Dream in Technicolor of celebrating the New Year Jan. 3-13, 2014 at the 25th Palm Springs International Film Festival (PSIFF) in the Coachella Valley, California at one of the most exciting and largest film festival events of the award season. The Palm Springs International Film Festival is famous for its annual Black Tie Awards Gala, (already sold out) honoring the best achievements of the filmic year. Meryl Streep will receive the Icon Award and Tom Hanks, the Chairman’s Award at the PSIFF gala. In the past honorees have included: Ben Affleck, Javier Bardem, Cate Blanchett, Danny Boyle, Bradley Cooper, George Clooney, Daniel Day-Lewis, Leonardo DiCaprio, Clint Eastwood, Ron Howard, Helen Mirren, Sean Penn, Brad Pitt, Natalie Portman, Charlize Theron and Kate Winslet. It is a very exciting year for Canadian film.

This is a big year for Canadian film at PSIFF with a new program that places Canadian Cinema in the PSIFF spotlight. 12 Canadian films are being featured along with actors Brendan Gleeson, Jake Gyllenhaal, Taylor Kitsch, Mélanie Laurent, Aidan Quinn, Isabella Rossellini and Taylor Schilling. PSIFF places great importance on foreign film and will screen 45 of the 76 official submissions to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for Best Foreign Language Film. For our synopsis of the top 9 still in Oscar contention read more here. PSIFF will also screen Films selected to compete for the FIPRESCI Award in the Awards Buzz section, and Modern Masters.

 

Spotlight on Canadian Cinema

Canada receives the PSIFF spotlight for this year’s special focus on a country or region of the world making extraordinary strides in cinema. Included in the showcase will be an opening weekend reception and ‘Canadian Film Day’ highlighting Canadian filmmaking guests, sponsored by Telefilm Canada. The 12 films selected in the program include:

 

Enemy (Canada)

Director: Denis Villeneuve
Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Mélanie Laurent, Sarah Gadon, Isabella Rossellini

In a dual role, Jake Gyllenhaal stars as a professor who frantically seeks out his doppelganger, a struggling actor he spots in a film. The Oscar®-nominated director of Incendies and Prisoners puts a masterful spin on this mind-bending Kafkaesque mystery. Bonus: Denis Villeneuve on Jake Gyllenhaal

 

Siddharth (Canada)

Director: Richie Mehta
Cast: Mahendra Saini, Suman Saini, Ranjit Gahlot, Meena Gahlot, Roshni

A street merchant regrets sending away his 12-year-old son to work in a factory when the boy fails to return home for Diwali. Thus begins a desperate search, hindered by the man’s poverty, illiteracy, and the challenge of locating anyone in a country of a billion souls… MyETVmedia Review

 

Empire of Dirt (Canada)

Director: Peter Stebbings
Cast: Cara Gee, Shay Eyre, Jennifer Podemski, Luke Kirby, Jordan Prentice, Lawrence Bayne, Michael Cram

An affecting portrait of three generations of Cree women caught up in a cycle of teenage pregnancy and mistrust finally beginning to put their past behind them and figure out a way forward together… MyETVmedia Review

 

The Manor (Canada)

Director: Shawney Cohen

A documentary about your typical Jewish suburban family: mom, dad, two kids and the family business – a strip club in a place called Guelph… MyETVmedia Review

 

Patch Town (Canada)

Director: Craig Goodwill
Cast: Rob Ramsay, Zoie Palmer, Julian Richings, Suresh John, Scott Thompson, Ken Hall

Inspired by his award-winning short film that screened at Palm Springs ShortFest in 2012. Craig Goodwill’s wildly creative feature debut is a wacky, satirical musical fantasy about a grown-up toy who must battle a villainous corporation to reunite with his long-lost mother, protect his newfound family, and finally find freedom… On set interviews with filmmakers to follow.

 

The Auction (Canada)

Director: Sébastien Pilote
Cast: Gabriel Arcand, Gilles Renaud, Lucie Laurier, Sophie Desmarais, Johanne-Marie Tremblay, Gabriel Tremblay

In this honest portrait of a family in the midst of change, Sébastien Pilote gives us a pastoral tale of love and quiet sacrifice in rural Quebec, featuring a powerful performance by Gabriel Arcand.

 

Gabrielle (Canada)

Director: Louise Archambault
Cast: Gabrielle Marion-Rivard, Alexandre Landry, Melissa Désormeaux-Poulin, Vincent-Guillaume Otis, Benoit Gouin, Sébastien Ricard, Isabelle Vincent, Marie Gignac

Gabrielle Marion-Rivard gives an extraordinarily expressive, moving performance as a developmentally challenged young woman who falls in love with a boy she sings with in the choir – to the dismay of the young man’s overly protective mother.

 

Gerontophilia (Canada)

Director: Bruce LaBruce
Cast: Pier-Gabriel Lajoie, Walter Border, Katie Boland, Marie-Hélène Thibault

An 18-year-old lad with a penchant for pensioners takes a job in a care home and falls for an 81-year-old man. Shocking? The big shock here is that director LaBruce eschews his usual hardcore style for a film that is positively gentle and pleasing.

 

The Grand Seduction (Canada)

Director: Don McKellar
Cast: Brendan Gleeson, Taylor Kitsch, Liane Balaban, Gordon Pinsent, Mark Critch, Mary Walsh

Rollicking humor and quiet moments of whimsy anchor this droll comedy about some Newfoundland villagers, led by the great Brendan Gleeson’s wily fisherman, who use any means necessary to convince a big-city doctor (Taylor Kitsch) to save their community by settling in it.

 

Sarah Prefers to Run (Canada)

Director: Chloé Robichaud
Cast: Sophie Desmarais, Jean-Sébastien Courchesne, Geneviève Boivin-Roussy, Helene Florent, Eve Duranceau, Micheline Lanctot, Pierre-Luc Lafontaine, Benoit Gouin

Chloé Robichaud’s debut feature is a highly assured, subtle, observational film about a young middle-distance runner making the leap to a big city university team, but stumbling in the adult world of relationships and responsibilities.

 

Stay (Canada)

Director: Wiebke von Carolsfeld
Cast: Taylor Schilling, Aidan Quinn, Barry Keoghan, Nika McGuigan, Chris McHallem, Brian Gleeson, Michael Ironside

An appealing romantic drama, about a young woman ¬ living in Ireland with an ex-professor – whose unplanned pregnancy causes her to question her future.

 

Vic + Flo Saw a Bear (Canada)

Director: Denis Côté
Cast: Pierrette Robitaille, Romane Bohringer, Marc-André Grondin

Victoria, an ex-convict in her sixties, wants to start a new life in a remote sugar shack. Under the supervision of Guillaume, a young, sympathetic parole officer, she tries to get her life back on track along with Florence, her former cellmate with whom she shared years of intimacy in prison. Stalked by ghosts of the past, their new life together is unexpectedly jeopardized.

 
 

Moira Romano

 
 

See top Canadian stars and filmmakers on the Red Carpet in Toronto at a special TIFF 2013 event in Toronto hosted by Telefilm Canada and Birks Canada.

For last year’s 2013 PSIFF highlights see more here

You might also like: MyETVmedia’s best moments from the 2013 Venice and Toronto film festivals