Quebec Cinema as Global Cinema

This chapter examines the transformations that have affected Quebec cinema since 2000: greater success at the domestic box office, increased international recognition by audiences and through awards, and the more visible presence of Quebec filmmakers in Hollywood and international production. Nuancing this narrative of success, the chapter traces continued local/national and global tensions in Quebec cinema and argues that recent changes can be understood in terms of their intensification. Certain Quebec film narratives are seen to draw on these evolutions and possible generational shifts in attitudes toward both the sovereignty project and the English language, which invites reshapings of cinematic stories about the relationship between self/world for white francophone Quebec audiences. The chapter argues for remappings by critics and scholars of cinematic spaces through a re-energized notion of “francophone cinema”—a “cinéma-monde” attentive to decentered analyses of borders and language. This affords fruitful lateral connections between worlds within Quebec cinema.