24 Must-See Quebecois Films for Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day

 
Gaz Bar Blues

Plunged into Quebec in 1989, this film follows a run-down neighborhood in the city of Quebec where François Brochu, nicknamed “the Boss,” fights to keep Champlain’s gas bar afloat. Widowed for years, this formidable man runs his business with resolve and leans daily on the steadfast help of his friend Gaston Savard and on his two sons, Réjean and Guy.

Yet behind this familiar routine, the Boss begins to realize that nothing stays fixed forever. His sons gradually chart their own paths, and he comes to understand that he can’t rely on them as he once did. This awakening leads him to rethink his habits, his relationship with family, and the future of what has long defined much of his life.

Through this intimate, human tale, the film explores family ties, generational shifts, daily struggles, and a deep-rooted attachment to roots. A stellar ensemble featuring Serge Thériault, Gilles Renaud, Sébastien Delorme, Gaston Lepage, Claude Legault, and Réal Bossé, Gaz Bar Blues shines a light on a time, a milieu, and characters that audiences easily grow fond of.

 
Votez Bougon

The film reprises the world and characters from the cult series Les Bougon, c’est aussi ça la vie!, extending the story of this family as chaotic as it is endearing. Here you’ll meet Paul Bougon, the family patriarch, known for his colorful personality and blunt honesty. Tired of a system he deems too corrupt and bureaucratic, he decides to steer into an unexpected direction by entering politics.

Driven by a desire to spark change, he forms the “National Disgust Party” (PEN), a populist movement that quickly captures public attention. To back him in this improbable venture, he can count on his wife Rita and on his children, who each get involved in this extraordinary project in their own way.

Carried by a solid ensemble including Rémy Girard, Louison Danis, Claude Laroche, and Hélène Bourgeois Leclerc, the film blends social satire, sharp humor, and a critique of the system while preserving the irreverent tone that made the original series a hit.

 
La grande séduction

In Sainte-Marie-La-Mauderne, a small, isolated port town, residents endure a hard reality. Once the mayor leaves for the big city, a sense of abandonment settles over the community. It’s in this moment that Germain, one of the locals, decides to step up and take charge. Motivated by a hope to revive his community, he aims to give the villagers a reason to believe again in a better future.

This touching, endearing film sensitively explores themes of solidarity, dignity, and resilience. Through human, deeply likable characters, it manages to touch the imagination while offering a comforting, humorous, and emotional narrative.

 
Elvis Gratton

Elvis Gratton is a character who left a lasting mark on Quebec’s cultural imagination and remains a flagship figure of locally produced satirical cinema. Introduced in the wake of the 1980 referendum, he quickly became a caricatured symbol used to address, with humor and provocation, certain social and political realities of Quebec.

Over the years, several sequels expanded the audience’s attachment to this character, as ridiculous as he is endearing. The exaggerated, vulgar, deliberately caricatured traits of Bob Gratton give creators Pierre Falardeau and Julien Poulin room to push reflections on Quebec identity while critiquing cultural alienation in the face of American influence.

This clownish figure, funny yet unsettling, serves as a distorted mirror of society, inviting questions about values, choices, and contradictions of a given era.

 
Mommy

In Mommy, we meet Annie Dorval playing a mother who is at once overwhelmed, courageous, and deeply endearing, living alone with her son Steve, played by Antoine-Olivier Pilon. The film blends intense drama with lighter, sometimes humorous moments that ease the emotional tension in certain scenes.

Just after being expelled from a youth center, Steve must move back in with his mother Diane in a small suburban house. Their daily life quickly spirals into chaos, marked by conflicts but also by moments of immense tenderness and shared understanding.

The film thus explores, with intensity, the limits of a family’s resilience and the strength of the mother-son bond.

 
Deux Femmes en or

Violet and Florence don’t quite understand what’s happening to them. On maternity leave and on sick leave respectively, both women are going through a period of intense fragility, each in her own way. One is raw and overwhelmed by emotions and the mental load, while the other feels almost nothing, numb in the face of everyday life.

The 2025 sequel has been widely praised for its sensitivity and accuracy. Anchored by the memorable performances of Karine Gonthier-Hyndman and Laurence Leboeuf, the story resonates through its realism and its ability to tackle contemporary human issues with finesse and authenticity.

 
La Bolduc

A deeply moving biographical film traces the life of Mary Rose-Anna Bolduc, better known as La Bolduc, a defining figure in French-Canadian music and one of Quebec’s earliest beloved female vocalists.

In the 1930s, at the peak of her fame, she became an enduring cultural icon, celebrated as the queen of Canadian folk artists.

Portrayed by Debbie Lynch-White, this film shines a light not only on Bolduc’s immense talent but also on her resilience and enduring influence on Quebec and canado-francophone culture.

 
L’arracheuse de temps

The Time Thief is an adaptation of Fred Pellerin’s eponymous tale, plunging the viewer into the author’s singular, poetic, and mysterious world. At once enigmatic and comforting, the story transports the audience into an atmosphere where the line between reality and imagination seems constantly to blur.

