'President' wins over critics
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Gabriel Range accepts the Prize of the International Critic's (Fipresci Prize) at the Toronto International Film Festival in Toronto Saturday, Sept. 16, 2006. (CP PHOTO/Aaron Harris)
A dead president riveted Toronto's attention again yesterday. The controversial British film Death Of A President, which has riled up the U.S. right because it fictionalizes the assassination of George W. Bush, won a key critics prize at the Toronto International Film Festival.
The mock documentary by English filmmaker Gabriel Range took the FIPRESCI Prize, which is meted out by a five-member jury representing the International Federation of Film Critics. One of them is Toronto critic Norman Wilner. None of the five is an American.
Jury president Klaus Eder, a critic from Germany, announced that the film won "for the audacity with which it distorts reality to reveal a larger truth." Eder also revealed that the film, which played in the filmfest as D.O.A.P., also "irritated" all the jury members, but they admired it anyway and chose it unanimously.
Range's film has inspired a storm of protest in the U.S., including denunciations of the Toronto filmfest for choosing it for the Visions program. Angry Americans have written to the Toronto Sun denouncing all of Canada.
None of the protesters has seen the film: It made its world premiere in the Toronto festival. The film stages the 2007 assassination of Bush, using specials effects to manipulate real-life historical footage.
The FIPRESCI Prize overshadowed other awards, which veered to the low-key, the lovable and the local.
Even the People's Choice Award, which audiences determine by in-theatre voting cards, went to a small and surprising film called Bella, which seemed to create barely a buzz at the time it screened. Bella is the work of Mexican-born, U.S.-based Alejandro Gomez Monteverde, who tells a charming story of two strangers who meet and spend the day together in New York City.
Monteverde was charming in person, too, telling how his wife woke up in the middle of the night dreaming that Bella had won a prize. When he awoke this morning, he found out that was true and flew back to Toronto.
There were two honourable mentions in the People's Choice Award: French filmmaker Patrice Leconte's Mon Meilleur Ami (My Best Friend) and American documentarians Barbara Kopple and Cecilia Peck's Dixie Chicks: Shut Up And Sing.
The Diesel Discovery Award, which includes a $10,000 cash prize, went to Norwegian Joachim Trier's Reprise.
The first Swarovski Cultural Innovation Award, also with $10,000 cash, went to Turkish director Ozer Kiziltan's Takva: A Man's Fear Of God, with honourable mention to Peter Brosens and Jessica Woodworth's Khadak, a European co-production set in Mongolia.
Among the Canadian awards, there were surprises. Sarah Polley's highly acclaimed feature directorial debut, Away From Her, was shut out even though it was eligible for two major awards. Instead, Jennifer Baichwal's documentary Manufactured Landscapes won the Toronto-CITY Award for Best Canadian Feature Film, which includes a $30,000 cash prize.
Baichwal said her award was "completely unexpected" and quipped that: "I was supposed to be at my street festival setting up a bouncing castle."
Reg Harkema's Monkey Warfare took honourable mention -- and no extra cash. That inspired Harkema to joke, as a shout-out to Bruce McDonald for his infamous aside at an earlier awards: "I guess I'm not going to buy that huge big chunk of hash I was dreaming about."
The CITY-TV Award for Best Canadian First Feature Film went to Noel Mitrani for his popular Montreal film On The Trail Of Igor Rizzi (Sur La Trace D'Igor Rizzi). That award arrives with a $15,000 cash prize.
The Short Cuts Canada Award went to Maxime Giroux's Les Jours. It comes with a $10,000 cash prize.
The 31st edition of the Toronto festival ended last night with the world premiere of Michael Apted's Amazing Grace, a film about the British abolitionist movement.
This story was posted on Sun, September 17, 2006
