Montreal: On April 6, Quebec cultural funder SODEC selected six feature films and four shorts for this year's first round of funding.

A highly anticipated auteur project on the roster is director Bernard Emond's Jeanne et Francois, the first in a planned trilogy, starring Elyse Guilbeault. Emond is working with producer Bernadette Payeur of ACPAV, with K-Films Amerique distributing. Also named were Robin Aubert's debut feature St-Martyrs-des-Damnes, produced by Max Films and distributed by Christal Films; Darrell Wasyk's The Girl in the White Coat, sequel to his film H; and writer/director Martin Barry's Prelude to Parsifal, a coproduction between Germany's Troika Entertainment, Wagner in the U.K. and Productions Bleu Blanc Rouge in Montreal.

SODEC also selected two genre films: Etoile filante, a parody of reality TV shows, directed by Yves Desgagnes and Sans elle, directed by Jean Beaudin.

The four short films are: Hero by Nature, directed by Roger Cantin; A Man Called Fritz by Martin Doepner; Je me souviens d'un soir d'ete a Montreal from Michel Cayla and George Perec, and L'Alcove from Jean Chateauvert.

-www.sodec.gouv.qc.ca