Actualités

Marlon Brando in ‘A Dry White Season,’ James Earl Jones in ‘Cry the Beloved Country’: Apartheid movies (photo: Marlon Brando in ‘A Dry White Season’) (See previous post: “Nelson Mandela: Sidney Poitier and ‘Malcolm X’ Cameo Apperance.”) Besides the Nelson Mandela movies discussed in the previous two posts, South Africa’s apartheid has been portrayed in a number of films in the last few decades. Among the most notable ones are the following: Zoltan Korda’s Cry the Beloved Country (1951). Based on Alan Paton’s novel, this British-made film features Canada Lee and Charles Carson as two men struggling to deal with the disastrous consequences of apartheid. Ralph Nelson’s The Wilby Conspiracy (1975). Sidney Poitier and Michael Caine star as, respectively, an anti-apartheid South African activist and a British engineer on the run from South Africa’s secret police, headed by racist Nicol Williamson. Chris Menges’ A World Apart...

Dror Shual's Sweet Mud and Sean Ellis' Cashback tied for the Mary-Jean Mitchell Green Award for best narrative feature at the 10th annual Bermuda International Film Festival, which concluded Saturday.

Jury member Carrie Fisher called Mud, the story of how a child copes with a mentally ill mother, "a very sad but hopeful film. It is a dark film with a light at the end of the tunnel." Jury member Richard Dreyfuss said of Cashback that "the film had a perfect whimsy that didn't try to become something that it was not."

Linda Hattendorf's The Cats of Mirikitani was named best documentary. Special mentions went to the films Living With Lew and Beyond the Call.

The short film jury, made up of actor Ben Newmark, director Vito Rocco and producer Tamara Tarasova, chose I Want to be a Pilot by Diego Quemada-Diez as the winner of the M3 Wireless Bermuda Shorts Award. Special mentions were given to My Backyard by Choy Aming and T.O.M. by Tom Brown and Daniel Gray.

BIFF audiences voted Robert Favreau's A Sunday in Kigali the Bacardi Limited Audience Choice Award winner.

MONTREAL -- Congorama, a subdued comedy about a Belgian man discovering his roots in rural Quebec, grabbed top honors Sunday night at the Prix Jutras, Quebec's film awards.

The French-language feature, which closed the Directors' Fortnight at last year's Festival de Cannes, earned Philippe Falardeau the best director and best screenplay trophies, and producers Luc Dery and Kim McCraw the Jutra for best film.

In addition, Congorama's Paul Ahmarani and Olivier Gourmet shared the best actor prize, while co-star Gabriel Arcand grabbed the trophy for best supporting actor.

The other big winner at this year's Jutras was the Rwanda drama Un dimanche a Kigali, which nabbed six trophies, all in craft categories. These included Pierre Mignot earning the best cinematography prize, Jorane getting the prize for best original music, and Michele Hamel earning the Jutra for best costumes.

Robert Favreau's Un dimanche a Kigali also earned a best art direction prize for Andre-Line Beauparlant, the best sound prized shared by Claude La Haye, Hans Peter Strobl, Marie-Claude Gagne, and the prize for best makeup by Marie-Angele Breitner.

TORONTO -- Quebec films dominated nearly all the major categories as nominations for the Genies, Canada's top film honors, were unveiled Tuesday in Toronto.

In the best picture competiton, Ivan Reitman-produced Trailer Park Boys: The Movie was the lone English-language Canadian entry. It will face off against four Quebecois films: Erik Canuel's Bon Cop, Bad Cop, Charles Biname's Maurice Richard/The Rocket, Jean-Francois Pouliot's Guide De La Petite Vengeance and Robert Favreau's Un Dimanche A Kigali.

The same quartet of French-language filmmakers surfaced again in the best director category, an all-Quebecois affair rounded out by La Vie Secrete Des Gens Heureux helmer Stephane Lapointe.

"Maurice Richard/The Rocket," a French-language drama about the legendary hockey player, led the Genies field with 13 nominations, followed by bilingual buddy comedy Bon Cop, Bad Cop with 10 nominations.

Terry Gilliam's Tideland, a British-Canadian co-production, grabbed five craft nominations and a best actress nod for Jodelle Ferland, while Julia Kwan's Eve and the Fire Horse earned a best supporting actress nomination for Vivian Wu and a best supporting actor nomination for Lester Chit-Man Chan. Otherwise, English-language Canadian movies, which garner a paltry 1% of cinema screen-time nationwide, look set to play second fiddle to their French-language counterparts when the Genies are handed out next month. Quebec films similarly overshadow the acting categories, with Colm Feore (Bon Cop) going up against Roy Dupuis (Maurice Richard), Belgian actor Olivier Gourmet (Congorama), Patrick Huard (Bon Cop) and Luc Picard (Un Dimanche A Kigali) in the best actor competition.

In the best actress category, Sigourney Weaver, nominated for her role in Snow Cake, will challenge Julie Le Breton (Maurice Richard), Fatou N'Diaye (Un Dimanche A Kigali), veteran Quebec star Ginette Reno (Le Secret De Ma Mere) and Jodelle Ferland (Tideland).

The Genie nominations, which came on the second day of Canada's actors strike, were announced at a Toronto press conference with no nominated directors or actors on hand for the assembled media.