by MATTHEW HAYS

There can be absolutely no doubt about it: 2003 marked an astonishing year for Quebec cinema. There were several breakout hits, films that commanded both critical kudos and broad audience appeal, assuring substantive box-office numbers. This is not a small thing, for a place and business in which any language other than English is often seen as a barrier.

The obvious winners make for a lengthy list: Denys Arcand's Les Invasions barbares, now nominated for two Oscars, competing for Best Original Screenplay (a surprise) and Best Foreign Language Film (no surprise); Les Triplettes de Belleville, also nominated for two Oscars; La Grande séduction, a festival and audience favourite that just won an esteemed award at Sundance; Gaz Bar Blues, critical fave that also did well in Quebec; Sur le seuil, a hot horror movie whose English-language remake rights were purchased by none other than Miramax; and Mambo Italiano, a Quebec film shot in English that nonetheless did tremendously well on its home turf, a first in its own right. And this, it must be noted, is only a partial list. (And it must also be noted that this season of success puts Quebec out of step with the English Canadian film scene, arguably in one of its worst creative and fiscal slumps ever.)

Fierce felicitations

Thus there must be a sincere and earned air of celebration and congratulation around the proceedings of Les Rendez-vous du cinéma québécois this year. It's a festival some have knocked, but if ever its mandate were clear, now would be the time. Les Rendez-vous allows us 10 days of celebration of the successes of the local industry, while hopefully also allowing higher-profile movies to draw attention to overlooked gems. And there are a bunch of those too. What follows is a selective rundown of some of what's unreeling this year at Les Rendez-vous.

Animation fans will not want to miss Accordéon, the latest short from Montreal-based animator Michèle Cournoyer. She's the brilliant light behind the 2001 Jutra-award-winner Le Chapeau, an exquisite piece of work that pushed the boundaries of the medium. Another boundary-pusher would be Karim Hussain's existential feature Ascension, a film I first reviewed in these pages as part of the New Film Festival. In that review, I was perhaps a bit hard on Hussain and his achievement - a victim of fall festival burnout, I reckon. While the film is imperfect and very demanding of its audience, Hussain has created an audacious film that creates an astonishingly bleak universe for the filmgoer.

Kiddie fare

In the retrospective department, this year's Rendez-vous boasts an anthology of Quebec films that feature children as characters. Included are Micheline Lanctot's 1984 feature Sonatine, which won a then-wee Pascale Bussières a Genie Award, and Léolo, the hit semi-autobiographical tale spun by the late great Jean-Claude Lauzon. As well, the most excellent short film series Prends ca court! brings a focus to Belgian fare. Also, look for the very best of Kino, the Montreal collective of rogue filmmakers and videographers.

Being an industry event, Les Rendez-vous offers various talks and shmooze-a-thons where people can rub elbows with others in the biz. There will be a conference on film editing moderated by Louise Surprenant, a discussion of how to improve promotion and distribution of cinema, and even a wine and cheese meeting with Telefilm types. This last event will allow you to gripe face to face with the people who didn't give you the money you needed for that feature you had planned. Sadly, this one's by invitation only, so particularly disgruntled filmmakers will have to find sneaky ways to get in so they can lodge their complaints with the bigwig feds.

The 22nd edition of Les Rendez-vous du cinéma québécois screens from Thursday, Feb. 12 until Feb. 22 at the Cinémathèque québécoise, NFB, Beaubien and Place-des-arts. Info: www.rvcq.com

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