News

The third feature film from Bretten Hannam, writer/director of the 2015 crime thriller North Mountain and the 2021 teen drama Wildhood, is currently filming in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and The Hollywood Reporter has revealed that the project is a supernatural thriller called Place of Ghosts. Forrest Goodluck, whose credits include The Revenant, How to Blow Up a Pipeline, Pet Sematary: Bloodlines, and Lawmen: Bass Reeves has a lead role alongside Blake Alec Miranda (To and From), his Pet Sematary: Bloodlines co-star Glen Gould, and Brandon Oakes (Diggstown).

Place of Ghosts centers on siblings Mise’l and Antle, close confidants as children who have drifted apart as adults. When a malevolent, rotting spirit of teeth and bones begins tormenting them, the siblings are forced to reunite and journey into Skite’kmujuekati’k, or the Place of Ghosts primordial forest that exists outside of time, to face their violent upbringing.

Hannam, who is a Two-Spirit L’nu filmmaker,...

The Revenant star Forrest Goodluck, Blake Alec Miranda, Glen Gould and Brandon Oakes have nabbed lead roles in Bretten Hannam’s supernatural thriller Place of Ghosts, now shooting in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Goodluck played Hawk, the son of Leonardo DiCaprio’s Hugh Glass in The Revenant. Hannam’s third feature film follows siblings Mise’l and Antle, close confidants as children who have drifted apart as adults.

When a malevolent, rotting spirit of teeth and bones begins tormenting them, the siblings are forced to reunite and journey into Skite’kmujuekati’k, or the Place of Ghosts primordial forest that exists outside of time, to face their violent upbringing.

“As Mise’l and Antle descend into the darkness of the forest, the emotions and the core of the story cut a visceral path through things left unsaid, leading to a different way of understanding each other, before doing battle with the...

Magnify has acquired global and U.S. sales rights (excluding Canada and Benelux) to “Wildhood” director Bretten Hannam’s supernatural thriller “Place of Ghosts,” which is set to go into production in August 2024.

Lorna Lee Torres, Magnify’s senior VP of sales, and Austin Kennedy, director of global sales, will be launching the project in Cannes.

In the film, estranged siblings Mise’l and Antle are forced to reunite after being visited by a vengeful spirit. They venture into the “Place of Ghosts,” a primeval forest of the Mi’kmaq people where time and memory blend together. As they journey deeper into the forest, the dark spirit continues to grow, manifesting in terrifying forms that the siblings must confront.

“Bretten Hannam has crafted an ambitious and thematically rich indigenous horror/fantasy that engages with political and social history and adds to the expanding world of original genre film,” Torres said.

Some 18 producers from 17 countries will attend workshops throughout 2023 and 2024.

Eve Gabereau of the UK’s Modern Films and Denmark’s Monica Hellstrom are among 18 independent producers selected for Ace 33, the latest intake for the Ace Producers Network.

The 18 producers from 17 different countries will attend three workshops throughout 2023 and 2024 with independent feature projects. The workshops will take place in Norway in October, on content development; in Warsaw, Poland in November, on financing strategies; and finally in France, looking at business strategies.

Scroll down for the Ace 33 selection

The producers will then join the Ace Network following the 2024 Ace meeting in Bordeaux,...

18 producers from 17 countries will attend workshops throughout 2023 and 2024.

Eve Gabereau of UK company Modern Films and Danish producer Monica Hellstrom are among 18 independent producers selected for Ace 33, the latest intake for the Ace Producers Network.

The 18 producers from 17 different countries will attend three workshops throughout 2023 and 2024 with independent feature projects. The workshops will take place in Norway in October, on content development; in Warsaw, Poland in November, on financing strategies; and finally in France, looking at business strategies.

Scroll down for the Ace 33 selection

The producers will then join the Ace Network following the 2024 Ace meeting in Bordeaux, France.

London-based...

June is National Indigenous History Month, and there’s no better time to enjoy some Indigenous-made entertainment.

Check out these recommendations of some of the top movies from a new generation of Indigenous filmmakers and actors who tell their own stories — their way.

