John Dunning Best First Feature 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
Winners -- Claude Jutra 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 three films, The Confessional (Le Confessionnal), and Away from Her, have won both the Best First Feature and Best Picture awards in the same year; all three films' directors also won the award for Best Director for the same films.