BELFAST — The films being shown in April's Friday Night Flicks series at the Belfast Library are all made by, and often feature, Canadian writers, directors and actors. Hosts Paul Sheridan and Karen Gleeson have long been fans of director Isabel Coixet (a colleague of Spanish filmmaker Pedro Aldomovar), and the Armenian-Canadian writer/director Atom Egoyan, as well as writer-director-actor Sarah Polley. All the films feature them in various combinations. This series was, to some extent, begun in the February Flicks but now Gleeson and Sheridan have programmed the whole 5-week month of April with the most interesting of the films by these three Canadians.

The month starts on April 1 with "Elegy" (2008). Sir Ben Kingsley stars as a divorced college professor who has spent much of his out-of-class time seducing former students, as well as carrying on a long-term affair with an older woman friend (Patricia Clarkson). His tidy world is turned upside down when he meets Consuela (Penélope Cruz), a modern woman, who wants the same freedom in her personal life as he has always had. Her desire to be her own person clashes with his growing obsession with her and yet he remains fearful of commitment. Also starring Dennis Hopper and Deborah Harry. Directed by Isabel Coixet. In English and Spanish, with subtitles.

Sarah Polley stars in "My Life Without Me" (2003) on April 8. A 23-year old happily married mother is told she has terminal cancer, and has only a short time to live. She decides to conceal her diagnosis from everyone, yet she carefully plans her last days so as to live her life with a passion she never had before, as well as preparing her husband and children to live without her. The excellent cast, including Deborah Harry, Amanda Plummer and Mark Ruffalo, transform what could have been drippy and maudlin into a clear-eyed (and sometimes funny!) story about accepting early death and taking charge of your own fate. Again directed by Isabel Coixet. In English.

"The Sweet Hereafter" is one of the most well-known of Atom Egoyan's films, and won many awards (three at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival, as well as two Academy Award nominations) when it came out in 1997. On April 15 it will be shown at the Library. The film is written and directed by Egoyan from a novel by Russell Banks, but set in Canada, of a community devastated by the violent loss of its children. Ian Holm stars as an outsider who asks painful questions of the community. Sarah Polley, Maury Chaykin, and Arsinée Khanjian also star. In English.

Sarah Polley, who comes from a family of actors and storytellers, turns the camera on herself in the film on April 22 "Stories We Tell" (2012). In this documentary from Oscar-nominated writer/director Polley, about her own family history, she discovers that the truth depends on who's telling it. Polley is both filmmaker and detective as she investigates her family's secrets. In English.

The final film in April, "Exotica" (1994) on April 29, weaves together seemingly unrelated narratives to explore issues of love, loss, and memory to create a moving portrait of life that will linger in the mind. Titled for the setting in the strip club "Exotica," the story was written and directed by Atom Egoyan, and stars (among others) a young Sarah Polley. In English.

All films are on Fridays at 7 p.m. in the Abbott Room of the Belfast Free Library. In case of snow on Friday, the films will be shown the following evening — Saturday — also at 7 p.m. For more information please call the library at 338-3884 ext10.