Canadian Crossing

Looking back on past versions of the Windsor International Film Festival

The Windsor International Film Festival has served as a gateway to Canadian film. The 2019 version has incredible momentum and the future was inspiring.

The 2020 and 2021 versions were lost due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has played havoc over the last couple of years.

Film festivals offer dilemmas over which film to see. None of them were a real-life Sophie's Choice. You make a good or fair best decision 8 or 9 times out of 10. You roll the dice that you will find a film later on. Sometimes, a film slips through your fingers.

We thought showing some of those choices would be a fun way to celebrate the spirit of the Windsor International Film Festival. This is not an exercise in sour grapes. Film festivals are full of these decisions, each with an art and science to them.

A look back to past years of the Windsor International Film Festival

Windsor International Film Festival cancels the 2021 festival

Windsor International Film Festival cancels the 2020 festival

2010

A late night slot in the Windsor International Film Festival had 2 promising films, each of them only playing once: Daydream Nation or We're The Weakerthans, We're From Winnipeg

Your humble narrator had never heard of the Weakerthans. Kat Dennings had some name recognition with the 2008 film Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist with Michael Cera (Canadian).

Picked Daydream Nation. That film was more likely to show up elsewhere. I did see that film outside the festival as well. I eventually found We're The Weakerthans, We're From Winnipeg on YouTube.

Film festivals allow us to know of films such as the Weakerthans documentary that we otherwise would not know. This way, I eventually saw both films and enjoyed them on different levels.

2019 WIFF Canadian films in review

2019

"There were a number of films that we could not cover during the film festival. Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band was the most prominent film. We will cover the film in a separate film review. Lie Exposed and For Those Who Don't Read Me were fiction films that we really wanted to cover. Hope is not high to find either film but we hope for hope."

You would think a 10-day film festival would have enough room.

Genese (Philippe Lesage) instead of For Those Who Don't Read Me (Yan Giroux)

There was a chance to find Genese though by the time of the 2019 festival, the film had been out for a year. There was no chance of finding For Those Who Don't Read Me. I met Yan Giroux when he was out with 1:54.

Picked Genese for its reputation. I have had chances to see Genese since then but no shot at seeing For Those Who Don't Read Me.

Sometimes, the safe decision becomes the de facto call.

We Are Gold (Eric Morin) instead of Lie Exposed (Jerry Ciccoritti)

I saw We Are Gold alone in an 800-seat theatre. While the story might have been enough, glad I picked We Are Gold. Lie Exposed seemed cheesy and more likely to be found later. Still haven't seen Lie Exposed. I might find the film for rent online.

Far Shore (David Uloth) via Antigone (Sophie Deraspe) instead of Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and the Band (Daniel Roher)

A 3-way decision is highly rare in film festival circles. I could guarantee 2 of the 3 films. Antigone was an obvious choice since that was the nomination for the Academy Awards. Far Shore would be difficult to find while Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and the Band had an excellent chance of showing up later. While there was FOMO anxiety in waiting to see the Band documentary, this was a good decision.

Far Shore was a good film, not great. I've seen all 3 films, which is the ideal goal.

2018 WIFF Canadian films in review

2018

Just A Breath Away starred one of my favourite French actors. I did eventually see Just A Breath Away. Not a very good film and Canadian in name only. I didn't pick a magical film in their timeslots. I likely had dinner or a walk.

Sometimes, food and exhaustion win out in a film festival.

2014 Windsor International Film Festival wrapup

2014

I would go back and watch In Her Place if I had known Albert Shin would be so prominent. as he has become, I would have been more interested. Haven't found a way to watch this film yet.

CanadianCrossing.com film coverage

The Windsor International Film Festival has given me the chance to see so many Canadian film titles that have been informative, entertaining, and both. Angry Inuk will stay with me. Trigger is a treasured film for me. The impact of Meditation Park forced me to go outside and get tears out before going back in for another film.

Giant Little Ones; Level 16; Cas and Dylan; And The Birds Rained Down; Window Horses; Empire of Dirt; Starbuck; My Internship in Canada; All the Wrong Reasons; Mommy; Tu Dors Nicole; Picture Day.

Please let this be the last year I write such a story, mourning the loss of what has been the best week of my life. The 2022 Windsor International Film Festival will be a glorious time.

logo credit: Windsor International Film Festival
photo credit: Daydream Nation film; me
video credit: YouTube/Film Movement

Canadian film case study: My Salinger Year

Our sibling blog BalanceofFood.com likes to poke fun at the front of food labels where you can imply there is more of a flavour than actually exists in a product. Those looking for a lot of J.D. Salinger in My Salinger Year will come up quite short. Salinger fans should expect more.

