“Away From Her” is up for an impressive seven Genies at the March 3rd gala show — but its director Sarah Polley is already guaranteed an honour.

Polley will receive the 2008 Claude Jutra Award for her debut feature about a couple, played by Julie Christie and Gordon Pinsent, dealing with the wife’s onset of Alzheimer’s.

The Claude Jutra Award, created in 1993 in honour of the late Quebec director, is presented annually at the Genie Awards to the year’s best feature film by a first-time film director.

“Away From Her” is also nominated for the Genie’s top prize, Best Motion Picture. Only two films, “Le Confessional” and “Atanarjuat,” have previously won both the Jutra prize and the Best Picture Genie in the same year.

“Away From Her” is also up for best adapted screenplay at this Sunday’s Academy Awards. The film is based on the short story “The Bear Came Over the Mountain” by Canadian author Alice Munro.

Christie, who has already won a Golden Globe and a Screen Actor’s Guild award, is nominated for a Best Actress Oscar.






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