The results of the recent Gemini Awards Gala are making waves. Disappointed with the crumbs collected by their works Mégantic, Disobey: the choice of Chantale Daigle and Portrait-robot 2 at the celebration of September 17, and taken aback by the attribution of the other rewards, Sophie Lorain and Alexis Durand-Brault decided to no longer register the broadcasts of their company ALSO Productions for the next editions of the event.
Sophie Lorain insists: her life and business partner, Alexis Durand-Brault, and herself are not bitter. “Don’t make me look like a shrew,” the actress and producer even laughed on Monday, met on the occasion of the release, on October 5, of the film Testament, by Denys Arcand, in which she stars with Rémy Girard.
Nevertheless, the designer does not mince her words to qualify the final honor roll of the 38th Gémeaux awards. “All-around sampling”, “system that makes no sense”, “organization that doesn’t seem to care”: Sophie Lorain is categorical when she decrees that ALSO Productions will no longer participate in the high mass annual event on the small Quebec screen.
“It was nonsense, through and through. We won’t be there anymore. It’s over. You can’t give away prizes here and there without being consistent in what you give. I think these people should sit down properly and rethink how they make television. Because at the moment, I don’t have the impression that we are doing the same job,” Sophie Lorain calmly lamented.
Certainly, it bothers the leaders of ALSO that the talents of Mégantic and Désobéir: le choice de Chantale Daigle have not been more recognized. Mégantic and its slew of special effects were content with the statuette for best scenery: fiction, while Disobey only took away that of best artistic distribution: fiction.
Mégantic was also recognized, tied with Pour toi Flora, for the Grand Prix de l’Académie, awarded by the board of directors of the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television – Quebec section (ACCT), which oversees the Gémeaux , for making us “face the painful pages of our history,” said host Pierre-Yves Lord during the evening.
“Yeah, worse? », opposed Sophie Lorain to the mention of this last distinction, considered by its winners as a consolation prize. “Good for the people of Mégantic. At least they didn’t go completely through the butter…”
The trophies for best series (dramatic and daily) awarded to Avant le crash and Indefensible without any other reward (texts, direction, interpretation) to support these titles, and the multiple decorations to STAT (writing by Marie-Andrée Labbé, acting by Suzanne Clément and Geneviève Schmidt, directed by Danièle Méthot) without the ultimate laurel for best daily series also annoyed the Lorain–Durand-Brault tandem.
Sophie Lorain raises, among other misunderstandings, the establishment of non-gendered categories. “No one asked our opinion! “, she was indignant. The 20% additional points due to audience ratings, automatically attached to fiction series broadcast on traditional television, which thus become advantaged over those only online on the platforms (“Why are we failed because we are broadcast on a platform, while everyone watches TV on the platforms?”) also put her off, as does the question of high registration fees for the Gémeaux race, also decried by other producers (Guillaume Lspérance and Fabienne Larouche , in particular) this year.
“It cost us a lot of money, putting in three productions. Since it doesn’t seem to be taken seriously, we prefer to redistribute part of these funds to our artists and artisans, have a drink with them to thank them, and put the money on the screen”, concluded Sophie Lorain, she – even winner of three Gémeaux personally over the years (for Omertà, Fortier and Au succor de Béatrice).
Invited by La Presse to respond to the dissatisfied, the new general director of the ACCT, Chantal Côté, in office for a month, directed La Presse to the organization’s website, where the procedure to follow is duly detailed – on 44 pages – to explain the very complex Gemini voting method, each category having its own specificities.
“It is not the role of the Academy to comment on the results of a competition. In a competition, there are always surprises, sometimes difficult to explain. Academy members, including producers who submit projects, know the regulations and have access to this information. Everything is transparent. I am open to dialogue with members. I want them to get involved and talk to me,” summarized Chantal Côté.
