Six Canadian-made shorts are heading to Sundance, including three from the National Film Board.

Cordell Barker, best known for 1988’s acclaimed The Cat Came Back, will screen Runaway, about oblivious passengers on a driverless train, in the international animated shorts program. Runaway had its world premiere in Cannes and is the helmer’s third film with the NFB, following 2001’s Strange Invaders.

Being selected is ‘the next level of validation’ for the short, Barker tells Playback Daily. ‘Sundance has a reputation for honoring films with a more auteur quality, and with the high profile of the festival, I don’t see how this can’t be anything but good for both me and the NFB.’

The other NFB animations headed for next month’s festival are Bruce Alcock’s Acadian story Vive la Rose and the Canada/France copro Rains, about a sudden rainstorm that’s unleashed on a city, from David Coquard-Dassault.

Sundance said this week it will also screen Vancouver-based director Diego Maclean’s The Art of Drowning, based on a poem by Billy Collins about the possibilities that await us at the end of the line.

Meanwhile, the dramatic shorts slate includes spots for two Canuck titles including Toronto director Jamie Travis’ The Armoire, about the mystery surrounding a missing boy, and the Nunavut film Tungijuq, about the seal hunt and its significance to the traditional way of life for the Inuit. The film is directed by Paul Raphael and Félix Lajeunesse.

The Park City festival’s short film program is comprised of 70 titles selected from over 6,000 entries. The program will open with a selection of shorts including Spike Jonze’s robot love story I’m Here.

Canadian-made features set for Sundance include a trio of horror films and the doc Last Train Home.