MONTREAL — With nine nominations, actor/director Luc Picard’s surrealist fable Babine is leading the race for Quebec’s most prestigious film awards, the Prix Jutra.

But while the Cité-Amérique production — written by much-loved Quebec storyteller and stage performer Fred Pellerin — was acknowledged in the best actor (Vincent-Guillaume Otis) and best screenplay categories, it was ignored for best film; nor is Picard on the list for best director.

Writer/director Philippe Falardeau’s drama about a family abandoned by their mother C’est pas moi, je le jure! — which just picked up two major prizes at the Berlin International Film Festival — and director Léa Pool’s similarly themed Maman est chez le coiffeur, each received seven nominations.

C’est pas moi producer Kim McGraw of micro_scope said she didn’t expect to receive so many nominations this year. ‘I am surprised because it is a big year for Quebec film,’ she said. The company has been on somewhat of a Jutra-winning roll for the past few years: Falardeau’s Congorama won five Jutras in 2007; last year Continental, un film sans fusil picked up four.

McGraw was surprised that two of her favorite films this year, both helmed by up-and-coming directors, Nicole Robert’s Tout est parfait and L’ouest du Pluton by Henry Bernadet and Myriam Verrault, weren’t nominated for best picture.

The shortlist for best film includes C’est pas moi, je le jure!, Maman est chez le coiffeur from Equinoxe Productions, Lyne Charlebois’ drama Borderline, and Benoît Pilon’s 1950s-set Ce qu’il faut pour vivre.

Ce qu’il faut, which tells the tale of an Inuit hunter forced to abandon his family and go south for medical treatment, is leading the race for the Genie Awards with eight nominations.

‘I believe the film has universal appeal,’ says director Pilon. ‘Perhaps in these hard times people like a story about basic human values of friendship. It touches people.’

Pilon and Charlebois have also been nominated in the best director category along with Robert Morin for Papa à la chasse aux lagopèdes and Yves-Christian Fournier, who directed what many observers believe is the province’s best film of the year, Tout est parfait, which received seven Genie nominations last week.

Borderline garnered six nominations in total, including one for best actress for Isabelle Blais. Ce qu’il faut pour vivre landed a total of five nominations and Tout est parfait took home four.

The 11th annual Jutras will take place at Radio-Canada in Montreal on March 29. The show is to be hosted by actress Karine Vanasse.