Joanna Rakoff (Margaret Qualley) is a poet studying in Berkeley in the mid-1990s when she comes to New York City and ends up with a job as an assistant to literary agent Margaret (Sigourney Weaver). The agency happens to have J.D. Salinger, known as Jerry, as one of its clients.

Margaret has a number of quirks, such as not wanting to use computers. Margaret is fascinating, the other characters are somewhat fascinating compared to Joanna, the lead.

Understand that Joanna Rakoff is the person who wrote the original book that led to this film. Joanna is the lead character and dominates the film.

The issue is that either Margaret Qualley is an actor who can't generate passion, angst, or personality for Joanna (quite likely), French-Canadian director Philippe Falardeau (as writer and director) didn't want Joanna to be interesting as a person (maybe?), or Rakoff loathes herself to the point where she thinks she is boring (possible). This is a significant problem for a character who dominates the film.

Qualley, real-life daughter of Andie MacDowell, is more expressive in a scene where dancing is involved than she is as an actor in the entire film. Irish actor Seána Kerslake, who plays her best friend Jenny, would have been a much better choice in the lead role (the film is a Canada-Ireland co-production).

English actor Douglas Booth plays Joanna's boyfriend Don. Don and Joanna have zero chemistry and the viewer has no reason to care about them as a couple. Boring people sometimes choose each other in real life, so if Joanna loathes herself, she certainly would loath the boyfriend character.

Falardeau or Rakoff have a line where Joanna refers to Berkeley as being in southern California, which no one in Berkeley would ever say.

Canadian film notebook: Marketing Canadian films as not Canadian

As we noted earlier this year, there are Canadian actors down the callsheet — Colm Feore, Théodore Pellerin, Yanic Truesdale, Hamza Haq, and Leni Parker — who do well in small parts. The surrounding characters, regardless of country origin, dazzle in comparison to Joanna and Don.

CanadianCrossing.com film reviews

CanadianCrossing.com film coverage

Falardeau has had better success in French than in English in his film career. The script is all over the place in terms of where the emphasis is in the moment. Pellerin's arc is way more interesting than Joanna's story and his appearances feel highly random. Falardeau also relies too much on montages for Joanna's journey, which emphasize the boring quality of her character.

One of the ongoing themes is that Joanna has never read Salinger when she starts out working at the literary agency. The film eventually gets to that point but we learn very little about how her world view changes after reading Salinger.

Falardeau worked with Rakoff to get this story but the story and character weren't worth the handcuffs placed on him in working on the project.

Sigourney Weaver is 90% of the reason to watch this film, if you have to watch this film. Be ready to fast forward through one of the most uninteresting people you will see on the screen in some time. Reward yourself with watching one of Falardeau's great Quebecois films such as Monsieur Lazhar (2011); My Internship in Canada (2015); and Congorama (2006).

video credit: YouTube/IFC Films
photo credit: My Salinger Year film

What we might find in a Canadian film museum

ABC, home of the Academy Awards, recently spent an hour in prime time with a special A Night in the Academy Museum highlighting the new Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. The museum, at Fairfax and Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles, has been years in the making.

The special showed how complicated covering the world of film can be within a museum. The museum isn't really celebrating small independent cinema but more about Hollywood than the film industry. The special pounded home about The Wizard of Oz: having a pair of the ruby red slippers is impressive. 

As much as we adore Canadian film, the United States is the champion of filmmaking. Not always the best films but in terms of history and the multiple layers of viable films across a wide spectrum. A long struggle to build a movie museum in Los Angeles doesn't bode well for a film museum in other countries.

What if Canada had a film museum devoted to Canadian film?

Once you stop laughing at the idea, the jokes come flying. The museum is the "size of a Fotomat booth" or "what do you do with the other half of an abandoned 7-11."

A bigger film museum could be devoted to films shot in Canada to make them seem like somewhere else. That museum could have a wing devoted to Canadian films technically Canadian but with little visible proof that Canadians were involved. That isn't what this museum would show.

'Visibly Canadian' is a reasonable goal for Canadian film

Canadian films should tell more stories about Canada

A Canadian film museum would have a smaller footprint. The NFB would have a room: early experimental films in French and English. The tax shelter era would have a room. Slacker films from Ontario. Atlantic Canada on the big screen. Indigenous films. The surprising strength of female written/directed films from Canada.

