FREE public film screening October 20 at Scotiabank Theatre, Toronto

TORONTO, Sept. 29 /CNW Telbec/ - Air Canada is pleased to announce the finalists in the 3rd Annual Air Canada enRoute Film Festival. A free public screening of the nominated short films will take place on Tuesday, October 20 at the Scotiabank Theatre in downtown Toronto, followed by an invitation-only awards celebration hosted by The Drake Hotel. The nominees were selected from over 300 entries submitted to enRoute from emerging filmmakers from across the country.

The films are nominated in the categories of Best Short Film, Achievement in Animation, Achievement in Direction and Achievement in Cinematography. The winner of the Best Short Film Award will win a two-year lease on a brand new 2009 Ford Fusion vehicle plus an all-inclusive Air Canada trip for two to the Palm Springs International Film Festival. Achievement Award winners will also visit Palm Springs courtesy of Air Canada.

    The 2009 Air Canada enRoute Student Film Festival Nominees are:

    JAKE CHIRICO for Freshwater Plaque (Toronto)
    SARAH FORTIN for Synthétiseur (Montreal)
    ALAIN HUYNH for Intermedium (Toronto)
    LEIGH ANN MAYNARD for A Season to Wither (Edmonton)
    KAZIK RADWANSKI and DANIEL MONTGOMERY for Princess Margaret Blvd
    (Toronto)
    JEFFREY ROYIWSKY for The Creative Process (Toronto)

Jury members expected to attend include actors Remy Girard and Lisa Ray, film directors Deepa Metha and Michael McGowan and BravoFACT's Judy Gladstone.

The screening of the nominated films will take place in Cinema 13 at the Scotiabank Theatre, 259 Richmond Street West, from 7 to 8 p.m. It is free and open to the public. For more information on the festival visit enroutefilm.com.

Air Canada enRoute Magazine is published by Spafax, one of the world's leading custom publishers and providers of inflight media, with offices in eight cities around the world. Spafax is a part of the specialist communications division of WPP.

Montréal-based Air Canada provides scheduled and charter air transportation for passengers and cargo to more than 170 destinations on five continents. Canada's flag carrier is the 13th largest commercial airline in the world and serves 33 million customers annually. Air Canada is a founding member of Star Alliance, providing the world's most comprehensive air transportation network for Canadian domestic, transborder and international travel. Air Canada aircraft offer customers individualized seatback in-flight entertainment systems with hundreds of hours of digital audio-visual entertainment. As well, customers can collect Aeroplan miles for future rewards through Canada's leading loyalty program.

In 2008, the readers of Business Traveler magazine voted Air Canada Best In-Flight Services in North America, Best Airline for Business Class Service in North America and Best North American Airline for International Travel.