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The opening gala will be Philippe Faladeau`s US-made feature The Good Lie. It has echoes of Philippe Falardeau’s last film, Monsieur Lazhar, but this story, inspired by real events, is the Québécois director’s first work with American studios, which led to the casting of the energetic and endearing Reese Whiterspoon. It’s a feel-good movie that doesn’t hit any false notes, and doesn’t stray from what’s important: approaching the drama with sensitivity and honesty that go straight to the heart. Whitherspoon`s costars include Sudanese actors Ger Duany, Emmanuel Jal and Arnold Oceng.
 The closing gala is Le sel de la terre. Co-directed by Juliano Ribeiro Salgado and Wim Wenders, the film was shot in French, English and Portuguese. According to Wenders, a photographer is someone who creates and recreates the world through shadow and light. This intriguing definition is particularly apt for Sebastião Salgado, a Brazilian photographer who has captured the breathtaking beauty of nature in remote regions of northeastern Brazil, the Sahel in Africa, and other untouched corners of the planet (as in his latest project, Genesis). Salgado walked away from a promising career as an economist to devote himself to his art. For four decades now, he has combined a sumptuous aesthetic approach with a keen, sensitive understanding of the world around us and the people who inhabit it. Wenders pays tribute to this passionate artist in a film that’s as sublime as the photographs it spotlights. The Salt of the Earth (as it is titled in English) also gives voice to Salgado’s son Juliano, who offers a candid and poetic take on the exceptional life his father has led. As in his previous documentary on dancer Pina Bausch, this beguiling biography, which won two prizes in Un Certain Regard this year, delves into the notion that art isn’t just ornamental and is in fact a truly fundamental part of the world we live in.
New this year, the Festival du nouveau cinéma will entrust the prize-awarding process to juries made up of well-known figures from the world of local and international cinema and interactive media. In total, 15 awards will be handed out in the various sections of the 43rd edition of the Festival, including two new ones, the Audience Award presented by Canal + Canada in the International Competition and the Innovation Award presented by Urbania in the newly-added New Storytelling section. Following is a list of the prizes available this year:
International Competition:
The Louve d’Or presented by Québecor, along with a $15,000 cash prize, goes to the best feature film in the International Competition. The International Competition jury will be made up of: Anais Barbeau-Lavalette, director (Le ring, Inch’allah); Mira Burt-Wintonick, radio producer and filmmaker; Jean-Claude Lord, director; Patrick Roy distributor and chairman of the board of Québec Cinéma; André Turpin, director (Un crabe dans la tête) and director of photography (Mommy,Incendies).
The jury will also hand out a Special Jury Award as well as the Daniel Langlois Innovation Award, which will go to a work in the International Competition that stands out for its daring aesthetics, creative use of new technologies or groundbreaking treatment of a sensitive subject matter.
New this year, all films in the International Competition will also be eligible for the Audience Award presented by Canal + Canada, which includes a $5,000 grant. Festivalgoers will have a chance to vote for their favourite film at entrances and exits of screening rooms and on canalplus.ca. A $5,000 cash prize will be awarded to the winner by Canal+ Canada.
The AQCC Award (Association québécoise des critiques de cinéma) will also be awarded to the best film in the International Competition as decided by a jury made up of critics: Frédéric Bouchard, Robert Daudelin and Marie Claude Mirandette.
In addition, the Loup Argenté will recognize the best film in the International Competition – Short Films. The jury members are critics Marcel Jean, Guy Ménard and Curtis Woloschuk.
Focus:
The Focus Grand Prize presented by Air France, which includes $5,000 in cash and two return airline tickets to Europe, will recognize the section’s best feature film from Quebec or Canada. The jury is made up of Sylvain Auzou (artistic director of the Venice Film Festival), Christine Boisson (actress) and Rajendra Roy (head curator of the cinema department at the Museum of Modern Art in New York). The will also hand out a Special Jury Award.
The Focus Grand Prize – Short Film presented by Post-Moderne, including $5,000 in cash and $10,000 in post-production services, will be awarded to the best short film from Quebec or Canada in the Focus section. The jury is made up of: Lydia Beilby (visual artist and curator), Alessandro Marcionni (director of the short and medium-length section at the Locarno Festival) and Carlos Ramos (programmer of the short-film and music sections of the indieLisboa festival).
The Creativity Award presented by MAtv, including $1,000 in cash, will recognize the most original work. New! The Focus Short Film Award will also be handed out to the best short film in the Focus Quebec/Canada section. The award also includes the purchase and distribution of the winning film during a short-film screening at the Studio des Ursulines in Paris and the creation of a DCP copy. The jury will be made up of Fanny Barrot (writer and cinema commissioner), Katia Bayer (editor-in-chief of Format Court magazine), Agathe Demanneville (writer and programmer), Nadia Le Bihen-Demmou(assistant in the short-film department of the Centre national du cinéma de l’image animée in Paris) and Mathieu Lericq (screenwriter and director).
Temps Ø
Like every year, audiences will be asked to participate by voting for the best feature in the section, which will receive the Temps Ø Audience Award presented by TFO, including $5,000 in cash.
FNC Lab
The FNC Lab Feature Film Award and the FNC Lab Short Film Award will be handed out by the FNC Lab jury, made up of Marina Ko |
