Xavier Dolan's I Killed My Mother edged out Denis Villeneuve's Polytechnique, claiming the top prize and collecting a total of five trophies, beating Villeneuve's film by one. Since Cannes last May, both films have been pitted against each other: while Villeneuve's film had the edge on the Quebecois box office front and received acclaim at Canada's Oscars (Genies), it was the debut film from Dolan that overwhelmed audiences on a global level, winning at several film festivals including three in Cannes
Will the Cannes Film Festival continue their love affair with Quebecois filmmakers? Last year was an specially strong year, the Director's Fortnight section loaded up, inviting a trio of titles from auteurs such as Denis Villeneuve, Denis Côté and the discovery of the section, in Xavier Dolan and his debut film I Killed My Mother.
In many ways, Cannes' parallel sidebars (Director's Fortnight, Critic's Week and I'm including Un Certain Regard here) are the hardest sections to forecast - the high volume of films from all corner of the globe and the actual number of available slots makes it perhaps more difficult to predict than the actual Main Competition predictions..
Breaking out around the time where NYFF is on its last legs, Montreal's Festival du nouveau cinéma (October 12 to 23) kicks in with about four times the size in volume, and obviously more of an eclectic range. This year is the festival's big 40 - and for the occasion they've commissioned some of the names who've been a part of the festival to each contribute a short film in the context of what is being called the "Cartes Blanches" series. Denis Côté, Deco Dawson, Sophie Deraspe, Rodrigue Jean, Zacharias Kunuk, Marie Losier, Catherine Martin, Bruce McDonald, Théodore Ushev and Denis Villeneuve will each submit a four minute short.