Canadian stories told in Canada by Canadians. Canada should celebrate those stories.

The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures has a lot of artifacts made famous by those legendary Hollywood movies. A Canadian film museum would have very few artifacts.

• The No Smoking within a mile sign in L'âge des ténèbres | Days of Darkness (2007) from Denys Arcand
• Bicycles from Parsley Days (2000) from Andrea Dorfman
• The radio control board from Pontypool (2008) from Bruce McDonald

The museum would be more about telling the stories of those stories that were told.

Take This Waltz showcases a real Toronto neighborhood

Canadians often joke about films done in Toronto that look any place other than Toronto. What about a Canadian film that uses Toronto as Toronto.

We took a look with a map at the location shots in Take This Waltz, the Sarah Polley 2011 film.

The film showcases Queen and Dufferin streets, Dufferin Jog, Royal Theatre, Kensington Market, and Lake Ontario. I would guess Trinity Bellwoods Park as well but am not certain.

Polley received a gift for shooting the film: Jack Layton and Olivia Chow allowed Polley the use of their house for the film. Polley and Layton, the NDP federal leader, were close friends.

2021 TIFF wrapup

2021 TIFF preview

2021 TIFF Canadian film preview

Toronto International Film Festival honoured Alanis Obomsawin at TIFF 2021 with Celebrating Alanis Obomsawin, "the centrepiece of the 46th Toronto International Film Festival." Perhaps you are like most Canadians and haven't seen any of Obomsawin's films.

"Her voice as a filmmaker, musician, visual artist, and activist has been consistent. She tells the stories of how Indigenous people in Canada have resisted injustice and abuse inflicted by the most powerful authorities a country can have, and how those people have fought back in the streets and in the courts. Most of all, her more than 50 documentaries made with the National Film Board show how Indigenous peoples have drawn on rich, deep traditions going back thousands of years to assert their presence as vital communities determined to continue on for thousands more years into the future." said TIFF in promo information.

You could have learned about Obomsawin at a Canadian film museum in addition to honours from a film festival.

TIFF will have a rare screening of August 32nd on Earth

People can learn more about the great Canadian films from Denis Villeneuve and Jean-Marc Vallée before they ran off to Hollywood. Those in the States who enjoy Villeneuve's work should know about August 32nd on Earth and Maelstrom. Those in the States who enjoy Vallée's work should know about C.R.A.Z.Y. and Café de Flore.

Canadian films that might explain a bit about the world of residential schools

Making the case for Canadian film in 3 parts

The necessity of Canadian films that don't seem Canadian

Telefilm Canada shouldn't limit funding by language but reward films shot in Canada with Canadians

Then you would have to produce an elaborate hour-long "commercial" for the museum, such as what aired on ABC earlier this month.

Getting Tom Hanks and Laura Dern to host the special shows the power of Hollywood.

Americans may not realize that others around the world are fascinated by American hubris. Occasionally, American hubris matches the hype, such as in the American film industry. Then again, no other country produces really bad films with huge budgets and pretends they are great.

Having the ruby red slippers from The Wizard of Oz is exciting. A true film museum would tell the story about Buddy Ebsen and The Wizard of Oz.

Finding good Canadian films not just because they're Canadian

CanadianCrossing.com film coverage

A Canadian film museum isn't going to happen anytime soon. The idea of a Canadian film museum to celebrate Canadian film requires some knowledge of Canadian film among average Canadians. The Parsley Days bicycles aren't as exciting if you've never seen that independent Canadian film.

Awareness of how Canadian films are made might lead to more interest in watching Canadian film.

photo credit: Academy Museum of Motion Pictures
map credit: Google

Canadian film review: The Woman Who Loves Giraffes

Saying Anne Innis Dagg is to giraffes as Jane Goodall is to chimpanzees is pretty obvious. Then again, Dagg got started in 1956, 4 years before Goodall.

The Woman Who Loves Giraffes profiles Dagg's interest in giraffes since the age of 3 when the Canadian visited Brookfield Zoo in suburban Chicago and saw giraffes.

20 years later, she made a solo trip to South Africa. The documentary said she was the second person on the planet to do this kind of animal study.

Dagg switched from zoology to feminism after being denied tenure at the University of Guelph. She wrote the ultimate book on giraffes and also authored books on feminism and being denied opportunity.

