Busy year in Berlin

Fifteen Canadian films will unspool at next week’s Berlin International Film Festival, including an in-competition screening of Philippe Falardeau’s C’est pas moi, je le jure! (It’s Not Me, I Swear).

The comedy, about a hell-raising young boy caught between feuding and ineffective parents in 1968, is set for the festival’s youth-aimed Generation KPlus program. It is joined on the Berlin list by John Greyson’s Fig Trees, Gary Yates’ crime yarn High Life, Philip Hoffman’s experimental doc All Fall Down and Letters to the President, a copro with Iran, France and Norway by director Petr Lom.

‘Canada is out in force at Berlin this year,’ says Wayne Clarkson, executive director of Telefilm Canada. ‘Dynamic, enterprising and possessing unique know-how, Canadian film professionals are partners of choice — and Canada’s business office at Berlin is the perfect place to meet them and start planning for future projects.’

Telefilm is again hosting a 14-film series at the fest’s European Film Market, looking to pair other titles such as the recent Sundance selections Victoria Day and Before Tomorrow with distributors.

Other Canadian titles screening at Berlin include shorts such as Kazik Radwanski’s Princess Margaret Blvd. and The Island by Trevor Anderson.