Canadian-Pakistani filmmaker Zarrar Kahn’s debut feature film In Flames will make its world premiere in the Cannes Film Festival’s Directors’ Fortnight section, which will screen selections June 7 to 18 in 30 arthouse theatres throughout France as part of the Fortnight Extended event.

Kahn wrote and directed the South Asian horror (pictured), which has Anam Abbas of Other Memory Media as producer and Shant Joshi of Fae Pictures as executive producer. The production companies are CityLights Media (Canada) and Other Memory Media (Canada/Pakistan), in participation with Fae Pictures (Canada), Kahn tells Playback Daily.

XYZ Films’ new initiative New Visions is handling world sales for the Canada-Pakistan coproduction, which received funding from Telefilm Canada’s Talent to Watch program and the Canada Council for the Arts. Kahn says additional funding came from the CFC-Netflix Calling Card Accelerator Fund, as well as the CFC/Slaight Canadian Music Fund.

In Flames sees a mother and daughter haunted by figures from their past and threatened by malevolent forces after the death of the family patriarch. Kahn says they’re primarily looking for distribution opportunities at Cannes, which runs from May 17 to 26.

Cinespace Studios kicks off CineCares

Cinespace Studios in Toronto is launching a hands-on training program to help crew members become market-ready and increase representation in below-the-line roles for the region’s film and TV industry. CineCares Workforce Training will “recruit, train and offer meaningful paid work placements on productions filming at Cinespace Studios Toronto,” according to a news release.

IATSE Local 873 is the training partner on the program and will offer permit status to participants as they start their paid placements in areas including set decoration, props, grip, lighting, and general labour for up to 12 weeks. The Indigenous Screen Office, POV, and BIPOC TV & Film are the program’s first community partners.

Productions for the paid placements will include NBCUniversal’s Chucky, which is produced by UCP, and a yet-to-be-named project involving Warner Bros. Discovery Access to Action Canada. CineCares Workforce Training has already been launched by Cinespace Studios in Chicago.

SODEC doles out corporate assistance

Three independent Quebec television production companies are receiving support from La Société de développement des entreprises culturelles’ (SODEC).

Zone3, ComedyHa! and Productions Casablanca have been selected for the corporate assistance program for television production, which is intended for the creation of fiction, documentary or animated television series projects.

Launched last year, the program aims to increase the competitiveness of Quebec television productions in the international market and promote the production of high-level, French-language, Quebec intellectual property.

FOFS unveils programming

Geneviève Albert’s debut feature film Noémie dit oui (Noémie Says Yes, Leimotiv Films) will make its Toronto premiere at next month’s Future of Film Showcase (FOFS), which is marking its 10th anniversary. The Canadian Screen Award-nominated drama will be preceded by the Toronto premiere of the Ginger Le Pêcheur-directed short film Reste on the last day of the festival, which runs May 18 to 21 at Toronto’s Scotiabank Theatre, Startwell Studios and virtually across Canada.

Noémie dit oui is the feature film selection for this year’s FOFS, which highlights emerging Canadian filmmakers and shorts. Lamar Johnson, who won a Canadian Screen Award last week for his lead role in Brother, is this year’s keynote speaker.

The official shorts programming includes Marilyn Cooke’s Canadian Screen Award-nominated No Ghost in the Morgue, which made the Toronto International Film Festival’s (TIFF) Top Ten list; Farhad Pakdel’s Everything Will Be All Right, which premiered at last year’s South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Festival; and Kurt Walker’s I Thought the World of You, which premiered at TIFF last year.

Photo courtesy of CityLights Media