Remembering Roger Ebert

The TFCA was very sad to hear of the passing of famed film critic Roger Ebert last Thursday. Many of our members (some who knew Roger personally for many years) wrote pieces on him that we'd like share.

Everyone called him Roger (Brian D. Johnson)

Remembering Roger Ebert (Norm Wilner)

Appreciation of Roger Ebert: the man who loved movies (Liam Lacey)

Thought Bubble: R.I.P Roger Ebert (Andrew Parker)

Chris Knight on Roger Ebert: Our chief film critic remembers the man who was all thumbs (and that’s a good thing)

Roger Ebert a big man with a big heart (Liz Braun)

RIP Roger Ebert (1942-2013) (John Semley)

For Roger Ebert, it was always about the movies: Howell (Peter Howell)

Roger Ebert dies at 70 (Kiva Reardon)

Remembering Roger (Eli Glasner)

Jennie Punter wrote the following about her experience working with Roger:

In 2004 I worked as the field producer for Boston film critic Gerald Peary's documentary about American film criticism "For The Love of Movies," which had its world premiere at the SXSW Film Festival in 2009.

In the late summer of 2004 I travelled with Gerald and a cinematographer to Chicago, where we filmed former Chicago Reader film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum in his shelf-lined apartment, a teenaged Gabe Klinger in his parents' house and Roger Ebert on the set of his TV show, in its final year at that familiar cosy, theatrical location.

More than any other city, even New York, Chicago felt to me--in 2004 at least-- like the crucial North American intersection of everything film criticism had been and was destined to be.

Roger was more than gracious to our small crew, generous with his time and, as always, completely candid about his own work and the profession in general. It was the first time I met him in person. I was so pleased to discover that the dude whose rants and raves I'd enjoyed over the years in print and on TV was more interested in talking about movies than about his own role in "the conversation." During the Chicago shoot with Roger, I did not mention that I was also a film critic (or film reviewer, as I preferred to call myself) because I had a particular role to play on set as a wrangler, nudging Gerald from time to time during the interview, making sure everything was set up so that smooth interaction could take place.

In my 20+ years as a film critic I think Roger's approach to his work is probably the closest to what I was aiming at in my fumbling attempts to write about cinema. I always thought of my readers as anyone who picked up the paper, and that it was my job to give them my opinion, put the film itself and my opinion in a context that could be easily explained and maybe share one or two facts or ideas they might not have considered ... and every once in a while there would be time and space for an inspired riff or burst of insight. That's what Roger did and what I tried to do.

Not all of Roger's reviews were created equal. He had his good days and bad, made mistakes like all of us, re-evaluated his thoughts on some titles years after his original views were published. But he was consistently enthusiastic and eloquent and intelligent, let's face it, made everyone feel like their opinion  mattered. Thumbs up, Thumbs down. That's what it often boils down to.

And of course as we all know he was among the first major scribe to seriously embrace the new, abbreviated form of communication known as Twitter and really set the standard for perfect engagement. I will miss his daily tweets. It was so hilarious to see him face off against younger industry "tweet stars" a couple of years ago at a TIFF event -- a moderator chose a topic and participants had a limited to write a pithy tweet. Roger blew everyone out of the water. That's how he rolled.

Trailer of For The Love of Movies.

TFCA 2012 Awards highlights

Highlights of the Toronto Film Critics Association's 16th annual Awards, a gala dinner held Jan. 8, 2013 at the Carlu in Toronto.

TFCA 2012 Awards Montage

2012 montage of all films nominated for an award by the Toronto Film Critics Association. Edited by Brian D. Johnson, TFCA President.

Sarah Polley's 'Stories We Tell' takes home $100,000 Rogers Best Canadian Film Award

TORONTO – Stories We Tell, Sarah Polley’s documentary inquiry into her tangled family history, has won the Toronto Film Critics Association’s 2012 Rogers Best Canadian Film Award.

