Léa Pool

Léa Pool C.M. (born 8 September 1950) is a Canadian and Swiss filmmaker. She has directed several documentaries and feature films, many of which have won significant awards including the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury, and she was the first woman to win the prize for Best Film at the Quebec Cinema Awards. Pool's films often opposed stereotypes and refused to focus on heterosexual relations, preferring individuality. She also taught film at Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM).

Early life Pool was born in Soglio, Switzerland in 1950, and raised in Lausanne. Her father was a Polish-Jew who was stateless when he fled to Switzerland during World War II. She immigrated to Canada in 1975 to study at the Université du Québec à Montréal

Career Pool is known as a feminist in film studies, producing films and videos that focus on female characters. focusing on themes of exclusion. Pool co-directed and edited Laurent Lamerre Portier in 1978.

Pool filmed her first feature-length documentary, Hotel Chronicles, in 1990 as part of the Office national du film’s series Parler d'Amérique.

Pool adheres to the philosophy "that every film must have its own signature". In her successive productions, she challenges existing views on the role of filmmakers and the creative process. Most of her films that contribute to this idea reflect on woman's view of the female experience. She has been represented by the cultural Montreal agency Agence Goodwin since 2004. She has a personal connection with her work, with many themes in her own life appearing in her films, including the exploration of identity and exile, as well as her Jewish heritage and her sexuality.

Filmography Strass Cafè — 1980 A Woman in Transit (La Femme de l'hôtel) — 1984 Anne Trister — 1986 Straight for the Heart (À corps perdu) — 1988 Montreal Stories (Montréal vu par...) — 1991, segment "Rispondetemi" The Savage Woman (La Demoiselle sauvage) — 1991 Desire in Motion (Mouvements du désir) — 1994 Gabrielle Roy : L'auteure la plus célèbre du Québec — 1998 Set Me Free (Emporte-moi) — 1999 Lost and Delirious (Rebelles) — 2001 The Blue Butterfly (Le Papillon bleu) — 2004 Mommy Is at the Hairdresser's (Maman est chez le coiffeur) — 2008 The Last Escape (La dernière fugue) — 2010 Pink Ribbons, Inc. — 2011 The Passion of Augustine (La Passion d'Augustine) — 2015 Worst Case, We Get Married (Et au pire, on se mariera) — 2017 Hotel Silence (Hôtel silence) — 2024 We'll Find Happiness (On sera heureux) - 2025

Awards and accolades Léa Pool has won several awards, both from the press and the public. In 1984, La femme de l’hôtel was awarded the Best Canadian Feature Film at the Toronto International Film Festival. In 1986 she received the Audience Award for Anne Trister at the International Women's Film Festival in Créteil, and Best Feature Film at the Paris Lesbian and Feminist Film Festival, both in France. In addition, in 1988, Pool won three awards for À corps perdu, Emporte-moi, and the documentary on Gabrielle Roy. From 2002 to 2014, Pool won 14 awards and in 2017 accepted the Vancouver Women in Film and Television Artistic Merit Award at Vancouver International Film Festival.

In 2025 she was named by Québec Cinéma as the recipient of its annual Tribute Award at the 27th Quebec Cinema Awards.