The 1974 classic film directed by Ted Kotcheff and based on a Mordecai Richler novel, The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, has secured an official selection screening at next month’s Cannes Film Festival after being fully restored.

The restoration was spearheaded by The Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television and involved Astral, Technicolor Creative Services Canada, Telefilm Canada, the National Film Board of Canada, the Director’s Guild of Canada (DGC) and the Cinémathèque québécoise.

Once the negative was obtained from the Cinémathèque’s vault, Technicolor cleaned, repaired and scanned it over a period of months with close involvement of Los Angeles-based Kotcheff.

“The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, one of the greatest Canadian films ever made, has been recognized as a masterpiece and takes its rightful place in Cannes Classics,”  says Academy CEO Helga Stephenson, in a statement Monday.

Based on the Richler novel, it was set on Montreal’s St. Urbain Street (the Jewish ghetto) in the 1940’s. It features actor Richard Dreyfuss right before Jaws made him a megastar. It also starred Quebec actor and director Micheline Lanctôt, Randy Quaid, and the late Jack Warden, the late Joseph Wiseman and the late Denholm Elliott.

It was produced by the late John Kemeny.

It is distributed in Canada and internationally by Entertainment One.

The festival runs May 15 to 26. Its Cannes Classics lineup includes other vintage films, including films by Alfred Hitchcock, Billy Wilder and Jean Cocteau.