Icelandic multi-instrumentalist and composer Ólafur Arnalds has boarded Telus original documentary Ari’s Theme as an executive producer.

Ari’s Theme, directed by Nathan Drillot and Jeff Lee Petry and produced by Vancouver-based Salazar Film, follows a 34-year-old with a rare genetic condition who finds his life’s purpose after being introduced to music composition.

The film makes its world premiere at Hot Docs on April 30.

Arnalds’ works include the score for ITV series Broadchurch and the title theme on Apple TV+ series Defending Jacob. His music has been featured on film and television soundtracks, including Nomadland and The Hunger Games.

11 NFB titles set for world bow at Sommets du cinéma d’animation

Eleven National Film Board of Canada (NFB) productions and coproductions are making their world premiere at Montreal’s Sommets du cinéma d’animation.

The titles include one feature and 10 shorts. They are among 185 films selected for the 22nd edition of the festival, which runs from May 6 to 11.

Writer-director Loïc Darses’ feature Graver l’homme: arrêt sur Pierre Hébert is making its debut as the closing film of the festival. The film, produced by NFB’s Marc Bertrand, looks at the life and work of animation filmmaker Pierre Hébert, who will be honoured with the René Jodoin Award this year. Jodoin worked at the NFB from 1965 to 2000 and is set to mark his 60 years as a filmmaker, performer and visual artist.

Eight out the 10 shorts will be making their debuts in competition, including writer-director Michèle Lemieux’s Le tableau; writer-director Véronique Paquette’s Loca; and writer-director Arash Akhgari En surface.

The competition titles also include writer-director Bianca Shonee Arroyo-Kreimes’s My World, Your Melody, Cameron Kletke’s Not Enough Womb for the Two of Us and Dahee Jeong’s Canada-France-South Korea copro Les gens dans l’armoire (NFB, Between the Pictures, Miyu Productions).

Natalie Baird and Toby Gillies’ Don’t Let the Sun Catch You Crying, Mochi Lin’s The Last Tango, Michelle Ku’s Parcelles de moi and Jo Roy’s Corpus and the Wandering will premiere in the non-competitive Wide-Angle section.

Jenna Marks wins CBC Pitch This! competition

Nova Scotia-based filmmaker Jenna Marks’ animated project Salted has won the $10,000 CBC Pitch This! short film competition at the Women in Film and Television Atlantic Making Waves Conference.

The annual conference took place from April 19 to 20, with a focus on gender equity in Atlantic Canada’s screen industry through “learning, celebration and networking.”

The competition’s participants pitched their projects to a jury of industry professionals, which included Little Bird co-creator and showrunner Jennifer Podemski, Gay Mean Girls writer and director Heyishi Zhang and Lisa Haller, the director of programming at Atlantic International Film Festival.

Marks also won $14,400 worth of in-kind services from Hideout Studios, 902 Post, William F. White/Sunbelt and Star Power.

Patrick Watson to receive GMSC’ Impact Award

Montreal singer-songwriter and film composer Patrick Watson has been announced as the inaugural recipient of the Guild of Music Supervisors, Canada’s (GMSC) Impact Award.

The award will be presented at Canadian Sync Awards on June 3 at the Westin Harbour Castle in Toronto.

The Impact Award honours an individual’s contributions and influence on music and culture, as well as “their profound prominence in the sync world.” Winners are determined by the GMSC Sync Awards Committee.

Projects featuring Watson’s ‘syncs’ include: The Rest Of Us, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Grey’s Anatomy and Orange Is The New Black.

Image courtesy of Salazar Films