The Woman Who Loves Giraffes give Dagg a chance to relive some of those great memories in Fleur de Lys in eastern South Africa. The film helps her meet people who were inspired by her research.

Director Alison Reid tells Dagg's story through letters. Tatiana Maslany provides the voice for Anne in her early years. Victor Garber provides the voice for Alex Matthew, the South African rancher who was vital in getting her set up to study giraffes. Dagg provides her own voice to the film.

The film takes a key chapter in Dagg's battle at the University of Guelph and University of Waterloo. Despite her excellent, literally groundbreaking work, the University of Guelph dean denied her tenure. The dean at the University of Waterloo told Anne that he would never give tenure to a married woman.;

CanadianCrossing.com film reviews

CanadianCrossing.com film coverage

The Woman Who Loves Giraffes tells an amazing Canadian story that young people might be reluctant to believe. Redemption for Dagg is a key theme. There is a joy to watching Dagg back in the terrain where she got her start. She even talks about how she got some things wrong early in her process. Science is a lot about trial and error, especially when you are a groundbreaker.

Her Fleur de Lys return is worth watching the documentary. There is so much more to her journey.

video credit: YouTube/The Woman Who Loves Giraffes
photo credit: The Woman Who Loves Giraffes film

TIFF will have a rare screening of August 32nd on Earth

We noted the limited presence of the Canadian film chapter when the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) honoured Denis Villeneuve with the TIFF Ebert Director Award. Polytechnique and Incendies had brief visual mentions. The emphasis has been on Villeneuve's non-Canadian films.

The Uncanny Vision of Denis Villeneuve — the new TIFF tribute — features 2 of his newer titles: Arrival and Enemy. The tribute also features films that had an influence on Villeneuve: Lawrence of Arabia; The Last Temptation of Christ; and Le Mystère Picasso.

Did TIFF forget his Canadian film past? Actually, there is one Canadian film in the tribute.

August 32nd on Earth | Un 32 août sur terre is included in the TIFF tribute to Denis Villeneuve. The film stars Pascale Bussières and Alexis Martin.

The 1998 film was one of 3 Villeneuve films submitted to the Academy Awards in what was then the Best Foreign Language Film.

Maelström and Incendies were also submitted. Villeneuve was one of several directors on Cosmos, also submitted for an Oscar.

TIFF will show the classic Denis Villeneuve Canadian film this Friday, October 22, at 6:15 pm at the TIFF Bell Lightbox in downtown Toronto.

Your humble narrator was quite fortunate to be able to watch the film. Seeing this film in a theatre with other Canadian film enthusiasts would be a joy.

You may not be ready to watch a film in a theatre. I did check to see if there was a virtual showing. Alas, there was not a virtual showing. You do have to follow TIFF protocol to be able to see this film at the Bell Lightbox.

Still, this is clearly a rare screening in Canada, especially English Canada, of this great Denis Villeneuve film.

Canadian film review: August 32nd on Earth

Canadian film review: Maelstrom

Canadian film review: Polytechnique

Oscar nomination should help people find Denis Villeneuve Quebec films

Ryan Gosling, Denis Villeneuve get Oscar nominations

As we noted numerous times, classic Canadian films should not be this difficult to find. Canadians should have more of an awareness of its film history. If we are to celebrate Denis Villeneuve, then let's celebrate all of his work.

2021 TIFF wrapup

Top 10 Canadian films I still want to see

CanadianCrossing.com film coverage

The Bell Lightbox is at the corner of King Street and John Street just west of the St. Andrew subway stop in downtown Toronto.

photos credit and video credit: TIFF

A recap of CBC Saturday night Canadian films in early fall 2021

Hockey Night in Canada returns to the CBC with 5 NHL games on tap on Saturday.

This means the run of Canadian films on Saturday nights on CBC will be put on pause for many months.

A full NHL season with the 2022 Winter Olympics will push into late June 2022.

CBC has been showing Canadian films since the end of the 2021 Paralympics from Tokyo.

We had some new (to the pandemic) Canadian film titles. Here are the last few weeks of Canadian films that aired on CBC.

