Playback asked four of Canada’s savviest film critics to make their ‘best picture’ predictions – and not two picked the same one.

Screen International’s critic even declared: ‘This year’s best picture lineup is remarkably strong and balanced between French and English.’ And they all agree with The Montreal Gazette critic when he points to the ‘snubbing of hot-shot Montreal filmmaker Xavier Dolan’s J’ai tué ma mère’ as shameful. The Golden Reel winner – Fathers and Guns – is also noticeably missing from any Genie category despite its boffo box-office performance, yet each critic has a strong favorite in this year’s contenders.

MARC GLASSMAN
Pick: NURSE.FIGHTER.BOY

Nurse.Fighter.Boy is a consciously poetic film, beautifully shot with a melodramatic plot that is deliberately non-realistic. It’s set in Toronto’s Caribbean-Canadian community, and isn’t it about time that they get positive recognition?

The script, more of a sonnet than hard-bitten prose, was conceived by the immensely gifted director Charles Officer in collaboration with the film’s producer Ingrid Veninger. Both are actors, clearly simpatico with their three leads, all of whom give exceptional performances.

The film is about a trio who are destined to meet and love each other. The Nurse is everyone’s dream of a mother/nurturer/lover. The Fighter is a brave, quiet man who has suffered much pain but endured everything life has thrown at him. The Boy is a questing artistic soul.

Can these soulmates survive a tragedy? Can the film win the Genie? I say, why not?

Marc Glassman is a film critic for Montage magazine, Point of View magazine and classical radio station FM 96.3

MATTHEW HAYS
Pick: FIFTY DEAD MEN WALKING

These are all beautiful films, and it’s testimony to how confident Canada’s film milieu is that we are creating such varied and excellent entries. I thought that Denis Villeneuve did a masterful job of exploring the vicious Marc Lepine massacre in Polytechnique, while somehow managing to never be exploitative. That’s no small feat.

But my vote has got to go to Kari Skogland’s Fifty Dead Men Walking – a taut, clever, political suspense movie that was beautifully acted and brilliantly rendered by one of our most exciting filmmakers.

One rather major quibble I must raise, while you’ve given me this soapbox: I understand that you might not have made J’ai tué ma mère a best picture nominee (though I would have), but how could you have overlooked Anne Dorval for a best actress nomination? Her turn as the controlling-yet-somehow-sympathetic maternal figure in Xavier Dolan’s directorial debut will go down in history as one of the greatest indie film performances, ever. Shame on you!

Matthew Hays is a film critic for the Montreal Mirror and freelances for The Globe and Mail

BRENDAN KELLY
Pick: BEFORE TOMORROW

My choice for best picture is filmmakers Marie-Hélène Cousineau and Madeline Piujuq Ivalu’s Before Tomorrow for the simple reason that this was one of the most powerful films I’ve seen in the past year, not just one of the best Canadian offerings. It is a deceptively simple drama about an elderly Inuit woman (played with raw intensity by Ivalu) who has to fight for survival under horrific conditions with her grandson (Paul-Dylan Ivalu). It is only the latest confirmation that aboriginal film is one of the most exciting things going on in our cinema world and also just happens to be one real moving picture.

That said, it’s impossible not to take a well-deserved shot at the Genie committees for deliberately snubbing hot-shot Montreal filmmaker Xavier Dolan’s J’ai tué ma mère. It may not be the best Canadian film of the past year, but it is in the top five, end of argument. Shame on you guys!

Brendan Kelly is a film critic for The Montreal Gazette, Variety and CanWest

DENIS SEGUIN
Pick: POLYTECHNIQUE

This year’s best picture lineup is remarkably strong and balanced between French and English (although the absence of J’ai tué ma mère in any category is a bit of head-scratcher). Each film has its strengths: Fifty Dead Men Walking is a taut thriller, Before Tomorrow breaks the heart with subtle power, Nurse.Fighter.Boy has three great performances and is brilliantly photographed, and 3 Saisons is one of those rare films that actually improves as it goes along, building to a climax that has you on the edge of your seat.

But Polytechnique is the more deserving film in every sense. It’s a brutal experience to watch, but Denis Villeneuve holds you in his grip through every frame. Hence the Genie-leading 11 nominations. I predict a sweep, although it will be interesting to see if Polytechnique’s DOP Pierre Gill and his black-and-white photography prevail in the cinematography category.

Denis Seguin is a film critic for Screen International