Nancy Grant
Nancy Grant is a French-Québécois Canadian film producer. She was born in the small village of Petit-Matane, on the Gaspé Peninsula in the north of Quebec, Canada. She is best known for producing multiple projects with several Quebec filmmakers including Maxime Giroux, Xavier Dolan, Denis Côté, and Anne Émond. Her recent productions include Tom at the Farm, [Mommy (2014 film)|Mommy], and Félix et Meira, which have received numerous awards at institutions including the Toronto International Film Festival, Alfred Bauer Berlin International Film Festival, Academy Awards, and Cannes Film Festival.
In 2014, she was awarded Best Motion Picture for Mommy at the Canadian Screen Awards.
Career
Grant studied psychology and international development at McGill University in Montreal, Canada and graduated in 2005. She founded Metafilms in Montreal in 2003 with Sylvain Corbeil and frequently collaborates with Xavier Dolan and Maxime Giroux.Grant co-owns the production company Sons of Manual with director Xavier Dolan.
''Tom à la ferme''
Grant took the main stage when she collaborated with Xavier Dolan in 2012. They have created 3 films together since then. Their first project was Tom at the Farm in 2013, a film based on the play by Michel Marc Bouchard. It was a part of the main screen competition at the 70th Venice International Film Festival, in the special presentation at the 2013 [Toronto International Film Festival], and was a nominee for the 2014 Canadian Screen Awards. The psychological thriller follows Tom, a man who has suddenly lost his lover Guillaume, to a remote country home for the funeral where Guillaume's family expects a woman in his place. He decides to keep his relations with Guillaume a secret, but finds himself in an unexpected game with Guillaume's aggressive and curious brother. The film was generally well received as a Hitchcockian Montreal psychological drama thriller, especially in its use of suspense and secrets with country landscapes. Some criticized the film for what they saw as Dolan's self-obsession, as he held the roles of screenwriter, director, co-producer, editor and actor. The film was nominated for 8 awards at the Canadian Screen Awards, and for two at the Venice Film Festival where it won the FIPRESCI Award.''Mommy''
Dolan and Grant continued to collaborate. Shortly after their first project, they produced College Boy, a music video for the French rock band Indochine. Afterwards, in 2014, they began production on Mommy. It is a story of a recently widowed mother and her sometimes violent son with ADHD as they try to cope with their new life. A new neighbour offers her help as the family searches for hope and balance. 90% of both critics and audiences raved about the film and Dolan's authentic style; "Dolan loves close-ups and he gives his actors every chance to demonstrate their talent for ringing the emotional changes in a single take". The film was shot in a square 1:1 ratio. Dolan said of the choice, "I just wanted to shoot portrait aspect ratio that would allow me to be very close to characters, avoid distractions to the left and right of the frame and have the audience look the characters right in the eye". The film has received over 29 awards internationally.Grant and Dolan followed up in 2018 with Dolan's first English-language film, The Death and Life of John F. Donovan, a "showbiz satire with a big-name cast: Jessica Chastain, Kit Harington, Susan Sarandon, and Kathy Bates".