Film on Montreal Massacre sweeps Genie Awards
Polytechnique, Denis Villeneuve’s black and white film about the 1989 Montreal Massacre, won nine awards including best film at Monday night’s 30th Annual Genie Awards.
It beat out Kari Skogland’s Irish political thriller, Fifty Dead Men Walking, which starred Ben Kingsley and Jim Sturgess, and Nurse. Fighter. Boy, an urban drama directed by Toronto filmmaker Charles Officer.
Villeneuve, who was previously best known for the Genie-winning Maelstrom, also took home the prize for best direction at the Toronto gala honouring the best in Canadian cinema. The glitzy televised event held at an entertainment complex by the waterfront was attended by stars including actors Scott Speedman and Gordon Pinsent.
After the film received the award for original screenplay, Villeneuve told reporters backstage that he wanted to create a film emphasizing the student’s point of view.
“I was very touched by the fact that the students felt abandoned. From a moral point of view and political view, men felt a lot of guilt and they were judged by society, and women felt it was linked to feminism,” he said. “The idea was to go back to the root of the event and look at what the students experienced.”
Karine Vanasse won the award for best actress for her part as an engineering student in Polytechnique, and co-star Maxim Gaudette won best supporting actor; he plays the role of Marc Lepine though the film never names the killer.
Joshua Jackson won the best actor award for his role in One Week in which he plays a teacher who learns that he has terminal cancer and immediately heads west by motorcycle.
Martha Burns, known for her work on the series Slings and Arrows and her positions with the Soulpepper Theatre Company, won the award for the best actress in a supporting role in Love & Savagery.
Skogland won the award for best adapted screenplay for Fifty Dead Men Walking. “I can’t tell you how good this feels,” she said, shortly after winning.
The Claude Jutra Award which recognizes first-time filmmakers, was presented to 20-year-old Quebec director, Xavier Dolan, for his low-budget, semi-autobiographical film, J’ai Tue Ma Mere. Film producer Kevin Tierney who earned a Genie Award for Best Motion Picture for the film Bon Cop, Bad Cop, accepted the award on Dolan’s behalf.
He acknowledged in a news conference afterward that there was controversy about Dolan’s film not being nominated in any of the categories; he added that he tried to convince Dolan to come to the gala. “I think he was very ambiguous because this award is obviously very meaningful … but the fact that he only got this award was sort of like, my reading of it was like being sent to the kiddie table. If you’re going to give this movie the best first film, how do you give another first film 11 nominations?” said Tierney, who is vice-chair of cinema for the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television. “I call it an aberration.”
BEST MOTION PICTURE
Polytechnique
BEST DIRECTOR
DENIS VILLENEUVE, Polytechnique
BEST ACTOR
JOSHUA JACKSON, One Week
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
MAXIM GAUDETTE, Polytechnique
BEST ACTRESS
KARINE VANASSE, Polytechnique
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
MARTHA BURNS, Love & Savagery
BEST EDITING
RICHARD COMEAU, Polytechnique
CINEMATOGRAPHY
PIERRE GILL, Polytechnique
MAKE-UP
DJINA CARON, ANDRÉ DUVAL, The Master Key
MUSIC, ORIGINAL SCORE
NORMAND CORBEIL, The Master Key
MUSIC, ORIGINAL SONG
JOHN WELSMAN, CHERIE CAMP, Oh Love from NURSE.FIGHTER.BOY
SOUND
STÉPHANE BERGERON, PIERRE BLAIN, JO CARON, BENOÎT LEDUC, Polytechnique
SOUND EDITING
CLAUDE BEAUGRAND, GUY FRANCOEUR, CAROLE GAGNON, CHRISTIAN RIVEST, Polytechnique
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
JACQUES DAVIDTS, Polytechnique
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
KARI SKOGLAND, Fifty Dead Men Walking
BEST FEATURE-LENGTH DOCUMENTARY
A Hard Name
BEST SHORT DOCUMENTARY
The Delian Mode
BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT DRAMA
Danse Macabre
BEST ANIMATED SHORT
Runaway
SPECIAL AWARDS
ACADEMY SPECIAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Mel Hoppenheim
CLAUDE JUTRA AWARD
XAVIER DOLAN, J’ai tué ma mère / I Killed My Mother
GOLDEN REEL AWARD
Father and Guns, Denise Robert, Daniel Louis