The Canadian feature film Inès by Renée Beaulieu, and the homegrown documentaries Boisbouscache by Jean-Claude Coulbois and Fuir by Carole Laganière will make their world premieres at the Rendez-vous Québec Cinéma festival in Montreal.

Beaulieu wrote, directed and produced Inès (Productions du moment), which stars Roy Dupuis and Rosalie Bonenfant in a story of a 20-year-old woman trying to separate herself from her imposing father.

Coulbois wrote and directed Boisbouscache (ACPAV Development and Production), which looks at a public forest in Quebec that’s an ancestral territory of the Maliseet of Viger First Nation and is also coveted by private groups with diverse interests. Robert Lacerte produced. In Fuir (InformAction Films), produced by Nathalie Barton, cameras capture a shelter for women who are victims of domestic violence in Sherbrooke, Que.

Filmoption International is handling distribution for all three titles going into the 40th edition of the festival, which runs April 20 to 30 with more than 300 films screening online and in person. Organizers say this year’s festival is dedicated to the late Quebec filmmaker Jean-Marc Vallée, who died last December.

Canadian films, series nab Cinematographers Awards nominations

The features Wildhood and Night Raiders are among the nominees for this year’s Canadian Society of Cinematographers Awards in the theatrical feature category.

Guy Godfree is in the running for Wildhood (Rebel Road Films) while Daniel Grant is nominated for Night Raiders (produced by Tara Woodbury for Uno Bravo; Paul Barkin for Alcina Pictures; Ainsley Gardiner and Georgina Condor for Miss Conception Films/Whenua Films; and co-produced with Chelsea Winstanley for Defender Films).

That category also includes Mike McLaughlin for Hands That Bind (Moonrise Pictures); Sara Mishara for Drunken Birds (Les oiseaux ivres) (produced by Luc Déry and Kim McCraw of micro_scope); and Craig Wrobleski for The Unholy (Screen Gems).

The non-theatrical feature category includes Serge Desrosiers for Big Five (Mai Juin Productions); Samy Inayeh with 8-Bit Christmas (New Line Cinema); Adam Madrzyk for The Family (Leader Media); Robert McLachlan for Nightbooks (Catchlight Studios); and Alan Poon for Awake (Entertainment One).

Nominees for the Robert Brooks Award for Documentary Long Format include Aaron Bernakevitch with True West: The John Scott Story (Atomic 10); Kieran Crilly for Catching a Serial Killer: Bruce McArthur (Peacock Alley Entertainment); Matt Irwin for Chasing Whiskey (Evolve Studios); and Iris Ng with One of Ours (Sienna Films).

The full list of nominees was announced on YouTube. Winners of the 65th annual awards will be announced an an in-person gala in Toronto on on May 7.

B.C. film to open Reel 2 Real International Film Festival for Youth

British Columbia-shot Drinkwater (Suitcase Charlie Films) directed by Stephen Campanelli will open the Reel 2 Real International Film Festival for Youth, running April 3 to 13 with virtual and in-person screenings in Vancouver. The coming-of-age comedy stars Eric McCormack and was the big winner at the 21st Whistler Film Festival.

A Canadian feature will also close the festival — the Quebec sci-fi fantasy The Time Thief (L’arracheuse de temps) (Attraction Images), which is directed by Francis Leclerc and follows an 11-year-old boy who is worried for his grandmother’s life.

YMA awards names 2022 Awards of Excellence recipients

The Youth Media Alliance (YMA) will give this year’s Outstanding Achievement Award to puppeteer Michel Ledoux. Director, animator, and illustrator Francis Papillon will receive the Emerging Talent Award at the YMA’s Awards of Excellence gala on May 24 in Montreal.

Ledoux, a 42-year industry veteran, is known for portraying Bibi in the Quebec children’s series Bibi et Geneviève, Graziella in La Maison de Ouimzie, and most recently Pruneau in Passe-Partout.

Papillon’s work includes the animated film Un sacré mariage!, co-directed with Gregory Verreault, which won Best Animated Film at the Festival du Film Étudiant de Québec. He also worked on the design and animation of the web series Sacrés objets, a Toast Studio production for TV5, then directed Explique-moi ça as well as directed 120 episodes of La liste des choses qui existent, produced by La Pastèque and the NFB that aired in March 2020 on Télé-Québec.