After several research missions in the international circuit and months of intensive viewing, REGARD’s programming team is ready to announce the entirety of the films, programs and activities that will be part of the 21st edition, which will be held in Saguenay from next March 15th to March 19th. As the Festival’s Head of Programming Mélissa Bouchard enthusiastically underlines: “Shorts and full-length films are not opposed. They share the same passion. Short films give access to unique approaches to cinema from here and elsewhere. Each year, our team has to make hard choices. Thousands of shorts are considered. Personally, I saw each movie again in the last week, and I fell in love for a second time with each of them.“

Selection and Competition

In total, 64 films will be part of the official competition, 33 will be part of the national competition, and 31 will be part of the international competition. As for the Youth Prize and the Shoot No Matter What! program, respectively 29 and 8 short films are part of the competition. Besides prizes with a total value of $60,000, given by the various juries of the Festival, the competition will offer a broader range of possibilities, since the winners of the National and International Awards will be considered in the nomination process of the OSCAR®. The Festival will also host a jury made of members of the International Federation of Film Critics. They will give the prestigious International Critics Award. The professional jury will be made of Céline Bonnier, Stéphane Crête, Samuel Archibald, David Uloth and Ina Pira.

Once again, with 159 films from 33 countries in the official selection, the national and international selections promise to be rich. The regular programming will be made of eleven thematic programs and of the Shoot No Matter What! program, eight regular programs, and four youth programs. The Festival’s eight regular programs will be presented twice, in venues such as Théâtre Banque Nationale and salle François-Brassard, at Cégep de Jonquière.

Must-Sees

Among the Quebec films that must be seen this year, No Wave by Stéphane Lapointe, Anime by Arnaud Brisebois, La voyante by Alexis Fortier Gauthier and Alexandre Auger, La partie by Alexandre Isabelle, and Une autre, by Nils Caneele. Two films produced in the region will also be part of the national competition: Hilarion by Gaétan Reine and Terre Rompue by Alexandre Rufin. Many award-winning films will also be presented at the Festival, including Timecode by Juanjo Giménez, Palme d’or at the latest Cannes Festival, Vaysha l’aveugle by the Quebecker Théodore Ushev and Bon voyage by Marc Wilkins, two films currently nominated for an OSCAR®. Dekalb elementary by Reed Van Dyk, winner of the International Competition at Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival will also be presented.

Thematic Programs and Special Projects

On March 16th at 10 pm, the program Genre Movies, sponsored by KYK Radio-X will be back, presenting many powerful and unclassifiable films. On March 17th at 1 pm, the Théâtre Banque Nationale will be hosting the Documentary program, sponsored by La Web Shop. It will be followed by the session Art & Essay, a program sponsored by INIS. At 5 pm at the Petit Théâtre de l’UQAC, the program The Actor-Director, sponsored by the Union des Artistes, will be presented. The session will include films directed by actors who are also filmmakers. Then, at 9 pm, the Festival’s commented Retrospective will be dedicated to the director David Uloth. It is sponsored by La Vue.

On March 18th at 1 pm, the Petit Théâtre de l’UQAC will host South Korea Panorama, a program presented by Le Quotidien, in partnership with Antitube. This session will be followed by another international program, presented by the Festival des Musiques de Création, the TISFF Carte Blanche, a Greek festival with which REGARD is doing its exchange this year. The FOCUS program, dedicated to the meeting of cinema with another discipline will take the form of a Focus: Video-Poetry, starting at 7 pm. It will be followed at 9 pm by the program Committed Cinema, a program presenting films using cinema for its political and social strike force. The evening is sponsored by Ici Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean. Finally, for the last day of the festival, after a last screening of the Documentary session, sponsored by La Web Shop on Sunday, March 19th at 1 pm, the program South Korea Panorama will be offered at 3 pm by Le Quotidien, in partnership with Antitube.

As for the special projects the Festival will offer among others, a unique meeting with its spokesperson, in the form of a Screening-Concert with Émile Proulx-Cloutier, on Thursday, March 16th, after the opening program; a meeting between songs and shorts. Another promising activity called Movie-Improv and sponsored by Énergie 94,5 will take place at the Côté-Cour, in Jonquière, on March 17th at 10 pm. Outdoor screenings are also back at the Place du citoyen, with the program Short & Sweet, on Saturday, March 18th at 7 pm and Sunday, March 19th at 3 pm. The very short films, presented by UNIStv, will please a diverse audience.

The Highlights

The first evening of the Festival will be devoted to regional talent with a reception between 5 pm and 7 pm at the Théâtre Banque Nationale, and the session 100% Saguenay, sponsored by Hydro-Québec. The films Le débroussailleur by Nicolas Lévesque, Terre Rompue by Alexandre Rufin, Le silence fait peur aux brutes by Étienne Boulanger, Hilarion by Gaétan Reine, Qu’en ce jour je meure by Martin Rodolphe Villeneuve, Destrier by Philippe David Gagné, L’usine et ma vilaine mémoire de 9 ans by Philippe Belley, and Close-up by Jean-Marc E. Roy will be screened.

Sponsored by Télé-Québec, the Opening Night will be held the next day at 5 pm. The night will start with a reception, followed by the Program 1, a strong selection made of Bon Voyage by Marc Wilkins (currently nominated for an OSCAR®), Anime by Arnaud Brisebois, Oscar by Marie-Josée Saint-Pierre, Timecode by Juanjo Giménez (Palme d’or for the best short at the latest Cannes Festival), Journal animé by Donato Sansone, and 3-Way (Not Calling) by Molly McGlynn. The Awards Ceremony will take place on Sunday, March 19th at 10 am at the Hôtel Chicoutimi. The Winners’ Screening will be held the same day at 7 pm at the Théâtre Banque Nationale. The session is sponsored by Rouge FM.