Montreal-based h264 heads to the EFM in Berlin with international distribution rights to The Portraitist (La Portraitiste), a French-Canadian period piece with touches of magical realism that is scheduled to begin shooting in spring.
Annie St-Pierre will direct from a script by the multi-disciplinary artist Florence Longpré that sees both make their narrative feature debuts. Producer Max Films is eyeing a 2027 release and will announce casting in due course.
Set in Montreal in 1962, the story centres on Françoise, a police station receptionist who leads a stifled life controlled by her husband Germain and sanctioned by her aunt Agathe.
When she is unexpectedly asked to sketch the composite of a suspect, the experience rekindles her passion for drawing and reveals her telepathic gift. Françoise’s prophetic intuition draws her into an investigation alongside Sergeant Stevenson where long-buried family secrets echo her own past.
St-Pierre has directed documentaries such as 2025 SXSW selection Your Higher Self (Le Plein Potential) and 2022 Oscar-nominated live-action short and 2021 Sundance selection Like The Ones I Used To Know (Les Grandes Claques).
Longpré’s credits include creator and co-writer on Last Summers Of The Raspberries, which debuted in the 2022 Berlinale Series section. She is in development at Canal+ on the second season of her 2025 Series Mania audience award-winning series Empathy (Empathie), in which she also stars.
“Working with Florence Longpré and Annie St-Pierre feels like having access to a true dream team,” Roger Frappier of Max Films said. “Florence brings an extraordinary intelligence and a rare sensitivity to character while Annie’s vision give the story both depth and direction. Their collaboration give me absolute confidence that this story will resonate deeply with audiences.”
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