NFB's Bread Will Walk Selected For Cannes Directors Fortnight

Cannes is probably the world's most prestigious film festival. Selection for the festival is a great honour- and that's as true for animation as for live-action film. The National Film Board Of Canada have announced that they will be in France this summer, with their short Bread Will Walk which has been selected to screen in The Director's Fortnight. Actor Jay Baruchel voices all the characters in the original English language version of the film, which is described as a "frenetic, surrealist satire of our dehumanizing society." The film is designed in a single continuous shot (what would be described in live-action as a "oner").

Organised by the Société des Réalisatrices et Réalisateurs de Films, The Director's Fortnight is a sidebar selection at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival and runs from May 14 to May 24. Bread Will Walk will then screen in competition at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival from June 8 to June 14.

Bread Will Walk is directed by Bulgarian-born, Montreal animator Alex Boya. In the film, a devoted sister flees with her brother, a benevolent bread-turned zombie. A mob pursues, mouths agape. Streets turn into mazes, reason dissolves and hunger reigns. Can love defy appetite?

The film was born out of director Alex Boya's reflection on overconsumption and its dehumanising effects. Subverting the symbolism of bread, Boya creates a world where staple food becomes propaganda, and love tries to defy hunger. The sound design is by Olivier Calvert and the score was composed by Martin Floyd Cesar.

“The NFB is a unique creative space that also stands out for its ability to innovate and take risks. Over the years, it has nurtured the careers of many emerging filmmakers and helped discover new talent" said Suzanne Guèvremont, Government Film Commissioner and Chairperson of the NFB. "One such talent is Alex Boya, who made his first film, Focus (2014), as a participant in the NFB’s Hothouse animation mentorship program. The selection of Bread Will Walk for the Directors’ Fortnight speaks to the creative and visionary strengths of the NFB’s animation units and its artists. Hearty congratulations to Alex Boya and to everyone at the NFB who contributed to this wonderful film!”

“With his edgy, unorthodox visual approach, Alex Boya treats us to a brilliant, continuous shot filled with surreal metamorphoses, blending hand-drawn animation, painting and digital collage, and in the process reinventing the language of animation, " said Christine Noël, Executive Producer, French Animation Unit and English Animation Unit, NFB. "We’re extremely proud that it has been selected for the Directors’ Fortnight, a celebration and showcase of unique artistic visions, which are a hallmark of the creative lab philosophy of our animation units at the NFB.”