Video: the five winners of APEM’s 2025 Syncs of the Year

The winners of the Synchros de l’année – which aim to promote the use of Québecois music in local screen productions – were announced during the Quand la musique rencontre l’image event on Feb. 5, 2025, at the Cinémathèque Québécoise. Organized by the Association des professionnels de l’édition musicale (APEM) in collaboration with the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television, Quand la musique rencontre l’image aims to raise awareness of the realm of music use in screen productions, and doubles as a networking opportunity for music and screen professionals.

Two panels, hosted by Anne-Marie Withenshaw, were presented prior to the Synchro of the Year award ceremony, all of which took place in a packed venue. The first panel, “La musique dans le film Des hommes, la nuit,” demonstrated that the music in a film can be an important creative driving force, with a significant impact on both the final work, and the creative craftspeople on the production. Composed entirely of music from Québec, for both the original score by Pierre-Philippe Côté (Pilou), and for the songs that were synced, the soundtrack of Anh Minh Truong’s debut film also became a structuring project for the artistic community of the Eastern Townships – as Côté co-ordinated all aspects of the project via his privileged place of creation, the BEAM (Bureau Estrien de l’Audiovisuel et du Multimédia). The fascinating conversation between Côté, Truong, and producer Laurent Allaire (of Chasseurs Films) sparked a great deal of interest from the participants, who were inspired by the trio’s thoughts. Des hommes, la nuit is available to stream on the TV5 Unis platform.

The second panel, “Comment renouveler le public des secteurs de la musique et de l’audiovisuel?”, brought together Mélissa Hébert (director of platforms and digital growth at Télé-Québec), Steve Jolin (publisher and president of Disques 7ième Ciel), Carmel Scurti-Belley (music supervisor at Fair Enough), and Annie Bourdeau (producer and vice-president of original productions at URBANIA MEDIA). The discussions considered the kind of collaboration possible between screen and music sectors. Among the issues discussed by the four panelists were the adaptation of screen productions to the increasing number of streaming platforms, including those that frequently don’t favour access to Québec content, as well as budget constraints, and the lack of incentives to promote the use of Québec music in screen productions.

Following this afternoon of discussion, APEM announced the five winners of the second edition of its Sync of the Year initiative, which rewards production teams that have used Québec music in a local screen production. A selection of five scenes synchronizing images to a pre-existing musical work was made by a committee following a call for entries. For the first time, a Public Choice award was presented, as determined by an online vote. The people’s choice was the series L’air d’aller and the song “Ta yeule, toute va ben,” by rock band Fuudge.

This Synchros de l’année was presented in partnership with the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television, ADISQ, AQPM, AQTIS 514 IATSE, ARRQ, SARTEC, SPACQ-AE, SOCAN, and UDA, as well as with the financial support of SODEC, SOCAN, and SOCAN Foundation. To watch the syncs, visit https://apem.ca/les-synchros-de-lannee/

We met with representatives from each of the winning Sync of the Year screen productions:

L’air d’aller (series) with Ta yeule, toute va ben by Fuudge *Public Choice*
Production: Urbania in collaboration with Télé-Québec and Radio-Canada
Directed by: Sarah Pellerin
Original idea and screenplay: Jean-Christophe Réhel
Musical work: David Bujold (Éditions DOZE)
Sound recording: Fuudge (Folivora Records)
Rights clearance: Carmel Scurti-Belley and Marie-Laurence Asselin (Fair Enough)