Film up for eight awards

A heart wrenching film about an Inuk sent off to a Quebec sanitorium in the 1950s – The Necessities of Life (Ce qu'il faut pour vivre in French) – is the front-runner at the 2009 Genies, the Canadian film awards.

The film received eight nominations – the most of any nominee – including one for best film.

Written by screenwriter and documentary filmmaker Bernard Émond, who has lived in the North, and directed by filmmaker Benoît Pilon, The Necessities of Life made the nine-film short list at the Academy Awards in the best-foreign-language-film category, but didn't make it into the final five to receive an Oscar nomination.

At the Genies, Pilon is nominated as best director, Émond is nominated for original screenplay, and the film's star, Natar Ungalaaq of Igloolik, is up for best lead actor.

As Tivii, Ungalaaq shows his stunning performance as the fast runner in Isuma Igloolik Productions' Atanardjuat was no fluke.

The Genie Awards ceremony will take place at the Canada Aviation Museum in Ottawa on Saturday, April 4. The ceremony will air on Global Television across Canada.

Nunatsiaq News reviewed The Necessities of Life in a Sept. 12, 2008 feature story, which can be accessed at http://www.nunatsiaq.com/test/archives/2008/809/80912/news/features/80912_1520.html.