Genie Awards 2007 Winners
Roy Dupuis in Maurice Richard
Last night, the Canadian Academy’s Genie Awards ceremony proved itself no more and no less prone to inane outcomes than those of other film academies the world over. Nine Genies went to the Québécois hockey biopic Maurice Richard / The Rocket, including awards for best director (Charles Binamé), best actor (Roy Dupuis), best actress (Julie Le Breton), and best editing (Michel Arcand). Canadian Academy-ites, however, opted for the bilingual comedy-thriller Bon Cop, Bad Cop as best Canadian film of 2006.
Whether Bon Cop, Bad Cop is bon or bad, I don’t know as I haven’t seen the film. But one would expect that the "best Canadian film of 2006" would have received top honors in another category other than best sound. In any case, no one will be able to accuse the Canadian Academy of being an elitist body that favors obscure films — at least until next year.
Bon Cop, Bad Cop, after all, has become the biggest homemade box-office smash in Canada’s history, and one more piece of evidence proving that le cinéma Québécois is the engine propelling the Canadian film industry. In fact, Quebec-made films seem to be not only the engine, but just about the whole train.
Bérénice Bejo, Aurélien Wiik in Without Her
In addition to Bon Cop, Bad Cop and Maurice Richard, other films out of Quebec that earned Genies last night include Robert Favreau’s Un dimanche à Kigali / A Sunday in Kigali, which won the best original screenplay award (for Favreau and Gil Courtemanche); Congorama, for best adapted screenplay (Philippe Falardeau); and Sans elle / Without Her, winner of the best score award (for Jean Robitaille). Also, it should be noted that four of the five best film nominees came out of Quebec.
The winners of Quebec’s Prix Jutra will be announced on Feb. 18. Don’t expect Maurice Richard to win anything. The hockey film was included in last year’s Jutra shortlist — it lost in every category, mostly to the local box-office sensation C.R.A.Z.Y., a Québécois drama about a young gay man growing up in the Montreal of the 1960s and 1970s. C.R.A.Z.Y. also swept the 2006 Genies.
Le cinéma Québécois rules. Why? It helps to have a generous government willing to support the arts — and it helps to speak French. Instead of being swallowed whole by mega-budgeted Hollywood trash so beloved by the braindead everywhere, the Quebec film industry has been able to create its own highly successful cultural identity — or "identities," considering the variety of locally produced films. As they say, Vive la difference…
More details on several of the films mentioned above can be found in the 2007 Genie nominations article.
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Tags: Aurélien Wiik, Bérénice Bejo, Bon Cop Bad Cop, Charles Binamé, Congorama, Film Awards, Genie Awards, Maurice Richard, Roy Dupuis, The Rocket, Without Her
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i rike maurice richard
and i have no family
or friends
i have a level 65 tauren druid
on world of warcraft
his talent is feral
i am exellent
iv never had a girlfriend
and never kissed a girl
exept my mom..
and i live with my parents still