September 11: Juliana & The Medicine Fish (2017); Maudie (2016)

September 18: Funny Boy (2019); Beeba Boys (2015); River (2015)

September 25: Rustic Oracle (2019); Remember (2015); Mean Dreams (2016)

October 2: Indian Horse (2017); One Day in the Life of Noah Piugattuk (2019)

October 9: Across the Line (2015); Bon Cop Bad Cop 2 (2017); River (2015)

Juliana & The Medicine Fish (2017); Funny Boy (2019); Rustic Oracle (2019); Indian Horse (2017); One Day in the Life of Noah Piugattuk (2019) were new additions to the pandemic version of the Canadian films on Saturday nights. Funny Boy aired on CBC in prime time in December 2020.

We haven't seen Juliana & The Medicine Fish (2017); Beeba Boys (2015); and River (2015).

Canadian film review: Rustic Oracle

A recap of CBC Saturday night Canadian films in summer 2021

A recap of CBC Saturday night Canadian films in fall and winter 2020-2021

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

Depending on your taste in Canadian film, these particular titles could be a gateway into what Canadian film can be. The titles are often family-oriented and may not be too edgy. CBC does show more challenging titles later in the evening.

We will continue to carry through covering Canadian films on CBC. The pandemic will forever change our lives. Hopefully, you found some solace in the Canadian film choices on the Canadian public broadcaster.

CanadianCrossing.com CBC coverage

CanadianCrossing.com film reviews

CanadianCrossing.com film coverage

Canadians can choose to watch these Canadian films on CBC Gem. For a monthly fee, you can watch them without commercials.

logo credit: CBC
photo credit: Rustic Oracle film

Canadian film review: Rustic Oracle

Hearing about missing Indigenous women and girls in a news report might not personalize the experience. Hearing an individual story in Rustic Oracle about a missing Indigenous girl might help people understand better.

Heather (Mckenzie Kahnekaroroks Deer) is a teenager about to graduate from high school. She shares a bedroom with her 8-year-old sister Ivy (Lake Kahentawaks Delisle). Heather argues with her mother Susan (Carmen Moore) like any other teenager. Heather hangs out with her friends. Susan doesn't know much because she works long hours. There is no father in the picture.

One day, Heather doesn't come home from school. She doesn't go to school the next day. Susan goes to the police. They don't seem all that interested in Heather's case.

As cruel and lazy as the officer is, this matches the behaviour of the authorities toward missing Indigenous women and girls in real life.

Susan gets tired of waiting for the police to do their job. She sets out to find Heather. Ivy wants to go along because she misses her sister. Susan is reluctant to bring along her other daughter. Ivy knows what the suspect looks like so Susan brings her along.

Ivy has trouble sleeping, the same dream about Heather. Susan is worried about Ivy also disappearing, insisting Ivy not go too far.

Susan's zeal is remarkable even for a film such as this. She gets help along the way from social agencies in the big city of Montréal.

CanadianCrossing.com Indigenous coverage

Sonia Boileau brings us into this world in Rustic Oracle as writer/director, showing the frustration of really having no idea what has happened to her teenage daughter. Not lost on the audience is that the officers are clueless, lazy men while the social agencies are filled with women who are very helpful.

Some films would share with the audience the status of the missing person. Boileau knows not to do that here because the audience needs to see what Susan and Ivy see.

Brittany LeBorgne (Mohawk Girls) plays Hawi, a long-time friend of Susan. They reunite as Hawi helps Susan. We get to see a more relaxed person in the presence of Hawi. The scene in the kitchen helps us understand that Susan was once where Heather was and Ivy will be someday.

While there isn't a lot that happens, Boileau keeps the pace at a good rate. You don't lose track or get bored with what is going on. An intriguing dynamic, which ties back into Mary Simon, Canada's first Indigenous governor general. Susan, who lives in Quebec, knows English and her native language but doesn't know much French.

Boileau's initial feature, Le Dep (2015), was shot mostly in French. Simon talked about how she knew her native language and English but didn't have a chance to learn French when she was young.

CanadianCrossing.com film reviews

CanadianCrossing.com film coverage

The cast also features Kevin Parent, Margo Kane, Alex Rice, and Kawennáhere Devery Jacobs.

Rustic Oracle is a solid film telling well an ever tragic story repeating thousands of times.

Moore received a Canadian Screen Award nomination for Best Actress at the 2021 Canadian Screen Awards.

