Montreal: Louis Belanger’s feature debut Post Mortem and Lea Pool’s coming-of-age film Emporte-moi topped all films at the 2nd edition of the Prix Jutra, the Quebec film awards. The Jutra gala was broadcast live Sunday, March 5 from Monument-National on Reseau tva. The show was also seen internationally on TV5.

Post Mortem won five awards including the Jutra for best motion picture (producer Lorraine Dufour, Coop Video de Montreal), direction (Belanger), lead actor (Gabriel Arcand), editing (Lorraine Dufour) and screenplay (Belanger).

Produced by Cite-Amerique, Emporte-moi won for best lead and supporting actresses (Karine Vanasse and Pascale Bussieres, respectively), art direction (Serge Bureau, Michele Hamel) as well as the Jutra for international recognition. Julien Poulin won for best supporting actor (Le Dernier Souffle).

This year’s career tribute award went to legendary animation director and environmentalist Frederic Back.

The five Jutra prizes top off a huge year for the modest but intense Belanger. Post Mortem also took home best performance by a female lead (Sylvie Moreau) and best original screenplay at the Genie Awards. The film has been given a limited rerelease in theatres by distrib Film Tonic.

Rounding out this year’s Prix Jutra winners are: Les Boys 2 (Billet d’Or for top box office, producer – Melenny Productions, distrib Films Lion Gate); Pierre Gill for cinematography (Souvenirs intimes); Benoit Jutras for original music (Alegria), Patricio Henriquez for best documentary (Histoire d’un dictature, produced by Macumba International); Normand Mercier, Claude Beaugrand, Hans-Peter Strobl and Louis Hone for best overall sound (Histoires d’hiver), Louise Archambault for short film (Atomic Sake) and Alexander Petrov for best animation film (The Old Man and the Sea, coproduced by Productions Pascal Blais).