TelefilmCanada has announced it will back ten projects, six in English and four inFrench, as part of its $1.3m (C$1.7m) Low Budget Independent Feature FilmAssistance Program (LIFAP). All the films are budgeted under $570,000(C$750,000).

Theprogramme, introduced in 2000, was given a boost last year when one of itsrecipient projects, Jacob Tierney's Twist, landed an invitation to the 2003 Venice FilmFestival. Telefilm Canada's English operations national sector head forfeature film Ralph Holt promised the new slate of productions would be ofsimilar quality.

Theselected projects offer a variety of genres, including dramatic comedy,children entertainment and a road movie.

The Englishprojects are:

A BugAnd A Bag Of Weed, dir.David Gonella
Peter Jones has been haunted for 17 years by a certain high school event.Fast-forward 17 years, and Peter is still living with the ghosts of high school- literally.

FourthLife, dir. FrancoisMiron
A woman arrives in a mysterious town to find it in an apocalyptic state: layoffs, closed factories, and underground mobs blowing up facilities in a waragainst Capitalism.

Ill-fated, dir. Mark Lewis
A tragic-comedy about a young man, Jimmy, trying to escape his social andgenetic prison and the small town of Thithily

Kardia, dir. Susan Rynard
Hope Johnston is a 50-year-old female pathologist. Her story unfolds within onemoment of time - the brief instant when her heart stops. This momenttriggers Hope to embark on an unusual journey to find the truth about her dad.

Letters, dir. Ralph Assef
A mugger falls in love with one of his victims and struggles to balance therelationship with his secret life of crime and the secret reason why he mustcarry it on.

The LimbSalesman, dir.Anais Granofsky
A doctor specializing in limb regeneration travels from the decrepit metropolisof 'City' to the barren regions of the North. His assignment: heal the invaliddaughter of a wealthy, but morally corrupt, water exporter.

The French projects are:

Pellerin, dir. SophieDeraspe
A mock documentarywhich combines interviews with direct cinema, this feature delves into theflamboyant yet enigmatic life of a fictitious idol of the Montreal art scene.

LaPromesse, dir. JeanChateauvert
A story of a brother and sister whose incestuous relationship has continuedinto adulthood and who must confront the inevitability of its end.

PrenezVos Places, dir. Marc-ThomasDupuis
A story about two film students who hang out at bars, talkingabout everything and nothing, and who decide one day to make a movie. Abilingual comedy in the style of Eric Rohmer.

Therapie, dir. Roger Boire
Subtitled"How to be an asshole and score with women", the story follows niceguy loser Louis who tests the theory.

Topics