Rustic Oracle is available in Canada on CBC Gem and in the United States on Amazon Prime Video.

photo credit: Rustic Oracle film
video credit: YouTube/VIFF

Les Oiseaux Ivres is Canada's selection to the Oscars for Best International Feature Film

And the film representing Canada in the race for Best International Feature Film at the 2022 Oscars is...DRUNKEN BIRDS (Les oiseaux ivres)! Congratulations to the team! 🔥🔥🔥https://t.co/ATpeRmHLYi #Oscars2022 #CdnFilm #Proud pic.twitter.com/KSpdU2EbBF

— Telefilm Canada (@Telefilm_Canada) October 4, 2021

Les Oiseaux Ivres | Drunken Birds is Canada's entry to the 94th Academy Awards for Best International Feature Film. The Ivan Grbovic film (directed, co-written with Sara Mishara) played at the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival. The film will open in select Canadian theatres on October 15.

Les Oiseaux Ivres | Drunken Birds "is a film with which we wanted to celebrate the power of film, while taking the audience on a journey through the beauty, absurdity and injustice of our lives today. We would like to share this honour with the rest of the film team, but also with the seasonal workers who leave their families every year to better their lives." Grbovic said in a statement.

Jorge Antonio Guerrero (Roma) plays Willy, a Mexican drug runner going to Quebec to look for his girlfriend Marlena (Yoshira Escárrega). Willy ends up working on a farm in the Montérégie region.

2021 TIFF Canadian film preview

The film does have mostly Canadian actors including Hélène Florent (Café de Flore, Maria Chapdelaine), Claude Legault (19-2), Marine Johnson (La petite fille qui aimait trop les allumettes | The Little Girl Who Was Too Fond of Matches), Maxime Dumontier, and Amaryllis Tremblay (Jeune Juliette).

The film is in French and Spanish with additional dialogue in English and Mandarin. As we learned last year from Funny Boy, a film can have English, just not the majority of the dialogue in English.

This is the second feature film for Grbovic. His feature film debut was Roméo Onze | Romeo Eleven. He received Jutra Award nominations for Best Director and Best Screenplay at the 2013 Jutra Awards. Like Les Oiseaux Ivres | Drunken Birds, Grbovic directed and co-wrote that film with Sara Mishara.

Not taking away from this year's selection in the slightest, but ideally Canada should have an Indigenous film on the world stage in this category for the Academy Awards. The majority of recent Indigenous films have been in English and would be ineligible.

Yes, getting funding for films made in Indigenous languages has been difficult. Yes, we understand the dynamic that has been in place.

2021 TIFF wrapup

2021 TIFF preview

2021 TIFF Rising Stars

Telefilm Canada executive director and CEO Christa Dickenson noted that 10 films were submitted to the pan-Canadian selection committee. We never learn the competition of the eventual selection.

Will Les Oiseaux Ivres | Drunken Birds be in the conversation for the shortlist? Is the story powerful enough to go up against powerhouses such as Denmark? The hope is this film is a stronger contender than either of the Canadian films submitted last year for the Oscars. A film consistently strong from start to finish would be an improvement over recent submissions.

The measure of the strength of the Canadian nominee depends on the other nominated films.

Canada selects 14 Jours, 12 Nuits for the Best International Feature Film for the Oscars

Funny Boy disqualified as Canada entry for Best International Feature Film at the Oscars

Deepa Mehta's Funny Boy is Canada's Oscars selection

CanadianCrossing.com film coverage

The 3-year streak of Canadian films that made the top 5 cut (with the film year) were:

• Incendies (Denis Villeneuve) 2010
• Monsieur Lazhar (Philippe Falardeau) 2011
• Rebelle | War Witch (Kim Nguyen) 2012

The last Canadian film to make the shortlist was Juste la fin du monde | It's Only the End of the World from Xavier Dolan. That was 5 years ago.

The only Canadian film to win in this category: The Barbarian Invasions | Les Invasions barbares from Denys Arcand.

Your humble narrator has seen every Canadian film contender since 1997 (film year) with 2 exceptions:

• Emporte-moi | Set Me Free Léa Pool (1999)
• Un crabe dans la tête André Turpin (2002)

The 15 shortlist finalists will be known on December 21. We will know the final 5 nominees on February 8, same time as the rest of the nominations. The 94th Academy Awards will take place on March 27.

Twitter capture: @Telefilm_Canada
photos credit: Les Oiseaux Ivres | Drunken Birds film
video credit: YouTube/Les Films Opale

Canadian film review: Nurse Fighter Boy

Nurse.Fighter.Boy tells us we will get three stories. The boy Ciel (Daniel J. Gordon) is with his mother, the nurse Jude (Karen LeBlanc). Jude is getting treatment for sickle cell disease. Silence (Clark Johnson) is a boxer well past his prime who fights illegally to make a living.

