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DIRECTORS GUILD REDEDICATES 'DISCOVERY' AWARD IN HONOUR OF JEAN-MARC VALLÉE

DGC ALSO UNVEILS 'IMPACT' AWARD FOR SERVICE AND LEADERSHIP IN THE CANADIAN FILM & TELEVISION INDUSTRY

Directors Guild of Canada President Warren P. Sonoda announced today the permanent renaming of the DGC Discovery Award for emerging filmmakers as the Jean-Marc Vallée DGC Discovery Award. The Guild will also create two new Special Awards this year to be introduced at the first-ever West Coast DGC Awards Gala on November 5th, celebrating the DGC’s 60th anniversary year.

“We’re proud to honour Jean-Marc, a member of our Guild so generous with his time and counsel to countless emerging and established filmmakers in our industry,” said Sonoda. “It is fitting that going forward our Discovery Award will bear the name of a director who supported and inspired a generation of young filmmakers.”

“My father was an innovator in the world of cinema, a deeply sensitive man who took full advantage of his creative talent,” said Jean-Marc’s son, Alex Vallée. “He wanted to live a long life and he was preparing big projects. He was a source of inspiration for many and leaves wonderful memories in the minds of people who had the privilege of meeting him, loving him and appreciating his work.”

The DGC Discovery Award honours the Director of a feature film that reflects “a bold, new cinematic voice”. The film must be the Director’s 1st or 2nd feature, or a film representing a new direction for an established filmmaker, such as a documentarian’s first dramatic film. The criteria for the award will remain unchanged.

In addition to the rededication of the Discovery Award at this year’s gala, the Guild will be introducing two new Special Awards – the DGC Visionaries Award and the DGC Impact Award – and has launched a digital campaign to solicit suggestions for candidates for the latter honour.

The awards gala will be presented at the Parq Vancouver on November 5th, 2022 and will mark the first major pan-Canadian film & television awards celebration to be hosted in Vancouver in over 15 years.

IMPACT AWARD

The DGC Impact Award recognizes a DGC Member for outstanding service and leadership to the production community at large. Selected by the DGC’s National Executive Board, the award will be presented with a citation for the specific issue or cause where the member has made an extraordinary contribution (such as inclusion, sustainability, team building, etc.).

Today also marks the launch of a digital and social media campaign to propose DGC Impact Award candidates, including two easy methods to put forward a name for consideration. First, members of the industry can post on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook using #DGCImpact. All posts containing this hashtag and naming a specific proposed recipient will be submitted to the National Executive Board for consideration. Second, industry members can go to dgc.ca/impact to complete a full submission form providing a more detailed commentary on the contribution this DGC Member has made in service of the production community.

VISIONARIES AWARD

Finally, the DGC Visionaries Award will recognize extraordinary excellence in a member’s body of work to date in their career, constituting a mid-career overall achievement award. Recipients of this award will be similarly selected by the DGC’s National Executive Board.