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| Brigitte Poupart in Les affamés - the only Best Picture nominee that's truly excellent Emmanuel Crombez / Les Films Séville |
The Canadian Screen Awards are tonight and it’s an evening to
quietly celebrate a so-so year in Canadian film. The roster of nominees indicates that the nomination committees went out of
their way to find a diverse group of contenders and unearthed some buried
nuggets, but few of these films screened theatrically and some of them barely
made a peep on the festival circuit. A lot of the best Canadian work was short changed. The blink-and-you’ll-miss-it qualifying
runs don’t help much either when it comes to giving audiences a chance to see
the films. Canadian television seems to be picking up steam with Schitt's Creek and Alias Grace expanding their wow factors beyond the land of the maple leaf, but our films are struggling.
Perhaps this year more than ever, it feels as if we’re celebrating Canadian film simply for the sake of it. And I don’t know how much the awards are doing to nurture talent when only one of the acting categories has a strong contender to win who is Canadian. Sally Hawkins certainly deserves her prize, but I feel like we’re back in the 1980s where we’re attracting foreign talent without nurturing our own and where numbskull sequels to Goon and Bon Cop, Bad Cop are draining all the resources while fresher stories are being restricted to micro-budget productions that can’t compete for screen time outside of the Carlton. There are a handful of good films scattered around the nominees—and maybe even two or three great ones—but try finding many people who saw them. It’s harder than ever to see Canadian movies in Canadian theatres, and if we aren’t celebrating films because they’re the best, then we aren’t going to get any more bums in the seats.
Predicting the Screenies is somewhat pointless, but for
entertainment purposes, here’s a rundown on who could win/should win tonight. I
think Oscar submission and Best Picture snubee Hochelaga, Land of Souls could sweep the arts and crafts categories
(but watch out for The Breadwinner)
while Maudie will take the top
prizes, if only because it’s the nominee that most people saw.
Best Film
The nominees: Les affamés, Ava, The Breadwinner, The Heart is What Dies Last, The Little Girl Who Was Too Fond of Matches, Maudie, Never Steady, Never Still
What does it say about the state of things when Les affamés won the award for Best
Canadian Feature at TIFF last year, but didn’t find a release outside of
Quebec? Ditto Oscar submission Hochelaga,
Land of Souls, aside from its qualifying run in, like, Medicine Hat and a
random week at the Regina Public Library. Hochelaga
isn’t nominated here, but Les affamés is
and it’s the better film, so we’ll concentrate on that. Here we have what is
arguably the best genre film in Canada in over a decade, and one of the few
commercially viable films that’s actually good, but our distributors and
theatres just didn’t get behind it. Why? There’s an American zombie movie in
theatres every other week and they almost always suck. Even arthouse theatres
didn’t get this suspenseful masterpiece. So good on the Screenies for getting
behind this one – I just wish the show of support would have encouraged its
distributor to do more with the film. Check it out on iTunes if you can, or on
Netflix if you’re outside Canada.
I think the winner will probably be Maudie. It's a bit of a paint-by-numbers biopic outside its two extraordinary performances, but it will mostly win since it had the widest run of all the contenders.
I’m still amazed that it played at my neighbourhood revival the Mt. Pleasant
Theatre for thirty weeks. (Although they often just don’t update the marquee
when the movies change, so that may be off.) The Breadwinner is fantastic and might be the dark horse to bring
the first win for animation since The
Triplets of Belleville. The Little
Girl Who Was Too Fond of Matches is an ambitious genre piece, if nowhere
near as strong as Les affamés. Never Steady is mostly a showpiece for
Shirley Henderson. Ava has a lot of
fans, but it’s honestly just not very good aside from the screenplay and some of the performances. So that really leaves Maudie
with The Breadwinner as a possible
upset.
Will win: Maudie?
