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Front Page, Industry News
Quebec film takes top prize
Friday March 09th 2012At last month’s Academy Awards, Philippe Falardeau had to watch as another director took the stage to accept the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.
On Thursday night, everyone was watching him.
His critically acclaimed drama Monsieur Lazhar, which tells the story of an Algerian teacher helping students recover from a tragedy in a Montreal elementary school, was named Best Motion Picture at the 32nd Annual Genie Awards in Toronto. Falardeau also walked away with the statuettes for Achievement in Direction and Adapted Screenplay.
“I wrote a speech two weeks ago and didn’t have the chance to say it,” he said upon accepting the award for best director.
“I’m tempted to recycle the first phrase: I’d like to thank the members of the academy – of Canadian television and cinema.
“Honestly, I’m privileged to live in a time and place where our public system makes it possible for us to make personal films.
“It’s a choice we make as a society. Cinema is like the memory and the imagination of a country. So, without that, a country would not be a nation. I would like to share this with all my fellow filmmakers across Canada who are struggling to make personal films. I want to say to them – be persistent, be wild, be bold, be a little delinquent. Take risks and something good is bound to happen.”
Backstage, he called his Oscar experience “a good general rehearsal for tonight.”
Monsieur Lazhar captured six of the nine awards it was nominated for. Fellag’s performance as the titular teacher earned him Best Actor, while newcomer Sophie Nelisse, all of 11 years old, won Best Supporting Actress. Stephane Lafleur also won for Achievement in Editing.
“It’s revenge of the Oscar,” said one of the film’s two producers, Kim McCraw, after the ceremony.
Heading into the ceremony, which was hosted by George Stroumboulopoulos, the frontrunners were Jean-Marc Vallee’s Cafe de Flore, which was nominated in 13 categories, and David Cronenberg’s A Dangerous Method, which was up for 11 awards. Both films were competing for Best Motion Picture.
Cafe de Flore wound up with three awards. The Genie for Best Actress went to Vanessa Paradis, while the film also took home the awards for Achievement in Make-Up and Achievement in Visual Effects.
A Dangerous Method, which chronicles the complex relationship between Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, captured five Genies. Michael Fassbender, who plays Jung, failed to win the award for Best Actor (this after not even receiving an Oscar nomination) but at least Viggo Mortensen, who plays Freud, was named Best Supporting Actor.
“It’s only natural that I thank David,” he said upon accepting the award. “He is, after all, the only director who is willing to cast me at this point.”
Before leaving the stage, Mortensen remarked that the Genie statuette was “a very beautiful trophy, and I think in order to cross the border safely I’ll have to wrap it very, very carefully.” He then unfurled a Montreal Canadiens banner and dedicated the award to his beloved team. “We’ll be back next year with a vengeance,” he said.
A Dangerous Method was also recognized with awards for Original Score, Achievement in Art Direction, Achievement in Sound Editing, and Achievement in Overall Sound.
The other two films up for Best Motion Picture were Starbuck and The Whistleblower. The French-language comedy Starbuck, about a sperm donor who learns he’s fathered 533 children, was nominated for six awards. It won the Genies for Original Song, Original Screenplay, and was the recipient of the special Cineplex Golden Reel Award as the highest grossing Canadian film of the year. The Whistleblower, which was also up for six awards, was shut out.
The Ted Rogers Award for Best Feature Length Documentary went to La Nuit, Elles Dansent (At Night, They Dance).
The Claude Jutra Award, presented to a first-time director, went to Anne Emont for Nuit #1.
“When I was writing this movie, and when we shot this movie, we never thought about prizes, about festivals, about anything,” said the young Montreal director. Winning, she added, “tells me just to continue on [my] way of doing film.”
Backstage, before heading off to the after-party, Falardeau urged audiences to support Canadian films “not because they’re Canadian films [but] because they’re good films.”
One day before the ceremony, actor Andrea Martin cancelled her co-hosting duties at the awards. Her excuse was unclear, although there is speculation that she will be filming a CBS comedy pilot in Los Angeles. The CBC said “a prior commitment got rescheduled and required her immediate participation.”
