Daniel Grou | |
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| Born | 19 August 1967 |
| Occupation(s) | Film director, film producer, screenwriter |
| Years active | 2003–present |
Daniel Grou (born August 19, 1967), frequently credited as Podz, is a Canadian film and television director, director of six feature films as well as episodes in dozen TV series.
Daniel Grou was born in Montreal, Canada. [1] He has a bachelor's degree in film studies. [2]
He took the nickname "Podz" from the fact that his surname differs in spelling, but not in pronunciation, from the far more common French Canadian surname Groulx, meaning that he was frequently forced to state his surname to people as "Grou, pas d'lx". [3]
Grou started his career directing rock videos and English-language TV shows, Drop the Beat was one of his first projects. [1] He made more than 60 videoclips for various artists, including Laymen Twaist and René Dupéré. [2]
His credits include six feature films as well as episodes in dozen TV series. [4] [5]
He directed all three seasons of Canadian French-language 19-2, and later was invited to direct the first episode of season two of the English version. [6]
Grou directed the first and the third seasons of Cardinal , missing the second one due to a scheduling conflict. [7] [8] [9] The series were adapted from Giles Blunt’s book Forty Words for Sorrow. [10]
Grou feature film 7 days, a story about a father's revenge, [11] was screened at Sundance festival and well-received by its audience [12] that appreciated ‘reimagining of the horrors of torture porn’ and praised Grou for bringing moral complexity to the genre and balancing the violence with impeccable direction. [2] However, some critics were sceptical and called the movie a ‘pseudo-artistic veneer’ that lacked catharsis and showed forgettable characters. [13]
Released in 2013, Vikings became one of Grou's most popular projects. [3] The showrunner Michael Hirst called Grou ‘a very gifted director’ and confessed that he was the only one to tackle the most challenging episodes. [14] For Vikings he was nominated for DGC's award for outstanding directorial achievement in a dramatic series. [15]
In 2021, he released Mafia Inc. , a drama about the Canadian mafia based on a nonfiction book written by a former mob. [5] [16]
Grou's film received high acclaim and he was complimented for a bold move into a genre completely dominated by Coppola's The Godfather. [2] The film was premiered at São Paulo International Film Festival before having its Canadian premiere in February 2020. [17] [18]
In April 2023, Grou's upcoming project Kill Me Now was selected by Telefilm Canada for its Production Program. [19]
Grou is a four-time Gémeaux Award winner for Best Direction in a Dramatic Television Series or Program, winning in 2003 for the television film Exils, in 2006 and 2007 for Minuit, le soir, and in 2011 for the French version of 19-2. He was a Jutra Award nominee for Best Director in 2011 for 10½ and in 2013 for L'Affaire Dumont, a Genie Award nominee for Best Director at the 31st Genie Awards in 2010 for 10½, and a Canadian Screen Award nominee for Best Direction in a Dramatic Television Series at the 4th Canadian Screen Awards in 2016 for the 19-2 episode "School".
Fantasia International Film Festival is a genre film festival that has been based mainly in Montreal since its founding in 1996. It focuses on niche, low budget movies in various genres, from horror to sci-fi. Regularly held in July/August, by 2016 its annual audience had already surpassed 100,000 viewers and outgrown even the Montreal World Film Festival.
The Festival du nouveau cinéma or FNC 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 the oldest film festivals in Canada, it is an Academy Award-qualifying festival for short films.
Robert Naylor is a Canadian actor and musician known for his voice-over on the Canadian/American television series Arthur as Dora Winifred "D.W." Read from 2007 to 2012, as well as lead roles in 10 1/2 (2010), 1.54 (2016) and Ghost Town Anthology (2019).
Omertà or Omertà, The Code of Silence is a Quebec television series of 11 forty-five-minute episodes, created by Luc Dionne and aired from January to April 1996 on Radio-Canada. In France, the series aired on France 3 in 1998.
Paul Barbeau is a Canadian film producer.
Monia Chokri is a Canadian actress and filmmaker.
