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Jacob Tremblay as Jack and Brie Larson as Ma in Room. Photo by Caitlin Cronenberg, courtesy of Elevation Pictures |
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The Forbidden Room |
This year sees the probably end of a five-year streak in which Canada's Oscar contender dominated the Screenies. Canuck Oscar bids Incendies, Monsieur Lazhar, War Witch, Gabrielle, and Mommy all won Best Picture on the heels of their exposure in the Oscar race, while all of them except for Gabrielle virtually swept the awards outright as if voters didn't even see any of the other films. Felix and Meira remains a respectable bid, and it's a lovely romance with great performances, but the support for the film outside of the festival circuit is almost as muted as the film is understated film.
The Screenies still face the difficulty of access, though,
as it remains hard to see the nominees, although festivals and notably TIFF’s
Film Circuit are doing a great job of getting these films to audiences. Personally,
I had seen all the Best Picture nominees and most of the other contenders prior
to the nominations, but few other films became available outside of overpriced
options to buy on iTunes in the days since. In the grand scale of things,
however, the Screenies are still on the right track and have a field of films
to admire.
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Nominee Nick Serrino in Sleeping Giant |
Here’s a rundown of who will win, could win, and should win
come Sunday. After calling most of the awards last year, I expect to do about
as terribly here as I did at the Oscars. It’s a strong and close field of
contenders.
The nominees: Joan Allen, Room; Cynthia
Ashburger, The Waiting Room;
Christine Beaulieu, Le Mirage; Balinder
Johal, Beeba Boys; Mylène
Mackay, Endorphine
Here’s an impressive, if surprising, group of performances.
I haven’t had a chance to see Mylène Mackay in Endorphine, but these actresses otherwise give a range of subtle,
unshowy performances that rarely get attention. Balinder Johal is very
effective as the mother of a gangster and the voice of reason in Deepa Mehta’s Beeba Boys, while Christine Beaulieu
gives a memorable take on the woman of desire in Le mirage. She could have been just another sex kitten, but her
performance really conveys a sense of violation when the film’s protagonist
crosses the line. Ashburger’s performance as a wife on her deathbed in The Waiting Room is something of a
surprise, but she helps make the film mysterious and haunting. Joan Allen,
finally, has a nomination after missing awards traction that many pundits
thought would land her at the Oscars for her moving performance as a mother who
reconnects with her long-lost daughter in Room.
There’s no question that Allen’s performance is in a league of its own compared
to the other nominees, although Johal could be a sentimental favourite among
the Canuck contenders.
★Will win: Joan
Allen, Room
★I’d vote for: Allen
★Shoulda been there: Gabrielle
Rose, Two 4 One; Suzanne Clément, My Internship in Canada; Valérie
Cadieux, Les êtres chers; Katie
Boland, People Hold On
Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role:
The nominees: Waris
Aluwalia, Beeba Boys; Tony
Nardi, Corbo; Irdens
Exantus, My Internship in Canada;
Nick Serrino, Sleeping Giant; Patrick
Hivon, Ville-Marie.
Here’s a random bunch. Unlike the supporting actresses,
these performances lean towards the scene-stealing variety, but they are
surprising choices given the contenders who didn’t
make the cut, like Martin Landau (Remember),
Louis Negin (The Forbidden Room), Luzer
Twersky (Felix and Meira) and the
cast of Hyena Road. Young Nick
Serrino conveys wisdom beyond his years as a troubled boy in Sleeping Giant, which earned him the
Best Supporting Actor prize from the Vancouver Film Critics Circle, and he
might be the safest bet to win. The heavy support for Sleeping Giant throughout the Canadian film scene and festival
circuit means that the film is bound to win something. Hivon is powerful in the
mess of Ville-Marie, while Toni Nardi
is a quietly compelling presence as the patriarch of Corbo. Waris Aluwalia probably has an edge since his comedic
presence in Beeba Boys is one of the
few things about the film that actually works. Moreover, in a climate sensitive
to inclusivity, a win Beeba Boys
helps avoid controversy. However, it’s worth noting that although the Screenies
have three acting nominees of colour (Aluwalia, Johal, Irdens Exantus), the
Canadian film industry still has a problem with representation. We’ve just had
a few filmmakers succeed, like Deepa Mehta, Atom Egoyan, Mina Shum, Zacharias
Kunuk, and Kim Nguyen, which allows us to pretend that all’s well in the
diversity department.
