This time last year, we discussed the tendency in Canadian cinema to maintain its established star structure at any cost – and how that risked turning annual celebrations of moviemaking excellence like TIFF’s Canada’s Top Ten into predictable arrangements of big-name directors, no matter how their films of the moment happened to turn out.
It’s a pretty quiet weekend, so let’s try a thought experiment. I’m going to predict TIFF’s Canada’s Top Ten right now, five days before the titles are announced. (Features only I’m not nearly familiar enough with 2012’s crop of shorts to weigh in on that.
Antiviral, directed by Brandon Cronenberg
Reviews were mixed (at best) and audiences were unmoved, but the younger Cronenberg’s sci-fi parable shared the Best First Feature prize at TIFF this fall. Will the jury be moved to a legacy award? Odds: Long
All That You Possess, directed by Bernard Émond
Émond’s been a constant on previous Top Tens, churning out dreary, portentous meditations on fate and destiny like Summit Circle and La Donation. His new film is a little livelier and a little more humane, so hopefully the jury will encourage this new turn. Odds: Good
Bestiare, directed by Denis Côté
Côté’s films regularly grace Canada’s Top Ten, TIFF celebrated him with a retrospective just last year and this has just been booked for a run at The Royal next week. Surely that’s a hint. Odds: Even
Blackbird, directed by Jason Buxton
Buxton’s tense youth drama shared the Best First Feature prize with Antiviral at TIFF, and drew far more critical praise. Odds: Even
China Heavyweight, directed by Yung Chang
Chang’s documentary about the aspiring young boxers of a remote Chinese village is of a piece with his celebrated 2008 doc Up The Yangtze, so it seems likely the jury will respond to it just as enthusiastically. (And the seriousness of the subject matter makes it a much better choice than Chang’s other 2012 release, The Fruit Hunters.) Odds: Good
Cosmopolis, directed by David Cronenberg
It’s not his best work, and it doesn’t get a single thing about its New York setting right, but Cronenberg’s chilly adaptation of Don DeLillo’s psychological thriller is a step up from last year’s A Dangerous Method and features a solid Robert Pattinson performance. Plus, when has David Cronenberg not made Canada’s Top Ten? Odds: Fuggedaboudit
The End of Time, directed by Peter Mettler
Mettler’s a beloved Canadian film presence, and his meditative documentary on the human experience of time – set to open in a couple of weeks – is an intellectual delight, even if it does run on too long. Odds: Even
I Declare War, directed by Jason Lapeyre and Robert Wilson
One of the buzziest films at TIFF this year, but highly conceptual and a little weird. Will the jury favour the experimental? Odds: Good
Laurence Anyways, directed by Xavier Dolan
Quebecois wunderkind Dolan has graced Canada’s Top Ten twice before with I Killed My Mother and Heartbeats, and this film – which won TIFF’s Best Canadian Feature award – is actually about something. Odds: Excellent
The Lesser Blessed, directed by Anita Doron
Doron’s follow-up to The End Of Silence has all the elements that we associate with Canadian film – a wintry landscape, alienated characters, intimations of personal trauma and a First Nations angle. It’s also terrible. But who knows, right? Odds: Even
Midnight’s Children, directed by Deepa Mehta
A beloved director, an ambitious international shoot, based on a novel by Salman Rushdie … yeah, it’s on there. Odds: Excellent
Payback, directed by Jennifer Baichwal
Baichwal’s one of Canada’s finest documentarians, and this film features both Margaret Atwood and Conrad Black. How can it not make the cut? Odds: Good
Picture Day, directed by Kate Miles Melville
Melville’s high-school dramedy about a teenager forced to repeat Grade 12 picked up some heat at TIFF this year, but the praise was directed more towards Tatiana Maslany’s performance than the film itself. Odds: Long
Rebelle, directed by Kim Nguyen
Even if Nguyen’s film barely screened in English Canada, being selected as our nation’s Best Foreign Language submission to the Academy is an automatic in. Odds: Excellent
Stories We Tell, directed by Sarah Polley
Polley’s a Canadian icon, and this is her masterpiece. If it doesn’t get in, I’m torching the press conference. Odds: Excellent
Agree? Disagree? That’s what the comment section is for. We’ll find out who’s right when the 2012 Canada’s Top Ten is officially announced on Tuesday, December 4.
