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Genie Awards: 2008
Long live Queen Sarah!
By Larry Anklewicz Monday, March 24, 2008
The 2008 Genie Awards gave out statuettes to the best in the Canadian film industry this year and the members of the Academy crowned a new Queen when they gave the bulk of the important awards to Sarah Polley and her film, Away From Her.
There wasn’t a more deserving winner in Genie history than Sarah. She found the short story upon which the film was based (Alice Munroe’s The Bear Came Over The Mountain) ; she wrote the screenplay; she directed the film; and she has been promoting it since its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival last September..
Away From Her is a beautiful, lyrical film about an elderly couple who have been together for half a century. Now in their retirement years, they discover that the wife is developing alzheimers disease and she decides to enter a specialized home, thus splitting them up. The effects of this decision and of the rapidly advancing disease make this a film that will remain with you for ever.
Away From Her wound up winning six Genie Awards, plus a special Claude Jutra Award for Sarah Polley in recognition of outstanding achievement by a first time feature film director. In all, Away From Her received the Genies for Best Motion Picture, Best Actor (Gordon Pinsent), Best Actress (Julie Christie), Best Supporting Actress (Kristen Thomson), Best Director (Sarah Polley) and Best Adapted Screenplay (Sarah Polley).
During the first half of the Genies, it began to look like the David Cronenberg film, Eastern Promises might run away with the awards. It won seven awards in quick succession: Original Screenplay, Cinematography, Editing, Original Music Score, Overall Sound, Sound Editing and Best Supporting Actor. But Queen Sarah made a comeback and scooped up the majority of the major awards.
Very little silverware was left for the rest of the films in this year’s ceremony. Fido, a terrific little film about zombies won for Best Achievement in Art Direction; Silk was chosen for Best Achievement in Costume Design; Shake Hands With The Devil received the Genie for Best Song; and Radiant City was chosen as Best Documentary.
Apres Tout won for Best Live Action Short Drama and Madame Tutli-Putli won for Best Animated Short.
The awards were hosted by Sandra Oh, of Grey’s Anatomy fame. The writers’ strike in the United States allowed Ms. Oh to return to Canada for a short time to appear on the Genies’ show, although filming of the television series is scheduled to resume very soon.
This past year has seen a renaissance in Canadian filmmaking. A number of films had successful runs at the box office and the quality of the films represented at the Genie Awards was the best in a long time.
Having seen some of the films that will be released over the next year, I’m sure that this quality will be maintained and will result in just as good an awards show next year.
