Sophie Deraspe

Sophie Deraspe is a Canadian filmmaker whose career has become synonymous with the resurgence of contemporary Quebec cinema. Born on October 27, 1973, in Rivière‑du‑Loup, Quebec, she studied visual arts in Austria before completing a BA in French literature and film studies at the Université de Montréal. After graduation she entered the Quebec film world as a trainee in the directing departments of landmark features such as Philippe Falardeau’s La moitié gauche du frigo and André Turpin’s Le crabe dans la tête, and soon took on the role of director of photography on numerous productions. Her early short films, including Moi, la mer, elle est belle and Saute la coche, garnered international festival selections, signalling a talent for both narrative and visual experimentation.

Deraspe’s first feature, Missing Victor Pellerin (2006), premiered at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and earned a Special Jury Mention at the Festival du nouveau cinéma. She followed with Vital Signs (2009), a critically acclaimed work that collected more than fifteen awards across Europe and North America, and The Wolves (2014), a Canada‑France co‑production exploring life on the Magdalen Islands. In 2015 she released the documentary The Amina Profile, a sophisticated investigation of the Amina Abdallah Arraf al‑Omari hoax, and contributed to the multidisciplinary project The Seven Last Words. Her breakthrough came with Antigone (2019), a modern re‑imagining of Sophocles that won the Toronto International Film Festival’s Best Canadian Film award and represented Canada at the 2020 Oscars. Most recently she has achieved television success with the Gémeaux‑winning series Dark Soul (2021) and the internationally streamed Paradise Motel (2022‑2024), while continuing to develop new cinema projects such as Shepherds (2024). Deraspe describes her oeuvre as a constant questioning of representation, reality and fiction, a philosophy reflected in every bold, intellectually daring work she creates.