Canadian Crossing

CBC presents Meet the Filmmakers

The Filmmakers — the 2 seasons of examining Canadian film and the people behind them — is done. Meet the Filmmakers captures some of that spirit from the TV show.

Johanna Schneller is back as the host. The first interview was with Andrew Cividino, the Emmy-winning director from Schitt’s Creek.

The format of the old show was 3 segments in a half-hour on TV with commercials. This debut has an almost 1-hour interview format online where they aren't in the same room.

Cividino is a filmmaker yet Schneller spends most of the time focused on his TV work on Schitt's Creek. Directing TV is similar but not the same as directing film. This is especially true with Canadian filmmakers who also write, such as Cividino on Sleeping Giant.

The 2015 Toronto International Film Festival major Canadian film awards went to Sleeping Giant for Best Canadian First Feature Film and Closet Monster from Stephen Dunn for Best Canadian Feature Film. Cividino and Dunn both made their directorial debut with those films.

2020 TIFF wrapup

The argument at the time in Canadian film was to give those up-and-coming directors a chance to make that follow-up film after initial success. Cividino has worked on Schitt's Creek while Dunn has worked on the Web series Pop-Up Porno. Neither has had a follow-up film since those debut films.

There may be extenuating circumstances. Cividino and Dunn aren't the only young Canadian filmmakers in this dilemma. There are more storytelling options nowadays. Maybe their success in other formats might lead them back to the film genre. Maybe that won't happen.

Looking back at the impact of The Filmmakers on CBC

The Filmmakers shows what Canadian female directors go through to make a film (2018)

Season 2 of The Filmmakers showcases female Canadian film creators (2018)

The Filmmakers on CBC helps the audience to appreciate Canadian film (2017)

The Filmmakers to run before Canadian films this summer on CBC (2017)

Last month, during the historical #schittssweep, Andrew Cividino (@AndrewCividino) won an Emmy for @SchittsCreek w/ co-Director @danjlevy.

Watch Andrew recount that magical night on #MeetTheFilmmakers - our digi series w/ @CBCArts & host @JoSchneller https://t.co/0SDFyPBnOJ

— DGC Ontario (@OntarioDGC) October 23, 2020

Arts coverage, specifically Canadian arts coverage, is where CBC should shine. The arts coverage on CTV, Global, and Citytv leans heavily American. CBC is a public broadcaster. We've seen more and more new Canadian films heading to CBC Gem. CBC should have plenty of Canadian arts coverage on television and online.

CanadianCrossing.com film coverage

CanadianCrossing.com CBC coverage

We don't know how many episodes there will be or whether this placement is random. A long interview segment with Andrew Cividino is manna with fewer Canadian films in 2020 in the middle of a pandemic. Let's hope to meet more Canadian filmmakers.

video and photo credit: CBC Arts
Twitter capture: @OntarioDGC

Canadian film review: Nose To Tail

If you read the late Anthony Bourdain, you would gather that the cooking areas in restaurants are toxic environments. Nose to Tail gives us that world perhaps only slightly exaggerated.

Daniel (Aaron Abrams) oozes toxic. Daniel has toxic reactions to everything and everyone. Chloe (Lara Jean Chorostecki), Daniel’s part-time girlfriend/front of the house, staggers back and forth between confronting him and holding back.

Nose to Tail takes place over about 24 hours where several elements fall into place to make Daniel as angry and toxic as he has been. He is worried about the potential investors coming by the restaurant on a day where things slowly go wrong around him. How far will Daniel go with his anger and toxicity.

Daniel is afraid of technology aka blogs as well as food trucks. He considered himself old-school but not in the ways of presenting food with his ultra-tiny portions. The restaurant is full every night yet the place is losing money. The restaurant has been around for 10 years, longer than a lot of restaurants, yet no one would put up with his crap for longer than 6 weeks.

CanadianCrossing.com film reviews

CanadianCrossing.com film coverage

Abrams does well by Daniel, giving him a tiny bit of humanity in what is otherwise a monster. The only person who Daniel is nice to is his sommelier Steven (Salvatore Antonio). Daniel treats Chloe as badly as any of his employees, which seems unlikely given they are supposedly in a relationship.

Daniel can't even hold back the anger in trying to get a high school friend (Ennis Esmer) to invest in his restaurant.

Chorostecki, whom we loved in X Company, holds her own, the diplomatic to the jackass who gives as well as she receives.

Jesse Zigelstein, as writer/director in his debut, gives us an intimate setting for the film. The film is mostly inside a restaurant, in the back of the restaurant, and then briefly onto College Street in Toronto to the food truck across the street. The film is not well-lit but in a good way. You are in tight corners with intimacy with a culinary monster, good and bad.

The script is tight and flows like someone who has worked in restaurants. Daniel's dressing down of the servers on how to interpret the menu deserves simultaneous applause and disgust.