The best performance, however, comes from the endlessly
endearing Irdens Exantus as the titular intern of Philippe Falardeau’s My Internship in Canada. Playing an
eager political beaver who comes to Canada from the Caribbean, this performance
blends greatly with Falardeau’s satirical comedy. His performance deserves to
represent the film’s excellent ensemble cast.
★Will win: Nick
Serrino, Sleeping Giant?
★I’d vote for: Irdens
Exantus, My Internship in Canada
★Shoulda been there: Louis
Negin, The Forbidden Room; Roy
Dupuis, The Sound of Trees
Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role:
The nominees: Céline
Bonnier, Passion of Augustine;
Leah Fay Goldstein, Diamond Tongues; Brie
Larson, Room; Karelle
Tremblay, Les êtres chers; Hadas
Yaron, Felix and Meira.
Goldstein can probably count on a contingent of support from
the Toronto crowd, which really threw its support behind Diamond Tongues. The film didn’t see much life outside the city and
her character isn’t especially sympathetic or accessible unless one is a Queen
West hipster, so a nomination is probably it for the July Talk singer in her
respectable screen debut. One could say the same about Céline Bonnier for her
restrained power in Quebecois hit The
Passion of Augustine, while great performances from Karelle Tremblay and Hadas
Yaron are more likely to give Quebec some of its few wins of the night.
Tremblay is a powerhouse as a young woman who survives years of change and
tragedy at her family home in Les êtres
chers and Yaron gives a performance of remarkable subtlety and longing in
our Oscar bid Felix and Meira.
However, this year is all about Brie Larson and her Oscar-winning performance
in Room. She’ll presumably win this
prize by a landslide and add a Screenie to her crowded shelf.
★Will win: Brie
Larson, Room
★I’d vote for: Karelle
Tremblay, Les êtres chers
★Shoulda been there: Ellen
Page and Evan Rachel Wood should have duked it out for Into the Forest, while Bond girl Monica Bellucci would have been a
fair choice for her spectacular turn in the disappointing Ville-Marie. Brooklyn’s Saoirse Ronan was ineligible due to the
film’s co-production status, but maybe this rule needs to change since she’s
worthy and one of the Canadian film MVPs of the year.
Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role
The nominees: Maxim
Gaudette, Les êtres chers; Jasmin
Geljo, The Waiting Room;
Christopher Plummer, Remember; Rossif
Sutherland, River; Jacob Tremblay, Room
Geljo is terrific in The
Waiting Room and Gaudette’s excellent performance in Les êtres chers might be the dark horse here, but this category is
a two-way race. (I haven’t yet had a chance to see River.) Best Actor features the biggest age gap between performers
since Quvenzhané Wallis went head to head with Emmanuelle Riva as nine-year-old
newcomer Jacob Tremblay competes against 86-year-old industry stalwart
Christopher Plummer. It’s hard to deny that Plummer is the finest actor that
Canada has ever produced, so age and respect probably play nominal factors here
if voters have mixed feelings about giving the prize to a kid. Plummer recently
won a Screenie for his performance in the TV adaptation of The Tempest; he’s won an Oscar and this award isn’t going to do
anything for his career, but his compelling and challenging performance as a
vengeance-seeking man with dementia is the only reason to see Atom Egoyan’s Remember. He certainly gives a worthy
performance if he wins.