Read More: Et Canada Honours National Day Of Truth And Reconciliation With ‘Indigenous Artists & Icons’

“Atanarjuat the Fast Runner”

Directed by by Inuit filmmaker Zacharias Kunuk, this 2001 drama was the first feature film in history to be written, directed and acted entirely in the Inuktitut language.

According to Kunuk, this screen adaptation of an ancient Inuit legend “demystifies the exotic, otherwordly aboriginal stereotype by telling a universal story.”

“Before Tomorrow”

Adapted from a Danish novel, this 2008 feature from directors Marie-Hélène Cousineau and Madeline Ivalu is the first feature film to be made by Arnait Video Productions, a women’s Inuit film collective.

Set in a small Inuit...

To mark the release of Wildhood, out now, we’ve been given Blu-ray copies to give away to 3 winners.

Escaping an abusive father with his younger half-brother in tow, the rebellious Link (Phillip

Lewitski) flees his trailer park home in search of his mother and a fresh start. On the way he meets Pasmay (Joshua Odjick), an indigenous two-spirit teenager who joins them as they travel across Mi’kmaq territory in rural Nova Scotia. As a close bond begins to form with Pasmay, Link learns to come to terms with his own complex heritage, racial identity and sexuality. Beautifully shot in stunning eastern Canada locations, Bretten Hannam’s finely crafted film is a critically acclaimed and sensitively observed tale of first love and self-acceptance.

Please note: This competition is open to UK residents only

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The Small Print

Open to UK residents only The competition will close 21st...

’The Forgiven’ and ‘Fall’ are also out this weekend.

After last weekend’s UK-Ireland box office results proved rather muted – no film reached the £1m mark for the first time since December 2020 – exhibitors and distributors will be anticipating a boost from this Saturday’s National Cinema Day (September 3), in which 560 venues across the UK will be offering tickets at just £3, for all screenings.

This weekend’s widest release comes from Entertainment Film Distributors’ Three Thousand Years Of Longing, playing in 545 cinemas. The Cannes 2022 premiere unites Tilda Swinton and Idris Elba and is George Miller’s first feature since 2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road.

Set in Nova Scotia, Bretten Hannam’s tremendously shot film follows two boys as they flee their abusive dad and embark upon a quest

Bretten Hannam’s road-trip quest is an essay in indigenous and queer identities set among the Mi’kmaw people of Nova Scotia: it’s a sometimes pious movie with rather ostentatiously beautiful imagery whose violent plot transitions in the opening act are a little forced. Yet there is an open-heartedness and gentleness in it, and a sense of style and place that reaches back to Malick and arguably even Mark Twain.

Link (Phillip Lewitski) and his younger half-brother Travis (Avery Winters-Anthony) live with their brutal and abusive white dad: mixed-race Link has dyed his hair blond, evidently in a confused attempt to deny his ancestry. He has always been told that his Native American mother is dead, but when he finds out that she may in...

Phillip Lewitski, Avery Winters-Anthony and Joshua Odjick in Wildhood Photo: Riley Smith

It’s one of the most enjoyable outsider films of the year, a film which has done the rounds of festivals like BFI Flare and Inside Out and is now screening on Hulu. Ten years in the making, Bretten Hannam’s Wildhood tells the story of half Mi’kmaw teenager Link (Phillip Lewitski) growing up with his abusive white father and deciding to run away after he learns that his mother didn’t die after all and has sent him lots of letters which his father hid. Not really knowing where to find her, and with his young half-brother Travis (Avery Winters-Anthony) in tow, he’s lucky to get help from two-spirit travelling performer Pasmay (Joshua Odjick). As Link learns more about what it means to be Mi’kmaw and reconnects with his roots, he and Pasmay begin falling for one another,...

How do you find yourself while running away from who you are? That’s the essential question at the heart of “Wildhood,” the impressive sophomore feature from Two Spirit L’nu filmmaker Bretten Hannam. Enlivened by elegant handheld cinematography and a galvanizing breakout performance from Phillip Lewitski, “Wildhood” is a beautiful testament to the power of authentic storytelling.

