Arriving amid eight Genie and five Jutra nominations, Benoît Pilon’s The Necessities of Life makes its English Canada debut on Friday in a small rollout through E1 Films that will see the acclaimed drama play in mostly urban markets, beginning with Toronto.

The picture, which also came close to an Oscar nomination, will play with English subtitles at art houses The Royal and Canada Square Cinemas in Toronto, followed by Ottawa next week and Vancouver, Calgary and Winnipeg on March 13.

An E1 spokesperson says, however, that the date was set for the release several weeks before the picture’s recent good luck on the awards circuit.

The film, about an Inuit hunter forced to come to Quebec City to be treated for tuberculosis in the 1950s, was also on Canada’s Top Ten list for 2008.

The Necessities of Life (Ce qu’il faut pour vivre) opened in Quebec last August and was number one on the Canuck box-office charts for four weeks, generating nearly $300,000 on 14 screens or less.

Reviews in the English press have been generally positive, with Exclaim! calling it a ‘beautiful, bittersweet story,’ while Eye Weekly raves it has ‘justly’ become one of the year’s most celebrated films. Jay Stone at Canwest calls it a ‘lovely film about a dark subject.’ The film will be released on DVD in June.