The award was presented to Polley by noted writer/actor/director Don McKellar, a previous TFCA winner, at a gala dinner held January 8 at the historic Carlu in downtown Toronto. Also nominated for the award were Bestiaire, directed by Denis Côté, and Goon, directed by Michael Dowse. In attendance were prominent members of the film industry including Robert Lantos, Darren Throop, Hussain Amarshi and luminaries such as Minister Michael Chan, Rick Mercer, Patricia Rozema, Jian Ghomeshi, Bruce McDonald, Mark McKinney, Sarah Gadon, Emily Hampshire and Katie Boland.

The $100,000 value of the newly endowed Rogers Best Canadian Film Award makes it by far the richest arts prize in Canada.  As runners-up, Côté and Dowse each received $5,000 from Rogers Communications.

This marks the second time the TFCA has honoured Polley for Best Canadian Film; she won for her first feature, Away From Her (2006). Stories We Tell also received the TFCA’s 2012 Allan King Documentary Award, which was presented to Polley by CBC personality Rick Mercer.

“This unprecedented prize throws an invaluable spotlight on Canadian film,” said TFCA President Brian D. Johnson, film critic for Maclean’s. “In a world where most cash arts prizes are voted by small juries of peers, it puts faith in a diverse group of fiercely independent critics. This year we had three strong, very different nominees—Denis Côté’s documentary meditation on captive animals; Michael Dowse’s wildly profane yet tender hockey comedy; and Sarah Polley’s genre-bending family memoir. We congratulate all three of them.”

“With this deeply personal film, Sarah Polley has offered up a thoroughly engaging and interesting depiction of her own family and its stories.” added Phil Lind, Vice Chairman, Rogers Communications Inc. “She is at the forefront of Canadian filmmakers and we're thrilled to recognize this achievement with this prize. As long time supporters of the Canadian production sector, Rogers is proud to support these Canadian stories and the Canadian story tellers who bring them to life.”

Veteran Toronto filmmaker Bruce McDonald presented the 2012 Manulife Financial Best Student Film Award to Ryerson University student Andrew Moir for his short documentary Just As I Remember, which juxtaposes the experience of two men with ALS—a father of three in the early stages of disease and his own dad who is almost completely paralyzed. The award carries a cash prize of $5,000, donated by Manulife Financial to celebrate the spirit of volunteerism that is at the heart of student film-making and the power of storytelling in inspiring active citizenship.

Noted writer-director Patricia Rozema presented the TFCA’s Jay Scott Prize for an emerging artist to Toronto filmmaker Nicolás Pereda (Greatest Hits). Sponsored by Deluxe, the prize is accompanied by a $5,000 cash award and $5,000 in post production services. It’s named after the late, legendary Globe and Mail film critic Jay Scott.

Pereda’s thriftily produced and formally experimental films have been embraced at festivals around the world. This Mexican-born graduate of York University, who lives in Toronto, won a prize at Venice in 2010 for his lyrical drama Summer of Goliath. With six features under his belt at 32, he has already received a full retrospective at TIFF Bell Lightbox.
“After watching a film,” said Johnson, “those of us who knew Jay Scott occasionally still find ourselves thinking, ‘What would Jay think?’ Jay loved to champion bold, experimental filmmakers with a lyrical eye—I could imagine him discovering Nicolás Pereda and trying to make him famous.”

The TFCA is extremely grateful to founding sponsor, Rogers Communications Inc, and to its other sponsors: Manulife Financial, Cineplex Media, Deluxe, Shangri-la Hotel, Maclean’s magazine, the Globe and Mail, Moet & Chandon, Ontario Media Development Corporation, Cineplex Entertainment, North 44, MacLaren McGill and the Carlu.

Toronto Film Critics Association Announces 2012 Awards

TORONTO — The Master, Paul Thomas Anderson’s 70mm drama about a battle of wills between a ravaged war veteran and the cult leader who offers him a place at his right hand, dominated the 2012 awards of the Toronto Film Critics Association.

