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The John Dunning Best First Feature Award is a special Canadian film award, presented by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television to the year's best feature film by a first-time film director. Under the earlier names Claude Jutra Award and Canadian Screen Award for Best First Feature, the award has been presented since the 14th Genie Awards in 1993.

Formerly a juried prize whose winner was announced in advance of the ceremony, the award is now presented as a conventional category with a full shortlist of nominees.

To date six films, The Confessional (Le Confessionnal), Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner, Away from Her, A Colony (Une colonie), Beans and Scarborough, have won both the Best First Feature and Best Picture awards in the same year; the directors of Le Confessionnal, Atanarjuat, Away from Her and Scarborough also won the award for Best Director for the same films.

History

The award was originally named in memory of Claude Jutra, a Canadian film director who died in 1986. Formerly part of the Genie Awards ceremonies, the Claude Jutra Award was transitioned to be part of the new Canadian Screen Awards in 2013.

Following the February 2016 publication of Yves Lever's biography of Jutra, which contained allegations that Jutra had sexually abused underage children during his lifetime, the Academy announced that it was removing Jutra's name from the award. Québec Cinéma also removed Jutra's name from its Prix Jutra ceremonies on the same day.

Beginning with the 4th Canadian Screen Awards in 2016, the award was presented as the Canadian Screen Award for Best First Feature. In the same year the John Dunning Discovery Award, named in memory of film producer John Dunning, was introduced to honour microbudget films. Initially it was a separate award from the Best First Feature category, with the two awards presented alongside each other to different films, until the two awards were merged under the John Dunning Best First Feature Award name beginning with the 7th Canadian Screen Awards in 2019.

Winners

Claude Jutra Award

Best First Feature

John Dunning Discovery Award

John Dunning Best First Feature Award

See also

• Prix Iris for Best First Film
• Toronto International Film Festival Award for Best Canadian First Feature Film

References

1. ^ Claude Jutra Award, The Canadian Encyclopedia.
2. Valerie J. Webster (1998). Awards, Honors & Prizes: United States and Canada 1999. Gale Research. p. 3. ISBN 978-0-7876-1501-7.
3. Maria Topalovich, And the Genie Goes To...: Celebrating 50 Years of the Canadian Film Awards. Stoddart Publishing, 2000. ISBN 0-7737-3238-1. pp. 199-203.
4. ^ "Claude Jutra's name to be pulled from Quebec film awards" Archived March 1, 2016, at the Wayback Machine. Ottawa Citizen, February 17, 2016.
5. "Canadian Screen Awards leave Hollywood behind". The Globe and Mail, January 16, 2018.
6. "Incendies, Barney's Version dominate Genies". CBC News, March 10, 2011.
7. "Quebec's Anne Émond wins debut director award". CBC News, February 22, 2012.
8. "Blackbird director Jason Buxton wins first-film honour". CBC News. January 29, 2013. Retrieved January 30, 2013.
9. "Le Claude-Jutra à Emanuel Hoss-Desmarais". Le Devoir. January 23, 2014.
10. "Academy Names Claude Jutra Award Winner" Archived 2015-02-04 at the Wayback Machine. Broadcaster, February 3, 2015.
11. "Jamie M. Dagg wins Claude Jutra Award for Laos-set thriller River". CBC News, February 4, 2016.
12. "Ma's 'Old Stone' gets Canadian academy's Best First Feature award". CTV News, February 2, 2017.
13. "Sadaf Foroughi's 'Ava' wins best first feature film from Canadian Screen Awards". National Post, January 31, 2018.
14. "Mina Walking Honoured with Inaugural Discovery Award". Cision, January 19, 2016.
15. "Randall Okita to receive inaugural John Dunning Discovery Award". Playback, January 12, 2017.
16. "Northern Banner picks up Cory Bowles’ Black Cop". Playback, April 25, 2018.
17. Norman Wilner, "The Canadian Screen Awards showers love on (almost) everyone". Now, January 16, 2018.
18. ^ "Les Québécois remportent plus de la moitié des trophées à l'avant-gala des prix Écrans canadiens". Ici Radio-Canada, March 31, 2019.
19. "Filmmaker from Saint John wins Canadian Screen Award". CBC News New Brunswick, June 1, 2020.
20. Norman Wilner, "Canadian Screen Awards 2020: Prepare for a Schitt's show". Now, February 18, 2020.
21. Naman Ramachandran, "‘Schitt’s Creek,’ ‘Blood Quantum’ Triumph at Canadian Screen Awards". Variety, May 21, 2021.
22. Brent Furdyk (March 30, 2021). "Canadian Screen Awards Announces 2021 Film Nominations". ET Canada. Archived from the original on March 30, 2021.
23. "Night Raiders, Scarborough emerge victorious at 5th night of Canadian Screen Awards". CBC News, April 8, 2022.
24. Brent Furdyk, "2022 Canadian Screen Award Nominees Announced, ‘Sort Of’ & ‘Scarborough’ Lead The Pack". ET Canada, February 15, 2022.
25. Jenna Benchetrit, "Brother dominates with a dozen wins on third night of Canadian Screen Awards". CBC News, April 13, 2023.
26. Charles-Henri Ramond, "Écrans canadiens – Viking,13 nominations". Films du Québec, February 22, 2023.
27. Connie Thiessen, "Canadian Screen Awards winners: Cinematic Arts". Broadcast Dialogue, May 30, 2024.
28. "BlackBerry Leads CSA Nominations". Northern Stars, March 6, 2024.

• Directorial debut film awards
• Canadian Screen Award film categories
• Awards established in 1993