Gala Québec Cinéma


The Gala Québec Cinéma is a Quebec film award, presented annually by Québec Cinéma, which recognizes talent and achievement in the mainly feature film industry of Quebec. Until 2016, it was known as La soirée des prix Jutra in reference of influential Quebec film director Claude Jutra, but Jutra's name was withdrawn from the awards following the publication of Yves Lever's biography of Jutra, which alleged that he had sexually abused children.
It should not be confused with the Claude Jutra Award, a special award presented by the Academy of [Canadian Cinema & Television] as part of the separate Canadian Screen Awards program which was also renamed in 2016 following the allegations against Jutra.

History

Introduced in 1999, the awards are presented for Best Film and performance, writing and technical categories such as best actor, actress, director, screenplay, et cetera. Due to Quebec's majority francophone population, most films made in the province are French-language films, but English-language films made in the province are also fully eligible for nomination. The awards maintain slightly different eligibility criteria for international coproductions, however: a coproduction which surpasses the organization's criteria for "majority Québécois" involvement is treated the same as a Quebec film, with full eligibility in all categories, while a coproduction which is classified as "minority Québécois", such as the 2015 film Brooklyn, is eligible only in categories where a resident of Quebec is the nominee, and cannot be submitted for Best Film.
The initial creation of the awards sparked some concern that the idea of a separate award for Quebec films would undermine the pan-Canadian scope of the Genie Awards; Québec Cinéma clarified that it did not have, and would not impose, a rule that films could not be submitted for both awards, although at least one film producer, Roger Frappier, voluntarily declined to submit the films August 32nd on Earth and 2 Seconds for Genie consideration at all on the grounds that since neither film was projected to be popular outside Quebec, they would purportedly not get any public relations or marketing benefit out of Genie nominations. Frappier has not subsequently refused to submit other films to the Genies or the Canadian Screen Awards after 1999.
Following the withdrawal of Jutra's name from the award, the 2016 awards were presented solely under the name Québec Cinéma pending an announcement of the award's new permanent name. The Prix Iris name was announced in October 2016.
The trophy was designed by sculptor Charles Daudelin. The awards replaced the prix Guy-L'Écuyer, created in 1987 by Les Rendez-vous du cinéma québécois in memory of actor Guy L'Écuyer.
The 22nd [Quebec Cinema Awards] ceremony, originally planned for June 7, 2020, was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada; unlike the 8th Canadian Screen Awards, however, the award nominations had not yet been released when the cancellation of the ceremony was announced. Nominations were still released on April 22, and the winners were announced via livestreaming on June 10.
Following the death of influential Quebec filmmaker Jean-Marc Vallée in December 2021, there was some public demand that Québec Cinéma rename the awards to the Prix Vallée in his honour.
In 2022, Radio-Canada announced that due to declining ratings in recent years, it would not televise the 2023 awards, and was instead planning alternative ways to highlight Quebec film in its programming. In February 2023, Québec Cinéma indicated that it was in negotiations with other broadcasters to carry the 25th Quebec Cinema Awards; as of May 2023, however, the organization had confirmed only that the ceremony would not take place in its usual June scheduling. In July 2023, Québec Cinéma announced that the ceremony would be held in December 2023, and broadcast by Noovo. The organization has since maintained the December scheduling, with an eligibility period currently extending from September of the previous year to August of the same year as the ceremony.

