4/23/2015

'Atanarjuat' Tops TIFF's List of the Best Canadian Films of All Time

Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner
Here's a surprise! The Toronto International Film Festival released its list of the Best Canadian films of all time, and the film stop the list is Zacharias Kunuk's Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner, knocking Mon Oncle Antoine from the top spot. Atanarjuat is a landmark for First Nations filmmakers in Canada and was Canada's submission to the Oscars for 2001. Other notable additions to TIFF's fourth edition of this list are Jean-Marc Vallée's C.R.A.Z.Y. and Sarah Polley's Stories We Tell. (I'm disappointed that Incendies didn't make it though.) The huge snub is The Barbarian Invasions, which is the best film ever to come out of Quebec, although Denys Arcand is on the list for Jesus of Montreal. Glad to see my favourite, The Sweet Hereafter, made the cut.


The Best Canadian Films according to the poll are:
Canada’s All-Time Top Ten List of Canadian films:
1. Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner, Zacharias Kunuk (2001)
2. Mon oncle Antoine, Claude Jutra (1971)
3. The Sweet Hereafter, Atom Egoyan (1997)
4. Jésus de Montréal, Denys Arcand (1989)
5. Léolo, Jean-Claude Lauzon (1992)
6. Goin’ Down the Road, Don Shebib (1970)
7. Dead Ringers, David Cronenberg (1988)
8. C.R.A.Z.Y., Jean-Marc Vallée (2005)
9. My Winnipeg, Guy Maddin (2007)
10. Stories We Tell, Sarah Polley (2012)
10. Les Ordres, Michel Brault (1974)

The films will screen for free at the Lightbox this summer!