The story unfolds in 1988, in Saint-Élie-de-Caxton, where an 11-year-old boy worries deeply about his beloved grandmother’s health—an important figure in his life. This grandmother, a storyteller, is battling illness and tries to reassure her grandson by claiming that Death no longer exists, blurring the boundaries between truth, legend, and magic.

The cast brings together several prominent names from Quebec cinema, including Marc Messier, Céline Bonnier, Pier-Luc Funk, Guillaume Cyr, Roy Dupuis, Marie-Ève Beauregard, and Geneviève Schmidt, each helping to animate this rich, deeply human universe.

 
C.R.A.Z.Y

A young Quebecois navigating the 1960s and 70s tries hard to reconcile his burgeoning sexuality with the rigid conservative values of his father, all while juggling his Catholic beliefs.

The film highlights this pivotal era in Quebec as mindsets slowly shift between tradition and modernity. The period-appropriate mood is beautifully supported by a soundtrack rich with iconic songs from the era, intensifying the immersion and emotion of the story.

Michel Côté and Marc-André Grondin, who portray the father and son, deliver deeply memorable performances. Their acting adds remarkable intensity to the film, making the family tensions both credible and deeply moving. Together, they help make this a powerful narrative about difference, love, and self-discovery.

 
Les sept jours du talion

Attention, sensitive hearts should skip this one. It’s a dive into a dark, intense universe inspired by Patrick Senécal’s horror novels, where psychological tension and suspense are omnipresent from start to finish.

The story follows a surgeon deeply marked by the death of his daughter, a crime that leaves him devastated and unable to find peace. He devises a complex, methodical plan to exact vengeance on the man responsible for his child’s murder.

Led by a powerful performance from Claude Legault, the film portrays a father who will stop at nothing, embodying rage, suffering, and an all-consuming obsession. It drags the viewer into a claustrophobic, unsettling atmosphere where every decision carries enormous consequences.

 
De père en flic

In this beloved Quebec comedy, De père en flic stars Michel Côté and Louis-José Houde in roles as funny as they are touching, playing a father-and-son duo at the heart of a complicated relationship.

The story follows two cops who couldn’t be more different: an experienced, rigid, authoritarian father, and his younger, impulsive son who’s not keen on following family rules. Despite their differences, they must infiltrate a father-and-son group-therapy setting to push a significant investigation forward.

Between tension, missteps, and moments of surprising complicity, the film blends humor and emotion while exploring family dynamics from a fresh, entertaining angle.

 
Les hommes de ma mère

In Les hommes de ma mère, Léane Labrèche-Dor portrays Elsie, a young woman whose life tilts after her mother’s final, unexpected wishes. Her mother asks her to undertake a very particular mission: track down her five ex-husbands to scatter her ashes in five different places, each carrying a meaning of its own.

Along this journey, five urns, five destinations, and five men become the steps of a voyage that is both physical and emotional.

 
Mafia inc.

In this film centered around the world of organized crime, Marc-André Grondin leads a tense, gripping narrative that keeps viewers on edge from start to finish with a dark atmosphere and relentless suspense. The story pulls the audience into the ruthless mafia underworld, a place ruled by power, loyalty, and betrayal.

We follow Vince, a young man determined to prove himself in this dangerous world, trying to impress the godfather and win his trust, which drags him into ever-riskier situations.

 
Le plongeur

Based on the novel of the same name, Le Plongeur invites viewers into the intense, demanding world of restaurant kitchens, where the hectic pace and constant pressure define daily life for workers.

The story unfolds in Montreal during the winter of 2002 and follows Stéphane, a 19-year-old graphic design student who loves drawing and dreams of becoming an illustrator, yet finds himself caught in a spiraling gaming addiction that threatens his ambitions.

Played with quiet humanity by Henri Picard, this character embodies the inner struggles of a young adult torn between dreams, debts, and the harsh realities of the world around him. The film offers a realistic, poignant portrait of a youth searching for direction.

 
Vil & Misérable

In this comedy that promises to lift you out of the daily routine, anchored by Fabien Cloutier, Pier-Luc Funk, and Anne-Élisabeth Bossé, viewers are invited into a world that is funny, absurd, and touching all at once.

We meet Lucien, a morose demon who has lived on Earth for more than 350 years. Tired of the world around him, he has taken refuge in a small bookstore where he leads a quiet life, far from human chaos. Yet his well-settled routine is upended by the arrival of Daniel, a young, enthusiastic human assistant bursting with optimism.

This film blends humor, fantasy, and emotion to tell a fresh, original tale where even a demon can rediscover a touch of humanity.

 
Mon cirque à moi

Patrick Huard and Jasmine Lemée share the screen in a touching, meaningful story. We follow Laura, a young girl who spends most of her time on the road, living to the rhythm of her father Bill, a professional clown.

