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English-Canadian cinema leads Genie Awards

It doesn’t look like there are going to be too many French speeches at this year’s Genie Awards.

For the past few years, Quebecois films have handily dominated the Genies, the Canadian films awards, to the delight of the local film community here and to the consternation of frustrated English-Canadian filmmakers. But English-Canadian cinema is back in a big way at the Genies, with the top four contenders all from the rest of Canada.

Toronto filmmaker David Cronenberg’s gritty London-set mob drama Eastern Promises and Hollywood veteran Roger Spottiswoode’s Shake Hands with the Devil, based on the experiences of General Romeo Dallaire during the Rwandan genocide, have the most Genie nominations. Each have 12 nominations. Toronto actress-turned-director Sarah Polley’s Alzheimer’s drama Away From Her, which just landed two Oscar nods, is up for seven Genies, and Toronto filmmaker Bruce McDonald’s visually innovative troubled-teen drama The Tracey Fragments nabbed six Genie nods.

The top French-language Quebec nominee is Stephane Lafleur’s black comic-drama Continental, un film sans fusil, which received five nominations, including one for best picture. Montreal director Francois Girard’s romantic epic Silk, an English-language film that is not a Quebec production, also garnered five Genie nominations, though all in lower-profile categories.

Denys Arcand’s L’Age des tenebres received four nominations, including for best film, director and screenplay (both for Arcand) and for best actor for Marc Labreche.

The Genie nominations were announced yesterday and the awards will be doled out at a ceremony in Toronto March 3, to be broadcast later that night on the E! Television Network and specialty channel IFC.

The Genie nominations confirm what many of us have noticed – it wasn’t the best of years for made-in-Quebec cinema in 2007.

"It was a better year for English-Canadian cinema and maybe it was a less-great year for Quebecois film," said Continental producer Kim McCraw. "There was no C.R.A.Z.Y. this year. It’s good for English-Canadian cinema. It’ll encourage the English-Canadian film community."

Last year, Maurice Richard (The Rocket in its English version) was the big winner at the Genies, taking nine, and the prize for best picture went to the Montreal-shot bilingual action comedy Bon Cop, Bad Cop. The year before was the C.R.A.Z.Y. Genies, with the franco-Quebec coming-of-age hit snaring 10 trophies. At the 2005 Genies, the hardware was spread amongst more films, but all the major awards went to Quebec films, including three to Memoires affectives. In 2004, Arcand’s Les invasions barbares was the Genie champ, taking six awards.

Both Eastern Promises and Away From Her have had much success both inside and outside Canada. Eastern Promises star Viggo Mortensen was recently nominated for a best actor Oscar and Away From Her is also an awards-season frontrunner. Away From Her lead Julie Christie, who delivers a stunning performance as a woman with Alzheimer’s, just won as best actress at the Screen Actors Guild Awards on Sunday and is nominated in the same category at the Oscars. First-time feature writer-director Polley is also up for an Oscar for adapted screenplay.

Shake Hands with the Devil also drew strong critical reaction and box office sales in Canada following its release this fall.

"I think it’s going to be tough for (Quebec films) this year because English-Canada had some strong films," said Christian Larouche, president of Christal Films, which distributes Continental and Patrick Huard’s Les 3 p’tits cochons, which nabbed four nominations.

The contenders for best film are L’Age des tenebres, Away From Her, Continental, Eastern Promises, and Shake Hands with the Devil. The short list for directors includes Arcand, Polley, Cronenberg, Spottiswoode, and McDonald. In addition to Labreche, the actor race includes Montreal thespian Roy Dupuis for his performance as Dallaire in Shake Hands with the Devil, Claude Legault for his turn as an unfaithful husband in Les 3 p’tits cochons, Mortensen for playing a mob driver in Eastern Promises, and Gordon Pinsent for his role as the husband of a woman with Alzheimer’s in Away From Her.

Christie is not the only Oscar contender in the hunt for a best actress Genie. The Genie actress race also includes Halifax’s Ellen Page for The Tracey Fragments. Page is up for an Oscar for her portrayal of a pregnant teen in the comedy Juno.

