Featuring

An Academy Award-winning director, Denys Arcand’s films have won more than 100 prestigious awards around the world. In 2003, he wrote and directed The Barbarian Invasions which was nominated for Best Original Screenplay and won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. In France, it won three César – Best Film, Best Screenplay and Best Director; in Italy, the Donatello for Best Foreign Language Film; at the Cannes Film Festival, the Best Actress and Best Screenplay awards, amongst many.

In 1989, Denys Arcand directed the powerful Jesus of Montreal (Jesus de Montréal) which won the Jury’s Grand Prize and the Ecumenical Prize in Cannes. The film also earned 12 Genie Awards in addition to being nominated for the Oscar in the Best Foreign Language Film category.   In 2007, his film Days of Darkness (L’Âge Des ténèbres) was the Official Selection at the Cannes Film Festival for Closing Night, a very special evening as it was the 60th birthday of the festival. His film The Decline of the American Empire (Le déclin de l’empire américain) won the International Critic’s Prize (FIPRESCI) in Cannes as well as an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. An Eye for Beauty, his new film, was released in spring 2014.

In addition to his work as a filmmaker, Denys Arcand has published several articles and a book entitled Euchariste Moisan (2013).  In 2011, he created, with artist Adad Hannah, an installation called SAFARI for the Big Bang Exposition celebrating the 150th Anniversary of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.

Denys Arcand is Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters (France); Companion of the Order of Canada and Knight of the National Order of Quebec. He is also a member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences.

Denys Arcand’s films depict his love for history and his passionate look at the human condition.

Écrivain et cinéaste, né le 27 novembre 1933, à Montréal. Après une maîtrise en lettres à l’Université de Montréal, il épouse Ghislaine Reiher et part en 1954 enseigner au University College of Addis Abeba, Éthiopie.

Installé à Paris il entreprend puis abandonne des études de doctorat, séjourne en Haïti, d’où vient son épouse, et rentre au Canada en 1958. Il participe l’année suivante à la création de la revue Liberté, à la fondation du Mouvement laïque (1961) et préside la création de l’UNEQ (1977).

Il compte à son actif une trentaine de livres ( poèmes, essais, romans) et autant de films documentaires et de fiction.

Reçu Chevalier de l’Ordre du Québec en 1997, Jacques Godbout a obtenu le Prix Duvernay de la SSJB de Montréal en 1972, le Prix Belgique-Canada, en 1978, pour l’ensemble de son œuvre le Prix du Québec (Athanase-David), en 1985 et en 2007 le prix du roman Maurice-Genevoix de l’Académie française.

En janvier 1994, on lui présenta un Eurofipa d’honneur lors du 7e Festival international de programmes audiovisuels à Cannes et, au printemps 1997, le Grand Prix de la SCAM à Paris. Plusieurs de ses films ont aussi remporté des prix dans divers festivals à Chicago, Montréal, Venise, Nyon et Toronto.

Romancier et essayiste Jacques Godbout fut écrivain invité à l’Université Carleton d’Ottawa, à l’Université Meiji de Tokyo, à l’Université Berkeley en Californie, et à l’Université de Montréal. En 2002 l’Université d’Ottawa, en 2003 l’Université McGill et en 2009 l’Université du Québec à Montréal lui décernèrent des doctorats honoris causa pour ses œuvres littéraires et cinématographiques.

Louise Pelletier a écrit ou co-écrit plusieurs séries de télévision dont «Blanche» (prix: FIPA d’or, Cannes 1994 et médaille d’or de la meilleure série dramatique au New York Film Festival) ainsi que «À nous deux» (1996) et «Mon Meilleur ennemi» (2002) à Radio-Canada, «Sauve qui peut!» (1999) à TVA, «Chabotte et fille» (2011) à Télé-Québec et TV5.

Elle a aussi scénarisé des documentaires dont « Le printemps des voyageurs » à TFO (2005) « Vu du Large 2 » (2006) à RDI et «Naufrage dans l’Ungava» à canal D (2016).

Elle a co-écrit le long métrage « À la folie » réalisé par Diane Kurys (1995) ainsi que « Nénette» (1992) réalisé par André Mélançon.

