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Genie Awards 2009

2009 Genie Awards
2009 Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television’s Genie Award nominations: Feb. 10, 2009
2009 Genie Award winners: Ottawa, April 4, 2009
("*" denotes the winner in each category)
 

 

BEST MOTION PICTURE / MEILLEUR FILM
Amal – David Miller, Steven Bray
Ce qu’il faut pour vivre / The Necessities of Life – Bernadette Payeur, René Chénier
Normal – Andrew Boutilier, Carl Bessai
* Passchendaele – Niv Fichman, Francis Damberger, Paul Gross, Frank Siracusa
Tout est Parfait / Everything is Fine – Nicole Robert
BEST DOCUMENTARY / MEILLEUR DOCUMENTAIRE
INFINIMENT QUÉBEC – Jean-Claude Labrecque, Yves Fortin, Christian Medawar
MY WINNIPEG – Guy Maddin, Phyllis Laing, Jody Shapiro
* UP THE YANGTZE – Yung Chang, Mila Aung-Thwin, John Christou, Germaine Ying-Gee Wong
BEST DIRECTION [...]

Canadian Walk of Fame Nominations Contest Announced

PRESS RELEASE
Canada’s Walk of Fame and RBC announced today a contest to nominate Canada’s Walk of Fame honourees.  Starting on March 30th, Canadians from coast-to-coast and around the world will be able to enter the contest by recommending potential nominees that they believe deserve to be recognized for their lifetime achievements in the fields of music, sport, film and television as well as the literary, visual and performing arts, and science and innovation.  Five lucky contest participants will each win an all expenses paid trip for two to Toronto for The Canada Honours Weekend celebration (September 11-13, 2009), courtesy of the RBC Visa Infinite Avion card.
Canada’s Walk of Fame is inviting Canadians [...]

Top Ten Canadian Films of 2008

Top Ten Canadian Feature Films of 2008
(in alphabetical order, including future release dates)

Adoration (above) – Atom Egoyan (Entertainment One/Seville Pictures, May 2009)
Before Tomorrow – Marie-Hélène Cousineau and Madeline Piujuq Ivalu (Alliance Films, February 2009)
Ce qu’il faut pour vivre (The Necessities of Life) – Benoit Pilon (Entertainment One/Seville Pictures)
C’est pas moi, je le jure! (It’s Not Me, I Swear!) – Philippe Falardeau (Entertainment One/Seville Pictures)
Fifty Dead Men Walking – Kari Skogland (TVA Films, Spring 2009)
Heaven on Earth – Deepa Mehta (Mongrel Media)
Lost Song – Rodrigue Jean
Maman est chez le coiffeur (Mommy Is at the Hairdresser’s) – Léa Pool (Equinoxe Films)
La Mémoire des anges [...]

TRICK ‘R TREAT Trailer

 
Written and directed by Michael Dougherty, Trick ‘r Treat is set in a small town that "is about to be taught a terrifying lesson that some traditions are best not forgotten."
In the Trick ‘r Treat cast: Brian Cox, Anna Paquin, Quinn Lord, Dylan Baker, Moneca Delain, Tahmoh Penikett.
Trick ‘r Treat opens in the US on — when else? — October 31.
Michael Dougherty’s MySpace page.
Clip posted by xeneuxe.
 
Daniel Craig in QUANTUM SOLACE Trailer
SAVING MARRIAGE Trailer
Paul Rudd, Seann William Scott in ROLE MODELS Trailer
THE HAUNTING OF MOLLY HARTLEY Trailer
THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PAJAMAS Trailer
Anne Hathaway in PASSENGERS Trailer
FEAR(S) OF THE DARK Trailer

YOUNG PEOPLE FUCKING d: Martin Gero

Young People Fucking (2008)
Direction: Martin Gero. Screenplay: Martin Gero and Aaron Abrams. Cast: Aaron Abrams, Diora Baird, Sonja Bennett, Callum Blue, Kristin Booth, Josh Cooke, Josh Dean, Ennis Esmer, Natalie Lisinska, Peter Oldring, Carly Pope
 

 
Directed by Martin Gero and written by Gero and Aaron Abrams, Young People Fucking is a film about, you guessed it, young adults engaging in sexual intercourse, the situations surrounding the acts, and the lives of the participants. The situations are: The Friends, The Couple, The First Date, The Roommates, and The Exes. The sexual acts involved are Prelude, Foreplay, Sex, Interlude, Orgasm, and Afterglow.
The ballsy title alone draws one’s attention to this romantic comedy, while [...]

