Denis Côté (born November 16, 1973) is a

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 ...

independent filmmaker and producer living in

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

, of

Brayon Brayons (; ), also called Madawaskayens, are a Francophone people inhabiting the area in and around Madawaska County, New Brunswick, Canada, and some parts of northern Maine. In French, Brayons are referred to by the masculine or the feminine ...

origin. His experimental films have been shown at major film festivals around the world.

Life and career

Côté was born in

Perth-Andover Perth-Andover is a former village in Victoria County, New Brunswick, Victoria County, New Brunswick, Canada. It held village status prior to 2023. It is now part of the village of Southern Victoria. History Andover was originally called Little ...

New Brunswick New Brunswick is a Provinces and Territories of Canada, province of Canada, bordering Quebec to the north, Nova Scotia to the east, the Gulf of Saint Lawrence to the northeast, the Bay of Fundy to the southeast, and the U.S. state of Maine to ...

, Canada. He studied film at

Collège Ahuntsic Collège Ahuntsic is a French-language public college situated in the Ahuntsic-Cartierville borough of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It was founded in 1967 as a merger of the Collège Saint-Ignace and the Institut de technologies Laval, and in 1970 ...

in Montreal and founded Nihil Productions around 1994. He made a number of short films, including ''Kosovolove'' (2000) and ''La sphatte'' (2003). He has also been a film critic on radio, at ici magazine from 1999 to 2005, and vice-president of the Quebec association of film critics (''Association québécoise des critiques de cinéma'', or AQCC). In 2005, his first feature film, '' Drifting States (Les états nordiques)'', won the Golden Leopard - Video at the

Locarno International Film Festival The Locarno International Film Festival is a major international film festival, held annually in Locarno, Switzerland. Founded in 1946, the festival screens films in various competitive and non-competitive sections, including feature-length narr ...

(in a tie with '' The Masseur''), as well as the Woosuk Award (Indie Vision) at the

Jeonju International Film Festival Jeonju International Film Festival (JIFF, ) is an Asian film festival based in South Korea. It was launched in 2000 as a non-competitive film festival seeking to introduce independent and experimental films to the general public and focusing ...

. His 2007 film '' Our Private Lives (Nos vies privées)'' was filmed in Bulgarian. The 2008 film ''

All That She Wants "All That She Wants" is a song by Swedish group Ace of Base. It was released in Scandinavia in August 1992, by Edel-Mega Records, Mega Records, as the second single from the group's first studio album, ''Happy Nation'' (1992), and in the followi ...

(Elle veut le chaos)'', his third feature film, won the silver Leopard for best directing at the

and Best Canadian film at the '' Festival international du cinéma francophone en Acadie''.

Jean-Michel Frodon Jean-Michel Frodon (born 20 September 1953 in Paris) is a journalist, critic and historian of cinema. Biography Born Jean-Michel Billard, he writes with a pseudonym borrowed from Frodo of ''The Lord of the Rings''. He has a master's degree and a ...

, editor-in-chief of Cahiers du Cinéma at the time, made it one of his top 10 picks for best film of 2008. In October 2008, there was a retrospective of his work at the

Cinémathèque québécoise The Cinémathèque québécoise () is a film conservatory in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Its purpose is to preserve, document, film, and television footage and related documents and artifacts for future use by the public. The Cinémathèque's coll ...

. The 2009 documentary '' Carcasses'' was presented at the

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Film Festival (; ), until 2003 called the International Film Festival ('), is the most prestigious film festival in the world. Held in Cannes, France, it previews new films of all genres, including documentaries, from all around ...

at the

Directors' Fortnight The Directors' Fortnight (, formerly ) is an independent section held in parallel to the Cannes Film Festival. It was started in 1969 by the French Directors Guild after the events of May 1968 resulted in cancellation of the Cannes festival as a ...

in May 2009. It was part of the Canada Top Ten at the

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the most prestigious and largest publicly attended film festivals in the world. Founded in 1976, the festival takes place every year in early September. The organi ...

. At the end of May 2010 at the Festival TransAmériques, he created a video accompaniment for the play ''Cendres'' directed by Jérémie Niel (based on ''

Earth and Ashes ''Earth and Ashes'' () is a 2004 Afghan film directed and co-written by Atiq Rahimi, based on his book of the same name which was published in 2000. It was Afghanistan's submission to the 77th Academy Awards for the Academy Award for Best Foreign ...