Anderson’s film took Best Picture, Best Director and Best Screenplay, with co-star Philip Seymour Hoffman named the year’s Best Supporting Actor. Anderson has now won Best Picture twice (previous was Magnolia 1999) and Best Director three times (previous was Magnolia and Punch-Drunk Love 2002). He also shared the Best Screenplay prize with Being John Malkovich author Charlie Kaufman (1999).

The awards were voted by the TFCA at a Dec. 16 meeting. The membership also chose the three finalists for the Rogers Best Canadian Film Award: Bestiaire, directed by Denis Côté; Goon, directed by Michael Dowse, and Stories We Tell, directed by Sarah Polley.

The 2012 TFCA Awards will be presented at a gala dinner at Toronto’s Carlu on January 8, 2013, hosted by Cameron Bailey, Artistic Director of the Toronto International Film Festival. There the TFCA will also reveal the winner of the Rogers Best Canadian Film Award, which this year carries a record-setting $100,000 cash prize, now the richest arts award in the country. The runners-up will each receive $5,000. Don McKellar will present the award.

“The diversity of our three finalists for this extraordinary new prize show there’s nothing predictable about Canadian cinema,” said TFCA President Brian D. Johnson, film critic for Maclean’s. “These are all genres we haven’t seen before. Bestiaire is a visionary documentary from Montreal that explores our relationship to the animal world. Stories We Tell, a doc from Toronto, unfolds as a procedural home movie, investigating the filmmaker’s family secrets; and Goon, shot largely in Winnipeg and set across the country, is a viciously funny comedy about hockey violence.”

Canadian filmmakers were also honoured in the TFCA’s other awards, with Stories We Tell winning the Allan King Documentary Award and Panos Cosmatos sharing the Best First Feature prize for Beyond the Black Rainbow with Benh Zeitlin’s Beasts of the Southern Wild.

(Under the TFCA’s guidelines, contenders eligible for the awards include films released in Canada in 2012 plus films that qualify for the 2012 Oscars and have Canadian distribution scheduled by the end of February 2013.)

At the Jan. 8 gala, the TFCA will also present the Manulife Financial Student Film Award, which carries a $5,000 cash prize. It will be presented to a short film that the critics select from student entries submitted by film programs at Humber College, Ryerson University, Sheridan College and York University.

At the gala, the TFCA will also announce the Jay Scott Prize for an emerging artist, sponsored by Deluxe, which will present a cheque for $5,000 and provide an equivalent value in post- production services.

The TFCA is extremely grateful to founding sponsor, Rogers Communications Inc, and to its other sponsors: Manulife Financial, Cineplex Media, Deluxe, Shangri-la Hotel, Maclean’s magazine, the Globe and Mail, Moet & Chandon, Ontario Media Development Corporation, Cineplex Entertainment, North 44, MacLaren McGill and the Carlu.

The TFCA Awards gala will take place in the art-deco Round Room of the historic Carlu, with cuisine provided by chef Mark McEwan, whose career has ranged from the stellar kitchen of North 44 to his current role as head judge on TV’s Top Chef Canada.

The Toronto Film Critics Association was established in 1997 and is comprised of Toronto based journalists and broadcasters who specialize in film criticism and commentary. All

major dailies, weeklies and a variety of other print, electronic and web outlets are represented. Members of the TFCA also participate in the Federation of International Film Critics (FIPRESCI). As such, they have sat on juries at festivals in Cannes, Berlin, Venice, Toronto, Montreal, Miami, Palm Springs, Chicago, Pusan, Moscow, Amsterdam, London and Vienna, among others.

