The National Film Board of Canada is turning up the heat on six young Canadian filmmakers. The NFB’s Animation Hothouse, an intensive 12-week mentoring program in Montreal, provides the tools, resources and guidance so that each filmmaker can create an animated short ready for release.

Director Janet Perlman, an Oscar nominee for her 1981 film The Tender Tales of Cinderella Penguin, is supervising the filmmakers. In 2001, Perlman won two Zlin International Film Festival for Children and Youth awards for Bully Dance. Michael Fukushima (Understanding the Law) is the program’s producer.

The Hothouse started on Nov. 3 with filmmakers Kevin Langdale and Amy Lockhart of Vancouver, Marielle Guyot and Thea Pratt of Montreal, Megann Reid of Calgary, and Howie Shia of Toronto.

The program first ran in January and is sponsored by the NFB’s English Animation Studio.

-www.nfb.ca