Description

* Winner of the Genie Award for Best Motion Picture (aka the Canadian Oscars)

One of the most successful gay indie films of the ’90s, Lilies won four Canadian Genie Awards® (the equivalent of the American Oscars®) including Best Picture, and won critical acclaim worldwide. John Greyson’s Lilies is an emotionally intense, suspense-laden tale of love, betrayal and revenge in which one man’s past comes back to haunt him and another man’s past comes to bring him freedom.

In 1952, Catholic Bishop Bilodeau (Marcel Sabourin, Sum of All Fears) makes an exceptional in-person visit to a prison to hear a dying inmate’s last confession. Once in the confessional, the Bishop is confronted by his childhood friend, Simon (Aubert Pallascio, 3 Needles), who collaborates with his fellow inmates to take the Bishop hostage and re-enact Simon’s version of the events that led to his murder conviction forty years earlier, in their rural village, of young Vallier.

This flashback story centers on two boys who are madly in love with each other. Young Simon (Jason Cadieux) and Vallier (Danny Gilmore) are cast in a school play about Caesar meeting St. Sebastian. And young Bilodeau, a closeted man secretly in love with Vallier, tries to be close to his love but sees Simon as an obstacle. The action moves back and forth, seamlessly through time, between the crude prison and the actual events of 1912, culminating in the tragic night when both men’s fates are decided and their true love is lost forever.

Awards & Quotes

“Two of the most beautiful young men to grace the screen in recent years.” — San Francisco Examiner

Winner, Grand Jury Award, Outstanding American Narrative Feature — Outfest: Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Film Festival

Winner, Audience Award, Best Feature — Frameline: San Francisco Lesbian & Gay Film Festival

Winner, Audience Favorite — Austin Gay & Lesbian International Film Festival

Winner, Best Motion Picture — Genie Awards

Winner, Best Canadian Film — Montreal World Film Festival

Winner, Best Achievement in Art Direction/Production Design — Genie Awards

Winner, Best Achievement in Costume Design — Genie Awards

Winner, Best Achievement in Overall Sound — Genie Awards

Nominee, Outstanding Film (Limited Release) — GLAAD Media Awards

Nominee, Best Cinematography — Chlotrudis Awards

Genie Awards Nominations:
Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role, Jason Cadieux
Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role, Matthew Ferguson
Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role, Danny Gilmore
Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role, Alexander Chapman
Best Achievement in Direction Best Achievement in Cinematography
Best Achievement in EditingBest Screenplay, Adapted, Michel Marc Bouchard
Best Achievement in Music – Original Score
Best Achievement in Sound Editing

Official Selection: 1997 Sundance Film Festival