The full list of Toronto Film Critics Association Awards winners and runners-up:

BEST PICTURE
“The Master” (eOne)
Runners-up:
“Amour” (Mongrel Media)
“Zero Dark Thirty” (Alliance Films)

BEST ACTOR
Denis Lavant, “Holy Motors”
Runners-up:
Daniel Day-Lewis, “Lincoln”
Joaquin Phoenix, “The Master”

BEST ACTRESS
Rachel Weisz, “The Deep Blue Sea”
Runners-up:
Jessica Chastain, “Zero Dark Thirty”
Emmanuelle Riva, “Amour”

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Philip Seymour Hoffman, “The Master”
Runners-up:
Javier Bardem, “Skyfall”
Tommy Lee Jones, “Lincoln”

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Gina Gershon, “Killer Joe”
Runners-up:
Amy Adams, “The Master”
Ann Dowd, “Compliance”
Anne Hathaway, “Les Miserable”

BEST DIRECTOR
Paul Thomas Anderson, “The Master”
Runners-up:
Kathryn Bigelow, “Zero Dark Thirty”
Leos Carax, “Holy Motors”

BEST SCREENPLAY, ADAPTED OR ORIGINAL
“The Master”, written by Paul Thomas Anderson
Runners-up:
“Lincoln”, written by Tony Kushner, based on the book
“Team of Rivals” by Doris Kearns Goodwin
“Zero Dark Thirty”, written by Mark Boal

BEST FIRST FEATURE - TIE
“Beasts of the Southern Wild”, directed by Benh Zeitlin
“Beyond the Black Rainbow”, directed by Panos Cosmatos
Runner-up:
“The Cabin in the Woods”, directed by Drew Goddard

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
“ParaNorman” (Alliance Films)
Runners-up:
“Brave” (Disney*Pixar)
“Frankenweenie” (Disney)

BEST FOREIGN-LANGUAGE FILM
“Amour”(Mongrel Media)
Runners-up:
“Holy Motors” (Mongrel Media)
“Tabu” (filmswelike)

ALLAN KING DOCUMENTARY AWARD
“Stories We Tell” (Mongrel Media)
Runners-up:
“The Queen of Versailles” (Mongrel Media)
“Searching for Sugar Man” (Mongrel Media)

ROGERS BEST CANADIAN FILM AWARD FINALISTS
“Bestiaire”, directed by Denis Côté
“Goon”, directed by Michael Dowse
“Stories We Tell”, directed by Sarah Polley

Rogers Best Canadian Film Award rises to $100,000

In an unprecedented act of support for Canadian cinema, Rogers Communications has made the TFCA’s Rogers Best Canadian Film Award by far the country’s richest film prize. The director of the winning film, voted by members of the TFCA, will receive $100,000 from Rogers. The two runners-up will each receive $5,000.

The winner will be announced at the 16^th annual TFCA Awards, a gala dinner held in Toronto at the Carlu on Tuesday, January 8, 2013. The Rogers Best Canadian Film Award will be presented by actor/writer/director Don McKellar, whose own awards include three Genies, a Tony—and the TFCA honour for Best Canadian Film for his 1998 feature directing debut, Last Night. Once again, the event will be hosted by Cameron Bailey, artistic director of the Toronto International Film Festival.

"We are enormously grateful to Rogers for taking such a bold initiative,” said TFCA President Brian D. Johnson, film critic for Maclean’s. “This exemplary cash prize gives our cinema pride of place at the country's top tier of arts awards. It represents a tremendous vote of confidence in Canadian filmmakers, and in the discerning role that Toronto's robust community of film critics can play in recognizing and rewarding brilliance."

Rogers became the founding sponsor of the TFCA Awards Gala five years ago.  “We are pleased to support content creators in this country through this prize,” said Phil Lind, Vice Chairman, Rogers Communications.  “Canadian film is competing on the world stage and with this extraordinary prize we hope to inspire this community to reach even higher.”

The TFCA also welcomes three new sponsors: Manulife Financial, Cineplex Media, and Shangri-la Hotel.

The Manulife Financial Student Film Award will carry a $5,000 cash prize, presented to a short film that the critics will select from student entries submitted by film programs at Humber College, Ryerson University, Sheridan College and York University.

Deluxe will sponsor the TFCA’s Jay Scott Prize for an emerging artist, presenting a cheque for $5,000 plus an equivalent value in post-production services.

