The history of cinema in Quebec started on June 27, 1896 when the Frenchman Louis Minier inaugurated the first movie projection in North America in a Montreal 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.
Jessica Paré is a Canadian actress and musician known for her co-starring roles on the AMC series Mad Men and the CBS series SEAL Team. She has also appeared in the films Stardom (2000), Lost and Delirious (2001), Wicker Park (2004), Suck (2009), Hot Tub Time Machine (2010), and Brooklyn (2015).
André Gagnon was a Canadian pianist, composer, conductor, arranger, and actor, known for his fusion of classical and pop styles, including compositions Neiges, Smash, Chevauchée, Surprise, Donna, and Mouvements in the disco and pop fields. Gagnon also composed for television, including La Souris Verte, Vivre en ce Pays, Format 60, Format 30,Techno-Flash, and Les Forges de Saint-Maurice as well as for theatre with such productions as La Poudre aux Yeux, Doña Rosita, Terre d'Aube, La Dame de Chez Maxim's, and Wouf-Wouf. Some of his most notable songs are "Pour les Amants", "Turluteries", and "Mes Quatre Saisons".
Michel Vastel was a Quebec journalist and columnist for Le Journal de Montréal and other medias. He was born in Saint-Pierre-de-Cormeilles, Eure, France and immigrated to Canada in 1970.
Polytechnique is a 2009 Canadian drama film directed by Denis Villeneuve and written by Villeneuve and Jacques Davidts. Starring Maxim Gaudette, Sebastien Huberdeau, and Karine Vanasse, the film is based on the 1989 École Polytechnique massacre and re-enacts the events of the incident through the eyes of two students who witness a gunman (Gaudette) murder fourteen young women.
My Friend Max is a 1994 Canadian drama film, written by Guy Fournier and Jefferson Lewis, and directed by Michel Brault. The film premiered in February 1994 at the Rendez-vous du cinéma québécois.
10+1⁄2 is a 2010 Canadian drama film directed by Daniel Grou and written by Claude Lalonde. It premiered at the Festival du Nouveau Cinéma in Montreal. The story involves a ten-year-old boy called Tommy in the youth-protection system in Quebec.
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 Chenelière, it tells the story of an Algerian refugee in Montreal who steps in to teach at an elementary school after the former full-time teacher dies by suicide.
Felix and Meira is a 2014 Canadian drama film directed by Maxime Giroux, and starring Martin Dubreuil, Hadas Yaron, and Luzer Twersky. It is about an improbable affair between two Montreal residents - one a married woman from a devoutly Jewish family and community, and the other a single French Canadian man with his own family issues.
Guardian Angel is a Canadian drama film, directed by Jean-Sébastien Lord and released in 2014.
The Torrent is a Canadian drama film, directed by Simon Lavoie and released in 2012. An adaptation of Anne Hébert's novella Le Torrent, the film centres on the life of François, a man who was raised by his devoutly religious and abusive mother Claudine. Left deaf when his refusal to obey her demand that he enter the seminary to become a Catholic priest led Claudine to hit him on the head, he has continued to live in rural isolation, and struggles to establish human connection when he purchases Amica, a woman being sold into slavery who is eerily similar to his mother in her youth.
Karakara is a Canadian drama film, directed by Claude Gagnon and released in 2012. The film stars Gabriel Arcand as Pierre, a professor from Quebec who is on sabbatical in Okinawa to reevaluate his life after the death of his friend, and is drawn into a love affair with Junko, a local woman fleeing an abusive husband who offers to be his tour guide.
Stay with Me is a 2010 Canadian drama film, directed by Robert Ménard. An ensemble cast drama described by its director as a "choral" film, it tells five interrelated stories about various residents of Montreal who are struggling with their interpersonal relationships.
Goddess of the Fireflies is a Canadian drama film, directed by Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette and released in 2020. An adaptation of the novel by Geneviève Pettersen, the film centres on the coming of age of Catherine, a teenage girl living in a small town in Quebec in the early 1990s.
Dust Bowl Ha! Ha! is a Canadian short film, directed by Sébastien Pilote and released in 2007. The film stars André Bouchard as a man in the Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean region who has just lost his job after the closure of his employer, as he goes about his first day without the stable and predictable structure of a normal work day.
How to Conquer America in One Night is a Canadian comedy film, directed by Dany Laferrière and released in 2004. The film centres on the relationship between Fanfan, a Haitian Canadian man who has resided in Montreal for 20 years but still does not feel entirely at home in Canada, and his nephew Gégé, who has recently come to Montreal to visit his uncle before moving to the United States to pursue his vision of the American Dream, which mainly involves eating hamburgers and seducing large-breasted blonde women.
The United States of Albert is a Canadian, French and Swiss co-produced comedy-drama film, directed by André Forcier and released in 2005. The film stars Éric Bruneau as Albert Renaud, a young actor in Montreal who dreams of becoming a movie star in Hollywood, and sets off on a road trip across the United States in pursuit of his dreams; en route, he meets a variety of characters including Grace Carson, a young Mormon woman with whom he falls in love, and Jack Decker, a mentally unstable man who takes Albert golfing in the Arizona desert.
Robert Ménard is a Canadian film director and screenwriter. He is most noted for his 1982 film A Day in a Taxi , for which he was a Genie Award nominee for Best Director at the 4th Genie Awards in 1983.
Nathalie Saint-Pierre is a Canadian film director and screenwriter from Quebec. She is most noted for her 2012 film Catimini, for which she received Jutra Award nominations for Best Film, Best Screenplay and Best Editing at the 16th Jutra Awards in 2014.
