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The Gabrielle team: Kim McCraw, Gabrielle Marion-Rivard, Louise Archamabault, Alexandre Landry, Luc Déry. |
Gabrielle
continued the streak of Canadian Oscar submissions triumphing at the Canadian
Screen Awards (and the former Genies). Oscar picks won four years in a row with
Gabrielle following the lead of Incendies, Monsieur Lazhar, and Rebelle.
Gabrielle also brought another win
for producers Kim McCraw and Luc Déry, who produced Incendies and Monsieur Lazhar.
It looked like the streak would not continue as Gabrielle headed into the awards, though, since writer/director
Louise Archambault was snubbed from both the direction and screenplay
nominations, and Gabrielle was shut
out in the early prizes handed out before the ceremony. The win for Gabrielle was foreshadowed in a surprise coup for lead actress Gabrielle Marion-Rivard, who plays the title character. (I
thought Empire of Dirt’s Cara Gee was
a lock for the award.) Marion-Rivard, who, like her character Gabrielle, has
William’s Syndrome, was clearly surprised and elated by her win, as she offered
one of the most excited and energetic speeches of the broadcast.
Gabrielle
Marion-Rivard is glowing as much as her Canadian Screen award #CdnSceen14
#EyeOnCanada
pic.twitter.com/fMrvcRfDZf
—
Canadian Film Review (@CDNFilmReview) March
10, 2014
Marion-Rivard’s win, as much as it is deserved, seemed like
it would be a conciliation prize for Gabrielle
amidst a scattershot distribution of awards. Gabrielle won two prizes, but Marion-Rivard’s CSA offered a
reminder that Archambault was slighted on the Best Director prize that she
quite emphatically deserved for delivering the subtle and sensitive love
story. Gabrielle was one of only
three Best Picture nominees to have received a theatrical release heading into
the awards, and last night’s ceremony struggled to shake the feeling that it
was an awkward marketing ploy for upcoming films as several of the top awards went
to films awaiting release.
Thankfully, though, the prize for Performance by a Lead
Actor went to Gabriel Arcand for his excellent turn in Le démantèlement. Arcand was the first win of the broadcast. Very
few of the films that actually received a release were acknowledged during the
ceremony itself. The pre-show awards handed out a roster of technical awards to
the home-cooked turkey The Mortal
Instruments, plus some well-deserved crafts awards to Louis Cyr. Jennifer Baichwal and Edward Burtynsky’s acclaimed Watermark won the Feature Documentary
prize and thankfully received a clip highlight during the broadcast. Other
pre-show winners included two short film wins for the National Film Board of
Canada for Subconscious Password and Chi, plus the TIFF winning short Noah won for Live Action Short. Empire of Dirt and The F Word won the screenplay prizes for original and adapted,
respectively. The latter film won in a category that was dominated by unreleased
films.
It was very difficult to feel excited about an award
ceremony without having the opportunity to see many of the top contenders. Part
of the fun of watching the Oscars, as noted last week, was debating the films
themselves with fellow film fans and Oscar completists who see all the
nominated films. It was admittedly disappointing to see many of the voices that
support Canadian film split between frustrated ambivalence or “Yay CanCon!” cheering
for unseen films. The Screenies felt like we were awarding Canadian
content for its own sake, rather than awarding films on merit, which isn’t the
path to take to get these films the attention they deserve. Thankfully, though,
the Best Motion Picture nominee Maïna,
which I reported as failing to meet eligibility requirements, was shut out and
will now enter its theatrical release with as little buzz as it did the
Canadian Screen Awards. Nobody can say if Maïna
should have won the award, though, because nobody saw it outside the voting
body.
One also can’t help but wonder how Xavier Dolan must feel
after being shut out (again) for Tom at
the Farm. Tom was a hit on last
year’s festival circuit, but it hasn’t screened theatrically in Canada and it
might simply not have enjoyed enough reach to garner a win. Dolan could have
easily gone all the way with Tom at the
Farm, but, like Maïna, the film
might have jumped the gun on its awards prospects. More fortunate was the night’s
winner for Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role, Gordon Pinsent, who appears
in the May release The Grand Seduction.
It still felt like an award gone to waste—especially since Pinsent wasn’t even
there to claim it—because the film doesn’t open for two months and very few
people saw the film, for it screened only a handful of times on the festival
circuit. Enemy fared far better than
its other unreleased competitors did. It opens in theatres this Friday and
might have used the top prize to help boost its Canuck box office.
Denis
Villeneuve, BD winner #CdnScreen14
for ENEMY, calls film "love letter to T.O." with "paranoia,
tension & fear." pic.twitter.com/NWYn1QuItC
—
Peter Howell (@peterhowellfilm) March
10, 2014
Enemy still walked
away with five awards including Achievement in Direction for Denis Villeneuve
and the prize for Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role for Sarah
Gadon, who was not present at the ceremony. A win for a film as experimental
and avant-garde as Enemy would never
have happened at the Oscars, though, so good on the Academy for acknowledging
such ambitious work. The Enemy win
marks Denis Villeneuve’s fourth Best Director prize from the Canadian Academy
after Maelström, Polytechnique, and Incendies.
(He also has two screenplay prizes for Incendies
and Maelström, and a Best Short win for Next
Floor.) This seventh trophy from the Canadian Academy saw Villeneuve
surpass Academy favourite Atom Egoyan, who has six Genies including two for
direction for The Sweet Hereafter and
Exotica.
