Two of the most critically acclaimed films produced in Canada this year, Manon Briand’s 2 Secondes and Denis Villeneuve’s 32 Aout sur terre, were not entered in this year’s Genie Awards because their producer wants to draw attention to the lack of interest in Quebec films from English Canada, as well as protest the Genie’s high entrance fees and nomination procedure.

Roger Frappier, head of Montreal’s Max Films, multi-Genie winner, and one of the country’s most successful and well-respected producers, says that despite 2 Secondes making nearly $300,000 from the Quebec box office, sweeping most of the awards at the Montreal World Film Festival, and being worthy of an invitation to the Sundance Film Festival, roughly 100 people saw the film during its first week in Toronto when it opened on two screens.

‘If I had won the Genie for best picture for 2 Secondes I would have been very sad,’ says Frappier, who produced the Denys Arcand films The Decline of The American Empire and Jesus de Montreal as well as Jean Claude Lauzon’s Un zoo, la nuit, among others.

‘To accept [an award] it has to be in relation to a work that people are aware of.’

Small audience

2 Secondes was released in Toronto by distributor Red Sky Entertainment. According to Frappier, in a week it had grossed $836 – $327 at the Canada Square and $509 from the Carlton.

‘To me this has gone on for too long and I will not accept it anymore,’ says Frappier. ‘I can’t win a prize and be happy when the movies I produce are not seen by a Canadian audience.’

Frappier says that until this problem is solved, ‘all the money we spend on the Genies and all the prizes will not enhance the vision at the box office.’

The veteran Quebec producer says English Canada’s lack of interest in Quebec films is not a new situation. In 1990, Frappier produced Ding et Dong, le film, which went on to win the Genies’ Golden Reel Award for the highest box-office receipts in Canada, despite never being theatrically released outside of Quebec.

‘It’s a totally schizophrenic situation,’ says Frappier.

‘It’s going to be the same this year when Les Boys wins the Golden Reel because it grossed more than $6 million in Quebec but barely played a week in Toronto,’ he says.

But Frappier is also snubbing the Genies this year because he disagrees with the nomination procedure and the $1,500 fee each producer must pay to the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television for each film entered.

‘Won’t pay’

‘I don’t want to pay anymore to have my movies nominated,’ he says, especially in light of the boffo b.o. they’re doing in the rest of Canada. Frappier contends that Genie eligibility should be decided the same way that the Oscars are. ‘Any films that have been released for at least one week during the year in Canada should be eligible for the Genies,’ he says.

A larger and more diverse group of acct members should choose the initial nominees, Frappier says. And once the nominations have been made, Frappier suggests that the Academy should hold screenings of all the nominated films in the Atlantic provinces, Quebec, Toronto and in the West, ‘so at least the Academy member can go and screen the films.’

Not a slight

Frappier says his actions are not meant as a slight against the acct or the Genies, but that the protest was necessary in order to draw attention to the situation.

He says that his position as president of the awards body for the newly launched Quebec film awards, the Prix Jutra, was not a factor in his decision to withdraw his films from the Genies.

‘I have nothing against the Genies,’ says Frappier. ‘I respect all those who enter their films, but for me to spend an awful lot of money to enter when the end result is $800 – I cannot do it anymore.’