<font size=1>Source: Montreal Gazette</font>

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Headline, Industry News

English-Canadian cinema leads Genie Awards

It doesn’t look like there are going to be too many French speeches at this year’s Genie Awards.

For the past few years, Quebecois films have handily dominated the Genies, the Canadian films awards, to the delight of the local film community here and to the consternation of frustrated English-Canadian filmmakers. But English-Canadian cinema is back in a big way at the Genies, with the top four contenders all from the rest of Canada.

Toronto filmmaker David Cronenberg’s gritty London-set mob drama Eastern Promises and Hollywood veteran Roger Spottiswoode’s Shake Hands with the Devil, based on the experiences of General Romeo Dallaire during the Rwandan genocide, have the most Genie nominations. Each have 12 nominations. Toronto actress-turned-director Sarah Polley’s Alzheimer’s drama Away From Her, which just landed two Oscar nods, is up for seven Genies, and Toronto filmmaker Bruce McDonald’s visually innovative troubled-teen drama The Tracey Fragments nabbed six Genie nods.

The top French-language Quebec nominee is Stephane Lafleur’s black comic-drama Continental, un film sans fusil, which received five nominations, including one for best picture. Montreal director Francois Girard’s romantic epic Silk, an English-language film that is not a Quebec production, also garnered five Genie nominations, though all in lower-profile categories.

Denys Arcand’s L’Age des tenebres received four nominations, including for best film, director and screenplay (both for Arcand) and for best actor for Marc Labreche.

The Genie nominations were announced yesterday and the awards will be doled out at a ceremony in Toronto March 3, to be broadcast later that night on the E! Television Network and specialty channel IFC.

The Genie nominations confirm what many of us have noticed – it wasn’t the best of years for made-in-Quebec cinema in 2007.

"It was a better year for English-Canadian cinema and maybe it was a less-great year for Quebecois film," said Continental producer Kim McCraw. "There was no C.R.A.Z.Y. this year. It’s good for English-Canadian cinema. It’ll encourage the English-Canadian film community."

Last year, Maurice Richard (The Rocket in its English version) was the big winner at the Genies, taking nine, and the prize for best picture went to the Montreal-shot bilingual action comedy Bon Cop, Bad Cop. The year before was the C.R.A.Z.Y. Genies, with the franco-Quebec coming-of-age hit snaring 10 trophies. At the 2005 Genies, the hardware was spread amongst more films, but all the major awards went to Quebec films, including three to Memoires affectives. In 2004, Arcand’s Les invasions barbares was the Genie champ, taking six awards.

Both Eastern Promises and Away From Her have had much success both inside and outside Canada. Eastern Promises star Viggo Mortensen was recently nominated for a best actor Oscar and Away From Her is also an awards-season frontrunner. Away From Her lead Julie Christie, who delivers a stunning performance as a woman with Alzheimer’s, just won as best actress at the Screen Actors Guild Awards on Sunday and is nominated in the same category at the Oscars. First-time feature writer-director Polley is also up for an Oscar for adapted screenplay.

Shake Hands with the Devil also drew strong critical reaction and box office sales in Canada following its release this fall.

"I think it’s going to be tough for (Quebec films) this year because English-Canada had some strong films," said Christian Larouche, president of Christal Films, which distributes Continental and Patrick Huard’s Les 3 p’tits cochons, which nabbed four nominations.

The contenders for best film are L’Age des tenebres, Away From Her, Continental, Eastern Promises, and Shake Hands with the Devil. The short list for directors includes Arcand, Polley, Cronenberg, Spottiswoode, and McDonald. In addition to Labreche, the actor race includes Montreal thespian Roy Dupuis for his performance as Dallaire in Shake Hands with the Devil, Claude Legault for his turn as an unfaithful husband in Les 3 p’tits cochons, Mortensen for playing a mob driver in Eastern Promises, and Gordon Pinsent for his role as the husband of a woman with Alzheimer’s in Away From Her.

Christie is not the only Oscar contender in the hunt for a best actress Genie. The Genie actress race also includes Halifax’s Ellen Page for The Tracey Fragments. Page is up for an Oscar for her portrayal of a pregnant teen in the comedy Juno.

