Canadian submissions for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
by kingwilson | created - 30 Apr 2011 | updated - 11 Jun 2011 | PublicGreat way to discover Canadian films :)
Note it's for foreign language only, so most of these are Quebecois. There are a few other languages selected, however, like Hindi and Inuktitut.
Only one has actually won the award-- The Barbarian Invasions, by Denis Arcand.
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1. My Uncle Antoine (1971)
Not Rated | 104 min | Drama
Set in cold rural Quebec at Christmas time, we follow the coming of age of a young boy and the life of his family which owns the town's general store and undertaking business.
Director: Claude Jutra | Stars: Jacques Gagnon, Lyne Champagne, Jean Duceppe, Olivette Thibault
Votes: 3,183
2. The True Nature of Bernadette (1972)
115 min | Comedy, Drama
A woman imbued with naturalistic and libertarian theories leaves her city home to live in the countryside with her young son. There she meets a litigious farmer who fights against the banks... See full summary »
Director: Gilles Carle | Stars: Micheline Lanctôt, Donald Pilon, Reynald Bouchard, Robert Rivard
Votes: 467
3. Orders (1974)
109 min | Drama, History
A fact-based account of ordinary citizens who found themselves arrested and imprisoned without charge for weeks during the October Crisis in 1970 Quebec.
Director: Michel Brault | Stars: Hélène Loiselle, Jean Lapointe, Guy Provost, Claude Gauthier
Votes: 1,150
4. J.A. Martin photographe (1977)
100 min | Drama
The wife of photographer J. A. Martin decides to go with him in his tour of the hard Canadian countryside at the turn of the century. She hopes the intimacy will revive their marriage.
Director: Jean Beaudin | Stars: Marcel Sabourin, Monique Mercure, Marthe Thierry, Catherine Tremblay
Votes: 399
5. A Scream from Silence (1979)
96 min | Drama
A director and an editor, both woman, cannot work on a movie presenting the rape of a nurse without reacting on the scenes they're working on, the situation of womenhood in general, and the way the 'Justice' handle those cases of rape.
Director: Anne Claire Poirier | Stars: Julie Vincent, Germain Houde, Paul Savoie, Monique Miller
Votes: 196
6. Good Riddance (1980)
120 min | Drama
A woman is overwhelmed with having to deal with her emotionally unstable daughter, mentally-challenged brother and two suitors while simultaneously trying to run her small firewood business.
Director: Francis Mankiewicz | Stars: Charlotte Laurier, Marie Tifo, Germain Houde, Louise Marleau
Votes: 772
7. The Plouffe Family (1981)
227 min | Drama
The lives of the average Quebecois Plouffe family during the final years of the depression and through World War II.
Director: Gilles Carle | Stars: Gabriel Arcand, Rémi Laurent, Pierre Curzi, Juliette Huot
Votes: 482
8. Les fleurs sauvages (1982)
152 min | Drama
Three generations of a family struggle to be open with each other during a week of summer vacation at their country cottage.
Director: Jean Pierre Lefebvre | Stars: Marthe Nadeau, Michèle Magny, Pierre Curzi, Claudia Aubin
Votes: 46
9. Bonheur d'occasion (1983)
123 min | Drama
In the early 1940s, Canada is a country at war and Florentine is a young woman, from a very poor family, looking for love. She meets two suitable men, a nice soldier from a good and wealthy... See full summary »
Director: Claude Fournier | Stars: Mireille Deyglun, Pierre Chagnon, Michel Forget, Marilyn Lightstone
Votes: 109
10. Sonatine (1984)
91 min | Drama
Two teenaged friends have separate difficult experiences that make the girls seriously consider suicide.
Director: Micheline Lanctôt | Stars: Pascale Bussières, Marcia Pilote, Pierre F. Fauteux, Kliment Denchev
Votes: 276
11. Jacques et novembre (1984)
72 min | Drama
Les derniers jours d'un homme qui filme avec humour sa propre mort. Un film surprenant et singulier comme il existe peu d'exemples dans notre cinématographique et qui s'impose par la démarche unique des deux réalisateurs.
Directors: Jean Beaudry, François Bouvier | Stars: Jean Beaudry, Marie Cantin, Carole Chatel, Carole Fréchette
Votes: 28
12. The Decline of the American Empire (1986)
R | 101 min | Comedy, Drama
Sexual revelations emerge when a group of academics and their partners spend a weekend at a country retreat.
