Quebec City Film Festival

Quebec City Film Festival (French: Festival de cinéma de la ville de Québec) (FCVQ or QCFF) is a film festival held annually in September in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. It screens short and feature films and premieres movies from all over the world.

Quebec City
Film Festival

Location	Quebec City, Quebec, Canada
Founded	2011
Founded by	Olivier Bilodeau, Marie-Christine Laflamme, Christopher Lemonnier
Website	qcff.ca

Description

Founded in 2011, the Quebec City Film Festival (QCFF) is a non-profit organization that strives to offer film enthusiasts from Quebec and visitors from outside the province and abroad a major film event similar to other iconic international film festivals. It is a renowned and recognised platform that screens regional and international productions of new and original films. The QCFF also supports local and regional emerging artists by providing them with a showcase to present their works that attracts major media exposure.^[1]

History

Since its inception, every year in the month of September the QCFF presents about 50 international feature films and more than 100 short films. The films represent all cinematographic genres and perspectives from all over the world, attracting an audience of more than 25,000 festival visitors every year.^[2] In addition to these works come the artisans that create them. At past events, the QCFF was proud to welcome more than 300 special guests to the festival, including well known filmmakers Jean-Claude Labrecque, Xavier Dolan, Jean-Marc Vallée, Denys Arcand, Christophe Gans, Mike Figgis, and Larry Clark as well as the many actors, writers and producers who also accompany their works at the festival.

The festival was not staged in 2021, due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Quebec,^[3] but returned in 2022 with a smaller program than usual.^[4]

2011

• 21 September – 2 October
• 122 films
• 80 special guests
• 10 387 festival visitors

For its first edition, the QCFF opened with film Jean-Marc Vallée’s film Café de Flore, which was attended by the film's team; The Happiness of Others (Le bonheur des autres), the feature debut by Jean-Philippe Pearson, closed the festival.

2012

• 13 – 23 September
• 155 films
• 75 special guests
• 24 421 festival visitors

Based on a true story, L'Affaire Dumont was presented as the opening film of the second edition of the QCFF^[5] and attended by director Podz, producer Nicole Robert and actors that appeared in the film. Filmmaker Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette's Inch'Allah was chosen to close the second festival.

Festival activities were centred around the Dôme (aka the Igloo) in Place d’Youville and became a distinctive feature of the festival. It was open free to the public and hosted several evening parties and VIP events.^[6]

2013

• 18 – 29 September
• 161 films
• 88 special guests
• 25 464 festival visitors

For its third edition, Parkland by Peter Landesman, an ensemble film based around the assassination of JFK, was presented to open the festival. The Quebec premiere of Stefan Miljevic’s film Amsterdam was chosen to close the festival.^[7]

New for the third year: the creation of the Cinephile Jury, made up entirely of residents of Québec City. The jury awards the most original film among first-time filmmakers. In 2013, the award went to Don Jon, the debut by American actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt.^[8]

2014

• 18 – 28 September
• 161 films
• 105 special guests
• 23 191 festival visitors

Mommy by Xavier Dolan was presented as the opening film and attended by the film's team.^[9] The North American premiere of Beauty and the Beast was screened at the awards ceremony and attended by the film's writer and director Christophe Gans.^[10]

The usual closing ceremony, which had been held on the last Saturday, is from then on replaced by a gala on the second Wednesday, during which the award ceremony takes place.

Shortly before the festival began, containers were remodelled as mini cinema halls named Ciné Pop-up. A roaming project, they are placed in different locations throughout Québec City. The goal of Ciné Pop-up is to relocate screenings to where residents live so that they can view a selection of short films in their neighbourhoods.^[11]

2015

• 16 – 27 September
• 217 films
• 208 special guests
• 24 839 festival visitors

Place d'Youville during QCFF's 5th edition.