Most wins and nominations

The following films received at least 10 nominations:
NominationsTitle
22Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person
18Viking
17Drunken Birds
17Universal Language
161991
16Goddess of the Fireflies
16Maria Chapdelaine
15Peak Everything
15Two Women
14C.R.A.Z.Y.
14The Rocket
14The 3 L'il Pigs
14Babysitter
14Red Rooms
14The Nature of Love
13Seducing Doctor Lewis
13Bon Cop, Bad Cop
13And the Birds Rained Down
13Underground
13The Vinland Club
13The Time Thief
13Shepherds
12The Barbarian Invasions
12A Sunday in Kigali
12Incendies
12It's Only the End of the World
12Two Lovers and a Bear
12For Those Who Don't Read Me
12The Dishwasher
11The Red Violin
11Laurence Anyways
11Louis Cyr
11Mommy
11The Passion of Augustine
11La Bolduc
11A Brother's Love
11Ghost Town Anthology
11My Salinger Year
11Beans
111995
10Séraphin: Heart of Stone
10Gaz Bar Blues
10Audition
10Through the Mist
10Monsieur Lazhar
10War Witch
10Gabrielle
10You're Sleeping Nicole
10Tom at the Farm
10Corbo
10Hochelaga, Land of Souls
10Infiltration
10Mafia Inc.
10Target Number One
10Richelieu
10Solo

The following films received at least 5 awards :
AwardsTitle
16C.R.A.Z.Y.
11Viking
10Incendies
10Mommy
10Drunken Birds
9The Red Violin
9Maelström
9Louis Cyr
8Monsieur Lazhar
8War Witch
8Ravenous
8Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person
8Universal Language
7Soft Shell Man
7The Barbarian Invasions
7Seducing Doctor Lewis
7Séraphin: Heart of Stone
7Goddess of the Fireflies
6A Sunday in Kigali
6The Passion of Augustine
6La Bolduc
6Antigone
5Post Mortem
5Bittersweet Memories
5Congorama
5Babine
5Polytechnique
5Gabrielle
5It's Only the End of the World
5Hochelaga, Land of Souls
51991

The following individuals received at least 10 nominations:
NominationsNominee
32Bernard Gariépy Strobl
31Xavier Dolan
27Luc Boudrias
26Sylvain Corbeil
26Nancy Grant
24Luc Déry
23Sylvain Bellemare
23Kim McCraw
18Olivier Calvert
16Stéphane Bergeron
15Kathryn Casault
15Claude La Haye
15Martin Lapointe
15André Turpin
14Claude Beaugrand
14Roger Frappier
14Sara Mishara
14Denise Robert
13André-Line Beauparlant
13Denis Côté
13Philippe Falardeau
13Stéphane Lafleur
13Robert Morin
13Luc Picard
13Hans Peter Strobl
13Luc Vandal
12Marc Bertrand
12Céline Bonnier
12Gavin Fernandes
12Ricardo Trogi
11Nathalie Boutrie
11Monia Chokri
11Marie-Claude Lafontaine
11Denis Villeneuve
10Robin Aubert
10Francesca Chamberland
10Sophie Deraspe
10Louis Gignac
10Nathanaël Karmitz
10Lyse Lafontaine
10Christian Larouche
10Ginette Magny
10Galilé Marion-Gauvin
10Kim Nguyen
10Denis Parent
10Theodore Ushev

The following individuals received at least 5 awards :
AwardsNominee
15Xavier Dolan
10Bernard Gariépy Strobl
10Nancy Grant
9Luc Déry
9André Turpin
9Denis Villeneuve
8Kim McCraw
8Stéphane Lafleur
7Martin Lapointe
7Denise Robert
7Jean-Marc Vallée
6Claude Beaugrand
6Sylvain Bellemare
6Richard Comeau
6Sylvain Corbeil
6Hans Peter Strobl
5Denys Arcand
5Louise Archambault
5Philippe Falardeau
5Claude La Haye
5Léa Pool

"Big Five" winners and nominees

To date, thirteen films were nominated for the "Big Five" categories: Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Screenplay. Of those, only Mommy managed to win all five awards.
  1. 2 Seconds '''' - 1999
  2. Tar Angel - 2002
  3. The Barbarian Invasions – 2004
  4. The Rocket – 2006
  5. The Novena – 2006
  6. Days of Darkness – 2008
  7. I Killed My Mother – 2010
  8. Mommy – 2015
  9. Two Lovers and a Bear – 2017
  10. Family First – 2018
  11. Viking – 2023
  12. Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person – 2024
  13. The Nature of Love – 2024