National Film Board of Canada Salute

“A Salute to the National Film Board of Canada” (NFB) will be presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences‘ — in partnership with the Charles Guggenheim Center for the Documentary Film and the Foundation for the National Archives — on Thursday, October 23, at 7 p.m. at the William G. McGowan Theater at the National Archives in Washington, D.C. The event will be hosted by animation critic and historian Charles Solomon, following an introduction by Academy President Sid Ganis.
The National Film Board of Canada salute will include a panel discussion with NFB Chair and Government Film Commissioner Tom Perlmutter, NFB animation producer Marcy Page, and Torill [...]

FIRE d: Deepa Mehta

Fire (1996)
Direction and screenplay: Deepa Mehta. Cast: Shabana Azmi, Nandita Das, Jaaved Jaaferi, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Ranjit Chowdhry, Kushal Rekhi, Alice Poon
 
By Dan Schneider of Cosmoetica:
I watched the 1996 Canadian film Fire by Indian filmmaker Deepa Mehta after having long heard of its taboo nature based mainly on its depiction of lesbianism. And while not a silly film — such as the softcore When Night Is Falling or the horrid Hollywood ‘Hook’em’ Brokeback Mountain — Fire is nowhere near a great film, either.
As for the lesbianism, there is very little skin and the ‘love story’ is rather demure. On the other hand, there is far too much radical Feminist (capital F) ideology that lowers the intellectual argument of Mehta’s film — [...]

BREAKFAST WITH SCOT Opens Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Film Festival

Outfest 2008, the 26th Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Film Festival, kicks off this evening at downtown LA’s historic Orpheum Theatre with a screening of Laurie Lynd’s Breakfast with Scot, in which a straitlaced gay couple tries to handle an orphaned 11-year-old boy with a passion for feathered boas and rose hand cream. Adapted by Sean Reycraft from Michael Downing’s novel, the Canadian comedy of mannerisms stars Tom Cavanagh and Ben Shenkman as the couple, and newcomer Noah Bernett as the drag queen in the making. A post-screening party will follow.
According to indieWIRE, the North American rights to Breakfast with Scot have been acquired by here! Films, the theatrical distribution and worldwide sales division of here! Networks. Their sister company, [...]

C.R.A.Z.Y. Clip

The film clip below, posted by agogika on youtube, is from the excellent Canadian comedy-drama C.R.A.Z.Y. (2005), a major box-office hit in Quebec, and the winner of 11 Genies and 13 Jutra awards in 2005.
The tale of a young man (superbly played by Marc-André Grondin) who discovers both rock and roll and his homosexual tendencies at about the same time — much to the displeasure of his traditionalist father (Michel Côté) — C.R.A.Z.Y. offers a healthy mix of humor, drama, and social commentary.
Directed by Jean-Marc Vallée from a screenplay by Vallée and François Boulay.
Strangely, C.R.A.Z.Y. failed to nab a best foreign-language film Oscar nomination (Canada had submitted it) and to find distribution south of the border. The film is, [...]

CAREFUL d: Guy Maddin

Careful (1992)
Direction: Guy Maddin. Screenplay: Guy Maddin and George Toles; from a story by Toles. Cast: Kyle McCulloch, Gosia Dobrowolska, Sarah Neville, Paul Cox, Brent Neale
 

In 1992, Winnipeg’s Guy Maddin and crew assembled for their third feature film — Careful, co-written by George Toles (and Maddin) and starring Kyle McCulloch, Gosia Dobrowolska, Sarah Neville, Paul Cox, and Brent Neale. The film takes place in the mountain-surrounded village of Tolzbad where the whispering villagers are always aware of a chance avalanche.
Careful opens using a chilling Wagnerian score of a moaning choir and a man’s voice-over warning, "Careful Otto. Don’t spill it. Hold your horses. Children, heed the warnings of your parents. Peril awaits the incautious wayfarer." From the first frame [...]

