Festival du Nouveau Cinéma to debut troubled late animator’s swan song about life on the streets of Montreal

San Sebastian and Pusan fest in South Korea to screen Mommy Is at the Hairdresser’s

HALIFAX — Taking a page out of Cannes, the 28th Atlantic Film Festival, running Sept. 11-20, has chosen as its opening gala Fernando Meirelles’ adaptation of the José Saramago novel Blindness, a Canada/Brazil/Japan copro that will highlight this year’s focus on the film industries of Brazil, Argentina, and Mexico.

HALIFAX — Jan Miller, founder and director of Strategic Partners, the international coproduction market now in its 11th year, has seen the program grow from a small adjunct to the Atlantic Film Festival to the point where it is at capacity, hosting international producers, broadcasters, distributors, financiers and agents.

Two crime dramas will battle it out for bragging rights at the 23rd annual Gemini Awards, with Citytv’s Murdoch Mysteries in the lead with 14 nominations, followed closely by The Movie Network/Movie Central’s Durham County with 13.

OTTAWA — David Hamilton, producer of Deepa Mehta’s latest, Heaven and Earth, is among the five finalists for the third annual $10,000 CFTPA Feature Film Producer’s Award, to be given out during the Toronto International Film Festival.

Matthew Hays is a frequent contributor to Playback, the Montreal Mirror, The Globe and Mail and The Guardian. He joined the Toronto International Film Festival as a programmer in ’08.

‘Festivals don’t get everything they’re asking for,’ says Piers Handling, CEO of the Toronto International Film Festival Group. ‘It’s all about positioning,’ he explains, ‘and in some cases it can be about talent and availability. Sometimes it’s just impossible for them to make our dates.’

OPENING NIGHT GALA: PASSCHENDAELE

SPECIAL PRESENTATION: HEAVEN ON EARTH

SPECIAL PRESENTATION: ADORATION