The Festival du cinéma international en Abitibi-Témiscamingue just ended after 8 days of high festivities. The live diffusion of the closing ceremony, which took inside the iconic Théâtre du cuivre, on Facebook, allowed us to crown the winners of the Grand Prix Hydro-Québec, the Prix Bell Média, the Prix animé TVA Abitibi-Témiscamingue, the Prix Mediafilm-Robert-Claude-Bérubé, and the Prix Jeunesse Fonderie Horne.
We also wish to remind you of the winners of the Prix Relève Desjardins, also the Prix d’Espace court: the Prix Télé-Québec, Spira, Fonds Bell and Unis TV.
Like every year, the Grand Prix Hydro-Québec is given to the long-length movie of the official competition that the public has enjoyed the most. The public has chosen the movie Tu te souviendras de moi by Éric Tessier as the winner for the Grand Prix Hydro-Québec.
The audience has offered a warm welcome to this movie which has been waiting 2 years to release due to COVID-19. In addition to the applause given by the public, a standing ovation followed the end of the movie, which left the realization team speechless.
The Prix Bell Média, which rewards the director of the best medium or short-length movie of 2022 has been chosen by Antoine Charbonneau-Demers, Jessica Gélinas, and Adam Faucher.
Their choice, which is also followed by a 1 000$ reward, has been given to Ma gueule by Thibaut Wohlfahrt and Grégory Carnoli.
The juries told us what charmed them and influenced their decision.
“The movie we have chosen was our favorite. It lived with us all week. We have been shocked by his crushing message and his disconcerting proposition.”
The Prix Animé TVA Abitibi-Témiscamingue is given by the public to the most appreciated animated movie. This year, the public has chosen the movie Canary by Pierre-Hugues Dallaire and Benoit Therriault.
Those two Quebecers directors are given us, with this short-length animated movie, a touching story about a young boy working in the coal mines with a group of miners. His job is to take care of the little caged canary used to help the men detect deadly methane.
One of the two directors, Benoit Therriault, was also present during the Youth Section on the 2nd and 3rd of November, in order to present his movie to the children. The young audience of the Festival particularly liked the beautiful visual of the movie, the lovable character, and its touching story.
The Prix Animé TVA Abitibi-Témiscamingue is another award that Canary can add to his collection, a movie that won over the public’s heart last Monday during the main event.
The Prix Mediafilm-Robert-Claude-Bérubé is given to the movie that sets itself apart by its artistic and cinematographic qualities but also for its contribution to human progress and to the recognition of ethical, social, and spiritual values.
This year, the jury composed of Béatriz Mediavilla, Maxime Périgny, and Kim St-Pierre watched sixteen long-length movies you were competing for the award. Finally, the award was given to the movie Boy from Heaven by Tarik Saleh.
The jury has shared the reasons behind their decision.
“Our main criteria for our decision were cinematographic excellence and the human values found in the movie. It was an important work but it was hard. We decided to go with a movie that presented a complex but intelligible reality. The main character finds himself in an ethical dilemma and will find his way, values, and the people he loves. By the beauty of its images and the strength of how it presents the instruction and education like dice for maintaining peace.”
Monday at noon, in a Théâtre du cuivre full of people from all ages, selected movie for the Relève Desjardins were shown. Two scholarships were given by a jury, one to a student from the Cégep de l’Abitibi-Témiscamingue and the other to a student from the Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue. The two scholarships from Relève Desjardins are worth a total of 1500 $.
This year, the jury composed of Camille Barbotteau, Vincent L’Heureux et Andréane Boulanger had the honor to choose the winners for the awards.
For the Cégep de l’Abitibi-Témiscamingue, the winner is Anahée Brousseau, with her documentary Toxique.
For the Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue, our juries choose to give the award to Max Spiegel, for the animation movie A Lost Child.
Once again this year, the Fonderie Horne join the Festival to create an award to reward a movie in Youth Section. This year, the jury was composed of Mia Roy (10 years old) and her mom Émilie Villeneuve, Lucas Roy (8 years old) and her Marie-Élise Viger, and finally Mirabelle Tremblay-Major (9 years old) and her mom Mélissa Major.
