To celebrate Denis Côté receiving the Prix Albert-Tessier (Quebec’s highest honor for a filmmaker) we are presenting a retrospective of his work. From his debut to his latest feature film (his sixteenth), his directorial choices and perspective have remained at the core of his storytelling. Embracing documentary techniques, a cornerstone of Quebec cinema, he explores the truth-bearing power of cinematic images, testing their limits through a masterful mise-en-scène. In the truest sense, he seeks to uncover the unexpected, the improbable, peeling back the layers of a world that is both enigmatic and complex. His filmmaking evokes the essence of cinema’s early days, where the camera casts a unique and unparalleled light on the world we inhabit.
Winner of the Best Direction and Best Actor awards, 2010 Festival de Locarno
Set in a harsh, wintry landscape gently isolated from the world, Curling explores the life of an over-protective father and his solitary twelve-year-old daughter. Jean-François Sauvageau awkwardly spends time with Julyvonne between odd jobs. The fragile balance of their relationship is threatened by some unusual events.
Denis Côté
Denis Côté (1973 – New Brunswick, Canada) founded nihilproductions in the 1990’s and shot about 15 short films. He was a journalist and film critic before directing his first feature film Les états nordiques in 2005, beginning a sustained collaboration with producer Stéphanie Morissette that continued with Nos vies privées in 2007, and then Curling, his fifth feature film, which won top honors at the Locarno Film Festival and was shown in over 70 festivals. His films have been shown in dozens of cinematic events. His first feature film under the umbrella of La maison de prod, Vic+Flo ont vu un ours, won the Silver Bear (Alfred Bauer Prize) at the 2013 Berlin International Film Festival.
