MONTREAL — Amid praise for a radically changed nomination process, contenders for the Prix Jutra were announced Tuesday. And surprisingly, it isn’t Xavier Dolan’s J’ai tué ma mère which leads the pack for the Quebec film honors.

Instead, the film chronicling the life and death of musician André ‘Dédé’ Fortin, Dédé, à travers les brumes, pulled in the most nods — 10 — including best film, and both best direction and screenplay for Jean-Philippe Duval.

The fantasy picture Grande ourse: la clé des possibles, follows with nine nods, mostly in secondary categories. André Forcier’s Je me souviens has six nomiantions, including best actress for Céline Bonnier and best screenplay for Forcier. Dolan’s J’ai tué ma mère has five, including best film, director, actor and actress for Anne Dorval.

Also up for best film and best direction is Polytechnique, which picked up a total of seven nominations.

Polytechnique director Denis Villeneuve believes the new, jury-based nomination process was a long-overdue reform. ‘It was ridiculous before,” Villeneuve told Playback Daily at the press conference where the nominations were announced. ”Now it’s not just the box-office hits that get recognized. The other, less well-known films get a chance as well.”

In the past, over 7,000 members of various industry associations nominated the films in their respective professional categories. Critics and auteur filmmakers claimed that many of the voters didn’t see the films and simply voted for their friends.

Under the new system, a jury of 18 picked the best film nominee from a list of 39 feature films and then split into two juries of nine people to select the picks in the other categories.

The new nomination process is likely why the box-office smash De père en flic was only recognized in two categories, best actor for Michel Côté and best supporting actor for Rémy Girard.

Another surprise on the list is the largely unknown but critically acclaimed Le jour avant le lendemain (Before Tomorrow), which picked up four nominations: best film, best director for Marie-Hélène Cousineau and Madeline Piujuq Ivalu; best costumes for Atuat Akkitirk and Micheline Ammaq; and best music for Anna McGarrigle and the late Kate McGarrigle.

”I am so pleased to be recognized. Often because I make films about the North they aren’t viewed as Quebecois films, but I am born here and I speak French,’ said Cousineau.

The March 28 ceremony will be broadcast live on Radio-Canada.