Award Winners

TIFF [2000]

The Toronto International Film Festival, 2000 edition, wrapped on Sunday, September 17th with the annual Awards Brunch at the Four Seasons Hotel. Incredibly, the public box office tally for a mere 10 days amounted to $1.7 million Canadian.

The People's Choice

BENSON & HEDGES FILM PEOPLE'S CHOICE AWARD:

Yes, Toronto still honors unfashionable sponsorships from Big Tobacco. This year, Festival audiences were sufficiently overwhelmed by Ang Lee's instant classic "CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON " to award it the People's Choice Award. Does this award signify a potential Oscar blitz for Lee? I have serious doubts that a martial arts fantasy will ever receive anything more than a technical award from the stodgy ol' Academy, and a quick look at past People's Choice Award recipients reveals that the TIFF is hit and miss when it comes to mirroring future Best Picture winners. Only "American Beauty" and "Chariots Of Fire", previous People's Choice winners, have gone on to win the Oscar for Best Picture, although "Shine", "Life Is Beautiful", "Antonia's Line", and "Women On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown" have won the golden statue in other categories (the TIFF seems to be a better barometer of "Best Foreign Language Film" more than anything else).

Second prize went to Rob Sitch's "THE DISH". I thought Sitch's feature might well have taken first, since it received one of the most enthusiastic standing ovations I've ever witnessed at a TIFF premiere. Tied for third place were Paul Cox's "INNOCENCE" and Stephen Daldry's "BILLY ELLIOT".

THE VOLKSWAGEN DISCOVERY AWARD:

I won't tell you how I voted, but suffice to say, I was more than pleased with the People's Choice announcement <g>.

The press votes for this award, and this year, two films tied for first place. "GEORGE WASHINGTON", David Gordon Green's look at life in the American South; and Baltasar Kormákur's "101 REYKJAVÍK", about sexual confusion in contemporary Iceland.

A tie occurred in second place as well: Marziyeh Meshkini's "THE DAY I BECAME A WOMAN", a look at the fate of Iranian women imprisoned in their own homes; and Yongyooth Thongkonthun's "THE IRON LADIES", about a championship Thai volleyball team comprised of transsexuals and transvestites.

FIPRESCI AWARD

For the ninth consecutive year, the Festival offered an international FIPRESCI foreign press award to a feature having its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. This year's winner was "the achingly beautiful" Thailand gangster drama "BANGKOK DANGEROUS" directed by twins Oxide and Danny Pang.

NFB/ JOHN SPOTTON AWARD FOR BEST CANADIAN SHORT FILM

Sponsored by the National Film Board of Canada, this award carries a cash prize of $2,500 along with $7,500 worth of NFB Filmmakers' Assistance Program (FAP) benefits to be applied against the costs of a future production.

The award for best Canadian short film went to Michèle Cournoyer for "LE CHAPEAU", an animated film about a dancer's childhood memory. Honourable mention was given to Keith Behrman's disfunctional family drama "ERNEST" (how disfunctional? A 13 year old boy is audited by this father!).

CITYTV AWARD FOR BEST CANADIAN FIRST FEATURE FILM

Sponsored by Toronto-based Citytv, the award carries a cash prize of $15,000 and is presented to a Canadian filmmaker whose first feature film is considered exemplary. Philippe Falardeau's "LA MOITIÉ GAUCHE DU FRIGO" utilized a "mockumentary" approach in its story of two underemployed thirtysomethings who decide to document their relationship and lives on video verite.

Honourable mention went to Anthony Couture's "RED DEER", a character-based ensemble piece set around a boarding house which takes its cues from the early films of Wim Wenders circa "Paris Texas".

TORONTO/CITY AWARD FOR BEST CANADIAN FEATURE FILM

Presented annually at the Toronto International Film Festival and co-sponsored by The City of Toronto and Citytv, the Toronto/City Award for Best Canadian Feature Film carries a cash prize of $25,000.

Gary Burns, whose films "The Kitchen Party" and "The Suburbinators" were past TIFF premieres, was overcome by emotion when accepting the award for his new film "WAYDOWNTOWN", a digitally-shot comedy about a group of young people who bet a month's salary to see who can outlast each other, "Survivor"-meets-"Dawn Of The Dead" style, while in isolation in a Calgary shopping mall.

Honourable mention went to Denis Villeneuve's "MAELSTRÖM", a drama about a self-destructive young woman whose life turns around after a traumatic accident, and to "GINGER SNAPS" for Karen Walton's "wicked, insightful, and intelligent script".

• • •

So there you have it, long overdue and, well...long. The varied venues have returned to their natural state: Roy Thompson Hall will soon be hosting the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and Isaac Hayes (not, it should be noted, on the same programme), the Uptown is paying the bills until the next TIFF by offering a home to Sly Stallone and Mickey Rourke in "Get Carter" redux (Torontonians are nothing if not charitable), and Steven Seagal--in town shooting "Exit Wounds" is likely eyeing DeNiro's favorite table at Sotto, Sotto (from the sidewalk, nose pressed up against the glass...). I'm still haunted by Cronenberg's dream of a cinema-induced aging disease, although I believe that the virus has quite the opposite effect. I discovered several near-masterpieces in under a week, and saw many directors working in wildly different genres honour film's relatively recent past but not at the expense of embracing new technology and trailblazing fresh modes of storytelling. Not all of these films will find the audiences, much less the distributors, they deserve, but the fact that they exist at all is enough to keep the years at bay.

-Robert J. Lewis
Movieforum
Toronto, 2000

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