The Prix Iris is a Canadian film award, presented annually by Québec Cinéma, which recognizes talent and achievement in the mainly francophone feature film industry in
Quebec
Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...
CBC News
CBC News is a division of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the news gathering and production of news programs on the corporation's English-language operations, namely CBC Television, CBC Radio, CBC News Network, and CBC.ca ...
, October 14, 2016. Until 2016, it was known as the Jutra Award (Prix Jutra, with the ceremony called La Soirée des Jutra) in memory of influential Quebec film director
Claude Jutra
Claude Jutra (; March 11, 1930 – November 5, 1986) was a Canadian actor, film director, and screenwriter.
, but Jutra's name was withdrawn from the awards following the publication of
Yves Lever
Yves Lever (1942 – July 7, 2020) was a Canadian film critic and historian from Quebec. He was historically most noted for his 2016 biography of film director Claude Jutra, which addressed allegations that Jutra had sexually abused underage childr ...
Claude Jutra Award
The John Dunning Best First Feature Award is a special Canadian film award, presented by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television to the year's best feature film by a first-time film director. Under the earlier names Claude Jutra Award and Ca ...
, a special award presented by the
Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television
The Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television is a Canadian non-profit organization created in 1979 to recognize the achievements of the over 4,000 Canadian film industry and television industry professionals, most notably through the Canadian Scre ...
as part of the separate
Canadian Screen Awards
The Canadian Screen Awards (french: link=no, Les prix Écrans canadiens) are awards given for artistic and technical merit in the film industry recognizing excellence in Canadian film, English-language television, and digital media (web series) p ...
program which was also renamed in 2016 following the allegations against Jutra.
History
Introduced in 1999, the awards are presented for
Best Film
This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards.
Best Actor/Best Actress
*See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...
and performance, writing and technical categories such as best actor, actress, director, screenplay, et cetera. Due to Quebec's majority francophone population, most films made in the province are French-language films, but English-language films made in the province are also fully eligible for nomination. The awards maintain slightly different eligibility criteria for international coproductions, however: a coproduction which surpasses the organization's criteria for "majority Québécois" involvement is treated the same as a Quebec film, with full eligibility in all categories, while a coproduction which is classified as "minority Québécois", such as the 2015 film ''
Brooklyn
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
'', is eligible only in categories where a resident of Quebec is the nominee, and cannot be submitted for Best Film.
The initial creation of the awards sparked some concern that the idea of a separate award for Quebec films would undermine the pan-Canadian scope of the
Genie Awards
The Genie Awards were given out annually by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television to recognize the best of Canadian cinema from 1980–2012. They succeeded the Canadian Film Awards (1949–1978; also known as the "Etrog Awards," for scul ...
; Québec Cinéma clarified that it did not have, and would not impose, a rule that films could not be submitted for both awards, although at least one film producer,
Roger Frappier Roger Frappier (born April 14, 1945) is a Canadian producer, director, editor, actor, and screenwriter.
Biography
Roger Frappier worked in all areas of the film business, from film critic to television commercial director to director/ producer of t ...
, voluntarily declined to submit the films ''
August 32nd on Earth
''August 32nd on Earth'' (french: Un 32 août sur terre, and also known as ''32nd Day of August on Earth'') is a 1998 Canadian drama film directed and written by Denis Villeneuve, in his feature film directorial debut, and produced by Roger Fr ...
(Un 32 août sur terre)'' and ''
2 Seconds
''2 Seconds'' (french: 2 secondes) is a 1998 Canadian drama film. This film premiered in 1999 at the Sundance Film Festival.Briand, M. (2016). 2 Seconds. Retrieved December 01, 2016, from https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/2_seconds/ Written and dir ...
(2 secondes)'' for Genie consideration at all on the grounds that since neither film was projected to be popular outside Quebec, they would purportedly not get any public relations or marketing benefit out of Genie nominations. Frappier has not subsequently refused to submit other films to the Genies or the Canadian Screen Awards after 1999.
Following the withdrawal of Jutra's name from the award, the 2016 awards were presented solely under the name Québec Cinéma pending an announcement of the award's new permanent name. The Prix Iris name was announced in October 2016.
The trophy was designed by sculptor
Charles Daudelin
Charles Daudelin, (October 1, 1920 – April 2, 2001) was a French Canadian pioneer in modern sculpture and painting. He worked in a wide variety of media, including painting, metal and ceramic sculpture, jewelry, and marionettes which he m ...
1987
File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, ...
COVID-19 pandemic in Canada
The COVID-19 pandemic in Canada is part of the ongoing worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (). It is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). Most cases over the course of the pandemic have been in Ontario, Que ...
; unlike the
8th Canadian Screen Awards
The 8th annual Canadian Screen Awards were originally scheduled to be held on March 29, 2020, to honour achievements in Canadian film, television, and digital media production in 2019. and the winners were announced via livestreaming on June 10.
Following the death of influential Quebec filmmaker
Jean-Marc Vallée
Jean-Marc Vallée (March 9, 1963December 25, 2021) was a Canadian filmmaker, film editor, and screenwriter. After studying film at the Université de Montréal, Vallée went on to make a number of critically acclaimed short films, including '' ...
in December 2021, there was some public demand that Québec Cinéma rename the awards to the Prix Vallée in his honour.
In 2022, Radio-Canada announced that due to declining ratings in recent years, it would not televise the 2023 awards, and was instead planning alternative ways to highlight Quebec film in its programming.Hugo Dumas "Qui pleurera la mort du gala du cinéma ?" '' La Presse'', November 1, 2022.
List of Quebec film directors
This is a list of film directors from the Canadian province of Quebec. Most, although not all, work specifically within the context of Quebec cinema, which operates semi-autonomously from the film industry of English Canada.
__NOTOC__
{{Compact ...
Prix Albert-Tessier
The Prix Albert-Tessier is an award by the Government of Quebec that is part of the Prix du Québec, given to individuals for an outstanding career in Quebec cinema. It is awarded to script-writing, acting, composing music, directing, producing a ...
, lifetime achievement awards in Quebec cinema given by the Government of Quebec
Radio-Canada
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (french: Société Radio-Canada), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a federal Crown corporation that receives funding from the government. ...