The Last Note and Fusee's Three-Doc Slate Signal a Bold New Direction at Cannes 2026
TL;DR: Canadian grief documentary The Last Note has landed international sales representation with Quebec's HG Distribution, leading a three-film non-fiction slate unveiled by Fusee Films at the 2026 Cannes Film Market. The film, directed by Patrick de Belen, follows a Filipino-Canadian poet reconstructing his late brother's life through journals and memory. No confirmed streaming platform yet, but festival circulation and a 2026 release window are both in play.
On a Tuesday evening at the Cannes Film Market in May 2026, while the Croisette buzzed with fiction premieres and prestige acquisitions, a quieter but genuinely significant announcement arrived from Fusee Films. The Montreal-based production company, best known for shepherding award-circuit fiction to Venice and Locarno, stepped into documentary territory with a three-project slate that crosses five countries and confronts subjects — grief, queer identity, colonial memory — that most commercial distributors still treat as difficult sells. Leading the charge: The Last Note, a Canadian grief documentary already acquired by Quebec-based HG Distribution before it's even been released. That's a vote of confidence that's hard to fake.
What Fusee Actually Announced in the Cannes Market Halls
Three documentaries. Five countries. One production company making a calculated pivot.
Fusee Films, founded by Wilfredo C. Manalang, entered the 2026 Cannes Film Market with co-production commitments confirmed across all three projects. Here's what the slate looks like:
- The Last Note (Canada): Directed by Patrick de Belen. Already acquired by HG Distribution for international sales. In production, targeting a 2026 release. Runtime not yet confirmed publicly.
- Land of Evanescence (Vietnam-Philippines-France co-production): Directed by Vietnamese filmmaker Nguyen Thi Xuan Trang. Approximately 60 minutes. Featured in the Cannes Docs-in-Progress Showcase. Target release: 2027.
- Forgive Me Father for I Have Sinned (Belgium-Philippines): Directed by Jeremy Luke Bolatag. Currently in development. No release date confirmed.
The three films are co-produced through a network of companies: Still Here Productions and Fusee on The Last Note; Lagi Ltd., Fusee, and Trance Films on Land of Evanescence; and While We're Here and Fusee on Forgive Me Father. Variety reported the full slate exclusively on May 20, 2026.
What ties all three together isn't geography — it's interiority. Each film is built around a personal story that carries geopolitical and generational weight. That's a specific editorial sensibility, and it's Fusee's fingerprint.
What Patrick de Belen and HG Distribution's Henry Gagnon Said About the Film
The emotional core of The Last Note is simple and devastating: a Filipino-Canadian poet tries to reconstruct who his younger brother was, after that brother's death, using journals, songs, and whatever fragments of memory survive. The film confronts grief directly, but it also takes on mental illness — specifically borderline personality disorder (BPD) — and the particular silence around these subjects within Filipino diaspora communities.
Director Patrick de Belen described the project's intent plainly, according to Variety's report: "The themes in this film are often difficult to talk about, and it is sad to think we must feel alone because of that discomfort. This story encourages us to witness the rawness of both beauty and devastation, while reminding us that the only way through it is together."
Henry Gagnon, who heads HG Distribution and secured international sales rights, framed the film's market positioning with precision. "Its blend of poetic reconstruction and honest treatment of BPD, migration, and precarity makes the story both heartfelt and urgently relevant," Gagnon told Variety, adding that the film "speaks to diasporic experiences and colonial legacies that will resonate strongly with multicultural audiences and festival programmers alike."
That last phrase matters. "Festival programmers" is code for: this film isn't going to a multiplex. It's targeting Hot Docs, IDFA, and the documentary programming arms of major festivals — the circuit where acquisition deals like this one actually pay off.
How This Lands for Indian and Filipino Diaspora Audiences
Here's where it gets genuinely interesting for South and Southeast Asian viewers, particularly the large Filipino and Indian diaspora communities watching from the UK, Canada, and the Gulf states. The Last Note isn't specifically an Indian story, but the emotional terrain — silence around mental illness in immigrant families, grief processed through cultural dislocation, the weight of what's left unsaid across generations — will read as deeply familiar to anyone from a South or Southeast Asian background. I keep coming back to how rarely documentary cinema addresses BPD specifically within a non-Western diaspora context. That gap is real.
As of publication, no Indian OTT platform has confirmed rights to The Last Note or any of the three Fusee documentaries. The films are in early international sales circulation, with HG Distribution handling The Last Note globally. Given Fusee's existing relationship with Asian co-production networks and the Filipino-Canadian subject matter, likely platforms to watch include:
- Netflix India (which has expanded its South Asian documentary slate significantly since 2023)
- MUBI (strong fit for poetic, festival-circuit non-fiction)
- Amazon Prime Video India (has acquired Filipino and diaspora documentaries before)
- DocPlay (niche but increasingly present in South Asian markets)
Movie OTT is tracking international streaming availability across all major platforms as distribution deals are confirmed — bookmark the title now if you want to catch the moment rights land in your region.
For Indian audiences specifically, the Filipino-Canadian lens offers a useful mirror: the experience of a second-generation immigrant processing inherited trauma and cultural silence is a story that crosses ethnic boundaries cleanly. For anyone who watched Shaunak Sen's All That Breathes (2022) break out from Hot Docs to the Oscars shortlist and eventually land on HBO Max, the pipeline here looks familiar, and The Last Note sits in a comparable programming lane with comparable crossover potential. Land of Evanescence, the Vietnam War documentary in the slate, may find additional Indian interest given France's co-production involvement and the growing Indian appetite for archival-driven non-fiction on OTT.
Fusee's Fiction Pedigree and Why This Documentary Pivot Makes Sense
Fusee didn't arrive at documentary filmmaking by accident. The company built its reputation on prestige fiction that already thought like non-fiction: character-driven, politically conscious, built for festival juries rather than opening weekends.
Their track record includes:
- "Plan 75" — Cannes selection, a fiction film about Japan's aging population that felt like a documentary argument
- "Don't Cry, Butterfly" — Venice Critics' Week Grand Prize winner
- "Topakk" — Locarno selection
- "Blue Room" — Netflix Asia hit
- "Through Your Eyes" — Berlinale short
Wilfredo C. Manalang, Fusee's founder and a producer on Land of Evanescence, told Variety: "Documentary filmmaking is where Fusee's soul lives. These three projects are not just films. They are invitations to a global conversation that we believe the world is ready to have, and urgently needs."
That's not marketing language. Given the company's output, it tracks. Patrick de Belen is a newer directorial voice, but he's working within a production infrastructure that knows how to move films through the festival circuit and into distribution. Jeremy Luke Bolatag, directing Forgive Me Father, brings an unexpected background: he emerged from the Belgian singing competition series Voice van Vlaanderen, which is either an irrelevant biographical footnote or a genuinely interesting signal about how he thinks about performance, audience, and vulnerability. The part I am most curious about is whether that reality-TV instinct for emotional directness shows up in his documentary work, or whether he's running from it.
Movie OTT's documentary tracker has background on comparable Filipino diaspora films currently streaming, which is useful context if you're building a watchlist around this release.
The Bigger Editorial Question Nobody's Asking
Most coverage of this announcement will frame it as a distribution story. Acquisition secured. Slate unveiled. Market momentum confirmed. Fine.
But the more interesting read is about what Fusee is betting on structurally. The company is simultaneously developing a Belgium-Philippines queer identity documentary (Forgive Me Father), a multigenerational Vietnam War film built around archival reconstruction (Land of Evanescence), and a grief film about BPD in a Filipino diaspora family. None of these are easy theatrical sells in 2026. All of them are exactly the kind of documentary that performs consistently on SVOD platforms with engaged niche audiences and long tail viewing windows. What most trade write-ups won't tell you: this is a company whose entire fiction slate was built on co-production treaty money and festival-to-platform deals, and now they're applying that same financial architecture to non-fiction, where the per-minute production cost is lower and the platform acquisition window is actually longer. That's not a creative pivot. It's a business model refinement disguised as one.
The thing nobody mentions in acquisition announcements like this is that HG Distribution securing rights before a film releases is relatively uncommon — it signals that the distributor saw enough in early materials to commit without a finished cut. That's a meaningful data point. Not a guarantee of quality, but a real indicator of market confidence.
The Last Note invites comparison to Flee (2021), the animated documentary about Afghan refugee Jonas Poher Rasmussen, which similarly reconstructed a life through fragmented memory and personal testimony. Flee earned an Oscar nomination and became one of the most-discussed documentaries of that year. The structural DNA here is similar, though de Belen is working in live-action and the emotional register is grief rather than flight.
You can check current streaming availability for Flee and similar titles at Movie OTT if you want to do your homework before The Last Note lands.
What Comes Next for the Slate and When to Watch
The Last Note is the one to watch first. International sales are live through HG Distribution, which means festival programming offers are almost certainly already in motion. Hot Docs (Toronto), IDFA (Amsterdam), and Tribeca are the most logical landing spots for a Canadian grief documentary with this profile.
Land of Evanescence is targeting 2027, with its Cannes Docs-in-Progress showcase appearance suggesting the film is in late development or early post-production. Director Nguyen Thi Xuan Trang has described needing "feedback to help me see my own story more clearly," which is honest and suggests the film is still finding its final shape.
Forgive Me Father for I Have Sinned remains in development with no release window confirmed. Watch for a production announcement from While We're Here and Fusee later in 2026.
For streaming availability updates as each film moves through the festival circuit and into platform deals, Movie OTT will have the latest regional breakdowns the moment rights are confirmed.
Should you watch The Last Note? Yes. Particularly if you have any connection to diaspora experience, grief, or the specific silence around mental illness in immigrant families. The creative team has the infrastructure to deliver. The subject matter is both personal and genuinely underserved in documentary form. That combination doesn't come around often.
