One of the most prestigious Canadian-international co-productions ever, Blindness opened this year's Cannes Film Festival. Based on the Nobel Prize-winning author José Saramango's dazzling novel of the same name, the film brings together an extraordinary cast (Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo, Danny Glover, Gael Garcia Bernal, Sandra Oh, Maury Chaykin), an accomplished Latin American filmmaker—City Of God's co-director Fernando Meirelles—and a script and supporting appearance by Canada's own Don McKellar. The result is an apocalyptic fantasy like no other in the history of the cinema. While the storyline revolves around a typical science fiction trope—when an unexplained epidemic of blindness breaks out, society must be completely re-imagined and restructured along desperate and sometimes brutal lines— Blindness is undeniably original, sweeping and ultimately disturbing in its scale and conception. A major entry in the end-of-the-world cinematic sweepstakes, Blindness helps define and explain the distemper of our times while leaving just enough room for the human spirit to redeem itself.

Country music legend and pop culture icon Dolly Parton has a new mission: introducing Canadian preschool children to the world of literature. Known to most around the world as a Grammy Award-winning and Academy Award-nominated country singer, songwriter and actress, Parton has introduced herself to a new generation known simply as The Book Lady . Since 1995, Dolly’s Imagination Library has been sending free hardcover books to children in participating communities—from the time they are born until the age of five—to promote children’s literacy. Some children even believe Dolly delivers the books herself while they are sleeping. The Book Lady is a short documentary chronicling the launch of Parton’s Imagination Library in Canada and includes interviews with goddaughter Miley Cyrus, Keith Urban, Robert Munsch and Parton herself.

Twelve-year-old Erik has gone swimming with Sophie and her dad. Sophie would like to make Erik her boyfriend but despite all the flirting, he seems to pay more attention to her father. The pangs of first love are strongly felt in this beautifully told coming-of-age tale.

Emerging American indie powerhouse Rian Johnson has followed up his teenage film noir breakout Brick with an even more densely plotted adult caper film, sparked by a stellar cast including Mark Ruffalo and Robbie Coltrane. Oscar-winner Adrien Brody stars as a con man coaxed into one final job. When his girlfriend (Rachel Weisz) turns the tables on him, the narrative takes some wild twists and turns. Sporting Johnson's typical stylized dialogue and baroque visuals, The Brothers Bloom breathes some fresh air into the sturdy crime thriller genre.

Butterfly offers a rare and intimate portrait of a teen’s perspective on living with albinism—a melanin deficiency that has made her an outsider.

A travelling troupe on tour far from the cities experiences the real Brazil while juggling domestic trials and tribulations, in this vibrant and entertaining quasi-musical comedy-drama.