The history of

cinema Cinema may refer to: Film * Cinematography, the art of motion-picture photography * Film or movie, a series of still images that create the illusion of a moving image ** Film industry, the technological and commercial institutions of filmmaking ...

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 ...

started on June 27, 1896 when the Frenchman Louis Minier inaugurated the first movie projection in North America in a

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...

theatre room. However, it would have to wait until the 1960s before a genuine Quebec cinema industry would emerge. Approximately 620 feature-length films have been produced, or partially produced by the Quebec film industry since 1943. Due to language and cultural differences between the predominantly francophone population of Quebec and the predominantly

anglophone Speakers of English are also known as Anglophones, and the countries where English is natively spoken by the majority of the population are termed the ''Anglosphere''. Over two billion people speak English , making English the largest language ...

population of the rest of Canada, Quebec's film industry is commonly regarded as a distinct entity from its English Canadian counterpart. In addition to participating in Canada's national

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 ...

, the Quebec film industry also maintains its own awards ceremony, the

Prix Iris 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.Hollywood films, means that Quebec films are often more successful at the box office than English Canadian films — in fact, the top-grossing Canadian film of the year is often a French language film from Quebec.

Before the ''Office national du film''

From 1896 to the 1960s, the Catholic clergy tried to control what movies Quebecers could see. Two methods were employed: censorship and prohibition of attendance by children under 16. In 1913, the ''Bureau de censure de vues animées'' (Office of censorship for motion pictures) began regulating the projection of movies in Quebec. In 1927, the Laurier-Palace Theatre burned down, killing 78 children. The church then almost succeeded at closing down all projection rooms in the province. However, the Parliament of Quebec passed a law preventing only children under 16 from attending movie projections. This law would be repealed only in 1961. Nevertheless, some films were produced in Quebec during this period. Those were mostly documentaries, some of which were made by priests (

Albert Tessier Albert Tessier ((); March 6, 1895 – September 13, 1976) was a French-speaking Canadian priest, historian and a film maker. He was born on in Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pérade, Mauricie. Life as a Priest and Educator He was ordained priest by Monsign ...

) and civil servants ( Herménégilde Lavoie). Joseph-Arthur Homier is considered the first director of feature-length films in Quebec, and his 1922 production, ''Madeleine de Verchères'', was based on the life of the 17th-century Quebec heroine, Madeleine de Verchères. In the 1940s and 1950s, the first commercial attempts at cinema happened. Two production houses were at the origins of all the movies of this period:

Renaissance Films The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...

and Québec Productions. Most of the commercial feature films came primarily from four directors: Fyodor Otsep,

Paul Gury Paul Gury was the stage name of Loïc (Louis-Marie) Le Gouriadec (May 11, 1888 - November 13, 1974), a French-Canadian film and theatre actor, director and writer. He was most noted as the director of three significant films in the early Cinema of ...

Jean-Yves Bigras Jean-Yves Bigras (May 19, 1919 – August 17, 1966) was a Canadian film director and film editor, considered a pioneer in Quebec cinema. Bigras studied first at the University of Ottawa and then at Queen's University. From 1939 to 1942, he serv ...

, and René Delacroix. Notable films of this period include '' The Music Master'' (''Le Père Chopin'', 1945), ''

A Man and His Sin ''A Man and His Sin'' (french: Un homme et son péché) is a Canadian drama film, directed by Paul Gury and released in 1949.Charles-Henri Ramond"Un homme et son péché – Film de Paul Gury" ''Films du Québec'', August 6, 2012. Adapted from Cla ...

'' (''Un homme et son péché'', 1949), ''

The Nightingale and the Bells ''The Nightingale and the Bells'' (french: Le rossignol et les cloches) is a Canadian musical comedy-drama film, directed by René Delacroix and released in 1952.Little Aurore's Tragedy ''Little Aurore's Tragedy'' (french: La petite Aurore: l'enfant martyre "little Aurore, the child Martyr") is a Canadian 1952 Quebec biographical drama movie that was directed by Jean-Yves Bigras, produced by L'Alliance Cinematographique Canadienn ...

'' (''La petite Aurore l'enfant martyre'', 1952), ''

Tit-Coq ''Tit-Coq'' (lit. "Little Rooster") is a Canadian film, directed by René Delacroix and Gratien Gélinas, and released in 1953. Gélinas' immensely popular play started life as a film script, but when he had difficulty with the financing he perfo ...

