News

IFC, an American distributor of independent films, announced on its blog that it has acquired the American distribution rights for the Canadian film Les amours imaginaires (Heartbeats), the second film from award-winning director Xavier Dolan.

First of all, IFC acquired the distribution rights thanks to its representatives that were at the Cannes International Film Festival. In fact, Les amours imaginaires is in competition in the category Un certain regard.

The film tells the story of Francis (Dolan) and Marie (Monia Chokri) who are good friends. One night, they meet Nicolas (Niels Schneider), a young man from the country who has just settled in Montreal. From encounter to encounter, from moment to moment, troubled by innumerable signs — some real, some imagined — Francis and Marie fall deeper and deeper into a fantastical obsession with him. Soon, Francis and Marie find themselves on the precipice of a love duel that threatens the friendship they once thought indestructible.

The Société de développement des entreprises culturelles (Sodec), Quebec's cultural sponsor for the film industry, announced the 12 lucky feature films that will be subsidized. Speaking of homegrown films, eight will be in French and one will be in English. The rest of the films are co-productions.

Homegrown films in French:

Bo$$É: Directed by Claude Desrosiers, this film is a satirical comedy about financial scandals seen through the eyes of a corrupt man, Bernard Bossé. The film will be scripted by André Ducharme, Luc Déry and Yves Lapierre. The film is produced by Les productions Équinoxe and will be distributed by Alliance Atlantis.

Décharge: A criminal who found redemption randomly meets a prostitute. However, the meeting, brings back in the criminal things from his past. Written by Benoît Pilon and Pierre Szalowski. Directed by Benoît Pilon (Ce qu'il faut pour vivre). Produced by Forum Films and distributed by Remstar Distribution.

George Ovashvili's "The Other Bank" was awarded the grand jury's New Directors Showcase Award and Barbara Schroeder's "talhotblond" was the documentary grand jury winner at the 35th International Seattle Film Festival, which concluded Sunday.

The doc jury also awarded a special jury prize to Yoshio Harada's "Manhole Children."

The Golden Space Needle Audience Award for best film went to Scott Sanders' "Black Dynamite." First runner-up was Benoit Pilon's "The Necessities of Life," with runner-up awards also going to: second runner-up: Marc Webb's "(500) Days of Summer"; third (tie): Kevin Hamedani's "Zmd: Zombies of Mass Destruction" and Lucy Akhurst's "Morris: A Life with Bells On"; and fourth: Philipp Stolzl's "North Face."

Louie Psihoyos' "The Cove" took home the Golden Space Needle Award for best documentary.

Runners-up were: Sandy Cioffi's "Sweet Crude"; Sarah Kunstler and Emily Kunstler's "William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe"; James D. Stern...

The Genie nominations were announced yesterday, and normally I have little to say about them because I see so few Canadian films (boo hiss, I know). Ce qu'il faut pour vivre (The Necessities of Life) is playing at the Bytowne later this month, and, as thoroughly depressing as it looks, I'll see that. But my real quibble: six nominations for Passchendaele. Six? Are they kidding me with that? Did anyone else see that movie? It's not good, people. It starts out jarring (good), then it moves to Cana [...]...

The Academy of Motion Picture Sciences has whittled down the list of 65 foreign-language film submissions to a shortlist of nine that will compete for the Oscar.

But while such prominent titles as the Palme d'Or winner "The Class," from France, and the Golden Globes winner "Waltz With Bashir," from Israel, made the list, a number of other acclaimed films, most prominent among them Italy's mafia tale "Gomorrah," were left out in the cold.

Along with Laurent Cantet's "Class" and Ari Folman's "Waltz," the titles that will contend for the five Oscar noms are Austria's "Revanche," directed by Gotz Spielmann; Canada's "The Necessities of Life" (Benoit Pilon); Germany's "The Baader Meinhof Complex" (Uli Edel); Japan's "Departures" (Yojiro Takita); Mexico's "Tear This Heart Out" (Roberto Sneider); Sweden's "Everlasting Moments" (Jan Troell); and Turkey's "3 Monkeys" (Nuri Bilge Ceylon).

Because past omissions on the Academy's shortlist -- like the failure to include the Romanian film "4 Months,...

France's The Class, Japan's Departures and Sunday night's Golden Globe Award winner Waltz With Bashir are all through to the final round of the Oscars Best Foreign Film vote before the official nominations are announced

Revanche, The Necessities of Life, The Baader Meinhof Complex, Tear This Heart Out, Everlasting Moments and 3 Monkeys are also among the nine films advancing to the next round of voting in the Foreign Language Film category for the 81st Academy Awards.

Over 60 films originally qualified in the category.

The Academy Awards nominations will be announced on 22 January. The Oscars will be presented on 22 February at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood.

A record 67 countries have submitted films for consideration for best foreign-language film for the 81st Academy Awards, Academy president Sid Ganis said Friday. Nominations will be announced on Thursday, Jan. 22, and the awards will be presented on Sunday, Feb. 22.

The complete list of foreign-language submissions follows. For more details on some of the films, visit THR.com/foreignoscars.

Afghanistan, "Opium War," Siddiq Barmak

Albania, "The Sorrow of Mrs. Schneider," Piro Milkani and Eno Milkani

Algeria, "Masquerades," Lyes Salem

Argentina, "Lion's Den," Pablo Trapero

Austria, "Revanche," Gotz Spielmann

Azerbaijan, "Fortress," Shamil Nacafzada

Bangladesh, "Aha!," Enamul Karim Nirjhar

Belgium, "Eldorado," Bouli Lanners

Bosnia and Herzegovina, "Snow," Aida Begic

Brazil, "Last Stop 174," Bruno Barreto

Bulgaria, "Zift," Javor Gardev

Canada, "The Necessities of Life," Benoit Pilon

Chile, "Tony Manero," Pablo Larrain

China, "Dream Weavers," Jun Gu

Colombia, "Dog Eat Dog," Carlos Moreno

Croatia, "No One's Son," Arsen Anton Ostojic

Czech Republic, "The Karamazovs," Petr Zelenka

Denmark,...