Samuel Matteau is a Canadian film director from Quebec. He is most noted as co-director with Guillaume Fournier and Yannick Nolin of a trilogy of short documentary films about Cajun life and culture in Louisiana.[1]
His first directed feature film was Squat.[2] The first film in the series, Laissez les bon temps rouler, premiered in 2017.
The second film in the series, Acadiana, premiered at the 2019 Slamdance Film Festival.[3] At the 2019 Vancouver International Film Festival, the directors won the award for Most Promising Director of a Canadian Short Film.[4] It was subsequently named to the Toronto International Film Festival's annual year-end Canada's Top Ten list for short films in 2019,[5] and received a Canadian Screen Award nomination for Best Short Documentary at the 8th Canadian Screen Awards in 2020.[6]
The third film, Belle River, premiered at the 2022 Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival.[7] It was named to the Canada's Top Ten list for short films in 2022,[8] and was a Prix Iris nominee for Best Short Documentary at the 25th Quebec Cinema Awards in 2023.[9]
Matteau has also directed numerous short films on his own, including Le Combat silencieux (2012), Karim + Hadjer (2014) and Renouer (2022).