'' (1953), and '' The Promised Land'' (''Les brûlés'', 1959).

After the ''Office national du film''

The

National Film Board of Canada The National Film Board of Canada (NFB; french: Office national du film du Canada (ONF)) is Canada's public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary f ...

was established by the Parliament of Canada in 1939. Its office moved from Ottawa to Montreal in 1956. In 1957, the new commissioner,

Albert Trueman Albert William Trueman, OC, FRSC (January 17, 1902 – June 29, 1988) was a teacher, professor, cultural and university administrator. Early life Trueman was born in the United States, where his New Brunswick-born father John Main Trueman ta ...

, recommended the creation of a separately funded French production wing. Minister J. W. Pickersgill rejected Trueman's recommendation as Ottawa feared that two separate organizations would develop under the same roof. This decision intensified the campaign of the Quebec French language press for an autonomous French language branch.

Guy Roberge Guy Roberge (January 26, 1915 – June 21, 1991) was a Canadian journalist, lawyer, politician and civil servant. He also served as Canada's Government Film Commissioner during the 1950s and 60s, in which capacity he ran the National Film Boar ...

was appointed as the NFB's first francophone Commissioner in April 1957. The French branch of the

was established and the NFB became autonomous in 1959. Direct Cinema filmmakers

Michel Brault Michel Brault, OQ (25 June 1928 – 21 September 2013) was a Canadian cinematographer, cameraman, film director, screenwriter, and film producer. He was a leading figure of Direct Cinema, characteristic of the French branch of the Na ...

Pierre Perrault Pierre Perrault (29 June 1927 – 24 June 1999) was a Québécois documentary film director. He directed 20 films between 1963 and 1996. He was one of the most important filmmakers in Canada, although largely unknown outside of Québec. In ...

and

Gilles Groulx Gilles Groulx (August 30, 1931 in Montreal, Quebec – August 22, 1994) was a Canadian film director. He grew up in a working-class family with 14 children. After studying business in school, he went to work in an office but found the white-co ...

all made their debut at the NFB. That decade also saw the beginnings of directors

Claude Jutra Claude Jutra (; March 11, 1930 – November 5, 1986) was a Canadian actor, film director, and screenwriter.

Gilles Carle Gilles Carle, (July 31, 1928As fully funny, Carle had pleasure to always give himself one year less, and to let people think wrongly that he was born in 1929, "The Year of the Big World Crash": see on the Quebec French newspapers that many writer ...

and

Denys Arcand Georges-Henri Denys Arcand (; born June 25, 1941) is a French Canadian film director, screenwriter and producer. His film ''The Barbarian Invasions'' won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film in 2004. His films have also been nominated three f ...

The 1960s and 1970s

Two key changes in the late 1960s paved the way for a new era in Québécois cinema. First, in 1967, Quebec's (religious) censorship bureau was replaced by a film ratings system administered by the province. The other phenomenon was the introduction, in 1967, by the federal government, of its Canadian Film Development Corporation (CFDC, to become

Telefilm Canada Telefilm Canada is a Crown corporation reporting to Canada's federal government through the Minister of Canadian Heritage. Headquartered in Montreal, Telefilm provides services to the Canadian audiovisual industry with four regional offices in ...

). This allowed a greater number of films to reach the screen through government subsidy. Commercial directors such as

Denis Héroux Denis Héroux, (; July 15, 1940 – December 10, 2015) was a Canadian film director and producer. Biography Born in Montreal, Quebec, he was the older brother of prolific Quebec film and television producer Claude Héroux. Héroux wanted to bec ...

became known for his films ''

Valérie Valerie is generally a feminine given name, derived directly from the French ''Valérie'' (a female-only name). Valéry or Valery is a masculine given name in parts of Europe (particularly in France and Russia), as well as a common surname in Fr ...

'' and ', two comedies with erotic overtones showing popular success not seen in Quebec since Jean-Yves Bigras' ''La Petite Aurore l'enfant martyre'' (1952). The seventies also marked a high in national filmmaking seen from an artistic perspective, an assessment supported by

opinion polls An opinion poll, often simply referred to as a survey or a poll (although strictly a poll is an actual election) is a human research survey of public opinion from a particular sample. Opinion polls are usually designed to represent the opinions ...

such as the TIFF List of Canada's Top 10 Films of All Time, which has included several films from that decade every year that the poll was taken. Arcand and Carle had critical (especially at

Cannes Cannes ( , , ; oc, Canas) is a city located on the French Riviera. It is a commune located in the Alpes-Maritimes department, and host city of the annual Cannes Film Festival, Midem, and Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. T ...

