The complexities of family life sat well with the people behind Canada’s Top Ten for 2005, who gave high marks to features about mom, dad, the kids and the downside of being a preteen widow.

Ricardo Trogi’s Horloge biologique and Louise Archambault’s comical Familia, both about parenting and parents, and Jean-Marc Vallée’s box-office smash C.R.A.Z.Y. – all from Quebec – were named on the annual list alongside Aubrey Nealon’s father-and-son comedy A Simple Curve, Deepa Mehta’s acclaimed Water and David Cronenberg’s meditation on defending one’s homestead, A History of Violence.

‘Why is family so funny?’ asked Water star Lisa Ray, speaking to some 200 filmmakers and hangers-on at the Dec. 13 presentation in Toronto. Ray and actor Brent Carver co-hosted the show.

Possibly, says Vallée, because everyone can relate. ‘That’s one way to explain it, everybody has a family, everybody comes from a family,’ he says, noting that his Quebec-set, Catholic-heavy picture also played well at the recent film fest in Marrakech. ‘There is no Catholic, no Christian. It’s Muslim and Arab, and the reaction was as big as in Quebec and Canada.’

Also named on the list were La Neuvaine by Bernard Émond, Atom Egoyan’s Where the Truth Lies, Michael Mabbott’s mock-doc The Life and Hard Times of Guy Terrifico and Allan King’s latest doc, Memory for Max, Claire, Ida and Company.

Not everyone was happy that the list included A History of Violence, which, despite its local director and southern Ontario shoot, was made for and paid for by New Line Productions in the U.S. Organizers have since defended the choice, explaining that the Top Ten is not meant to focus on films but on the achievements of Canadian directors, even though its press material refers almost exclusively to ‘Canadian films.’

The unranked annual list is drawn up by filmmakers and critics tapped by organizers of the Toronto International Film Festival.

The Top Ten is also notable for its omissions. Last year also saw new titles by heavies such as Thom Fitzgerald, Clement Virgo and Sturla Gunnarsson, but TIFF’s cinephiles made no mention of their respective 3 Needles, Lie with Me or Beowulf & Grendel.

www.topten.ca