Ce qu'il faut pour vivre (The Necessities of Life), Benoît Pilon's bittersweet film about an Inuit hunter trying to survive in a Quebec sanatorium in the 1950s, has a leading eight nominations for the Genie Awards.

Natar Ungalaaq plays the Inuit hunter out of his depth in 1950s Quebec in Ce qu'il faut pour vivre. He has been nominated for a best acting Genie. (Seville Films)The film, starring Inuit actor Natar Ungalaaq, was Canada's submission for a best foreign film Oscar. It was on the list of nine finalists, but not among the five films now in contention for an Academy Award.

Nominations for the Genies, Canada's annual awards for the best in Canadian cinema, were released Tuesday in Ottawa by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television. Ottawa is to host the awards on April 4.

Tout est Parfait (Everything is Fine) had seven nominations, and Passchendaele, Fugitive Pieces, Amal and Maman est Chez le Coiffeur (Mama is at the Hairdresser's) also had strong showings.

The Necessities of Life is a best picture nominee and Pilon is up for best director. Bernard Émond, a Quebec writer-director who spent time in the North before writing the script, is nominated for best screenplay.

Passchendaele turned southern Alberta into the fields of Flanders to recreate the horrific battle of the film's title. (Chris Large/Alliance Films)Passchendaele, the Paul Gross film that painstakingly recreated conditions in the trenches of the First World War, is nominated for best picture.

Gross earned a nomination for best actor, and the film also has art direction and costumes nominations. Gross recruited descendants of war veterans to star in his elaborate and gruelling trench scenes, and recreated the First World War era Calgary.

Passchendaele is also that rare thing, a Canadian film that enjoyed box office success in English Canada.

Amal, a film by Richie Mehta about a New Delhi autorickshaw driver who suddenly becomes wealthy, and Fugitive Pieces, directed by Jeremy Podeswa and adapted from the novel by Anne Michaels, also are competing for best picture.

Fugitive Pieces also earned accolades for its acting talent, with nominations for Rade Sherbedgia and Rosamund Pike.

Emotional Arithmetic, a film about three people who reunite years after they met in a detention camp after the Second World War, also earned three acting nominations — for stars Susan Sarandon, Christopher Plummer and Max Von Sydow.

Everything is Fine, a film by Quebec director Yves Christian Fournier that deals with a teen who survives a suicide pact by four of his friends, has been nominated for best film, best director and best screenplay. Star Normand D'Amour has a nod for best supporting actor.

Normal, Carl Bessai's movie about a car accident that throws together a group of dysfunctional people, earned best picture, best screenplay, best director and best supporting actor for Callum Keith Rennie.

Guy Maddin's ode to his hometown, My Winnipeg, Montrealer Yung Chang's acclaimed Up the Yangtze and Jean-Clude Labrecque's Infiniment Quebec, a personal take at Quebec City created for its 400th birthday, are nominated for best documentary.