'' by

Atiq Rahimi Atiq Rahimi () (born 26 February 1962 in Kabul) is a France, French-Afghanistan, Afghan writer and filmmaker. Life Atiq Rahimi was born in 1962 in Kabul to a senior public servant and attended high school in Lycée Esteqlal. Following the Soviet ...

). The 2010 "short" film (43 minutes) ''

The Enemy Lines ''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The ...

(Les Lignes ennemies)'' was part of the Jeonju Digital Project at the

, where it had its world premiere. In August 2010, his feature film ''

Curling Curling is a sport in which players slide #Curling stone, stones on a sheet of ice toward a target area that is segmented into four concentric circles. It is related to bowls, boules, and shuffleboard. Two teams, each with four players, take t ...

'' was presented at the

, where it won the prize for best directing as well as the prize for best actor (

Emmanuel Bilodeau Emmanuel Bilodeau (born August 29, 1964) is a Canadian actor from Quebec. He is most noted for his performances in the 2000 film '' Soft Shell Man (Un crabe dans la tête)'', for which he won the Jutra Award for Best Supporting Actor at the 4th ...

). It was released in France in October 2011, to positive critical reviews. At the end of October and beginning of November 2010, the

Viennale The Vienna International Film Festival, or Viennale, is a film festival taking place every October since 1960 in Vienna, Austria. The average number of visitors is about 75,000. Traditional cinema venues are ''Gartenbaukino'', ''Urania'', ''Met ...

presented a retrospective of his work, as did the

Festival de La Rochelle A festival is an event celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, Melā, mela, or Muslim holidays, eid. A ...

in 2011. His 2012 documentary '' Bestiaire'', filmed at Parc Safari in Hemmingford, Quebec, had its world premiere at the

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with 423,234 combined in-person and online viewership in 2023. The festival has acted ...

and was also shown at the

Berlin Film Festival The Berlin International Film Festival (), usually called the Berlinale (), is an annual film festival held in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the festival has been held every February since 1978 and is one of Europ ...

. Côté also produced the film '' Mona's Daughters (Le Cèdre penché)'' by Rafaël Ouellet in 2007. His 2013 film '' Vic and Flo Saw a Bear'' premiered in competition at the 63rd Berlin International Film Festival, where it won the

Alfred Bauer Prize The Alfred Bauer Prize was an annual film award, presented by the Berlin International Film Festival, as part of its Silver Bear series of awards, to a film that "opens new perspectives on cinematic art". The prize was suspended in 2020 after it ...

. ''Vic and Flo Saw A Bear'' was screened in about 90 film festivals, was released in a dozen countries and to this day, Denis Côté's work has been offered more than 20 retrospectives around the world. In 2014, he returned to Berlinale with a new essay film, '' Joy of Man's Desiring (Que ta joie demeure)''. For his ninth feature film '' Boris Without Béatrice (Boris sans Béatrice)'' in 2016, Côté teamed up with local star actor James Hyndman and imagines the life of fictitious businessman Boris Malinovsky. The film premiered at the 66th Berlin International Film Festival in 2016. In 2015, Ministry of Culture and Communications (France) officially named Côté a Knight of the Order of the Arts and Letters. '' A Skin So Soft (Ta peau si lisse)'' features six real-life bodybuilders and had its world premiere on August 4, 2017, at the 70th Locarno International Film Festival. Variety praised the 'eclectic approach' of the film. The Upcoming UK called it a 'bewitching and admirable piece of work'. Shot in winter 2018 but screened in Competition at Berlinale 2019, ''Ghost Town Anthology'' is a return to a more narrative version of Côté's signature. Based on a poetic novel by young auteur Laurence Olivier and uniting a stellar cast of local stars and newcomers, ''Ghost Town Anthology'' sees the dead silently return to a small rural town following the suicide of a young man. The film opened to positive reviews, hits the festival circuit and is seen as a mournful drama that defies genre categorization. The film received 10 nominations at the 20th Quebec Cinema Awards. Later the same year he released '' Wilcox'', a film following a fictional mysterious wanderer, happily lost in the Canadian wilderness. Côté has described his own filmmaking style in interviews by stating that he has no ambitions to make "consensual" movies that everybody loves, and has claimed that he does not consider one of his films to be successful unless at least a few people walk out of the screening. In October 2024 he was named the recipient of the Prix Albert-Tessier for his body of work in film.Charles-Henri Ramond
"Denis Côté reçoit le Prix Albert-Tessier 2024"
''Films du Québec'', October 15, 2024.

