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Headline, Industry News
Quebec film about Inuit tragedy leads Genie awards’ pack
Wednesday February 11th 2009OTTAWA — A Quebec movie about a 1950s tragedy — when Inuit who were ill with tuberculosis were transported to the lonely world of southern Canada for treatment — leads the nominations for the 29th annual Genie Awards.
The Necessities of Life (Ce qu’il faut pour vivre) garnered eight nominations, including Best Picture and Best Actor for Natal Ungalaaq, an Inuit artist and performer familiar from his leading role in the award-winning drama Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner. The Necessities of Life was Canada’s official entry for Best Foreign Film for this year’s Academy Awards, and made it to the short list, but not the final five nominees.
Canada’s box office champion, the big-budget First World War drama Passchendaele — which brought in $4.5 million — received six nominations including Best Picture, as well as a Best Actor nod for Paul Gross. Also receiving six nominations is Best Picture candidate Amal, a first film from Toronto director Richie Mehta about an Indian rickshaw driver seeking love in the streets of Mumbai: a sort of Canadian version of Slumdog Millionaire.
Also nominated for Best Picture is the coming-of-age film Yves-Christian Fournier’s Everything is Fine (Tout est Parfait). The fifth nominee is Normal, made by Vancouver-based filmmaker Carl Bessai, about the aftermath of a tragic car accident.
Also receiving six nominations is Fugitive Pieces, a Holocaust-themed drama based on the Anne Michaels novel, and another coming-of-age film from Quebec, Lea Pool’s Mommy is at the Hairdresser’s (Maman est chez le coiffeur)
Among other high-profile nominations are those for Christopher Plummer as Best Actor, Susan Sarandon for Best Actress and Max Von Sydow as Best Supporting Actor, all Emotional Arithmetic, a drama based on Matt Cohen’s novel about Holocaust survivors meeting again decades later in Quebec.
The nominations were announced at the Canada Aviation Museum in Ottawa, which will be the site of the awards ceremony on April 4. It is the first time the awards will be presented outside of Toronto or Montreal.
The nominees were announced by Canadian actors Gordon Pinsent and Caroline Neron, who had to combine on one category — the Supporting Actress nomination for Kristin Booth.
“Young People . . .,” read Pinsent.
“F—ing,” said Neron, completing the title.
“Wait until you hear what they’re going to call the sequel,” Pinsent added.
Paul Gratton, who heads the nominating committee for the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television, said the nominated movies reflect Canadian diversity to an unusual extent.
“We’ve got stronger representation from Western Canada,” Gratton said in an interview after the announcement. “Carl Bessai has been regularly making films for a number of years and this year he’s finally got the big nomination, Normal being his most accomplished film in many ways.”
He said Passchendaele — which is set in Calgary and in France — is in many ways a western Canadian movie as well.
“It’s a work of passion, for all the talk that it has a big budget and a lot of marketing,” Gratton said. “It is not an obvious film in the sense that making a movie about the First World War is like making a comedy about hockey players or a slapstick horror film. It was not obvious and yet the film resonates with audiences.”
The two coming-of-age films from Quebec were described by Gratton as “almost a mini-genre,” and he said The Necessities of Life is a “beautiful film, almost like Bergman as far as I’m concerned.” It is largely in Inuktitut; similarly, Amal is in Hindi. “There’s a real reflection of the diversity of this country,” Gratton said. “We are not a homogeneous kind of country and I kind of like it when the best films that emerge reflect all the pockets of creativity and cultural specificity that make up this mosaic.”
Source: Canwest News Service
Headline, Industry News
Quebec film about Inuit tragedy leads Genie awards’ pack
Wednesday February 11th 2009OTTAWA — A Quebec movie about a 1950s tragedy — when Inuit who were ill with tuberculosis were transported to the lonely world of southern Canada for treatment — leads the nominations for the 29th annual Genie Awards.
The Necessities of Life (Ce qu’il faut pour vivre) garnered eight nominations, including Best Picture and Best Actor for Natal Ungalaaq, an Inuit artist and performer familiar from his leading role in the award-winning drama Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner. The Necessities of Life was Canada’s official entry for Best Foreign Film for this year’s Academy Awards, and made it to the short list, but not the final five nominees.
Canada’s box office champion, the big-budget First World War drama Passchendaele — which brought in $4.5 million — received six nominations including Best Picture, as well as a Best Actor nod for Paul Gross. Also receiving six nominations is Best Picture candidate Amal, a first film from Toronto director Richie Mehta about an Indian rickshaw driver seeking love in the streets of Mumbai: a sort of Canadian version of Slumdog Millionaire.
Also nominated for Best Picture is the coming-of-age film Yves-Christian Fournier’s Everything is Fine (Tout est Parfait). The fifth nominee is Normal, made by Vancouver-based filmmaker Carl Bessai, about the aftermath of a tragic car accident.
Also receiving six nominations is Fugitive Pieces, a Holocaust-themed drama based on the Anne Michaels novel, and another coming-of-age film from Quebec, Lea Pool’s Mommy is at the Hairdresser’s (Maman est chez le coiffeur)
Among other high-profile nominations are those for Christopher Plummer as Best Actor, Susan Sarandon for Best Actress and Max Von Sydow as Best Supporting Actor, all Emotional Arithmetic, a drama based on Matt Cohen’s novel about Holocaust survivors meeting again decades later in Quebec.
