Predicting the winner of this year’s best motion picture Genie isn’t likely to be as easy as in past years, and that should make for a particularly interesting show, says Claude Jutra Award jury chair Paul Gratton, station manager and program director at Bravo!

Several jurists for this year’s edition of the Genies believe Canadian movies are close to an important breakthrough while others express the view that many of the younger filmmakers are too busy directing ‘calling cards’ for Hollywood.

In the dramatic feature category, jury members screened 22 entries over five long but worthwhile days in late October.

‘There were some excellent screenplays this year, but in general I think there’s still a lot of work to do in developing screenplays,’ says Triptych Media partner/producer Anna Stratton (The Hanging Garden, The Tale of Teeka, Lilies).

Stratton, a member of the Genie screenwriting committee, says Canada has the talent, but a lack of resources and time can mean projects are rushed into production. ‘In this province [Ontario], for example, we have no development money,’ she says. ‘I think it’s a very big mistake.’

In judging terms, Stratton says key issues include concept originality, the level of writing skill, dialogue and character development, straight-up technical skill, and the overall coherence of the work.

Asked about the five full 12-hour days of jury duty, Stratton says, ‘I don’t think anyone would complain because it’s a privilege to get to see the work. We don’t get to see these [films] on our screens in the marketplace. People have accomplished incredible things with very small amounts of money and that is always impressive.’

Many of the films are budgeted in the $2 million to $3 million range, and Stratton says $3 million represents the rarer, high end.

Depth of talent

Two-time Gemini-winning actor Brooke Johnson (Dangerous Offender, Conspiracy of Silence, The Sweet Hereafter) says the performance jury had an especially difficult task because ‘there are a lot of people to consider and also because producers are generally pretty lax about submitting people in the right category.’

‘Sometimes it almost seems as if the producers haven’t even seen their own movies because they submit eight leads, and that doesn’t make any sense.’

Johnson says many of this year’s Claude Jutra nominees were a bit short on originality, often offering up kindred ‘dark, trendy’ themes. ‘In a way they seemed to be calling cards for getting work in the States,’ she says.

‘There’s no end to the depth of acting and technical talent here, but a lot of producers, or the money people, are afraid of something that is untried,’ says Johnson.

‘The biggest problem for actors,’ she says, ‘is this never-ending belief that you have to have a `star-status’ name in order to have a good picture, because it’s all about bucks, right? We need people on the money side who are daring and trust there really is greatness in this country.’

Johnson says there were many more interesting roles for women in Quebec movies this year.

The performance committee was split into lead and supporting categories.

‘Come hell or high water’

Gratton says this year’s film subjects reflect uneven financing levels in the country.

‘Where you see the smoking-gun kind of stuff tends to be out of the West Coast where there’s more of an industrial focus, more of the `I want to be a Hollywood filmmaker’ stuff and they’re focusing on the thriller genre as a sort of calling card. A lot of these things have been financed without direct Telefilm Canada investment,’ says Gratton.

Despite some structural obstacles, Gratton says what’s gratifying in Canada is that ‘come hell or high water there’s just no way to keep first-time filmmakers down.’

‘There must be some interesting things happening at many levels of Canadian society because there are interesting first-time features,’ he says.

Overall, Gratton says feature talent seems to be more widely spread this year, with four viable films among the best motion picture nominees. ‘I think that’s going to make for a more interesting Genie show than we’ve seen in some years.’

Toronto sound editor Michele Cook (Shot Through the Heart, DaVinci’s Inquest) says she fully enjoyed her first Genie jury experience. ‘You get to know what your fellow editors are up to and meet people in different fields.’

Cook says excellence in sound suggests the right balance between original dialogue and sound effects, the proper texturing for effects, and from a more personal perspective, ‘the music shouldn’t be too noticeable, in your face.’

In sound editing, Cook underlines the wide-scale competency in the Canadian industry. ‘We are there,’ she says. ‘The scores that are coming out are wonderful.’

Cook’s jury committee considered nominations in both best overall sound (the mix) and best sound-editing categories.

Actor/writer Johnathan Brownlee (Batman and Robin: Forever, Seinfeld) says many of this year’s weaker films were propped up with questionable bouts of posturing, much to-do about smoking, drinking and swearing.

‘Often that happens with first-time film directors. And the reason we don’t see those kinds of films being released down here [in Los Angeles] is that they [young directors] sort that out when they’re in film school. What I call the therapeutical film gets made in college. I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that the scripts simply aren’t tight enough to be shot.’

Brownlee says he might sound critical but he genuinely appreciated his Genie jury experience. ‘The only way we as Canadians are going to compete in the world market is to be better, much better.’

Doc eligibility questioned

Montreal documentary filmmaker Anne Henderson (The Road from Kampuchea, The Human Race) says Genie eligibility rules require a film be played in theaters or win a best of festival prize. Because the doc market has changed so much in recent years and many films are released to tv and not theaters, she says this unduly limits the number of films entered in the awards programs.

‘I certainly think it’s an exciting period for documentaries because we’ve gone beyond the narrow notions and there’s much more blending of genres and experimentation,’ says Henderson. ‘When the lights go down you have no idea what you’re going to see. It could be highly fictionalized or many different things at this point.’

Henderson says this year’s doc themes stretched from word poetics to revolutionary Mexican politics. As a jurist, she says she’s ‘looking for story.’

‘In that sense documentary and fiction are exactly the same,’ she says.

Henderson chaired the documentaries, short fiction and animation judging committee.

A little ‘face,’ please

Toronto cinematographer and first-time Genie jury member David Greene says Canadian feature production is on the verge of something much bigger.

‘What’s going to make the Canadian film industry fly, and I think it’s going to, is a serious injection of `face.’ Once that happens the ball will roll and people will stay because the money and quality projects will be here.’

On judging cinematography, Greene says, ‘Ultimately the dop is the author of the use of light in film and how that makes sense to the story, and that’s what I’m looking for. The other half is the frame and how the director and dop work with a style.’

Greene says budget discrepancies come to mind in the judging process, but in the end his decisions are based on the final look and end product.

Composer and Gemini nominee David Bradstreet (For the Love of the Game, Fishtail Soup) says budgetary differences between competing films is a major factor. ‘At the best times the music budgets are really stupidly little anyway. You can have a cbs movie-of-the-week with a half million budget and with a small [Canadian] feature you’re talking five grand in some cases.’

Bradstreet says Canadian movie music is increasingly ‘dramatic.’

‘We’re getting away from a lot of the early scores which so adhered to all the rules,’ he says. ‘People are starting to take their cue from people like Aaron Copeland who were not afraid to break the rules.’

Bradstreet says he admired the scores for Cube, The Red Violin and others, but felt this year’s song category was very weak.

‘To be honest, I’m a little sick of the nationalistic approach to everything we do in this country,’ he says. ‘Is it a good film or is it not? The Genies have helped build the industry in this country, but that being said, we have to compete on an international playing field and I think we’re getting really close,’ says Bradstreet.

‘This year I was really hoping I would be entertained – I’ll say that with great big bold letters – and you know what, I was.’

Several jury members said the informal exchanges with colleagues were especially beneficial.

‘We used a little time to talk about filmmaking,’ says Stratton. ‘It’s an opportunity to talk about what’s going on, differences from coast to coast, trends, and just checking in with what’s happening with our films.’