Ora is both a game changer and a trip into unknown territory. In the first film to use 3D thermal imaging, luminous bodies emerge from a single dividing cell. What ensues is akin to the first human steps: the discovery of the body and its relation to space. Choreographer José Navas and filmmaker Philippe Baylaucq create a cinematic sensation.

Dance on camera festival Lincoln Center, New York.

In terms of sheer novelty, it's hard to top ORA, an NFB-produced short that is the first film to fully exploit the visual possibilities of 3-D thermal imaging. What you see is entirely generated by the heat that emanates from the bodies of six dancers in motion. The luminescent result of this marriage of art and technology is best described as a 21st-century update of Pas de deux, the classic 1968 dance film by NBF icon Norman McLaren

Jason Anderson, The Toronto Star

Technically, this is the most futuristic, game-changing film at TIFF 2011. Baylaucq assembling a troupe of six muscular and elegant modern dancers, photographed them in darkness with 3D thermal imaging cameras. The cameras sense heat, not light, and the evolving patterns we see in each dancer's body are exhilarating, as well as scientifically interesting. Esoteric art and technology merge into mainstream entertainment. Like the famous Muybridge experiments with the earliest approximations of a motion picture camera (he showed a horse and a man in locomotion) ORA is a thrilling leap forward.

Bruce Kirkland, Toronto Sun.

Ora is a visual treat - modern dance choreography meets cinematic innovation of the highest order. It is the first time infrared thermal imaging technology has been used to shoot a complete film (the technology is strictly controlled and limited to military, medical, and scientific applications), and it is shot in 3D to boot. The resulting sensory experience is incredible.

Dave Robson, IMDB.

Not all movies are narrative. Some are designed to be works of art. At TIFF, the 15 minute Canadian dance film ORA was a stunning example of dance, cinema and music intersecting to create visual beauty. It is absolutely mesmerizing.

Paula Citron, The new Classical.