MORE PRIX FOR DOLAN
Takes 5 Quebec film awards
It was not a time for grumbling Sunday night at the Gala Québec Cinéma.
Over the past months, many in the film milieu have aired their gripes about how the folks who organize Quebec’s annual film awards had changed the event following last year’s scandal.
The awards show used to be called La soirée des Jutra in honour of the late Quebec filmmaker Claude Jutra but organizers changed the name of the ceremony last year after allegations surfaced in a biography and in the media that Jutra, who died in 1986, had abused under-age boys. It was a tough year for the folks who run the gala with many unhappy with how they handled the crisis. Many in the industry didn’t like the fact that they changed the dates of the awards show, moving it from March to early June.
But Sunday it was all about celebrating the best in Quebec cinema and for one night at least, the family quarrel was set aside. And to no one’s great surprise, the big winner was Xavier Dolan and his latest film Juste la fin du monde. The 28-year-old filmmaker is one of Canada’s hottest filmmakers and dominating the Quebec film awards is nothing new for him.
His previous film Mommy swept La soirée des Jutra in 2015, winning nine prizes that year, including most of the major ones. This time ’round, Juste la fin du monde garnered five Prix Iris, which is the new name for the awards, including for best film, best direction (for Dolan) and best casting (Dolan also). Two of the awards it won were handed out at an earlier gala Thursday night, for best cinematography (André Turpin) and the film that had the most success outside of Quebec. That latter prize was a natural for Dolan’s film, given that it was a big hit in France, selling more than 1 million tickets. Juste la fin du monde is Dolan’s most French film, starring a slew of stars from France — notably Gaspard Ulliel, who was nominated for best actor, and Marion Cotillard and Léa Seydoux, who were both nominated as best actress. None of the actors won in their categories. Dolan’s film is a dark talky drama about a playwright returning home to announce to his family that he’s dying.
The other major winner at this year’s Gala Cinéma Québec was writer-director Anne Émond’s Nelly, which took home four Iris awards, including one for best actress for Mylène Mackay, who delivered a tour-de-force performance in this audacious bio-pic of the late Quebec author Nelly Arcan.
The Iris for best screenplay went to writer-director Louis Bélanger and his co-writer Alexis Martin, who penned Les mauvaises herbes, a comic-drama about a guy on the run from a hood who ends up holed up with an unusual character who harvests pot for a living.
“It’s a film about community, how communities are created by people in spite of their differences,” said Martin, in an interview backstage.
“They’re three people who have nothing in common and we put them by themselves in the Québécois forest. And they create a community. I think this is a subject that’s very timely. This is the world we live in where populations move around so much. So you can’t count on the force of tradition to help you anymore. So we have to re-invent the idea of community. And that’s really the subject of the film.”
“With Alexis, I’ve really found my creative partner, my writing partner,” said Bélanger. “He’s the guy that I work the best with.”
Actress Guylaine Tremblay and TV personality Édith Cochrane did a great job of hosting the gala, keeping it light and often very funny. One of the highlights was a heartfelt speech from writerdirector Yan England after his moving film about bullying 1:54 won the Prix du Public Iris in the public-vote category.
“It’s a story I’ve wanted to tell for a very long time,” said England.
“We even went to the United Nations with the film. What’s sad about bullying is it’s the same reality all over the world.”