Claude Jutra

Claude Jutra was a founding figure of modern Quebec and Canadian cinema. A medical doctor by training who chose filmmaking instead, Jutra directed experimental shorts at the NFB alongside Norman McLaren and collaborated with French New Wave director François Truffaut.

In 1971, Jutra directed Mon oncle Antoine, a luminous coming-of-age drama set against a 1940s Quebec mining village on Christmas Eve. The film won eight Canadian Film Awards and was ranked number one in every decennial poll of Canadian cinema critics. He went on to direct Anne Hébert's Kamouraska (1973).