Director: Denys Arcand | Stars: Dominique Michel, Dorothée Berryman, Louise Portal, Pierre Curzi
Votes: 8,696 | Gross: $1.90M
13. Un zoo la nuit (1987)
115 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
Marcel, recently released from prison, attempt to rebuild his relationship with his girlfriend Julie (now a prostitute) and especially his father Albert (who thinks he's been away on a long... See full summary »
Director: Jean-Claude Lauzon | Stars: Gilles Maheu, Roger Lebel, Corrado Mastropasqua, Lorne Brass
Votes: 773
14. Les portes tournantes (1988)
101 min | Drama, Music
A quiet painter, separated from his wife for a year, receives a suitcase in the mail from his mother, whom he hasn't seen since infancy. He believes she abandoned him to his wealthy, ... See full summary »
Director: Francis Mankiewicz | Stars: Monique Spaziani, Gabriel Arcand, Miou-Miou, François Méthé
Votes: 198
15. Jesus of Montreal (1989)
R | 120 min | Drama, Romance
A group of actors put on an unorthodox, but acclaimed Passion Play which incites the opposition of the Catholic Church while the actors' lives themselves begin to mirror the Passion itself.
Director: Denys Arcand | Stars: Lothaire Bluteau, Catherine Wilkening, Johanne-Marie Tremblay, Rémy Girard
Votes: 7,546 | Gross: $1.60M
16. Une histoire inventée (1990)
100 min | Drama
An irresistible woman, Florence, dragging her last 50 disconsolate lovers behind her. A trumpet in the end of his career, loved by Florence and the only one who had refuse her. An amateur ... See full summary »
Director: André Forcier | Stars: Jean Lapointe, Louise Marleau, Charlotte Laurier, Marc Messier
Votes: 159
17. A Bullet in the Head (1990)
89 min | Drama
A civilian and a soldier become unlikely allies in this allegorical examination of friendship and the evils of war. Filmed in Quebec, Canada.
Director: Attila Bertalan | Stars: Kathy Horner, Andrew Campbell, Jan Stychalsky, Victoria Sands
Votes: 152
18. Leolo (1992)
Not Rated | 107 min | Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
The story of a young Canadian boy who tries to escape mentally from his disturbed family thanks to his fantasy and imagination.
Director: Jean-Claude Lauzon | Stars: Maxime Collin, Ginette Reno, Gilbert Sicotte, Julien Guiomar
Votes: 7,334 | Gross: $0.61M
19. Le sexe des étoiles (1993)
104 min | Drama
Camille don't like the man her mother is seeing. She still dreams about her father, who's living in New York. One day, she sees her mother arguing with a woman for some time. Camille ... See full summary »
Director: Paule Baillargeon | Stars: Marianne Coquelicot Mercier, Denis Mercier, Tobie Pelletier, Sylvie Drapeau
Votes: 241
20. Mon amie Max (1994)
106 min | Drama
Catherine, a concert pianist, is surprised one night by the arrival of her best friend from childhood, Marie-Alexandrine (Max), whom she hasn't seen for 25 years. Catherine and Max were ... See full summary »
Director: Michel Brault | Stars: Geneviève Bujold, Marthe Keller, Johanne McKay, Marie Guillard
Votes: 214
21. The Confessional (1995)
Not Rated | 100 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
The year is 1952, in Québec City, Québec. Rachel (Suzanne Clément), sixteen, unmarried, and pregnant, works in the church. Filled with shame, she unburdens her guilt to a young Priest under... See full summary »
Director: Robert Lepage | Stars: Lothaire Bluteau, Patrick Goyette, Jean-Louis Millette, Kristin Scott Thomas
Votes: 1,634 | Gross: $0.58M
22. Sous-sol (1996)
90 min | Drama
Director: Pierre Gang | Stars: Louise Portal, Isabelle Pasco, Richard Moffatt, Patrice Godin
Votes: 98
23. Cosmos (1996)
99 min | Comedy, Drama
Immigrant cabbie connects nervous filmmaker, lawyer, mystery man, possibly HIV+ gay man. Comedy and tragedy mingle, awash in philosophy.
Directors: Jennifer Alleyn, Manon Briand, Marie-Julie Dallaire, Arto Paragamian, André Turpin, Denis Villeneuve | Stars: Marie-Hélène Montpetit, Pascal Contamine, France Castel, Marie-France Lambert
Votes: 953
24. August 32nd on Earth (1998)
Not Rated | 88 min | Drama, Romance
After surviving a car wreck virtually unscathed, a young model compels her best friend to impregnate her at the salt flats in Utah.
