The Quebec film A l’ouest de Pluton (West of Pluto) from Henry Bernadet and Myriam Verrault is to open the 2009 Tiger Awards Competition at the International Film Festival Rotterdam, organizers said Wednesday.

The Vostok Films French-language drama about 24 hours in the interconnected lives of a dozen teens in suburban Quebec will compete against 13 other first or second features, including six Asian entries.

The Seville Films release, which marks a feature-length debut for Bernadet and Verrrault, had its world premiere in October at the Festival du Nouveau Cinema in Montreal, where it was championed by FCN co-founder and programming director Claude Chamberlan.

Rotterdam’s Tiger Awards competition for short films also invited two Canadian films to compete: Mike Rollo’s Ghosts and Gravel Roads and Chris Chong Chan Fui’s Block B, which picked up the best Canadian short film prize at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival.