IFC's high on 'Life'

Benoit Pilon's pic is an Oscar contender

By BRENDAN KELLY

MONTREAL -- Helmer Benoit Pilon's "The Necessities of Life," Canada's submission to the Oscars in the foreign-language category, has been sold in the U.S. to IFC Films by E1 Intl., the sales division of Canadian film company Entertainment One.

The pic stars Natar Ungalaaq as an Inuit man in the 1950s suffering from tuberculosis who is taken from his home in the far north for treatment in a sanatorium in Quebec City. It had its world preem at the Montreal World Film Festival in August, where it won three awards, and it is set to screen at the Palm Springs, Santa Barbara and American Film Institute festivals.