Canadian creators are out in full force and in competition at Canneseries this year, presenting three original projects blending comedy, social criticism and the prevailing themes of our times.
Meet this year’s Canneseries creators!
Audrey est revenue (Audrey’s Back)
This 10-episode series revolves around a 34-year-old woman (Florence Longpré) who wakes up miraculously from a coma, 16 years after being found unconscious on a rural road. With the help of her now-divorced parents André and Mireille (Denis Bouchard and Josée Deschênes), her brother Clément (Dominic St-Laurent), her well-meaning stepfather Marcel (Martin-David Peters) and her sassy half-sister Sarah (Zeneb Blanchet), Audrey will have to relearn how to walk, talk, read, and how to do all the small things we take for granted. During the readaptation period, Audrey isn’t the only one who will be transformed; her return will bring her entire entourage out of a deep sleep.
Written by Longpré and Guillaume Lambert, Audrey est revenue’s ten 30-minute episodes have been streaming on Club Illico since November 2021. It marks the return of Longpré to television after the interplanetary success of M’entends-tu?, which is available worldwide via Netflix. It also marks a reunion between Lambert and Longpré, who were both cast members of the hit sketch comedy show Like-moi.
“The collaborative process of writing the show happened entirely virtually; Guillaume and Florence spent long hours writing over videoconference. They were backed by Emmanuelle Beaugrand-Champagne, who worked as a script editor, and a researcher helped them to better understand the different states relating to a comatose state. They also met with medical specialists and talked to people who had experienced a coma and rehabilitation either themselves or through a loved one. When the time came to find a director for the series, it seemed only natural to put it in the hands of Guillaume Lonergan, who had previously directed entire seasons of L’âge adulte and M’entends-tu?”
“When I read the first three episodes, I was completely incapable of imagining anyone other than Florence in the Audrey role,” explains Lonergan. “I told her to forget that she was a co-writer of the story – that she was Audrey.”
Audrey est revenue is, at its core, about familial relations and how people can find themselves bonded through struggle and tragedy. “The show and Audrey’s story have the potential to reach a wide audience. It presents emotions to which everyone can relate. Everyone has lived through trauma, had an accident happen to their family or friends. It’s about how people try to move past repercussions. The show unpacks the dead ends and traumas of the past through living room scenes. There’s also strong themes of mismatch within the show – the mismatch between the present-day and the year Audrey had her accident. Many people feel overwhelmed by the speed at which our era moves and changes, which makes it easier for them to relate to how Audrey feels when she awakens.
Audrey est revenue is the only Canadian project in competition in the history of Canneséries. “It’s a true honor that Canneseries recognizes the creativity and audacity of Audrey est revenue,” says Nicola Merola, president of Pixcom and executive producer of Audrey est revenue. We are doubly honoured to be part of the official selection and to share this Quebec series with the public as well as professional guests – a superb showcase for local talent!”
Revenge of the Black Best Friend
Created, co-written and co-produced by Amanda Parris, Revenge of the Black Best Friend explores the issue of token Black characters in the film and television industry. The six-episode series follows Dr. Toni Shakur (Olunike Adeliyi), a self-help guru who uses her best-selling books, her talk show and public appearances to support Black actors and force Hollywood to change its ways. However, the series also forces Toni to confront the question: what happens when a social justice issue becomes your brand?
Produced by iThentic and premiering on CBC Gem just a few days before Canneseries, Revenge of the Black Best Friend’s origins are deeply-rooted in Parris’ lived experience.
“A few years ago, I was re-watching a lot of the films and tv series that defined my teen years,” says Parris. “I was eager to get lost in the nostalgia, but I was having a hard time escaping because I kept bumping up against these token Black characters that were in almost everything I watched. They were frequently one-note stereotypes and rarely had back stories or strong motivations. They were there to deliver cool points to the lead, drop supportive one-liners or provide comic relief. A vague idea began stirring of a support group for Black actors who are consistently cast as the Black best friend. When I began pitching that idea to folks, a lot of people referenced Hollywood Shuffle and after I watched that classic film by Robert Townsend, it became a really important reference and tentpole for what I wanted this to be.”
