Canadians are on the Croisette looking to reach broader audiences and make deals for future projects as the Cannes Film Festival gets underway.

Playback Daily connected with several homegrown screen sector delegates about the titles they’re bringing to the festival and market, which runs Tuesday (May 16) through May 27.

Among them are Toronto-based Sandy Hudson, co-founder of Black Lives Matter – Canada (pictured middle), producer Jenna MacMillan of Charlottetown, P.E.I (pictured left), and Toronto writer-performer-producer Anubha Momin (pictured right), who are looking for a coproducer partner for their modern rom-com film Come By Seldom.

Written by Momin and inspired by her family story and her own life in remote parts of Canada, the feature is in the early stages of development and doesn’t have a director or distributor attached yet, the trio tells Playback. It will be largely shot in Canada, ideally in Newfoundland and Labrador, and coproduced with Hudson’s production company, Above the Palace — co-owned with Momin and Rodney Diverlus — and Club Red Productions, owned by MacMillan.

The story “follows an aspiring Bangladeshi chef from his elite training in Paris to his placement at the magical Fogo Island Inn in Newfoundland and Labrador, where he falls for a fisherwoman fighting to maintain her family’s traditional lifestyle,” says Hudson.

“Since this is a trilingual story (English, Bengali, and French) that begins in France, another focus at Cannes is to secure an international coproducer to help us tell this unique story that embraces the multiplicity of the Canadian immigrant experience,” she says.

MacMillan says their intention with Canadian financing is to do an interprovincial coproduction. As they continue to build their Canadian team, they’re connecting with prospective producers from N.L., whom they plan to meet at Cannes via a pan-Atlantic business development mission for producers, which is supported by the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency with the Newfoundland & Labrador Film Development Corporation as the lead.

MacMillan also has a couple of other projects at Cannes with her companies, Club Red Productions and 63 Lights Entertainment: comedy feature Who’s Yer Father?, which is in the final post-production stage and is seeking sales outside of Canada (levelFILM is the Canadian distributor), and dark comedy feature The Snake, which is in development and seeking financing and sales partners.

Un Certain Regard

Also seeking international sales is writer-director Monia Chokri’s Simple comme Sylvain, which will compete in the Un Certain Regard competition and is a coproduction between Montreal’s Metafilms and France’s MK Productions. The Canadian distributor is Immina Films, led by Patrick Roy, who was head of Les Films Séville when it was distributor on Chokri’s first hit feature, La femme de mon frère, which launched in Cannes in 2019.

“When [Metafilms] producers Nancy Grant and Sylvain Corbeil approached us with Simple comme Sylvain, we fell in love with the clever, steamy script and decided to partner once again with Monia, who is rapidly becoming one of Canada’s most interesting new cinematic talents,” Roy tells Playback.

MK2 is handling international sales for the film, which has a theatrical release set for Quebec on Sept. 22. “The presentation of the film in Cannes will most certainly lead to the sale of the film in many countries,” says Roy.

Also premiering in Un Certain Regard is Ayeh haye Zamini (Terrestrial Verses) from Seven Spring Pictures and Cynefilms, directed and written by Toronto-based Iranian/Canadian filmmaker Alireza Khatami (Oblivion Verses) and Ali Asgari of Tehran.

Khatami tells Playback the film is told in a poetic manner and was “inspired by the Woman, Life, Freedom movement in Iran.” It was shot in Iran within seven days and financed from their personal resources and support of their friends, while “prioritizing the creative process and our artistic integrity over securing a budget.”

ARP Sélection is the French distributor and Films Boutique is handling international sales for the film. Khatami says they hope to secure deals that will help the film reach a broader audience, “as we believe the film’s universal themes will resonate with viewers from diverse backgrounds.”

Khatami will also be taking meetings at Cannes for future projects, including psychological neo-noir film Yesterday Will Come, which is in development and is planned as a Canadian-Chilean coproduction, and Hearts Away, which he describes as “a queer character study that holds a special place in my heart.”

“Both projects represent my continued commitment to exploring various facets of the human experience while contributing to the vibrant creative community in Canada,” says Khatami.

Directors’ Fortnight

XYZ Films’ new initiative New Visions is handling world sales for Canadian-Pakistani writer-director Zarrar Kahn’s debut feature film, South Asian horror In Flames, which will make its world premiere in the Directors’ Fortnight section.

Anam Abbas of Other Memory Media is producer and Shant Joshi of Fae Pictures is executive producer. The production companies are CityLights Media (Canada) and Other Memory Media (Canada/Pakistan), in participation with Fae Pictures (Canada). It was produced with the support of Telefilm Canada’s Talent to Watch program.

Todd Brown, XYZ Films’ head of international acquisitions, tells Playback they’re looking “to place the film with high-level, tastemaking theatrical distributors around the world.”

“We see In Flames as a prestige title from an exciting new voice, so we’re really looking towards distributors with a track record for launching talent and feel we’re already on the way there with The Jokers [Films] coming on board for France,” he says.

Frontières Platform

Other Canadians in Cannes include Kingston, Ont.-based J. Joly, co-founder of “hyperlocal studio” Branded to Film. He’ll be pitching international buyers at Cannes Marché du Film’s Frontières Platform, organized with the Fantasia Film Festival, with a proof of concept for the feature thriller Den Mother Crimson, which is in post-production and explores the ethics of artificial intelligence.

Joly is writer and executive producer on the project, which has Siluck Saysanasy attached as director. Katalina Kovecses is producer while G. Assimakopoulos is also an executive producer.

“Along with the importance of selling Den Mother Crimson, it is connecting with sales agents and distributors to better understand the market and position our next hyperlocal projects,” Joly tells Playback.

WGA effect on Cannes?

Headlines are swirling about how the Writers Guild of America strike might affect business at the Cannes market, but XYZ’s Brown says “the impact won’t be immediate.”

“Packages that were being launched in Cannes were generally already done with writer deals closed, so those are all secure,” he says. “We’re more likely to see the true impact of the strike down the road at TIFF and AFM, depending on how long things run. Series is different, with writers rooms being shut down in real time, but in the film world the real impact will be seen in the upcoming cycles more than in this one.”