Filmed in English and Mi’kmaw, the film shares the Mi’kmaw culture with the greater world through the eyes of a wayward youth in search of his estranged mother. As he thrashes through the landscape with wild abandon, he slowly softens to the kind strangers he meets along the way, discovering himself with the gentle guidance of his people. It’s

“Wildhood” opens with Lincoln, or Link (Lewitski), hunched over as his little brother Travis (Avery Winters-Anthony) scrubs bleach into his hair in their modest trailer home. Stretching lithely in the mirror,...

This review of “Wildhood” was first published July 17, 2022, before its opening in Los Angeles.

Rather than a run-of-the-mill coming-of-age road trip, “Wildhood” is a young protagonist’s quest to bring harmony to the intersections of his identity. From writer-director Bretten Hannam — a Two-Spirit, non-binary individual — the wandering drama unfolds across the Mi’kmaq people’s territory in the Maritime Provinces of Eastern Canada.

To examine the queer experience through the lens of indigenous youth, Hannam centers on Lincoln, aka Link (Phillip Lewitski), a mixed-race teen who dyes his hair blond and doesn’t speak Mi’kmaq, the language of his mother’s people. On many fronts, he doesn’t truly know who he is yet. But the key to attaining some clarity, he finds out, has long been denied to him.

Link’s abusive and homophobic father kept secret the letters his mother sent him over the years. The realization that she didn’t die,...

Outfest has announced the lineup for its 2022 Outfest Fusion Qtbipoc Film Festival.

The Los Angeles-based festival will screen seven features, three episodic titles and 52 short films this year, which marks the 40th anniversary for Outfest and the 19th year of Outfest Fusion, founded in 2004 to spotlight queer and trans filmmakers of color. The seven feature titles are Micheal Rice’s “Black as U R,” Horacio Alcala’s “Finlandia,” William T. Horner and Stacey Woelfel’s “Keep the Cameras Rolling: The Pedro Zamora Way,” Marianne Amelinckx’s “Mustache Mondays (Artbound),” Émerson Maranhão’s “Transversals,” Quentin Lee’s “White Frog” and Bretten Hannam’s “Wildhood.”

“As we find ourselves back in a moment where our rights as Lgbtqia+ people are being taken away and our very existence silenced, we know these moves have a greater impact on Lgbtqia+ communities of color,” Outfest executive director Damien S. Navarro said in a statement. “We...

The inaugural season of CBC and HBO Max series “Sort Of” leads both the television and overall 2022 Canadian Screen Award nominations with 13 nods. CBC’s “Pretty Hard Cases” and CTV Sci-Fi Channel’s “Wynonna Earp” with 11 each, and CBC’s “Coroner” and “Kim’s Convenience” with 10 each are the other leading television nominees.

The Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television revealed on Tuesday 145 nominations across television, film and digital media categories. In film, Shasha Nakhai and Rich Williamson’s “Scarborough” and Danis Goulet’s “Night Raiders” top the nominations with 11 each, while Michael McGowan’s “All My Puny Sorrows” has eight and Bretten Hannam’s “Wildhood” and Ivan Grbovic’s “Drunken Birds” six each.

“21 Black Futures” and “For the Record” lead the digital media nominations with eight each, followed by “The Communist’s Daughter” with six.

Beth Janson, CEO, Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television, said: “We are so fortunate to...

Films Boutique (“Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom”) has acquired international sales rights to Vincent Kelner’s cinematic documentary feature “A Taste of Whale” ahead of the European Film Market.

“A Taste of Whale” is produced by Rémi Grellety, the Oscar-nominated and BAFTA-winning producer of Raoul Peck’s “I Am Not Your Negro” and HBO’s “Exterminate All The Brutes.”

The film looks at the centuries-old tradition of whale hunting in the Faroe Islands. Every year, nearly 1,000 pilot whales are hunted, beached and killed by knife in the fjords. This local whaling tradition, which is known locally as “grind,” dates back to the eighth century and has been denounced by international activists. On the other end, Faroese people are calling out the hypocrisy of those who eat meat without looking at what is happening in slaughterhouses.

Kelner, an experienced journalist and cinematographer who has worked on several TV productions in France and abroad,...