David Cronenberg still holds the record with five Genies for
Achievement in Direction, and he added a Lifetime Achievement Award to his
tally last night. Cronenberg’s acceptance speech easily marked the highlight of
an otherwise mild broadcast. Viggo Mortensen, Cronenberg’s collaborator on A Dangerous Method, Eastern Promises, and A
History of Violence, presented the award.
(His History of Violence co-star
Mario Bello was also at the ceremony.) Cronenberg made a surprisingly funny
speech by offering Dilbert jokes and noting that the crowd probably expected
him to do something strange and unusual. “You aren’t expecting a normal speech,”
Cronenberg mused before offering a joke about an elderly man who visited the
doctor because he has trouble peeing. Cronenberg reminded the audience that he hasn’t
stopped peeing yet, and the standing ovation for Canada’s Blood Baron seemed
quite thankful for his ability to tinkle.
A History of
Violence reunion. #CDNScreen14
@ioncinema
pic.twitter.com/lBXahkh9TL
—
Leora Heilbronn (@leoraheilbronn) March
9, 2014
Cronenberg’s centrepiece brought the Canadian Screen Awards
to life, as the swift doling out of awards gave little time for host Martin
Short to do much shtick. Short marked his second stint as Screenie host by
opening with a quintessentially Canadian monologue that relied on jokes about
the weather, broadcaster fees, and Rob Ford’s (alleged) crack problem. He them
offered a song and dance number to all the lovely losing ladies, which seemed
like a polite Canadian spin on Seth MacFarlane’s “We saw your boobs” bit from
the Oscars of 2012.
Visual
confirmation. #Cronenberg
colleagues are super-tight. #ViggoMortensen
@maria_bello
#StepandRT
#CdnScreen14
pic.twitter.com/6dsrWS4tY1
—
CBC (@CBC) March
9, 2014
The number, however, highlighted the notable roster of stars
in attendance at the ceremony. Star wattage was on greater display at the Screenies
than it was last year. The appearance of Mortensen and Bello complemented the
calibre of Canadian talent at the ceremony that included Mad Men’s Jessica Paré, who joked a spoiler for the upcoming final
season by revealing that characters will be smoking cigarettes and drinking
liquor, and Orphan Black’s Tatiana
Maslany, who won Best Actress for her role on the hit series. The night also
gave the feeling that some Canadian actors are becoming stars for their work in
Canadian films, as nominees Jay Baruchel and Evelyne Brochu provided some of
the show’s highlights for Canadian talent.
The Canadian Screen Awards had a decent, if shaky, effort in
their sophomore year. Last night’s ceremony nevertheless brought a decent level of
excitement from many fans and it marks the effort a step in the right
direction. Next year’s Screenies could do even better if the awards build
excitement by actually getting people to see and discuss the films themselves,
which seems like the whole point of an award show.
Full list of film winners:
Best Motion Picture
★ Gabrielle - Kim McCraw, Luc Déry
Achievement in Direction:
★Denis Villeneuve, Enemy
Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role:
★Gabrielle Marion-Rivard, Gabrielle
Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role:
★Gabriel Arcand, Le démantèlement
★Sarah
Gadon, Enemy
★Gordon Pinsent, The Grand Seduction
Original
Screenplay:
★ Empire of Dirt - Shannen Masters
Adapted
Screenplay:
★The F-Word - Elan Mastai
Ted Rogers Award for Best Documentary:
★ Watermark- Jennifer Baichwal, Edward Burtynsky, Nicholas de Pencier, Daniel Iron
Achievement in Cinematography:
★Enemy - Nicholas Bolduc
Achievement in Film Editing:
★Enemy - Matthew Hannam
Achievement in Costumes:
★ Louis Cyr- Michel Proulx
Achievement in Music - Original Score:
★ Enemy - Danny Bensi, Saunder Jurriaans
Achievement in Make-up:
★ The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones- Jo-ann MacNeil, Karola Dirnberger, Paul Jones
Achievement in Overall Sound:
★ The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones- Andrew Tay, David Drage, David Giammarco, Greg
Achievement in Sound Editing:
★ The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones - Alex
Bullick, Christian Schaaning, J.R. Fountain, Jill Purdy,
Achievement Visual Effects:
★ The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones- Andy Robinson, Dennis Berardi, Edward J. Taylor IV, James
Best Live Action Short:
★Noah - Patrick Cederberg, Walter Woodman
Best Animated Short
Film:
★ Subconscious Password- Chris Landreth, Marcy Page, Mark Smith
Best Documentary
Short:
★ Chi - Anne Wheeler, Yves J. Ma, Tracy Friesen
Lifetime Achievement Award:
★ David Cronenberg
Cineplex Golden Reel Award:
★ The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, Don Carmody
Claude Jutra Award:
★Emanuel Hoss-Desmarais
Best Dressed:
Jessica Paré (Megan
Draper back in her home and native land.)
The beautiful
Jessica Paré has arrived. She's quite comfortable with the #CdnScreen14
award. pic.twitter.com/picCWUSNHm
—
CanadianScreenAwards (@Academy_NET) March
9, 2014
Runners-up:
Evelyne Brochu (Tom at the Farm)
Cette photo que j'ai prise de @EvelyneBrochu a failli faire exploser mon compte Twitter. #rc_arts @Academy_NET pic.twitter.com/xivEXeQUHo
— Kevin Sweet (@sweetonarts) March 9, 2014
Devery Jacobs (Rhymes for Young Ghouls)
Devery Jacobs
looks great as she starts the #CdnScreen14
red carpet. See her in Rhymes For Young Ghouls! pic.twitter.com/NllHQbk4pe
—
CanadianScreenAwards (@Academy_NET) March
9, 2014