French-language features may dominate the Canadian box office, but not critics’ opinions, at least according to Canada’s Top Ten 2003, announced in December. The alphabetical listing of the year’s best Canuck movies, an initiative of the Toronto International Film Festival, includes seven English-language films and three French.

French-language films accounted for 80% of the overall box office for Canadian films in 2003, and yet French films only occupy 30% of the list, voted on by a panel of 10 critics, festival programmers and filmmakers. While it can be argued that there is no relation between art and commerce, it is also worth noting that Marc-Andre Lussier, film critic for Montreal’s La Presse, was the panel’s only Quebec-based member. In comparison, there were five panelists from Ontario and two from B.C.

French-language films that made the cut include director Bernard Emond’s 20H17, Rue Darling, Robert Lepage’s La Face Cachee de la Lune and, of course, Denys Arcand’s Les Invasions barbares. Notable French titles not on the list include La Grande seduction, Sur le seuil and Gaz Bar Blues.

Of course, it’s the English-language films that need the kind of promotion such a list would presumably generate. At the Toronto ceremony announcing the list, TIFF president and executive director Piers Handling made a point of singling out the importance of the movies’ actors, many of whom were in attendance. Industry pundits have frequently reiterated that a star system in English Canada is one of the keys to growing the domestic box office.

Regardless of where the films were produced, the list includes a varied group in an above-average year for Canuck cinema.

Two films by seasoned docmakers made the list: The Corporation by Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbott and Dying at Grace by Allan King. On the Corner, the debut feature by B.C.’s Nathaniel Geary, said by one judge to be ‘so real it could be a documentary,’ was also selected. The other rookie effort was Love, Sex and Eating the Bones from Sudz Sutherland, who is looking at a March release through ThinkFilm.

The list is rounded out by Falling Angels from Scott Smith, Isabel Coixet’s My Life Without Me, which was nominated for a pair of European Film Awards, and Guy Maddin’s The Saddest Music in the World, which is slated for an April release through TVA Films.

Among the notable English-language films that failed to make the grade are the commercially successful Mambo Italiano by Emile Gaudreault, cult director Gary Burns’ The Problem with Fear and Norman Jewison’s $27-million The Statement.

All 10 chosen films will be screened at Toronto’s Cinematheque Ontario Jan. 20-29, with introductions and Q&As by some of the filmmakers along with panel discussions with some of the directors and their collaborators. Details are available at www.topten.ca.

T.O. critics chime in

For those who can’t get enough of end-of-year lists, the Toronto Film Critics Association has come out with its picks for the best of ’03, pitting Canuck product against the best the rest of the world has to offer.

Two Canadian films came up winners. David Cronenberg’s Spider – which qualified because its Toronto release was in ’03 – won in the best supporting actress category for Miranda Richardson, while also being named best Canadian film. Meanwhile, Les Invasions barbares tied with Lost in Translation, released in Canada through Odeon, for best screenplay. The latter was also named best film of the year.