Source: Times Colonist
Front Page, Industry News
Quebec film takes top prize
Friday March 09th 2012At last month’s Academy Awards, Philippe Falardeau had to watch as another director took the stage to accept the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.
On Thursday night, everyone was watching him.
His critically acclaimed drama Monsieur Lazhar, which tells the story of an Algerian teacher helping students recover from a tragedy in a Montreal elementary school, was named Best Motion Picture at the 32nd Annual Genie Awards in Toronto. Falardeau also walked away with the statuettes for Achievement in Direction and Adapted Screenplay.
“I wrote a speech two weeks ago and didn’t have the chance to say it,” he said upon accepting the award for best director.
“I’m tempted to recycle the first phrase: I’d like to thank the members of the academy – of Canadian television and cinema.
“Honestly, I’m privileged to live in a time and place where our public system makes it possible for us to make personal films.
“It’s a choice we make as a society. Cinema is like the memory and the imagination of a country. So, without that, a country would not be a nation. I would like to share this with all my fellow filmmakers across Canada who are struggling to make personal films. I want to say to them – be persistent, be wild, be bold, be a little delinquent. Take risks and something good is bound to happen.”
Backstage, he called his Oscar experience “a good general rehearsal for tonight.”
Monsieur Lazhar captured six of the nine awards it was nominated for. Fellag’s performance as the titular teacher earned him Best Actor, while newcomer Sophie Nelisse, all of 11 years old, won Best Supporting Actress. Stephane Lafleur also won for Achievement in Editing.
“It’s revenge of the Oscar,” said one of the film’s two producers, Kim McCraw, after the ceremony.
Heading into the ceremony, which was hosted by George Stroumboulopoulos, the frontrunners were Jean-Marc Vallee’s Cafe de Flore, which was nominated in 13 categories, and David Cronenberg’s A Dangerous Method, which was up for 11 awards. Both films were competing for Best Motion Picture.
Cafe de Flore wound up with three awards. The Genie for Best Actress went to Vanessa Paradis, while the film also took home the awards for Achievement in Make-Up and Achievement in Visual Effects.
A Dangerous Method, which chronicles the complex relationship between Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, captured five Genies. Michael Fassbender, who plays Jung, failed to win the award for Best Actor (this after not even receiving an Oscar nomination) but at least Viggo Mortensen, who plays Freud, was named Best Supporting Actor.
“It’s only natural that I thank David,” he said upon accepting the award. “He is, after all, the only director who is willing to cast me at this point.”
Before leaving the stage, Mortensen remarked that the Genie statuette was “a very beautiful trophy, and I think in order to cross the border safely I’ll have to wrap it very, very carefully.” He then unfurled a Montreal Canadiens banner and dedicated the award to his beloved team. “We’ll be back next year with a vengeance,” he said.
A Dangerous Method was also recognized with awards for Original Score, Achievement in Art Direction, Achievement in Sound Editing, and Achievement in Overall Sound.
The other two films up for Best Motion Picture were Starbuck and The Whistleblower. The French-language comedy Starbuck, about a sperm donor who learns he’s fathered 533 children, was nominated for six awards. It won the Genies for Original Song, Original Screenplay, and was the recipient of the special Cineplex Golden Reel Award as the highest grossing Canadian film of the year. The Whistleblower, which was also up for six awards, was shut out.
The Ted Rogers Award for Best Feature Length Documentary went to La Nuit, Elles Dansent (At Night, They Dance).
The Claude Jutra Award, presented to a first-time director, went to Anne Emont for Nuit #1.
“When I was writing this movie, and when we shot this movie, we never thought about prizes, about festivals, about anything,” said the young Montreal director. Winning, she added, “tells me just to continue on [my] way of doing film.”
Backstage, before heading off to the after-party, Falardeau urged audiences to support Canadian films “not because they’re Canadian films [but] because they’re good films.”
One day before the ceremony, actor Andrea Martin cancelled her co-hosting duties at the awards. Her excuse was unclear, although there is speculation that she will be filming a CBS comedy pilot in Los Angeles. The CBC said “a prior commitment got rescheduled and required her immediate participation.”