The nominations were announced at the Canada Aviation Museum in Ottawa, which will be the site of the awards ceremony on April 4. It is the first time the awards will be presented outside of Toronto or Montreal.
The nominees were announced by Canadian actors Gordon Pinsent and Caroline Neron, who had to combine on one category — the Supporting Actress nomination for Kristin Booth.
“Young People . . .,” read Pinsent.
“F—ing,” said Neron, completing the title.
“Wait until you hear what they’re going to call the sequel,” Pinsent added.
Paul Gratton, who heads the nominating committee for the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television, said the nominated movies reflect Canadian diversity to an unusual extent.
“We’ve got stronger representation from Western Canada,” Gratton said in an interview after the announcement. “Carl Bessai has been regularly making films for a number of years and this year he’s finally got the big nomination, Normal being his most accomplished film in many ways.”
He said Passchendaele — which is set in Calgary and in France — is in many ways a western Canadian movie as well.
“It’s a work of passion, for all the talk that it has a big budget and a lot of marketing,” Gratton said. “It is not an obvious film in the sense that making a movie about the First World War is like making a comedy about hockey players or a slapstick horror film. It was not obvious and yet the film resonates with audiences.”
The two coming-of-age films from Quebec were described by Gratton as “almost a mini-genre,” and he said The Necessities of Life is a “beautiful film, almost like Bergman as far as I’m concerned.” It is largely in Inuktitut; similarly, Amal is in Hindi. “There’s a real reflection of the diversity of this country,” Gratton said. “We are not a homogeneous kind of country and I kind of like it when the best films that emerge reflect all the pockets of creativity and cultural specificity that make up this mosaic.”
Source: Canwest News Service
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Headline, Industry News
Quebec film about Inuit tragedy leads Genie awards’ pack
Wednesday February 11th 2009OTTAWA — A Quebec movie about a 1950s tragedy — when Inuit who were ill with tuberculosis were transported to the lonely world of southern Canada for treatment — leads the nominations for the 29th annual Genie Awards.
The Necessities of Life (Ce qu’il faut pour vivre) garnered eight nominations, including Best Picture and Best Actor for Natal Ungalaaq, an Inuit artist and performer familiar from his leading role in the award-winning drama Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner. The Necessities of Life was Canada’s official entry for Best Foreign Film for this year’s Academy Awards, and made it to the short list, but not the final five nominees.
Canada’s box office champion, the big-budget First World War drama Passchendaele — which brought in $4.5 million — received six nominations including Best Picture, as well as a Best Actor nod for Paul Gross. Also receiving six nominations is Best Picture candidate Amal, a first film from Toronto director Richie Mehta about an Indian rickshaw driver seeking love in the streets of Mumbai: a sort of Canadian version of Slumdog Millionaire.
Also nominated for Best Picture is the coming-of-age film Yves-Christian Fournier’s Everything is Fine (Tout est Parfait). The fifth nominee is Normal, made by Vancouver-based filmmaker Carl Bessai, about the aftermath of a tragic car accident.
Also receiving six nominations is Fugitive Pieces, a Holocaust-themed drama based on the Anne Michaels novel, and another coming-of-age film from Quebec, Lea Pool’s Mommy is at the Hairdresser’s (Maman est chez le coiffeur)
Among other high-profile nominations are those for Christopher Plummer as Best Actor, Susan Sarandon for Best Actress and Max Von Sydow as Best Supporting Actor, all Emotional Arithmetic, a drama based on Matt Cohen’s novel about Holocaust survivors meeting again decades later in Quebec.
The nominations were announced at the Canada Aviation Museum in Ottawa, which will be the site of the awards ceremony on April 4. It is the first time the awards will be presented outside of Toronto or Montreal.
The nominees were announced by Canadian actors Gordon Pinsent and Caroline Neron, who had to combine on one category — the Supporting Actress nomination for Kristin Booth.
“Young People . . .,” read Pinsent.
“F—ing,” said Neron, completing the title.
“Wait until you hear what they’re going to call the sequel,” Pinsent added.
Paul Gratton, who heads the nominating committee for the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television, said the nominated movies reflect Canadian diversity to an unusual extent.
“We’ve got stronger representation from Western Canada,” Gratton said in an interview after the announcement. “Carl Bessai has been regularly making films for a number of years and this year he’s finally got the big nomination, Normal being his most accomplished film in many ways.”
He said Passchendaele — which is set in Calgary and in France — is in many ways a western Canadian movie as well.
“It’s a work of passion, for all the talk that it has a big budget and a lot of marketing,” Gratton said. “It is not an obvious film in the sense that making a movie about the First World War is like making a comedy about hockey players or a slapstick horror film. It was not obvious and yet the film resonates with audiences.”
The two coming-of-age films from Quebec were described by Gratton as “almost a mini-genre,” and he said The Necessities of Life is a “beautiful film, almost like Bergman as far as I’m concerned.” It is largely in Inuktitut; similarly, Amal is in Hindi. “There’s a real reflection of the diversity of this country,” Gratton said. “We are not a homogeneous kind of country and I kind of like it when the best films that emerge reflect all the pockets of creativity and cultural specificity that make up this mosaic.”
Source: Canwest News Service
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