Zigelstein has very small parts for most in the film: exceptions are Keith (Brandon McKnight), the sous chef who smartly leaves for a much better offer, and Angela (Genevieve Kang), who Chloe insists Daniel utilise to replace Keith.

You do wonder how people stay with someone that bad for a long time. Fortunately for the audience, they only have to know Daniel for around 80 minutes.

The film is intense and intimate. If you are a highly sensitive person, you might want to skip this film. Otherwise, watch it to see someone worse than you (hopefully).

Nose to Tail is available on Crave in Canada.

video credit: YouTube/1091 Pictures
photo credit: Nose to Tail film

CBC Saturday night Canadian film schedule for late October 2020

Editor's note: This story has been updated to reflect the October 31 listings.

About a year ago, we were excited about the Heritage Classic with the Calgary Flames and Winnipeg Jets at Mosaic Stadium in Regina. Saturday nights in the autumn are now for Canadian films on CBC instead of Hockey Night in Canada.

As we noted earlier, CBC will run Canadian film doubleheaders at 9 pm and 11 pm local time (add 30 minutes in most of Newfoundland) until the NHL season starts up again.

October 17

9p American Woman (2019)
11p Mean Dreams (2016)

October 24

9p Red Snow (2019)
11p Unclaimed (2016)

October 31

9p Incendies (2010)
Midnight Rebelle (2012)

The inability to copyright movie titles can lead to some confusion. CBC is likely showing the 2019 film American Woman, the directorial debut from Semi Chellas, who also wrote the screenplay. The film takes on a fictionalised version of what happened to Patty Hearst. Sarah Gadon plays the role of someone who resembles Hearst. The CBC schedule lists a 2018 film that is definitely not Canadian.

Mean Dreams is a boy-meets-girl who run away from her father. The primary cast is a split of Americans Josh Wiggins and Bill Paxton and Canadians Sophie Nélisse and Colm Feore. Paxton is the mean part of this story, a truly scary character. This was one of Paxton's final roles before his untimely death. Nélisse is also very good. Wiggins was also the lead in Giant Little Ones.

Canadian film notebook: Making Canada look like Afghanistan

Canadian film review: The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open

We wrote about Red Snow since the film made us think we weren't in Canada but we were. The story is compelling: an indigenous Canadian solider gets captured in Afghanistan. The idea of indigenous in Canada vs. Afghanistan is key to the plot of the film.

Unclaimed aka On the Farm is a TV film about women in Vancouver's infamous Downtown Eastside area. The film focuses on events leading up to the arrest of Canadian serial killer Robert "Willie" Pickton. Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers stars in this film. You might recall that The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open also takes place in that neighbourhood. Tantoo Cardinal is in both Red Snow and Unclaimed.

Drive-ins are making a comeback: Here are some Canadian films to show

Canadian film review: Ginger Snaps

Canadian film review: Cannibal Girls

As we noted some time back, CBC had scheduled Incendies (2010) and Rebelle (2012) for August 1 before the NHL postseason schedule was announced. These films were bookends on the 3-year run where Canadian films made the Top 5 cut for what then was the Best Foreign Language Film category. They were Canadian films that took place mostly outside Canada; Rebelle was completely outside Canada. Incendies provides a chance to see Denis Villeneuve's work before he went south to the United States.

We aren't normally critical of CBC schedules for Canadian film but having October 31 on a Saturday should have been horror films. Ginger Snaps might not be available but our official best Canadian horror film of all time. Canada has a lot of great horror films for possible selections.

CBC Saturday night Canadian film schedule for early October 2020

A recap of CBC Saturday night Canadian films in spring and summer 2020

When CBC showed Canadian films in previous summers, the potential numbers might have been low since people were enjoying the limited summer weather. This might have been true even in the summer of 2020.

Now that Canadian films will be part of the autumn schedule, we will see if that changes Canadians and their TV/film habits.

CanadianCrossing.com CBC coverage

CanadianCrossing.com film coverage

The Canadian films are available in Canada on CBC Gem.

photo credit: Mean Dreams film

Canadian film review: Parsley Days

Everyone thinks you are part of the perfect couple in your group. You decide you aren't in love with your partner anymore. Oh, and you just found out you are pregnant.

Parsley Days features Kate (Megan Dunlop) who has dated Ollie (Michael Leblanc) for 5 years. Everyone loves Ollie: her best friend Lila (Marla McLean), her friend Chloe (Marcia Connolly) and Chloe's partner Pauline (Shannon Cunningham), her sister Jane (Tara Doyle) and her children.

Kate doesn't want to tell Ollie that she is pregnant. Getting an abortion in Nova Scotia wasn't that easy in 2000. Chloe suggests Kate consume a lot of parsley to bring on menses.

The group lives in Halifax and gets around on bikes. Ollie points out that he doesn't even have a bike, getting around on the back of Kate's bike. Kate teaches a bike repair class.

