Palm Springs Film Festival to Screen 12 Canadian Films

TORONTO – Canadian film is getting its place in the California sun.

our editor recommends

Palm Springs Film Festival To Screen 42 Foreign Film Oscar Hopefuls

Telefilm Canada's Quebec Films Raise Canadian Box Office Tally

Telefilm Canada, the Canadian government’s film financier, has pacted with the Palm Springs International Film Festival to showcase a dozen Canuck movies at next month's 24th edition.

The Canadian contingent in Palm Springs will include Kim Nguyen’s War Witch, Canada’s possible nominee in the Oscar best foreign language film category, Toronto titles like Michael McGowan’s Still, Ruba Nadda’s Inescapable and Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette’s Inch’Allah, which is to also screen in Berlin.

Also booked into Palm Springs is Rafaël Ouellet’s Camion, Xavier Dolan’s Laurence Anyways, which bowed in Cannes, Margarita, by Laurie Colbert and Dominique Cordoba, and Sara St. Onge's Molly Maxwell.

Canadian documentaries headed to Palm Springs include Peter Mettler’s The End of Time, Yung Chang’s The Fruit Hunters, and The Final Member, by Jonah Bekhor and Zach Math.

The Canadian showcase in Palm Springs is part of a broader strategy by the Canadian government to build international resonance for homegrown films at major foreign markets and festivals to boost their box office prospects back home on commercial release.

Besides a major Canadian retiree community in Palm Springs, the festival’s director, Darryl Macdonald, and artistic director Helen Du Toit, are both from Canada.

The Palm Springs International Film Festival, to run from Jan. 3 to 14, last week unveiled a separate sidebar, Nordic Lights, to showcase films from Scandinavia.