On the other hand, Jacob Tremblay’s performance in Room is legitimately the best of the
bunch. Bias against his age or assumptions that young actors merely reflect the
efforts of their directors could work against him, but as with Wallis in Beasts of the Southern Wild, Tremblay
gives a ferocious performance. Acting is acting, whether or not it comes from
within or from a director’s instructions. Who are we to make the call that we
know what’s going on in an actor’s head? Doesn’t the performance become even
more interesting if it’s all just a game of make believe? Screenie voters gave
the prizes to the kids from Monsieur
Lazhar and War Witch, so youth
doesn’t seem to be a hindrance here.
★Will win: Jacob
Tremblay, Room
★I’d vote for: Tremblay
★Shoulda been there:
Patrick Huard, My Internship in Canada; Gavin Crawford, Two 4 One
Best Director
The nominees: Lenny
Abrahamson, Room; Andrew
Cividino, Sleeping Giant; Anne Émond, Les êtres chers; Maxime
Giroux, Felix and Meira; Philippe
Lesage, The Demons
Here’s a contest that
could prove controversial. I’m not talking about the totally nonsensical
omission of Guy Maddin and Evan Johnson for their flat-out crazy, wild,
brilliant, and audacious direction of The Forbidden Room—that technical
work alone merits the prize. The tricky question here is whether a foreign
artist will win Best Director. Only once has the award gone to a non-Canadian
in the directing category and Aussie Bruce Beresford holds that honour for
winning in 1991 for Black Robe. Irish director Lenny Abrahamson seems
like a shoo-in for Room given the critical success of the film and his
Oscar nomination, but the industry remains sensitive to the ever-changing
definition of what constitutes a Canadian film, and the hallmark of a
“Canadian” film often lands on the nationality of its director. I disagree and
believe that international co-production is something that we need to embrace
as “Canadian,” but I seem to be in the minority. If part of this journey
requires us to award foreign directors when they merit the prize, then that’s a
fair compromise for the resources and reach that films like Room can
give the Canadian film scene. The work itself is quite good, especially if one
considers Tremblay’s performance and the range of emotion that Room
elicits within such a tight space.
If the prize should
go to a Canadian, though, the four nominees have the work to merit an upset.
Philippe Lesage proves himself a rare talent with his chilling first dramatic
feature that draws heavily on his experience in documentary. The Demons
both lives and dies by its abrupt change in perspective about two-thirds of the
way through the film, though, and the move is bound to cost him as many votes
as he gains. If a Quebecois director is going to continue the streak that has
seven directors from La Belle Province winning the prize over the past years,
then Anne Émond truly deserve to win for her revelatory direction of Les êtres chers. She’s a born talent and
deserves the Screenie for handling this domestic tragedy with such nuance and
sensitivity. Every frame of the film is beautiful and the performances are
subtle and powerful. Ditto the understated direction of Felix and Meira by Maxime Giroux, although the film noticeably
lacks the heat of Canada’s recent Oscar bids. The likeliest contender to stand
tall against Oscar-nominee Abrahamson is newcomer Andrew Cividino for his
impressive first feature, Sleeping Giant.
Like Abrahamson in Room, Cividino
draws terrific performances from young actors, but more impressive is the
inquisitive eye with which he frames the Canadian landscape in this coming of
age tale.
★Will win: Lenny
Abrahamson, Room
★I'd vote for: Anne
Émond, Les êtres chers
★Shoulda been there:
Guy Maddin and Evan Johnson, The
Forbidden Room; Patricia Rozema, Into
the Forest.
