Telefilm Canada Announces Five Canadian Films Selected for Sundance 2010

MONTREAL , Dec. 3 /CNW Telbec/ - Telefilm Canada is pleased to announce that five Canadian feature-length films have been selected to screen at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, which runs January 21-31. Recognized as the premier showcase for U.S. and international independent film, Sundance continues to attract a vibrant community of the most original storytellers, artists and audiences from around the world. This year, feature-length submissions from the U.S. totalled 1,920 while foreign submissions climbed to 1,804. The Festival has selected 113 features, with among them 42 international productions.

"Telefilm Canada has been partnering with the Sundance Film Festival for over 15 years," stated Sheila de La Varende, Director, International & National Business Development at Telefilm. "Year after year, our Canadian producers, directors and distributors benefit from the festival's dynamic platform to introduce their talent to the U.S. and the world, to attract buyer interest, and to garner awards."

For the 2010 edition, Telefilm will hold the annual Canadian "Meet & Greet" event for filmmakers, distributors, media and other industry professionals, in partnership with the Department of Canadian Heritage's Trade Routes Program and British Columbia Film and with the assistance of the Canadian Consulate in Denver , Colorado.

"This is an amazing payoff to taking risks and developing talent," said Paul Pope , producer of Grown Up Movie Star, screening in this year's World Cinema Narrative Competition. "We are thrilled that Telefilm Canada recognized our project's potential and worked with us. We are extremely excited about the invitation to premiere the film at Sundance and the incredible opportunity to reach out to a wider audience and the U.S. industry."

"Getting accepted into Sundance is like winning an award in itself," said Mila Aung-Thwin, producer of Last Train Home, screening in this year's World Cinema Documentary Competition. "The festival has a tremendous mystique and a reputation highlighting the world's best theatrical documentaries. From an industry point of view, it's exactly where you want to be in order to get a release in the US. This was exactly the case with our previous film, Up the Yangtze, which landed us a great deal with Zeitgeist, and went on to be one of the top documentary releases of 2007."

"Again this year, E1 has a strong Sundance line-up with films from the UK, Brazil , and Australia ; but we are particularly proud of the Sundance Canadian selection of 7 Days in the Midnight Section, an audacious and profound story," said Charlotte Mickie, Executive Vice-President, E1 Entertainment International. "Having films selected for Sundance always brings us amazing visibility and recognition."

"The Park City at Midnight Program is the perfect way to unveil Splice in North America ," said producer Steve Hoban . "The Sundance audience appreciates sophisticated, audacious, entertaining movies - they are going to love our film," he concluded.

The Canadian feature-film selection at Sundance 2010 includes:

    
    -------------------------------------------------------------------------
    World Cinema Documentary Competition
    -------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Title       Producer    Director    Description
    -------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Last Train  Mila Aung-  Lixin Fan   A family embarks on an annual tormen-
    Home (U.S.  Thwin,                  ting journey along with 200 other
    premiere)   Daniel                  million peasant workers to reunite
                Cross (Eye-             with their distant family, and to
                SteelFilm,              revive their love and dignity as
                Montréal)               China soars as the world's next super
                                        power. (Received support from
                                        Telefilm's Theatrical Documentary
                                        Program.)
    -------------------------------------------------------------------------
    World Cinema Narrative Competition
    -------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Title       Producer    Director    Description
    -------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Grown Up    Jill Knox   Adriana     The story of Ruby, 13, determined to
    Movie Star  Gosse,      Maggs       grow up fast after her mother runs
    (Internati- Paul Pope,              away to become a movie star, leaving
    onal premi- Shawn Doyle,            Ruby with her hopelessly rural
    ere)        Adriana                 father. (Received support from the
                Maggs (Pope             Canada Feature Film Fund.)
                Productions,
                St. John's)
    -------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Midnight Section
    -------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Title       Producer    Director    Description
    -------------------------------------------------------------------------
    7 Days      Nicole      Podz        Bruno Hamel lives happily until one
    (Les 7      Robert     (Daniel      afternoon his daughter is raped and
    jours du    (GO Films,  Grou)       murdered. In a flash, everything
    Talion)     Montréal)               changes for the Hamel family. When
    (World                              the police capture the suspected
    premiere)                           murderer, a terrible plan is hatched
                                        in Bruno's troubled mind: he will
                                        capture the monster and make him pay
                                        for what he has done to his daughter.
                                       (Received support from the Canada
                                        Feature Film Fund.)
    -------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Tucker &    Rosanne     Eli Craig   Tucker and Dale are two redneck pals
    Dale vs.    Milliken    U.K./Cana-  who are mistaken for killers by a
    Evil       (Gynormous   da co-ven-  group of archetypal college kids who
    (World      Pictures,   ture.       are vacationing in the woods. How
    premiere)   Vancouver);             they're "mistaken" for killers is
                Thomas                  part of the fun.
                Augsberger
               (Los Ange-
                les,CA);
                Albert
                Klychak
               (Urban
                Island,
                Edmonton)
                and Morgan
                Jurgenson
               (State Col-
                lege, PA)
    -------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Splice      Steven      Vincenzo    Clive and Elsa are bold, young
    (North      Hoban (Cop- Natali      genetic engineers whose radical DNA
    American    perheart    Canada/     splicing techniques create startling
    premiere)   Produc-     France      new animal hybrids. The result of a
                tions,      co-produc-  secret experiment with human DNA is
                Toronto)    tion.       Dren, who exceeds Clive and Elsa's
                                        wildest dreams... until she becomes
                                        their worst nightmare. (Received
                                        support from the Canada Feature Film
                                        Fund.)
    -------------------------------------------------------------------------
    

Canadian short films selected for screening at Sundance as well as the films selected for Slamdance will be released on or after December 7 .

Telefilm Canada: Developing and promoting the Canadian audiovisual industry

Telefilm Canada is a federal cultural agency dedicated to developing and promoting the Canadian audiovisual industry. Telefilm provides financial support to the private sector to create distinctively Canadian productions that appeal to domestic and international audiences. The Corporation also administers the funding programs of the Canadian Feature Film Fund, the Canadian Television Fund and the Canada New Media Fund. Visit www.telefilm.gc.ca.

For further information: Eva Hartling, Senior Advisor, External Communications, Telefilm Canada, [phone], ext. 2090, 1-800-567-0890, [email protected]