Montreal filmmaker François Simard faces serious criminal charges. He is accused of sexually assaulting two children in recent months. Specializing in genre cinema, the filmmaker is known for having co-directed the film Turbo Kid.
The 42-year-old man appeared Thursday morning at the Quebec courthouse. He faces four counts of sexual assault and sexual interference with a child under 16 years old. The two complainants were between 9 and 11 years old at the time of the facts, according to the indictment.
The alleged facts occurred between March and June last year in Lévis and also in another country. A spokesperson for the Lévis City Police Department told The Press that François Simard had initially been released on a promise to appear after meeting investigators.
A publication ban protects the identities of the two complainants.
François Simard is part of the RKSS (Road Kill Super Stars) collective specializing in genre cinema.
Along with siblings Yoann-Karl and Anouk Whissell, he wrote and directed the film Turbo Kid (2015), which really launched the collective, notably winning the audience prize at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas. The film was subsequently adapted into a comic book and video game.
The trio of directors also directed the films Summer of 84 (2018) and more recently We are Zombies (2023), which closed the Fantasia festival last year and which was released in theaters this summer, and Wake Up (2024). On this occasion, RKSS spoke with The Press.
“For years, we tried to make genre films in French,” confided François Simard, who studied cartooning with Anouk Whissell. We had no choice but to turn to English to succeed. We don’t regret it because internationally, it worked very well. If we had the chance to make a film in French, we would. »
The collective has admirers all over the world, with Yoann-Karl Whissell admitting in this interview that in Spain and Germany, the three directors signed autographs at the airport. “In Quebec, we have very passionate fans of our work, friends, who follow everything we do, in all our madness, and we are very grateful for that,” he added.