Mexico’s Oscar-shortlisted Prayers For the Stolen directed by Tatiana Huezo won the Fipresci Prize for Best International Feature Film at the Palm Springs Film Festival, which revealed its juried winners Wednesday despite being forced to cancel its 2022 edition.

The festival, which had been scheduled to run January 6-17 before being scrapped amid the latest Covid surge, is considered a must-stop for International Feature Oscar contenders, with 36 of the 93 official submissions this year slated for the lineup.

The Fipresci jury also awarded Asghar Farhadi’s Iranian Oscar hopeful A Hero two prizes, for Farhadi’s screenplay and best actor for Amir Jadidi. It won three prizes overall, also taking a Mozaik Bridging the Borders Award.

Agathe Roussell, the star of France’s Palme d’Or winner Titane, was named best actress by Fipresci jurors.

Huezo’s Prayers for the Stolen, which was released by Netflix in theaters and on the streaming platform in November,...

In North Mountain, Bretten Hannam’s debut feature, the director shakily refashioned the thriller genre by casting two-spirit Indigenous people in roles traditionally reserved for white men. The exciting, and at times clumsy, attempt at subversion put Hannam on the radar. Now, with Wildhood, which is adapted from Hannam’s 2019 short Wildfire and premiered at TIFF, the director (who uses gender-neutral pronouns) proves themselves a promising voice.

Wildhood combines the foundation of heartrending coming-of-age narratives with the feel-good elements of road trip flicks to create a delicate, not to mention visually appealing, sophomore film. Link (Phillip Lewitski), a two-spirit Mi’kmaw teenager, lives with his abusive ...

In North Mountain, Bretten Hannam’s debut feature, the director shakily refashioned the thriller genre by casting two-spirit Indigenous people in roles traditionally reserved for white men. The exciting, and at times clumsy, attempt at subversion put Hannam on the radar. Now, with Wildhood, which is adapted from Hannam’s 2019 short Wildfire and premiered at TIFF, the director (who uses gender-neutral pronouns) proves themselves a promising voice.

Wildhood combines the foundation of heartrending coming-of-age narratives with the feel-good elements of road trip flicks to create a delicate, not to mention visually appealing, sophomore film. Link (Phillip Lewitski), a two-spirit Mi’kmaw teenager, lives with his abusive ...

At the past two Toronto festivals, features from a new wave of Indigenous filmmakers — notably Jeff Barnaby’s “Blood Quantum,” Tracey Deer’s “Beans,” Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers’ “The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open” (co-directed with Kathleen Hepburn) —found acclaim and went on to connect with buyers and audiences beyond the borders of Canada.

Poised for similar traction, this year’s Toronto slate spotlights the past, present and future of Indigenous filmmaking across the festival’s public, industry and events programming. And just outside the festival frame, the Indigenous screen community is cued for non-stop action.

The Canadian government’s 2021 budget, unveiled in April, allocated $40.1 million over three years for the Indigenous Screen Office (Iso) to support screen-based content made by First Nations, Inuit and Métis creators — the largest investment in Indigenous screen sector since the launch of the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (Aptn) in 1999. Founded in 2018, the Iso is...

Berlin-based sales agency Films Boutique has acquired Bretten Hannam’s drama “Wildhood,” which world premieres in the Discovery section of Toronto Film Festival. The Canadian film stars Philip Lewitski, Joshua Odjick and Avery Winters-Anthony.

Gabor Greiner, COO of Films Boutique, said: “ ‘Wildhood’ is an amazing film for many reasons — besides coming from a Mi’kmaw director it is a queer/Two-Spirited Indigenous film introducing two very talented young First Nations actors. The film strikes not only through its beautiful cinematography and wild locations but with its attaching and emotional story of friendship, love and belonging – and an incredible soundtrack and pow wow dance.”

In the film, when Link discovers his Mi’kmaw mother is still alive, he runs away from home with his younger brother Travis, in a desperate gamble to start a new life. They’re soon joined by Pasmay, a pow wow dancer drawn to Link’s story.

