The end of the broadcast of the Gala Québec Cinéma created a major shock wave in the Québec film industry. Angry ! Appalled! Stunned! Worried ! The many testimonials heard in the last two weeks show the artistic community’s deep attachment to this event. There is also a great deal of incomprehension following this decision by Radio-Canada to interrupt, without consultation, a gala which was considered a tradition and which would have celebrated its 25e anniversary in 2023. In addition, this interruption is all the more badly received by Quebec cinema and its public, who are losing this showcase, since they have barely recovered from the disastrous effects of the pandemic.
In fact, it is not only the end of a gala that is in question here: it is a setback for the visibility and influence of Quebec cinema as a whole. In addition to being a moment of celebration for an entire industry, this televised gala is a powerful tool for reaching the public, saluting the excellence of our creators and promoting it. It is also an entire infrastructure surrounding the promotion of our films that is jeopardized.
We are at a time when we must multiply the opportunities to shine our cinema, not subtract them. Our artists and our creators must fight with very unequal weapons against a surge of foreign content – American, for the most part – where the stakes of existing, of making themselves known, of radiating and of finding their audience arise with increasing more intensity and urgency. The celebration of our cinema on television also contributes to the efforts made by cinemas to find their audience after the pandemic, and to the need to develop new audiences such as that of young people.
Thus, to give up this window of enhancement and promotion of Quebec cinema that is the Gala Québec Cinema, is to undermine the vitality of this art and its industry. If the event meets several challenges to ensure its sustainability, it is not by abdicating that we will strengthen our culture. The shock caused by the decision of Radio-Canada is rather a call to the mobilization, the ideation and the pooling of the living forces of this environment which aims to guarantee the extension of this essential showcase.
Quebec cinema has acquired its fame thanks to powerful works that have made the hearts of Quebecers vibrate. Works that have marked the generations and participated in the transmission of our history, our language, our identity and our great collective stories. I myself grew up, like millions of Quebecers, being rocked by his stories.
If local cinema has succeeded in establishing its reputation in Quebec and internationally, we must highlight its successes year after year.
Let’s live up to what makes us proud. Let’s roll up our sleeves instead of giving up. Let’s work together. Quebec cinema deserves that we make this effort and that we continue to celebrate it.