Air Canada 2014 enRoute Film Festival Features Ten Quebec Directors - Quebec sees a record year for participation

MONTREAL, Oct. 14, 2014 /CNW Telbec/ - Air Canada is proud to officially launch the eighth annual Air Canada enRoute Film Festival, which highlights the talent of the next generation of Canadian film makers. In November, the festival will announce the winners of Best Short Film, Achievement in Direction, Achievement in Cinematography, Achievement in Animation, and, new this year, Achievement in Documentary.

For the second consecutive year, a preview event will be held in Montreal at the Centre Phi on November 3rd, while the winners will be crowned at a celebration in Toronto on November 5th. The Montreal event is free to the public and will feature an educational panel for emerging filmmakers, a screening and a networking reception. The panel will be streamed live on enRouteFilm.com on November 3^rd at 6pm.  

Talent from La Belle Province in the spotlight
The festival grew significantly this year, with submissions increasing by nearly 40%. Of these films, 34% were submitted by Quebec filmmakers. Half of the twenty films selected for competition are from young Quebec-based artists:

• Claire Sanford - Rheo
• Didier Pigeon-Perreault - Les petites heures
• Fabrice-Édouard La Roche-Francoeur - L'amour à l'âge atomique
• Emilie Baillargeon – À l'horizon
• Florence Pelletier - Bromance
• Laura Stewart - Blobby
• Raquel Sancinetti - Cycle
• Renaud Lessard - Les enfants sauvages
• Russell Ratt-Brascoupe – The Hearing
• Sindre Ulvik Péladeau - La dérive

Three awards finalists from Quebec
The Hearing from Russell Ratt-Brascoupe, Cycle from Raquel Sancinetti and Les enfants sauvages from Renaud Lessard are in the race with Light by Yassmina Karajah of Vancouver for the festival prizes: Achievement in Direction, Achievement in Cinematography, Achievement in Animation, Achievement in Documentary and the Best Short Film Award. The winner of the Best Short Film Award will receive a cash prize of $5,000 courtesy of Cineplex Entertainment. All winners will receive an all-inclusive trip for two to the Berlin International Film Festival, courtesy of Air Canada.

Star-studded jury
Air Canada enRoute Film Festival has once again assembled a panel of renowned film industry players who will determine this year's prize winners. Don McKellar (director of The Grand Seduction, Last Night) will chair the jury and will share the task of deliberating with nine other professionals, including Quebecers Louise Archambault (director of Gabrielle, Familia), Luc Déry (producer of Enemy, Incendies) and Michael Fukushima (producer and director of Dimanche, cNote, and Executive Producer of the NFB's English Animation Studio in Montreal).

From August to December 2014, millions of Air Canada passengers can view all of the selected short films on their personal entertainment system, which offers 600 hours of digital movies, television and music entertainment, available on demand at the touch of a finger. Additionally, the general public can take part online at www.enroutefilm.com for a chance to win two tickets to the North American destination of their choice by voting for their favourite film.

For more information about the festival and the films in competition, please visit the
Air Canada enRoute Film Festival website at www.enroutefilm.com

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About Air Canada's enRoute In Flight Entertainment:
Air Canada's enRoute In-flight Entertainment offers over 600 hours of on-demand entertainment available free of charge at the touch of a finger. Its gate-to-gate in-flight entertainment programming features up to 150 movies in all genres, including the latest Hollywood and independent titles produced locally and internationally in more than 20 languages, up to 200 TV shows including the most popular TV series, interesting documentaries and our very own ACTV channel, over 100 albums and playlists in all musical genres and entertaining and informative audio books and podcasts. Air Canada's enRoute In Flight Entertainment is programmed by Spafax, one of the world's leading custom publishers and providers of in-flight media, with offices in eight cities around the world. Spafax is a part of the specialist communications division of WPP. http://enroute.aircanada.com/

About Air Canada
Air Canada is Canada's largest domestic and international airline serving more than 180 destinations on five continents.  Canada's flag carrier is among the 20 largest airlines in the world and in 2013 served more than 35 million customers.  Air Canada provides scheduled passenger service directly to 60 Canadian cities, 49 destinations in the United States and 73 cities in Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Australia, the Caribbean, Mexico and South America. Air Canada is a founding member of Star Alliance, the world's most comprehensive air transportation network serving 1,316 airports in 192 countries.  Air Canada rewards its most loyal customers through its top tier recognition program, Altitude, that offers frequent flyers a range of priority travel services, lounge access and upgrades to Executive Class, complementing their membership in Aeroplan, Canada's premier loyalty program, which provides numerous ways to earn and redeem Aeroplan Miles with over 150 travel and retail partners.

Air Canada is the only international network carrier in North America to receive a Four-Star ranking according to independent U.K. research firm Skytrax.  In 2014, Air Canada was ranked for a fifth consecutive year "Best Airline in North America" in a worldwide survey of more than 18 million airline passengers conducted by Skytrax.  According to the 2013 Canadian Business Travel Survey conducted by Ipsos Reid, Air Canada was the preferred airline for more than 80 percent of frequent business travellers in Canada.  In 2013, readers of Global Traveler magazine again voted Air Canada "Best Airline in North America," the readers of Business Traveler voted Air Canada "Best North American Airline for International Travel" and "Best North America Airline Inflight Experience," and the readers of Premier Traveler voted Air Canada "Best North American Airline for International Travel" and "Best Flight Attendants in North America."  For more information on Air Canada visit aircanada.com, follow @AirCanada on Twitter and join Air Canada on Facebook.

 

SOURCE: Air Canada's enRoute

Paule Claveau, BICOM Communications, [email protected]; Isabelle Arthur, Manager, Media relations and Manager, Air Canada Foundation, at [email protected] or 514.422.5788