MONTREAL - Quebec director Xavier Dolan took a swipe at the Genies on Thursday, just a few days after he and his award-winning first film were virtually shut out at the awards in Toronto.

"I don't even want to try to analyze this whole thing," he said in an interview with The Canadian Press. "It's done. Whatever. I do not resent anything.

"I don't make films to be nominated for a Genie Award. And if a director does, he is probably a bad director."

Dolan did win the Claude Jutra Award, presented annually to a first-time filmmaker, for "I Killed My Mother," the critically acclaimed and box-office smash.

But the 21-year-old Dolan did not attend the Toronto awards show, where the backstage chatter was all about the lack of any other Genie nominations for the film which he also wrote and starred in.

"I Killed My Mother" earned three prizes at the Cannes International Film Festival last year, was named Canada's submission to the Oscars for best foreign-language film and dominated last month's Jutra Awards in Quebec, where it was named best film and won for best screenplay and best actress.

Kevin Tierney, vice chair of cinema at the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television, expressed disappointment at the Genies that Dolan's film had been shut out.

Tierney suggested backstage that Dolan had been relegated to the "kiddie table" and that the lack of nominations was an "aberration."

Commenting on Tierney's remarks, Dolan said: "I don't want to think about this or, furthermore, on these considerations. I do not think it is important whether I am at the Genies."

Dolan said he was happy that "Polytechnique," Denis Villeneuve's haunting black-and-white rendering of the Montreal Massacre, swept the big prizes at the Genies.

Days after the awards, the controversy lingered as Paul Gross, whose film "Passchendaele" was the big Genie winner last year, said the awards made a mistake by ignoring Dolan's "beautiful film."

"The Genies make so little sense year after year after year I don't really understand," Gross said in Toronto. "I know they sort of defend it (by saying), 'That's the best process we have' well, the process isn't working, you need to fix it."

Gross went on to suggest that Quebec films be excluded from the Genies entirely.

"(This) is probably going to offend everybody but we are always combining French and English Canadian films together, and I think this is starting to make less and less sense because we don't go to each others' movies and until we start doing that we should probably cut ourselves adrift of each other in terms of awards ceremonies," he said.

"They have the Jutras and we don't have an English Canadian equivalent."

Dolan was speaking just a few hours after Telefilm Canada's announcement that his second feature, "Les amours imaginaires," will be part of the Cannes Film Festival's official selection known as "Un certain regard."

It is the first Canadian title to be presented in that category since 2001's "Atanarjuat (The Fast Runner)."

Dolan said he can't wait to get to the May 12-23 festival.

"I am very flattered to be invited a second time," he said.

"I do want to go to Cannes becuse it's a cultural rendez-vous. It's an event that is a worldwide gathering of people and I am very flattered and honoured to belong there."

And is he hoping success will strike again?

"All I hope for my second film is not prizes, or acknowledgment or recognition. I just hope that people will get it and like it -- be it you, or my family or my mother or critics."

Asked to describe it, Dolan gave this intriguing review:

"A love duel between two friends who fight for the same guy desperately and blindly, using vicious and immature mechanisms and strategies."

"It's lighter than 'I Killed My Mother."'

Dolan joked when asked about his post-Cannes plans.

"Promoting the film for like 25 years, I guess."

Canada will also be represented at Cannes by Toronto director Atom Egoyan, who will serve as president of the Festival de Cannes' 2010 Cinefondation and Short Film Jury.