MONTREAL - "J'ai tue ma mere" (I Killed My Mother) has taken best film honours at the Jutra awards, Quebec's equivalent of the Oscars.
The film, which has drawn wide critical acclaim but was all but shut out at the recent Genies, took home three other prizes, including best actress for Anne Dorval.
Dorval was trembling with emotion when she picked up her prize, effusively thanking director Xavier Dolan, who drew on his own relationship with his mother when he wrote the movie.
"What ultimately matters is that people felt something during the film, because it's the truth," said Dolan, who wrote his screenplay when he was 17.
He insisted he "never intended to be narcissistic, I swear."
He offered an emotional thanks to his mother, with whom he said he shared a "different love."
"Thanks to my mother for her loving and free education," he said at Sunday night's ceremony. "Thank you, my mother, for being my mother."
The film also took home the best screenplay prize for Dolan and was recognized as the film most honoured outside of Quebec.
"Polytechnique," a haunting rendering of Marc Lepine's murderous rampage at the Universite de Montreal's engineering school in 1989, won five Jutra awards, including best director for Denis Villeneuve.
Other awards for the drama, which was shot in stark black-and-white, included best supporting actor for Maxim Gaudette, who played the stony-faced killer; best photography; best sound; and best editing.
Villeneuve, who has said in the past he wanted the film to be a tribute the victims of the Montreal Massacre, said he felt honoured to make the movie.
The other big winner of the night was "Dede a travers les brumes," which won best actor for Sebastien Ricard. It also won for best artistic direction, best music and best costumes.
The film "1981" took two awards -- best supporting actress for Sandrine Bisson and for best hairstyles.