In that sense, Parris and producer Julian de Zotti are targeting audiences that have long been silenced or relegated to the margins by traditional storytelling.
“I hope that everyone will watch this series (laughs), but we have a few key targets: Black, Indigenous and people of colour viewers between the ages of 18-49 are, broadly speaking, an audience who have been vocal about their discontent when it comes to representation in screen industries,” explains Parris. “Through social media, they’ve ushered this age of reckoning in the world of film and television. This is an audience that wants to see themselves and their voices, struggles and experiences articulated in the content they consume, and I hope they tune in to this series.”
Though Revenge of the Black Best Friends speaks to a quasi-universal experience of Black people in white-dominated spaces, the show’s Canadian roots shine through.
“At the start, I wasn’t sure that this needed to be an overtly Canadian project because the themes it explores transcends borders, but my co-executive producer Motion pushed back on that and really helped me to understand why it was important for this to be rooted in Canada,” Parris explains. “So often, this country tries to assert a myth of innocence and progressiveness, claiming to be miles apart from our neighbour to the south when it comes to issues of race. However, when you look at the landscape of film and television in Canada, a different reality presents itself. It was important not only to base our lead character Dr. Toni Shakur here, but also to include a cameo from Canadian actress Andrea Lewis who has bravely spoken up about the challenges she has faced in this industry. By putting her alongside fictional characters, it serves as a reminder that although this is a comedy, the topics we’re exploring are daily realities for many working actors right here in Canada.”
Complètement lycée (Totally School)
Complètement lycée is a webseries from ToRoS production that parodies young-adult fiction from the early 2000s with a resolutely Québecois twist – it’s presented as the French dub of an American show, mirroring the experiences of Québec millennial audiences’ teenage years. Created by up-and-coming comedians Pierre-Yves Roy-Desmarais and Rosalie Vaillancourt, Complètement lycée (which has been available to stream on the Noovo platform in Québec since December of 2021) was originally conceived as a video intro to a live show presented by its two leads at the 2017 edition of Zoofest, the Just For Laughs-adjacent festival committed to emerging voices in the comedy scene.
The idea was soon fleshed out by Roy-Desmarais, Vaillancourt and director Alec Pronovost before being optioned by ToRoS in 2018. “The heart of the project remained the same from the beginning – to parody American television from an angle inspired by the Zucker brothers (Airplane!, The Naked Gun, etc.) and make our own turbo-silliness out of it,” say producers Camille Montreuil and Marc S. Grenier.
Vaillancourt stars as Allison Thompson, a new student at New Garden Hills Valley High School. She immediately falls victim to local mean girl Ashley Winterbottom (Katherine Levac) and doofy jock Brian Manson (Roy-Desmarais), with gay best friend Keith O’Keefe (Patrick Abellard) backing her up through the trials and tribulations of high school.
Complètement lycée offers a comedic experience that’s both extremely specific and decidedly universal.
“I always had the impression that our public was a niche one because our ideas were so silly,” says Pronovost. “I figured it would only appeal to people who watch things late at night in a bit of a second state… and, finally, I was completely wrong! We feel like it appeals to people from different age groups, from my parents to teenagers.”
“Although the concept is based on references that are resolutely francophone and Quebecois, we quickly realized that other francophones throughout the world had been bombarded with the same dubbed American series in the same time period,” explain Montreuil and Grenier. “Even though a show dubbed in an ‘international French’ could seem perfectly normal, the comic potential and the irony of its dubbing is retained. The show’s selection at Canneseries is proof of that. There’s also a great window of opportunity tied to non-anglophone, non-francophone markets who also have experience with American content that could potentially bring their own dubbing to the series.”
“The parodic elements come from the francophone experience, so it’s hard for me to imagine how an anglophone public can really tune in that comedic angle,” adds Pronovost. “That being said, maybe we have something if there is a history of dubbing in the anglophone world. It would result in a show shot in English, dubbed in French, and then dubbed again in English. Now we’re talking. Never been seen!”
