The Gala des artisans Québec Cinéma 2024 announced its winners on Dec. 4, 2024, at Grandé Studios in Montréal. A dozen of SOCAN’s screen composer members were finalists in the Best Original Score and Best Original Score – Documentary categories.
In the Best Original Score category, singer-songwriter Daniel Bélanger walked away with the trophy for a second consecutive year, this time for his composition work on the film Nos belles-sœurs, directed by René Richard Cyr.
The film was inspired by the musical adaptation of Michel Tremblay’s Les Belles-sœurs, and the movie also won the Michel-Côté Public Choice award. The movie’s original score is available to stream on all platforms.
In the Best Original Score – Documentary category, the Iris went to Mimi Allard for her composition work on the documentary La garde blanche, by director Julien Elie. This documentary, set in Mexico, centres around the resistance organizing against foreign mining companies – who’ve created a regime of violence and terror in order to plunder the country’s natural resources.
Mimi Allard is a sound artist who evolves at the crossroads of experimental electronics and improvised instrumental music. She aims to create a form of music that showcases the particular energy of “invented sounds.” She uses modular synthesizers, the Kyma synthesis system, and the Lua programming language, and is currently developing one of the instruments to use her voice as a control source. La garde blanche was her second collaboration director Julien Elie, following Soleils noirs in 2018.
For the complete list of finalists and winners of the 2024 edition of the Gala Québec Cinéma, visit the official website. Congratulations to the winners and all the finalists in both categories!