Denise Filiatrault
Ma vie en cinémascope

Montrealer Denise Filiatrault has earned a great deal of respect from the Canadian arts community in her 73 years, acting in and directing dozens of theater, film and television projects. She is the only directorial nominee this year who has ever won a Genie, awarded in 1982 for her supporting role in Les Plouffe.

Filiatrault’s feature directorial debut came in 1998 with the adaptation of Michel Tremblay’s novel C’t’à ton tour, Laura Cadieux, which collected sizeable box-office receipts in Quebec and three Genie noms, although not for director. Filiatrault was passed over again for the popular sequel, Laura Cadieux… la suite, which got five noms in 2000, winning only for best song.

But the director has hit the right chord with the Academy jury this year for Ma vie en cinémascope, which retells the life of Quebec music legend Alys Robi. Filiatrault is also shortlisted for her original screenplay. She was a Prix Jutra nominee for direction as well, but lost to Francis Leclerc for Mémoires affectives.

Filiatrault, whose features have all been produced by Cinémaginaire, also helmed L’Odyssée d’Alice Tremblay in 2002, and has since written and directed seven episodes of the TV series Le Petit monde de Laura Cadieux. She is the mother of actresses Sophie Lorain (Mambo Italiano) and Danièle Lorain (Gary Yates’ upcoming Hotel Niagara).

Pierre Houle
Monica la mitraille

Monica la mitraille (Machine Gun Molly), Pierre Houle’s first feature, is up for seven Genie nominations, including best actress for Céline Bonnier and adapted screenplay for Luc Dionne and Sylvain Guy, but it is shut out of the best picture category.

The film tells the true story of Montreal’s Monique Sparvieri, who, with her lover, turns to bank robbery. Benefiting from the legend of a local 1960s icon, the film has attracted big audiences in Quebec, with receipts around $1.7 million. Houle was also a finalist for this year’s Prix Jutra.

Houle has previously been recognized for his accomplishments in television and documentary film. In 2003, he won a Gemeaux Award for his direction on an episode of the drama series Bunker le cirque, and was nominated for his writing on the same ep. He was also shortlisted for helming the hard-hitting troubled-youth series Tag (2001) and Tag – Épilogue (2003). Houle helmed the mob series Omertà: la loi du silence I and II, and although it collected numerous awards and nominations, he received none for his own contribution. His documentary Riopelle, sans titre, 1999, collage, however, garnered the best direction prize at the 2000 Hot Docs festival in Toronto and first prize at France’s FIFAP festival.

Bronwen Hughes
Stander

Ex-pat Bronwen Hughes is vying for the director trophy for the hard-hitting drama Stander, a copro with the U.K., South Africa and Germany. The film, released locally by Odeon Films, is not well known in the Canadian industry but has garnered some strong reviews internationally.

Stander tells the true story of white South African policeman Andre Stander, played by American actor Tom Jane (The Punisher). While a member of the local Riot Patrol in the late-1970s apartheid era, Stander comes to be disgusted by the senseless killings he participates in. His outlet for rebellion is to turn on the very authority he once supported by becoming a bank robber. He and his ‘Stander Gang’ would rob multiple banks daily.

The film, shot on location in South Africa, debuted at the 2003 Toronto International Film Festival and screened at Robert Redford’s 2004 Sundance Film Festival.

Hughes has said that she set about to visually illustrate the wealth divide that has characterized South African society.

Born in Toronto but now residing in Los Angeles, Hughes’ film credits include Harriet the Spy (1996) and the Ben Affleck/Sandra Bullock romantic comedy Forces of Nature (1999). She also directed Elvis: Airborne, the Elvis Stojko figure-skating TV special that won the best sports series or program Gemini in 1994.

Francis Leclerc
Mémoires affectives

Francis Leclerc receives his first Genie nom for the Roy Dupuis starrer Mémoires affectives (Looking for Alexander), a drama about an amnesiac that has garnered five other nominations, including best motion picture. The film’s script, which Leclerc cowrote with Marcel Beaulieu, is vying in the original screenplay category. Leclerc recently claimed the best direction Prix Jutra over Denise Filiatrault, Pierre Houle and Yves Pelletier (Les Aimants).

Awards are hardly new to the 33-year-old son of Quebec City: he won the jury and audience prizes at the Montreal short video talent competition Vidéaste recherché-e for Brad Bablax in 1992; the special jury prize at France’s Rencontres internationales de la télévision for the film adaptation of Robert Lepage’s play Les sept branches de la rivière Ota in 1998; and two Golden Sheafs at the Yorkton Short Film and Video Festival for the same project.

Leclerc’s feature debut came with 2001’s Une jeune fille à la fenêtre (Girl at the Window), about a 1920s farm girl with a limited time to live who moves to Montreal to chase her dream of becoming a pianist. It received three Genie nominations, all in sound and music categories, and was nominated for the Grand Prix des Amériques at the Montreal World Film Festival.

Mémoires affectives debuted at the 33rd Montreal Festival of Nouveau Cinema. Leclerc’s most recent project, the drama series Nos étés, also directed by Lyne Charlebois, is reportedly in post-production.

David ‘Sudz’ Sutherland
Love, Sex and Eating the Bones

David Sutherland has made a mark with his debut feature Love, Sex and Eating the Bones, which has also snagged the director a best original screenplay nom and a best picture berth. The movie preemed at the 2003 Toronto International Film Festival and won the best Canadian first-feature award there and best Canadian feature at the 2004 Victoria Independent Film and Video Festival. It subsequently toured festivals throughout the country, generating buzz – if not huge box office – on its own merits as well as for its racy subject matter.

Produced by Sutherland’s wife Jennifer Holness, the romantic comedy concerns Michael (Hill Harper, who now appears on CSI:NY), a pornography addict who finds it difficult to relate sexually to Jasmine (Marlyne Afflack), the real-life woman he falls for.

Sutherland’s prior credits include shorts Win/Loss/Tie (1998) and My Father’s Hands (1999). The latter also preemed at TIFF and won the HBO best short award at the Acapulco Black Film Awards and four Golden Sheafs at Yorkton. It was nominated for a Gemini in 2000, as was Sutherland himself for writing the drama series Drop the Beat.

Sutherland is currently developing his sophomore feature, The Way the Ball Bounces.

Playback picks
* David ‘Sudz’ Sutherland: SD, LB, IE
* Pierre Houle: MH
* Denise Filiatrault: PV
* Francis Leclerc: MD