We see a young man riding around town in slow motion. Is Kate interested in him. Joleen (Vanessa Maximillian) is in Kate's class but gets upset when Kate doesn't cover the chapters in order. Joleen spends a lot of time with Ollie, the king of contraception. Is she interested in Ollie? If Ollie is the king of contraception, then how did Kate get pregnant?

Parsley Days is one of those quirky independent films where everyone is relatively nice. The film does feel like eating warm soup while wrapped in a blanket.

The film also feels real with real, honest, believable characters where you aren't sure you are watching a fictional film. Could have watched these characters for twice as long as the 84 minutes in the film.

Ollie seems so perfect but that is make Kate's fate so much more nuanced. We've seen enough films when the woman dumps a man for minor and major faults.

CanadianCrossing.com film reviews

CanadianCrossing.com film coverage

Andrea Dorfman wrote and directed the 2000 film. Rare for your humble narrator to have a Canadian film where I don't recognise a single actor. Maybe the casting lend more realism to the story since you didn't have any preconceptions.

Parsley Days might seem like one of those "boring" Canadian films that some film people think about Canada and films. Like Schitt's Creek, escaping into a world where people are nice is sometimes an essential trip.

The film made Canada's Top Ten by the Toronto International Film Festival Group.

Parsley Days is available on Encore + on YouTube.

video credit: YouTube/Andrea Dorfman
photo credit: Parsley Days film

Canadian Thanksgiving 2020: Trying to remain thankful

There had been a gathering of expats for Canadian Thanksgiving where I live. We started small but grew to about 100 people. The spot we found was really ideal: they already served a turkey dinner on Sunday nights. That restaurant closed in the spring of 2018. The story is familiar: the landlord raised the rent. The spot is still empty today.

You might notice in the picture above that the food is not a turkey dinner. They had the best fried chicken. What was I to do?

We couldn't find an alternative place in 2018 and 2019. Finding a spot in 2020 was fruitless since we wouldn't be able to do Thanksgiving anyway.

I miss the food at that place but the gathering of people was more special. I am thankful for those memories but wish I could make more memories.

Canadian travel bubbles could boost tourism within Canada

No CFL. The Toronto Blue Jays, Raptors, and Maple Leafs are not playing. No U Sports. Families advised to not get together for Thanksgiving but maybe Christmas.

The ability to celebrate Thanksgiving may depend on where you are in Canada. Ontario and Quebec have been reporting hundreds of COVID-19 cases per day.

On October 1, Atlantic Canada (including Newfoundland and Labrador) accounted for 13 of the 14,490 active COVID-19 cases in Canada. Those cases are are all travel-related.

The Atlantic travel bubble remains in effect. If you are from one of the 4 provinces, you can freely travel between the Atlantic provinces. If not, travelers have to isolate for 2 weeks.

Nova Scotia premier Stephen McNeil said the bubble won't open up "any time soon."

The push for Indigenous travel is timely in an odd fashion. Canadians are encouraged to travel within their own country thanks to the pandemic. The territories are discouraging outsiders from coming in but there are options closer to home as well.

Being more aware of the stories and land of these people would be a travel adventure most Canadians might not consider. Hopefully, the pandemic makes us appreciate more of our neighbours.

Destination Indigenous has a few ideas on where to go. Going somewhere new when travel options are limited can be fun and exciting. Your kids, if you have them, can learn about Indigenous culture.

We recommend a trip to the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg. Your stay may not be that short since there is so much to take in during a visit.

Reflections on Canadian Thanksgiving 2018

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving 2017

We didn't do a Thanksgiving notebook in 2019. We were so busy with so many stories (Canada election, NHL, CFL, MLS, films) in 2019. Not so much this year. Sigh.

If you need a dose of recent Thanksgivings, we posted our 2017 and 2018 notebooks. Enjoy with turkey or reasonable substitute.

Yes, Americans. Canadians eat similar foods for their Thanksgiving. They often have butter tarts, something missing from American Thanksgiving plates.

CanadianCrossing.com film coverage

The Chicago International Film Festival, which starts next week, has not been kind to Canadian film in recent years. Not many titles and some very odd choices. Notable exceptions include Black Cop and The Twentieth Century, neither of which played at Windsor.

There are fewer films available for any film festival. The number of Canadian films in the 2020 Chicago International Film Festival: 0. Can't complain about the films brought in if there are no films to see. There could be a last-minute film addition. I still recall how they sneaked Felix and Meira into the festival with as little publicity as possible.

More ways to watch Schitt's Creek in the United States

Schitt's Creek wins 9 Emmys in its final season

We don't have to write about Schitt's Creek but can't help mentioning that the real-life Rosebud Motel in the Hockley Valley region in Ontario is up for sale.

The building is rather famous for fans of the show so a potential owner should take that under consideration. As for the rooms, we don't know anything about the actual motel rooms since the interior shots were from a soundstage in Toronto. 