Jude and Silence end up in a relationship; he becomes a father figure for Ciel.

Ciel is very responsible for his age. His mother works nights and he takes care of himself. The boy and his mother have a strong relationship.

The film is very quiet and not just because Silence has that name. The story is about real life. This isn't a documentary but you feel like you are peeking in on real people.

The film was a collaboration of 2 directors we admire. Charles Officer directed the film and Ingrid Veninger produced the film. Officer and Veninger co-wrote the screenplay.

Nurse.Fighter.Boy has a good use of music and space to build intimacy, especially between the nurse and her boy.

The relationship within the three intensifies as the film rolls along. We don't want to give any spoilers.

Nurse.Fighter.Boy also features Araya Mengesha, Walter Borden, Elizabeth Saunders, and Ndidi Onukwulu.

You will be nicely rewarded if you can handle a quiet film with real people.

CanadianCrossing.com film reviews

CanadianCrossing.com film coverage

The film was released commercially in 2009 and premiered at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival.

Nurse.Fighter.Boy received 10 Genie Award nominations at the 2010 Genie Awards, winning for original song Oh Love from John Welsman and Cherie Camp.

video credit: YouTube/Mongrel Media
photo credit: Nurse.Fighter.Boy film

2021 TIFF wrapup

Ste. Anne won the major 2021 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) prize as the Best Canadian Feature Film. Scarborough is the true winner of the TIFF 2021: finishing first runner-up for the People's Choice Award, winning the Shawn Mendes Foundation Changemaker Award, and getting honourable mention for Best Canadian Feature Film.

For the second year in a row, TIFF is not awarding the Best Canadian First Feature Film. The Twentieth Century from Matthew Rankin is the last film to win that award all the way back in 2019.

Announcing the recipient of the #TIFF21 Amplify Voices Award for Best Canadian Feature Film, presented by @canadagoose: Rhayne Vermette’s STE. ANNE pic.twitter.com/jrSnaIF4wu

— TIFF (@TIFF_NET) September 19, 2021

Ste. Anne is a feature debut from Manitoban filmmaker and artist Rhayne Vermette, who wrote, directed, and acted in the film. Vermette plays a mother who returns home to be with her daughter, who is being raised by her uncle and his wife. The film is a "deeply mysterious and alluring examination of home by way of places and people."

The trailer is the opening shot of the film with no words and a woman, presumably the mother walking through a field. Definitely no spoilers.

Announcing the recipient of the #TIFF21 Shawn Mendes Foundation (@shawnfoundation) Changemaker Award, selected by the #TIFFNextWave Committee: @ShashaNakhai and Rich Williamson’s SCARBOROUGH pic.twitter.com/QOitMgSgE2

— TIFF (@TIFF_NET) September 19, 2021

Scarborough is the story of 3 families struggling to survive in the Toronto area suburb. The film is based on the Canadian novel by Catherine Hernandez, who also wrote the screenplay. Shasha Nakhai and Rich Williamson make their feature debut in a film that "follows three interwoven families fighting an uphill struggle against debt, addiction, and job insecurity."

#TIFFTribute Emerging Talent Award, presented by @LOrealParisCAN and supported by @mgmstudios, recipient @DanisGoulet sends love and support to Indigenous communities across Canada and honours Indigenous youth in her acceptance speech. #TIFF21 pic.twitter.com/Svk5qoK8Vl

— TIFF (@TIFF_NET) September 18, 2021

Danis Goulet is in good company with her feature debut with Tracey Deer (Beans) winning this award in 2020. Night Raiders is about a dystopian world where children are taken from their homes at the age of 5 and brainwashed in state schools. Niska (Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers) is a Cree woman who is part of a resistance movement to save her daughter. Yes, you are supposed to transfer this world to what really happened in residential schools against Indigenous people in Canada.

Zacharias Kunuk's Angakusajaujuq: The Shaman's Apprentice won the Short Cuts Award for Best Canadian Film. Kunuk is best known for Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner.

TIFF has its reasons for not selecting a Best Canadian First Feature Film. Yet 3 successful Canadian film winners were feature debuts. We understood last year why the award wasn't given but there seemed to be enough films to qualify in 2021.

2021 TIFF preview

Belfast from writer/director Kenneth Branagh won the 2021 TIFF People's Choice Award. Jane Campion's The Power of the Dog finished as the second runner-up.

