La Distributrice de films and Embuscade Films are proud to present The Shimmering Shadows (Les ombres lumineuses), the first feature documentary written and directed by Nicolas Dufour-Laperrière, who also co-produced the film alongside Rosalie Chicoine Perreault. The film will have its World Premiere at the Festival du nouveau cinéma (FNC), in national competition, on October 10 and 12, in the presence of the director and the film crew.
In the heart of the Haute-Gatineau forest, in the middle of moose hunting season, humans and animals cross paths, and seek each other out. The Shimmering Shadows captures the gestures, silences, desires, and tensions that inhabit these Quebecois and Algonquin hunters as they become the protagonists of a ritual with profound ramifications, where nature still reigns supreme.
Through sensory and immersive staging, the film evokes the tenuous boundary between the visible and the invisible, between light and shadow, between memory, transmission, and oblivion. The film is thus a meditation on the fragile coexistence between humans and their environment, but also between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples in a world undergoing profound change.
About the filmmaker
Born in Saguenay and living in Montreal, Nicolas Dufour-Laperrière has been working as an artist and film producer for over 15 years. For more than a decade, he has been producing animated films and auteur documentaries at Embuscade Films, the studio he co-founded. These include Death Does Not Exist (Cannes Directors’ Fortnight 2025), Archipelago and Transatlantic by Félix Dufour-Laperrière, and Hibiscus Season by Éléonore Goldberg (Iris Award for Best Animated Short Film in 2021). The Shimmering Shadows is his first feature documentary.
THE SHIMMERING SHADOWS by Nicolas Dufour-Laperrière
Documentary. Quebec/Canada. 2026. 90 minutes.
Original French, English and Anishinabemowin version with French or English subtitles.
Directed by: Nicolas Dufour-Laperrière | Script: Nicolas Dufour-Laperrière | Cinematography: Étienne Roussy, Isabelle Stachtchenko, Glauco Bermudez | Editing: Xi Feng | Sound Design: Olivier Calvert | Music: Gabriel Dufour-Laperrière | Production: Nicolas Dufour-Laperrière, Rosalie Chicoine Perreault (Embuscade Films) | Distribution: La Distributrice de films
SCREENINGS AT FNC (55th edition – from October 8 to 18, 2026) – with the filmmaker in attendance
Saturday, October 10 at 5:45 p.m. at Cinéma du Musée (in its original version with English subtitles)
Monday, October 12 at 5:45 p.m. at Cineplex Odeon Quartier Latin (in its original version with English subtitles)
Distributed by La Distributrice de films, The Shimmering Shadows will be released in Spring 2027.