Announcing the fifth and final nominee – Tsuki

Announcing the fifth and final nominee for best picture at Pendance…this touching Colombian short, Tsuki, by Mauricio Leiva-Cock. Tsuki made its world premiere at Palm Springs and will make its Canadian premiere at Pendance.

When the family’s pet rabbit goes missing, a young boy goes to extreme lengths to ensure the safety of their beloved family dog Tsuki. Written by my favorite Canadian director Mark Raso (Copenhagen, Kodachrome, Under) this film is a great representation of the work he, Mauricio, Mauro and David are doing over at Fidelio Pictures.

We patterned a lot of what we’re trying to do at Pensare based on examples we saw at Fidelio and Fuzzy Logic. I’m so proud that at our first festival, we have a chance to feature both studios twice (Damon’s Cul-de-Sac, Shawn’s Curfew, and Mauro’s A World for Raul)

Meet Clara Lezama, director of ‘Emma’

Meet Clara Lezama, a 23 year old filmmaker from Montevideo, Uruguay. Her short, Emma, won best #shortfilm at both FIEC and the Festival Piriápolis de Película.

Emma is a #suspense thriller about a woman (Chiara Hourcade) who while escaping something, winds up at a hotel. Once there, everything she sees only serves to heighten her paranoia. It’s a#davidlynch meets #hitchcock meets#guillermodeltoro effort resulting in claustrophobic #masterpiece.

There are very few filmmakers who could have pulled off a film like this- much less at 21 on a 4 day shoot without government funding.

#pendancefilmfestival salutes the #brilliant #film .

Helga & Rendez-Vous

And our final 2 announcements for official selections at Pendance are Tinna Hrafnsdóttir‘s beautiful short from Iceland, Helga, and from Montreal, Jimmy Boutry‘s short film Rendez-Vous. The films will screen in-competition for Best Short, and Best Canadian Short respectively.

Congrats to our first 5 selections- we’ll be announcing our final program of 15 selections on December 1st. See you at Pendance 2017!

Fuzzy Logic Pictures – 2 selections

We love Fuzzy Logic Pictures. The studio screens twice at Pendance 2017- first with a special out-of-competition screening of the Live-action Oscar winner Curfew, starring Fátima Ptacek (Dora the Explorer, Before I Disappear) and Shawn Christensen (Sidney Hall, Before I disappear). Next, in competition, we’ll screen the wonderful Cul-de-Sac, a thriller by Damon Russell, starring Shawn and Phoebe Tonkin (Vampire Diaries), a brilliant pairing. Follow the films here; Curfew (short film) and Cul•de•Sac – short film.

‘A Gentle Night’ is the first official selection

Qiu Yang’s 2017 Cannes Palme d’Or winning short film ‘A Gentle Night’ is the first official selection of the Pendance Film Festival.

Overcome with grief after her 13 year old daughter goes missing, a desperate mother goes out to search for her daughter in this nameless Chinese city. The film is a visual masterpiece, and we cannot express how pleased we are to announce its’ inclusion in our festival.