Sarah Mannering

Vile & Miserable

In a world where books and cars share a sales floor, a misanthropic and immortal bookselling demon is forced to team up with a young, enthusiastic human assistant to save his bookstore.

Extras

EXT. DAY - A sunny Sunday morning on a café terrace: Isabelle, an actress whose career is in a rut, meets Johanne, her agent, who might have a new part for her. Tension mounts both at the table and in the surroundings.

Mamita

Mamita returns to Peru in order to attend her daughter’s wedding. She will soon have to go back to work in Montreal and provide for those she cherishes.

The Hearing

After crossing 11 countries irregularly to seek asylum in Canada, Peggy, Simon and their three children are waiting for the hearing that will determine whether they get refugee status or not. Having fled political repression in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the family tries to rebuild a peaceful life in Montreal, in spite of the constant threat of deportation. Between ghosts from the past, hopes for the future, a complex legal maze and seemingly endless trial, the film delves into the struggle of the Nkunga Mbala family to remain in Canada. Offering unprecedented access to their hearing before the Immigration and Refugee Board, the film unveils the opaque process of claiming asylum in Canada.

Days

Marie-Philip is a PhD student and part-time professor who loves cats and Harry Potter. But one week before her 29th birthday, she is diagnosed with breast cancer. For a year, without false modesty, we follow her through each step as she confides in us with shocking honesty. An ode to life, to courage and to the resilience of all those who fight every day against disease.

Stampede

After a difficult separation, Serge Jr. takes his daughter Lily, 9, on a truck ride across Canada. They head to Alberta and its legendary Badlands World’s Best Truck Rodeo, a race Lily and him have been dreaming about. On the road, under his daughter’s increasingly worried gaze, Serge will eventually need to face the music.

Like a House on Fire

Dara returns home to reconnect with her husband and her young daughter, whom she left two years earlier. When she arrives, she discovers that a woman who is seven months pregnant has taken her place and that her daughter no longer recognizes her.

Like the Ones I Used to Know

December 24, 1983, 10:50 p.m.; Julie and her cousins ate too much sugar, and Santa Claus is late. Denis, alone in his car, is anxious about setting foot in his former in-laws’ house to pick up his children.

Shooting Star

On a family trip to observe the shooting stars, Chloé, a withdrawn teenager, discovers a dazzling attraction for her mother’s new boyfriend.

Astres

Hyo-Jin attends the funeral of her younger sister in South Korea, her homeland. Denying the pain caused by her loss, she decides to shorten her stay in Korea and swiftly returns home to Montreal. But her sister’s death disturbs her daily life, triggering irrational thoughts despite her scientific and pragmatic spirit.

A Colony

Camille wanders through the countryside talking with frogs and chickens: she sails through life as a carefree soul. But for her older sister, the introverted Mylia, things are more complicated. Mylia is lost between the uncertainty in her family life, the superficial atmosphere at her new school and her first experiences at house parties. It is Camille who eventually introduces Mylia to Jimmy. The boy from the nearby Abenaki reserve is different and he encourages her to break free.

Mahalia Melts in the Rain

Mahalia, a timid 9-year-old black girl, feels different from the other girls in her ballet class. Hoping to boost her confidence, her mother brings her to the hair salon to get her hair straightened for the very first time.

Snowbirds

Every year, thousands of Quebecers flock south to escape the harsh winters. Using a quirky Wes Anderson–inspired aesthetic, Snowbirds examines their hibernation destination: the French-speaking community of Hallandale Beach in Florida. There we meet characters like Agathe, affectionately nicknamed "Aunty" by the other seniors, an 88-year-old Quebecoise who eats chocolate bars and drinks Pepsi for lunch. Her secret to a pill-free old age? A fanatical worship of the sun. Many others come for the same reason, and together their days at this campground community are dictated by English conversation classes, jaunts to the beach and afternoon lawn bowling. With lots of tenderness and good humour, the film considers the joys and woes of aging, the importance of community and American-Canadian cultural differences.

The Catch

Morgan loves fly fishing in the river near her home. She also likes boys. But boys don’t like girls who fish. Morgan can't seem to reconcile her two interests. Will she have to choose one and abandon the other?

Welcome to F.L.

A documentary portrait of high-school students in the Quebec city of Sorel-Tracy.

Lactée

Three women live together in a closed and quiet apartment. Aude, Emma and Anne have an ambiguous relationship. Aude's breasts start to produce milk, for no reason. Her two roommates become aware of this, and it disturbs slightly their microcosm.

Fucké

Seven lives come together amid the stench of beer and tobacco smoke in an apartment block where single rooms are for rent and the bathroom is in the hall. Only friendship, mutual aid and a healthy sense of humor allow these men, scarred by self-destruction and addiction, to face the harsh reality of their lives.

La Coupe

When Fannie offers her father to cut his hair, he accepts. Alain knows that his daughter will do it carefully and thoroughly, as usual. But an outside incident change their plans and confront the precariousness of this shared moment. The cut tells the story of a father and a daughter, between proximity and detachment, for the moment of an haircut. -Written by Colonelle films

Star

Star follows the path of Tito and Jay, two brothers living in the Montreal neighborhood of Park Extension. Accompanying these young people in their daily life marked by complicity and intimidation, Star tackles themes dear to teenagers: identity and friendship.