Who will mourn the death of the cinema gala?

It is not surprising that Radio-Canada torpedoes the Gala Québec Cinéma, which systematically gasps its brave viewers and which has plummeted in the ratings since 2018.

Icy atmosphere in the room, poor texts, ugly trophy, inconstant animation, films named with confidential radiation, boring presentation numbers, this ceremony gives zero the taste of rushing to a room near our home. Zero as in Ouellet.

Internally, the organization of this party often turns into confrontation and tug-of-war, spies tell me. And after the slim ratings of 468,000 irreducible, which were measured last June, Radio-Canada sent the Gala Québec Cinéma to the cemetery of deceased ceremonies alongside the Gala des Masques and the Artis evening. Rest in peace, silver RoboCop shin.

To understand the Iris price rout, we must first talk about money. Radio-Canada pays the majority of the gala’s costs, but does not have absolute control over the content that ends up on the air. It is the professional association Québec Cinéma, an organization similar to the Académie des Gémeaux or the ADISQ, which pulls the strings and leads the way, I am told.

According to a Canadian radio source, “professional associations play big games of power and think that because of its cultural mandate, Radio-Canada must obey their finger and eye”.

Discussions on the prizes to be aired again, the order of presentation of the trophies, the degree of acidity of the texts of the host, the method of voting, references to the films in the running or the choice of the winner of the tribute , each of the elements of the gala generates tension. In short, it’s a lot of trouble for a gala that the public is sulking.

Also, two opposing visions collide during the development of the festivities. Radio-Canada is designing the gala for the 7^e art as a major television variety show, entertaining, popular and accessible, while Québec Cinéma sees it as a showcase, more specialized and “corporate”, to exhibit the work of its artisans.

“Have a gala for the industry and make a show varieties that wants to reach as many people as possible, that leads us to make compromises. And yes, the compromise ends up making a show beige,” Dany Meloul, director general of television at Radio-Canada, told me.

At Québec Cinéma, the general manager, Sylvie Quenneville, also admits that the co-production of the gala involves “complex and difficult issues”. “We represent the industry, while Radio-Canada has variety issues,” she notes.

And yes, it happens that conversations get tough and overheated. “But the substantive discussions about the event are not negative. It’s not unhealthy for us,” says Sylvie Quenneville in a telephone interview.

While Louis-José Houde and Véronique Cloutier provide continuity and a pledge of quality to ADISQ and Gémeaux, the Gala Québec Cinéma changes captains every two years.

Since 2012, the role of presenter has been entrusted to Sylvie Moreau and Yves P. Pelletier, to Rémy Girard, to Pénélope McQuade and Laurent Paquin, to Pénélope McQuade and Stéphane Bellavance, to Guylaine Tremblay and Édith Cochrane, as well as to Geneviève Schmidt .

It’s long, putting a gala on your hand. In 24 editions since 1999, no one from our showbiz did not achieve this feat.

For 2023, part of the Gala Québec Cinéma will include the talk show Good evening !, like in 2020, during the pandemic. The boss of Radio-Canada varieties, Sophie Morasse, also asked the magazines Back to culture and Culturama to enhance their cinematic content. Also on Radio-Canada’s 2023 schedule: a special one-hour program dedicated to local cinema, the outlines of which are currently taking shape.

In front of 1,023,000 viewers at Everybody talks about it Sunday evening, actor Émile Proulx-Cloutier noted — correctly — that the Gala Québec Cinéma was only one link in the great chain of promotion and dissemination of Québec cinema.

This weak link has given way. Can viewers be blamed for not swooning over a gala that celebrates works they haven’t seen? Of course not.

Yes, but, yes, but, the cinema gala serves precisely to discover films that have slipped under the radar, right? It’s wrong. When the gala is broadcast, it is too late to play scouts.

If the public does not know any title among the big finalists, it is obvious that it will zap elsewhere. Why do we watch these spangled ceremonies, in the end? To have fun predicting the winners, to take part in a pool with friends, to vibrate while hearing inspired thanks, in short, for all those moments that have been absent from the Gala Québec Cinéma in recent years.