Jutra Awards 2008

2008 Prix Jutra
2008 Jutra Award nominations: February 6, 2008
2008 Jutra Award winners: March 9, 2008
(”*” denotes the winner in each category)
 

Writer-director Stéphane Lafleur’s feature-film debut, the offbeat comedy Continental, a Film Without Guns, was the big winner at the 2008 Prix Jutra ceremony. Continental, which won Jutras for best film, best director, best screenplay, and best supporting actor (Real Bossé), follows four disparate individuals after one man disappears in the woods.
 

Directed by first-timer Patrick Huard and written by Claude Lalonde and Pierre Lamothe, Les 3 p’tits cochons / The Three Lil’ Pigs became last year’s biggest box-office hit in Quebec. Inspired by the old fable, this comedy of sexual and social mores stars Paul Doucet, Claude Legault, and (the frequently [...]

Genie Awards 2008 Winners

The Genie Awards 2008 ceremony, held last night in Toronto, was dominated by Sarah Polley’s remarkably accomplished directorial debut, Away from Her, which won a total of 7 awards.
The story of a man coming to terms with the fact that his Alzheimer’s-stricken wife has fallen in love with another patient at her mental hospital won Genies for best film, best director, best adapted screenplay (Polley, from Alice Munro’s short story "The Bear Came Over the Mountain"), best actor (Gordon Pinsent, who has been unfairly ignored south of the border), best actress (Julie Christie), best supporting actress (Kristen Thomson), and the Claude Jutra Award for best first film. (Away from Her lost only the best editing award.)
As quoted in the [...]

Genie Awards 2008

2008 Genie Awards
2008 Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television’s Genie Award nominations: January 28, 2008
2008 Genie Award winners: Metro Toronto Convention Centre on March 3, 2008
2008 Genie Award Winners
2008 Genie Award Nominations
("*" denotes the winner in each category)
 

 

BEST FILM / MEILLEUR FILM
L’Âge des ténèbres / Days of Darkness – Denise Robert, Daniel Louis
* Away from Her – Daniel Iron, Simone Urdl, Jennifer Weiss
Continental, un film sans fusil / Continental, a Film Without Guns – Luc Déry, Kim McCraw
Eastern Promises – Robert Lantos, Paul Webster
Shake Hands With the Devil – Laszlo Barna, Michael Donovan
BEST DOCUMENTARY / MEILLEUR DOCUMENTAIRE
Panache / Antlers – André-Line Beauparlant, Danielle Leblanc
* Radiant City – Gary Burns, Jim Brown, Bonnie Thompson, Shirley Vercruysse
Sharkwater – Robert Stewart
BEST DIRECTION [...]

Vancouver Film Critics Circle Awards 2008

2008 Vancouver Film Critics Circle Awards
2008 Vancouver Film Critics Circle award nominations: February 1, 2008
2008 Vancouver Film Critics Circle award winners: The Railway Club, February 11, 2008
 

 

The Vancouver Film Critics Circle nominated both Viggo Mortensen and Naomi Watts (above) for their performances in the violent drama Eastern Promises, in addition to nominations for director David Cronenberg and the film itself. Mortensen, who went on to win the best actor in a Canadian film award, has received numerous nominations in the English-speaking world (or at least in English-speaking Canada, the United States, and Britain). Strangely, Watts has been all but ignored by those same English-speaking people. In fact, Mortensen nabbed a best actor Genie nomination, but Watts was snubbed by [...]

Vancouver Film Festival Awards 2007

26th Vancouver International Film Festival Awards – 2007
The 26th Vancouver International Film Festival ran from Sept. 27-Oct. 12, 2007.
 

People’s Choice Award for Most Popular International Film
PERSEPOLIS, directed by Marjane Satrapi of Iran and Vincent Paronnaud of France

People’s Choice Award for Most Popular Canadian Film
SHE’S A BOY I KNEW, directed by Gwen Haworth of Vancouver

People’s Choice Award for the Most Popular International Nonfiction Film
GARBAGE WARRIOR directed by Oliver Hodge of the UK
 
JURY AWARDS

Kyoto Planet Climate for Change Award
Directors Michael Stenberg, Johan Soderberg and Linus Torell of Sweden for THE PLANET.

Citytv Western Canada Feature Film Award
Director Carl Bessai of Vancouver for NORMAL.