Filmography

*2005 - '' Drifting States (Les états nordiques)'' *2007 - '' Our Private Lives (Nos vies privées)'' *2008 - ''

(Elle veut le chaos)'' *2009 - '' Carcasses'' *2010 - ''

(Les lignes ennemies)'' *2010 - ''

'' *2012 - '' Bestiaire'' *2013 - '' Vic and Flo Saw a Bear (Vic + Flo ont vu un ours)'' *2014 - '' Joy of Man's Desiring (Que ta joie demeure)'' *2016 - '' Boris Without Béatrice (Boris sans Béatrice)'' *2017 - '' A Skin So Soft (Ta peau si lisse)'' *2019 - '' Ghost Town Anthology (Répertoire des villes disparues)'' *2019 - '' Wilcox'' *2021 - '' Social Hygiene (Hygiène sociale)'' *2022 - '' That Kind of Summer (Un été comme ça)'' *2023 - '' Mademoiselle Kenopsia'' *2025 - ''

Paul Paul may refer to: People * Paul (given name), a given name, including a list of people * Paul (surname), a list of people * Paul the Apostle, an apostle who wrote many of the books of the New Testament * Ray Hildebrand, half of the singing duo ...

Short films

*1997 - ''Des tortues dans la pluie'' *1999 - ''Old Fashion Waltz'' *2000 - ''Second Waltz (Seconde valse)'' *2000 - ''Kosovolove'' *2001 - ''Rejoue-moi ce vieux mélodrame'' *2002 - ''Mécanique de l’assassin'' *2003 - ''La sphatte'' *2005 - ''Toys (Les jouets)'' *2005 - ''Tennessee'' *2007 - ''Maïté'' *2011 - ''Sans titre'' *2015 - ''Excursions (Excursoes)'' *2015 - ''May We Sleep Soundly (Que nous nous assoupissions)'' *2020 - ' *2021 - ''Renegade Breakdown Live'' *2024 - ''Days Before the Death of Nicky (Jours avant la mort de Nicky)''

Accolades

*2001 - ''Seconde valse'': Best editing at the Atlantic Film Festival ( Halifax, Canada) *2004 - ''La sphatte'': Bronze prize at Brno B16 (Czech Republic) *2005 - ''Les états nordiques'': Golden Leopard - Video at the Locarno International Film Festival (Switzerland) *2006 - ''Les états nordiques'': Indie Vision grand prize at Jeonju (Korea) *2008 - ''Elle veut le chaos'': Best directing at the Locarno International Film Festival (Switzerland) *2008 - ''Elle veut le chaos'': Special mention from the youth jury at Locarno (Switzerland) *2008 - ''Elle veut le chaos'': Best Canadian film at the '' Festival international du cinéma francophone en Acadie'' (

Moncton Moncton (; ) is the most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of New Brunswick. Situated in the Petitcodiac River Valley, Moncton lies at the geographic centre of the The Maritimes, Maritime Provinces. Th ...

, Canada) *2010 - ''Curling'': Best directing at the Locarno International Film Festival (Switzerland) *2010 - ''Curling'': Leopard for best actor (Emmanuel Bilodeau) at the Locarno International Film Festival (Switzerland) *2012 - ''Bestiaire'' Best experimental Feature Greenpoint Film Festival (US) *2013 - ''Vic and Flo Saw A Bear'' Alfred Bauer Preis (Innovation Prize) 63rd Berlinale (Germany) *2013 - ''Vic and Flo Saw A Bear'' Best Script FIFF Namur (Belgium) *2014 - ''Vic and Flo Saw A Bear'' Jutra Award for Best Actress - Pierrette Robitaille (Quebec) *2014 - ''Joy of Man's Desiring'' Jury Special Mention FICUNAM Mexico *2019 - ''Ghost Town Anthology'' Best film (FIPRESCI Award at 37th Festival Cinematografico Internacional del Uruguay *2021 - ''Social Hygiene'' Best director Award - Berlinale (Encounters) *2021 - ''Social Hygiene'' Best director Award - FAJR Teheran Film Festival (Iran)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cote, Denis Canadian screenwriters in French Film producers from Quebec Film directors from Quebec Canadian experimental filmmakers People from Perth-Andover 1973 births Living people Acadian film Film directors from New Brunswick Film producers from New Brunswick Screenwriters from Quebec Screenwriters from New Brunswick 21st-century Canadian screenwriters Collège Ahuntsic alumni Prix Albert-Tessier winners Canadian film critics