Montreal: Francois Girard’s Le Violin Rouge/The Red Violin won nine Prix Jutras including best motion picture at the inaugural March 7 Quebec film awards gala.

La Soiree des Jutras ratings results are ‘excellent,’ according to Grand Nuit organizer Henry Welsh. The show peaked at 1.2 million on Reseau tva and hovered around 900,000 throughout the evening despite tough competition from the Junos on cbc, a Notre Dame de Paris special on Radio-Canada and a Michael Jordan flick on Television Quatre Saisons.

The Red Violin won in all the principal non-performance categories including best screenplay (Girard and Don McKellar), best art direction (Francois Seguin and Renee April) best cinematography (Alain Dosite), best direction (Girard), best editing (Gaetan Huot) and best original music (John Corigliano).

Carole Boudreault of box office consultant Alex Films says The Red Violin’s big night at the Jutras immediately helped pull the film back among the top 10 at the box office. The film is distributed by Film Tonic and Odeon Films and has $1.1 million in Quebec earnings after 19 weeks, says Boudreault.

Pascale Montpetit was the popular winner of the Prix Jutra best actress prize for Le Coeur de Poing. Alexis Martin won for best actor for his performance in Un 32 Aout sur Terre.

The Red Violin was this year’s uncontested winner and there was absolutely no hint of resentment at the awards show, despite the fact the film is an Ontario/Italy coproduction. In accepting his Jutra, Rhombus Media producer Niv Fichman made a special point to thank distrib Pierre Latour of Tonic, then used hesitant but correct French to tell his industry colleagues he felt he had become ‘an honorary member’ of the Quebec film community.

Even more gracious, Films Lions Gate topper Christain Larouche accepted the Billet d’Or for best box office for the Louis Saia comedy Les Boys (Melenny Productions). Les Boys won with record receipts of $6.1 million for the period Dec. 1, 9797 to Dec. 31, 1998. The sequel, Les Boys ii, has receipts of $5.2 million and counting.

The Richard Desjardins/Robert Monderie doc on the devastation to Quebec’s old growth forests, L’Erreur Boreale (acpav/National Film Board), won for best documentary while Jean-Marc Vallee’s Les Mots Magiques won for best short film.

Other Prix Jutra winners include best supporting actress Anne-Marie Cadieux (Le Coeur de Poing), best supporting actor Colm Feore (The Red Violin) and best sound – Claude La Haye, Marcel Pothier, Hans Peter Strobl and Guy Pelletier (Red Violin).

The Jutra career tribute award, sponsored by the apftq producers association, went to actor Marcel Sabourin

La Soiree des Jutras is named in honor of the late Claude Jutra, director of Mon Oncle Antoine. The event had a budget of $630,000, including $400,000 for the tv gala. Guy Latraverse of Sogestalt produced.