Son court métrage «The First Day of my Life» a été sélectionné par le festival de Berlin (Kinderfilmfest) et a reçu la Médaille dʼor au Festival de Brno en République tchèque (2006); «Le Vendredi de Jeanne Robinson» (ONF 1991) a reçu le Golden Sheaf Award au festival du court métrage de Yorkton en Alberta.

Elle a aussi scénarisé des séries destinées à la jeunesse, ainsi que des livres pour les tout-petits. Louise Pelletier a bénéficié d’une bourse de la SACD (Société des auteurs et compositeurs dramatiques) pour l’écriture de la pièce musicale «Nightcap 1938» jouée à Sutton à la salle Alec et Gérard Pelletier au printemps 2013.

Yolande Simard Perrault was born at Baie St-Paul in front of Isle-Aux-Coudres in Charlevoix, Québec, along the St. Lawrence River, in 1928. In 1948, she studied English in Toronto, following classical studies in Québec city.

Later, while studying sciences at the University of Montreal, she met Pierre Perrault, who was studying law. They married in 1951 and had two children.

Instead of practising law, Pierre began making documentary films and publishing books of poetry, essays and theatrical plays, while Simard studied the History of Art and became a guide for school children. From 1973 to 1980, Simard attended UQAM, studying Archeology with Patrick Plumet. She and others students accompanied Pierre on a dig at a prehistoric site from the Dorset period on Diana Island on the Hudson Straight.

She then accompanied Pierre in his work, to locales including to Ungava in low Arctic and Sverdrup High Arctic, and Ellesmere Island, where she identified the flowers that the muskoxen ate. That trip resulted in Pierre’s final film, 1977’s Hexagone.

After her husband’s death in 1999, Simard established the Pierre et Yolande Perrault Award, presented each year in Quebec and Europe to support young talent in arts and communications.

Pierre began his career as an actor working in theatres across Canada before he decided to focus on a career as an artistic director in theatre. He was an artistic director for twelve seasons presenting original plays for the whole family before leaving to pursue another passion – writing and directing for film.

Favourite projects include the documentaries The R Word and This Beggar’s Description, his award-winning documentary about his brother – a poet living with schizophrenia.

Paul Warren is a former professor of cinema at the High Institute of Cinema (Cairo) in Egypt, and a retired professor of cinema at Laval University. The author of 200 articles in journals and newspapers, Warren is turning 87 this year.

Robert (Bob) Côté was born in Montreal in 1936. When he was 16, he lied about his age so he could join the Canadian Army. He served with the Royal 22nd Regiment (better known in English Canada as the Van Doos) from 1952 to 1958. Bob served as a paratrooper and a radio communicator in Europe and various regions of Canada, including the Arctic.

Shortly after his release from the army in 1959, he joined the ranks of the Montreal Police Department as a constable, assigned to his old neighbouhood, Pointe-St-Charles, in the southwest sector of the city. In 1963, with the advent of home-grown terrorism in the form of the FLQ, Bob volunteered and was selected to be part of the newly formed Montreal Police Bomb Squad, of which he later became commanding officer, with the rank of Lieutenant.

During the sixties and seventies, Bob was Montreal’s primary resource person in many tense and dramatic incidents involving homemade bombs. He received numerous honours and decorations, including the Police Medal of Bravery. In 1972, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada.

Promoted to the rank of Inspector in 1980, Bob commanded number 24 District, which includes Pointe-St-Charles, Griffintown as well as part of Old Montreal. He later took charge of Montreal Police Telecommunications, with a mission to implement the Montreal 9-1-1 Emergency Telephone Service, inaugurated in 1985.

Bob Côté retired from the Montreal Police Department in 1990, with the rank of Chief-Inspector.

In 1994, he made a foray into municipal politics, joining Vision Montreal, the political party of his old friend, Mayor Pierre Bourque. Bob was elected City Councillor for the district of Rosemont, and became the first City Mediator, or Ombudsman, for a four-ear term. In 1998, he served as Deputy Mayor of Montreal.

Bob, a widower, is now an occasional lecturer and full-time grandfather. He still lives in Montreal and is a volunteer writer for local police publications and a member of the Montreal Police Museum’s board of directors.