The motel has been used for other projects such as the film A History of Violence from David Cronenberg. We found out that Jamal Murray of the NBA Denver Nuggets lived there for 2 years while playing for Orangeville Prep. The CBC documentary series Orangeville Prep was scheduled to debut this fall but has been delayed.

The motel's neighbours — Cafe Tropical, Bob's Garage, Rose Apothecary — are in nearby Goodwood, Ontario.

Who is Tim Stützle? #NHLDraft #Jeopardy pic.twitter.com/KfYKyEcqMj

— Ottawa Senators (@Senators) October 6, 2020

The Ottawa Senators, the only NHL team in Canada that hasn't played since March, was going to have a good evening on Monday for the NHL draft. The Sens had 3 1st-round picks. The team had a surprise for how the first of those picks would be announced.

Canadian treasure Alex Trebek, a University of Ottawa graduate, agreed to do a video to announce the first pick in the style of a Jeopardy question. Forward Tim Stuetzle will forever be the answer/question to that trivia note. Defenceman Jake Sanderson went at #5 and centre Ridly Greig at #28.

Twitter went wild with Trebek's announcement. We are thankful Trebek is still around to do such a cool presentation. Trebek, 80, is currently battling stage 4 pancreatic cancer.

The next NHL season will tentatively start on January 1, 2021.

CanadianCrossing.com CFL coverage

For those Canadian fans who love the CFL, TSN2 is showing more than 24 hours of previous CFL Thanksgiving Classic games.

photo credit: me
video credit: YouTube/Canada Explore | Explorez
Twitter capture: @Senators

Canadian film review: Tammy’s Always Dying

Tammy's Always Dying has an intriguing premise. A mother-daughter scenario where the antics of the mother dominate the daughter to the point where she feels like her mother is ruining her life. The antics include threatening to jump from a bridge on a regular basis, lots of drinking especially at the end of the month, and a lot of dependence.

Felicity Huffman plays Tammy (the mother) and Anastasia Phillips plays Catherine (the daughter).

Doug (Clark Johnson) is this unbelievable family friend who watches over Tammy and Catherine in a seemingly innocent fashion. Doug's character reminds us of gay characters in years past whose sole purpose was to take care of everyone else without having a life. The mother and daughter struggle but would be so much worse off without Doug.

Doug and Catherine go away to the big city (Toronto) from where they live (Hamilton) on Sunday nights. They go to this swanky hotel bar and pretend to be extravagant characters in escape mode served by the bartender (Kristian Bruun). The bartender went to the same prince school as Doug.

Catherine is having a relationship with a married man (Aaron Ashmore), whose wife (Jessica Greco) confronts Catherine.

Tammy's suicide attempts get confronted with a cancer diagnosis.

CanadianCrossing.com film reviews

CanadianCrossing.com film coverage

There is a subplot where Catherine is obsessed with this daytime talk show as a solution to her problems. Gordon Baker (Ali Hassan) is the host and Ilana Wiseman (Lauren Holly) is the primary producer. Hassan regularly substitutes for Tom Power on Q so he does have some talk show experience.

Huffman's over-the-top performance can be enough to watch this film, maybe. Joanne Sarazen's screenplay is a true poutine. The first half of the film sets up the relationships without much growth to the film. The talk show element had some potential but they speed through that part. Tammy is doing better before the talk show part and much worse afterward.

There is a strong feminist element — Amy Jo Johnson directed the film — but the mother-daughter story comes with princes among men who never do anything bad.

The Hamilton-Toronto contrast is the most interesting element in the film and that will be missed by most Americans seeing the film.

Chien de Garde fails to make Oscars shortlist

Canadian film review: Family First

Chien de garde is Canada's Best Foreign Language Film entry

Tammy's Always Dying is a way better film than Chien de Garde but has similar elements. Each has an over-the-top performance of someone who is messed up. The films are about people who are not desirable to put on screen.

There are countless good films about people who are struggling at life. Having uncomfortable characters can boost the interest in a film. The talk show segment needed to be incorporated into the rest of the film instead of a hot-air balloon that lands and quickly takes off again.

The ending of the film is infuriating and ambiguous. The performances are good even if most of the characters are unbelievable. The wife whose husband is cheating with Catherine is one of the most realistic characters on the screen and she isn't there for long. The actors deserved to be in a better film.

Tammy's Always Dying ran at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival.

video credit: YouTube/Movieclips Indie
photo credit: Tammy's Always Dying film

CBC Saturday night Canadian film schedule for early October 2020

Saturday nights in the autumn mean Hockey Night in Canada. NHL doubleheaders with Canadian teams. Not right now. So CBC is back with more Canadian films on Saturday nights.

As we noted on Wednesday, CBC will run Canadian film doubleheaders at 9 pm and 11 pm local time (add 30 minutes in most of Newfoundland) until the NHL season starts up again.

