Denis Côté’s 19-minute film Jours avant la mort de Nicky (Days Before the Death of Nicky) is one of three Canadian shorts selected to compete at the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland in August.

Côté’s short (pictured) has been selected for the competition stream Pardi di Domani: Concorso Corti d’Autore, which highlights short works from established filmmakers.

Meanwhile, Montreal director Mo Matton’s Gender Reveal (Colonelle Films) and Canada/U.S./Israel short The Cavalry from writer-director-producer Alina Orlov are competing in Pardi di Domani: Concorso Internazionale, featuring international works.

Jours avant la mort de Nicky is written, directed and produced by Côté, and looks at the mysterious circumstances in the lead-up to a man’s death. La Distributrice de films is handling international sales for the title.

Côté has premiered a number of works at Locarno, including his 2010 feature Curling, which won the Silver Leopard. His most recent feature, Mademoiselle Kenopsia, had its world premiere at Locarno last year.

The 13-minute Gender Reveal is a satirical film where a trans trio find themselves at a gender reveal party. It is written and directed by Matton and produced by Léonie Hurtubise of Colonelle Films. Travelling is the short film’s distributor.

The Cavalry is a 17-minute Hebrew-language doc that sees filmmaker Orlov travel to Israel to film protests against the government, where she ends up documenting the use of horses in an Israeli police unit.

Out of competition, the film La Petite et le vieux (Blue Sky Jo) is making its world premiere in the Locarno Kids section. Directed by Patrice Sauvé and written by Sébastien Girard, the film is based on the novel of the same name by Marie-Renée Lavoie, about a young girl styling herself as a boy to live up to her hero. It is produced by Sonia Despars and Marc Biron of Parallaxes, with TVA Films handling distribution.

Locarno runs from Aug. 7 to 17.

Image courtesy of La Distributrice de films