T H E C H O S E N O N E S

CORBO

Writer- director Mathieu Denis’s feature is based on the true story of Jean Corbo, a 16- year- old Montrealer who joined the Front de libération du Québec ( FLQ) and was killed planting a bomb at the Dominion Textile factory in St- Henri in 1966. It’s a potentially interesting topic but Denis’s take lacks nuance and emotional force.

Nominations: 10, including for best film, direction, screenplay, and supporting actor ( Tony Nardi).

LA PASSIOND’ AUGUSTINE

Seasoned filmmaker Léa Pool scored with the public and the critics with this touching drama about one passionate nun ( Céline Bonnier) who wants her convent to be fully dedicated to the beauty of music. But she and her colleagues’ lives are thrown for a loop by the winds of social change in Quebec in the mid-’ 60s.

Nominations: 10, including for best film, direction, screenplay ( Marie Vien, Léa Pool), actress ( Céline Bonnier), supporting actress ( Lysandre Ménard, Diane Lavallée).

LES DÉMONS

This extraordinary film is quite simply the best Quebec feature of the past 12 months. Documentary filmmaker Philippe Lesage shows a real knack for fiction with this dreamy, evocative tale of a 10- year- old boy who lives a fear- filled existence in an un- named suburb.

Nominations: 2, for best film, best direction.

FÉLIX ETMEIRA

Co- writer and director Maxime Giroux makes films that are all about nuance and that’s what’s great about Félix et Meira. He takes a subtle approach to exploring this drama about a francophone guy who becomes infatuated with a married Hassidic woman ( Hadas Jaron) living in Mile End.

Nominations: 5, including best film, direction, screenplay ( Alexandre Laferrière, Maxime Giroux), actress ( Hadas Yaron), supporting actor ( Luzer Twersky).

LESÊTRESCHERS

This is a remarkable feat of cinematic storytelling, with writer- director Anne Émond following a troubled family over a couple of decades. Though those who find Quebec cinema too dark and depressing will find fuel for their arguments here. It’s about a family grappling with the suicide of a family member years earlier.

Nominations: 7, including best film, direction, screenplay, actor ( Maxim Gaudette).

THE SLIGHTED

ENDORPHINE

Okay, this is a head- scratcher of an art film but the latest by film director André Turpin is also a mighty brilliant piece of work, hearkening back to the good old days of auteur filmmaking when films raised questions but didn’t answer them. It follows a woman named Simone at three different ages — 13, 25 and 60 — though by the end we’re not even sure if it’s the same woman. Think a Québécois Inception. Its snub by the awards show voters is simply incomprehensible.

Nominations: none.

PAULÀ QUÉBEC

This is a moving adaptation of the popular Michel Rabagliati bande dessinée, recounting the story of a family dealing with the imminent death of the patriarch. With La passion d’Augustine, it’s one of the few Quebec films of the past year that clicked with critics and audiences, yet it found little love with the film gala voters.

Nominations: one, for best actor ( Gilbert Sicotte).

LE MIRAGE

This dramatic comedy by director Ricardo Trogi and screenwriter Louis Morissette was the second- mostpopular Quebec film of the year and it worked because viewers could identify with this sometimes quite hilarious chronicle of a manager of a sports store ( Morissette) stuck in a loveless marriage and who’s in the midst of quite the mid- life crisis.

Nominations: one, for best supporting actress ( Christine Beaulieu).

GUROV & ANNA

Director Rafaël Ouellet’s first Englishlanguage feature is much more than just another mid- life- crisis film. Yes, it features a middle- aged academic ( Andreas Apergis) falling for a much younger student ( Sophie Desmarais) but Montreal screenwriter Céleste Parr’s high- IQ script is also about literature, constructing narratives and sometimes losing yourself in those fictional narratives.

Nominations: one, for best screenplay ( Céleste Parr).