Although director and actor Dany Papineau hails from Quebec, his filmmaking success has numerous connections to the West Coast.

His first feature film, 2 Frogs in the West, the story of a young Québécoise who travels to Whistler against her parents’ wishes, scooped up the $1,000 Best Mountain Culture Film award at the Whistler Film Festival award brunch on Sunday (December 5). Papineau explained the film was based on his short film, which played at WFF in 2004.

He also told the Straight that when he left la belle province for Western Canada, his career path changed.

“When I was 21, I was studying in civil engineering in Sherbrooke in Quebec, and we’re a bunch of friends who decided to go out west for a summer to learn English and ended up spending three months in Banff on a ranch in Alberta”¦. It’s probably the most amazing summer I’ve ever had in my life. By the end of August, I basically decided not to go back to university and stay there.”

He said he later attended the Vancouver Film School for a year and ended up living in Vancouver for six years, where he got his first acting roles as well.

“As an actor, I’ve been in the business for 12 years and I always found it really difficult to just get parts”¦. This [Vancouver] casting director saw the short film that I did in 2004, liked it, and started to see me for auditions, so I booked Underworld: Evolution back then, and I booked Da Vinci’s Inquest all from that. So it seems like it’s working but it’s been a long journey.”