Jean Pierre Lefebvre

Who is Jean Pierre Lefebvre?

Jean Pierre Lefebvre is a French Canadian filmmaker. He is widely admired as "the godfather of independent Canadian cinema," particularly among young, independent filmmakers.

After making three independent features, Lefebvre made two films for the NFB in the late 1960s, including the 1968 feature Mon amie Pierrette, co-starring Raôul Duguay, and produced by Clément Perron. Lefebvre was then asked to head the NFB's French-language fiction studio. He began its Premières Oeuvres series, designed to make low-budget shorts and features. Four features and a number of shorts were produced within a year before the initiative was halted by the NFB, and Lefebvre left to form his own production company, Cinak.

Lefebvre was one of the first Canadian filmmakers to receive international acclaim for his work; his film Il ne faut pas mourir pour ça was the first Canadian film to be invited to the Cannes Film Festival. He proved to be successful again at Cannes when he received the International Critics' Prize for Les fleurs sauvages and his film Le jour S... was screened in the Un Certain Regard section. Les dernières fiançailles won the prestigious Prix de l'Organisation catholique internationale du cinéma in 1974.