Toronto Film Critics Association Announces Nominees for Best Canadian Film

The Forbidden Room. Photo courtesy of Mongrel Media.

The Toronto Film Critics Association announced the three nominees for its annual Rogers Best Canadian Film Award. The nominees are Guy Maddin and Evan Johnson’s The Forbidden Room, Philippe Falardeau’s My Internship in Canada, and Andrew Cividino’s Sleeping Giant, which was also a runner-up for Best First Feature. The three films recently made the list for Canada’s Top Ten as well. All three are strong choices and among the most well-regarded Canuck films of the year. The Forbidden Room and Internship opened theatrically in October, while Sleeping Giant has a rare qualifying run in Toronto this week, playing at the Carlton at the lunch hour. (The run now makes it eligible for the Canadian Screen Awards without forcing it to move away from its April release.) The winner for the TFCA award will be announced in January where the director will receive a cash prize of $100 000.

Other winners for TFCA gongs include Carol for Best Film and Best Director for Todd Haynes, while Tom Hardy proved to be the Meryl Streep of the TFCA by winning back to back honours for his awful turn in Legend after winning for Locke last year. In an inspired move (which I actually called almost two weeks ago in a conversation over cocktails!), the TFCA gave its Best Actress prize to Nina Hoss and her knockout performance in Phoenix.

The awards will be presented in January. In addition to announcing the winner of the Rogers Best Canadian Film Awards, TFCA will also dish out $5000 for the Stella Artois Jay Scott Prize for an emerging artist and the Manulife Student Film Award, both of which’ll be announced at a later date.

The full list of Toronto Film Critics Association Awards winners and runners-up:

BEST PICTURE

“Carol” (Entertainment One) 

Runners-up

            “Mad Max: Fury Road” (Warner Bros.)

            “Spotlight” (Entertainment One)

BEST ACTOR

            Tom Hardy, “Legend” (Elevation Pictures)

Runners-up

            Leonardo DiCaprio, “The Revenant” (20^th Century Fox)

 Michael Fassbender, “Steve Jobs” (Universal)

BEST ACTRESS

            Nina Hoss, “Phoenix” (Films We Like)

Runners-up

            Cate Blanchett, “Carol”

            Brie Larson, “Room” (Elevation Pictures)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

           Mark Rylance, “Bridge of Spies” (Touchstone)

Runners-up

            Benicio Del Toro, “Sicario” (Entertainment One)

            Michael Shannon, “99 Homes” (VVS)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

            Alicia Vikander, “Ex Machina” (Mongrel Media)

Runners-up

            Rooney Mara, “Carol”

            Kristen Stewart, “Clouds of Sils Maria” (Mongrel Media)           

BEST DIRECTOR

            Todd Haynes, “Carol”

Runners-up

            Tom McCarthy, “Spotlight”

            George Miller, “Mad Max: Fury Road”

            Denis Villeneuve, “Sicario”

BEST SCREENPLAY, ADAPTED OR ORIGINAL

            “The Big Short”, Charles Randolph and Adam McKay  (Paramount Pictures)

based upon the book by Michael Lewis

Runners-up

“Anomalisa”, Charlie Kaufman (Paramount Pictures)

based on his stage play

            “Carol”, by Phyllis Nagy

based on the novel “The Price of Salt” by Patricia Highsmith

            “Spotlight”, by Josh Singer & Tom McCarthy

BEST FIRST FEATURE

            “Ex Machina”, directed by Alex Garland

Runners-up

            “Sleeping Giant”, directed by Andrew Cividino (D Films)

            “Son of Saul”, directed by Lázsló Nemes (Mongrel Media)

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

            “Shaun the Sheep Movie” (Elevation Pictures)

Runners-up

            “Anomalisa” (Paramount Pictures)

“Inside Out” (Disney*Pixar)

BEST FOREIGN-LANGUAGE FILM

            “Phoenix” (Films We Like)

Runners-up

            “The Assassin” (Amplify Releasing)

            “Son of Saul”

ALLAN KING DOCUMENTARY AWARD

            “The Look of Silence” (KinoSmith)

Runners-up

            “Amy” (Mongrel Media)

            “Listen To Me Marlon” ( distributor unknown )

ROGERS BEST CANADIAN FILM AWARD FINALISTS

            “The Forbidden Room”, directed by Guy Maddin and Evan Johnson

            “My Internship in Canada”, directed by Philippe Falardeau

            “Sleeping Giant”, directed by Andrew Cividino