With 12 nods each, the top nominees for Quebec's Oscars, the Prix Jutra, are Érik Canuel's Bon Cop, Bad Cop (right), an odd couple comedy that became the top-grossing homegrown film ever in Canada (with about Can$13 million, most of it generated in Quebec itself), and Robert Favreau's Un dimanche à Kigali / A Sunday in Kigali (above), the story of a man (Luc Picard) in search of his lover (Fatou N'Diaye) in post-genocide Rwanda. Both films are also well represented at this year's Genie Awards, the equivalent to the Oscars for all of Canada.
Bon Cop, Bad Cop and A Sunday in Kigali were nominated for the Prix Jutra in the best film category, along with Philippe Falardeau's Congorama, a dramatic comedy about a Belgian man (Olivier Gourmet) who travels to Quebec in search of his biological family, and Stéphane Lapointe's La Vie secrète des gens heureux / The Secret Life of Happy People, which revolves around a highly dysfunctional suburban Montreal family.
Lapointe, however, failed to nab a matching best direction nod. In his place is Claude Gagnon, whose Kamataki (above) follows a suicidal young Canadian man (Matthew Smiley) who slowly learns to appreciate life after spending time with his unconventional uncle (Tatsuya Fuji) in rural Japan.
The best actor shortlist is off-kilter this year, with two nominations going for "couples" instead of individual actors. Both the bon cop and the bad cop — Colm Feore and Patrick Huard — were nominated as one, and so were Congorama's two male leads, Paul Ahmarani and Olivier Gourmet. According to Jutra Awards general manager Henry Welsh, the producers of the two films wanted their co-stars on a single ballot to avoid having them compete against each other.
Why that was allowed is unclear, considering that it puts the "single" performers — Luc Picard (for Un dimanche à Kigali, left) and Marc Béland (for Guide de la petite vengeance / The Little Revenge Guide) at a disadvantage.
The only 2006 acting nominees who are back in '07 are the aforementioned Luc Picard (who was nominated for L'Audition last year) and Danielle Proulx (right), winner of the 2006 best supporting actress Jutra for her concerned mother with ESP in C.R.A.Z.Y., and who's back again this year, this time as a lead, in Histoire de famille / Family Story.
Regarding the fact that the Jutra nominations were announced on the same day as the Oscars, Henry Welsh explained, "We decided and booked everything before the Oscars chose their date. I could've changed it but I thought it would give the Jutras a certain aura if they're given the same media treatment (in Quebec) as the Oscars. It's a big cinema day."
Jutra nominees are picked by members of several groups representing Quebec's film professionals. To be eligible, films must have played at least one week in Quebec theaters in 2006.
The award itself is named after Québécois filmmaker Claude Jutra. (Jutra killed himself in 1986. At the time, the 56-year-old filmmaker was suffering from Alzheimer's.)
Quote: Canada.com