Paul à Québec by François Bouvier was presented as the opening film: author Michel Rabagliati, producer Karine Vanasse and actors from the film descended on the red carpet of Place d’Youville for the occasion.^[12] Philippe Falardeau's film My Internship in Canada was screened at the awards ceremony.^[13][14]

The concert film The Phantom of the Opera (a screening of the Rupert Julian classic from 1925 set to music by an orchestra conducted by Gabriel Thibaudeau) was presented at the Palais Montcalm and featured a Casavant organ.^[15]

Ciné Pop-up continued to relocate throughout the city^[16] as Place d'Youville was transformed into a large open-air cinema, with screenings that included, among others, the Back to the Future trilogy to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the release of the first film.^[17]

2016

• 14 – 24 September
• 204 special guests
• 294 films
• over 30 000 festival visitors

For its sixth edition, the festival opened with Boundaries (French title: Pays) by Chloé Robichaud,^[18] with some members of the film's crew attending. Along with the director, actors such as Rémy Girard, Yves Jacques, Macha Grenon, and Emily Van Camp, as well as Quebec cinema artists like Julien Poulin, Marie Eykel, Manon Briand and Rock Demers walked up the red carpet of place D’Youville.^[19]

The Palais Montcalm also hosted the North-American premiere of 1:54^[20] by Yan England, screened as the film of the Award ceremony night. The features It's only the End of the World (French title: Juste la fin du monde) by Xavier Dolan^[21] and Kiss me like a Lover (French title: Embrasse-moi comme tu m’aimes) by André Forcier, both premiered at the festival and were favorites among the audience, the latter winning the Public's Choice Award for a Feature Film.

For a third year in a row, the Ciné Pop-up also spread around downtown, both before and during the festival, becoming over the years a classic and must-see event.^[22]

2017

• 13 – 23 September
• 253 special guests
• 291 films
• over 45 000 festival visitors

For its 2017 edition, the Festival opened with the world premiere of Cross My Heart, directed by Luc Picard.^[23] The filmmaker and members of the casr were in attendance. Barefoot At Dawn by Francis Leclerc screened as the Gala Night Film,^[24] and was preceded by the awards ceremony : cast members Roy Dupuis, Justin Leyrolles-Bouchard, Robert Lepage and Marianne Fortier were attending.^[25][26]

Two Film Concerts were hosted at Palais Montcalm.^[27] The Passion of Joan of Arc, Dreyer's silent masterpiece of 1928, eas interpreted by the pianist and organist Karol Mossakowski. QCFF also screened Oscar-winning BiRDMAN by Alejandro González Iñárritu, with the soundtrack performed live by its composer, drummer Antonio Sánchez.

Various cultural personalities attended the Festival: Louise Lecavalier, Marc Séguin, Zachary Richard, Cédric Klapisch, and others.

Tributes

• 2017: George Lazenby
• 2016 : Julien Poulin & Rock Demers
• 2015 : Denys Arcand & Matthew Rankin
• 2014 : Richard Lavoie, Bruce LaBruce et Alain Resnais
• 2013 : Izabel Grondin & Im Sang-Soo
• 2012 : Alex Gibney
• 2011 : Jean-Claude Labrècque & Larry Clark

Spokespersons

• 2015 : François Létourneau
• 2014 : Yves Jacques

Venues

Mostly displayed in the historical centre of Québec City, QCFF made screenings in the following places :

Awards

Grand Prize

Year	Film	Director	Ref
2012	White Elephant (Elefante Blanco)	Pablo Trapero	[28]
2013	The Broken Circle Breakdown	Félix Van Groeningen	[29]
2014	20,000 Days on Earth	Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard
2015	Necktie Youth	Sibs Shongwe-La Mer
2016	Peter and the Farm	Tony Stone	[30]
	Honorable mention: As I Open My Eyes (À peine j'ouvre les yeux)	Leyla Bouzid
2017	Sambá	Laura Amelia Guzmán and Israel Cárdenas
	Honorable mention: Lucky	John Carroll Lynch
2018	A Colony (Une colonie)	Geneviève Dulude-De Celles	[31]
2019	Kuessipan	Myriam Verreault	[32]
2020	Goddess of the Fireflies (La déesse des mouches à feu)	Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette	[33]

