The feature-length documentary Je me soulève (Films Cine Scene) was declared Best Canadian Film at Montreal’s International Festival of Films on Art.

Hugo Latulippe directed the French-language doc, which sees 20 young actors and musicians create a collective play for Québec theatre Le Trident over a full year, using contemporary Québec poetry. Jury members praised Je me soulève (pictured) for its “positive portrayal of passion and hope collectively expressed by young poets and performers from all walks of life.”

“The vibrant spirit of the sisters at the core of this project – who believe in the power of words, poetry, and subjective experience – is infectious and beautifully unrelenting. A powerful rendition of a unique production journey,” added the jury for the feature-length competition, which comprised actor Evelyne Brochu; director Silvia Lucchesi; programmer Jean-Jacques Peretti; author and director Vincent Rimbaux; and programmer and curator Joanna Raczynska.

The festival is dedicated to the international promotion and distribution of films on art and media arts. The 40th edition, which ended Sunday, also awarded the inaugural Jury Prize for Short Film to the doc We Are Not Speaking the Same Language (Wapikoni Mobile).

We Are Not Speaking the Same Language features director Danika St-Laurent explaining the connection between her Indigenous identity and her grandmother through bead work.

St-Laurent is an Ojibwe-Cree (Saulteaux) from Muskowekwan First Nation in Saskatchewan and was born in Sherbrooke, Que. She made the French-language short — her first — last summer during the second cohort of the Virtual Studio at Wapikoni Mobile, where she works as the digital activities outreach co-ordinator.

The jury for the short film competition called We Are Not Speaking the Same Language a “luminous film” that “authentically relates the history of broken connections.”

“Through microscopic objects, the film emotionally captures macroscopic discourse, asking simple but full questions about the inner identity of individuals in the world,” said the jury, which included director Miryam Charles; executive director Audrey Genois; and programmer Sanghoon Lee.