David Cronenberg was feted by audiences this weekend as he won a major award at TIFF for Eastern Promises and saw an explosive beginning to the film's theatrical run. On Saturday, the Canadian director's Eastern Promises won the Cadillac People's Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival. Yesterday, the thriller, which opened in limited release in 15 North American theatres on Friday, was averaging almost $37,000 (U.S.) per screen compared to box office leader The Brave One with just over $5,000 a screen. The other film in limited release, Julie Taymor's Across the Universe, playing in 23 theatres, averaged just under $30,000 a screen.
The top Canadian award at TIFF went to Guy Maddin's My Winnipeg.
Eastern Promises stars Viggo Mortensen as a Russian gangster and Naomi Watts as a midwife who finds an incriminating diary. Because Cronenberg was busy promoting the film in New York, the award was accepted by his long-time distributor and colleague, Victor Loewy, who reported that Eastern Promises, which opened in limited release on Friday, was currently number one in each of the multiplexes where it is playing. The award came with a $15,000 prize.
Eastern Promises marks Cronenberg's second collaboration in a row with Mortensen, following 2005's critically acclaimed A History of Violence. That film, which featured Mortensen as a family man with a dangerous past, was well-received at Cannes and the Toronto film festival before going on to enjoy mainstream success. A H istory of Violence grossed $31.5-million (U.S.), was nominated for two Academy Awards and won top place in both the Toronto Film Critics Association and the Village Voice's annual film critics' polls. It too had a blockbuster opening weekend. Better known for cerebral horror and graphic violence than for popular appeal, Cronenberg seems to be following a similar festival-focused strategy with Eastern Promises: It's set to open the San Sebastian Film Festival in Spain on Thursday, and will kick off the London Film Festival in October as well.
The first runner-up for the People's Choice award was a film by another Canadian, Jason Reitman. His comedy, Juno, stars Ellen Page as a pregnant teenager who decides to give her baby to a yuppie couple. The cast also includes Jennifer Garner, Rainn Wilson, Jason Bateman, Michael Cera and Allison Janney. Jason Reitman's first feature film was Thank You for Smoking, which premiered at the 2005 Toronto film festival. He's the son of Ivan Reitman, the legendary director of Animal House, Stripes and Ghostbusters, among many other hits; incidentally, Ivan Reitman also produced two early Cronenberg films, Shivers and Rabid.
The second runner-up for the People's Choice was Body of War, a documentary by Ellen Spiro and former talk show host, Phil Donahue, about a year in the life of a paralyzed Iraq war veteran and political activist.
The Toronto-CITY Award jury picked Maddin's film as the best Canadian feature for a $30,000 cash award. The film, described by Maddin as a "docu-fantasia," blends silent footage and melodrama in a poetic meditation on Maddin's hometown. The jury cited My Winnipeg as a film that "within its specific, personal vision finds a universal appeal." In accepting the award, Maddin offered a "heartfelt thanks" to the Toronto International Film Festival, with which he has been associated over his 20-year filmmaking career. He referred to the years leading up to the prize as a long "mating ritual that has culminated in this moment, a consummation of sorts." Maddin also thanked his family for "allowing me to vivisect them. I promise I won't do it again." Producer Jody Shapiro announced the film has three new international distribution deals (with IFC Entertainment in the U.S. Soda Pictures in the U. K. and Maximum Films in Canada). Shapiro also made a point of thanking Michael Burns, formerly the director of programming for the Documentary Channel before its recent takeover by the CBC. "Without Michael this film wouldn't have been made. It was his idea." Shapiro said the award represented a significant first for Maddin in that it "puts him in the history books at this festival."
The $15,000 CITY-TV prize for best Canadian first feature film went to Stéphane Lafleur's Continental, un film sans fusil (Continental, A Film Without Guns), which follows four lonely characters in a mixture of absurdity and pathos. Lafleur has had three previous short films at the festival before this feature debut. The Canadian short film prize of $10,000 went to Chris Chong Chan Fui's Pool.
Other winning films included two Mexican offerings. The Diesel Discovery Award, voted on by the 1,000 members of the international media attending the festival, went to Cochochi, from directors Israel Cardenas and Laura Amelia Guzman. The film is about two brothers who become separated when triying to deliver a package to a faraway community.
The award from the International Critics Association (FIPRESCI Prize) to an emerging filmmaker went to Rodrigo Pla for La Zona, a revenge drama set around a gated community in Mexico City.
The Artistic Innovation award went to another Spanish-language film, Anahi Berneri's Encarnacion, an Argentinean film about an aging actress who returns to her hometown, which was cited by the jury for its for its "critique of mainstream cinema" and issues around the "fetishization of the female body." TIFF closed on Saturday after screening 349 films over 10 days.
Liam Lacey