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TIFF 2006: Awards Announced

By Mathew Kumar

Well, the festival is basically over so the award recipients have been announced. We can’t say we agree with many of them (perhaps just because we haven’t managed to see all of the films that have won awards) but we do at least agree with a couple of them. Better than nothing!
Swarovski Cultural Innovation Award: selected by “an international industry jury of major visual artists” from the Visions programme, the award went to Takva – A Man’s Fear of God. We haven’t seen it. We’d have given this to either Taxidermia or Zidane: Un Portrait du XXIe Siècle… A choice we really wouldn’t want to have to make.
People’s Choice Award: Bella (?). Seriously, people. Didn’t you see This Is England? We’re disappointed in you all.
DIESEL Discovery award: Selected by the accredited journalists from the Discovery programme, this went to Reprise. Yes! Well done our fellow journalists. We didn’t even have to stuff the ballot box for this. If Reprise hadn’t won we’d have been utterly gutted. Major congratulations to Joachim Trier.
Prize of the International Critics (FIPRESCI Prize): Awarded by an international jury to Gabriel Range’s Death of a President “for the audacity with which it distorts reality to reveal a larger truth.”
This film is terrible. So bad we didn’t even bother to cover it. Honestly, the jury here are complete idiots. We are literally embarrassed by the award.
Citytv Award for Best Canadian First Feature: Sur La Trace D’Igor Rizzi. We’re quite surprised by this award too, but this time we’re really rather pleased it got it. We liked the film a lot.
Toronto-City Award for Best Canadian Feature Film: Predictably, this went to Manufactured Landscapes, which we didn’t like. (Bo-ring!)
Short Cuts Canada Award: Oh dear. We haven’t actually seen this year’s winner, Les Jours. Are you seriously telling us it’s better than any of Jamie Travis’ films? We don’t believe you.
The full press release is at the TIFFG website, if you don’t believe us/disagree with our rampant editoralising.

Comments

  • Mark Medley

    I saw Bella at the advance press screenings. It sucks. I thought the same thing when the awards were announced.

  • http://www.wilnervision.com/ Norm Wilner

    As a member of this year’s FIPRESCI jury, I’m kinda obligated to take exception to your dismissal of “Death of a President” … what, exactly, was so terrible about it?
    (Yeah, yeah, you can ask me what, exactly, was so good about it, so I’ll preemptively refer you to my Metro review, which is reprinted on my blog.)

  • http://www.publicspace.ca/sidewalksale.htm Jonathan

    I managed to squeeze in twenty films. Below, I’ve listed them in the order in which I saw them, and rated them out of ten:
    2:37 (VAN) – 9/10
    Borat (MM) – 8/10
    Paris, je t’aime (SPEC) – 6/10
    Rescue Dawn (MAST) – 6/10
    Summercamp! (RTR) – 8/10
    Death of a President (VIS) – 9/10
    Lake of Fire (RTR) – 7/10
    Little Children (SPEC) – 8/10
    The Last Winter (CWC) – 5/10
    The Fountain (SPEC) – 5/10
    Drama/Mex (VAN) – 4/10
    S&Man (MM) – 9/10
    Out of the Blue (DISC) – 7/10
    Red Road (CWC) – 8/10
    Severance (MM) – 7/10
    Day Night Day Night (VIS) – 8/10
    Monkey Warfare (CWC) – 8/10
    Exiled (SPEC) – fell asleep
    Big Bang Love, Juvenile A (VIS) – fell asleep
    Paperback Hero (COV) – 8/10

  • http://www.torontoist.com mathew

    Norm, you can read my review here. Let me know what you think; I’m perfectly willing to hear why you chose it, in fact I quite want to be convinced.

  • http://www.torontoist.com mathew

    Also, Jonathan – I find it hilarious that you can give S&Man and DOAP the same score. One manipulates to make a very clever, clear point about manipulations in film, the other just manipulates.

  • http://www.the-egotist.com egotist mike

    why the high rank for death of a president?

  • Lansing

    I wanted to see Bella but I never got around to it.
    My favourites were:
    The Lives of Others
    Monkey Warfare
    Cashback
    Winter Journey
    I am sure Bella will come out eventually as it was heavily promoted on TIFF literature/brochures…..
    BTW, It appeared that the balloting was done VERY poorly… I was not impressed on the way it was handled. Firstly, the slot was too small in the box which meant that it delayed people from exiting the movie theater. Secondly, often the ballots were not available after certain screenings…

  • http://www.wilnervision.com/2006/09/death-of-fiprescident.html Norm Wilner

    Sorry for the delay … okay, I’ve put together my pro-”President” argument, and of course it’s so ridiculously long that you’ll have to read it over at my blog. Click my name to go directly to the post.

  • http://www.mathewkumar.com mathew

    If anyone cares, I’ve continued the argument, sort of, at the same place.