News

Today was a busy day for some of the smaller guilds with the Visual Effects Society, the Cinema Audio Society, and the Makeup and Hairstylists Guilds all announcing their nominations for 2013.

First, we have the Ves, whose main category to look at is “Outstanding Visual Effects in a Visual Effects-Driven Feature Motion Picture,” where we find Gravity and four other nominees that are just going to have to be happy with the fact that they got nominated. This is perhaps the easiest category to call in the entirety of awards season, and I don’t mean just here, but for the Oscar as well (Last year’s winner, Life of Pi, easily took this category before going on to claim the Oscar). It’s true that films like The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug and Star Trek Into Darkness had outstanding effects as well, but nothing even came close to the amazing,...

The release of Snow & Ashes has finally been announced.

According to Films du Québec, Snow & Ashes, Charles-Oliver Michaud's first film will be in theatres on September 2011.

This release takes place two years after Snow & Ashes' premiere on the festival circuit.

This is the synopsis according to A-z Films, the distributor:

Blaise Dumas, war correspondent, covers an armed conflict in Eastern Europe. When he wakes from a temporary coma in his home town of Quebec City, Blaise discovers that his long time collaborator and photographer has not come back with him. He then sets out to recapture the events that led to his friend's disappearance and his own narrow escape from the war zone.

The film stars Rhys Coiro, David-Alexandre Coiteux, Marina Eva, Marianne Farley, Frédéric Gilles, Alex Kudrytsky, Jean Lapointe and Lina Roessler.

Incendies, Barney’s Version, and the other winners of the 2011 Prix Jutra (Jutra Awards) have been announced. The 13th Annual Jutra Awards (Prix Jutra or La Soirée des Prix Jutra) are Canadian annual cinema awards “that recognizes talent and achievement in the mainly francophone feature film industry in the province of Quebec. First introduced in 1999, the Jutra Award is named after Quebec film-maker Claude Jutra and awarded for performance, writing and technical categories such as best actor, actress, director, screenplay, et cetera. This year’s awards were handed out on March 13, 2011 at the Théâtre St-Denis in Montreal. The full listing of the 2011 Prix Jutra (Jutra Awards) winners is below.

Best Film

Incendies – Luc Déry, Kim McCraw

Best Director

Denis Villeneuve - Incendies

Best Actress

Lubna Azabal - Incendies

Best Actor

Claude Legault - 10 ½

Best Supporting Actress

Dorothée Berryman - Cabotins (Entertainers)

Best Supporting Actor

Jean Lapointe - À l’origine...

Yesterday, the winners at the 13th Jutra Awards, Quebec's Oscars, were revealed. Denis Villeneuve's Incendies dominated the show with 9 awards, especially the Jutra Award for best film. The following is the full list of winners.

Best film: Incendies

Best direction: Denis Villeneuve (Incendies)

Best leading actress: Lubna Azabal (Incendies)

Best leading actor: Claude Legault (10 1/2)

Best supporting actress: Dorothée Berryman (Cabotins)

Best supporting actor: Jean Lapointe (À l’origine d’un cri)

Best screenplay: Denis Villeneuve, with the collaboration of Valérie Beaugrand-Champagne (Incendies)

Best cinematography: André Turpin (Incendies)

Best art direction: André-Line Beauparlant (Incendies)

Best sound: Sylvain Bellemare, Jean Umansky et Jean-Pierre Laforce (Incendies)

Best editing: Monique Dartonne (Incendies)

Best original score: Guy Bélanger et Benoît Charest (Route 132)

Best costume: Sophie Lefebvre (Incendies)

Best make-up artist: Adrien Morot (Barney's Version)

Best hairdressing: Réjean Goderre (Barney's Version)

Best documentary: Pierre Falardeau (Carmen Garcia et German Gutierrez)

Best short film: M...

Unlike last year's two filmmaker/film horse race between Denis Villeneuve's Polytechnique and Xavier Dolan's J'ai tué ma mere, this year it was all "Villeneuve" and "Incendies". Repeating his wins in all the same categories it won at the Canadian Oscars (Genies) this week (this includes Editing, Screenplay, Best Cinematography by the excellent André Turpin, Best Actress in Lubna Azabal (who forced here co-star Melissa Desormeaux-Poulin to give her own thank you speech). These wins more than makes up for his loss last year when Villeneuve won the Best Director honor for Polytechnique, but lost in the Best Film category to J'ai tué ma mere. The predictable 13th edition also saw a Genie-Jutra winner from Barney's Version and in the Animated Film category, the Nfb (naturally) supported Theodore Ushev added a Jutra to his Genie for Lipsett Diaries. Best Film/meilleur film 10 1/2 - Pierre Gendron (Zoofilms) Les amours imaginaires - Xavier Dolan,...

Yesterday, Montreal's Festival du nouveau cinéma (Fnc), which will take place from October 13 to 24, revealed its full line-up of films. Nineteen Canadian feature films and documentaries will be presented. However, don't expect to see all films that were screened at the latest Toronto or Vancouver International Film Festivals.

Opening film:

10 1/2

Director: Daniel Grou (Podz)

Starring: Claude Legault, Robert Naylor and Albert Kwan

International selection

Jo pour Jonathan

Director: Maxime Giroux

Starring: Jean-Sébastien Courchesne, Raphaël Lacaille, Jean-Alexandre Létourneau and Vanessa Pilon

Focus Québec/Canada

A Night for Dying Tigers

Director: Terry Miles

Starring: Jennifer Beals, Gil Bellows, Lauren Lee Smith, Tygh Runyan, Kathleen Robertson, John Pyper-Ferguson, Leah Gibson, Sarah Lind and Jessica Heafey

Affinity Point

Director: Deeh

Starring: Danielle Hubbard, Jason D. Pitre, Sophie Ricard and Yann Faussurier

2 fois une femme

Director: François Delisle

Starring: Evelyne Rompré, Marc Béland and Catherine de Léan

Falardeau (Documentary)

Director: German Gutierrez and Carmen Garcia...