Public Award, Feature Film

Year	Film	Director	Ref
2011	The Artist	Michel Hazanavicius	[34]
2012	All Together (Et si on vivait tous ensemble?)	Stéphane Robelin	[28]
2013	The Broken Circle Breakdown	Félix Van Groeningen	[29]
2014	Girls on the Hunt (Un film de chasse et de filles)	Julie Lambert
2015	Family Demolition (La démolition familiale)	Patrick Damien	[35]
2016	Kiss Me Like a Lover (Embrasse-moi comme tu m'aimes)	André Forcier	[30]
2017	Cross My Heart (Les rois mongols)	Luc Picard
2018	Pauline Julien, Intimate and Political (Pauline Julien : intime et politique)	Pascale Ferland	[36]
2019	Living 100 MPH (Vivre à 100 milles à l'heure)	Louis Bélanger	[37]
2020	Wandering: A Rohingya Story (Errance sans retour)	Mélanie Carrier, Olivier Higgins	[38]

Public Award, Canadian Film

Year	Film	Director	Ref
2012	El Huaso	Carlo Guillermo Proto	[28]
2013	Absences	Carole Laganière	[29]
	The Effect (L'Effet)	Jocelyn Langlois
2014	La vie selon Morgue	Jean Fontaine
2015	Paul à Québec	François Bouvier	[35]
2016	The Gardener	Sébastien Chabot	[30]
2017	Baggage (Bagages)	Paul Tom
2018	A Colony (Une colonie)	Geneviève Dulude-De Celles	[36]

Best First Film (Prix Jury Cinéphile/AQCC Award)

Year	Film	Director	Ref
2013	Don Jon	Joseph Gordon-Levitt
2014	Girls on the Hunt (Un film de chasse et de filles)	Julie Lambert
2015	Family Demolition (La démolition familiale)	Patrick Damien
2016	As I Open My Eyes (À peine j'ouvre les yeux)	Leyla Bouzid	[30]
	Honorable mention: Old Stone	Johnny Ma
	Honorable mention: Sutak	Mirlan Abdykalykov
2017	The Nobodies (Los Nadie)	Juan Sebastián Mesa
	Honorable mention: Susan Bartsch: On Top	Anthony Caronna, Alexander Smith
2018	Smuggling Hendrix	Marios Piperides	[31]
2019	Mad Dog and the Butcher (Les Derniers vilains)	Thomas Rinfret	[32]
2020	Nafi's Father (Baamum Nafi)	Mamadou Dia	[33]

Collegiate Jury Award

Year	Film	Director	Ref
2015	Necktie Youth	Sibs Shongwe-La Mer
2016	Manor (Manoir)	Martin Fournier, Pier-Luc Latulippe	[30]
	Honorable mention: Tempëte	Samuel Collardey
2017	Swagger	Olivier Babinet
2018	Five Fingers for Marseilles	Michael Matthews	[31]
2019	Why Don’t You Just Die!	Kirill Sokolov	[32]
	Honorable mention: For Sama	Waad Al-Kateab, Edward Watts
2020	Call Me Human (Je m'appelle humain)	Kim O'Bomsawin	[33]
	Sweet Thing	Alexandre Rockwell

Grand Jury Prize, Canadian Short Film

Year	Film	Director	Ref
2014	Pas la grosse Sophie	Philippe Arsenault
2015	Moulures	Guillaume Monette
2016	The Voice (La voce)	David Uloth	[30]
2017	Dolls Don't Cry (Toutes les poupées ne pleurent pas)	Frédérick Tremblay	[39]
2018	Fauve	Jérémy Comte	[31]
2019	Heart Bomb (Une bombe au cœur)	Rémi St-Michel	[32]
2020	No award presented		[33]