) and some commercial success with films such as '' Gina'' (Arcand) and '' La vraie nature de Bernadette'' (Carle). In 1971, director Claude Jutra released one of the most critically praised Quebec film to date, '' Mon oncle Antoine''. However, his next movie, an adaptation of

Anne Hébert Anne Hébert (pronounced in French) (August 1, 1916 – January 22, 2000), was a Canadian author and poet. She won Canada's top literary honor, the Governor General's Award, three times, twice for fiction and once for poetry. Early life Hébe ...

's '' Kamouraska'', was a commercial and critical failure. It should be mentioned that this film suffered re-editing done to accommodate theater owners. A two-hour-long restored version, seen in 2003, shows more artistic coherence. In 1977,

Jean Beaudin Jean Beaudin (6 February 1939 – 18 May 2019) was a Canadian film director and screenwriter. He directed 20 films since 1969. His film '' J.A. Martin Photographer'', was entered into the 1977 Cannes Film Festival, where Monique Mercure won the ...

's '' J.A. Martin Photographe'' was selected at

where

Monique Mercure Marie Lise Monique Émond (14 November 193016 May 2020), better known as Monique Mercure (), was a Canadian stage and screen actress. She was one of the country's great actors of the classical and modern repertory. In 1977, Mercure won a Cann ...

, the female star of the film, won Best Actress (tying with

Shelley Duvall Shelley Alexis Duvall (born July 7, 1949) is an American actress and producer who is known for her portrayals of distinct, often eccentric characters. She is the recipient of several accolades, including a Cannes Film Festival Award and a Peab ...

for '' 3 Women''). In 1971, a group of filmmakers in Montreal established the Association coopérative de productions audiovisuelles (ACPAV), which would play an important role in Quebec cinema over the next decades by funding and releasing the earliest films by many emerging Quebec directors.

The 1980s

The victory of the "no" camp in the referendum on sovereignty association was a turning point in Québécois history and culture.

made one of his most acclaimed picture with the NFB, '' Le confort et l'indifférence'', about the result of the referendum. He then proceeded to direct two movies that were nominated for best foreign picture at the

Academy Awards The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

: 1986's ''

The Decline of the American Empire ''The Decline of the American Empire'' (french: Le Déclin de l'empire Américain) is a 1986 Canadian sex comedy- drama film directed by Denys Arcand and starring Rémy Girard, Pierre Curzi and Dorothée Berryman. The film follows a group of ...

(Le Déclin de l'empire américain)'' and 1989's ''

Jesus of Montreal ''Jesus of Montreal'' (french: Jésus de Montréal) is a 1989 French Canadian comedy-drama film written and directed by Denys Arcand, and starring Lothaire Bluteau, Catherine Wilkening and Johanne-Marie Tremblay. The film tells the story of a g ...

(Jésus de Montréal)''. After 1980, a lot of artists felt that the struggle to build a nation that had animated early Quebec cinema was lost. Québécois filmmakers began to make movies that were no longer centred on the Québécois identity. The 1986 success, at home and abroad, of ''Le déclin...'' marked another turning point in the movie history of the province. The government-funded movie industry tried to repeat Arcand's success with international co-productions, big budget movies and so-called "mass audience movies". Meanwhile, director

Robert Morin Robert Morin (born May 20, 1949) is a Canadian film director, screenwriter, and cinematographer. In 2009, he received Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts. Biography Robert Morin is known for his very personal, dark, and pessimi ...

made himself known with personal movies like '' Requiem for a Handsome Bastard (Requiem pour un beau sans-coeur)''. Claude Jutra committed suicide in the 1980s after a struggle with Alzheimer's disease, and Gilles Carle became too sick to direct.

The 1990s and 2000s

1990-2002 saw the solidification of Quebec's movie industry. Independent films such as Denis Villeneuve's '' Maelström'',

Denis Chouinard Denis Chouinard (born 1964 in Montreal, Quebec) is a Canadian film director and screenwriter. He has a degree in Filmmaking from Cégep de Saint-Laurent and a degree in Communications from UQAM. He is a close friend and collaborator of filmma ...