Source: Times Colonist
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Front Page, Industry News
Quebec film takes top prize
Friday March 09th 2012At last month’s Academy Awards, Philippe Falardeau had to watch as another director took the stage to accept the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.
On Thursday night, everyone was watching him.
His critically acclaimed drama Monsieur Lazhar, which tells the story of an Algerian teacher helping students recover from a tragedy in a Montreal elementary school, was named Best Motion Picture at the 32nd Annual Genie Awards in Toronto. Falardeau also walked away with the statuettes for Achievement in Direction and Adapted Screenplay.
“I wrote a speech two weeks ago and didn’t have the chance to say it,” he said upon accepting the award for best director.
“I’m tempted to recycle the first phrase: I’d like to thank the members of the academy – of Canadian television and cinema.
“Honestly, I’m privileged to live in a time and place where our public system makes it possible for us to make personal films.
“It’s a choice we make as a society. Cinema is like the memory and the imagination of a country. So, without that, a country would not be a nation. I would like to share this with all my fellow filmmakers across Canada who are struggling to make personal films. I want to say to them – be persistent, be wild, be bold, be a little delinquent. Take risks and something good is bound to happen.”
Backstage, he called his Oscar experience “a good general rehearsal for tonight.”
Monsieur Lazhar captured six of the nine awards it was nominated for. Fellag’s performance as the titular teacher earned him Best Actor, while newcomer Sophie Nelisse, all of 11 years old, won Best Supporting Actress. Stephane Lafleur also won for Achievement in Editing.
“It’s revenge of the Oscar,” said one of the film’s two producers, Kim McCraw, after the ceremony.
Heading into the ceremony, which was hosted by George Stroumboulopoulos, the frontrunners were Jean-Marc Vallee’s Cafe de Flore, which was nominated in 13 categories, and David Cronenberg’s A Dangerous Method, which was up for 11 awards. Both films were competing for Best Motion Picture.
Cafe de Flore wound up with three awards. The Genie for Best Actress went to Vanessa Paradis, while the film also took home the awards for Achievement in Make-Up and Achievement in Visual Effects.
A Dangerous Method, which chronicles the complex relationship between Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, captured five Genies. Michael Fassbender, who plays Jung, failed to win the award for Best Actor (this after not even receiving an Oscar nomination) but at least Viggo Mortensen, who plays Freud, was named Best Supporting Actor.
“It’s only natural that I thank David,” he said upon accepting the award. “He is, after all, the only director who is willing to cast me at this point.”
Before leaving the stage, Mortensen remarked that the Genie statuette was “a very beautiful trophy, and I think in order to cross the border safely I’ll have to wrap it very, very carefully.” He then unfurled a Montreal Canadiens banner and dedicated the award to his beloved team. “We’ll be back next year with a vengeance,” he said.
A Dangerous Method was also recognized with awards for Original Score, Achievement in Art Direction, Achievement in Sound Editing, and Achievement in Overall Sound.
The other two films up for Best Motion Picture were Starbuck and The Whistleblower. The French-language comedy Starbuck, about a sperm donor who learns he’s fathered 533 children, was nominated for six awards. It won the Genies for Original Song, Original Screenplay, and was the recipient of the special Cineplex Golden Reel Award as the highest grossing Canadian film of the year. The Whistleblower, which was also up for six awards, was shut out.
The Ted Rogers Award for Best Feature Length Documentary went to La Nuit, Elles Dansent (At Night, They Dance).
The Claude Jutra Award, presented to a first-time director, went to Anne Emont for Nuit #1.
“When I was writing this movie, and when we shot this movie, we never thought about prizes, about festivals, about anything,” said the young Montreal director. Winning, she added, “tells me just to continue on [my] way of doing film.”
Backstage, before heading off to the after-party, Falardeau urged audiences to support Canadian films “not because they’re Canadian films [but] because they’re good films.”
One day before the ceremony, actor Andrea Martin cancelled her co-hosting duties at the awards. Her excuse was unclear, although there is speculation that she will be filming a CBS comedy pilot in Los Angeles. The CBC said “a prior commitment got rescheduled and required her immediate participation.”
Source: Times Colonist
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