Monica's News | |
---|---|
Directed by | Pamela Gallant |
Screenplay by | Pamela Gallant |
Produced by | Terry Greenlaw |
Starring | Polly Gallant-Maclean |
Cinematography | Peter Wunstorf |
Edited by | Kimberlee McTaggart Maria Psaila |
Music by | Neil Haverty |
Production company | Picture Plant |
Release date |
|
Running time | 84 minutes |
Country | Canada |
Language | English |
Monica's News is a Canadian drama film, directed by Pamela Gallant and released in 2024. [1] The film stars Polly Gallant-Maclean as Casey Richards, a young girl living in smalltown Nova Scotia in the 1970s who starts to establish her own independence by taking a newspaper delivery route despite that not being a common job for girls in that era, only to see her idealism challenged when her older cousin Monica (Elisa Paszt) is murdered.
The cast also includes Kevin Kincaid, Allegra Fulton, James Gilbert, Jessica Gallant, Vox Smith, Hank White, Emma Vickers, Allister MacDonald, David Mortimer, Stacy Smith, Morgan Melnyk, Isaac Leblanc, Maria Young, Wiljo Martin, Mark A. Owen, Lesley Smith and Cooper Watson in supporting roles.
In advance of the film's production, Gallant won the $200,000 Women in the Director's Chair award at the 2019 Whistler Film Festival for the screenplay treatment. [2]
The film entered production in July 2023, with shooting locations including Halifax and Ellershouse, Nova Scotia. [3]
The film premiered at the 2024 Atlantic International Film Festival. [4]
The film was longlisted for the 2024 Jean-Marc Vallée DGC Discovery Award. [5] At AIFF, Kimberlee McTaggart won the award for Best Atlantic Canadian Editing, and Gallant-Maclean received an honorable mention for the best acting award. [6]
The Atlantic International Film Festival is a major international film festival held annually in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada since 1980. AIFF is the largest Canadian film festival east of Montreal, regularly premiering the region's top films of the year, while bringing the best films of the fall festival circuit to Atlantic Canada.
Heather Young is a Canadian filmmaker based in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.
Chloé Leriche is a Canadian film director from Montreal, Quebec. Her debut feature film, Before the Streets , received six Canadian Screen Award nominations at the 5th Canadian Screen Awards in 2017, including Best Picture and a nod for Leriche as Best Director.
Black Cop is a Canadian drama film, which premiered at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival. The full-length directorial debut of actor Cory Bowles, the film is an expansion of his earlier short film of the same name.
Matthew Rankin is a Canadian experimental filmmaker. His feature-length debut, The Twentieth Century, premiered in 2019 and was nominated for eight Canadian Screen Awards, winning three.
Bretten Hannam is a Canadian screenwriter and film director.
Little Orphans is a 2020 Canadian drama film, directed by Ruth Lawrence. The film stars Emily Bridger, Rhiannon Morgan and Marthe Bernard as Gwen, Kay and Janet, three young adult sisters whose lives have been haunted by being abandoned by their mother in childhood, who are reuniting in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador for Janet's wedding.
The Jean-Marc Vallée DGC Discovery Award is an annual Canadian award, presented by the Directors Guild of Canada to honour works by emerging filmmakers.
Wildhood is a 2021 Canadian coming-of-age romantic drama film, written, produced, and directed by Bretten Hannam.
Cinema of Sleep is a 2021 Canadian psychological thriller film, directed by Jeffrey St. Jules. The film stars Dayo Ade as Anthony, a Nigerian refugee staying in a motel room while he waits for his asylum claim to be processed, who wakes up from a strange dream in which he is watching a film of himself being arrested for murdering a woman, only to find the woman from his dream actually dead in bed next to him.
Night Blooms is a 2021 Canadian drama film, written and directed by Stephanie Joline. The film stars Jessica Clement as Carly, a teenage girl from a dysfunctional family in Nova Scotia who initiates an affair with her best friend's father Wayne.
Rosie is a 2022 Canadian comedy-drama film, written, produced, and directed by Gail Maurice. Maurice's feature directorial debut and an expansion of her 2018 short film of the same name, the film centres on Rosie, a young First Nations girl who is sent to live with her aunt Frédérique in Montreal after her mother's death, and learns the value of rebuilding chosen family from Fred and her two-spirit friends Flo and Mo.
Mass for Shut-Ins is a Canadian drama film, directed by Winston DeGiobbi and released in 2017. The film stars Charles William McKenzie as Kay Jay, an aimless slacker living with his grandfather Loppers in New Waterford, Nova Scotia and navigating his fraught relationship with his delinquent older brother September.
The Queen of My Dreams is a 2023 Canadian-Pakistani comedy-drama film, written and directed by Fawzia Mirza in her feature directorial debut. The film is based on Mirza's theatrical stage play Me, My Mom & Sharmila, which in turn was based on her 2012 short film The Queen of My Dreams.The film stars Amrit Kaur as Azra, a Pakistani Canadian woman who has had a strained relationship with her parents since coming out as lesbian, who undergoes an emotional journey after the sudden unexpected death of her father Hassan.
Hailey Rose is a Canadian comedy-drama film, directed by Sandi Somers and released in 2023. The film stars Em Haine as Hailey, a young woman who has been estranged from her family for ten years after being unfairly blamed for the death of her father in a fishing accident, who must return home to Nova Scotia and come to terms with her past after her sister Rose calls to tell her that their mother Olga has died.
Melanie Oates is a Canadian writer, filmmaker and costume designer, whose directorial debut feature film Body and Bones was released in 2019.
The 2024 edition of the Atlantic International Film Festival, the 44th edition in the event's history, took place from September 11 to 18, 2024 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The first films in the program were announced on July 25, with the full program announced on August 14.
Liz Cairns is a Canadian film director and production designer from Vancouver, British Columbia. She is most noted as a production designer on the 2017 film Never Steady, Never Still, for which she and Sophie Jarvis received a Canadian Screen Award nomination for Best Art Direction/Production Design at the 6th Canadian Screen Awards in 2018, and for her 2021 short film The Horses, which won the award for Best British Columbia Short Film at the 2021 Vancouver International Film Festival.
Sweet Angel Baby is a Canadian drama film directed by Melanie Oates, and released in 2024. The film stars Michaela Kurimsky as Eliza, a woman living in a small town in Newfoundland and Labrador whose place in the community is challenged when her secret social media persona, and her private romantic relationship with Toni are unexpectedly exposed.
Seguridad is a Canadian documentary film, directed by Tamara Segura and released in 2024. The film is a personal exploration of the life of her father Jorge, examining her discovery of a family secret that provided her with profound new insight into how he became an alcoholic whose propensity toward violent outbursts when drinking had profoundly negative and painful effects on her childhood, ultimately forcing her to estrange herself from him and move to Canada from their native Cuba.