Drunken Birds Swoop Iris
by Staff Editors
(June 9, 2022 – Montréal, QC) If you missed the 2022 Prix Iris on Sunday night it was quite the show, a show dominated by Ivan Grbovic’s feature Les oiseaux vres (The Drunken Birds). When the night was over the 104-minute feature about drug lords and love had won 10 of the coveted symbols of the Québec film industry.
In addition to winning the Iris for best film (Luc Déry, Kim McCraw), best director (Ivan Grbovic) and best screenplay (Ivan Grbovic, Sara Mishara), the film also won for best female interpretation | Leading Role (Hélène Florent), Best Actor | Supporting Role (Claude Legault), Best Casting (Casting Nathalie Boutrie), Best Cinematography (Sara Mishara), Best Sound (Olivier Calvert, Stephen de Oliveira, Bernard Gariépy Strobl), Best Editing (Arthur Tarnowski) and best original music (Philippe Brault). The film had been previously honoured when Telefilm Canada selected Les oiseaux ivres to be Canada’s entry for Best International Feature Film at the 94th Academy Awards.
Maria Chapdelaine from director Sébastien Pilote landed 4 Iris awards, including discovery of the year (Sara Montpetit), best female interpretation | supporting role (Hélène Florent), best costumes (Francesca Chamberland) and best hairstyle (Martin Lapointe). As noted above, with her win for her work in Les oiseaux vres, Hélène Florent became the first actress to receive two acting awards in the same edition of the Gala Québec Cinéma.
The feature film L’Arracheuse de temps by Francis Leclerc won 3 Prix Iris including best artistic direction (Arnaud Brisebois, Jean Babin, Ève Turcotte), best visual effects (Alchimie 24 – Alain Lachance, Loic Laurelut, Eric Clément, Marie-Claude Lafontaine) and best makeup (Adriana Verbert, Bruno Gatien).
Finally, Norbourg by Maxime Giroux, Sin la Habana by Kaveh Nabatian and Bootlegger by Caroline Monnet each won 1 Iris prize: actor Vincent-Guillaume Otis walked away with the Iris for best actor | leading role for Norbourg, filmmaker Kaveh Nabatian won the Iris for best first film for Sin La Habana and filmmaker Caroline Monnet received the Iris for the most successful film outside Quebec for Bootlegger.
In the Documentary Feature Films category, Comme une vague from director Marie-Julie Dallaire was named best documentary. It also won the Iris for Best Cinematography | Documentary Film (Tobie Marier Robitaille, Josée Deshaies) and Best Editing | documentary film (Louis-Martin Paradis), for a total of 3 trophies.
Les fils by Manon Cousin won the Iris for best sound | documentary film (Bruno Bélanger, Manon Cousin, Louis-Philippe Amiot, Ivann Uruena, René Portillo) and Archipelthe by Félix Dufour-Laperrière received the Iris for best original music (Stéphane Lafleur, Christophe Lamarche-Ledoux).
Awards for Short Films went to Les grandes claques by Annie St-Pierre for best short fiction film. La Grogne from director Alisi Telengut won the Iris for Best Animated Short Film. The Iris for best documentary short went to the 12-minute National Film Board production Perfecting the Art of Longing by Kitra Cahana.
The Iris people’s choice award was given to Sam by Yan England.
Finally, the Gala Québec Cinéma, which hands out the Prix Iris, annually honours one person in what is their equivalent of a Lifetime Achievement Award. The 2022 Iris Homage was awarded to actress Louise Portal.