CBC television jumped in once the NHL shut down in March to show Canadian films in lieu of hockey. The run of Canadian films was "interrupted" when the 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs started up in August.

A recap of CBC Saturday night Canadian films in spring and summer 2020

October 3

9p Disappearance at Clifton Hill (2019)
11p I'll Follow You Down (2013)

October 10

9p Clara (2018)
11p The Animal Project (2013)

Disappearance at Clifton Hill is Albert Shin's follow-up film to In Her Place (2014) set in Niagara Falls. A young woman returns to her hometown reminded of a kidnapping she saw as a child but has trouble convincing others that the kidnapping happened. English actor Tuppence Middleton is the lead surrounded by fine Canadian actors such as Hannah Gross, Marie-Josée Croze, Andy McQueen, Noah Reid, Dan Lett, Aaron Poole, Connor Jessup, Elizabeth Saunders, Maxwell McCabe-Lokos, and David Cronenberg.

I'll Follow You Down deals with a disappearance and how time travel might bring him back. The primary cast is non-Canadian (Haley Joel Osment, Gillian Anderson, Rufus Sewell) though Victor Garber lends his Canadian stature.

Canadian film review: Clara

The CBC had tentatively scheduled the October 10 lineup on August 15. Clara is a cute enough film with real-life couple Patrick J. Adams and Troian Bellisario as an astrophysicist and artist who come together with the background of searching for intelligent life. Ennis Esmer, in a supporting role, looks like he had fun making this film.

Not as familiar with The Animal Project. Ingrid Veninger wrote and directed the film and we are familiar with some of her work (i am a good person/i am a bad person; Porcupine Lake). Aaron Poole and Hannah Cheesman star in the film about an unorthodox acting teacher.

CBC Saturday night Canadian film schedule for late July 2020

CBC Saturday night Canadian film schedule for early July 2020

CBC Saturday night Canadian film schedule for late June 2020

CBC Saturday night Canadian film schedule for early June 2020

CBC Saturday night Canadian film schedule for late May 2020

CBC Saturday night Canadian film schedule for early May 2020

CBC Saturday night Canadian film schedule for late April 2020

When CBC showed Canadian films in previous summers, the potential numbers might have been low since people were enjoying the limited summer weather. This might have been true even in the summer of 2020.

Now that Canadian films will be part of the autumn schedule, we will see if that changes Canadians and their TV/film habits.

CBC is showing Canadian films to fill time on Hockey Night in Canada

COVID-19 notebook: How Canada is faring in the coronavirus pandemic

CanadianCrossing.com CBC coverage

CanadianCrossing.com film coverage

The Canadian films are available in Canada on CBC Gem.

photo credit: Disappearance at Clifton Hill film

2020 TIFF wrapup

Announcing the recipient of the #TIFF20 Amplify Voices Award for Best Canadian Feature Film presented by @CanadaGoose: Michelle Latimer’s INCONVENIENT INDIAN pic.twitter.com/VJoCMCsDiw

— TIFF (@TIFF_NET) September 20, 2020

The 2020 Toronto International Film Festival had some drive-in film journeys, a few IRL screenings, and mostly a streaming experience.

Beans from Tracey Deer finished 2nd runner up for the People's Choice Award. Inconvenient Indian from Michelle Latimer won the Documentary Award and Best Canadian Feature Film. The last documentary to win Best Canadian Feature Film was When Jews Were Funny (2013).

The sad news is that there is no award given for Best Canadian First Feature Film, an award that had been handed out since 1997. There weren't enough films to have this be a category in 2020.

Latimer's new TV show got a sneak preview. Trickster airs on CBC and CBC Gem early next month.

Your #TIFF20 People’s Choice Award runners-up 👇

1st runner-up: @ReginaKing’s ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI...
2nd runner-up: @TraceyDeer’s BEANS pic.twitter.com/fdLQEMcBS5

— TIFF (@TIFF_NET) September 20, 2020

Tracey Deer was honoured with the TIFF Emerging Talent Award at the TIFF Tribute Awards that aired in Canada on CTV. Variety streamed the awards internationally.

Nomadland from Chloé Zhao won the People's Choice Award. One Night in Miami, the directorial debut from Regina King, was 1st runner up. Beans finished behind those film as 2nd runner up. All 3 directors are female.

Latimer said she would split the $10,000 cash prize for Best Canadian Feature Film/Amplify Voices award evenly between 5 emerging Indigenous artists.

Canadian actor Eli Goree portrays Cassius Clay in One Night in Miami.

2020 TIFF preview

2020 TIFF Canadian film preview

When TIFF concentrated on Canadian films for the opening night film

2020 TIFF Rising Stars

We should know soon which Canadian film will compete for the Best International Feature Film. The Oscars category should be a lot more intriguing this season with limited Hollywood film fare. As we noted earlier, that film choice almost certainly won't come from 2020 TIFF.

