TORONTO -- David Cronenberg's thriller "Eastern Promises" has been tapped best film by auds at the 32nd Toronto Intl. Film Festival, which wrapped Saturday. Starring Viggo Mortensen and Naomi Watts, the Focus feature explores the underbelly of a notorious Russian mob family in London when a midwife goes looking for the truth after a teenager dies in childbirth. First runner up for the award is Jason Reitman's teen pregnancy comedy "Juno," followed by "Body of War," a documentary exploring the consequences of the Iraq war from Phil Donahue and Ellen Spiro. "Cochochi," the tale of two Raramuri boys and their efforts to find a lost horse, from first time directors Israel Cardenas and Laura Amelia Guzman, took the Diesel Discovery award, selected by the fest's 1000 accredited international media. The 16th annual Fipresci international critics prize went to Rodrigo Pla's debut feature "La Zona," a Spain/Mexico co-pro that explores the rich/poor divide in Mexico. Anahi Berneri's second feature, "Encarnacion," a tale of the price of emancipation in Argentina starring Silvia Perez, won of the Artistic Innovation Award, selected from 13 eligible films in the fest's Visions program. Best Canadian feature kudos went to Guy Maddin's offbeat "docu-fantasia" portrait of his childhood and hometown, "My Winnipeg," while the best first Canuck feature nod went to "Continental, un film sans fusil (Continental, A Film Without Guns)," from Stephane LaFleur, and Christopher Chan Fui Chong's "Pool," a portrait of post-tsunami Indonesia, took top Canadian short. As industryites head home and the city returns to normal, fest organizers put the word out that there is still a gap to close to complete financing for the new home for the Toronto Intl. Film Festival Group, currently under construction and recently dubbed Bell Lightbox. Total raised to date is C$137 million ($133 million) of the required $191 million. The Reitman family and the Daniels Corp. kicked the campaign off in 2002 when they donated land and development fees totalling $21 million. "Quite simply, we would not have a new home on the horizon were it not for the generosity of these people," said Piers Handling, director and CEO of fest org. "We went to the marketplace five years ago with very stringent criteria for success for Bell Lightbox: great location, accessibility to public transportation, street presence, and an affinity for the charitable message and vision of TIFFG. Only one presentation came forward with all this and a significant gift as well and that was Ivan, his family and the Daniels Corp." Since then the federal and Ontario governments have kicked in $24 million each, and other contributors include the CIBC, the Copyright Collective of Canada, NBC Universal Canada, VISA, Allan Slaight and family, the Brian Linehan Charitable foundation and the fest org board of directors and staff. http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=festivals&jump=story&id=1061&articleid=VR1117972045&cs=1 Well I wouldn't know if the film deserved the award or not, but I'm sure someone else does -rolleyes
I can tell you from the 15 films I've seen, Eastern Promises was not the best, it wasn't even the best Canadian... I was SO disappointed with Cronenberg this time around...
^Yeah tons of positive reviews for this lol, but maybe it just didn't appeal to you hiake, expecting too much...that happened to me in a lot of "critically acclaimed" movies when i was expecting too much and it just didn't cut it, still kinda want to see it though... One example would be Departed, it was meh for me...
I don't know, I was totally put off by Cronenberg's comment on how "it's a film smart people can love"... I mean, that's just emperor's new clothes... It's a film, not Cronenberg's best, especially not after History of Violence.
But I have no doubt in my mind that American Gangster will beat this film! I liked the Departed. I thought it was a great adaption of Infernal Affairs. It had its own style and it worked.
I didn't know about Infernal Affairs vs. Departed, I didn't see either of them (how surprising right?) But I personally think that gangster is a genre Hong Kong cinema specializes in...
Wow that's a cocky comment from him... Well i actually watched the Departed first then Internal Affairs lol, i enjoyed Internal Affairs more... I dunno though maybe cause i was expecting a little bit more gangster action then just talking for like 3 hrs.... @hiake, you still gotta see one of em lol, but if you decide to watch both, watch the hk version first, one movie spoils the other one lol...
I think I should change my sig to "hiake is stupid, according to David Cronenberg" or something... -mellow If you think the HK one is better, I should see the adapted one first so that I won't think it's a super terribly made adaptation -tongue2
^ well that's what i did and i enjoyed it (departed) less lol, i don't know why... While everyone was talking to me about how great the Departed was, I was like yeahhhh...... i felt weird.
As far as I know the Departed was only good because the people didn't see the original Infernal Affairs...
I watched Infernal Affairs first and I still thought it was good. Well acted, and the script was perfect for the American audience.
^ I gotta admit the acting was good though lol, and it's typical vile Jack Nicholson here too, if you like him that way, rofl to that dildo scene...
The cast is an impressive one, since I like Damon, Nicholson AND DiCaprio... Though I always think that Mark Wahlberg is overrated... I don't think he's THAT important -^_^
