Chloé Leriche’s Atikamekw Suns took the Luc-Perreault/AQCC (Association québécoise des critiques de cinéma) prize for best Quebec film of 2024 at this year’s Rendez-vous Québec Cinéma (RVQC) awards.

Produced by Montreal-headquartered Les Films de l’Autre, the film (pictured) focuses on the unresolved police investigation into the 1977 murder of five young men from the Atikamekw First Nation community of Manawan.

This year’s RVQC Awards, announced Feb. 27, handed out a total of $42,500 in cash and in-kind prizes to 11 established and emerging filmmakers. Atikamekw Suns‘ prize came with a $2,000 bursary.

In addition, Jonathan Beaulieu-Cyr’s Phénix took home the $5,000 Prix Gilles Carle for best first or second feature fiction film.

Produced by Fanny Forest for Sans rancoeur films, the film is set in the 2000s and follows an army veteran who takes on the role of coach for his son’s soccer team in an attempt to bond with him before being sent to war in Afghanistan. The jury for the award included actor François Arnaud, director Miryam Charles and screenwriter/director Rafaël Ouellet.

The $5,000 Prix Pierre-et-Yolande-Perreault prize for best feature documentary went to Matthew Wolkow and Jean-Jacques Martinod’s Canada/U.S./Ecuador copro Eastern Anthems. Produced by Wolkow, the film follows explores the return of the American cicada Great Eastern Brood X, which emerges in the eastern U.S. every 17 years, through the work and processes of two artists.

The jury for this award included director Bachir Bensaddek, cinematographer Léna Mill-Reuillard and painter and novelist Marc Séguin.

Writer-director Nadine Valcin’s documentary Simply Johanne, which explores the life of Canadian actress Johanne Harrelle through archival footage, interviews with loved ones and interpretations of her writings by three contemporary actresses, won the $1,500 Best Franco-Canadian film award. Ania Jamila and Josiane Blanc are producers.

Patrice Sauvé’s La petite et le vieux, produced by Parallaxes’ Sonia Despars and Marc Biron, was awarded as the best feature fiction film in the festival’s Lab Québec Cinéma selection. The jury was made up of more than 10 high schools who participated in a cultural outing to the festival to view one of the five nominated films.

The film chronicles the experiences of a 10-year-old girl living in a working-class Quebec neighborhood in the 1980s.

Metafilms’ Marie-Claire Lalonde received the $2,000 On Tourne Vert award for the best eco-responsible feature production for Xavier Legrand’s Le successeur. Produced by Lalonde, the film follows a young fashion designer returning to Quebec from France following the death of his father.

The short film winners include Pier-Philippe Chevigny’s Mercenaire (Le Foyer Films), which won the $1,500 best short fiction film award; Alison McAlpine’s Perfectly A Strangeness (Second Sight Pictures), which won the $2,500 best short documentary prize; and Rodolphe Saint-Gelais and Thierry Sirois’ Les fleurs sauvages (Club Vidéo), which won the $1,500 best short animation film recognition.

Noa Blanche’s short Sous le soleil exactement won the $20,000 service grant for in the Best Art Work and Experiment category while La Créative Films’ Estelle Champoux and Mylène Corbeil won the $1,000 On Tourne Vert award for producing Alexandre Lefebvre’s short Chez nous, as the best eco-responsible short film.

Rounding out the shorts winners is Marie-Frédérique Lemieux’s L’eau coule sans demander pardon (L’Université du Québec à Montréal), which won the $1,500 best student short film prize.

Image courtesy of Whistler Film Festival