Télé-Québec series L’air d’aller has won the Student Award for Best Short Form Series at this year’s Canneseries. Announced Wednesday (April 19), the award was one of two given out to short-form series in competition at the French TV festival. 

L’air d’aller is created by Jean-Christophe Réhel and directed by Sarah Pellerin. It is produced by Urbania, with Encore Télévision-Distribution handling sales, and follows a group of friends who bond over their shared diagnosis of cystic fibrosis.

Other Canadian titles in attendance at Canneseries this year were Crave’s Bon matin Chuck (ou l’art de réduire les méfaits), Vrai’s docuseries Lac-Mégantic – ceci n’est pas un accident, and Super Channel’s Streams Flow From A River.

Three Canadian films to world premiere at Switzerland festival

The 52nd Visions du Réel in Nyon, Switzerland will host the world premieres of three Canadian features this month. Swiss-Canadian director Peter Mettler’s film While the Green Grass Grows will premiere as part of the International Feature Film Competition. Mettler serves as director, writer and producer on the film, along with producers Cornelia Seitler and Brigitte Hofer.

Debuting in the Burning Lights competition are the documentaries Caiti Blues (Cinquième Maison, Sister Productions) by Justine Harbonnier, and Má Sài Gòn (Mother Saigon) by Khoa Lê. Both films are distributed by Films du 3 Mars. Caiti Blues is produced by Cinquième Maison and Sister Productions, with producers Nellie Carrier and Julie Paratian, while Má Sài Gòn is produced by Les Films de l’Autre, with Lê as a producer. Visions du Réel runs from April 21 to 30.

OUTtv increases episode count for David Oulton talk show

The fifth season of OUTtv’s Face to Face with David is getting a major boost, with the Vancouver-based LGBTQ+ network increasing the episode count for the 2023 season from 13 to 40. Hosted by David Oulton, the series will also get its first international segment, scheduled to shoot in Mexico.

Face to Face with David is produced by Calgary-based L&C Style Productions and will resume production in Calgary in May 2023. It began production in December 2022 at the Rimrock Hotel in Banff, Alta., before a taking a mid-season hiatus

The 40 x 30 minute fifth season will air later this year on OUTtv, with the series also available in Canada on broadcasters and streaming platforms such as OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network, Slice, Lifetime and Amazon’s Prime Video.

Face to Face with David sees Oulton interviewing guests from the worlds of entertainment, business, fashion, and politics. The guest list for the fifth season includes TV personality Janice Dickinson, comedian Luenell, actors Emily Hampshire, Kari Matchett and Gates McFadden, and Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek.

Canadian coming-of-age film to open Czech festival

Quebec feature Coeur de slush has been selected to open the Zlín International Youth Film Festival in the Czech Republic. The dramedy film about a late bloomer’s fateful summer is directed by Mariloup Wolfe and written by Sarah-Maude Beauchesne, who wrote the coming-of-age novel the feature is based on. It is produced by Christian Larouche of Christal Film Productions. Les Films Opale is the Canadian distributor for the film, which will have its world premiere at the festival. Zlín runs from June 1 to 7.

With files from Taimur Sikander Mirza

Image courtesy of Urbania