The Genie nominations are in, and the finalists for achievement in cinematography are Pierre Gill for The Art of War, Andre Turpin for Maelstrom, Jonathan Freeman for Possible Worlds, Guy Dufaux for Stardom and Jean Lepine for To Walk with Lions.

The films involved are disparate in theme and look, but they do share a common link – Quebec. Four of the five call Montreal home, and Jonathan Freeman, the lone Torontonian, shot Possible Worlds for Quebec director Robert Lepage.

As with Alliance Party seats in Ontario, the Alberta film waydowntown will be almost invisible at the Jan. 29 ceremony, getting the nod only for achievement in direction. That’s highly surprising considering writer/director Gary Burns’ rumination on office ennui won best Canadian feature film at the Toronto International Film Festival and the Atlantic Film Festival as well as most popular Canadian film at the Vancouver International Film Festival.

In terms of production values, the low-budget film, shot in Calgary’s tunnel-connected downtown core by Alberta native Patrick McLaughlin, is at a distinct disadvantage. The nominees include the Canada/u.k. copro To Walk with Lions (budget – us$10 million), the Canada/France copro Stardom ($12 million) and Filmline International’s The Art of War ($24 million). These films all have substantial foreign investment or talent involvement and subscribe to a classical Hollywood aesthetic.

waydowntown, on the other hand, may be pointing to the future of feature production. Originated on cost-effective digital Betacam, the video images were then transferred to 35mm motion picture stock for theatrical projection. It’s a rare procedure for narrative films, especially from a director with a couple of modest successes (The Suburbanators, Kitchen Party) who could shoot 35mm if he so desired.

Burns opted for the lightweight Sony DVW-700WSP digital Betacam to enable McLaughlin to execute the film’s handheld photography with a skeleton crew and minimal lighting setups, to capture Calgary’s real-life mallrats scurrying about their business. The natural and practical lighting casts an unhealthy glow on the characters, but it can be argued the resultant look evokes the theme of the film as effectively as any of the other nominees.

With innovations in camcorder technology (the Sony 24P hdcam) and the inevitability of digital projection, more productions are sure to follow in the footsteps of waydowntown and embrace video origination.

The heavy hitters

But enough on what didn’t get nominated – on to what did.

To Walk With Lions, a sequel to the 1966 film Born Free, stars Richard Harris as real-life lion conservationist George Adamson, who, along with brother Terence (Ian Bannen), must contend with the threat of poaching against various endangered species in Kenya. Director Carl Schultz (The Seventh Sign) and dop Lepine shot in Cinemascope on location in Africa, balancing the epic beauty of the surroundings with the grittiness of day-to-day life on the wilderness preserve.

Lepine cut his teeth as camera assistant on Robert Altman’s Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean (1982) and Streamers (1983), both lensed by fellow Montrealer Pierre Mignot. Altman was obviously impressed, promoting Lepine to dop on the miniseries Tanner ’88 (1988), and calling him back to shoot The Player (1992), which boasts a classic long-take opening. Tim Robbins, the star of that film, approached Lepine to shoot his directorial debut, Bob Roberts, later that year. Lepine reunited with Mignot as co-dop on the Paris set of Altman’s Pret-a-Porter (1994), and he performed second unit work for Mignot on the recent Schwarzenegger opus The 6th Day, shot in b.c.

For sheer spectacle, none of the contenders can match the Wesley Snipes action flick The Art of War, about a covert u.n. counter-terrorist operative hiding from the fbi. The film was shot in Montreal by local director Christian Duguay, and the review from online magazine Mr. Showbiz – ‘As if aware of the story’s Byzantine randomness, Duguay desperately tries to spackle the holes with style’ – represents the consensus among film critics. But that style caught the attention of the Genie jury, as the movie also picked up nods for editing, art direction/production design, music, overall sound and sound editing.