BenedictionThe lineup has been unveiled for the 2021 edition of the Toronto International Film Festival, which will take place over 10 days (September 9-18) both in-person and physically in Toronto, and digitally across Canada. Wavelengths - FEATURESFutura (Pietro Marcello, Francesco Munzi, Alice Rohrwacher)The Girl and the Spider (Ramon Zürcher, Silvan Zürcher)Neptune Frost (Saul Williams, Anisia Uzeyman)A Night of Knowing Nothing (Payal Kapadia)Ste. Anne (Rhayne Vermette)The Tsugua Diaries (Maureen Fazendeiro, Miguel Gomes)Wavelengths - SHORTSThe Capacity for Adequate Anger (Vika Kirchenbauer)Dear Chantal (Querida Chantal) (Nicolás Pereda)earthearthearth (Daïchi Saïto)Inner Outer Space (Laida Lertxundi)Polycephaly in D (Michael Robinson)“The red filter is withdrawn.” (Minjung Kim)Train Again (Peter Tscherkassky)Midnight Madness After Blue (Dirty Paradise) (Bertrand Mandico)Dashcam (Rob Savage)Saloum (Jean Luc Herbulot)Titane (Julia Ducournau)You Are Not My Mother (Kate Dolan)Zalava (Arsalan Amiri)TIFF DOCSAttica (Stanley Nelson)Beba (Rebeca Huntt)Becoming Cousteau...

The Toronto Film Festival on Wednesday unveiled its lineups for the Contemporary World Cinema and Discovery programs as it ramps up toward the kickoff of its 46th edition September 9-18. The festival also solidified additional Gala and Special Presentation titles and took the wraps off TIFF Rewind, a new block that highlights memorable films from previous TIFF editions along with conversations and Q&As with directors and casts.

This comes after the festival last week announced that Dear Evan Hansen will be the opening-night film, while Zhang Yimou’s One Second will close it. It also revealed a portion of the Gala and Special presentation titles that featured films from directors Edgar Wright, Melanie Laurent, Barry Levinson, Antoine Fuqua, Jacques Audiard and Ted Melfi.

Today, TIFF added world premieres for Maya Forbes and Wallace Wolodarsky’s The Good House and Camille Griffin’s Silent Night to its Gala lineup, and...

New TIFF Rewind features filmmakers in conversation about memorable selections from the past.

World premieres of Ruth Paxton’s UK horror A Banquet, Agustina San Martín’s Argentinian genre tale To Kill The Beast and Sébastien Pilote’s Canadian period drama Maria Chapdelaine are among Contemporary World Cinema and Discovery selections announced by Toronto International Film festival.

Scroll down for full list of new titles

The festival also unveiled additional Gala and Special Presentations titles, and introduced TIFF Rewind featuring filmmakers in conversation about memorable selections from the past.

Gala screenings include the world premiere of Camille Griffin’s UK...

Three projects directed by women, one to be shot in French – a first for the Indigenous production pipeline.

Telefilm Canada has announced the eight filmmakers to receive backing under its $4m annual plan to support indigenous talent.

The line-up includes three projects directed by women, one to be shot in French (a first for the Indigenous production pipeline), and two featuring a mix of Indigenous languages, as well as English. Three of the films were recently announced under the Talent to Watch Program.

The selected projects are:

L’Inhumain

Director, writer and producer: Jason Brennan (Anishinaabe)

Language: French

Province: Quebec...

Completed in time to start making the festival rounds in September, short film Wildfire stars newcomer indigenous actors and explores what it means to be two-spirit — an indigenous identity under the transgender umbrella. Written and directed by Bretten Hannam, produced by Gharrett Patrick Paon, and starring Guillermo Knockwood, Bobby Pierro and Avery Winters-Anthony, Wildfire was created with the help of the Aboriginal Filmmaker Fellowship.

Wildfire follows two-spirit Mi’kmaw teenager Link and his young half brother Travis as they flee their abusive father and form their own family with fellow Native two-spirit teen Pasmay.

Casting the film was a journey of its own. Per a statement about the film, Hannam and Paon traveled to First Nations reserves and auditioned more than 50 Native teens for the lead roles, and did not require that auditioners had previous acting experience.

Wildfire will premiere on streaming platforms in 2019, but folks on the festival circuit...