's '' L'Ange de goudron'', and '' Un crabe dans la tête'' caught the media's attention. In 1994,

Pierre Falardeau Pierre Falardeau (December 28, 1946 – September 25, 2009) was a Québécois film and documentary director, pamphleteer and noted activist for Quebec independence. Falardeau wrote at least one book, ''Rien n'est plus précieux que la libert� ...

's '' Octobre'' told a fictionalized version of the October Crisis from the point of view of the Chenier Cell, the FLQ terrorist cell who in 1970 kidnapped and executed Quebec minister and Deputy Premier Pierre Laporte. Home-made blockbusters came in 2000s and begin to dominate their home market, putting American blockbusters in second place. '' Séraphin: un homme et son péché'', directed by Charles Binamé, was a major success at the box office in 2002. The next year, 2003, was called "the year of Quebec cinema's rebirth" with Denys Arcand winning the foreign film Oscar for ''

The Barbarian Invasions ''The Barbarian Invasions'' (french: Les Invasions barbares) is a 2003 Canadian-French sex comedy-drama film written and directed by Denys Arcand and starring Rémy Girard, Stéphane Rousseau and Marie-Josée Croze. The film is a sequel to Arca ...

(Les Invasions barbares)'', the sequel of ''

(Le Déclin de l'empire américain)'', and with ''

Gaz Bar Blues ''Gaz Bar Blues'' is a 2003 Québécois comedy-drama film written and directed by Louis Bélanger. The film is set in 1989 in the outskirts of an unspecified Québécois city. Plot François Brochu (Serge Thériault), named "the boss", is the ow ...

'' and '' Seducing Doctor Lewis'' gaining both critical and public acclaim. In 2005, '' C.R.A.Z.Y.'' was released, grossing a considerable amount in such a small market, and garnering widespread praise from critics. In 2006, the Quebec-made action-comedy ''

Bon Cop, Bad Cop ''Bon Cop, Bad Cop'' is a 2006 Canadian dark comedy- thriller buddy cop film about two police officers – one Ontarian and one Québécois – who reluctantly join forces to solve a murder. The dialogue is a mixture of English and French. The ...

'', a film with dialogue in both French and English, took over the title of most popular Canadian film at the Canadian box office. Sales for ''Bon Cop, Bad Cop'' have totalled $13 million across the country. The previous Quebec film to hold this honour was ''

Les Boys ''Les Boys'' is a 1997 Quebec-made comedy film directed by Louis Saia. It has spawned three sequels and by any measure ( profit, box office or attendance) is the most successful Quebec made film series of all time, and one of the most successfu ...

''. In 2007, Arcand's '' Days of Darkness (L'Âge des ténèbres)'' was selected as the closing film for the Cannes Film Festival. In 2009, ''De père en flic'' (English: '' Father and Guns'') matched the movie ''Bon Cop Bad Cop'' to become the highest-grossing French language film in Canadian history.

The 2010s

The 2010s were marked by three consecutive Academy Award nominations for Quebecois films in the

Foreign Language A foreign language is a language that is not an official language of, nor typically spoken in, a given country, and that native speakers from that country must usually acquire through conscious learning - be this through language lessons at school ...

category,Chris Knight,
Canadian director Kim Nguyen on his Oscar nomination for War Witch (Rebelle): ‘We’re clearly the underdog’
," ''

National Post The ''National Post'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet newspaper available in several cities in central and western Canada. The paper is the flagship publication of Postmedia Network and is published Mondays through Saturdays, with ...

'', 10 January 2013, URL accessed 6 August 2013. namely for '' Incendies'' (2010), ''

Monsieur Lazhar ''Monsieur Lazhar'' is a 2011 Canadian French-language drama film directed by Philippe Falardeau and starring Mohamed Saïd Fellag, Sophie Nélisse and Danielle Proulx. Based on ''Bashir Lazhar'', a one-character play by Évelyne de la Chen ...

'' (2011) and ''

War Witch ''War Witch'' (french: Rebelle) is a 2012 Canadian dramatic war film written and directed by Kim Nguyen and starring Rachel Mwanza, Alain Lino Mic Eli Bastien and Serge Kanyinda. It is about a child soldier forced into a civil war in Africa, an ...

