John Dunning Best First Feature Award


The John Dunning Best First Feature Award is a special Canadian film award, presented by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television to the year's best feature film by a first-time film director. Under the earlier names Claude Jutra Award and Canadian Screen Award for Best First Feature, the award has been presented since the 14th Genie Awards in 1993.
Formerly a juried prize whose winner was announced in advance of the ceremony, the award is now presented as a conventional category with a full shortlist of nominees.
To date four films, The Confessional , , Away from Her and A Colony , have won both the Best First Feature and Best Picture awards in the same year; the first three films' directors also won the award for Best Director for the same films.

History

The award was originally named in memory of Claude Jutra, a Canadian film director who died in 1986. Formerly part of the Genie Awards ceremonies, the Claude Jutra Award was transitioned to be part of the new Canadian Screen Awards in 2013.
Following the February 2016 publication of Yves Lever's biography of Jutra, which contained allegations that Jutra had sexually abused underage children during his lifetime, the Academy announced that it was removing Jutra's name from the award. Québec Cinéma also removed Jutra's name from its Prix Jutra ceremonies on the same day.
The award was presented for the next three years as the Canadian Screen Award for Best First Feature. At the 4th Canadian Screen Awards in 2016, the John Dunning Discovery Award, named in memory of film producer John Dunning, was introduced to honour microbudget films. Initially it was a separate award from the Best First Feature category, with the two awards presented alongside each other to different films for the next three years.
For the 7th Canadian Screen Awards in 2019, the Academy announced that the awards would be merged under the John Dunning Best First Feature Award name.

Winners

Claude Jutra Award

Best First Feature

John Dunning Discovery Award

John Dunning Best First Feature Award