''Céline'' is a 2008 television unauthorized film

biopic A biographical film or biopic () is a film that dramatizes the life of an actual person or group of people. Such films show the life of a historical person and the central character's real name is used. They differ from docudrama films and histo ...

about the life of

Canadian Canadians () 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 their being ''C ...

singer

Celine Dion Céline Marie Claudette Dion (born 30 March 1968) is a Canadian singer. Referred to as the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Queen of Power Ballads", Dion's powerful, technically skilled vocals and commercially successful works have had ...

. The film chronicles Dion's life from a young girl singing in her father's club, right through her career as a worldwide successful singer to the present day. It was directed by Jeff Woolnough. Christine Ghawi, who played the lead role, claimed that she auditioned for the role by doing a campy, comedic

lip sync Lip sync or lip synch (pronounced , like the word ''sink'', despite the Hard and soft C, spelling of the participial forms ''synced'' and ''syncing''), short for lip synchronization, is a technical term for matching a Speech, speaking or singin ...

performance to Dion's "

My Heart Will Go On "My Heart Will Go On" is a song performed by Canadian singer Celine Dion, used as the theme for the 1997 film '' Titanic''. It was composed by James Horner, with lyrics by Will Jennings, and produced by Horner, Walter Afanasieff and Simon F ...

", as if she were a

drag queen A drag queen is a person, usually male, who uses Drag (entertainment), drag clothing and makeup to imitate and often exaggerate Femininity, female gender signifiers and gender roles for entertainment purposes. Historically, drag queens have ...

performing to the song in a bar.

Cast

* Christine Ghawi as

Céline Dion Céline Marie Claudette Dion (born 30 March 1968) is a Canadian singer. Referred to as the " Queen of Power Ballads", Dion's powerful, technically skilled vocals and commercially successful works have had a significant impact on popular musi ...

** Jodelle Ferland as Young Celine * Peter MacNeill as Adhemar Dion * Louise Pitre as Thérèse Tanguay-Dion * Mac Fyfe as Michel * Natalie Radford * Enrico Colantoni as René Angélil

Awards

Christine Ghawi won the

Gemini Award The Gemini Awards were awards given by the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television between 1986–2011 to recognize the achievements of Canada's English-language television industry. The Gemini Awards are analogous to the Emmy Awards given in t ...

for Best Actress in a Television Film or Miniseries at the 24th Gemini Awards in 2009.Eric Volmers, "Flashpoint big winner at Geminis". ''

Saskatoon Star-Phoenix ''The StarPhoenix'' is a daily newspaper that serves Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, and is a part of Postmedia Network. It has been referred to as a "sister newspaper" to the ''Regina Leader-Post, Leader-Post''. The ''StarPhoenix'' puts out si ...

'', 16 November 2009. The film was also nominated for Best TV Movie and Best Writing in a Dramatic Program or Miniseries ( Donald Martin).

References

External links

* 2008 television films 2008 films Canadian drama television films English-language Canadian films Films set in Quebec Films shot in Ontario 2000s biographical films Biographical films about musicians Biographical films about singers Celine Dion Cultural depictions of Canadian people Cultural depictions of pop musicians Canadian biographical films Films directed by Jeff Woolnough 2000s Canadian films CBC Television original films Canadian musical television films {{bio-film-stub