SNOW AND ASHES, AMERICAN JIHADIST, THE WILD HUNT: Slamdance 2010 Winners

The Slamdance Film Festival winners were announced Jan. 29. The Grand Jury Award for Best Narrative Film went to Charles-Olivier Michaud’s Snow and Ashes (above), in which a war correspondent wakes from a coma to discover that his collaborator has disappeared. The Best Documentary Film was Mark Claywell’s American Jihadist. The synopsis below is from the Slamdance website:
"American Jihadist is a look at militant Islam through the eyes of an African- American who fought and almost died for it. This is the story of Isa Abdullah Ali, aka Clevin Raphael Holt, an African- American Muslim from the ghettos of Washington, DC, labeled a ‘known terrorist’ by the U.S. Defense Department though he’s never been charged [...]

Top Ten Canadian Films of 2009

Adam Scott in Passenger Side
Toronto Festival’s Top Ten Canadian Films of 2009

Top Ten Canadian Feature Films of 2009
(in alphabetical order)

Cairo Time – Ruba Nadda
Carcasses – Denis Côté
Crackie – Sherry White
Defendor – Peter Stebbings
La Donation / The Legacy – Bernard Émond
J’ai tué ma mère / I Killed My Mother – Xavier Dolan
Passenger Side – Matthew Bissonnette
Polytechnique – Denis Villeneuve
The Trotsky – Jacob Tierney
The Wild Hunt – Alexandre Franchi

 
Top Ten Canadian Short Films of 2008
(in alphabetical order)

The Armoire – Jamie Travis
The Cave – Helen Haig-Brown
Danse Macabre – Pedro Pires
Five Hole: Tales of Hockey Erotica – Cam Christiansen
Naissances – Anne Émond
Out in that Deep Blue Sea – Kazik Radwanski
Runaway – Cordell Barker
The Spine – Chris Landreth
La Vie commence – Émile Proulx-Cloutier
Vive la [...]

Toronto Festival’s Top Ten Canadian Films of 2009

Patricia Clarkson in Cairo Time (top); Joel Bissonnette, Adam Scott in Passenger Side (middle, upper); Danse Macabre by Pedro Pires (middle, lower); Five Hole: Tales of Hockey Erotica by Cam Christiansen (bottom)

The Toronto Film Festival has announced the lists of the top 10 Canadian features and shorts of 2009. Among the selected features are Denis Côté’s Carcasses, Xavier Dolan’s I Killed My Mother, and Bernard Émond’s The Legacy. Shorts include Pedro Pires‘ Danse Macabre, Jamie Travis‘ The Armoire, and Kazik Radwanski’s Out in that Deep Blue Sea.
Topics include hockey’s behind-the-scenes homoerotic moments to the sound of the Rheostatics (Five Hole: Tales of Hockey Erotica); an adulterous romance in Egypt (Cairo Time); the erratic movements of a [...]

2009 Toronto Film Festival Winners

Gabourey ‘Gabby’ Sidibe in Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire (top photo); Lee Daniels

The bizarrely titled Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire, formerly known as Push: Based on a Novel by Sapphire, was the Audience Award winner at the 2009 Toronto Film Festival. The Toronto win, which follows widespread critical acclaim and a couple of Sundance awards earlier in the year, has pushed Precious to the forefront of likely Oscar contenders come February 2010. (Last year’s Toronto winner and critics’ favorite, Slumdog Millionaire, eventually turned out to be the best picture Oscar winner.)
Directed by Lee Daniels, Precious tells the story of an overweight, illiterate, pregnant teenager (Gabourey ‘Gabby’ Sidibe) who is abused by her mother (Mo’Nique), [...]