Saguenay international
short film festival

Despite its activities and screenings getting untimely cut short two weeks ago, the various jury members of REGARD’s 24th edition nonetheless insisted on deliberating via videoconference to acknowledge and celebrate the work of filmmakers in competition this year. Amongst 117 shorts, 12 prizes and 3 mentions have therefore been awarded. As such, the Festival and Télé-Québec’s La Fabrique culturelle are pleased to showcase this year’s cream of the crop for free until April 26th directly on La Fabrique culturelle. A great opportunity to honour the filmmakers selected this year and keep REGARD alive!

Official competition jury

The official competition jury was made up of the five well-known film-industry figures: Jean-Simon Leduc, John Canciani, Micheline Lanctôt, Ming-Jung Kuo and Myriam Verreault. It was their mission to sift through the official competition’s 64 films and make the difficult decisions.

First, the Grand Prize went to the film Atkurimas by director Laurynas Bareiša (Lithuania).

The Canadian Grand Prize was awarded to Simon Gionet (Quebec) and his film Cayenne.

The Jury Prize was awarded to Konstantinos Antonopoulos (Greece) and his film Postcard from the end of the world.

In the category of Best Animated Film, Valerie Barnhart (Ontario) was the deserved winner with Girl in the Hallway. A special mention went out to Maja Gehrig (Switzerland) for Average Happiness.

Finally, the official competition jury awarded the Best Documentary prize to Lasse Linder (Switzerland) and his film Nachts sind alle Katzen grau. A special mention was given to Tim Alsiofi’s (Syria /Lebanon) film Douma Underground.

FIPRESCI and AQCC Jury

The FIPRESCI International Critics’ Prize for best Canadian short film was awarded to Yousra Benziane (Québec) and the film Nitrate. Members of the International Association of the Cinematographic Press (FIPRESCI) were in the jury: Niels Putman, editor-in-chief of Kortfilm.be and director of the Short Film Conference; Neil Young, new releases critic for The Hollywood Reporter, and Berta Carricarte Melgarez, professor, researcher and author in the field of cinema.

Parallel Competition

Shoot No Matter What! is all about rewarding independent Quebec films made without any financial assistance. This year, the winner is Mon Père, Elvis by Éric Piccoli. Please note that all films from the Shoot No Matter What! competition are available for viewing on the Unis TV website until March 27. Internet users had until the evening of March 25 to vote for their favourites. The Unis TV (web) Audience Award went to the film La petite Floride by Tim Bouvette.

Introduced this year, the AMERICANA AWARD, for recognizing an emerging filmmaker from the Americas, went to director Cris Lyra (Brazil) and the film Quebramar. A special mention went to Sol del Llano by Manuela Irene (Mexico/Colombia).

The Bourse à la création du Saguenay (grant for regional creators) was awarded to Alexandre Beaumont-Vachon and his film Playeros : Travailleur des plages.

The Parallel Competition jury was made up of Sophie Cadieux, actress and director; Carlos Madrid, director of the Festival internacional de cine de Valencia - Cinema Jove; and Aisha Jamal, programmer for the Canadian documentary festival Hot Docs, since 2016.

Young Film Buffs jury

Finally, created in 2016, the prize for Best Youth Short Film went to Poustet Draka by Martin Smatana (Czech Republic / Slovakia / Poland). The jury set with this difficult but fascinating task was made up of Guillaume Julien, Laurence Dufour and Simon Harvey, three young students from Polyvalente Jonquière.

« I’d like to thank each member of these fabulous juries, and salute each short in the running, especially those whose premiere never occurred. I hope they will find their place and have a life of their own in the festival circuit. If not, I assure you we will be there for our 25th edition, which I’m sure will be unforgettable thanks to you, your shorts, and your undeniable energy, which we can definitely feel from hundreds of miles away.” - Mélissa Bouchard, REGARD’s Head Programmer