Best Motion Picture
The nominees: Brooklyn, Corbo, The Demons, Les êtres chers, Felix and Meira, The Forbidden Room,
My Internship in Canada,
Remember, Room, Sleeping Giant
Now comes the tricky part: Best Motion Picture. The previous
categories probably indicate that Room
has the top prize in the bag. In addition to three probably acting prizes, it’s
a safe bet for Best Director and a 100% sure winner for Best Adapted
Screenplay. That’s at least five main prizes without factoring in the arts and
technical stuff. (Which Hyena Road
stands a fair chance of dominating.) Room
is the most nominated film of the contenders with thirteen nods across the
board—pretty much every category in which it was a contender, although Tom
McCamus could have popped up in the supporting group—but don’t assume that
Canada’s other co-pro, Brooklyn, is
weak because it has only three nominations. As a minority co-pro without a
Canadian director or writer (and technically the Canadian producers are
co-producers), the film is only eligible for Canadian contributions. It’s a
surprise that the production design by François Séguin isn’t nominated, but one
shouldn’t be taken aback if Brooklyn
upsets Room after winning Best Score
and Best Cinematography. On one level, Brooklyn
is simply the better film and it’s connecting with audiences far more strongly
than Room is, scooping almost $3.5
million more than Room at
the Canuck box office. Brooklyn
also lends itself towards the continuation of telling tangibly Canadian stories
through co-production. Brooklyn’s
tale of immigration resonates strongly in a country that is largely inhabited
by people who made the journey overseas like Eilis does, or are descendants of
people who did.
Rounding out the whopping field of ten contenders, The Forbidden Room is my pick for the
best Canadian film of the year—and it really should be better represented in
the artistic and technical categories—but the strange aesthetic is still very
like-it-or-leave-it even if it’s one of Maddin’s stronger works. (The film also won the Toronto Film Critics' Canuck gong.) Remember has a reward in its nomination,
while Les êtres chers and The Demons are less likely to win for
Quebec than Felix and Meira is,
which, as mentioned in the Best Director category, seems unlikely to continue
the streak of Oscar submissions stealing the show. The film just didn’t connect
with Canadian audiences strongly enough to win Best Picture. Falardeau’s My Internship in Canada is a dark horse,
but a very dark one since it missed nominations for director, acting, editing,
and score, which all seemed like no-brainers. The wild card, finally, is Sleeping Giant, the year’s festival hit
and a rare film to play the awards game with a qualifying run in Toronto before
the end of the year… but it’s bizarre that Cividino isn’t getting this year’s
prize for breakthrough director. (Dubbed the Claude Jutra prize until the
scandal of his alleged pedophilia rocked the industry.) That prize goes to
Jamie M. Dagg for River, which is a
surprise given that Sleeping Giant is
up for the top prize. There isn’t a better dramatic first feature by a Canadian
this year, so are voters saving the big prize for Sleeping Giant?
★Will win: Brooklyn, Room, Brooklyn, Room, Brooklyn,
Room? Against better judgement, I’ll go with Room.
★I’d vote for: The Forbidden Room
★Shoulda been there:
Into the Forest, The Sound of Trees
Other categories:
Best Original Screenplay:
Endorphine
Les êtres chers
Les êtres chers
Remember
Zoom
★Will win: My Internship in Canada
★I'd vote for: Internship
★Shoulda been there: The Forbidden Room, Felix and Meira
Zoom
★Will win: My Internship in Canada
★I'd vote for: Internship
★Shoulda been there: The Forbidden Room, Felix and Meira
Adapted Screenplay:
Eadwearde
The Saver
★Will win: Room
★I'd vote for: abstain
★Shoulda been there: Into the Forest, Sleeping Giant
★Will win: Room
★I'd vote for: abstain
★Shoulda been there: Into the Forest, Sleeping Giant
Achievement in Costumes:
Corbo
Forsaken
Hyena Road
Songs She Wrote About People She Knows
★Will win: Forsaken?
★I'd vote for: Beeba Boys
★Shoulda been there: The Forbidden Room, The Girl King
Forsaken
Hyena Road
Songs She Wrote About People She Knows
★Will win: Forsaken?
