Professional Jury
Mélanie Carrier is a Quebecois filmmaker and producer, renowned for her work in close collaboration with her partner Olivier Higgins, focusing on documentary filmmaking exploring themes of identity, territory, and social justice. In 2010, the couple founded MÖ FILMS, a production company based in Quebec. Their films Asiemut, Rencontre, and Québékoisie have received numerous awards, translated into over twenty languages, and broadcasted in nearly 200 countries and territories. In 2021, Errance sans retour, addressing the Rohingya refugee crisis in Bangladesh, garnered critical acclaim, winning three Prix Iris awards including Best Documentary, as well as the Canadian Screen Award for Best Documentary Feature. This marked the first time a film received both honors simultaneously.
Emanuel Guayserves as Development Officer for the Regroupement des organismes du Montréal ethnique pour le logement (ROMEL) and as an associated postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Geography at Concordia University and at the Élisabeth-Bruyère School of Social Innovation at Saint Paul University. His research focuses on housing access, community housing, and collaborative and engaged research. He is also a member of the cultural non-profit Les Petites Productions and of the Nuvola's Circle training center.
Ayana O’Shun speaks four languages and works both in front of and behind the camera as a director, producer, and actress. A recipient of international awards, her films have been featured in over fifty festivals worldwide and have been broadcasted on major Canadian channels. Her first feature-length documentary, Le Mythe de la femme noire, won the Magnus Isaacson Award for Best Film at the Montreal International Documentary Festival. Nominated for the Pierre-et-Yolande-Perrault Award at the 2023 Rendez-Vous Québec Cinéma, and as the opening film at the Hamilton Black Film Festival, it toured numerous national and international festivals (New York, Cannes, Toronto, Winnipeg, Stockholm, Luxembourg, etc). The film remained in the top 20 of the Quebec box office for 5 weeks, competing against major American blockbusters.
Student Jury
Béatrice Blais began her career in stand-up comedy, participating in several comedy nights, improvisation shows, and writing humorous columns for radio. During the pandemic, she discovered a new passion for screenwriting. She graduated from INIS in 2022 as a fiction series writer for television. Since then, she has an optioned series with Duo Production and her two fellow screenwriters from INIS. She is also shooting her first short film in May 2024, with a director specializing in special effects. Béatrice aspires to become the next Phoebe Waller-Bridge of Quebec; writing, directing, producing, and acting.
Catherine Lecompte is a passionate cinephile and a graduate of the 2021 – 2024 cohort of the Bachelor's degree in Cinema at UQAM. Her interest in documentary filmmaking crystallized during the production of a documentary short film, where she served as assistant director and editor. Throughout her studies, she was actively involved in student life, including founding the committee for eco-friendly sets and serving as a student representative on the admissions committee for the Cinema program at UQAM.
Jeanne Perney, a trained actress, developed a particular taste for cinema — especially documentary — during her studies in Paris. Film clubs, meetings, and filming experiences greatly fueled her desire to develop skills and technical knowledge in the field. Recently settled in Quebec, she is currently studying editing at EMCV (Rivière-du-Loup), before continuing her studies in Documentary Film Production Techniques next fall at the same school.