Toronto - Vincenzo Natali, Canada's hottest new film director, can look back on 1997 and confidently say his Genie-nominated short film ELEVATED raised him to a new level.

The popular short film led to the opportunity for him to direct the award-winning feature film CUBE, which was recently invited to the prestigious Sundance Film Festival, and subsequently landed him a deal with Los Angeles based talent agents Endeavor Talent Agency.

"Things have happened so fast for me since entering the Canadian Film Centre's Resident Programme its difficult for me to know where to begin. I guess things really started with ELEVATED and then CUBE, and now signing with a great agent - it really has been an amazing year," says the Toronto-based director Natali.

Having captured both the CityTV Award for Best Canadian First Feature Film at the Toronto International Film Festival and Best Ontario Feature at Sudbury's Cinefest, CUBE secured Canadian distribution rights with Cineplex Odeon Films Canada and international distribution with Trimark Pictures and will hit theaters in the spring of 1998.

CUBE, a significant showcase for Natali's exceptional talents, brought the young director a slew of offers from US-based agents culminating in his signing with Endeavor Talent Agency.

Natali is currently in development on several projects and plans to be in production on any one of them soon.