★I'd vote for: Beeba Boys
★Shoulda been there: The Forbidden Room, The Girl King
Achievement in Cinematography:
Forsaken
Room★Will win: Brooklyn
★I'd vote for: Brooklyn
★Shoulda been there: The Forbidden Room
Achievement in Art Direction/Production Design:
Felix and Meira
The Forbidden Room
Forsaken
Forsaken
Achievement in Film Editing:
Le garagiste
Les êtres chers
Les êtres chers
Room
Sleeping Giant
★Will win: Hyena Road
★I'd vote for: Les êtres chers
★Shoulda been there: The Forbidden Room, My Internship in Canada, Into the Forest
Sleeping Giant
★Will win: Hyena Road
★I'd vote for: Les êtres chers
★Shoulda been there: The Forbidden Room, My Internship in Canada, Into the Forest
Hyena Road
Forsaken
Room
★Will win: Hyena Road
★I'd vote for: Backcountry
★Shoulda been there: The Forbidden Room
Forsaken
Room
★Will win: Hyena Road
★I'd vote for: Backcountry
★Shoulda been there: The Forbidden Room
Achievement in Music – Original Score
Anna
Passion of AugustineRoom
Songs She Wrote About People She Knows
★Will win: Brooklyn
★I'd vote for: Brooklyn
★Shoulda been there: Into the Forest, My Internship in Canada
Achievement in Music – Original Song
88
Scratch: A Hip Hop OperaSongs She Wrote About People She Knows
-->Listen to all the nominees here!
★Will win: People Hold On
★I'd vote for: People Hold On
Achievement in Overall Sound
Le garagiste
Endorphine
Into the Forest
My Internship in Canada
★Will win: Hyena Road
★I'd vote for: Into the Forest (metronome scene!)
My Internship in Canada
★Will win: Hyena Road
★I'd vote for: Into the Forest (metronome scene!)
Achievement in Sound Editing
Le garagiste
Achievement in Visual Effects:
Endorphine
Remember
Zoom
★Will win: Hyena Road
★I'd vote for: Hyena Road
★Shoulda been there: The Forbidden Room
Ted Rogers Award for Best Documentary Feature:
HURT
Last of the Elephant Men
★Will win: Hurt
★I'd vote for: Hurt
★Shoulda been there: Al Purdy Was Here, Ninth Floor
Last of the Elephant Men
★Will win: Hurt
★I'd vote for: Hurt
★Shoulda been there: Al Purdy Was Here, Ninth Floor
Achievement in Cinematography – Documentary
Achievement in Editing – Documentary
Welcome to FL
★Will win: How to Change the World
★I'd vote for: How to Change the World
★Shoulda been there: Ninth Floor
The Little Deputy
Quiet Zone
Rebel
World Famous Gopher Hole Museum
★Will win: Bacon and God's Wrath
★I'd vote for: Bacon and God's Wrath
★Shoulda been there: Bring Me the Head of Tim Horton
Mynarski Death Plummet
Overpass
Roberta
She Stoops to Conquer
★Will win: Overpass
★I'd vote for: Blue Thunder
Ballad of Immortal Joe
BAM
In Deep Waters
The Sleepwalker
★Will win: The Sleepwalker
★I'd vote for: BAM
★Will win: How to Change the World
★I'd vote for: How to Change the World
★Shoulda been there: Ninth Floor
Best Documentary Short
Bacon and God's WrathThe Little Deputy
Quiet Zone
Rebel
World Famous Gopher Hole Museum
★Will win: Bacon and God's Wrath
★I'd vote for: Bacon and God's Wrath
★Shoulda been there: Bring Me the Head of Tim Horton
Best Live Action Short
Blue ThunderMynarski Death Plummet
Overpass
Roberta
She Stoops to Conquer
★Will win: Overpass
★I'd vote for: Blue Thunder
Best Animated Short
Auto PortraitsBallad of Immortal Joe
BAM
In Deep Waters
The Sleepwalker
★Will win: The Sleepwalker
★I'd vote for: BAM
Discovery Award
(Festival film with budget under $250 000)★Winner: Mina Walking