Philippe Lesage is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

film director and screenwriter from

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 ...

."Philippe Lesage explores his childhood fears in Les Démons"
''

Montreal Gazette The ''Montreal Gazette'', formerly titled ''The Gazette'', is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Three other daily English-language newspapers shuttered at various times during the second half of th ...

'', October 25, 2015. Originally a

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...

maker, he moved into narrative feature filmmaking in the 2010s with the films ''Copenhague: A Love Story'', '' The Demons (Les Démons)'' and ''

Genesis Genesis may refer to: Bible * Book of Genesis, the first book of the biblical scriptures of both Judaism and Christianity, describing the creation of the Earth and of mankind * Genesis creation narrative, the first several chapters of the Book of ...

(Genèse)''. Born in Saint-Agapit,

"Philippe Lesage: la quête de l'imprévisible"
'' La Presse'', June 4, 2011. and raised in

Longueuil Longueuil () is a city in the province of Quebec, Canada. It is the seat of the Montérégie administrative region and the central city of the urban agglomeration of Longueuil. It sits on the south shore of the Saint Lawrence River directly acr ...

and

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

, Lesage studied at

McGill University McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter granted by King George IV,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill Universit ...

and the

European Film College European Film College (Danish: Den Europæiske Filmhøjskole) is a film school and a Danish folk high school in Denmark, offering 1-year film foundation programme in practical filmmaking covering the fields of screenwriting, camera, sound, acting ...

. His first documentary film, ''Pourrons-nous vivre ensemble?'', was released in 2006. He won a

Jutra Award 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.Best Documentary for '' The Heart that Beats (Ce cœur qui bat)'' at the

14th Jutra Awards The 14th Jutra Awards were held on March 11, 2012 to honour films made with the participation of the Quebec film industry in 2011.

in 2012. ''The Demons'' premièred at San Sebastian International Film Festival in Official Competition. It has since been selected in more than 70 festivals around the world and has won several awards. ''The Demons'' was selected in Guy Lodge's Top Ten Films of 2015 in ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' and in the ''

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a permane ...

'' Canada's Top Ten. It won the ''Golden Gate New Director Prize'' at the

San Francisco International Film Festival The San Francisco International Film Festival (abbreviated as SFIFF), organized by the San Francisco Film Society, is held each spring for two weeks, presenting around 200 films from over 50 countries. The festival highlights current trends in in ...

in 2016 and the Quebec Film Critic Association honoured the film with its two annually awards: Best Canadian film of 2015 and Best Film from the International Competition of the Montreal Film Festival of New Cinema. In 2018, he directed ''

(Genèse)''. Premiered at the

Locarno Festival The Locarno Film Festival is an annual film festival, held every August in Locarno, Switzerland. Founded in 1946, the festival screens films in various competitive and non-competitive sections, including feature-length narrative, documentary, sh ...

in the International Competition, the film has won numerous awards including the Golden Wolf (Festival of New Cinema, Montreal), Best Film and Best Director Awards at

Seminci The Valladolid International Film Festival, popularly known as Seminci (short for ; ), is a film festival held annually in Valladolid, Spain. First held in 1956 as ('Valladolid Religious Film Week'), the Seminci is one of the longest-standing fi ...

in Valladolid (Spain) and Best Film at

Los Cabos International Film Festival Founded in 2012 by Scott Cross, Sean Cross, Eduardo Sanchez-Navarro Redo, Alfonso Pasquel, Juan Gallardo Thurlow, Eduardo Sanchez-Navarro Rivera Torres, and Pablo Sanchez-Navarro, the Los Cabos International Film Festival is an international film ...

'(Mexico) festivals. The film was also selected at the renowned

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

and

Film Society of Lincoln Center Film at Lincoln Center, previously known as the Film Society of Lincoln Center until 2019,Aridi, Sara (April 28, 2019).. ''The New York Times''. nytimes.com. Retrieved April 29, 2019. is a film society based in New York City, United States. Fo ...

New Directors/New Films Festival The New Directors/New Films Festival is an annual film festival held in New York City, and organized jointly by the Museum of Modern Art and the Film Society of Lincoln Center Film at Lincoln Center, previously known as the Film Society o ...

AFI FEST The American Film Institute (AFI) is an American nonprofit film organization that educates filmmakers and honors the heritage of the History of cinema in the United States, motion picture arts in the United States. AFI is supported by private fun ...

, and

Rotterdam Film Festival The International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) is an annual film festival held at the end of January in various locations in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Since its foundation in 1972, it has maintained a focus on independent and experimental fi ...

. It ranked #16 best films of 2019 by ''

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

''. Lesage has also taught documentary filmmaking at the European Film College in 2008–2009. His brother

Jean-François Lesage Jean-François Lesage is a Canadian documentary filmmaker, most noted for his 2020 film '' Prayer for a Lost Mitten (Prière pour une mitaine perdue)''.Pat Mullen"Nostalgia for City Life: Jean-François Lesage on ‘Prayer for a Lost Mitten’" ''Po ...

is also a filmmaker.Pat Mullen
"Nostalgia for City Life: Jean-François Lesage on ‘Prayer for a Lost Mitten’"
''

Point of View Point of view or Points of View may refer to: Concept and technique * Point of view (philosophy), an attitude how one sees or thinks of something * Point of view (literature) or narrative mode, the perspective of the narrative voice; the prono ...

'', May 29, 2020.

Films

* 2006: ''Pourrons-nous vivre ensemble?'' * 2009: ''How Can You Tell If the Little Fish Are Happy? (Comment savoir si les petits poissons sont heureux?)'' * 2010: '' The Heart that Beats (Ce cœur qui bat)'' * 2012: ''Laylou'' * 2015: '' The Demons (Les Démons)'' * 2016: ''Copenhague: A Love Story'' * 2018: ''

(Genèse)''

Awards and nominations

* 2010: ''Award for Best National Documentary, RIDM'' * 2010: ''Award for Best New Director, RIDM'' * 2012: ''Jutra Award 2012, Best Documentary'' * 2015: ''Critic Award (AQCC) for Best Film, International Competition, Festival of New Cinema, 2015'' * 2016: ''Canada's Top Ten,

'' * 2016: ''Nomination for Best Film, Gala du Cinema Quebecois'' * 2016: ''Nomination for Best Director, Gala du Cinéma Québécois'' * 2016: ''Gilles-Carles Award for Best First or Second feature fiction film'' * 2016: ''Luc-Perreault Award / AQCC for Best Film from Quebec'' * 2016: ''Nomination for Best Film, Canadian Screen Awards'' * 2016: ''Nomination for Best achievement in Directing, Canadian Screen Awards'' * 2016: ''Nomination for The Ingmar Bergman International Debut Award'' * 2016: ''Titanic Award for Best Film, International Competition, Budapest'' * 2016: ''Golden Gate New Director Prize'',

* 2018 : Golden Wolf for Best Feature Film International Competition

Festival du nouveau cinéma The Festival du nouveau cinéma or FNC (English: ''Festival of New Cinema'') is an annual independent film festival held in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, featuring independent films from around the world. Over 160,000 people attend each year. One of ...

* 2018 : Golden Spike for Best Feature Film International Competition Festival international du film de Valladolid * 2018 : Best Director Festival international du film de Valladolid * 2018 : Best Feature Film Award International

* 2018: ''Canada's Top Ten,

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lesage, Philippe Film directors from Quebec Canadian documentary film directors Canadian screenwriters in French Screenwriters from Quebec Living people People from Chaudière-Appalaches People from Longueuil McGill University alumni Year of birth missing (living people)