Heat Spell

Heat Spell (French: L'Été des chaleurs) is a Canadian short drama film, written and directed by Marie-Pier Dupuis and released in 2023.^[1] The film dramatizes a true story from Dupuis's own childhood, when her mother accidentally left her sister locked in the car on a hot summer day, and Dupuis herself didn't do or say anything about it because she was mad at her sister for other reasons.^[2]

Heat Spell
French	L'Été des chaleurs
Directed by	Marie-Pier Dupuis
Written by	Marie-Pier Dupuis
Produced by	Amélie Tremblay Dominique Dussault
Starring	Gabrielle Poulin Agathe Ledoux Simone Ledoux
Cinematography	Simran Dewan
Edited by	Mathieu Bouchard-Malo
Music by	Peter Venne
Production company	Nemesis Films Production
Distributed by	h264 Distribution
Release date	April 28, 2023 (2023-04-28) (BSFF)
Running time	13 minutes
Country	Canada
Language	French

The film stars Gabrielle Poulin as the mother, and real-life sisters Agathe Ledoux and Simone Ledoux as the sisters Maxime and Fred.

The film premiered at the 2023 Brussels Short Film Festival, where it was the winner of the ARTE Award in the international competition.^[3] It was later screened at the 2023 Abitibi-Témiscamingue International Film Festival, where it won the Prix Unis for short films.^[4]

The film received a Canadian Screen Award nomination for Best Live Action Short Drama, and Agathe Ledoux was nominated for Best Performance in a Live Action Short Drama, at the 12th Canadian Screen Awards in 2024.^[5]