Renée Blanchar (born May 19, 1964) is a Canadian documentary filmmaker and screenwriter.[1] She is most noted as a two-time winner of the award for Best Atlantic Documentary at the Atlantic International Film Festival, winning in 2018 for Shadow Men (Nos hommes dans l'ouest)[2] and in 2021 for The Silence (Le Silence).[3]
A native of Caraquet, New Brunswick,[4] she is an alumna of the University of Ottawa and the La Fémis film school in Paris, France. While at La Fémis, she was selected as a member of the feature film jury at the 1989 Cannes Film Festival, after Francis Ford Coppola and jury president Wim Wenders sought out a film student to serve on the jury as a youth voice.[5]
In addition to its win at AIFF, The Silence won the award for Best Acadian Feature at the 2020 Festival international du cinéma francophone en Acadie,[6] and was shortlisted for the DGC Allan King Award for Best Documentary Film at the 2021 Directors Guild of Canada awards.[7]