In a year of limited film choices, maybe the selection will come from a Canadian co-production.

Antigone was the Best Canadian Feature Film of 2019 and Canada's submission to the Academy Awards.

Canadian film notebook: TIFF offering a digital version of Bell Lightbox

Q with Tom Power does a great job at spotlighting TIFF coverage even in normal times. Power's interview with Tracey Deer is especially poignant.

Power talked with director Charles Officer and writer Motion on heir new film Akilla's Escape. Directors Aisling Chin-Yee and Chase Joynt discussed their documentary No Ordinary Man, about trans jazz musician Billy Tipton.

Power also talks with Eli Glasner on his take of the 2020 version of TIFF. Glasner had high praise for Shiva Baby, a Canada co-production.

Q airs on CBC Radio One at 10 am local time and is available in podcast form.

CanadianCrossing.com film reviews

CanadianCrossing.com film coverage

Rising Stars Alumni and #TIFF20 Ambassador @tatianamaslany sent us this lovely message to reminisce about her first TIFF experience and to thank the audiences that keep coming back for more. pic.twitter.com/eGG3h2qz45

— TIFF Industry (@TIFF_Industry) September 11, 2020

Celebrity sightings. Streets filled with tourists. People waiting in line outside hoping to get into a sold-out screening. Those are some of what was missing from the 2020 Toronto International Film Festival.

The realisation that digital screenings were limited was intriguing. The limit is quite logical to give the festival prestige. This 2020 version of TIFF was about the films more than the outside factors. A 2019 highlight was Tom Hanks ending up in a random cafe in Toronto. That was definitely missing in Toronto in 2020.

2020 TIFF Rising Stars

TIFF Rising Stars

We profiled the 2020 class of TIFF Rising Stars here. Here is the list from all the years.

2011 Sarah Allen, Katie Boland, Sarah Gadon, Keon Mohajeri

2012 Tatiana Maslany, Connor Jessup, Charlotte Sullivan, Charlie Carrick

2013 Megan Park, Johnathan Sousa, Evelyne Brochu, Cara Gee

2014 Shannon Kook, Sophie Desmarais, Alexandre Landry, Julia Sarah Stone

2015 Deragh Campbell, Stephan James, Aliocha Schneider, Karelle Tremblay

2016 Jared Abrahamson, Grace Glowicki, Mylène Mackay, Sophie Nélisse

2017 Daniel Doheny, Mary Galloway, Théodore Pellerin, Ellen Wong

2018 Devery Jacobs, Lamar Johnson, Michaela Kurimsky, Jess Salgueiro

2019 Kacey Rohl, Mikhail Ahooja, Nahéma Ricci, Shamier Anderson

2020 Madeleine Sims-Fewer

Best Canadian Feature Film

I have added Kanehsatake: 270 Years Of Resistance and Cairo Time to the films I've seen from this list.

Best Canadian Feature Film
Year	Film	Director
2020	Inconvenient Indian	Michelle Latimer
2019	Antigone	Sophie Deraspe
2018	The Fireflies Are Gone	Sebastien Pilote
2017	Les Affamés	Robin Aubert
2016	Those Who Make Revolution Halfway Only Dig Their Own Graves	Mathieu Denis, Simon Lavoie
2015	Closet Monster	Stephen Dunn
2014	Felix and Meira	Maxime Giroux
2013	When Jews Were Funny	Alan Zweig
2012	Laurence Anyways	Xavier Dolan
2011	Monsieur Lazhar	Philippe Falardeau
2010	Incendies	Denis Villeneuve
2009	Cairo Time	Ruba Nadda
2008	Lost Song	Rodrigue Jean
2007	My Winnipeg	Guy Maddin
2006	Manufactured Landscapes	Jennifer Baichwal
2005	C.R.A.Z.Y.	Jean-Marc Vallée
2004	It's All Gone Pete Tong	Michael Dowse
2003	Les Invasions Barbares	Denys Arcand
2002	Spider	David Cronenberg
2001	Atanarjuat (The Fast Runner)	Zacharias Kunuk
2000	Waydowntown	Gary Burns
1999	The Five Senses	Jeremy Podeswa
1998	Nô	Robert Lepage
1997	The Sweet Hereafter	Atom Egoyan
	The Hanging Garden	Thom Fitzgerald
1996	Long's Day Journey Into The Night	David Wellington
1995	Live Bait	Bruce Sweeney
1994	Exotica	Atom Egoyan
1993	Kanehsatake: 270 Years Of Resistance	Alanis Obomsawin
1992	Requiem Pour Un Beau Sans-Coeur	Robert Morin
1991	The Adjuster	Atom Egoyan
1990	H	Darrell Wasyk
1989	Roadkill	Bruce McDonald
1988	The Outside Chance of Maximilian Glick	Allan Goldstein
1987	Family Viewing	Atom Egoyan
1986	Le Déclin De L'empire Américain	Denys Arcand
1985	Canada's Sweetheart: The Saga Of Hal C. Banks	Donald Brittain
1984	La Femme De L'hôtel	Léa Pool
Best Canadian Feature Film (1991-present); Excellence in Canadian Production (1984-1990).

