OUR PATH

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Throughout the years and over the course of many encounters, discussions, experiences and their ensuing challenges, the editorial line of OUTSIDERS Films has been refined, coming into clearer focus. We invest in projects intended for a broad audience, where human beings feature prominently. Our aim: to provide food for thought, to spark discussion, to grow and inspire others to do so as well. Whether it is fiction, documentary or animation, the choice of subject matter must necessarily reflect these intentions. 

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With that in mind, OUTSIDERS also opts to adapt best-selling works. First off, Ça sent la coupe, a popular novel by Matthieu Simard, known for his humorous writing style full of humanity. This feature film, written by the author himself, was directed by Patrice Sauvé (Le Monstre; Cheech; Grande Ourse - La clé des possibles). Presented as the opening film for the 2017 Rendez-vous du Cinéma Québécois, before its theatrical release, it enjoyed a very successful run. The Simard-Sauvé duo carried on working with OUTSIDERS Films immediately after, embarking on the development of another feature film. 

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Now, it is another high-profile novel’s turn to get the big screen treatment: And The Birds Rained Down by Jocelyne Saucier, directed by Louise Archambault (Familia; Gabrielle), who also wrote the screenplay. Principal photography for the film took place in the summer of 2018, and will know a thundering success (box office of over 2 million) right from its initial theatrical release on September 13, 2019. In addition to winning the prestigious Audience award at the Göteborg festival in Sweden, the film is, in September 2019, in San Sebastian International Film Festival’s official competition in Spain. The film is nominated for 13 Iris at the Gala Québec Cinéma, finding itself with the most nominations for the year 2020 where it will finally win 3 of the most coveted awards: the Audience awards, Best actor in a leading role (Gilbert Sicotte) and Best actress in a leading role (Andrée Lachapelle). To this day, the film was sold in Spain and in Japan. 

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OUTSIDERS Films is also handling the adaptation of an acclaimed illustrated musical tale by artist Kid Koala (Eric San). The Space Cadet project, a universal story brimming with humanity, will be directed by the artist, while the highly skilled Mylène Chollet will oversee scriptwriting duties. 

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Given that humans are always in the limelight at OUTSIDERS, documentary projects are intrinsic to the fulfillment of its vision. That is why it is important to us that we handle distribution ourselves. In 2016, OUTSIDERS Films acquired the Canadian distribution rights to Dernières nouvelles du Cosmos, a documentary of rare poetry that immerses us in the fascinating mind of a young woman with nonverbal autism. The film was nominated at the 2017 Césars and won the Grand Prize at FIFA (International Festival of Films on Art) in 2018. 

2015 saw the release of Hôtel la Louisiane, a documentary that takes place at the heart of this mythical Parisian institution, directed in Paris by Michel La Veaux. Upon its release in Europe and Quebec, the film enjoyed great critical and commercial success, in addition to being awarded the Communications and Society prize at the 38th edition of the Festival du Cinéma International en Abitibi-Témiscamingue. 

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That same year, another documentary hit the big screen: Le pays qui dit NON, a poignant portrait of Canada’s declining foreign policy during Stephen Harper’s reign, directed by veteran documentarian Hélène Pichette. 

In 2012, Le vieil âge et le rire by famed director Fernand Dansereau found its way into theatres. A heartfelt documentary that explores the experience of aging, it won the Audience Award at the Rendez-vous du Cinéma Québécois and enjoyed a six-week theatrical run at Cinéma Beaubien, after which it also took home the Coup de Coeur prize from the APCQ (Association des Propriétaires de Cinémas du Québec) in January 2013. 

OUTSIDERS Films widely lauded debut documentary, Bombardier: sur les sentiers de ma famille (co-written by Ginette Petit and Nathalie Bissonnette, and directed by the latter) is an intimate documentary relating the lives and careers of two exceptional builders: inventor Joseph-Armand Bombardier and entrepreneur Laurent Beaudoin. The film was screened at Radio-Canada’s Grands Reportages and aired on RDI. The project then prompted both partners to work together on many innovative projects for museums and companies in the aviation sector. 

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Since 2019, two new documentary projects are being developed at OUTSDIERS. Fernand Dansereau’s La Joie where this 92 years old filmmaker shares his profound thoughts on today’s world with the public and offers a posture to face life’s hazards, and then, Pour Toujours with filmmaker Sophie Lambert, where she attempts to answer the well-known question on the duration of couples’ relationships. A universal question if it is one… 

Lastly, at the dawn of summer 2018, Ginette Petit recruited two emerging producers and recent graduates of the cinema program at L’inis as trainee producers on the feature shoot for And The Birds Rained Down, filmed exclusively in rural areas. Rocío Barba Fuentes and Giacomo Nudi were then permanently welcomed into the OUTSIDERS family. Supported by Ginette Petit, their mentor producer, they created their production company Cosmos Films, which became a subsidiary of OUTSIDERS Films. 

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Since its early days, the company continues to broaden its horizons and grow while keeping pace with changing times, never betraying its core values. OUTSIDERS brings together fiction and documentary projects alike for the big screen and new platforms. Projects that fire on all creative and emotional cylinders, pulled off with a deep-rooted sense of mutual respect. Projects that carry out OUTSIDERS Films initial impetus and mission: TELLING STORIES THAT MATTER.