The members of the jury have chosen the movie Kayak by Solène Bosseboeuf, a 3D animated movie without dialogue in which a lovely kayak day becomes and real family adventure.
The Prix Télé-Québec is given by the public to the best Quebecer’s movie in Espace court section. This award, joined by a 1 000$ scholarship, was given to the movie Le temple by Alain Fournier.
The public fell under the charm of this mesmerizing animation, in which a heavy atmosphere and a claustrophobic environment found their way to satisfy fans of H.P. Lovecraft, a writer known for his novels of science fiction and horror like Le Temple (1920) from which this story is inspired.
Espace court’s jury of this year is composed of Stéphane Lafleur, Karelle Tremblay, and Dominic Leclerc. Their task was to give the Prix Spiral to the best movie on the Espace court programmation. The price for this award is joined by a 10 000 $ money price in equipment rental or postproduction services for a future project with Spiral.
This year, it was the movie Municipal Relaxation Module by Matthew Rankin that won the reward.
The title of Séries Coup de coeur Fonds Bell is given to 2 short series, made of a professional jury: Julien Bernatchez, Laura Bergeron, and Maxime Dupuis.
The award is joined by 2 Fonds Bells scholarships each worth 2 000 $.
The selected series by the jury were Complètement Lycée by Alec Pronovost and Caresses magiques by Lori Malépart received a warm welcome during the two nights of Espace court.
Unis TV joins the Festival to present a new award at the Espace court. The Prix Unis TV is given to an upcoming director who stands out in the programmation of the Espace court. This award reward, and motivate new and upcoming Quebecer artists.
This prize, given by the Espace Court jury and joined by a 1 000$ scholarship was given to the movie Nuit blonde de Gabrielle Demers.
The 41st Festival du cinéma international en Abitibi-Témiscamingue stands out with a massive return in theaters. A unique ambiance was in the air for this first POST-COVID-19 returns to the theater without the sanitary measures. We felt our big return to the Festival, it felt like it used to be, it was like the energy was never gone. During the duration of the Festival, we enjoyed a Théâtre du cuivre full of charmed visitors, movies, and discussions related to them.
Among our visitors, many distinguished guests who are part of the cultural and international landscape took part during the festivities. All of them were more than happy to present the fruit of their labor to an eager public.
It has been an immense pleasure to welcome on the stages of the Théâtre du cuivre and the Petit Théâtre du Vieux Noranda, Esther Archambault, François Archambault, Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette, Judith Baribeau, Antoine Bertrand, Marc-François Blondin, Damien Bonnard, Marilyn Cooke, Luc Côté, Patricio Henriquez, Ensaf Haidar and his children Miriyam, Najwa et Tirad Badawi, Maripierre D’Amour, François Desagnat, Claude Fournier, Guy Fournier, Rémy Girard, Marie-Lyne Joncas, Dominic Leclerc, Catherine-Audrey Lachapelle, Stéphane Lafleur, Véronique Lafleur, Guillaume Lambert, Mélanie Pilon, Robert Spickler, Noa Izaï Tambwe Kabati, Éric Tessier, Benoit Therriault, Mélissa Toussaint, Karelle Tremblay, Laurence Wells, Martin Villeneuve, and many more!
In a distinguished and relaxed atmosphere, the artists, like always at the Festival, were easy to talk to, happy to be here, to show their work and to meet the public.
The pro section of the Festival named the WATCH, was the perfect occasion for the creators to exchange privately and calmly in our regional wilderness with accomplished artists.
The beautiful Kanasuta Lake house was the center for this meeting which took the form of discussion and professional exchanges between artists, tus given the occasion to create strong connections between regional and city artists.
Very different from usual meetings between masters of the arts, the WATCH invites participants to guide the conversation. An uncommon formula where everyone can ask without pressure any question they have to a professional. The subjects of conversation can be more human like how to be a woman and a mother in the world of filmmaking with Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette, or professional like working in publicity with Jean-François Asselin and Dominique Dufour.
It’s with beauty that the 41st edition of the Festival du cinéma international en Abitibi-Témiscamingue ends. It’s with great pleasure that we will see you once again next year for a new edition of the Festival with new and unique movies from all around from the 28th of October to the 2nd of November.
13 September 2023
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