The 3 films, along with Scarborough, were celebrated as part of the TIFF awards TV show aired on CTV in Canada and streamed through Variety outside Canada.

Denis Villeneuve won the TIFF Ebert Director Award for Dune. The French-Canadian director has drifted away from Canadian films for some time. The tribute package did cover Polytechnique and Incendies from his Canadian film days but the TIFF tribute ignores everything Villeneuve did before those films.

Rebecca Ferguson, who is in Dune, introduced Villeneuve before he received the award. Ferguson talked about how Villeneuve cares about you whether you are a big fish or a tiny minnow. Your humble narrator had a flashback to Maelström, which did feature a fish as a narrator.

We realize that Maelström and August 32nd on Earth doesn't fit where Villeneuve is from an "American" standpoint. Same for Jean-Marc Vallée, where his classic films C.R.A.Z.Y. and Café de Flore are invisible south of the 49th parallel.

2021 TIFF Rising Stars

2021 TIFF Canadian film preview

Since Canadian film gets so little publicity, we wanted to call attention to the publicity:

Entertainment reporter Teri Hart, who often is on the Q screen panel, had high praise for Canadian films All My Puny Sorrows ("love, love, love") and Scarborough. Hart joined film critic Radheyan Simonpillai on the Q screen panel to talk TIFF 2021. Simonpillai talked about how a reduced focus on the glamour (due to the pandemic) draws more attention to independent type films such as Night Raiders.

Danis Goulet of Night Raiders talked with Matt Galloway from The Current. You really need to hear the emotion in her voice as she talks about the difficulties in telling these stories.

Bretten Hannam (Wildhood) is a Mi'kmaw filmmaker whose work calls attention to two-spirit and LGBTQ+ identity. Hannam was on Q. The film is set to open the FIN Atlantic International Film Festival in Halifax.

Catherine Hernandez (Scarborough) was on Q with Tom Power. Hernandez talks about how Scarborough is considered an afterthought yet she considers her creative work as a "love letter to this community that is resilient, hardworking — that refuses to back down despite being an afterthought to the powers that be."

When TIFF concentrated on Canadian films for the opening night film

There wasn't as much pageantry about the impact of TIFF on downtown Toronto. We wanted to show a few perspectives that deserved a bit more attention.

Jenna Cato Bass—director of #TIFF21 platform pick MLUNGU WAM (GOOD MADAM)—shouts out Toronto indie bookstore ⁦@BakkaPhoenix⁩ ✨

What do you love most about TIFF and Toronto? We ask three festival attendees - https://t.co/8mTRNph3nY https://t.co/HtKBjGhLVN

— Nataleah (@_Nataleah) September 17, 2021

Heather Hatch discusses the communities in her documentary WOCHIIGII LO: END OF THE PEACE, and why she wanted to bring attention to them:

“I think what you are seeing is a fight for life.” #TIFF21 #ShareHerJourney pic.twitter.com/on0MQS8yo7

— TIFF (@TIFF_NET) September 15, 2021

QUICKENING director Haya Waseem on working within the Canadian film industry:

“[In] Canada, this should be where all stories are celebrated and really embraced and I think it’s only just beginning to be that way.” #TIFF21 pic.twitter.com/xaSfAwsQf2

— TIFF (@TIFF_NET) September 17, 2021

🔴 LIVE | CELEBRATING ALANIS OBOMSAWIN Q&A #TIFF21https://t.co/zhtAMhWQJ5

— TIFF (@TIFF_NET) September 14, 2021

CanadianCrossing.com film coverage

TIFF Rising Stars

We profiled the 2021 class of TIFF Rising Stars. 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

2021 Arooj Azeem, Emma Ferreira, Phillip Lewitski, Thomas Antony Olajide

Best Canadian Feature Film

I have added When Jews Were Funny to the films I've seen from this list. Since 2009, the ones I haven't seen were 2016, 2020, and 2021. We may never see the 2020 winner.

Best Canadian Feature Film
Year	Film	Director
2021	Ste. Anne	Rhayne Vermette
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

Would love to find Love, Sex and Eating The Bones. Films are much harder to find in this category. My current streak goes back to 2014.

Best Canadian First Feature Film
Year	Film	Director
2021	no award given	no award given
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.

photo credit: @TIFF_NET; TIFF
Twitter captures: all @TIFF_NET except for @_Nataleah
video credit: TIFF