About
Born and raised in the outskirts of Montreal, Canada, Jean-Marc grew up with a fascination for theatre and cinema. Acting in school productions sparked a passion to pursue studies in theatre, and then go on to graduate from The Lionel-Groulx Theatre School. Jean-Marc continued to study at the University of Montreal, where he minored in cinema. He received a Bachelor of Communications, specializing in cinema, from UQAM, before returning to the University of Montreal to minor in advertising.
By the late eighties, Jean-Marc’s career had taken off, and he traveled internationally as a director-cameraman for dozens of documentary film projects. Returning home to Montreal, Jean-Marc was hired as a director /journalist for its popular editorial news show Caméra 87, (a ‘60 Minutes’ format).
After two years working in television, Jean-Marc financed, produced and directed his first music video, for Québec singer George Thurston (Boule Noire). The video garnered various awards and catipulted Jean-Marc’s music video career as a director. Music videos enabled Jean-Marc to create concepts, tell stories and experiment with camera and editorial techniques. He went on to direct dozens of videos for both Canadian and American artists, many of which received awards at Montreal and Los Angeles Video Awards shows.
Jean-Marc’s videos quickly generated interest from advertising agencies. While his pictures were striking and cinematic, it was Jean-Marc’s strength in directing actors that captured the their attention. By the early nineties he began directing commercials for presitgious brands including Molson, Coca-Cola, General Motors, Bacardi, Honda, Nescafé, GM, Volkswagen. Having directed over seven hundred commercials internationally, Jean-Marc’s work has won many awards, including the Cannes Advertising Film Festival, the Clio Awards, and the New York and Los Angeles advertising festivals.
In 1994, Jean-Marc co-wrote and directed his first short film, Combustion, which won awards at the Belgium’s prestigious Short Film Festival. This lead to Jean-Marc's first feature film, The Minion, a Holllywood action film, which premiered at the 1998 Cannes film festival. It has grossed over thirty million dollars worldwide and continues to be distributed.
In 2004, Jean-Marc founded Code Film, a Toronto-based production company for advertising. Its mission was to support and mentor many up and coming commercial directors, while nurturing the careers of its seasoned Canadian and international directors.
Continuing to build on his passion for film and long format projects, Jean-Marc opened One Film in Toronto, a production company for feature films and documentaries. Jean-Marc directed, co-wrote and co-produced Nothing Really Matters, a feature film filmed in Paris, New York and Toronto. Nothing Really Matters is in distribution through Fox Incendo and was selected at many prestigious International film festivals including:
-Queens International Film Festival 2008
-Hamburg International Film Festival - Nominated for best feature 2008
-British International Festival in LA - won Best International Feature and Best Drama 2009
-Sedona Film Festival 2009
-Salento International Film Festival, Italy 2009
-Marbella International Film Festival, Spain - nominated for Best Film 2009
-South Africa International Film Festival - nominated for Best International Feature 2009
-SoCal Film Festival - nominated for Best Feature 2009
(Full list available on demand)
Jean-Marc documentary, «It Gets Better», started the festival circuit in 2011. It won best short documentary at the Chicago film festival.
Other projects include:
“Look Again”
Television movie, 2012 for European and US markets
Incendo
"First Aid"
Short film, 2014
-Sedona film festival
-Toronto Short fest
-Sydney (IFEFA)
(Full list available on demand)
"In Search Of My Foreskin"
2015
Mockumentary
"Unknown/ Inconnu"
2016
-Edmonton Festival
-London Festival
(Full list available on demand)
"The Case"
2016
Crime Show : TV pilot project
TVA
"A la Valdrague"
2018/ 2019
TV series / 16 episodes
Radio-Canada
S C R E E N W R I T I N G P R O J E C T S
"Combustion" 1994
"Nothing really matters" 2008
"It gets better" 2011
"How To Become a Monster" 2012
"Verglas" 2015
"Inconnu" 2016
Jean-Marc is currently in development and collaborating on various exciting projects.
Member of the Directors Guild of Canada, Directors Guild of America, Writers Guild of Canada, Sartec
