The jury of the 31st Montreal World Film Festival announced this year’s awards yesterday evening, with four French productions among the winners.
A Secret by Claude Miller picked up the Festival’s top prize, the Grand Prize of the Americas. This marks the first time that a French film has won this award in Canada (Quebec) since 2000, when Agnès Jaoui was honored for The Taste of Others.
Claude Miller previously featured in the Montreal Festival competition in 2001 for Betty Fisher and Other Stories, whose three lead actresses shared the Best Actress award (see our news article from 2001).
The Franco-Swiss co-production 1 Journée won the Best Direction award for Jacob Berger.
Tartina City by Issa Serge Coelo, a minority-French co-production with Chad and Morocco, waltzed off with the Innovation Award.
And finally, Bruno Danan’s short film Bonne Nuit Malik, which won honors in February this year at the Mons International Love Film Festival, claimed the prestigious FIPRESCI prize.
