Annabel Loyola

Annabel Loyola spent nearly 20 years working in the documentary, film, and television industries in Paris and Montreal before turning to producing, directing, and distributing her own projects. She holds a degree in screenwriting from the Université du Québec à Montréal. In 2010, she released her first feature-length documentary, La folle entreprise, sur les pas de Jeanne Mance, the first film devoted to the life of Jeanne Mance. The film earned her the Medal of the Société historique de Montréal and marked the beginning of a historical process that led to Jeanne Mance's official recognition as a founder of Montreal in 2012. It received national and international recognition and was selected for several film festivals. Her second feature-length documentary, The Last Breath, at the Heart of the Hôtel-Dieu de Montréal (2017), was selected for the prestigious Shanghai International Film Festival and reached a wide audience around the world. Following the short film Les âmes errantes (2019), a natural continuation of her previous work, Loyola completed her third feature-length documentary, City of a Dream, in 2022, bringing to a close a trilogy exploring the founding of Montreal.