While the Quebec film industry frets about a drop in interest for homegrown flicks, the top exec at Montreal-based Alliance Vivafilm, Patrick Roy, is on a roll.

It was Roy’s idea to make Babine, a surrealist fable based on the work of Quebec storyteller Fred Pellerin, which has pulled in $2.8 million since opening Nov. 28 and received nine nominations for Quebec’s most prestigious film awards, the Jutras, last month.

Although recent stats reveal that the box office for Quebec film fell by half since 2005 to 9%, the distributor behind the hits Bon Cop, Bad Cop (2006), La grande séduction (2003) and Séraphin: Un homme et son péché (2002) appears to have a gift for picking movies that resonate with Quebec audiences.

This may be because Roy is committed to telling Quebec stories: ‘When I first discovered Pellerin’s work I fell in love with his characters. I knew we had to make a film,’ says Roy, adding that Pellerin had to be convinced the project was worthwhile. ‘He’s not someone who seeks the spotlight. He is very human and genuine.’ Ultimately, Lorraine Richard (Séraphin) came on board as producer and Picard as director.

Roy believes Babine has been successful because, like La grande seduction, it’s about a village full of compelling characters. Although Babine is inspired by Pellerin’s village of Saint-Élie-de-Caxton, his stories likely also communicate to the larger village that is pure laine Quebec, with its shared language and rural, Catholic past. ‘It’s as if life in Saint-Élie-de-Caxton has frozen in time. People work together and respect each other. It’s magical,’ he says.

Roy also gets behind more controversial works. Alliance Vivafilm is distributing Denis Villeneuve’s film about the Dec. 6 murder of 14 women at a Quebec engineering school, Polytechnique, which topped the Quebec box office the first two weeks after its release Feb. 6. ‘We were very careful about that rollout. The event hit Quebec hard. We didn’t want it to be vulgar or sensationalist,’ says Roy.

Alliance Vivafilm is also gearing up for the release of what is expected to be the smash hit of the summer, De père en flic, a comedy featuring the popular Michel Côté (Cruising Bar) and hot 31-year-old comedian Louis-José Houde.

‘I think 2009 is going to be a good year for Quebec film,’ says the executive.