 

Best Canadian First Feature Film

I've added Luk' Luk'l and Bang Bang Baby. Would love to find Love, Sex and Eating The Bones. Films are much harder to find in this category. Sad that we don't have a 2020 entry but not enough films to qualify in this category.

Best Canadian First Feature Film
Year	Film	Director
2020	no award given	no award given
2019	The Twentieth Century	Matthew Rankin
2018	Roads in February	Katherine Jerkovic
2017	Luk' Luk'l	Wayne Wapeemukwa
2016	Old Stone	Johnny Ma
2015	Sleeping Giant	Andrew Cividino
2014	Bang Bang Baby	Jeffrey St. Jules
2013	Asphalt Watches	Shayne Ehman, Seth Scriver
2012	Antiviral	Brandon Cronenberg
	Blackbird	Jason Buxton
2011	Edwin Boyd	Nathan Morlando
2010	The High Cost of Living	Deborah Chow
2009	The Wild Hunt	Alexandre Franchi
2008	Before Tomorrow	Marie-Hélène Cousineau
		Madeline Piujuq Ivalu
2007	Un Film Sans Fusil Continental	Stéphane Lafleur
2006	Sur La Trace D'igor Rizzi	Nöel Mitrani
2005	The Life And Hard Times Of Guy Terrifico	Louise Archambault, Michael Mabbott
2004	La Peau Blanche	Daniel Roby
2003	Love, Sex and Eating The Bones	Sudz Sutherland
2002	Marion Bridge	Wiebke Von Carolsfeld
2001	Inertia	Sean Garrity
2000	La Moitié Gauche Du Frigo	Philippe Falardeau
1999	Just Watch Me:	Catherine Annau
	Trudeau and The 70's Generation
1998	Last Night	Don McKellar
1997	Cube Vincenzo	Natali
As determined by the Toronto International Film Festival.

 

You can check out all the award winners. The 46th Toronto International Film Festival will hopefully be relatively normal in September 2021.

Twitter captures: @TIFF_net (x2); @TIFF_Industry
photo credit: Inconvenient Indian filmm

Schitt's Creek wins 9 Emmys in its final season

With Catherine O'Hara, Eugene Levy, Dan Levy and Annie Murphy winning their #Emmys tonight, that means our little Canadian show is the first comedy OR drama to ~ever~ sweep all four acting categories, and that is absolutely wild 🇨🇦 pic.twitter.com/fEUnaLoDBr

— Schitt's Creek (@SchittsCreek) September 21, 2020

Schitt’s Creek -- the small, quite Canadian TV series that played on an obscure U.S. cable TV channel finished its 6th and final season with 9 Emmys. The CBC and Pop TV show won 7 Emmys in the Sunday night ceremony; the program swept the major acting awards for Eugene Levy, Catherine O'Hara, Daniel Levy, and Annie Murphy as well as Best Comedy Series.

“I will forever be grateful to Eugene and Daniel Levy for the opportunity to play a woman of a certain age — my age — who gets to fully be her ridiculous self.” — Catherine O'Hara in her acceptance speech.

Dan Levy was a triple threat winning for acting, directing (with Andrew Cividino), and writing. The latter 2 awards were for the series finale episode Happy Ending and it certainly was. The only award Schitt's Creek "lost" on Sunday was David West Read, who was nominated in the writing category for the Presidential Suite episode.

Schitt's Creek won a pair of Emmys earlier in the week. Debra Hanson, costume designer, and Darci Cheyne, assistant costume designer, won for the Happy Ending episode. The show and people were also nominated in 2019 in this category. Lisa Parasyn, CSA and Jon Comerford, CSA won for Casting for a Comedy Series. We noted the amazing, extensive Canadian cast (and Chris Elliott) in a story earlier this year.

Schitt's Creek set a new record for most Emmys in a single season for a comedy series. The sweep of the major acting awards was only the second in Emmy history, besides Angels in America in 2004.

Besides the David West Read writing nomination, the show was nominated in these categories, all for the Happy Ending episode:

• Contemporary Makeup (Non-Prosthetic) — Candice Ornstein, key makeup artist; Lucky Bromhead, personal makeup artist
• Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Comedy or Drama Series (Half-Hour) and Animation — Bryan Day, production mixer; Martin Lee, re-recording mixer
• Single-Camera Picture Editing For A Comedy Series — Trevor Ambrose, editor; Start Spreading The News: Paul Winestock, CCE, editor
• Contemporary Hairstyling — Annastasia Cucullo, key hairstylist; Ana Sorys, personal hairstylist

Schitt’s Creek received 4 Emmy nominations in 2019: the show, Eugene Levy, Catherine O'Hara, and contemporary costumes. Levy and O'Hara won Emmys for Outstanding Writing in a Variety or Music Program in 1982 and Levy in 1983 for SCTV. Tatiana Maslany was the last Canadian to win an Emmy for a Canadian show for Orphan Black in 2016. Maslany was also nominated in 2015 and 2018.