'' (2012). ''War Witch'' director

Kim Nguyen Kim Nguyen is a Canadian film director and screenwriter, best known for his 2012 film '' War Witch (Rebelle)''. The film was the top winner at the 1st Canadian Screen Awards;

University of Berlin Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (german: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a German public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin. It was established by Frederick William III on the initiative ...

film scholar Claudia Kotte wrote ''Incendies'', ''Monsieur Lazhar'', ''

Inch'Allah ''In sha'Allah'' (; ar, إِنْ شَاءَ ٱللَّٰهُ, ʾIn shāʾ Allāh ), also spelled In shaa Allah, InshAllah, Insya Allah and İnşAllah is an Arabic language expression meaning "if god wills" or "god willing". It was mentioned i ...

'' (2012) and ''War Witch'', represent a break from focus on

local history Local history is the study of history in a geographically local context, often concentrating on a relatively small local community. It incorporates cultural and social aspects of history. Local history is not merely national history writ small ...

to more global concerns. In May 2016,

Xavier Dolan Xavier Dolan-Tadros (; born 20 March 1989) is a Canadian filmmaker, actor and costume designer. He began his career as a child actor in commercials before directing several arthouse feature films. He first received international acclaim in 2 ...

became the first Quebec filmmaker to win the Grand Prix at the

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films o ...

, for ''

It's Only the End of the World ''It's Only the End of the World'' (french: Juste la fin du monde) is a 2016 drama film written, edited and directed by Xavier Dolan. The film is based on the play of the same name by Jean-Luc Lagarce and stars Gaspard Ulliel, Nathalie Baye, M ...

.'' It also later won

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 ...

at the inaugural Prix Iris, which replaced the Jutra Awards for Quebec films, with new categories for Casting, Visual Effects, Revelation of the Year and Documentary Editing and Cinematography, and a Public Prix, chosen by viewers' votes.

Bibliography

Books

Fradet, Pierre-Alexandre and Olivier Ducharme, ''Une vie sans bon sens. Regard philosophique sur

'', foreword by

Jean-Daniel Lafond Jean-Daniel Lafond (born 18 August 1944) is a French-born Canadian filmmaker, teacher of philosophy, and the husband to the former Governor General Michaëlle Jean, making him the Viceregal Consort of Canada during her service. Biography Lafon ...

, Montréal, Nota bene, 2016. Evans, Gary. John Grierson and the National Film Board: The Politics of Wartime Propaganda. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1984. Evans, Gary. In the National Interest: A Chronicle of the National Film Board of Canada from 1949 to 1989. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1991. *Pallister, Janis L. ''The Cinema of Québec: Masters in Their Own House''. Madison, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1995.

Issues

* Sylvano Santini and Pierre-Alexandre Fradet, "Au film de la pensée : un Québec philosophe", issue "Cinéma et philosophie", in ''Nouvelles Vues'', #17, winter-spring 2016 : ''https://web.archive.org/web/20161102065003/http://www.nouvellesvues.ulaval.ca/no-17-hiver-2016-cinema-et-philosophie-par-s-santini-et-p-a-fradet/presentation/au-film-de-la-pensee-un-quebec-philosophe-par-sylvano-santini-et-pierre-alexandre-fradet/

Films

* ''

From NFB to Box-Office ''From NFB to Box-Office'' (french: De l'office au box-office) is a 2009 documentary by Quebec film director and producer Denys Desjardins. The film documents the development of Quebec cinema, from the founding of the National Film Board of Can ...

'', 2009 documentary by

Denys Desjardins Denys Desjardins (born 1966 in Montreal, Quebec), is a film director, screenwriter, cinematographer, editor and film historian for more than twenty years. After completing studies in literature, film and communications, he directed several acc ...

about the development of Quebec cinema, from the founding of the National Film Board of Canada to the creation of the

Canadian Film Development Corporation Telefilm Canada is a Crown corporation reporting to Canada's federal government through the Minister of Canadian Heritage. Headquartered in Montreal, Telefilm provides services to the Canadian audiovisual industry with four regional offices in ...

in 1968 *

References

External links

AQCC: Association Québécoises des Critiques de Cinéma

ARRQ: Association des Réalisateurs et Réalisatrices du Québec

Festival international du Nouveau Cinéma

Régie du cinéma du Québec

Cinéma du Québec.com a website with pioneers of Quebec cinema
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cinema Of Quebec Audiovisual introductions in 1896