Grand Jury Prize, International Short Film

Year	Film	Director	Ref
2016	Zvir	Miroslav Sikavica	[30]
	Spoetnik	Noël Loozen
2017	Scris / Nescreis	Andrian Silisteanu
2018	Proch	Jakub Radej	[31]
2019	The Summer and All the Rest	Sven Bresser	[32]
2020	Olla	Ariane Labed	[33]

Public Prize, Short Film

Year	Film	Director	Ref
2011	Mokhtar	Halima Ouardiri	[34]
2012	First Snow (Première neige)	Michaël Lalancette	[28]
2013	Le Chevreuil	Rémi St-Michel
2014	Jamais je ne t'oublierai	Alexandre Desjardins
2015	La divine stratégie	Eliot Laprise, Martin Forger
2016	La Partie	Alexandre Isabelle	[30]
2017	Crème de menthe	Jean-Marc E. Roy, Philippe David Gagné
2018	Fauve	Jérémy Comte	[36]
2019	I'll End Up in Jail (Je finirai en prison)	Alexandre Dostie	[37]
2020	Toomas Beneath the Valley of the Wild Wolves	Chintis Lundgren

Local Talent Award (Bourse à la création des cinéastes de Québec)

Year	Film	Director	Ref
2013	Le Camarade	Benjamin Tessier
2014	Le frein	Gabriel-Antoine Roy, Jonathan Roy
2015	La bagatelle	Franie-Eléonore Bernier, Anne-Marie Bouchard, Julie Pelletier
2016	La Partie	Alexandre Isabelle	[30]
2017	Ballet Jazz	Maxime Robin
2018	Bonfires	Martin Bureau	[31]
	Je la chante dans ma douche, habituellement	Mariane Béliveau
2019	Canicule	Fanny Perreault	[32]
2020	Vie de rêve	Vincent Paquette	[33]
	Sous pression	David Labrecque

