Jury 2025

Didier Farré has been working in the film industry for fifty years. He produces, co-produces, or distributes more than 500 films in Canada, including the great films: 37.2, Bagdad Café, Le Grand Pardon, etc … An agreement with Gaumont allows Didier Farré to distribute the films of great directors, all the cartoons of Lucky Luke and Asterix as well as all the classics of Marcel Pagnol. In 1995, Didier Farré built, in Gatineau, the cinematographic complex of nine most modern cinemas of Canada. Since 1998, he has founded and directed the Outaouais Film Festival, which attracts more than 25,000 spectators for a hundred films. Didier Farré has served as administrator of several festivals and as president of the Québec Association of Film Owners.

Éric Hoziel was born in Morocco. At the age of 3, his parents moved to France for three years before settling permanently in Canada. Éric comes from a large family spread across several countries around the world, which has given him an openness to others, even when they come from different backgrounds, cultures, religions, or hold different opinions. His deep curiosity and desire to understand human relationships sparked his passion for cinema from all origins.

Career: Actor, producer, speaker, columnist. Éric has appeared in numerous films, multiple TV series, and several stage plays over many years, both in French and in English. In addition, Éric also worked as a producer of original theatre for several years in Mont-Tremblant.

Some major projects:
Lance et Compte, Omerta, The Last Chapter, Virginie, 19-2, District 31, Dernière seconde, Mea Culpa, La Donation, Le Sphynx, Snake Eyes, The Jackal.

Lorne Price brings over 20 years of expertise in Canadian and international film and television, spanning development, production, and distribution. He’s worked with industry icons at CFP/Lionsgate and Productions La Fete. He spent over 14 years at the NFB/ONF, where he led global sales and market development along with guiding the programming team for NFB.ca. After directing sales at Seville International, he co-founded WaZabi Films. Today, Lorne consults for agencies, festivals, and producers worldwide.

Eric Richard Scott is a Canadian independent producer and documentary filmmaker based in Montreal, Quebec. He started in the television and documentary film industry in the early 1980s, most as a researcher.

Twenty years later, he started his own production house in order to develop his own projects with a minimum of corporate constraints.

Eric Scott’s films address themes of nationalism, religious and ethnic identity, fundamentalism and multiculturalism. He is particularly interested in individuals of good faith who rebel against authority. The point of exposing these novel and complex stories is to stimulate social debate and challenge conventional wisdom.

Beverly Shaffer has earned an international reputation for her insightful and finely crafted documentaries, winning over 40 awards including an Oscar, in a 30 years career at the National Film Board of Canada. Her numerous credits include the Oscar winning I’ll find a way; its sequel, Just a wedding; To my birthmother; To a safer place; and the acclaimed series Children of Jerusalem. Early in her career she worked on the Emmy award winning series Nova and Zoom, both productions of the Boston-based PBS station WGBH.