John Dunning Best First Feature Award
The John Dunning Best First Feature Award is a special Canadian film award, presented by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television to the year's best feature film by a first-time film director. Under the earlier names Claude Jutra Award and Canadian Screen Award for Best First Feature, the award has been presented since the 14th Genie Awards in 1993.[1][2]
Formerly a juried prize whose winner was announced in advance of the ceremony, the award is now presented as a conventional category with a full shortlist of nominees.
To date five films, The Confessional (Le Confessionnal), Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner, Away from Her, A Colony (Une colonie) and Beans, have won both the Best First Feature and Best Picture awards in the same year; the first three films' directors also won the award for Best Director for the same films.
History[]
The award was originally named in memory of Claude Jutra, a Canadian film director who died in 1986.[3] Formerly part of the Genie Awards ceremonies, the Claude Jutra Award was transitioned to be part of the new Canadian Screen Awards in 2013.
Following the February 2016 publication of Yves Lever's biography of Jutra, which contained allegations that Jutra had sexually abused underage children during his lifetime, the Academy announced that it was removing Jutra's name from the award.[4] Québec Cinéma also removed Jutra's name from its Prix Jutra ceremonies on the same day.[4]
The award was presented for the next three years as the Canadian Screen Award for Best First Feature. At the 4th Canadian Screen Awards in 2016, the John Dunning Discovery Award, named in memory of film producer John Dunning, was introduced to honour microbudget films. Initially it was a separate award from the Best First Feature category, with the two awards presented alongside each other to different films for the next three years.[5]
For the 7th Canadian Screen Awards in 2019, the Academy announced that the awards would be merged under the John Dunning Best First Feature Award name.
Winners[]
Claude Jutra Award[]
| Year | Film | Director |
|---|---|---|
| 1993[1] 14th Genie Awards |
The Grocer's Wife | John Pozer |
| 1994[1] 15th Genie Awards |
Louis 19, King of the Airwaves (Louis 19, le roi des ondes) | Michel Poulette |
| 1995[1] 16th Genie Awards |
The Confessional (Le Confessionnal) | Robert Lepage |
| 1996[1] 17th Genie Awards |
Joe's So Mean to Josephine | Peter Wellington |
| 1997[1] 18th Genie Awards |
The Hanging Garden | Thom Fitzgerald |
| 1998[1] 19th Genie Awards |
Last Night | Don McKellar |
| 1999[1] 20th Genie Awards |
Post Mortem | Louis Bélanger |
| 2000[1] 21st Genie Awards |
The Left-Hand Side of the Fridge (La Moitié gauche du frigo) | Philippe Falardeau |
| 2001[1] 22nd Genie Awards |
Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner | Zacharias Kunuk |
| 2002[1] 23rd Genie Awards |
Flower & Garnet | Keith Behrman |
| 2003[1] 24th Genie Awards |
How My Mother Gave Birth to Me During Menopause (Comment ma mère accoucha de moi durant sa ménopause) | Sébastien Rose |
| 2004[1] 25th Genie Awards |
White Skin (La Peau blanche) | Daniel Roby |
| 2005[1] 26th Genie Awards |
Familia | Louise Archambault |
| 2006[1] 27th Genie Awards |
Eve and the Fire Horse | Julia Kwan |
| The Secret Life of Happy People (La Vie secrète des gens heureux) | Stéphane Lapointe | |
| 2007[1] 28th Genie Awards[6] |
Away from Her | Sarah Polley |
| 2008[1] 29th Genie Awards |
Everything Is Fine (Tout est parfait) | Yves Christian Fournier |
| 2009[1] 30th Genie Awards |
I Killed My Mother (J'ai tué ma mère) | Xavier Dolan |
| 2010[7] 31st Genie Awards |
Exit 67 (Sortie 67) | Jephté Bastien |
| 2011[8] 32nd Genie Awards |
Nuit #1 | Anne Émond |
