Montreal – The National Film Board of Canada (NFB) has greenlit 16 productions and co-productions between January and June 2023. Nine new feature-length documentary films and seven new animated shorts are now underway at studios across the country, reflecting the NFB’s strengths in longform non-fiction and acclaimed auteur animation. For more information on these and other projects currently in the works across NFB studios, visit the NFB Production web page.
Feature-length documentaries
7 Beats Per Minute
Director: Yuqi Kang
Co-producers: Ina Fichman (Intuitive Pictures) and Sherien Barsoum (NFB) | Ontario Studio
- In this doc featuring intimate cinéma vérité camerawork, stunning underwater moments and director Yuqi Kang’s unique, personal voice, we travel with freediver Jessea Lu on her unwavering journey to become a world champion.
Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story
Directors: Michael Mabbott and Lucah Rosenberg-Lee
Co-producers: Amanda Burt (Banger Films) and Justine Pimlott (NFB) | Ontario Studio
- Any Other Way tells the extraordinary story of pioneering soul singer and Black trans trailblazer Jackie Shane.
Nechako
Director/Writer: Lyana Patrick
Co-producers: Jessica Hallenbeck, Tyler Hagen (Nechako Films Inc.) and Teri Snelgrove (NFB) | BC & Yukon Studio
- In the wake of the damming of the Nechako River and a looming court decision, two communities form an unlikely alliance to rebuild their Nations.
The Nest
Directors: Chase Joynt and Julietta Singh
Producers: Justine Pimlott and Alicia Smith | Ontario Studio and North West Studio | 100% NFB
- After a life-altering accident leaves her aging mother disabled, a daughter returns to her childhood home to discover the house has become a museum of forgotten feminist histories.
The Nest
Directors: Catherine Martin and Amber Bernard
Producer: Rohan Fernando | Quebec & Atlantic Studio | 100% NFB
- Netukulimk explores the foundational belief that “everything is connected to the land, water and all life forces,” and looks at how the L’nu continue to hunt, fish and gather in accordance with this worldview.
Nirilauqta
Directors: Malaya Qaunirq Chapman and Marie-Hélène Cousineau
Producer: Ariel Nasr | Quebec & Atlantic Studio | 100% NFB
- Nirilauqta delves into the story behind a staggering statistic: the rate of food insecurity among Inuit is the highest of any Indigenous population in a developed country and seven times higher than the rate for Canadian households.
La peur, une comédie
Director: Christine Chevarie-Lessard
Producer: Pierre-Mathieu Fortin | Quebec, Canadian Francophonie & Acadian Documentary Studio | 100% NFB
- Using her own fears as her starting point, the filmmaker takes an imaginative, humorous look at how fear can affect our lives, both individually and collectively.
Sinew
Directors: Melaw Nakehk’o and Lesley Johnson
Producer: Coty Savard | North West Studio | 100% NFB
- Sinew explores the disappearance of barren-ground caribou in the Northwest Territories, examining the impact on those closest to the caribou and the role of Indigenous knowledge in caribou conservation.
Sleepless
Director: Arshia Shakibaeian
Producer: Ariel Nasr | Quebec & Atlantic Studio | 100% NFB
- Suicide hotline agents across the province of Quebec are filling the gaps in our mental health network. But who are these people making their living by listening to those in the worst states of depression?
Animated shorts
Bread Will Walk
Director: Alex Boya
Producer: Jelena Popović | Animation & Interactive Studio | 100% NFB
- In a world confronted by climate change and food shortages, a mysterious agrochemical corporation produces engineered synthetic bread—which accidentally turns the hungry into slow, non-violent, zombie-like creatures made of loaves of freshly baked bread.
Society of Clothes
Director: Dahee Jeong
Co-producers: Emmanuel-Alain Raynal and Pierre Baussaron (Miyu Productions), Dahee Jeong (Between the Pictures) and Christine Noël (NFB) | French Animation Studio
- In a strange world of people who have clothes but no bodies, the arrival of a little girl made of flesh and blood shakes things up.
Imprint
Director: Duncan Major
Producer: Maral Mohammadian | Animation & Interactive Studio | 100% NFB
- Imprint is an experimental animated short about creativity and loss. It’s inspired by the relationship between filmmaker Duncan Major and his friend and mentor, who passed away, leaving him a collection of rare printing presses.
Paradajz
Director: Matea Radic
Producer: Jelena Popović | Animation & Interactive Studio | 100% NFB
- After 25 years, filmmaker Matea Radic returns to Sarajevo and tells a hopeful tale of survival and self-discovery that reinforces the importance of “home” when one is searching for paradise.
Parandeh
Director: Ehsan Gharib
Producer: Maral Mohammadian | Animation & Interactive Studio | 100% NFB
- Parandeh is about the power of stillness. Its premise is simple and stands out in the blur of modern life. A bird is trapped in a cage. Only when it stops struggling does it find itself free.
Piluk
Directors: Elisapie Isaac and Marc Séguin
Producer: Marc Bertrand | French Animation Studio | 100% NFB
- A poetic meditation on identity, attachment to the land and the power of art as a source of human and spiritual guidance. Piluk leaves her remote world to join another: the world of the South and the city.
Something Over There
Director: Arash Akhgari
Producer: Jelena Popović | Animation & Interactive Studio | 100% NFB
- An endless parade of fragmented mass media and the audiences compulsively consuming them. A hypnotizing mix of collage, ink and paint becomes a space for introspection and reflects our viewing and reading habits.