It’s a surly and stormy year that is coming up for the Gemini Awards gala.
First, the Quebec television festival loses its star host, Véronique Cloutier, who hangs up her microphone following four consecutive laps.
“My instinct tells me that following four good galas, including two under health restrictions, there is the risk of one gala too many, and it will be good to have new blood,” Véronique Cloutier explains to me.
Also, Véro always concocts the Gemini with her show team. Zenith, who lacks time to fit this other contract into the schedule. On Véronique Cloutier’s professional agenda, there is also The eye of the cyclonewhich runs in the summer, as well as the daily show Véronique and the fantastic to Red FM. “For a few years, my autumn comebacks have been exciting, but exhausting”, continues the blonde host.
The Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television, which oversees the cast of Les Gémeaux, has not yet revealed the identity of the person who will succeed Véronique Cloutier, known as the Queen Mother, who will have piloted a total of nine galas of the Gemini since 2008.
They are big, but pretty shoes to put on. Rumor has it that a couple grabbed the 38’s shifterse Gemini ceremony, scheduled for Sunday, September 17 on Radio-Canada.
Behind the scenes, I hear a lot of grumbling regarding the awarding of these golden statuettes. The main complaints? The so-called control of the vote by an influential core, the predictability of the final winners, the contempt of juries for popular TV – as opposed to more specialized and prestigious TV – as well as the arrival of non-gendered categories, which no member has claimed.
After consulting his teams, producer Guillaume Lespérance, of A Média, did not register the programs Good evening ! et Discussions with my parents in the next Gemini race. ” Discussions with my parents is always in the top of the favorite shows of the public, but never wins anything. It is the comedy that performs best, but is never named. With Good evening !we have never had anything in four years”, notes Guillaume Lespérance.
Do not forget that participating in Gemini is very expensive to often serve as an extra in the room. Because no, the Academy does not itself select the most deserving shows. It receives entries and charges producers between $260 and $1,390 (the average figure is around $400) for a single entry in a single category.
Thus, a producer like Guillaume Lespérance, who also deals with Guys and of Everybody talks regarding itcan pay between $25,000 and $35,000 to enter this contest.
“The amount is less important this year”, continues Guillaume Lespérance, without specifying the exact price of his invoice for 2023. He adds: “I won Gemini and I am very grateful. But it’s still very random. I won Gemini that I shouldn’t have won and I lost some that I should have won. I remain in solidarity, because the Academy has made a real effort to reform and has eliminated several categories. »
In fact, the number of prizes awarded goes down from 143 to 92. “It is essential that the people who win feel that it is important,” indicates the director general of the Academy in Quebec, Mara Gourd-Mercado.
Producer Fabienne Larouche, who makes With beating heart, STAT, Happiness et Reasonable doubt, also reduced its registrations in the Gemini campaign of 2023. “We registered where we think there is a logic of competition. Who’s going to go up once morest Xavier Dolan, with all the time, money and talent he’s had? Nobody has a chance once morest him,” notes Fabienne Larouche, who has already paid $60,000 in registration and participation fees for the Gémeaux. She no longer spends such hefty sums.
The miniseries The night Laurier Gaudreault woke up, released in November on Club illico, will be part of the competition, confirms producer Nancy Grant. The budget of Laurier Gaudreault has never been revealed publicly, but Xavier Dolan probably directed the most expensive set in the history of Quebec television.
The Academy recognizes that this is a transitional year for Gemini and that all is not perfect. “You have to trust the process,” pleads its director general, Mara Gourd-Mercado.
Luc Dionne, he no longer wants to know anything regarding the Gemini clique. The prolific author, who has won four awards for writing District 31is not even part of the Academy anymore.
PHOTO CATHERINE LEFEBVRE, ARCHIVES SPECIAL COLLABORATION
Luc Dionne at the Gemini gala in September 2022
“I tried to change things by getting involved in committees. I hit a wall. I find it unacceptable that the writers and directors are not present at the evening gala. Without an author, there are no fiction series. The fact that the Academy is not able to recognize the work of screenwriters is beyond me. In the followingnoon gala, we are treated like cattle,” says Luc Dionne in an interview.
The one who also signed silence et Blue Moon is very harsh on the Gemini organization. “For me, personally, it’s over, the Gémeaux awards gala. It’s old fashioned. There are more Gemini trophies in circulation than stamps Gold Star. It lacks seriousness, ”slices Luc Dionne, who prefers people to watch his shows rather than garnish his shelves with gold rewards.
“The real Gemini, that’s it,” he philosophizes.