L'Affaire Dumont is a Canadian drama film, released in 2012. Written by Danielle Dansereau based on a true story and directed by Daniel "Podz" Grou, the film stars Marc-André Grondin as Michel Dumont, a divorced young father of two who is accused of a sexual assault he did not commit.
Marilyn Castonguay is a Canadian actress, best known for her performance in the 2012 film L'Affaire Dumont. A graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada, her performance in L'Affaire Dumont garnered a nomination for Best Actress at the 1st Canadian Screen Awards.
Milk & Bone are a Canadian electropop duo based in Montreal, Quebec, consisting of Laurence Lafond-Beaulne and Camille Poliquin. Their debut album Little Mourning, released in 2015 via Bonsound, was a longlisted nominee for the 2015 Polaris Music Prize. Although both of the band members are francophones, they write and record in English.
Patrick Hivon is a Canadian actor from Montreal, Quebec.
King Dave is a 2016 Canadian drama film directed by "Podz" and starring screenwriter Alexandre Goyette and Karelle Tremblay. Directed as a single shot, it is based on Goyette's stage play of the same name.
Robin Aubert is a Canadian actor, screenwriter and film director. He is most noted for his performance in the film The Countess of Baton Rouge , for which he received a Genie Award nomination for Best Actor at the 18th Genie Awards in 1997, and his 2017 film Ravenous , which won the Toronto International Film Festival Award for Best Canadian Film at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival.
Québec Cinéma presents an annual award for Best Supporting Actor to recognize the best in the Cinema of Quebec.
François Jaros is a Canadian film and television director from Montreal, Quebec.
Antigone is a 2019 Canadian drama film directed by Sophie Deraspe. An adaptation of the ancient Greek play Antigone by Sophocles, the film transposes the story to a modern-day refugee family in Montreal. The cast includes Nahéma Ricci as Antigone, with Rawad El-Zein, Hakim Brahimi, Rachida Oussaada, and Nour Belkhiria. It was filmed in Greater Montreal in 2018.
Mafia Inc. is a 2019 Canadian crime drama film directed by Podz and scripted by Sylvain Guy. Based on the non-fiction book Mafia Inc: The Long, Bloody Reign of Canada's Sicilian Clan by journalists André Cédilot and André Noël, the film stars Marc-André Grondin as Vincent Gamache, a man who gets drawn into Montreal's organized crime underground through his friendship with Giaco Paterno, the son of a major mafia boss. The cast also includes Sergio Castellitto, Gilbert Sicotte, Mylène Mackay, Tony Nardi and Benz Antoine.
Domenic Di Rosa is a Canadian actor. His credits include the television series Big Wolf on Campus, Are You Afraid of the Dark, The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair and Crave's hit comedy Letterkenny. Most recently he played Father Gabriel in National Geographic's limited series, Barkskins. He also played a supporting role in the Canadian crime drama, Mafia Inc., Pieces of a Woman, Most Wanted and now the latest installment of the Transformers series, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts.
Sylvain Guy is a Canadian screenwriter and film director from Quebec. He is most noted for the 2004 film Machine Gun Molly , for which he and Luc Dionne won the Genie Award for Best Adapted Screenplay at the 25th Genie Awards in 2005. He was also previously nominated in the same category for Black List at the 16th Genie Awards in 1996, and subsequently at the 10th Canadian Screen Awards in 2022 for Confessions of a Hitman (Confessions).
Éric K. Boulianne is a Canadian screenwriter and actor from Quebec. He is most noted as the writer of the film Before We Explode , for which he was a Prix Iris nominee for Best Screenplay at the 21st Quebec Cinema Awards in 2019, and as cowriter with Stéphane Lafleur of the film Viking, for which they received a Canadian Screen Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay at the 11th Canadian Screen Awards in 2023.
Nathalie Boutrie is a Canadian casting director from Quebec. She is most noted as a two-time winner of the Prix Iris for Best Casting, winning at the 20th Quebec Cinema Awards in 2018 for Cross My Heart , and at the 24th Quebec Cinema Awards in 2022 for Drunken Birds . She is to date the most-nominated casting director in the history of the category, as well as the only casting director ever to have won the award more than once.
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