Quebec director Denis Villeneuve's film Incendies has won the ET Canada Best Canadian Feature Film award at the Vancouver International Film Festival. It is the second time Villeneuve has won the top Canadian film at VIFF; he also won in 2000 for Maelstrom. Incendies is adapted from a stage play by Wajdi Mouawad about twins who receive some shocking news in their mother's will: the father they thought was dead is alive, and they have a brother they never knew existed. The cinematographer is Andre Turpin. Sony Pictures Classics picked Incendies for distribution in Toronto TIFF 2010. Incendies is also the entry for Canada's Oscar Award Foreign Film Category.
Another Quebec film, Curling, by Denis Cote, was singled out by the jury, which included actor Deborah Kara Unger, director Sandy Wilson, Frank Samson of ET Canada and Andrea Henning, executive director of Arts and Culture for British Columbia. Halima Ouardiri, won most promising director of a Canadian Short Film for her 15-minute film Mokhtar.The U.K./Brazilian co-production Waste Land won the Rogers People's Choice Award, the top award voted on by VIFF audiences. It was directed by Lucy Walker.
A German movie set in the Congo, Kinshasa Symphony, won another audience award, most popular nonfiction film. It was directed by Claus Wischmann and Martin Baer. Director Sara McIntyre's Two Indians Talking won most popular Canadian film, as voted on by the audience, while Leave Them Laughing (directed by John Zaritsky) won most popular Canadian documentary. The environmental film audience award went to Force of Nature: The David Suzuki Movie, directed by Sturla Gunnarsson. The awards were handed out Friday night at the Granville 7 before VIFF's closing gala.
A German movie set in the Congo, Kinshasa Symphony, won another audience award, most popular nonfiction film. It was directed by Claus Wischmann and Martin Baer. Director Sara McIntyre's Two Indians Talking won most popular Canadian film, as voted on by the audience, while Leave Them Laughing (directed by John Zaritsky) won most popular Canadian documentary. The environmental film audience award went to Force of Nature: The David Suzuki Movie, directed by Sturla Gunnarsson. The awards were handed out Friday night at the Granville 7 before VIFF's closing gala.
by jmackie@vancouversun.com
