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Norm MacDonald |
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Room team David Gross, Jacob Tremblay, Emma Donoghue. |
MacDonald might not have brought the same fire as previous
hosts Andrea Martin and Martin Short (who received a Lifetime Achievement Award
from the Academy), but he was consistently funny and a nice glue to one of the
better broadcasts so far for the Canadian Screen Awards. Highlights from
MacDonald included a shot at Stephen Harper’s new career as an Uber drive and a bit
about a swag bag that offered loose leftover pancakes and Don Cherry cologne.
He also joked that viewers probably hadn’t seen (m)any of the nominees, and acknowledged
an elephant in the room from the outset.
The show ran smoothly, aside from a completely random/awkward
rendition of “A Natural Woman” to honour the female nominees during the latter
half of the show. Not only did the song bring a wave of dead air when it seemed
as if presenters were rushing through awards, it felt like the Lady Gaga/Sound of Music song that offered a feel
good celebration for its own sake. The portion was awkward mostly because it
felt unnecessary within an industry that is already doing a lot to champion the
work of women. (Re: the NFB’s new quota of 50% female talent in production.) At
what point do we move artists, actors, and filmmakers out of the ghetto and
celebrate the work equally? The song meant that many nominees, both female and male,
weren’t visible at all, including the work of the five actresses nominated for
Best Supporting Actress. The award was presumably axed because winner Joan
Allen (Room) wasn’t present, but the
airtime devoted to the song would have given viewers a taste of several films
and the great work by some Canadian actresses had the airtime been devoted to
the category. What good does a picture of Balinder Johal do if few people
watching the show know a) who she is or b) what work earned her a nomination? The
time might have also been better spent featuring at least one of the
documentary or shorts categories, which didn’t receive any time in the
broadcast other than a cutaway to winners Alan Zweig and Peter Gentile
celebrating their Candy for Hurt with
some scotch backstage.
The song and the absence of some of the nominees stressed
that the CSAs/Candys still have to overcome the problem of celebrating something
for its own sake. This year’s show once again faced the problem of getting
people excited to celebrate films they hadn’t seen—or weren’t able to see if
they wanted to. As mentioned previously, even an active viewer like myself
struggled to see all the nominees, most of which I caught at TIFF, Hot Docs, or
Canada’s Top Ten.
The winners inevitably drew from popular choices with
co-production Room amassing nine
awards including gongs for Best Film and Best Actress for Brie Larson—notably a
no show, since last year’s Oscar winner Julianne Moore made an appearance when
she knew she was probably going to lose to Mommy’s
Anne Dorval. Room also scored a Best
Director win for Ireland’s Lenny Abrahamson (another no show), who became the
first non-Canadian director to win the prize in twenty-five years after Bruce
Beresford nabbed it for Black Robe. One
American star who made a welcome addition to the show was Aunjanue Ellis, a
winner for her work in the CBC miniseries The
Book of Negroes earlier this week, who made the night’s obligatory
political statement by wearing a provocative dress calling on President Barack
Obama to remove the Confederate Flag from America’s flagpoles. “We want
president Obama to send a bill to Congress demanding that it be taken down on
all federal properties,” Ellis
told The Toronto Star.
Among the night’s other winners was Room’s fellow Canuck
co-pro Brooklyn, which earned awards
for two of its three nominations by netting Candys for Canucks Yves Bélanger
and Michael Brooke in the races for Cinematography and Score, respectively.
Paul Gross’s Hyena Road scored three technical
prizes and added to an impressive tally for new distributor Elevation Pictures,
which had a strong haul with Room’s nine
wins and a special prize for River.
The Candys notably felt like a shake-up in the major players in Canadian film,
for usual powerhouse eOne landed only one award (Best Original Screenplay for Remember) after winning every single
dramatic film prize and two of three documentary feature awards last year. D
Films scored a gong for Sleeping Giant,
while the Mongrels nabbed three awards between Brooklyn and Beeba Boys.
The night also scored points for highlighting Canadian stars
who continue to work in the Canadian system despite finding considerable success
in Hollywood. In additional to Martin Short’s Lifetime Achievement Award, the
night honoured Catherine O’Hara and Eugene Levy for their work in Schitt’s Creek (they also won legacy
awards earlier in the week), while Christopher Plummer was on hand as a nominee
and as the presenter for Best Film. Seeing all the Canadian talent of
considerable esteem on hand, the show proved that the Canadian industry has the
makers for future stars, especially if Jacob Tremblay keeps up his love for the
camera.