Canadian filmmaker Celine Song had an impressive evening at the 2024 Film Independent Spirit Awards last night in Santa Monica, CA. Song's debut film Past Lives, which is not a Canadian film, won for Best Picture and Song won for Best Director. She was also nominated for Best Screenplay, but lost out to Cord Jefferson for American Fiction.
Canadian filmmaker Emma Seligman, who co-wrote Bottoms with Rachel Sennott, was also up for Best Screenplay. Bottoms is not a Canadian film.
American actor Glenn Howerton was a nominee for Best Supporting Performance for his portrayal of Canadian Jim Balsillie in the Canadian film BlackBerry. Da'Vine Joy Randolph (The Holdovers) won in the gender neutral category.
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On the international side, Anatomy of a Fall won Best International Film and Four Daughters won Best Documentary. Anatomy of a Fall won the Golden Globe and Critics Choice Award in this category. The film is not in the Oscars running since France submitted The Taste of Things.
Four Daughters (Tunisia) is up in the Academy Awards documentary category along with Canadian film (in name only) To Kill a Tiger.
The other nominees for Best International Film were Godland (Denmark / Iceland); Mami Wata (Nigeria); Tótem (Mexico); and The Zone of Interest (United Kingdom / Poland / United States).
Your humble narrator did see an earlier film from Justine Triet (Anatomy of a Fall): Sibyl (2019). Sibyl (Virginie Efira) is a psychotherapist who goes back to wanting to be a writer. Sibyl gets a little too obsessed with Margot (Adèle Exarchopoulos, Blue is the Warmest Colour), an aspiring actor. Sandra Hüller, the lead in Anatomy of a Fall, has a small role in this film as the director of Margot's film. Worth checking out if you loved Anatomy of a Fall.
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On the television side, Clark Backo was up for Best Breakthrough Performance in a New Scripted Series as Emma "Emmy" Valentine on The Changeling (Apple TV+) but lost to Keivonn Montreal Woodard as Sam on The Last of Us. You might remember Backo as Rosie, Wayne's love interest and Gail's cousin on Letterkenny.
video credit: Film Independent Spirit Awards
photo credit: Past Lives
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