paul gratton is chairman and ceo of the Ontario Film Development Corporation.

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so there we were, sitting around a small boardroom table at the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television’s head office on Pearl Street in Toronto discussing the rules and regulations for the annual Genie awards. Unexpectedly, a request was tabled from the Director’s Guild of Canada suggesting that a specific Genie, presumably for best direction of a motion picture, be named after Claude Jutra.

Everyone assembled felt it was appropriate to honor the memory of one of Canada’s foremost filmmakers, but concern was expressed that every single Genie award might end up being named after a prominent proponent of the specific craft being honored.

The Genies themselves have not necessarily reached a level of recognition outside the industry that we could afford to water down their name value by attaching additional appellations to every single award.

One idea that emerged from the ensuing discussion was that of instituting a new award, one that would honor direction in a first feature film. Opportunities for new talent on the feature side is an ongoing concern within the Canadian film industry, and honoring a first effort seemed like the sort of positive, proactive gesture that should come from the Academy.

Besides, we felt such an award would be fully in keeping with the memory we have of Claude Jutra. Many of his finest films (similar to Truffaut) were the ones that dealt with childhood (Mon Oncle Antoine, La dame en couleurs) or young people (The National Film Board’s Wow or Jutra’s autobiographical first, A tout prendre). Somehow we felt he’d approve of having his name attached to an award designed to honor emerging talent.

A jury composed of prominent filmmakers (Michael Kennedy, Guy Maddin, Atom Egoyan, Paule Baillargeon) and film critics (Genevieve Picard, Geoff Pevere), and one token film agency type (yours truly) was struck. (The dgc’s Allan King could not make it at the last moment.)

First problem was arranging to screen all eight potential entries. The second was trying to find an appropriate date for the very busy jury to get together. The final problem was to determine the criteria for choosing a best first feature. Is it the most enjoyable film? The slickest looking? Or the one that shows the most promise? Are we espousing an auteurist view of directing? Do we factor in financial resources available? How do you compare films written by the director, and projects where a director becomes attached to a project at a later stage of development?

These questions were first brought up for discussion in a phone call from the chair of the jury, Michael Kennedy, during a break in the West Coast filming of his latest feature Red Scorpion ii. My response was to borrow an idea passed on to me by a prominent Toronto producer: ‘The Claude Jutra award should go to the director whose first film most makes us want to see his or her next film.’

On that basis, my choice was fairly clear, even though I’d enjoyed in various ways all eight qualifying films. At the meeting to determine the winner, I was asked to go first in expressing my preferences. ‘Why do I always have to go first?’ I thought, as I plunged right in and suggested that, based on my own criterion of most wanting to see the director’s next film, John Pozer’s The Grocer’s Wife had to be an obvious first choice. Surprisingly, one tour around the table and consensus was established. Four out of seven jury members nominated The Grocer’s Wife as their first choice for the award, and the other three votes were spread amongst other entries.

In less than an hour, a new award had been established, its first recipient determined. That was easy, wasn’t it?