Honorable Mention to YOUNG PEOPLE FUCKING by Martin Gero
 
Dragons & Tigers Award for Young Asian Cinema

FUJIAN BLUE [...]

FLAMENCO AT 5:15, HE MAKES ME FEEL LIKE DANCIN’: Oscar’s Docs

Cynthia Scott’s Flamenco at 5:15 (right) and Emile Ardolino’s He Makes Me Feel Like Dancin’ will be screened on Monday, October 22, at 7:30 p.m. in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences‘ Linwood Dunn Theater as the next installment of "Oscar’s Docs, Part Three: Academy Award-Winning Documentaries 1977–1988."
The 1983 Documentary Short Subject winner Flamenco at 5:15 is about National Ballet School of Canada’s senior students learning flamenco dancing.
Cynthia Scott, by the way, is also the director of the excellent 1990 comedy-drama Strangers in Good Company, about a group of elderly women stranded in the Canadian countryside after their bus breaks down.
The 1983 Documentary Feature winner, He Makes Me Feel Like Dancin’, shows New York City Ballet [...]

Risqué TAMING TAMMY at the Vancouver Film Festival

Jennifer van Evra on the Vancouver International Film Festival at the Toronto Globe and Mail:
"While many Vancouverites were giving thanks and tucking into turkey dinners with their loved ones on Sunday [Thanksgiving in Canada takes place on the second Monday in October], Tracy D. Smith’s family — including her ‘very traditional’ parents who drove in from Penticton — were watching people win massive dildos and other sex toys at the world premiere of Smith’s film, Taming Tammy. A modern-day adaptation of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, the comedy centres around a sex-toy-party organizer who refuses to settle down, and the filmmaker marked the occasion by doling out several racy door prizes. Not surprisingly, some winners were a little [...]

IF YOU LOVE THIS PLANET, JUST ANOTHER MISSING KID: Oscar’s Docs

Terre Nash’s If You Love This Planet and John Zaritsky’s Just Another Missing Kid are the two 1982 Oscar-winning documentaries screening on Monday, October 15, at 7:30 p.m. at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences‘ Linwood Dunn Theater as the next installment of "Oscar’s Docs, Part Three: Academy Award-Winning Documentaries 1977–1988."
Documentary Short Subject winner If You Love This Planet follows Dr. Helen Caldicott as she traces the development of atomic weapons from the 1940s to the early 1980s. A subject matter that — both tragically and pathetically — remains as timely as ever.
In the Documentary Feature winner Just Another Missing Kid, the family of Ottawa resident Eric Wilson hires a detective to look for the missing [...]

THE PRINCE OF POT: THE US VS. MARC EMERY at the 2007 Vancouver Film Festival

In the Toronto Globe and Mail, Marsha Lederman discusses Nick Wilson’s documentary The Prince of Pot: The US vs. Marc Emery.
Wilson’s documentary focuses on the U.S. government’s never-ending multibillion-dollar War on Drugs (the older sister of the equally ineffectual and wasteful War on Terror) and one of its targets, Canadian citizen Marc Emery, head of the B.C. Marijuana Party and owner of a mail-order marijuana-seed distribution business.
In her article, Lederman writes that "in 2005, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration asked Canada to extradite Emery and two of his employees to face drug-trafficking charges for sending seeds south of the border. Vancouver Police moved in and arrested him.
"And it was that fact — the co-operation of a Canadian police force with [...]

Canadian Women Animators at Academy Event

When most people think of animation, the words "Disney" and "Pixar" are the first that pop up in their heads.
Since I’m not most people, when I think of animation what pops up in my head is the National Film Board of Canada (NFB).
So, I’m happy to report that the NFB and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will present the 11th Marc Davis Celebration of Animation, whose theme will be "Canadian Women in Animation." The event will take place on Wednesday, October 17, at 7:30 p.m. at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.
Attendees will include Oscar nominees Janet Perlman, Caroline Leaf, Wendy Tilby, and Amanda Forbis (right, with Tilby), in addition to Academy Award winner [...]

