Writer-director Sophie Bédard Marcotte’s I Lost Sight of the Landscape (National Film Board of Canada) is one of two Canadian doc features making its world premiere at this year’s Visions du Réel festival in Nyon, Switzerland.

Produced by the NFB’s Pierre-Mathieu Fortin, the French-language documentary (pictured) follows Marcotte (director of 2021’s Projet fantômes) turning her camera on her playwright neighbour. The film will be screened in competition in the Burning Lights section.

Also set for its world premiere is Julien Elie’s Shifting Baselines. The English, French and Spanish-language documentary examines the town of Boca Chica, Tex., which is home to a 50-storey rocket launch site. Produced by Montreal-based GreenGround Productions’ Andreas Mendritzki and Aonan Yang alongside Elie’s Cinéma Belmopan, the film will screen in the international features competition. The director previously helmed 2024’s La Guardia Blanca.

Jeffrey Zablotny’s 45-minute Messengers will be making its world premiere as part of the International Medium-length and Short Film Competition. The documentary follows scientific communities searching for answers far beneath the earth’s surface. Jana Irmert and Adam Crosby are producers alongside Zablotny via his banner Trapdoor.

Christopher Radcliff’s 15-minute short film, We Were the Scenery, is set for its international premiere. The Vietnamese-language short is co-produced by Calgary-born Jess X. Snow (director of the 2021 short Little Sky) alongside Cathy Linh Che.

Denis Côté’s French and English-language feature Paul, which had its world premiere at this year’s Berlinale, is set for its Swiss premiere at the festival.

The 56th edition of Visions du Réel, the largest Swiss documentary festival, runs from April 4 to 13.

Image courtesy of the National Film Board of Canada