Montreal: Canadian feature films, notably French-language Quebec films, are definitely on the radar at this year’s 56th Cannes Film Festival, May 14-25.

The program includes more official Canadian selections than in recent memory, starting with Denys Arcand’s Les Invasions barbares, a coproduction between Cinemaginaire and France’s Pyramide Production, entered in the high-profile international competition. Invasions is the first Quebec film in competition at Cannes since the late Jean-Claude Lauzon arrived on the Croisette with the quirky but haunting Leolo in 1992.

Other high-profile Cannes selections this year include Jean-Francois Pouliot’s feature film debut La Grande Seduction, produced by Studio Max Films, a comedy set in a remote Quebec fishing village, programmed as the closing-night film in the Directors’ Fortnight section, and Bernard Emond’s 20h17 rue Darling, a moody drama about a traumatized alcoholic, produced by ACPAV for distrib Christal Films Distribution and slated for the International Critics’ Week section.

Early buzz on Arcand’s Invasions is entirely positive. Arcand has long been a favorite with Cannes organizers. His Le Declin de l’empire americain won an International Critics Prize in 1986 while Jesus de Montreal took home a Jury Prize in 1989. Stardom was the festival’s closing-night film in 2000. Cinemaginaire is repping international sales for Invasions.

Emond’s first feature, La Femme qui boit, was selected in the same section at Cannes 2001.

Max Films producer Roger Frappier has repped four official selections films at Cannes, including Arcand’s Le Declin (a coproduction between the National Film Board and Malofilm Productions), Lauzon’s Un Zoo, la nuit, presented in 1987, and Cosmos in 1997, which won a special youth prize. Max Films is repping international rights for La Grande Seduction.

Canada is a coproducer on three additional official Cannes festival selections, including Tiresia by Bertrand Bonello, coproduced by Luc Dery of Montreal’s Micro-Scope, and La Petite Lili by famed French director Claude Miller, coproduced in Canada by Cinemaginaire. Both films are entered in competition, handing Cinemaginaire producer Denise Robert two competition entries this year.

The feature-length animation Les Triplettes de Belleville by Sylvain Chomet, director of the critically acclaimed The Old Lady and the Pigeons, is a France/Canada/Belgium coproduction and screens out of competition, while the 12-minute short The Truth About Head, directed by Dale Heslip, screens in the International Critics’ Week section.

Twenty films from 13 countries are competing for the coveted Palme D’Or, top prize at Cannes, including new films from prominent directors such as Clint Eastwood, Gus Van Sant, Lu Yee, Lars von Trier, Pupi Avati and Peter Greenaway.

-www.festival-cannes.fr