Catherine LePage's 'Ultra Strong' Premieres at Annecy
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- Catherine LePage wrote, directed, and animated "Ultra Strong" for the National Film Board of Canada, debuting the short at Annecy after adapting elements from her two graphic novels.
- Bruce Dickinson, Iron Maiden's frontman, voices a larger-than-life guide figure after LePage and producer Christine Noël secured him through his agent Dave Shack with a personal letter recounting her experience at a Quebec City concert.
- LePage drew on her teenage Iron Maiden fandom — she saw the band live at 15 — while co-producer Christine Noël shared the fandom, making her what LePage called "the perfect partner" for the unusual casting choice.
- The film uses whimsical visual metaphors including the Island of the Flakes, the Kind Heart Outlet, and a wobbling Jell-O mound that LePage said symbolizes resilience — it shakes but remains intact during an earthquake.
- LePage said the central message is that strength and vulnerability coexist, arguing that women shouldn't expect a partner to provide security but should find their own inner strength first.
- The National Film Board of Canada has attended Annecy almost since the festival's earliest years — Noël found 1950s archival photos of Norman McLaren and Robert Verrall at the festival — and Noël has worked at the NFB for 25 years.
Why it matters: Casting Bruce Dickinson as the voice of a guide character gives the NFB short a cross-audience bridge into heavy metal fandom that independent animation rarely secures, while LePage's stated message — that vulnerability and strength coexist and women shouldn't outsource their security — lands explicitly as a feminist counter to what she calls online hyper-masculinity.
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