| 2012[9] 1st Canadian Screen Awards |
Blackbird | Jason Buxton |
| 2013[10] 2nd Canadian Screen Awards |
Whitewash | Emanuel Hoss-Desmarais |
| 2014[11] 3rd Canadian Screen Awards |
Bang Bang Baby | Jeffrey St. Jules |
Best First Feature[]
| Year | Film | Director |
|---|---|---|
| 2015[12] 4th Canadian Screen Awards |
River | Jamie M. Dagg |
| 2016[13] 5th Canadian Screen Awards |
Old Stone | Johnny Ma |
| 2017[14] 6th Canadian Screen Awards |
Ava | Sadaf Foroughi |
John Dunning Discovery Award[]
| Year | Film | Director |
|---|---|---|
| 2015[15] 4th Canadian Screen Awards | ||
| Mina Walking | Yosef Baraki | |
| 2016[16] 5th Canadian Screen Awards | ||
| The Lockpicker | Randall Okita | |
| 2017[17] 6th Canadian Screen Awards | ||
| Black Cop | Cory Bowles | |
| The Devout | Connor Gaston | |
| Wexford Plaza | Joyce Wong |
John Dunning Best First Feature Award[]
| Year | Film | Director |
|---|---|---|
| 2018 7th Canadian Screen Awards | ||
| A Colony (Une colonie) | Geneviève Dulude-De Celles | |
| Family First (Chien de garde) | Sophie Dupuis | |
| Firecrackers | Jasmin Mozaffari | |
| The Nest (Le nid) | ||
| Touched | Karl R. Hearne | |
| 2019[18] 8th Canadian Screen Awards | ||
| Murmur | Heather Young | |
| Black Conflux | Nicole Dorsey | |
| Mad Dog Labine | , | |
| Sympathy for the Devil (Sympathie pour le diable) | Guillaume de Fontenay | |
| The Twentieth Century | Matthew Rankin | |
| 2020[19] 9th Canadian Screen Awards | ||
| Beans | Tracey Deer | |
| The Kid Detective | Evan Morgan | |
| Tito | Grace Glowicki | |
| Vacarme | Neegan Trudel | |
| Violation | Madeleine Sims-Fewer, Dusty Mancinelli |
See also[]
- Prix Iris for Best First Film
- Toronto International Film Festival Award for Best Canadian First Feature Film
References[]
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Claude Jutra Award, The Canadian Encyclopedia.
- ^ Valerie J. Webster (1998). Awards, Honors & Prizes: United States and Canada 1999. Gale Research. p. 3. ISBN 978-0-7876-1501-7.
- ^ Maria Topalovich, And the Genie Goes To...: Celebrating 50 Years of the Canadian Film Awards. Stoddart Publishing, 2000. ISBN 0-7737-3238-1. pp. 199-203.
- ^ Jump up to: a b "Claude Jutra's name to be pulled from Quebec film awards" Archived March 1, 2016, at the Wayback Machine. Ottawa Citizen, February 17, 2016.
- ^ "Canadian Screen Awards leave Hollywood behind". The Globe and Mail, January 16, 2018.
- ^ "Genie Awards in brief". Daily Gleaner, March 3, 2008.
- ^ "Incendies, Barney's Version dominate Genies". CBC News, March 10, 2011.
- ^ "Quebec's Anne Émond wins debut director award". CBC News, February 22, 2012.
- ^ "Blackbird director Jason Buxton wins first-film honour". CBC News. January 29, 2013. Retrieved January 30, 2013.
- ^ "Le Claude-Jutra à Emanuel Hoss-Desmarais". Le Devoir. January 23, 2014.
- ^ "Academy Names Claude Jutra Award Winner" Archived 2015-02-04 at the Wayback Machine. Broadcaster, February 3, 2015.
- ^ "Jamie M. Dagg wins Claude Jutra Award for Laos-set thriller River". CBC News, February 4, 2016.
- ^ "Ma's 'Old Stone' gets Canadian academy's Best First Feature award". CTV News, February 2, 2017.
- ^ "Sadaf Foroughi's 'Ava' wins best first feature film from Canadian Screen Awards". National Post, January 31, 2018.
- ^ "Mina Walking Honoured with Inaugural Discovery Award". Cision, January 19, 2016.
- ^ "Randall Okita to receive inaugural John Dunning Discovery Award". Playback, January 12, 2017.
- ^ "Northern Banner picks up Cory Bowles’ Black Cop". Playback, April 25, 2018.
- ^ Norman Wilner, "Canadian Screen Awards 2020: Prepare for a Schitt's show". Now, February 18, 2020.
- ^ Brent Furdyk (March 30, 2021). "Canadian Screen Awards Announces 2021 Film Nominations". ET Canada.
- Directorial debut film awards
- Canadian Screen Award film categories