In order to preserve the legacy of the late film critic Marc-André Lussier, who died on June 30 at the age of 63, the French-language film festival Cinemania will announce this Tuesday the creation of a jury prize which will bear his name. .
The Marc-André-Lussier Jury Prize in the Faces of La Francophonie category will be awarded by a jury of peers (authors, actors, directors, etc.) of seven people, who will reward a work from among ten films chosen by the committee. programming.
“It’s a tribute to Marc-André, through the cinephile requirement that he has always carried within him,” said Cinemania general manager Guilhem Caillard. We are therefore talking about a prize for the cinematographic and cinephilic qualities that the film represents. It is a prize for a great cinephile, in fact, like who Marc-André was. »
Guilhem Caillard, who has been running the festival for almost 10 years, has been able to appreciate, over the years, the qualities of the journalist specializing in cinema from La Presse.
The winner of the Marc-André-Lussier Jury Prize will benefit from “advertising visibility” worth $25,000 offered by La Presse. “A boost for distributors who make bold choices,” believes Guilhem Caillard.
The assistant editor and vice-president of information of La Presse, François Cardinal, said he was very touched by the initiative of Cinemania. “It’s one of the best ways to honor him and remember Marc-André,” he said. I really like the idea of a prize in his name, because he was an authority, but I like it even more that it was a jury prize, because he had a knack for leaving it up to the reader to form an opinion rather than imposing a peremptory comment. »
Marc-André Lussier has led numerous master classes as part of Cinemania. Guilhem Caillard recalls the cross-discussion that the La Presse critic hosted last year with Arnaud Desplechin and Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette, but also others, in recent years, with Lambert Wilson, Mathieu Kassovitz, Nicole Garcia… He also mentions a conference given by Marc-André on Luxembourg cinema, in front of a packed room!
Marc Cassivi, a close friend of Marc-André, was also delighted with the news. “Marc-André was a lover of both Quebec cinema and French cinema. I do not know a Quebec critic who had such a large collection of French films, often unreleased. »
It is also a message of passion that Guilhem Caillard wants to send with this prize: “Marc-André was a critic concerned about his ecosystem. He was keen to help his peers. He was looking for a compromise, but he still had this cinephile requirement. He saw tons of films, his reviews were always full of references. But he was also passionate. »
“Film criticism is an endangered species and it’s unfortunate, but we need it today more than ever,” François Cardinal also analyzes. With the number of films and series released each year, the work of the critic has become crucial. »
The films in the Faces of the Francophonie category which will compete for the 2023 Marc-André-Lussier Jury Prize are as follows: Lightning (Carmen Jaquier, Switzerland), Àma Gloria (Marie Amachoukeli, France), L’île rouge (Robin Campillo, France), It’s raining in the house (Paloma Sermon-Daï, Belgium), Animalia (Sofia Alaoui, Morocco), Midwives (Léa Fehner, France), Let me (Maxime Rappaz, Switzerland) and Leave the night (Delphine Girard, Belgium, France, Quebec). Two more titles will be added soon.
Cinemania, which saw a record 94,000 admissions last year, will take place from November 1-12. The composition of the jury will be announced in the coming days, while the full line-up will be unveiled on October 18.