I’d vote for: Les affamés
Should have been
there: Don’t Talk to Irene; Hochelaga, Land of Souls; Adventures in Public School; Dim the Flourescents
Best Director
The nominees: Les
affamés – Robin Aubert; All You
Can Eat Buddha – Ian Lagarde; Ava –
Sadaf Foroughi; It’s the Heart that Dies
Last – Alexis Durand Brandt; Maudie –
Aisling Walsh
Similar sentiments as above. It’s ridiculous that François
Girard isn’t nominated here. What grand work he delivers in Hochelaga! The comedic spirit of Pat
Milles in the jubilant Don’t Talk to
Irene really deserved a shout out too. The industry got behind Ava and while I think Sadaf Foroughi is
a talent to watch and I appreciate the representational purposes for which people
champion Ava, I just wish it were a
stronger film. The cinematography/visual design of the film is all over the
place. Ingrid Veninger’s Porcupine Lake,
for example, is a much better and more restrained accomplishment about the
lives of young women, while Kathleen Hepburn also does more with less. Maudie’s a lovely film and Walsh might
be the winner by default, while Brandt might be content if the number of voters
who saw The Heart is What Dies Last
cracked the double digits. Lagarde is a surprise nominee for the auteurist
satire All You Can Eat Buddha, which
had a quiet love-it-or-hate-it run on the festival circuit, but it’s weird that
he bumped out Simon Lavoie’s superior craftsmanship on The Little Girl who Was Too Fond of Matches. Aubert’s work in Les affamés is in a league above the
nominees combined—in scope, depth, technical sophistication, and for his hand
with the actors. The film takes the zombie movie to another level.
Will win: Aisling
Walsh, Maudie
I’d vote for: Robin
Aubert, Les affamés
Should have been
there: François Girard, Hochelaga;
Pat Mills, Don’t Talk to Irene; Daniel
Warth, Dim the Fluorescents; Ingrid
Veninger, Porcupine Lake
Best Actress in a Leading Role
Sally Hawkins – Maudie;
Shirley Henderson – Never Steady,
Never Still; Denise Filiatrault – The
Heart is What Dies Last; Marine Johnson – The Little Girl Who Was Too Fond of Matches; Mahour Jabbari – Ava
If we're going to talk about non-Canadians getting awards, I have to say that Judy Greer was flat-out hosed for her delightful performance in Adventures in Public School. What a burst of life! It's a shame that work isn't recognized, since I think the film has a lot of audience potential.
It’s a battle between the British actresses with Sally Hawkins and Shirley Henderson both delivering some career-best work. Hawkins should and probably will take this for her mesmerising performance as arthritic painter Maud Lewis. Her physical nimbleness with Lewis’s hunched frailty is just beautiful in its delicacy. Hawkins also deserves consideration for helping to draw attention to the Canadian film scene with the Ontario-shot The Shape of Water. She didn’t win last week, so now’s her time to shine!
It’s a battle between the British actresses with Sally Hawkins and Shirley Henderson both delivering some career-best work. Hawkins should and probably will take this for her mesmerising performance as arthritic painter Maud Lewis. Her physical nimbleness with Lewis’s hunched frailty is just beautiful in its delicacy. Hawkins also deserves consideration for helping to draw attention to the Canadian film scene with the Ontario-shot The Shape of Water. She didn’t win last week, so now’s her time to shine!
Will win: Sally
Hawkins, Maudie
I’d vote for: Sally
Hawkins, Maudie
Should have been
there: Judy Greer, Adventures in Public School; Michelle McLeod, Don’t Talk to
Irene; Claire Armstrong, Dim
the Fluorescents
Best Actor in a Leading Role
Antonie L’Ecuyer – The
Little Girl Who Was Too Fond of Matches; Tzi Ma – Meditation Park; Emile Proulx-Clouthier – We Are the Others; Gabriel Sabourin – The Heart is What Dies Last; Nabil Rajo – Boost
I really dropped the ball on this category and missed Boost during the week it screened in
Toronto and will make it out to Meditation
Park today. It’s a weak category overall, but there really weren’t many
Canadian films with strong male leads this year. L’Ecuyer and Sabourin give
respectable performances in the two films that might have reached the most
voters, but they aren’t really the selling points of their respective films.
Will win: Tzi Ma,
Meditation Park?
I’d vote for: abstain.
Should have been
there: Marc-André Grondin, Les
affamés
Best Actress in a Supporting Role
Brigitte Poupart – Les
affamés; Lucinda Armstrong Hall – Porcupine
Lake; Clare Coulter – Les rois
mongols; Oluniké Adeliyi – Boost;
Bahar Nouhian – Ava
I like the youthful innocence of Lucinda Armstrong Hall’s
performance as a girl flirting with first love in Porcupine Lake, and Bahar Nouhian’s work in Ava is certainly worthy of the nomination, but Brigitte Poupart’s
badass performance in Les affamés is
one of the year’s standout performances in my books. She absolutely steals the
film as a machete-toting mother navigating the zombie apocalypse in a cloud of
grief. She’s fierce and funny in a performance of calm, quiet strength. I hope
this award is one the film can take home.
