Hey, bigshots – stop lying to us. When we members of the Toronto Film Critics Association give you our top prizes, refrain from expressing regret that you can’t make it to the party.
In videos and notes sent to last night’s gala at the Carlu, winner after winner – supporting actor Mark Rylance (Bridge Of Spies), Ex Machina supporting actress Alicia Vikander (who said she wished she could move here!), Todd Haynes (best picture and best director for Carol) – said they wished they could be with us. Yeah, right. As if you really want to get on a plane from sunny L.A. and hit T.O. in the dead of winter to hang out with a bunch of Canucks who can have zero impact on your Oscar chances.
Only director Christian Petzold and Nina Hoss, both honoured for their work on foreign-language winner Phoenix, were credible – they’re in Germany. But why Petzold bothered to send a grainy video plainly made in two minutes is beyond me. Even Haynes, one of the most visually stylish directors around, gave us only a static 20-second vid. Kudos to Aardman Animations’ Mark Burton and Richard Starzak, directors of the dialogue-free animation winner Shaun The Sheep Movie, whose video enlisted two of the pic’s characters to thank us. They were, of course, speechless.
No matter. Having been sorta snubbed by the big winners, the event wound up being an intimate celebration of Canada’s film community, leavened by host Cameron Bailey and other presenters’ wit and the freedom afforded them by the absence of television cameras.
Bailey started things off by warning attendants that age was creeping up on the T.O. film scene, urging, “Let’s make a plan to get the fuck out of the way.” He then introduced Matt Johnson, a previous winner of the best emerging artist award and famous, said Bailey, for saying, “Some people have to die before things can change.”
Johnson, whom I ran into in Winner’s where he was buying a tie just before the gala – he even asked my approval for his choice – goaded the audience good-naturedly, insisting that, since he’s still in school, he should have won the student award.
A high note was the standing ovation given to Deepa Mehta, winner of the Clyde Gilmour Award for her contribution to Canadian cinema. Mehta expressed surprise at receiving the award – T.O. critics, except for me, were not kind to her latest release, Beeba Boys – but was plainly moved by the TFCA’s accolade. She gave the $50,000 in Technicolor services that accompanies the award to documentary filmmaker Nisha Pahuja (The World Before Her).
As usual, the evening was capped by the announcement of the winner of the $100,000 Rogers prize for best Canadian feature. A hilarious Don McKellar did the honours, riffing on the idea of the TFCA “clubhouse” and worrying he might make a Steve Harvey-type Miss Universe gaffe. But he named the correct film, The Forbidden Room, by Guy Maddin and Evan Johnson.
Maddin joked that he was going to use the money to bring an NFL franchise to Winnipeg, while Johnson said, “I take back everything I’ve ever said about critics and corporations.”
To which I say the same thing I’d say to all those stars who wished they could be with us: as if.
susanc@nowtoronto.com | @susangcole
