Animal Behaviour (Zoothérapie). Premiering at Annecy, Justine Vuylsteker’s Étreintes (Offshore/NFB) is the first film made on the “Épinette,” a recently restored French pinscreen-animation device. Patrick Bouchard returns to the festival with the international premiere of Le sujet (NFB), while Elizabeth Hobbs’s film I’m OK (Elizabeth Hobbs/Animate Projects/NFB) will be having its world premiere. Screening in the Perspectives section, Un printemps by Keyu Chen (NFB) rounds out the NFB’s lineup of shorts, which features mostly women filmmakers—with a diverse range of skills, employing a variety of techniques, and backed by several female producers. The complete Annecy Festival program will be announced at a press conference on April 23.
The names of nine finalists were announced today for the 10th Concours Tremplin, a competition launched by the National Film Board of Canada in collaboration with Radio-Canada, aimed at emerging filmmakers from Canadian francophone minority communities outside of Quebec. With women accounting for the lion’s share this year, the finalists are Emmanuelle Chapados (Memramcook, New Brunswick), Nathalie Hébert (Scoudouc, New Brunswick), Sylvio Belliveau (Memramcook, New Brunswick), Josiane Blanc (Toronto, Ontario), Sophie Houle-Drapeau (Sudbury, Ontario), Ania Jamila (Ridgeway, Ontario), Nassima Way (Calgary, Alberta), Yoann Priolet (Delta, British Columbia) and Camille Vernet (New Westminster, British Columbia). Submissions came in from francophone communities outside of Quebec across the country. Finalists will attend workshops on March 19 and 20, then submit their projects to a jury for final deliberation in May, with the winning works to be broadcast on ICI RADIO-CANADA TÉLÉ. Radio-Canada has partnered with the NFB on Tremplin since 2007.
For the 10th consecutive year, the National Film Board of Canada is bringing together acclaimed Canadian filmmakers to create short cinematic tributes to Canadian performing arts legends, as the Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards (GGPAA) gets set to honour laureates at its 26th annual Awards Gala, taking place June 2, 2018, at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa.
Adopting a concrete strategy for increasing the number of women creators in Canada’s audiovisual industry, the National Film Board of Canada has announced that it will make its Talent Bank for female professionals accessible to Réalisatrices Équitables (RÉ), Femmes du cinéma, de la télévision et des médias numériques (FCTMN) and Film Fatales. Talks aimed at reaching a similar agreement are also underway with the Vancouver, Alberta, Toronto and Atlantic chapters of Women in Film and Television. These partnerships will increase the impact of the database, bringing its profiles to the greatest number of industry players.
The NFB has all but achieved its parity objectives for the number of productions directed by women (which stood at 47% in 2017–2018), the portion of the production budget allocated to women (46%), and the key creative position of screenwriter (47%), while progress has been made for the position of editor. However, work remains to be done in positions related to cinematography and music composition, where the ratio of men to women is still unequal. The talent is out there: it’s just a question of finding it.
The National Film Board of Canada is pulling out all the stops to mark the 20th anniversary of the Rendez-vous de la Francophonie (RVF), taking place March 1 to 21, 2018. Participating in RVF festivities for the 13th consecutive year, the NFB will be offering an extensive film tour that features a lineup of 24 documentaries and animated works; a wide selection of thematic content that’s more varied than ever, with programs on women artists, love in all its forms, and the strong bond between children and their grandparents; as well as an entertaining group activity. In all, nearly 280 NFB screenings are scheduled in 69 cities throughout Canada’s 10 provinces and three territories—a 24 percent increase over last year.
The National Film Board of Canada (NFB) is back at the Festival REGARD with eight shorts—a rich selection of acclaimed films that have screened at major festivals around the world.
The Vancouver International Women in Film Festival (VIWFF) is featuring a special presentation of Tidal Traces—a new NFB virtual reality work by new-media artist Nancy Lee, choreographer Emmalena Fredriksson and the NFB’s Digital Studio in Vancouver—along with Torill Kove’s acclaimed Mikrofilm AS/NFB animated short Threads.
he National Film Board of Canada (NFB) and APTN announced today the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that will pool the organizations’ efforts and expertise in implementing protocols, programs, training and other initiatives aimed at strengthening relations with Indigenous Peoples and creators. The MOU will have a lasting and positive impact on the Canadian production and distribution landscape and ensure these initiatives are more rapidly implemented. The agreement is the result of actions recently taken by each organization, particularly a three-year plan released by the NFB last June, entitled Redefining the NFB’s Relationship with Indigenous Peoples (2017–2020), and the implementation of the recommendations from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada.
Beginning February 14, Valentine’s Day, the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) is bringing out the love with the award-winning film I Like Girls streaming free of charge on NFB.ca, Facebook and YouTube.
Written and directed by Montreal cartoonist and animator Diane Obomsawin, a.k.a. Obom, based on her graphic novel of the same name, the film uses endearing anthropomorphic figures to tell real-life stories of first love.