Genie Special Awards

CLAUDE JUTRA AWARD - Sarah Polley

The Claude Jutra Award was created in 1993 and named in honour of the renowned Quebec director, the late Claude Jutra, to annually recognize outstanding achievement by a first-time feature film director. It is with great pride that the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television presents the Claude Jutra Award to Sarah Polley for Away From Her.

A rising talent behind the camera, Sarah Polley has been writing and directing for the last six years. She has directed the short films The Best Day of My Life and Don't Think Twice as well as 'The Harp', an episode for the television series The Shields Stories. In 2003, her critically acclaimed dramatic short I Shout Love garnered an Actra Award and Genie Award. A multifaceted actress, she made her transition from child to adult star with her critically acclaimed Genie-nominated performance in The Sweet Hereafter and since then has continued to assemble a growing portfolio of challenging roles in film and television. Her film credits include Guinevere, eXistenZ, Go, The Weight of Water, The Law of Enclosures, No Such Thing, The Claim, Luck, The Even, Dawn of the Dead, Don't Come Knocking and The Secret Life of Words. She has won three Gemini Awards for her roles in the television series Lantern Hill, Straight Up and Slings & Arrows and garnered a Genie Award in 2004 for her exceptional leading performance in the feature My Life Without Me. Moreover, her debut feature Away From Her has received two Academy Award nominations as well as six Genie Award nominations including Achievement in Direction and Adapted Screenplay for Ms. Polley.

Away From Her is the lyrical screenplay adaptation of celebrated author Alice Munro's short story "The Bear Came Over the Mountain". It recounts a beautifully moving love story between a husband and wife of 50 years - Grant (Gordon Pinsent) and Fiona (Julie Christie) - who are faced with the power and fragility of memory.

Written and directed by Sarah Polley and produced by Daniel Iron, Simone Urdl and Jennifer Weiss, Away From Her is a Film Farm production and is distributed by Mongrel Media.