Two films produced or co-produced by the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) have been honoured with awards at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival this year. The awards ceremony was held Saturday evening in Annecy, France. The Head Vanishes (Une tête disparait) by Franck Dion has won the prestigious Annecy Cristal for best short film. The film is co-produced by Papy 3D (Franck Dion, Richard Van Den Boom), the NFB (Julie Roy) and ARTE France (Hélène Vayssières) co-production.
Theodore Ushev's Blind Vaysha, produced by the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), received the Junior Jury Award (short films) at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival's special awards ceremony on June 17. According to the young members of the jury, the film was chosen because it takes an interesting approach to questioning the way we look at the world. Despite its at times melancholy tone, Blind Vaysha ultimately imparts a sense of hope, encouraging us to live in the present. Hailing from Tunisia and France, the youth jury members were Ines Daldoul (9) and Sara Ben Ayed (11), from the DigiArt Living Lab Tunis-Nabeul, and Alyssa Henenne (11) and Léonie Renut (11), from the Atelier de cinéma d'animation d'Annecy et de Haute-Savoie.
Julien Capraro, one of the two winners of the 2016 Tremplin competition, organized by the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) in collaboration with Radio-Canada, is headed straight into action with a location shoot on Sunday, June 19, 2016, starting at 10 a.m., at the French and Italian Car Show in Waterfront Park, North Vancouver. This marks his first professional documentary production.
The National Film Board of Canada (NFB) is pleased to announce a new international co-production agreement with a production house in Germany, for an exciting new animation project entitled Altötting, by renowned filmmaker Andreas Hykade. This is the NFB's first agreement with production company Studio Film Bilder and its second animation co-production agreement with Germany.
The National Film Board of Canada (NFB) is taking part in Sunny Side of the Doc 2016, the international market dedicated to linear and interactive documentaries. Canada is this year's country of honour at the event. The Unknown Photographer (Turbulent/NFB), a virtual-reality plunge into the fragmented memories of a First World War photographer, will be presented for the first time in France at Sunny Side of the Doc, with its France-born director, Loïc Suty of Turbulent, in attendance. NFB delegates Louis-Richard Tremblay, Producer, Interactive Studio, and Ragnhild Milewski, NFB Archives Sales Manager, will also be participating in a number of Sunny Side events. Sunny Side of the Doc takes place June 20 to 23 in La Rochelle, France.
I Love Potatoes, an interactive game created by former NFB filmmaker-in-residence Vali Fugulin with Minority and Ruben Farrus, has garnered three new awards over the past few weeks: the Canada Media Fund's Grand Prix NUMIX, the Award of Excellence for Best Interactive Content – Commitment and Community at the Youth Media Alliance French-Language Awards of Excellence Gala, and, most recently, the Award for Best Digital Initiative at the Digital Publishing Awards, presented by the National Magazine Awards Foundation. The game was produced at the NFB by Hugues Sweeney and launched in September 2015. It explores the concept of social innovation and is geared towards 9-to-12-year-olds, as well as their parents and grandparents.
Starting Saturday, June 11, at 10 p.m. ET, NFB.ca will feature six new short films by the National Film Board of Canada celebrating the achievements of Canadian performing arts legends, as the 2016 laureates are honoured at the Governor General's Performing Arts Awards in Ottawa.
The virtual reality (VR) animated film Minotaur, directed by Munro Ferguson and produced at the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), will have its European premiere at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival on Wednesday, June 15, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Salle de création in the Bonlieu cultural complex. Minotaur is part of the first set of VR screenings to be held at Annecy, the world's largest event devoted to animation. The festival runs from June 13 to 18, 2016.
Ève Lamont's documentary feature Le commerce du sexe (The Sex Trade), co-produced by Productions du Rapide-Blanc and the NFB, will open the 11th season of Downtown Screenings under the Stars at Place de la Paix: a free series of 13 screenings presented by the Société des arts technologiques (SAT), the Montreal borough of Ville-Marie and the Quartier des spectacles Partnership, in collaboration with CIBL-FM. The series will kick off on Tuesday, June 14, at 8:45 p.m., with the filmmaker, CLES (Concertation des luttes contre l'exploitation sexuelle) communications head Éliane Legault-Roy, and host Nicholas Bergeron in attendance. The film will be shown in its original French version and followed by a Q&A session.
Starting June 20, World Refugee Day, a new National Film Board of Canada documentary, 19 Days, will offer an inside look at Canada's refugee resettlement process, and stream free of charge at NFB.ca.
This summer, Montrealers will be able to experience a groundbreaking foray into data-driven storytelling as the film-generating installation Seances is showcased all summer long at the Phi Centre in Old Montreal as part of its Embodied Narrative: Sensory Stories of the Digital Age exhibition, June 14 to August 21. Created by iconoclastic filmmaker Guy Maddin, co-creators Evan Johnson and Galen Johnson, and the National Film Board of Canada, Seances dynamically assembles reimagined lost films in never-to-be-repeated configurations.
Now in its 11th season, the National Film Board of Canada's Hothouse program for emerging animators has helped kick-start the careers of some of Canada's most acclaimed animators.
Animation lovers can now discover six new short works from the latest crop of Hothouse alumni. The films are available free of charge at NFB.ca.
From June 10 to 26, audiences in Toronto can step into the shadows of the postwar era through Circa 1948, a groundbreaking and immersive interactive storyworld co-created by the National Film Board of Canada's award-winning Digital Studio and internationally acclaimed artist Stan Douglas. The installation, which was likened to a "time machine" by Lily Rothman in Time Magazine, is truly a one-of-a-kind experience. Audience members interact with ravishing visuals by award-winning photo and film artist Stan Douglas while they try to unravel the secrets hidden in an ancient hotel and a notorious Vancouver back alley. Presented in association with TIFF, Circa 1948 is a rare example of art meeting technology to create an expansive artistic universe.
Starting today, everyone can experience a taste of life in small communities across Western Canada's southern Prairie grasslands, with the online launch of the National Film Board of Canada's The Grasslands Project, available free of charge at NFB.ca.
The National Film Board of Canada (NFB) feature documentary Ninth Floor will be featured at two U.S. festivals in June during National Caribbean American Heritage Month.