Director: Denis Villeneuve | Stars: Pascale Bussières, Alexis Martin, Serge Thériault, Ivan Smith
Votes: 3,546
25. Set Me Free (1999)
94 min | Drama, Romance
In the year 1963, an awkward thirteen-year-old girl comes of age during her escapism into the world of cinema, with potentially dangerous results.
Director: Léa Pool | Stars: Karine Vanasse, Pascale Bussières, Predrag 'Miki' Manojlovic, Alexandre Mérineau
Votes: 1,074 | Gross: $0.07M
26. Maelstrom (2000)
R | 87 min | Drama
After plunging her car into a river, a woman encounters a man who helps her come to terms with her life.
Director: Denis Villeneuve | Stars: Marie-Josée Croze, Jean-Nicolas Verreault, Stephanie Morgenstern, Pierre Lebeau
Votes: 7,300 | Gross: $0.03M
27. Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner (2001)
R | 172 min | Drama
The telling of an Inuit legend of an evil spirit causing strife in the community and one warrior's endurance and battle of its menace.
Director: Zacharias Kunuk | Stars: Natar Ungalaaq, Sylvia Ivalu, Peter-Henry Arnatsiaq, Lucy Tulugarjuk
Votes: 6,860 | Gross: $3.79M
28. Soft Shell Man (2001)
102 min | Drama, Romance
An emotionally immature underwater photographer returns home to an affair with his best friend's deaf girlfriend and unresolved issues with the wife he left six months before.
Director: André Turpin | Stars: David La Haye, Isabelle Blais, Emmanuel Bilodeau, Chantal Giroux
Votes: 855
29. The Barbarian Invasions (2003)
R | 99 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
During his final days, a dying man is reunited with old friends, former lovers, his ex-wife, and his estranged son.
Director: Denys Arcand | Stars: Rémy Girard, Dorothée Berryman, Stéphane Rousseau, Marie-Josée Croze
Votes: 30,026 | Gross: $3.43M
30. The Far Side of the Moon (2003)
Not Rated | 105 min | Drama
After the death of his mother, a man tries to discover a meaning to his life, to the universe and to rebuild a relationship with the only family he has left: his brother.
Director: Robert Lepage | Stars: Robert Lepage, Anne-Marie Cadieux, Marco Poulin, Céline Bonnier
Votes: 1,978 | Gross: $0.01M
31. C.R.A.Z.Y. (2005)
Not Rated | 129 min | Comedy, Drama
A young French Canadian, one of five boys in a conservative family in the 1960s and 1970s, struggles to reconcile his emerging identity with his father's values.
Director: Jean-Marc Vallée | Stars: Michel Côté, Marc-André Grondin, Danielle Proulx, Émile Vallée
Votes: 34,121
32. Water (I) (2005)
PG-13 | 117 min | Drama
Set in colonial India against Gandhi's rise to power, it's the story of 8-year-old Chuyia, who is widowed and sent to a home to live in penitence; once there, Chuyia's feisty presence deeply affects the lives of the other residents.
Director: Deepa Mehta | Stars: Lisa Ray, John Abraham, Seema Biswas, Sarala Kariyawasam
Votes: 15,357 | Gross: $3.22M
33. Days of Darkness (2007)
104 min | Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
Jean-Marc Leblanc (Labrèche), a desperate civil servant, escapes reality as we know it by imagining himself as the hero in imaginary adventures.
Director: Denys Arcand | Stars: Marc Labrèche, Diane Kruger, Sylvie Léonard, Caroline Néron
Votes: 3,204
34. Ce qu'il faut pour vivre (2008)
PG | 102 min | Drama
In 1952, an Inuit hunter named Tivii with tuberculosis leaves his northern home and family to go recuperate at a sanatorium in Quebec City. Uprooted, far from his loved ones, unable to ... See full summary »
Director: Benoit Pilon | Stars: Natar Ungalaaq, Éveline Gélinas, Paul-André Brasseur, Louise Marleau
Votes: 1,021
35. I Killed My Mother (2009)
Not Rated | 96 min | Drama, Romance
A semi-autobiographical story about Hubert as a young homosexual at odds with his mother.
Director: Xavier Dolan | Stars: Anne Dorval, Xavier Dolan, François Arnaud, Suzanne Clément
Votes: 31,414
36. Incendies (2010)
R | 131 min | Drama, Mystery, War
Twins journey to the Middle East to discover their family history and fulfill their mother's last wishes.
Director: Denis Villeneuve | Stars: Lubna Azabal, Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin, Maxim Gaudette, Mustafa Kamel
Votes: 200,024 | Gross: $6.86M
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