Despite a nomadic life full of performances and travel, Laura quietly longs for a more stable, calmer, and more ordinary existence.

Through this father-daughter relationship rooted in complicity and tenderness, the film explores the challenges of a career in the arts, the sacrifices it demands, but also the deep longing for belonging and stability. An emotionally resonant tale that highlights family bonds and the difficult choices between pursuing passion and seeking normalcy.

 
1981

Ricardo Trogi invites us back into his childhood with a warm, funny, and deeply human story. The film recounts his family’s move when he was 11, a pivotal moment that entirely disrupts daily life.

To win a place in a popular crowd and to impress the pretty Anne Tremblay, Ricardo begins a series of growingly elaborate lies.

These situations give rise to several cult scenes, brought to life by Jean-Carl Boucher, Sandrine Bisson, and a talented ensemble that makes this nostalgic world feel vibrant.

As the narrative unfolds, we also follow Ricardo’s evolution through key moments of adolescence and early adulthood, in a series of films that continue this autobiographical exploration.

 
Starbuck

In this comedy-drama, Patrick Huard plays a 42-year-old man with the heart and outlook of a much younger person, whose life is chaotic and who struggles to embrace adult responsibilities. His routine is upended when he discovers a surprising truth: he is the anonymous father of 533 children, 142 of whom now want to meet him.

This improbable situation stems from the 1988–1990 period when David, under the alias “Starbuck,” made numerous sperm donations, ultimately earning over $24,000 without foreseeing the consequences for his future.

 
Les Boys

Les Boys truly left a mark on Quebec pop culture and remains a cult favorite loved by audiences to this day. So popular that the franchise spawned several sequels and a TV series, proof that fans kept wanting more and more.

We follow Stan, the owner of a bar who becomes the coach of an amateur hockey team called Les Boys. The story is also known for spawning many quotes that became iconic in Quebec.

Carried by an impressive cast, the film series brings together Marc Messier, Rémy Girard, Patrick Huard, Serge Thériault, Michel Barrette, Paul Houde, Luc Guérin, Pierre Lebeau, Yvan Ponton, and Michel Charette. Each actor helps create a warm, authentic, and deeply human universe.

With humor, camaraderie, and emotional moments, Les Boys remains a landmark work that united generations of viewers around a shared passion: hockey and friendship.

 
Dédé, à travers les brumes

Dédé, à travers les brumes is a Québécois dramatic biographical film directed by Jéan-Philippe Duval and released in theaters on March 13, 2009. This cinematic work immerses the viewer in the complex and moving world of singer André Fortin, a key figure of the band Les Colocs, who left a profound mark on Quebec’s music scene.

The film traces the arc of this charismatic artist, portrayed by Sébastien Ricard, exploring both his successes and his personal struggles. It reveals a man driven by deep sensitivity, overflowing creativity, and moments of inner conflict and darker periods.

 
Le temps d’un été

For over 25 years, Marc Côté, a street chaplain and parish priest, has dedicated his life to the most vulnerable. Used to living in contact with the homeless and itinerant, he has always made his church a welcoming refuge. Yet, exhausted by responsibilities and mounting financial burdens, he faces the hard truth that he may have to close the doors.

When everything seems to collapse, Marc inherits a house in the Bas-du-Fleuve region. Seizing this unexpected opportunity, he makes a humane and unusual decision: to bring a group of homeless people with him. The stay becomes a life break from the city chaos, where everyone tries to find a little peace and dignity.

Led by a remarkable ensemble featuring Patrice Robitaille, Guy Nadon, Élise Guilbault, Martin Dubreuil, Pierre Verville, and Josée Deschênes, the film sensitively explores themes of solidarity, mutual aid, and human resilience.

 
Cruising Bar

Michel Côté embodies four distinct characters in this cult comedy that playfully and deftly explores different dating tactics. With his remarkable talent, he brings to life personalities as different as night and day, each with its own awkwardness, ambitions, and uniquely personal approaches to romance. 

Cruising Bar 2 was a genuine hit with Quebec audiences, confirming the appetite for this wild, irreverent universe. 

Between miscommunications, failed seduction attempts, and moments of pure comedy, this sequel manages to entertain while preserving the light, cheeky tone that defined the franchise. A work that continues to capture the popular imagination with its distinctive humor and Michel Côté’s unforgettable performance.

 
Les Furies

In this film, the women of Montreal and Waterloo must show determination and solidarity to defend their ice time in their home arena. Their sport’s daily routine is upended when a semi-professional men’s hockey team claims the venue, directly challenging the place and recognition of their established all-women community.

What begins as a scheduling dispute quickly becomes a broader issue of equality, respect, and survival for their team and shared passion.

Gabrielle Côté has a key role in the film, and also wrote the script, bringing an authentic, engaged perspective to the story. The cast also features acclaimed actresses such as France Castel and Anne-Elisabeth Bossé, who contribute depth, emotion, and humor to this inspiring sports narrative.