Annual Spring showcase of Québec cinema returns to Toronto

Cinéfranco Spécial Québec

with Special Guests Pascal Plante, Bernard Émond

& Mélissa Lefebvre

presented by Cinéfranco and La Tournée du Cinéma Québecois on

Saturday, April 14 & Sunday, April 15, at the Carlton Cinemas

La Tournée du Cinema Québecois in partnership with Cinéfranco returns to Toronto for the annual Toronto showcase of the best of recent Québecois cinema - Cinéfranco Spécial Québec on Saturday, April 14 and Sunday, April 15 at the Carlton Cinemas.

Cinéfranco Spécial Québec 2018 presents 6 features and a program of shorts by Indigenous youth as well as special guests including esteemed director, playwright, novelist and essayist Bernard Émond and directors Pascal Plante and Mélissa Lefebvre.

Cinéfranco Spécial Québec opens on Saturday, April 14 at 2pm with a raucous comedy by director Nicolas Monette. In LE TRIP À TROIS, Estelle who leads a stable and predictable life with her husband and daughter decides to shake things up by pursuing a threesome.

At 4:30pm, special guest director Pascal Plante will answer questions about his movie LES FAUX TATOUAGES (Fake Tattoos), a drama about Théo, a shy guy who is blindsided at his 18th birthday celebration by a punk-rock romance.

Saturday’s program wraps at 7pm with director Bernard Émond (La Neuvaine) who will introduce and participate in a Q+A after a screening of his newest film. A road trip, POUR VIVRE ICI (A Place To Live) reunites Émond with actress Élise Guilbault. Guilbault plays a sixty-something woman who after her husband’s death travels from his small town on the Côte-Nord to visit his children in Montreal and the places of his childhood in Northern Ontario.

Sunday’s program begins at 2pm with Guillaume Lambert’s LES SCÈNES FORTUITES (My Intelligent Comedy). Thirty-something filmmaker Damien finds himself in debt, working in a post-house to stay afloat and unable to complete his film in this biting satire of the Québec film business.

A program of three shorts by young Indigenous filmmakers at 4:15pm is followed by BAGAGES, a documentary-hybrid that gives a voice to newly arrived teenaged immigrants in Montreal. Through drama, workshops and theatrical productions they speak of their experiences with remarkable wisdom, powerful emotion and disarming authenticity. Co-director Melissa Lefebvre will attend and give a Q+A.

Cinéfranco Spécial Québec 2018 wraps up with the 6pm screening of Québec cinema master Luc Picard’s period drama LES ROIS MONGOLS (Cross My Heart). Montreal, October 1970. Twelve-year-old Manon and her little brother Mimi are about to be placed in Foster Care.

Inspired by the current political crisis, she comes up with a plan and takes an old woman hostage to demand the right to choose her own future. Gripping, tender and moving, Cross My Heart is a vibrant story portraying the weaknesses and betrayals of adults as seen through the eyes of children.

Cinéfranco Spécial Québec is a window on the vibrant contemporary québécois movie scene.

For full program details, visit the Cinéfranco website www.cinefranco.com

BOX OFFICE – HOW TO PURCHASE TICKETS:

Buy tickets online with a credit card at www.cinefranco.com

Walk-up tickets 30 min. before each screening if available, may be purchased with cash only

Ticket Prices: $12, Senior & Students $10 + service fee

Special Package : 4 movies for $40 ($35 Seniors & Students) + service fee

Les Faux Tatouages; Pour vivre ici; Les Scènes fortuites; Les Rois mongols.

ABOUT CINEFRANCO

Since it was founded in xxxx by Artistic and Executive Director Marcelle Lean, Cinéfranco has become a major Francophone institution in the Toronto film landscape with a mandate to showcase francophone films rarely seen or not distributed in Toronto cinemas. Considering that fewer and fewer films are being released in theatres, Cinéfranco provides an essential platform to foster the appreciation of francophone films.

Therefore, Cinéfranco gives the unique opportunity for francophone film lovers to experience the films on a big screen, and for filmmakers to meet their audiences. Cinéfranco provides popular yet quality programming, from hilarious comedies to social dramas, through moving documentaries or captivating thrillers.

Cinéfranco produces three annual film festivals in Toronto: the Main Program in the fall, the Youth Program in winter and Spécial Québec in spring. In order to reflect the richness of francophone cultures, Cinéfranco also organizes several film-related activities throughout the year.

ABOUT THE TOURNÉE DU CINÉMA QUÉBÉCOIS

Presented in collaboration with Radio-Canada, the Tournée du cinéma québécois screens Quebec-made films from coast to coast to coast, making it the largest Canada-wide promotional activity for the province’s cinema. Through this tour, Québec Cinéma provides a high-profile showcase for artists and filmmakers, including exceptional opportunities for audiences and filmmakers to meet.

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