The Société de développement des entreprises culturelles (SODEC) will fund five feature film coproductions as part of its production assistance program. Among the films chosen is the comedy La vraie vie d’Aline Dieu, written and directed by Valérie Lemercier, which is inspired by the life of Canadian singer Celine Dion, and the Quebec-New Brunswick copro Mr. Freeze et Allumette.

SODEC did not disclose the amount of funding each film will receive.

La vraie vie d’Aline Dieu is a France-Canada copro by Montreal’s Caramel Film and France’s Rectangle Productions which tells the story of a talented young singer in Quebec in the 1960s and the music producer who wants to make her a star. It is distributed by MK2.

Les Productions Orange Films drama Mr. Freeze et Allumette is written by Adrien Bodson and Marc-André Lavoie, directed by Martin Cadotte, and is distributed by Orange Médias. It follows the journey of a young girl and her sister as they search for their missing dog after an ice storm.

Among the funded copros are two animated films: Le Petit Nicolas: Parfum d’enfance and Saules aveugles, femmes endormies. Le Petit Nicolas: Parfum d’enfance, written by Anne Goscinny and Michel Fessler and directed by Yvan Attal and Amandine Fredon, is about a boy made of black ink and the authors who gave him life. The film is coproduced by Kaibou Production, France’s Onyx Films, Luxembourg’s Bidibul Productions, and distributed by Maison 4:3.

Coproduced by micro_scope and Unité Central, Saules aveugles, femmes endormies is the tale of how unexpected allies, including a cat, a giant toad, an accountant, and a tsunami help save Tokyo from an earthquake. The film is written and directed by Pierre Földes.

Finally, Productions Périphéria’s La nuit des rois is written and directed by Philippe Lacote. The film takes place in an overcrowded prison in West Africa as an aging boss returns to an old tradition of storytelling to maintain his power. It is distributed by Axia Films.

Image: Shutterstock