The TFCA is extremely grateful to founding sponsor Rogers Communications Inc, and welcomes back its returning sponsors: Maclean’s magazine, the Globe and Mail, Moet & Chandon, Ontario Media Development Corporation, Cineplex Entertainment, Deluxe, MacLaren McGill and the Carlu.

The TFCA Awards gala will take place in the art-deco Round Room of the historic Carlu, with cuisine provided by chef Mark McEwan, whose career has ranged from the stellar kitchen of North 44 to his current role as head judge on TV’s Top Chef Canada. 

The TFCA honours films, directors, writers and actors in the main Oscar categories. The full slate of TFCA Awards, as voted by the members, will be announced in a press release on Tuesday, December 18, 2012—with the exception of the Rogers Best Canadian Film Award. The three finalists for that prize will be announced Dec. 18, with the winner being revealed at the awards dinner Jan 8, 2013.

Please note: under the TFCA’s guidelines, contenders eligible for the awards include films released in Toronto in 2012 plus films that qualify for the 2012 Oscars and have a Toronto release scheduled by the end of February 2013.

Ian Caddell, 1949 - 2012

If a friendship can be forged on differences, it speaks to my relationship with Ian Caddell – and the irony of (rightly) lionizing him for the Toronto Film Critics Association.

Ian was born in Montreal and created a rich life for himself in Vancouver (though never in the financial sense) – two cities that could hardly be further apart on many fronts. But it was in his DNA from both places to have an almost comical antipathy towards Toronto.

It was always cruel fun to get him started on a rant about the Big Smoke (with no rancor invested on my end because I love both Montreal and Vancouver). With the mildest jibes, I could also easily get Ian to rise to defense of the Vancouver Film Festival or the Vancouver Critics’ Film Circle (which he co-founded). He even loved the Vancouver Grizzlies.

To even things out, I also indulged his parochialism. One of our most fun days together saw us slip away from a New York junket, get on a subway to Queens and catch a game at Shea Stadium between the Mets and his beloved Expos – complete with a lengthy discourse on the various cosmic injustices that had been done to the ‘Spos over the years, and the World Series that would have been theirs had Major League Baseball not enforced a lockout during their most golden summer.

And yet, many of Ian’s best friends in the business were Toronto-based. And he was, of course, a regular sight at TIFF for more than a decade. That was business, and knowing Ian gave me an insight into the cruel practicality of the life of a freelancer. TIFF to him was a crucial component of his annual income – scores of interviews that could be sold at x-hundred dollars a pop. The same was true of the studio junket circuit, each one an exercise in numbers-crunching in support of the weird alchemy that saw him raise five sons who never left home, and of whom he was always immensely proud.

Sure, at times in his life, Ian had a “job” – most notably as executive editor of the industry mag Reel West. But mostly he had clients, who gladly accepted his work and may or may not have always paid full value. The Georgia Strait, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, even (and I smile as I try to imagine this) CBC’s Good Rockin’ Tonight.

Somehow, with perennially-strained finances, he bought a house, raised his sons - as a single dad in his last several years, though towards the end with almost-angelic support from his girlfriend Anja.

Practicality and duty dictated that he continue to work, even after bouncing back from near-death once (in 2011 he spent several weeks kept alive by feeding and breathing tubes).

He continued to attend junkets in 2012, gambling with health insurance and at one point administering his own oral chemotherapy while in L.A. One night at dinner (which he could no longer taste), he described the reality of his condition in clear-eyed terms. He probably wouldn’t be here in a year, “but I don’t have a choice, I have to keep going.”

When he didn’t show up at TIFF this year, I knew his situation had to have turned grave. As much as he could hold forth with his opinions, Ian was immensely kind and fiercely loyal. He would brook no malicious gossip in his presence about anyone he called a friend.

And that put a lot of people on the not-to-be maligned list. A remarkably large and disparate group of people called Ian Caddell a friend. They are all one good friend poorer after this week.

- Jim Slotek