Take a deep breath. Close your eyes. Dream. After all, the pandemic has not stopped us from dreaming – and considering the virus’s impact around the world, that makes us fortunate. All year, we’ve dreamed of this summer edition, turning over every possibility. In the end, we managed to make the most of a difficult situation, so that we can continue to honour short films and their makers and enjoy this 25th edition with you, our loyal audience.

The format is clearly different, but one key thing isn’t: our commitment to maintaining the highest standards for the nine programs in the official competition.

Most of the Quebec-made films in our festival are just starting their journey, while the international selections include some fresh new films alongside the year’s very best. They explore universal themes like family, friendship, love, chance encounters, culture clashes and inner struggles. As a whole, the films in the competition are deeply human, and they help bring us closer together. Plus, some of the films highlight music, dance, poetry and slam.

 The parallel competition also has plenty of exciting entries: Shoot No Matter What! just keeps getting better every year; Americana is cinematic balm to bring the Americas together; and this year’s big new section, the 100% Régions competition, is the first of its kind in Quebec: a selection focusing exclusively on regional films. To top it off, we have some great podcasts to tell you more about the filmmakers in the various competitions.

As far as themes go, the Body Language program expresses our love of dance, language and the human body. The unconventional takes the spotlight with the Films de Genre evening, and we’re staying decidedly feminist with the Sex Education program and our all-women jury.

 All of these excellent programs will be shown multiple times in the Festival’s theatres, so that as many people as possible can see them. But we couldn’t hold the festival in June without also spending some time outside, so we decided to set up a drive-in theatre in the heart of Chicoutimi, complete with fun activities and live performances like A Tribe Called Red/The Halluci Nation and Clay & Friends before each screening.

Young cinephiles and their parents will be happy to experience Family shorties and Big kids shorts once again, only this time they’ll be at the drive-in. As for teens, they’ll have the run of Place du Citoyen for the #13-17 program. The same central location will also host three Short & Sweet programs, to be shown every day to the delight of passersby. Lastly, the fun continues online starting June 14, with the entire program available for two weeks.

The team can’t wait to see you from June 7 to 28 for this first-ever hybrid REGARD, which is also our one and only summertime edition! Enjoy the show, happy 25th – and here’s to the next 25!

- The programming team

Photo : Mélissa Bouchard, director of programming

Crédit photo : Patrick Simard