References

1. "C'est quoi? - Festival de cinéma de la ville de Québec". Festival de cinéma de la ville de Québec (in Canadian French). Archived from the original on 17 June 2016. Retrieved 27 June 2016.
2. Bélanger, Cédric (28 September 2015). "L'achalandage en hausse en 2015 au Festival de cinéma de la ville de Québec". Le Journal de Montréal.
3. Éric Moreault, "Le FCVQ annule son édition 2021". Le Soleil, May 26, 2021.
4. Cédric Bélanger, "Programmation québécoise: 4 rendez-vous au Festival de cinéma de la ville de Québec". Le Journal de Québec, September 7, 2022.
5. ICI.Radio-Canada.ca, Zone Arts -. "Place au cinéma!". Radio-Canada.ca (in Canadian French). Retrieved 27 June 2016.
6. "Tapis rouge couru pour L'affaire Dumont | Normand Provencher | Festival de cinéma de Québec" (in Canadian French). Retrieved 27 June 2016.
7. ICI.Radio-Canada.ca, Zone Arts -. "Nombreuses projections et événements spéciaux pour le FCVQ". Radio-Canada.ca (in Canadian French). Retrieved 27 June 2016.
8. Média, Québecor. "The Broken Cycle Breakdown - Festival de cinéma de Québec: un film belge honnoré". Archived from the original on 22 June 2016. Retrieved 27 June 2016.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
9. "Xavier Dolan sous le ciel étoilé de Québec | Éric Moreault | Festival de cinéma de Québec" (in Canadian French). Retrieved 27 June 2016.
10. QMI, Agence. "Tapis rouge pour La belle et la bête". Le Journal de Montréal. Retrieved 27 June 2016.
11. "Du cinéma projeté dans deux conteneurs à Québec! | Guillaume Piedboeuf | Cinéma" (in Canadian French). Retrieved 27 June 2016.
12. Bergeron, Mickaël. "FCVQ: La grande fête de Paul à Québec" (in Canadian French). Retrieved 27 June 2016.
13. "Guibord s'en va-t-en guerre en première québécoise au FCVQ | Daphné Bédard | Cinéma" (in Canadian French). Retrieved 27 June 2016.
14. "Bilan du 5e FCVQ - Festival de cinéma de la ville de Québec". Festival de cinéma de la ville de Québec (in Canadian French). Retrieved 25 April 2016.
15. "FCVQ 2015 : Le fantôme de l'opéra en formule concert cinématographique". Showbizz.net. 13 August 2015. Retrieved 27 June 2016.
16. "Ciné Pop-up à l'Université Laval : C'est dans la boîte ! - Impact Campus" (in French). 31 August 2015. Retrieved 27 June 2016.
17. "FCVQ 2015: 5 rendez-vous incontournables (VIDÉOS)". Le Huffington Post. 17 September 2015. Retrieved 27 June 2016.
18. ICI.Radio-Canada.ca, Zone Arts -. "Pays, de Chloé Robichaud, lancera le Festival de cinéma de Québec". Radio-Canada.ca (in Canadian French). Retrieved 18 July 2017.
19. "Bilan du 6e Festival de cinéma de la ville de Québec - Festival de cinéma de la ville de québec". Festival de cinéma de la ville de québec (in Canadian French). Retrieved 17 May 2017.
20. Asselin, Mario. "Le 1 :54 de Yan England". Le Journal de Québec. Retrieved 18 July 2017.
21. "Première québécoise de Juste la fin du monde". Films du Québec (in French). Retrieved 18 July 2017.
22. "FCVQ en plein air - Festival de cinéma de la ville de québec". Festival de cinéma de la ville de québec (in Canadian French). Archived from the original on 13 August 2016. Retrieved 18 July 2017.
23. ICI.Radio-Canada.ca, Zone Arts -. "Les rois mongols en ouverture du Festival de cinéma de Québec". Radio-Canada.ca (in Canadian French). Retrieved 15 May 2018.
24. ICI.Radio-Canada.ca, Zone Arts -. "Un film sur Félix Leclerc en primeur au Festival de cinéma de Québec". Radio-Canada.ca (in Canadian French). Retrieved 15 May 2018.
25. Godin, Sandra. "Pieds nus dans l'aube en première à Québec". Le Journal de Québec (in Canadian French). Retrieved 15 May 2018.
26. "Festival de cinéma de la ville de québec". Festival de cinéma de la ville de québec (in Canadian French). Retrieved 15 May 2018.
27. Guay, Edouard. "Birdman en musique au Festival de Cinéma de la Ville de Québec". Voir.ca (in Canadian French). Retrieved 15 May 2018.
28. Cédric Bélanger, "Du glamour pour conclure la fête". Le Journal de Montréal, September 22, 2012.
29. "FCVQ : un film belge remporte les honneurs". Ici Radio-Canada, September 30, 2013.
30. "Année record pour le Festival de cinéma de la ville de Québec". Ici Radio-Canada, September 25, 2016.
31. André Duchesne, "Le film québécois Une colonie couronné au FCVQ". La Presse, September 20, 2018.
32. Cédric Bélanger, "FCVQ: le Grand prix au film québécois Kuessipan". Le Journal de Québec, September 19, 2019.
33. "Le film «La déesse des mouches à feu» couronné au FCVQ". Le Journal de Québec, September 21, 2020.
34. Cédric Bélanger, "Le public craque pour The Artist". TVA Nouvelles, October 2, 2011.
35. Ruby Pratka, "Local films shine at FCVQ". Quebec Chronicle-Telegraph, September 30, 2015.
36. André Duchesne, "Le documentaire sur Pauline Julien primé au FCVQ", La Presse, September 24, 2018.
37. Cédric Bélanger, "FCVQ: Le public craque pour Vivre à 100 milles à l’heure". Le Journal de Québec, September 23, 2019.
38. "ERRANCE SANS RETOUR de Mélanie Carrier et Olivier Higgins – présenté aux RIDM du 26 novembre au 2 décembre". L'Initiative, November 26, 2020.
39. Andréanne Lebel, "«Toutes les poupées ne pleurent pas», mais gagnent un prix national". Infodimanche, September 29, 2017.