Montreal: Veteran actress, writer and director Denise Filiatrault will receive this year’s lifetime achievement award at the Prix Jutra for her decades-spanning career on stage, TV and film.

The 74-year-old grande dame of Quebec comedy first approached province-wide fame for her role in the massive TV hit Moi et l’autre (1966-71). She later proved her ability as a dramatic screen actress, starring in such films as La Mort d’un b°cheron (1973), Il était une fois dans l’est (1974), and the central role in Les Plouffe, for which she won her only Genie Award.

Filiatrault made her directorial debut with C’t’à ton tour, Laura Cadieux (1998), a box-office hit based on a Michel Tremblay novel, which she promptly followed up with Laura Cadieux… la suite (1999). Filiatrault’s 2004 hit biopic Ma vie en cinémascope, about the life of Quebec singer Alys Robi, won leading lady Pascale Bussières both a Genie and a Jutra. Filiatrault both wrote and directed the feature.

The Prix Jutra will be presented on March 19 at Montreal’s Place-des-arts, and will be broadcast on both ARTV and Radio-Canada.