# 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 six films, The Confessional (Le Confessionnal), Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner, Away from Her, A Colony (Une colonie), Beans and Scarborough, have won both the Best First Feature and Best Picture awards in the same year; the directors of Le Confessionnal, Atanarjuat, Away from Her and Scarborough 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.
Beginning with the 4th Canadian Screen Awards in 2016, the award was presented as the Canadian Screen Award for Best First Feature. In the same year 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, until the two awards were merged under the John Dunning Best First Feature Award name beginning with the 7th Canadian Screen Awards in 2019.

## Winners
### Claude Jutra Award

| Year | Film | Director |
| 1993 14th Genie Awards | The Grocer's Wife | John Pozer |
| 1994 15th Genie Awards | Louis 19, King of the Airwaves (Louis 19, le roi des ondes) | Michel Poulette |
| 1995 16th Genie Awards | The Confessional (Le Confessionnal) | Robert Lepage |
| 1996 17th Genie Awards | Joe's So Mean to Josephine | Peter Wellington |
| 1997 18th Genie Awards | The Hanging Garden | Thom Fitzgerald |
| 1998 19th Genie Awards | Last Night | Don McKellar |
| 1999 20th Genie Awards | Post Mortem | Louis Bélanger |
| 2000 21st Genie Awards | The Left-Hand Side of the Fridge (La Moitié gauche du frigo) | Philippe Falardeau |
| 2001 22nd Genie Awards | Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner | Zacharias Kunuk |
| 2002 23rd Genie Awards | Flower & Garnet | Keith Behrman |
| 2003 24th Genie Awards | How My Mother Gave Birth to Me During Menopause (Comment ma mère accoucha de moi durant sa ménopause) | Sébastien Rose |
| 2004 25th Genie Awards | White Skin (La Peau blanche) | Daniel Roby |
| 2005 26th Genie Awards | Familia | Louise Archambault |
| 2006 27th Genie Awards | Eve and the Fire Horse | Julia Kwan |
| 2006 27th Genie Awards | The Secret Life of Happy People (La Vie secrète des gens heureux) | Stéphane Lapointe |
| 2007 28th Genie Awards | Away from Her | Sarah Polley |
| 2008 29th Genie Awards | Everything Is Fine (Tout est parfait) | Yves Christian Fournier |
| 2009 30th Genie Awards | I Killed My Mother (J'ai tué ma mère) | Xavier Dolan |
| 2010 31st Genie Awards | Exit 67 (Sortie 67) | Jephté Bastien |
| 2011 32nd Genie Awards | Nuit #1 | Anne Émond |
| 2012 1st Canadian Screen Awards | Blackbird | Jason Buxton |
| 2013 2nd Canadian Screen Awards | Whitewash | Emanuel Hoss-Desmarais |
| 2014 3rd Canadian Screen Awards | Bang Bang Baby | Jeffrey St. Jules |

### Best First Feature

| Year | Film | Director |
| 2015 4th Canadian Screen Awards | River | Jamie M. Dagg |
| 2016 5th Canadian Screen Awards | Old Stone | Johnny Ma |
| 2017 6th Canadian Screen Awards | Ava | Sadaf Foroughi |

### John Dunning Discovery Award

| Year | Film | Director |
| 2015 4th Canadian Screen Awards |
| 2015 4th Canadian Screen Awards | Mina Walking | Yosef Baraki |
| 2016 5th Canadian Screen Awards |
| 2016 5th Canadian Screen Awards | The Lockpicker | Randall Okita |
| 2017 6th Canadian Screen Awards |
| 2017 6th Canadian Screen Awards | Black Cop | Cory Bowles |
| 2017 6th Canadian Screen Awards | The Devout | Connor Gaston |
| 2017 6th Canadian Screen Awards | Wexford Plaza | Joyce Wong |

### John Dunning Best First Feature Award

| Year | Film | Director |
| 2018 7th Canadian Screen Awards |
| 2018 7th Canadian Screen Awards | A Colony (Une colonie) | Geneviève Dulude-De Celles |
| 2018 7th Canadian Screen Awards | Family First (Chien de garde) | Sophie Dupuis |
| 2018 7th Canadian Screen Awards | Firecrackers | Jasmin Mozaffari |
| 2018 7th Canadian Screen Awards | The Nest (Le nid) | David Paradis |
| 2018 7th Canadian Screen Awards | Touched | Karl R. Hearne |
| 2019 8th Canadian Screen Awards |
| 2019 8th Canadian Screen Awards | Murmur | Heather Young |
| 2019 8th Canadian Screen Awards | Black Conflux | Nicole Dorsey |
| 2019 8th Canadian Screen Awards | Mad Dog Labine | Jonathan Beaulieu-Cyr, Renaud Lessard |
| 2019 8th Canadian Screen Awards | Sympathy for the Devil (Sympathie pour le diable) | Guillaume de Fontenay |
| 2019 8th Canadian Screen Awards | The Twentieth Century | Matthew Rankin |
| 2020 9th Canadian Screen Awards |
| 2020 9th Canadian Screen Awards | Beans | Tracey Deer |
| 2020 9th Canadian Screen Awards | The Kid Detective | Evan Morgan |
| 2020 9th Canadian Screen Awards | Tito | Grace Glowicki |
| 2020 9th Canadian Screen Awards | Vacarme | Neegan Trudel |
| 2020 9th Canadian Screen Awards | Violation | Madeleine Sims-Fewer, Dusty Mancinelli |
| 2021 10th Canadian Screen Awards |
| 2021 10th Canadian Screen Awards | Scarborough | Shasha Nakhai, Rich Williamson |
| 2021 10th Canadian Screen Awards | Islands | Martin Edralin |
| 2021 10th Canadian Screen Awards | Night Raiders | Danis Goulet |
| 2021 10th Canadian Screen Awards | The Noise of Engines (Le Bruit des moteurs) | Philippe Grégoire |
| 2021 10th Canadian Screen Awards | Without Havana (Sin la Habana) | Kaveh Nabatian |
| 2022 11th Canadian Screen Awards |
| 2022 11th Canadian Screen Awards | Falcon Lake | Charlotte Le Bon |
| 2022 11th Canadian Screen Awards | The Maiden | Graham Foy |
| 2022 11th Canadian Screen Awards | Noemie Says Yes (Noémie dit oui) | Geneviève Albert |
| 2022 11th Canadian Screen Awards | Rodeo (Rodéo) | Joëlle Desjardins Paquette |
| 2022 11th Canadian Screen Awards | Wolves | Danny Dunlop |
| 2023 12th Canadian Screen Awards |
| 2023 12th Canadian Screen Awards | In Flames | Zarrar Kahn |
| 2023 12th Canadian Screen Awards | Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person (Vampire humaniste cherche suicidaire consentant) | Ariane Louis-Seize |
| 2023 12th Canadian Screen Awards | Kanaval | Henri Pardo |
| 2023 12th Canadian Screen Awards | Richelieu | Pier-Philippe Chevigny |
| 2023 12th Canadian Screen Awards | Something You Said Last Night | Luis De Filippis |
| 2023 12th Canadian Screen Awards | Through the Night (Quitter la nuit) | Delphine Girard |