You might recognise Cividino's name and his directorial debut Sleeping Giant. The film won Best Canadian First Feature Film at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival. Cividino was a Best Director nominee at the Canadian Screen Awards.

Cividino co-directed the Christmas episode and the Season 5 finale Life is a Cabaret with Levy. He directed 6 episodes and co-directed the series finale in the final season. Levy mentioned that he met Cividino in film school.

Schitt's Creek gets 15 Emmy nominations in its final season

Luke Kirby wins an Emmy; Schitt's Creek gets shut out of 2019 Emmys

Schitt's Creek receives 4 Emmy nominations

Adieu to Schitt's Creek

Luke Kirby did not win back-to-back Emmys for Guest Actor In A Comedy Series as Lenny Bruce on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. Kirby lost out to Eddie Murphy when he hosted Saturday Night Live.

Stephan James (Rayshawn) lost out to his co-star Laurence Fishburne (Lt. Steven Poincy) for Outstanding Actor In A Short Form Comedy Or Drama Series for #FreeRayshawn on Quibi.

Sandra Oh now has 12 Emmy nominations, 10 for acting, without a win; Oh was up for Outstanding Lead Actress In A Drama Series for Killing Eve and as co executive producer for the show.

Martin Short was nominated for his performance for Guest Actor in a Drama Series on The Morning Show.

Full Frontal With Samantha Bee was nominated for Outstanding Writing For A Variety Series and Variety Talk Series but lost out to Last Week Tonight With John Oliver. Beeing At Home With Samantha Bee was nominated for Outstanding Short Form Variety Series but lost out to Carpool Karaoke: The Series.

CanadianCrossing.com Canadian TV coverage

CanadianCrossing.com CBC coverage

CanadianCrossing.com television coverage

Emmy winner Tatiana Maslany and Will Arnett had some fun with celebrities and how they have passed time during the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. Maslany was part of the Emmys nomination announcement online.

Schitt’s Creek is available in Canada on CBC Gem and in the United States on the Pop TV app and on Netflix. Season 6 of the program will hit Netflix next month.

Twitter capture: @SchittsCreek
photo credit: TV Academy/ABC; @SchittsCreek (x2)

Canadian film review: Indian Horse

The real stories of Indigenous people who suffered wounds of all different kinds from residential schools can't always be captured well on film. Some stories have triumph within tragedy. Some stories are mostly tragedy.

Indian Horse falls in the latter category. You sense within minutes of this film that a lot of heartache is coming.

Saul lives deep in the wild with his parents and grandmother. His older brother takes ill at a residential school and later dies. His parents, who converted to Christianity, focus on their dead son and leave Saul behind with his grandmother.

After his grandmother dies, Saul is caught by the authorities and sent to a residential school.

The only saving grace for Saul is that he is really good at hockey. The team doesn't want him at first because Saul is Indigenous. Eventually, his talent takes over.

Saul finds some solace when he sent to play with a team comprised on Indigenous players in a small mining town.

Saul has good teammate support with his fellow Indigenous players. He gets to the Toronto Monarchs and his teammates don't really talk to him.

The story is about Saul's inner struggle with adaptation in his various worlds. There is a sad sense but we learn very little about what Saul is thinking.

CanadianCrossing.com film reviews

CanadianCrossing.com film coverage

The film is a bunch of chapters loosely bound together. A bunch of horrible things happen without much warmth or anything reasonably pleasant.

You get the desolate circumstances for Saul and other Indigenous children over multiple generations. If you know absolutely nothing on this topic, you will get a good sense of what really happened. Indian Horse is a pretty good film, just really difficult to watch. Some of that unpleasantness is the story and also how the story is told.

The film is an adaptation of Ojibwe author Richard Wagamese's 2012 novel of the same name. You might learn more about Saul in the book as opposed to the film.

Sladen Peltier, as the 6-year-old version of Saul, got a Canadian Screen Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Vance Banzo, a member of Tallboyz, does a good job as one of Saul's Indigenous teammates.

The film was released theatrically, playing at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival. Yet the film was originally supposed to be a TV movie for Super Channel. The film does have a feel like a TV movie.

Indian Horse was actually the highest-grossing English Canadian film of 2018. So others clearly disagree with this review.

Indian Horse is available on Netflix.

video credit: YouTube/YouTube Movies
photo credit: Indian Horse film