UWPG Film Fest announces 2020 award winners
JE SUIS COMME LE ROI brings home haul
Jason Pchajek, staff writer
It’s never easy to pick winners.
There is so much that goes into a film, from the performances, to the writing, to the camera work, to the editing, that many awards come down to a dead heat. However, someone has to take home the crown, and this year at the UWPG Film Festival, the categories were stacked.
Best Canadian Short Film
Louis St-Pierre (JE SUIS COMME LE ROI)
Sponsored by CoPilot Co.
More. We need more.
A film that fits the age in which it has been made. A perfect allegory, utilizing the harsh and controlling home of a politician to stand in for a fascist dictatorship, this is no film of an angry teen who hates the fact their parents gave them a 10:00 curfew, it’s a scalpel slicing through to the bone with surgical precision. In every aspect, this film is masterful, and needs to be watched. It demands to be understood.
St-Pierre is a surgeon of symbolism and deserves to be recognized.
Best Canadian Animated Short
Omneya Tollar (Mold City)
Strange but beautiful is the only way to describe Tollar’s film. The animation work has a flare and vision all its own, with an artistic style that cannot be compared to anything else. It exists on its own and that’s what makes it so good. While other films evoke Pixar, Cartoon Network, and the works of famous painters, Mold City is simply…Mold City, and that’s awesome.
Best Canadian Documentary
Simon Roberge (Dialogue Between Her and Me)
There is something deeply personal about this film. Roberge has created less a film than an experience, or as the title implies, a conversation. You feel like you’re in the room, being told this heartbreaking story, that at times makes you laugh, but cry, and then twinge in discomfort.
It is uncompromising, uncomfortable, and perfect. It is complex in its simplicity, as Roberge does so much with so little, and is a testament to his talent and the story he tells.
Best Director
Judah Iyunade (Transcension)
Sponsored by Film Training Manitoba
It’s hard to create something so complex but also beautiful. Balancing every other person on set to craft an experimental film that accurately captures your vision, or in the reverse, doing absolutely everything by yourself to ensure the film is what you set out for it to be, Iyunade has taken the abstract and made it real.
Poetic beauty made visual splendor.
Best Screenplay
Jean-Pierre Marchant (The Sweater)
It’s simple, but sometimes that’s all you need.
The Sweater is autobiographical and feels like you’re sitting next to Marchant on a cloudy and cold Saturday. You sit there, beer in hand, and talk. But it’s not a conversation, not really, and it’s not a story either. It’s a man reflecting on his life, dissecting his memories and experiences, speaking to himself, and you’re along for the ride.
It’s deeply personal and that’s what makes it shine.
Best Cinematography
Matthew Mosley (anamnesis)
Sponsored by William F. White International Inc.
For the gargantuan task of creating such a moving visual experience, no words will do justice aside from those of the directors, who said “We tried to create a palette that felt more poetic than realistic, allowing the light and colour of the film to dictate the internal emotions being felt within the character at the time. It's the marrying of both the internal nature of the performance, and the expressive visual style of the cinematography that brings the dreamlike quality together.”
Visually distinct, dreamlike, sad, and beautiful all at the same time.
Best Editing
Noémie Gagnon (Das Ist Komisch)
Fast, frenetic, but so perfect. Gagnon’s work perfectly captures the mystique and intensity of Kafka and is able to weave together disparate abstract shots into a beautiful whole with the expert skill of a great craftsman.
Poignant and gorgeous. This award is well worth it.
Best Sound Design
Kalvin Mallari and Alexis Varvagiannis (Pretty)
Sponsored by Frank Digital
It would have been easy to overlay somber music over top of painful scenes of abuse, but then Pretty would not have the overpowering effect it does. Instead Mallari and Varvagiannis have crafted a soundscape that enhances the brilliant performances and framing of the film.
Going the extra mile always pays off.
Best Performance in a Leading Role
Rémi Poitras (JE SUIS COMME LE ROI)
Sponsored by ACTRA Manitoba
Poitras is going places, and he will be going fast. Able to capture the restrained fury and angst of a delinquent teen from a home that does not accept him nor nurture him, it would have been easy for Poitras to overcorrect to the street-punk persona favored by 80s Hollywood. Instead, you can feel the immense betrayal and pain he feels, the anger boiling inside, but the emotional restraint to not act out on violent tendencies like his unstable father and abusive mother.
Not only is he playing a character but is a stand-in for a disaffected populace under fascist rule. Seen in that context, the performance is further enhanced.
Best Performance in a Supporting Role
Daïna Lachance (JE SUIS COMME LE ROI)
Sponsored by ACTRA Manitoba
If there is ever a chance to reunite Poitras and Lachance in a film, it needs to be taken. Her portrayal of both childlike innocence, and a deep and mature emotional understanding that only children from troubled homes can understand, Lachance shines in her role. Youth plays no part in dampening her skills, but serves to in fact empower her performance, acting with a believability and emotion that you would not expect from someone that age.
It would have been easy for Poitras’s performance to steal the spotlight, but each scene Lachance steals it right back, and paired together the dynamic is palpable.
Most Promising Filmmaker
Yunrui Li (PEACOCK)
This one was difficult. With a deep field to choose from, no matter the choice there would be some in the room unhappy. Choosing Li, though, will be right no matter what, it can’t be argued.
PEACOCK is powerful, supremely powerful, and came out at a perfect time. Capturing an experience few understand, and fewer consider, but also weaving it together with a universal drive for fatherly approval and masculine validation.
Yunrui Li is a creator to watch.
Best International Animated Short
Alexander Gratzer (Applesauce/Apfelmus)
Mixing whimsy with a deep and sharp discussion of existential reality, Gratzer takes a complex topic but distills it down to a recipe as simple as making applesauce. Different positions on reality and existential dread, undergirding a brilliant animation style that captives visually as well as mentally. Each frame could stand alone as a piece of art, and I want it on my wall.
Best International Short Film
Kirill Khaletsky (Road)
Masterpiece.
Each and every time Road comes up that’s the only word to describe it. Khaletsky has crafted a film so thematically rich and visually stellar, Road could stand the test of time. It would be right at home being taught in a university film course. Each frame, every moment, oozes talent and experience way beyond Khaletsky’s 19 years, but that only serves to make us more excited to see what he does next.
Audience Choice Award
Joseph Fourre (The First Day)
Sponsored by the Winnipeg Film Group’s Cinematheque
From the moment it aired, supporters of Joseph Fourre came out in droves to support the film. Day after day, they continued to come back and vote filling the polls with support of the film that is an uncompromising portrayal of the mental struggles that follow addiction.
Special Jury Prize for the Best Manitoba-Made Documentary
Sidney Phommarath (Rising from Refuge)
You could be forgiven for watching Rising from Refuge if you thought it was from a docuseries or larger film. The use of family photos brings weight to the experience, watching the transition from refugees in a war-torn Laos to citizens of a safe and caring Canada.
With the current climate and attitude toward immigrants and refugees in the world, this film comes at the perfect time. It shows just why people leave, and the amazing fortune those who can leave are given, something they spend their lives repaying to their new home.