|
|
 |
|
CANADIAN FILMMAKERS FESTIVAL WRAPS 2nd SUCCESSFUL SEASON
Copyright © 2005 by Ralph Lucas
|
Toronto, April 11, 2005 – The Canadian Filmmakers Festival has wrapped it's second season which saw 10 feature and 17 short English and French language films presented. The lineup included a special retro screening of Ivan Reitman’s gorgeously remastered cult classic Meatballs.
Only 3 awards - Best Feature, Best Short and People's Pick - are offered by the festival at this point in its growth, and they were handed out at a small gala gathering in a downtown Toronto nightclub on the last night of the four day festival. The People's Pick went to the feature, The Papal Chase. With the lavish funeral of John Paul II still fresh in festival-goer's minds, the 80-minute documentary follows the attempts of writer-producer-director, Kenny Hotz to gain an audience with the Pope when he came to Toronto in 2001. A small panel of judges selected the winning short and feature film. The Best Short Award went to the finely-crafted and well-acted film, Milo 55160. Set in the afterlife, actor Patrick Mckenna plays a processor of incoming souls. Written and Directed by David Ostry it was also a crowd favorite although the Porcelain Pussy which costarred Shauna MacDonald and Martha Burns must have finished a close second. Both were polished professional efforts that stood out over some of the other films which suffered the typical woes of all short films: low budgets, bad lighting and iffy sound.
The Best Feature struck some people as a surprise choice. The Overlookers from Writer-Director Christopher Warre Smets tells the stories of 5 different people who cross paths. Up against such fine films as Don McKellar's Childstar, and the Québec entry, Littoral, Overlookers overcame some excellent competition. Perhaps due to CineFranco which was running at the same time in Toronto, Littoral was only able to attract a handful of festival attendees which was unfortunate. Like all Canadian films it deserves a wider audience, particularly during this particular festival. Also of note was the feature Siblings, which is about to open in several cities and the excellently conceived and produced, The Limb Salesman.
Many directors and actors were in attendance throughout the festival helping to introduce their films, answer questions later, or mix with the staff, volunteers and guests at the closing Gala including Sarah Polley, Don McKellar, Ingrid Veninger and Shauna MacDonald, to name just a few
The Festival is presented by Schweppes and works in association with Film Circuit, a division of the Toronto International Film Festival.
|
Back To Top
Copyright © 2005.
northernstars.ca - all rights reserved.
|
