Quebec film Richelieu had a successful week at the festivals‘Stranger.
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The Pier-Philippe Chevigny-directed drama recently won the Bayard d’Or for Best First Feature at the Festival International du Film Francophone de Namur (in Belgium). This award comes with a distribution and promotion grant worth a maximum of 12,500 euros to support the film’s theatrical release in Belgium.
Richelieu also shone at the Saint-Jean-de-Luz International Film Festival in France last weekend, where he won three awards: the Best Female Performance Award (awarded to actress Ariane Castellanos), the Audience Award and the Grand Jury Prize Presiding by Agnes Jaoui. The film will be released on French screens in April 2024 under the title Dissidente.
Director Pier-Philippe Chevigny also won the Audience Award and the Greek Critics’ Award at the Athens International Film Festival, Greece, held in Athens last week.
These awards join several other awards won at the Calgary and Vancouver festivals earlier this month.
Released in Quebec in early September, Richelieu describes the harsh reality of a group of temporary foreign workers in a food factory. The film, starring Ariane Castellanos and Marc-André Grondin, is still being shown in some cinemas in the province.