A Canadian guide to the 2023 Cannes Film Festival

A solid group of Canadian filmmakers will be part of the Cannes Film Festival this year, as the prestigious event gets underway with new movies from Martin Scorsese, Wim Wenders, Todd Haynes and Pedro Almodvar.

Canada has various connections to the festival, which began Tuesday and runs until May 27, and to theMarch du Film, an industry event and market held in parallel.

This is your guide to all things Canadian on the Croisette this year.

The Weeknd, The Nature of Love and In Flames

In the Un Certain Regard section,Quebec filmmaker Monia Chokri's filmThe Nature of Love(French title: Simple comme Sylvain) will be the lone Canadian film in competition. The romantic dramedyfollows a wealthy woman who has an affair with a working class man.Chokri's filmA Brother's Lovecompeted in the same category in 2019, winning the Jury Coup de Coeur Award.

Meanwhile, Canadian singer and actor Abel Tesfaye known by his stage name The Weeknd is the star and co-creator of upcoming HBO dramaThe Idol. The series will premiere outside of competition at this year's festival. Lily Rose Depp plays a bad girl pop star who has atoxic dalliance with Tesfaye'sself-help cult leader.

Also highly anticipated is In Flames,Pakistani Canadian filmmakerZarrar Kahn'sfeature directorial debut. The horror film will have its world premiere at thefestival's Directors Fortnight, following a mother and daughter engulfed by evil after the death of the family patriarch.

Film in development

Two Canadian filmmakers will bring their projects tothe Cannes impACT Lab, a program meant to foster co-productions between countries. Thai Canadian producer and director Nach Dudsdeenaytha based in Vancouveris developing a feature calledAkashi, while Toronto-based Turkish Canadian filmmakerSibel Guvenc is developing her debut feature Lola.

The Docs-in-Progress Showcase from Telefilm Canada and the Rencontres Internationales du Documentaire deMontral(RIDM) includes four documentary projects looking for distribution: Sean Devlin'sAsogfollows a non-binary teacher and typhoon survivor;Laurence Lvesque'sMama no himitsu, about a Japanese Canadianwoman who returns to Japan to honour her late mother's memories;The Death Tourby Sonya Ballantyne and Stephan Peterson andPablo Alvarez-Mesa'sThe Soldier's Lagoon.

Short films

Telefilm's short film showcase Not Short on Talent returns to the festival year with seven selections:

• Teyama Alkamli'sI Never Promised You a Jasmine Garden, about a queer Arab woman in love with her best friend.
• Dada'sJoie de vivre, about a destabilizing breakfast table conversation between a couple.
• Derek Kwan's100 Days, in which a surprise guest arrives at a Chinese family's dinner.
• Karen Knox'sThe Comics, about two comedians who come to regret a joke they've told.
• Catherine Boivin's6 minutes/km, a dreamy vision of the filmmaker's morning runs.
• Olivier Ct'sThe Kings, a tale of two summer camp counsellors.
• Vanessa Magic'sThe Future Above Us, about a woman scared of moving to a newplanet after survivingan apocalyptic event.