For the second consecutive year, a film restored by Éléphant: The memory of Québec cinema will be shown at the Cannes Film Festival in the Cannes Classics section, which celebrates restored, digitized versions of masterpieces of world cinema.This year, the honour falls to Les Ordres (1974) by Michel Brault. The Cannes Festival will be held from May 13 to 24, 2015.

Quebecor is pleased to see that Éléphant’s film restoration expertise is being recognized abroad, and particularly at Cannes, one of the most prestigious film festivals in the world. Being selected for Cannes Classics is an exceptional opportunity to showcase the quality and richness of Québec’s cinematic heritage before the largest possible audience, which is precisely the mission and purpose of Éléphant. Hats off to the entire team!

Michel Brault won the best director award at the 1975 Cannes Festival for Les Ordres.This year, the Québec classic returns to the big screen at Cannes in a fully restored and digitized version. Les Ordreshas in fact been restored three times by Éléphant, first in 2009 under the watchful eye of Michel Brault himself, and twice since to apply new techniques and preserve the digital file. All the restoration and digitization work was done by Technicolor Creative Services in Montréal under the direct supervision of Éléphant directors Marie-José Raymond and Claude Fournier.

Since last year, three films restored by Éléphant have been selected for screening at major international festivals: Léolo by Jean-Claude Lauzon was shown at Cannes Classics in 2014 and the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival, and Les Bons débarras by Francis Mankiewicz was presented at the Lumière Film Festival in Lyon. In July 2015, Les Bons débarras will also be screened at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in the Czech Republic.With the extraordinary exposure received by these films, it is no exaggeration to say that Éléphant is bringing our classic movies back to life, to the delight of movie-lovers everywhere.

Preserving Québec’s cinematic heritage for future generations

The aim of Éléphant: The memory of Québec cinema, launched by Quebecor in 2008, is to digitally remaster all the fictional feature films in Québec’s cinematic heritage and make them readily available.To date, more than 200 movies have been restored and digitized, and more are being added to the catalogue regularly. The films are available on Videotron’s illico video on demand service, illico mobile and illico.tv. Since November 18, 2013, movie buffs have also been able to access part of the catalogue through iTunes Canada, and since April 15, 2014 through iTunes Europe and iTunes Africa in countries where French or English is an official language.

Except for a small amount to cover a portion of the platform’s operating costs, all distribution revenues go to the rights holders and the filmmakers.Éléphant: The memory of Québec cinema is a philanthropic project from which Quebecor derives no financial benefit.

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