Toronto Film Festival Awards 2007

Toronto Film Festival Awards 2007
Toronto International Film Festival: September 6-15, 2007.
2007 Toronto Film Festival Winners – Article
 

PRIZE OF THE INTERNATIONAL CRITICS (FIPRESCI PRIZE)
LA ZONA by Rodrigo Plá

CADILLAC PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD
EASTERN PROMISES by David Cronenberg
Runners-up: JUNO by Jason Reitman; BODY OF WAR by Phil Donahue and Ellen Spiro

CITYTV AWARD FOR BEST CANADIAN FIRST FEATURE FILM
CONTINENTAL, UN FILM SANS FUSIL by Stéphane Lafleur

TORONTO-CITY AWARD FOR BEST CANADIAN FEATURE FILM
MY WINNIPEG by Guy Maddin
AWARD FOR BEST CANADIAN SHORT FILM
POOL by Chris Chong Chan Fui
DIESEL DISCOVERY AWARD
COCHOCHI by Israel Cárdenas and Laura Amelia Guzmán
ARTISTIC INNOVATION AWARD
ENCARNACIÓN by Anahí Berneri
 
FIPRESCI Jury: Grégory Valens (president, France), Pamela Bienzobas (Chile), Scott Foundas (USA), and Katherine Monk (Canada).
Short Film Jury: Filmmaker Brad Peyton; Director of Original [...]

David Cronenberg’s EASTERN PROMISES to Open 51st London Film Festival

 
David Cronenberg‘ London-set thriller Eastern Promises will open this year’s Times BFI 51st London Film Festival on Wednesday, October 17.
Written by Steven Knight (Oscar nominated for Dirty Pretty Things), Eastern Promises reunites the director with his History of Violence leading man, Viggo Mortensen, who plays a ruthless member of one of London’s Russian mafia families. Dirty ugly things happen after his encounter with a midwife (Naomi Watts) who accidentally uncovers a prostitution racket following the death of a pregnant teenager.
Also in the Eastern Promises cast are Vincent Cassel, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Sinéad Cusack, and Polish director Jerzy Skolimowski (whose quirky, dark Deep End is one of the best films of the 1970s).
As quoted in the Times of London, Cronenberg says, "I’m [...]

Julie Christie Revisited

Alan Riding in “A Role About Winter for Julie Christie, a Star in Eternal Spring” in the New York Times:
“For moviegoers who fell for Julie Christie in the 1960s (and they were legion), she will always be the tousle-haired blonde with the dazzling smile who lit up the screen in Darling, Doctor Zhivago and Far From the Madding Crowd.
“Today they need not feel disappointed. In her new movie, Away From Her, which opens on May 4, she is still a tousle-haired blonde with a dazzling smile. But yes, like her fans, she too has changed. At 66, she is no longer attracted by fame. She is not even much interested in the Julie Christie of legend.
‘I have no connection with [...]

LUNA: THE SPIRIT OF THE WHALE in Toronto

Tomorrow, April 18, the Toronto International Film Festival for Children will screen Don McBrearty’s Canadian drama Luna: Spirit of the Whale.
Written by Elizabeth Stewart — whose screenplay was “inspired by real events” — Luna: Spirit of the Whale shows “how the plight of an orphaned orca impacts the lives of a man and a boy who are each searching for their place in the world.”
The film stars Adam Beach (who received considerable praise for his performance in Flags of Our Fathers) as a man who, following his father’s death, returns to the Mowachaht-Muchalaht First Nations reserve on Vancouver Island’s Nootka Sound. Once there, he becomes a mentor to a troubled youth (Aaron Miko). The appearance of an orphaned orca connects [...]

2007 Vancouver Film Critics Winners

The Vancouver Film Critics Circle has picked its 2006 winners, which were announced yesterday.
Among them are Children of Men (above, with Clive Owen) as best film — the second time a North American critics’ group has chosen Alfonso Cuarón’s dystopic drama as the top picture of 2006 (the Central Ohio film critics also went for it) — Cuarón as best director, and veteran Alan Arkin as best supporting actor for his bigoted, drug-addicted, but oh-so-loving grandpa in Little Miss Sunshine.
Forest Whitaker and Helen Mirren took best acting honors for, respectively, The Last King of Scotland and The Queen. Cate Blanchett was the best supporting actress for Notes on a Scandal.

In the Canadian film categories, the best picture award went to [...]

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