<font size=1>Source: Montreal Gazette</font>

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Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Headline, Industry News

English-Canadian cinema leads Genie Awards

It doesn’t look like there are going to be too many French speeches at this year’s Genie Awards.

For the past few years, Quebecois films have handily dominated the Genies, the Canadian films awards, to the delight of the local film community here and to the consternation of frustrated English-Canadian filmmakers. But English-Canadian cinema is back in a big way at the Genies, with the top four contenders all from the rest of Canada.

Toronto filmmaker David Cronenberg’s gritty London-set mob drama Eastern Promises and Hollywood veteran Roger Spottiswoode’s Shake Hands with the Devil, based on the experiences of General Romeo Dallaire during the Rwandan genocide, have the most Genie nominations. Each have 12 nominations. Toronto actress-turned-director Sarah Polley’s Alzheimer’s drama Away From Her, which just landed two Oscar nods, is up for seven Genies, and Toronto filmmaker Bruce McDonald’s visually innovative troubled-teen drama The Tracey Fragments nabbed six Genie nods.

The top French-language Quebec nominee is Stephane Lafleur’s black comic-drama Continental, un film sans fusil, which received five nominations, including one for best picture. Montreal director Francois Girard’s romantic epic Silk, an English-language film that is not a Quebec production, also garnered five Genie nominations, though all in lower-profile categories.

Denys Arcand’s L’Age des tenebres received four nominations, including for best film, director and screenplay (both for Arcand) and for best actor for Marc Labreche.

The Genie nominations were announced yesterday and the awards will be doled out at a ceremony in Toronto March 3, to be broadcast later that night on the E! Television Network and specialty channel IFC.

The Genie nominations confirm what many of us have noticed – it wasn’t the best of years for made-in-Quebec cinema in 2007.

"It was a better year for English-Canadian cinema and maybe it was a less-great year for Quebecois film," said Continental producer Kim McCraw. "There was no C.R.A.Z.Y. this year. It’s good for English-Canadian cinema. It’ll encourage the English-Canadian film community."

Last year, Maurice Richard (The Rocket in its English version) was the big winner at the Genies, taking nine, and the prize for best picture went to the Montreal-shot bilingual action comedy Bon Cop, Bad Cop. The year before was the C.R.A.Z.Y. Genies, with the franco-Quebec coming-of-age hit snaring 10 trophies. At the 2005 Genies, the hardware was spread amongst more films, but all the major awards went to Quebec films, including three to Memoires affectives. In 2004, Arcand’s Les invasions barbares was the Genie champ, taking six awards.

Both Eastern Promises and Away From Her have had much success both inside and outside Canada. Eastern Promises star Viggo Mortensen was recently nominated for a best actor Oscar and Away From Her is also an awards-season frontrunner. Away From Her lead Julie Christie, who delivers a stunning performance as a woman with Alzheimer’s, just won as best actress at the Screen Actors Guild Awards on Sunday and is nominated in the same category at the Oscars. First-time feature writer-director Polley is also up for an Oscar for adapted screenplay.

Shake Hands with the Devil also drew strong critical reaction and box office sales in Canada following its release this fall.

"I think it’s going to be tough for (Quebec films) this year because English-Canada had some strong films," said Christian Larouche, president of Christal Films, which distributes Continental and Patrick Huard’s Les 3 p’tits cochons, which nabbed four nominations.

The contenders for best film are L’Age des tenebres, Away From Her, Continental, Eastern Promises, and Shake Hands with the Devil. The short list for directors includes Arcand, Polley, Cronenberg, Spottiswoode, and McDonald. In addition to Labreche, the actor race includes Montreal thespian Roy Dupuis for his performance as Dallaire in Shake Hands with the Devil, Claude Legault for his turn as an unfaithful husband in Les 3 p’tits cochons, Mortensen for playing a mob driver in Eastern Promises, and Gordon Pinsent for his role as the husband of a woman with Alzheimer’s in Away From Her.

Christie is not the only Oscar contender in the hunt for a best actress Genie. The Genie actress race also includes Halifax’s Ellen Page for The Tracey Fragments. Page is up for an Oscar for her portrayal of a pregnant teen in the comedy Juno.

<font size=1>Source: Montreal Gazette</font>

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Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

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