KATAK, ASHA & COCO: Quebec cinema rules at FIFEM

The Audience Award, the ultimate test case for a film’s popularity, was shared in this year’s FIFEM (Montreal Int’l Children’s Film Festival) by two Quebec films. A boost of confidence for domestic production! The winners were KATAK, THE BRAVE BELUGA (by Christine Dallaire-Dupont & Nicola Lemay) and COCO FERME (by Sébastien Gagné).

 

Nancy Florence Savard, producer for 10th Avenue, is delighted by this tribute to KATAK. “Receiving this award after more than 7 years of effort to bring Katak to life is an invaluable recognition! Long live youth production, family films and festivals that make our works shine!”

 

With so many domestic productions competing, the festival concluded with an intriguing list of original award winning titles. Among them were OLTRE IL CONFINE (by Alessandro Valenti, Italy – Children’s Jury Award) about two young African brothers on a journey to Italy to complete a magic mission, and one more Quebec title ADVENTURES IN THE LAND OF ASHA (by Sophie Farkas Bolla – Professional Jury Award) about a sick boy’s encounter with a daughter of an indigenous tribe “because the images of the film speak louder than the dialogue”. Short film awards went to THE QUEEN OF THE RENARDS (by Marina Rosset, Switzerland) and CORVINE (by Sean McCarron, Canada).

 

The Professional Jury were Jessica Barker (Canada), Michael Harbauer (Germany), Hélène Singer (New Caledonia), Andrey Hadjivasilev (Bulgaria) and Alain Jacques (Canada).