Will win: Brigitte Poupart, Les affamés
I’d vote for: Poupart!
Should have been
there: Monia Chokri, Les affamés
Best Actor in a Supporting Role
Jahmil French – Boost;
Ethan Hawke – Maudie; Sladien
Peltier – Indian Horse; Sylvio
Arriola – All You Can Eat Buddha;
Natar Ungalaaq – Iqaluit
I really enjoyed Sylvio Arriola’s droll performance as the concierge
of the ill-fated hotel in All You Can Eat
Buddha, but this is probably Ethan Hawke’s to win for his much showier work
in Maudie. He should have won last
year for Born to Be Blue, so consider
it even! Natar Ungalaaq is a potential spoiler with his sensitive performance
in Iqaluit.
Will win: Ethan Hawke, Maudie
Should win: Hawke
Should have been
there: Bruce Gray, Don’t Talk to
Irene
And the rest!
Best Adapted
Screenplay
The Breadwinner
It’s the Heart that
Beats Last
The Little Girl Who
Was Too Fond of Matches
The Man Who Invented
Christmas
Les rois mongols
Will win/should win: The Breadwinner
Best Original Screenplay
Adventures in Public
School
Ava
Great Great Great
Maudie
Never Steady, Never
Still
Will win: Maudie
Should win: Adventures in Public School
Should have been
there: Don’t Talk to Irene, Les affamés, Porcupine Lake, Dim the
Fluorescents
Best Art Direction
Ava
Cross My Heart / Les
rois mongols
Hochelaga, Land of
Souls
The Little Girl Who
Was Too Fond of Matches
Never Steady, Never
Still
Will win/should win: Hochelaga (but Little Girl is strong too)
Should have been there: Maudie
Should have been there: Maudie
Best Cinematography
Ava
Hochelaga, Land of
Souls
The Little Girl Who
Was Too Fond of Matches
Never Steady, Never
Still
We Are the Others
Will win/should win: Hochelaga
Should have been
there: Les affamés, Porcupine Lake
Best Costume Design
All You Can Eat Buddha
Cross My Heart / Les
rois mongols
Hochelaga, Land of
Souls
Maudie
We Are the Others
Will win/should win: Hochelaga
Best Editing
Ava
The Breadwinner
It’s the Heart that
Dies Last
Maudie
Never Steady, Never
Still
Will win: Maudie?
Best Make-up
Les affamés
All You Can Eat Buddha
Bon Cop, Bad Cop 2
Hochelaga, Land of
Souls
The Man Who Invented
Christmas
Will win/should win: Hochelaga
Best Music
Les affamés
Hochelaga, Land of
Souls
Les rois mongols
Never Steady, Never
Still
The Breadwinner
Will win: The Breadwinner
Should win: Hochelaga
Should win: Hochelaga
-Strong category!
Best Music – Original
Song
Hunting Pignut –
“Rid
the Dark”
The Breadwinner –
“The Crown Sleeps”
Boost –
“Thief”
Will win: The Breadwinner
Best Sound
All You Can Eat Buddha
Boost
Hochelaga, Land of Souls
Never Steady, Never Still
Les rois mongols
Will win: Hochelaga
Best Sound Editing
All You Can Eat Buddha
Bon Cop, Bad Cop 2
The Breadwinner
Goon: Last of the
Enforcers
Hochelaga, Land of
Souls
Will win: Bon Cop, Bad Cop 2
Best Visual Effects
Le cyclotron [what
is this movie?]
Hochelaga, Land of
Souls
The Little Girl Who
Was Too Fond of Matches
The Man Who Invented
Christmas
We Are the Others
Will win: Hochelaga
Best Documentary
Feature:
A Moon of Nickle and
Ice
Resurrecting Hassan
Rumble: The Indians
who Rocked the World
Will win/should win: Rumble
Should have been
there: Long Time Running, A Better Man
Best Cinematography in Documentary Feature:
A Moon of Nickle and Ice
My Enemy, My Brother
My Enemy, My Brother
Resurrecting Hassan
Rumble: The Indians who Rocked the World
Unarmed Verses
Will win: Unarmed Verses?
Should have been there: A Skin So Soft
Best Editing in a Documentary Feature:
Long Time Running
Manic
Manic
A Moon of Nickle and Ice
Rumble: The Indians who Rocked the World
Sled Dogs
Will win: Rumble
Should win: Long Time Running
Who are you rooting for?
