Each year, REGARD chooses about 200 films, to offer the best programming to festival-goers. Watching short films allows the programming team to discover artists that have a solid chance to gain notoriety in the next years. The component Shoot No Matter What! already showcases those promising emerging artists, but here are some examples of new talents included in other programs, and that were at REGARD for its 21st edition.
MAXIME AUBERT
Born in Lévis, he lives in Montreal since 2009, the year when he founded SLA Productions, a production cooperative also offering equipment rental services. Graduated from Concordia in Film Production since 2012, he works as a director for advertising content. La course navette is his first fiction short film outside of the academic setting. Maxime Aubert is the proud winner of REGARD 2017 Best Direction—Quebec Award for his film La course navette, presented in world premiere at the Festival.
GAËTAN REINE
Filmmaker and artistic explorer coming from Switzerland, he came to Canada with artistic projects ideas. He recently completed a degree in Interdisciplinary Arts at UQAC (2017). His explorations focus on writing, producing and directing fiction and documentary films. Hilarion is his first short film presented at REGARD during the 100% evening. It is an intimate work acclaimed by the public for its humility, its sensitivity, and its honesty.
BRENDA LIEN
Director born in Germany, Brenda works as an independent filmmaker and as a film music composer. Since 2012, she studies art at the Offenbach University of Art and Design. Her first film, Call of Beauty, was highlighting two slightly stupid young YouTubers making beauty treatment tutorials. Call of Cuteness strikes even more by using cat videos to show the senselessness and the futility of most parts of the Web content. Brenda Lien had the chance to talk about her cat film with derision during her visit to the Festival to the Vice Magazine reporter Simon Coutu. Following her stop at REGARD, she won the Best Short Short at Aspen’s Shortfest 2017.
PIERRE-ALEXANDRE GIRARD ET DANIEL ABRAHAM
Duo of electrical and multitasking directors, Dan and Pag love beautiful images. They met during their studies in Arts and Media Technologies at the Cégep de Jonquière. They already got themselves talked about during the 20th edition of REGARD with their movie La porte, presented as part of the regional evening in 2016. In competition this year, the duo of directors has presented Retour de qualité in world premiere.
ALEXANDRE DOSTIE
Alexandre Dostie is inspired by Quebec’s countryside, where he was born. His artistic work is self-taught, and reveals more in poetry and in performance. For the screen, he created the poetical Web series Sainte-Cécile in 2010. Mutants is his first fiction short film, and after its launch at the TIFF, where it has been awarded the prize for Best Canadian Short Film, the film distinguishes itself in national and international festivals. Indeed, a few months later, he won the award for Best Live Action Short Drama at the Canadian Screen Awards 2017.
"One of the privileges that we have with short films is the chance to discover new talents, promising filmmakers. This pleasure is even greater when we have the opportunity to watch them evolve by following their cinematographic career" says Mélissa Bouchard, the Festival’s Head of Programming.