Telefilm Canada supports 11 new English-language feature-film projects for a total investment of $9 million

Montreal, March 19, 2012 − Telefilm Canada is supporting the production of 11 English-language feature films through the Canada Feature Film Fund (CFFF). A total of $9 million is being invested in the selected projects, which come from the Western, Ontario-Nunavut, Quebec and Atlantic regions.

Atlantic Region

Roaming
Writer/director: Michael Ray Fox
Production: MacQueen Productions (principal applicant)

Roaming is the winner of the inaugural First Feature Project award from Film Nova Scotia and Telefilm Canada. William, a reclusive game designer, runs into flighty movie publicist Olivia, a girl from his past, who inspires him to finish work on his mobile cellphone game. Their relationship helps William learn to deal with his autism and with his difficult past, as he begins to see a more hopeful future for himself.

Quebec Region

Whitewash
Director: Emanuel Hoss-Desmarais
Writer: Marc Tulin
Production: micro_scope (principal applicant)

One drunken night, Bruce Landry runs over a man with his sidewalk snowplow. After burying the body, he wakes up deep in a snowbound woods with no idea where he is. He tries to find his way out of the forest but every road leads inexorably back to his yellow snowplow. As the days go by, ever more dependent on the instrument of his crime for his very survival, Bruce must come to grips with his guilt, confusion, solitude and the cruelty of nature. Against the backdrop of a Northern Quebec winter, Whitewash is a psychological thriller that follows a man imprisoned in the forest as he struggles for survival and desperately seeks the road to redemption and sanity.

Maïna
Director: Michel Poulette
Writer: Pierre Billon
Production: Productions Thalie (principal applicant)

In the aftermath of a bloody confrontation between her clan, the Presque Loups and the “Men from the Land of Ice”, Maïna, daughter of Grand Chief Mishtenapuu, finds herself on a mission that will change the course of her life. In order to fulfill a promise made to her friend Matsii as she lay on her deathbed, Maïna must follow the trail of her enemies to retrieve Nipki, an 11-year-old boy who has been captured by the Inuit. It is through her eyes that we will discover these fascinating civilizations that founded America.

Ontario and Nunavut Region

13 Eerie
Director: Lowell Dean
Writer: Christian Piers Betley
Production: Minds Eye Entertainment (principal applicant)
Distribution: Entertainment One

Six ambitious forensic undergrads are pitted against one another on a scientific expedition to a remote island, vying to win an esteemed trainee position with the FBI. Unbeknownst to everyone, the site was formally used as an illegal biological testing grounds for life-term criminals who were left for dead. Behind the mission is Professor Tomkins, who together with FBI agent Veneziano have devised a series of experiments to test the would-be agents to their limits.

The Black Marks
Writer/director: Jonathan Sobol
Production: Darius Films (principal applicant)
Distribution: Alliance Films

Starring Jay Baruchel, Kurt Russell and Matt Dillon, Crunch Calhoun is a third-rate motorcycle daredevil and semi-reformed art thief who agrees to get back into the con game and pull off just one more lucrative art theft with his untrustworthy brother Nicky. Crunch reassembles the old team and comes up with a plan to steal a priceless historical book, but the successful heist leads to another, far riskier, plan in this con movie about brotherhood, honor and revenge.

The Lesser Blessed
Writer/director: Anita Doron
Production: Gen One Films (principal applicant)
Distribution: Entertainment One

Adapted from the powerful and irreverent first novel by Tlicho author Richard Van Camp, the movie, like the book, promises to give us one of the most original teenage characters in recent Canadian cinema. Larry is a Tlicho Indian growing up in the small northern town of Fort Simmer. His tongue, hallucinations and fantasies are hotter than the centre of the sun. At sixteen, he loves heavy metal music, the North and Juliet Hope, the high school “hottie”. When Johnny Beck, a Métis from Hay River, moves to town, Larry is ready for almost anything. The Lesser Blessed is an eye-opening depiction of what it is to be a young Native man in today’s modern world.

Mad Ship
Writer/director: David Mortin
Production: Enigmatico Films (principal applicant)
Distribution: D Films Corporation

The story of a Norwegian immigrant, driven to madness by ruined dreams and the tragic death of his wife, who embarks on a quixotic mission to build a homemade ship and sail out of the prairie dust bowl at the height of the Great Depression.

Western Region

My Awkward Sexual Adventure
Director: Sean Garrity
Writer: Jonas Chernick
Production: julijette (principal applicant)
Distribution: Phase 4 Films

To win back his unsatisfied ex-girlfriend, conservative accountant Jordan Abrams enlists the help of Julia – an uninhibited exotic dancer – to guide him on a quest for sexual experience, leading him into a world of strip clubs, sensual massage parlors, cross-dressing and S&M.

Random Acts of Romance
Director: Katrin Bowen
Writer: Kevin McComiskie
Production: Random Romance Productions (principal applicant)

A feature comedy about intense characters in extreme relationship situations – and the crazy and obsessive behaviors that spring from this thing called love. The story is paced like an emotional roller coaster, punctuated by moments of uncomfortably illuminating hilarity as characters confront situations we all identify with.

Space Milkshake
Writer/director: Armen Evrensel
Production: Foundation Features Inc. (principal applicant)

Four blue-collar astronauts bring a mysterious device aboard their ship and are stuck together on a sanitation station. All life on Earth having vanished, they find themselves confronting galactic-level crises and try to find out what’s causing one of their officers to behave in a very bizarre manner. Little do they know they are about to come under attack by a mutating rubber duck named Gary, who wants to take over the universe.

Rufus
Writer/director: David Schultz
Production: Lonely Boy Productions Inc. (principal applicant)

Rufus isn’t sure what he is. Hunted, poked and prodded for the last two hundred years, he knows people are always pegging him as this or that. It’s all about what box you fit into. If there really are vampires, Rufus has never met one. Sure he has some quirks. Who doesn’t? Rufus doesn’t sleep, eat or drink. He doesn’t age or feel the passage of time. He’s a boy and will always remain so. So what if he likes the taste of blood? It’s not like he’s addicted. Rufus can take it or leave it – most of the time.

Telefilm Canada announced its funding decisions for French-language projects supported by the Canada Feature Film Fund on December 22, 2011.

Telefilm Canada
Telefilm is dedicated to the cultural, commercial and industrial success of Canada’s audiovisual industry. Through its various funding and promotion programs, Telefilm supports dynamic companies and creative talent here at home and around the world. Telefilm also administers the programs of the Canada Media Fund. Visit telefilm.ca and follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/telefilm_canada.

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Media inquiries:
Douglas Chow, Manager, External Communications
Telefilm Canada
514-283-0838, ext. 2225, or 1-800-567-0890
chowd@telefilm.gc.ca