In Brief: Denys Arcand to receive DGC Lifetime Achievement Award

Plus: A Canadian short doc breaks a Guinness World Record, and Virtual Production House rebrands its Vancouver location.

The Directors Guild of Canada (DGC) has named Canadian screen industry veteran Denys Arcand as the 2023 recipient of the DGC Lifetime Achievement Award.

The DGC announced the Special Awards honourees for the 22nd Annual DGC Awards on Thursday (Oct. 12), with Indigenous filmmaker Marie Clements (Bones of Crows) and labour and human rights attorney Pat Gallivan also set to be recognized for their work.

Arcand’s body of work includes Oscar-winning film The Barbarian Invasions (2003), the Oscar-nominated films Jesus of Montreal (1989) and The Decline of the American Empire (1986), and the most recent Testament, which released this year. “Denys and [his] work have helped shaped the careers of so many Canadian filmmakers of his generation and beyond, his art and artistry opening doors to the world and his voice redefining what’s possible in popular cinema,” said DGC president Warren P. Sonoda in a statement.

Playwright, screenwriter, director and producer Clements will receive the DGC Impact Award for Inclusion and Leadership, with Sonoda stating that her “storytelling not only provides an unflinching eye into Indigenous life, past and present but her productions have shown an unsurpassed commitment to inclusion and representation in front and behind the camera.”

Gallivan, who has represented DGC BC through nine rounds of collective bargaining, will be named Honourary Life Member. “From the foundations of the film and television industry in British Columbia to the ‘DGC Strong’ campaign and labour negotiations in B.C. last year, Pat’s service to the Guild has always gone above and beyond,” said Sonoda.

The awards will be presented at the DGC gala ceremony at the Fairmont Royal York in Toronto on Oct. 21.

Canadian short breaks Guinness World Record

Nova Scotia-born director Phil Comeau has received a unique distinction, claiming the Guinness World Record for most awards won by a documentary short film.

Written and directed by Comeau, the 2019 film Belle-Île en Acadie — which follows a group of Acadian descendants in France who journey to the Maritimes to discover their roots — has won a total of 458 awards, according to a news release. The short was funded through crowdfunding, the National Film Board of Canada’s Independent Filmmaker Assistance Program, and Acadian foundations and businesses.

More than 800 pages of evidence were submitted to Guinness World Records parent company the Jim Pattison Group in order to obtain the record, said Comeau in a statement, including copies of all 458 awards certificates.

“When we launched this film in 2019, I never expected it to attract so much worldwide attention,” Comeau continued. “The film won awards on the festival circuit for over three years. In its first year of release, it had already won nearly two hundred awards… If this recognition helps [get] the Acadian people of Canada and their global diaspora better known, then that’s its true success.”

Virtual Production House Vancouver rebrands to Lumostage

VFX solutions provider Virtual Production House (VPH) has rebranded its Vancouver studio to Lumostage. VPH, a subsidiary of Toronto film studio The Other End, launched the Vancouver studio in March after opening a Toronto office in 2022 to tap into the growing virtual production industry. The rebrand includes the launch of a new website and virtual location solutions.

With files from Kelly Townsend

Photo by Philippe Bossé