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 [...]

2006 New York Film Critics Online Award Winners

The New York Film Critics Online went all out for The Queen, chosen as the best film of 2006, in addition to citations for best director Stephen Frears, best actress Helen Mirren, best screenplay for Peter Morgan, and best supporting actor Michael Sheen (who actually has a leading role in the film, but that’s how those things go).
Curiously, neither one of Clint Eastwood’s war epics — Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima — managed to make it to the NYOFC’s top-ten list. Also absent was Martin Scorsese’s The Departed.
On the other hand, David Lynch’s Inland Empire found its way into the list, and so did three non-English-language films, Water (top photo, Canada / India), directed [...]

2006 National Board of Review Award Winners

The biggest surprise found in the list of winners of the 2006 National Board of Review awards was the choice of Clint Eastwood’s View from the Other Side, the Japanese-language World War II drama Letters from Iwo Jima, as the best film of the year.
This marked only the third time that the NBR’s best film award has gone to a non-English-language production. The last time that happened was in 1949, when they picked Vittorio De Sica’s Italian-made neo-realist drama The Bicycle Thief. The year before, another Italian film took the award, Roberto Rossellini’s Paisan.
Based on Japanese Gen. Tadamichi Kuribayashi’s book Picture Letters from Commander in Chief (adapted for the screen by Iris Yamashita), and starring Ken Watanabe, [...]

2006 Genie Award Winners

"I’m touched. This has been something — a crazy experience," remarked director Jean-Marc Vallée upon accepting the best director Genie Award from the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television.
Vallée’s film, C.R.A.Z.Y., the story of a gay youth coming of age in the Quebec of the 1960s and 1970s, swept the Genies with a total of ten wins out of 12 nominations. In addition to the best director trophy, other awards that went C.R.A.Z.Y. include best film, best actor (Michel Côté, who beat his young co-star Marc-André Grondin, above), and best original screenplay (Vallée and François Boulay).
C.R.A.Z.Y. has also become one of the most commercially successful Canadian films ever.
Deepa Mehta’s controversial Water — which caused a major political [...]

Genie Awards 2006

2006 Genie Awards
2006 Genie Award winners: March 13, 2006
("*" denotes the winner in each category)
 

Marc-André Grondin (second from right) in Jean-Marc Vallée’s C.R.A.Z.Y.
 

BEST MOTION PICTURE
MEILLEUR FILM
* C.R.A.Z.Y. – Pierre Even, Jean-Marc Vallée
Familia – Luc Déry
It’s All Gone Pete Tong – Elizabeth Yake, Allan Niblo, James Richardson
Saint Ralph – Michael Souther, Teza Lawrence, Andrea Mann, Seaton McLean
Water – David Hamilton
BEST DOCUMENTARY
MEILLEUR DOCUMENTAIRE
* Scaredsacred – Velcrow Ripper, Tracey Friesen, Cari Green, Harry Sutherland
Les Voleurs d’enfance / Thieves of Innocence – Paul Arcand, Denise Robert
ACHIEVEMENT IN DIRECTION
MEILLEURE RÉALISATION
LUC PICARD – L’Audition
* JEAN-MARC VALLÉE – C.R.A.Z.Y.
LOUISE ARCHAMBAULT – Familia
MICHAEL DOWSE – It’s All Gone Pete Tong
DEEPA MEHTA – Water
PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
INTERPRÉTATION MASCULINE DANS UN PREMIER RÔLE
LUC PICARD – L’Audition
* [...]

Vancouver Film Critics Awards 2006

2006 Vancouver Film Critics Circle Awards
2006 Vancouver Film Critics winners: Main Street’s Heritage Hall on February 7, 2006
("*" denotes the winner in each category)
 

Jake Gyllenhaal, Heath Ledger in Brokeback Mountain
 

Best Film:
* Brokeback Mountain
Capote
Good Night and Good Luck.
Best Canadian Film:
* C.R.A.Z.Y.
It’s All Gone Pete Tong
Water
Best Foreign-Language Film:
Kung Fu Hustle
* Paradise Now
Downfall
Best British Columbian Film:
Eve and the Fire Horse
* It’s All Gone Pete Tong
A Simple Curve
Best Director:
George Clooney, Good Night and Good Luck.
David Cronenberg, A History of Violence
* Ang Lee, Brokeback Mountain
Best Director of a Canadian Film:
Michael Dowse, It’s All Gone, Pete Tong
* Deepa Mehta, Water
Jean-Marc Vallée, C.R.A.Z.Y.
Best Actor:
Terrence Howard, Hustle and Flow
Heath Ledger, Brokeback Mountain
* Philip Seymour Hoffman, Capote
Best Actor in a Canadian Film:
* Marc-André [...]