In the flurry of year-end film awards, the Toronto Film Critics Association has passed over the Hollywood mainstream by picking Wendy and Lucy, a movie made for under half a million dollars (U.S.), as its top film of the year, and star Michelle Williams as best actress.
The association of 32 print and broadcast journalists also emphasized independent American fare by giving three awards to the ensemble family drama Rachel Getting Married, and best-actor honours to Mickey Rourke for his comeback role as a washed-up fighter in The Wrestler.
Yesterday, the Toronto International Film Festival also released its Canada's top-10 list.
When it comes to the best films of 2008, the critics definitely do not agree. New York Film Critics' Circle picked Milk, a drama about assassinated gay politician Harvey Milk as best film, while the Los Angeles Film Critics' Association opted for the animated film WALL-E. Both the National Board of Review and the Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association went for Danny Boyle's Mumbai-based romance, Slumdog Millionaire.
Such critical nods help movie studios' marketing campaigns as they fight for attention before the Academy Awards, but this year's lack of consensus should produce a lively Oscar race.
Kelly Reichardt's Wendy and Lucydoes not open in Canada until Jan. 23, but this year the Toronto Film Critics Association adjusted the terms of eligibility to include Oscar-qualifying films that sometimes have delayed releases in Canada. Michelle Williams plays a young woman whose car breaks down in Oregon while en route to a job in Alaska. She runs out of money, her dog, Lucy, is impounded, and she begins to slip through the social cracks. Director Reichardt has said the film was inspired by the humanitarian crisis brought about by hurricane Katrina.
Runners-up for best picture were Rachel Getting Married and Disney's WALL-E, about the last robot left on Earth after an environmental disaster.
Contenders for best-actress award were Anne Hathaway for Rachel Getting Married and Meryl Streep for John Patrick Shanley's Catholic drama, Doubt.
Rachel Getting Married, the sprawling family drama starring Hathaway as a young woman released from a rehab centre for her sister's wedding, took prizes for best director for Jonathan Demme, best screenplay for Jenny Lumet and best supporting actress for Rosemary DeWitt, who plays the title character.
Runners-up for best director were Danny Boyle for Slumdog Millionaire and Andrew Stanton for WALL-E., while screenplay also-rans were Shanley for Doubt and Peter Morgan for Frost/Nixon. Other supporting-actor nominations went to Penelope Cruz ( Vicky Cristina Barcelona) and Viola Davis ( Doubt).
Nominated with Rourke for best actor were Sean Penn for Milk and Jean-Claude Van Damme for JCVD, in which the Belgian action star plays himself.
The late Heath Ledger won for best supporting actor in The Dark Knight. Other contenders were Josh Brolin in Milk, Robert Downey Jr. in Tropic Thunder and Philip Seymour Hoffman in Doubt.
In other awards, best animated feature went to WALL-E (beating out Kung Fu Panda, Persepolis and Waltz with Bashir). Best first feature went to Lance Hammer's Mississippi Delta drama Ballast (over The Band's Visit and Frozen River). The best documentary went to Man on Wire (over Standard Operating Procedure and Up the Yangtze) and the best foreign-language film was the Swedish vampire flick Let the Right One In (beating The Class, I've Loved You So Long and A Christmas Tale).
The best Canadian film will be announced on Jan. 6 at the awards dinner, where it will be accompanied by a cheque for the Rogers Canadian Film Award. Formerly a private affair, the 11th-annual awards night will take place at Nota Bene restaurant and will be open to the industry and media for the first time. The contenders are Stéphane Lafleur's Continental: A Film without Guns, Guy Maddin's My Winnipeg and Yung Chang's Up the Yangtze.
None of the Toronto critics' favourite Canadian films were included in Canada's top-10 list which, under the auspices of TIFF, was selected by a ten-member panel of filmmakers, industry and members of the media from across the country This year's list includes features from well-known Canadian directors such as Atom Egoyan, with his Cannes entry, Adoration, as well new films from Deepa Mehta ( Heaven on Earth) and Léa Pool, with her Maman est chez le coiffeur ( Mommy is at the Hairdresser's). Reflecting the country's diversity, five of the films are in English, four in French and one, Before Tomorrow, in Inuktitut. Before Tomorrow has been accepted in dramatic competition at the Sundance Film Festival next month.
Paul Gross's First World War epic, Passchendaele, which at $20-million is considered the most expensive homegrown film in Canadian history, was not on the list, though this is no indication of how the film will fare at the Genies, in which the awards are determined by members of the Canadian film industry.
Canada's top 10 is intended as a promotional tool for Canadian films, many of which showed at fall festivals but have still not appeared in theatres. All the films will be screened from Jan. 30 to Feb. 7 at Cinematheque Ontario, with a selection of films also showing at Vancouver's Pacific Cinematheque and Ottawa's Canadian Film Institute early next year.
The top 10 Canadian short films of 2008, also in alphabetical order, are: La battue /The Beaten (Guy Édoin); Block B (Chris Chong Chan Fui; Drux Flux (Theodore Ushev); Ghosts and Gravel Roads (Michael Rollom); Green Door (Semi Chellas); Next Floor (Denis Villeneuve); Nikamowin (Kevin Lee Burton); Passages (Marie-Josée Saint-Pierre); Princess Margaret Blvd. (Kazik Radwanski); and Mon nom est Victor Gazon/My Name Is Victor Gazon (Patrick Gazé).
Tickets go on sale today for screenings of the top 10, along with panel discussions and Q & A sessions with available filmmakers at Cinematheque Ontario (the Art Gallery of Ontario's Jackman Hall, 317 Dundas Street West). topten.ca or 416-968-FILM (toll-free 1-877-968-FILM) or box office at 2 Carlton Street, West Mezzanine.
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Canada's top 10
TIFF's top 10 Canadian features of the year (in alphabetical order, with release dates where applicable):
Adoration 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) Benoît 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 (The Memories of Angels) Luc Bourdon (National Film Board of Canada)
Pontypool Bruce McDonald (Maple Pictures; March, 2009)
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TIFF's top-10 shorts
Canadian shorts are just as big as features: That's the point made loud and clear at the top of yesterday's Toronto International Film Festival announcement for Canada's top 10 films.
Several on the list of the top Canadian shorts have already garnered a fair amount of attention, from Green Door (directed by screenwriter Semi Chellas), about a tangle of relationships and apartment rental units, to Denis Villeneuve's tour of gastronomy and gluttony in Next Floor.
Sure, the top 10 shorts don't have the same name-recognition factor as the top 10 features, which include films by Atom Egoyan, Deepa Mehta and Bruce McDonald. Nevertheless, Chellas and Villeneuve are well known inside the industry.
But for Canadian film insiders, shorts are everywhere - and increasingly so. It was impossible to avoid Villeneuve's Next Floor at the last Toronto International Film Festival. DVDs and promo packets were distributed left and right. Then there were other shorts highly anticipated this year by those in the know, from Chris Chong Chan Fui's Block B (a detailed meditation on a building in Kuala Lumpur) to Patrick Gazé's Mon nom est Victor Gazon (about a 10-year-old's sharp-minded list of pros and cons in life).
"People are watching more shorts now then they have ever before. ... It's people who are taking a chance on films and really enjoy film as an art form. They aren't necessarily coming because they are looking for a star or predicted experience," said Alex Rogalski, programmer for the Short Cuts Canada series of short films at TIFF. He was also a judge for the top 10 list.
Guy Dixon
Liam Lacey