On June 1, a sweeping change hit just about every organisation across Québec, from Montréal to Kuujjuaq. Bill 96 came into force, which limits the English language in several key areas, seeking to emphasize and preserve the use of French throughout the province. As a result, companies need to publicly register proficient French speakers within the organisation, and many contracts need to be in French.
Another important stipulation is that any company with 25 or more employees must work in French. As it turns out, many foreign production companies have taken this part of Bill 96 to mean that anglophone sets wouldn’t be permitted in Québec from now on. It’s led to a bit of confusion, especially as the province has been such a popular place to film over the years.
Clarifying the state of play in Québec
As has been reported by the Gazette, when it was revealed that companies with over 25 people would need to operate entirely in French, major Hollywood shoots with over 100 people in the production assumed that they’d need to abide by these rules. While extreme, the line of thinking isn’t too far-flung, especially when you consider that film groups reportedly had to petition for an amendment to allow for anglophone productions.
Luckily, the CEO of the Québec Film and Television Council, Christine Maestracci, has clarified that the rules of Bill 96 don’t apply to movie productions. This is because there’s an exception to non-Francophone cultural productions. Now, it could be perceived that the latest CGI-fest from the likes of the MCU, Star Wars, or anything else that Disney is behind shouldn’t be considered cultural or artistic, but they can still shoot in English in the province.
A grand run of films in Québec
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One of the biggest film shoots to come to Québec was The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, which was filmed across the province’s most populous city. While it wasn’t the best of the trilogy, The Mummy 3 did spend C$175 million in production costs, made over C$400 million, and cemented a lasting legacy for the much-loved series. Even when Brendan Fraser was out of the spotlight, he was always remembered as a great actor in The Mummy Trilogy.
Even Tom Cruise decided to star in the 2017 reboot of The Mummy, directed by Alex Kurtzman. So these films are still revered, and plenty of games were created around them, from Konami’s 1999 action-adventure video game to online slots, as is shown by the creation of The Mummy: Books of Amun Ra in 2021. Released by Playtech, one of the top online gaming software developers per the best Canadian online casino info page, the slot is popular because it draws from classic movies. Of course, it’s not the only selling point of casinos, with some offering over 1,200 games and welcome bonuses exceeding C$2,000. Yet, slots are the biggest attractions here, which is why so many free spins offers exist, and they don’t get much bigger than The Mummy.
More recently, the ever-rising production company A24 and director Ari Aster opted to come to Montréal for its surreal Joaquin Phoenix film, Beau is Afraid. It seems the potholes on Sainte-Catherine Street East were key to this, which director Aster liked because it makes the setting of “just a city” distinct from the clear-cut New York setting. So, while not a great advertisement of Montréal, it’s nice to see that it helped set the novel scene.
One recent movie that did make Montréal a big part of the story was The Voyeurs. The 2021 flick with Sydney Sweeney and Justice Smith, as well as Montréal-native Katharine King, is based around opposite flats in the city. It also features shots of downtown and the Biosphere to further emphasise its place in the city. A similar approach was taken in a fellow thriller from 2004, Taking Lives, which stars Angelina Jolie and Ethan Hawke, and was shot in Quebec City and Montréal – often leaning on interactions between the American actress and her francophone peers.
While Bill 96 shouldn’t halt any prospective movie productions from beyond Québec’s borders, and many movies have proven that the province is a great place to shoot, more clarification may be needed.
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