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Toronto Film Festival Group picks Top 10 Canadian films of 2008

By: Victoria Ahearn, THE CANADIAN PRESS

16/12/2008 7:44 AM | Comments: 0

TORONTO - Two aboriginal movies made by Quebec filmmakers, one of which is an Oscar hopeful, have made the Toronto International Film Festival Group's list of the Top 10 Canadian movies of 2008.

Benoit Pilon's "The Necessities of Life" ("Ce qu'il faut pour vivre"), about an Inuit hunter being treated for tuberculosis near Quebec City, is Canada's submission for a foreign language film Oscar.

And "Before Tomorrow," by Marie-Helene Cousineau and Madeline Piujuq Ivalu, is a visually stunning tale of an Inuit woman and her grandson.

The rest of the films on the eighth annual list released Tuesday are "wide-ranging" and represent most parts of the country, says Steve Gravestock, the festival's director of Canadian programming.

"They speak, I think, to the health of the industry in a lot of ways, partly because they're kind of all over the map," he said in an interview.

"You have domestic dramas, you have films with substantial comic elements, you have thrillers or films that play with that kind of genre."

In the realm of domestic drama are Deepa Mehta's "Heaven on Earth," about a woman who leaves India for an arranged marriage in Canada, and Rodrigue Jean's "Lost Song," about a couple struggling with postpartum depression.

Also touching on domestic issues but with some humour are "It's Not Me, I Swear!" ("C'est pas moi, je le jure!") by Philippe Falardeau and "Mommy Is at the Hairdresser's" ("Maman est chez le coiffeur") by Lea Pool.

"Adoration" from Atom Egoyan follows a teen as he gets caught up in a lie on the Internet, while "Fifty Dead Men Walking" by Kari Skogland chronicles a hustler who gets wrapped up in the IRA and British intelligence.

Rounding out the list is "The Memories of Angels" ("La Memoire des anges"), Luc Bourdon's look at Montreal movies, and "Pontypool," a zombie thriller from Bruce McDonald.

Gravestock said almost half of the filmmakers on the list are female, a trend that had previously been noted at the Toronto film festival in September.

"This really has been a year where I think women have made substantial inroads," he said.

"Women obviously have for a long time formed a key component in a lot of areas in filmmaking, but it's not often the case that they're often given the opportunity to direct or that the films get the response people anticipate."

A panel of filmmakers, critics, programmers or industry professionals chosen by TIFF Group chooses the list every year.

For a film to qualify, the director has to be a citizen or resident of Canada and has to have a history of working in this country or on Canadian-financed movies. Contenders must have been released in the calendar year or played major Canadian festivals.

Nine of the 10 films on this year's list were screened at the Toronto film festival and only a few have been released in theatres. Gravestock said the Quebec films have only been released in that province, while just one English-speaking movie on the list - "Heaven on Earth" - has hit theatres outside a festival.

Public screenings with Q&As and introductions by filmmakers on the list will be held from Jan. 30 to Feb. 7 at Toronto's Cinematheque Ontario.

Some of the films will also tour to Vancouver's Pacific Cinematheque and Ottawa's Canadian Film Institute in early 2009.

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