The Art of War’s jazzed-up visuals include buckets of rain a la Ridley Scott, muted tones, frenetic cutting, slow-motion action scenes and an orgy of shattering glass. Duguay and Gill shot the project following their successful collaboration on the Alliance Atlantis Communications miniseries Joan of Arc. After Joan’s grueling 95-day Czech shoot with huge crowd and action sequences, the filmmakers knew they could handle a Hollywood/Hong Kong-style violence-fest.

Gill has already made a couple of trots to the victory podium this year, claiming Canadian Society of Cinematographers awards for tv drama cinematography for Joan and theatrical feature cinematography for Souvenirs Intimes, the story of a handicapped painter directed by Jean Beaudin. Gill and director Allan Moyle (New Waterford Girl) recently wrapped X Change, a fantasy film about travel achieved through body switching.

Guy Dufaux’s prominence in Quebec cinema dates back to his work with director Jean-Pierre Lefebvre, including Les Dernieres fiancailles (1973) and the acclaimed Le Vieux pays ou Rimbaud est mort (1977). He codirected the documentaries Corridors and Pris au Piege with Robert Favreau in 1980, and has lensed many other notable French Canadian films, including Sonatine (1984), Pouvoir intime (1986) and Leolo (1992). Prior to Stardom, he collaborated with Denys Arcand on Decline of the American Empire (1986) and Jesus of Montreal (1989), for which he received a Genie. He also won the trophy for Jean-Claude Lauzon’s Un Zoo la Nuit (1987). His Hollywood projects include Polish Wedding (1998) and the recent a&e adaptation of The Great Gatsby.

Stardom, his reunion with Arcand, is a dark satire on the fashion and media industries chronicling the rise of small-town girl Tina (Jessica Pare) to supermodel status. The filmmakers employ a documentary style, combining mocked-up news reports, interviews, talk show appearances and behind-the-scenes footage.

One of the biggest challenges on the modestly budgeted film was providing an international look without shooting on location. Dufaux and crew executed vehicle shots in a Montreal studio with rear-projection exteriors to create scenes of Tina riding around in New York and London. Also, a second unit filmed Big Apple crowd scenes for compositing with footage shot on The Today Show and mtv-style sets.

The young guns

Jonathan Freeman has oft been a bridesmaid yet never a bride on the awards circuit, receiving several nominations in the last three years from the American Society of Cinematographers and the csc for his extensive series and mow work. One of his early gigs was as ‘b’ camera operator and second unit dop on the Canadian Film Centre production of Blood & Donuts (1995), and his career took off soon thereafter. He went on to shoot the cbc mow The Planet of Junior Brown for cfc grad Clement Virgo in 1997, and he recently completed the Canada/u.s. copro Ignition, starring Bill Pullman, about a u.s. attempt to put a man on the moon for the first time in three decades.

Possible Worlds, director Lepage’s first English-language film, tells the story of a man whose murdered corpse is discovered with its brain neatly removed. The audience accompanies the victim through several alternate realities in search of his lover, who appears to him in different incarnations and in several variations on their relationship.

Lepage and Freeman shot on Quebec’s Magdalen Islands since the ocean plays a part in the story, which balances the real with the paranormal.

‘One of the major challenges was the need to visualize parallel realities in a very non-surrealist, non-sci-fi way,’ says producer Sandra Cunningham. ‘That’s where the skills of Francois Seguin as the art director and production designer and Jonathan Freeman as the dop went a huge distance.’

The ocean also serves as a recurring visual motif in Maelstrom, directed by Denis Villeneuve and shot by frequent collaborator Turpin. The film tells of a self-absorbed young woman (Marie-Josee Croze) whose life goes off the rails when she commits a hit-and-run. After substantial testing, Turpin came up with special methods of processing and printing his Fuji motion picture stock that give the film a cold, silvery look which amplifies the main character’s emotional detachment from events in her life.

Maelstrom comes on the heels of Un 32 aout sur terre (1998), also by Villeneuve and Turpin. A director in his own right, Turpin’s debut feature Zigrail (1995) will soon be followed by J’ai un Crabe dans la Tete, which he also wrote.

These are this year’s nominees. Bonne chance a tous! *