TFCA Announces 2013 Awards

December 17, 2013

“Inside Llewyn Davis”, Joel and Ethan Coen’s tale of a folk singer making his way through Greenwich Village, 1961, won two top prizes at the 2013 awards of the Toronto Film Critics Association.

“Inside Llewyn Davis” was named Best Picture, with Oscar Isaac winning the Best Actor prize.  In 2007, the Coens received the TFCA’s Best Director award for their film “No Country for Old Men”, which also won Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor and Best Screenplay.

The awards were voted by the TFCA at a meeting Dec. 15. The membership also chose the three finalists for the Rogers Best Canadian Film Award: “The Dirties”, directed by Matt Johnson; “Gabrielle”, directed by Louise Archambault; and “Watermark”, directed by Jennifer Baichwal and Edward Burtynsky.

The 2013 BMO Allan King Documentary Award is given to “The Act of Killing”; director Joshua Oppenheimer will receive a $5,000 cash prize.

The 2013 TFCA Awards will be presented at a gala dinner at Toronto’s Carlu on Tuesday, January 7, 2014, hosted by Cameron Bailey, Artistic Director of the Toronto International Film Festival. There the TFCA will also reveal the winner of the Rogers Best Canadian Film Award, which carries a record-setting $100,000 cash prize, the richest arts award in the country. The runners-up will each receive $5,000.

The TFCA named “A Touch of Sin” the year’s Best Foreign-Language Film. Jia Zhang-ke’s ambitious, stylized look at life in contemporary China stars Zhao Tao and Jiang Wu as ordinary citizens forced into violent confrontations by an apathetic and amoral state.

“It’s been an unusually thrilling year for cinema,” said TFCA President Brian D. Johnson, film critic at Maclean’s. “And these awards celebrate a remarkable diversity. Among our distinctive Canadian finalists, each offers an inspired take on a compelling issue—from school bullying in ‘The Dirties’ to sexual liberation among the disabled in ‘Gabrielle’ to epic environmental crisis in ‘Watermark’.”

Cate Blanchett was named Best Actress for her performance as a disintegrating woman of privilege in Woody Allen’s “Blue Jasmine”, Jared Leto was named Best Supporting Actor for his role as the HIV-positive Rayon in “Dallas Buyers Club” and Jennifer Lawrence was named Best Supporting Actress for her performance as the combative Rosalyn Rosenfeld in David O. Russell’s “American Hustle”.

Alfonso Cuarón won the Best Director prize for his groundbreaking work on the space survival thriller “Gravity”; Spike Jonze’s “Her” won the Best Screenplay prize for its near-future tale of a romance between a man and a computer operating system.

Hayao Miyazaki’s animated biopic “The Wind Rises” won Best Animated Feature and Kleber Mendonça Filho’s Brazilian social stury “Neighboring Sounds” was named Best First Feature.

(Under the TFCA’s guidelines, contenders eligible for the awards include films released in Canada in 2013 plus films that qualify for the 2013 Oscars and have Canadian distribution scheduled by the end of February 2014.)

At the January 7 Gala, the TFCA will also announce the winner of the Manulife Financial Student Film Award, which carries a $5,000 cash prize. It will be presented to a short film that the critics select from student entries submitted by film programs at Humber College, Ryerson University, Sheridan College and York University.

As previously announced, the 2013 recipient of the Technicolor Clyde Gilmour Award is Norman Jewison who will present a filmmaker of his choice with $50,000 worth of services at Technicolor.  The winner of the Scotiabank Jay Scott Prize for an emerging artist, Matt Johnson, will be presented with a $5,000 cheque for “The Dirties”, which he directed, starred in and co-wrote.

The TFCA is extremely grateful to founding sponsor Rogers Communications Inc. and welcomes new sponsors Scotiabank, BMO Financial Group and Technicolor Creative Services.

Thanks to returning sponsors Manulife Financial, Cineplex Entertainment, Maclean’s Magazine, the Globe and Mail, Moet & Chandon, Ontario Media Development Corporation, Shangri-La Hotel, North 44, the Carlu and MacLaren Craft.  TFCA is also partnering with Twitter Canada to deliver a live feed from the gala via the Twitter Mirror.

The TFCA Awards gala will take place in the art-deco Round Room of the historic Carlu, with cuisine provided by celebrity chef Mark McEwan, whose career has ranged from the stellar kitchen of North 44 to his current role as head judge on TV’s Top Chef Canada.

The full list of Toronto Film Critics Association Awards winners and runners-up:

BEST PICTURE
           “Inside Llewyn Davis” (Mongrel Media)
Runners-up
           “Her” (Warner Bros.)
           “12 Years a Slave” (Fox Searchlight)

BEST ACTOR
           Oscar Isaac, “Inside Llewyn Davis”
Runners-up
           Chiwetel Ejiofor, “12 Years a Slave”
           Matthew McConaughey, “Dallas Buyers Club”

BEST ACTRESS
           Cate Blanchett, “Blue Jasmine”
Runners-up
           Julie Delpy, “Before Midnight
           Greta Gerwig, “Frances Ha”

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR           Jared Leto, “Dallas Buyers Club”
Runners-up
           Michael Fassbender, “12 Years a Slave”
           James Franco, “Spring Breakers”

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
           Jennifer Lawrence, “American Hustle”
Runners-up
           Lupita Nyong’o, “12 Years a Slave”
           June Squibb, “Nebraska”

BEST DIRECTOR
           Alfonso Cuarón, “Gravity”
Runners-up
           Joel Coen & Ethan Coen, “Inside Llewyn Davis”
           Steve McQueen, “12 Years a Slave”

BEST SCREENPLAY, ADAPTED OR ORIGINAL
           Spike Jonze, “Her”
Runners-up
           Richard Linklater, Ethan Hawke & Julie Delpy, “Before Midnight
           Joel Coen & Ethan Coen, “Inside Llewyn Davis”

BEST FIRST FEATURE
           “Neighboring Sounds”, directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho
Runners-up
           “Fruitvale Station”, directed by Ryan Coogler
           “In a World …”, directed by Lake Bell

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
           “The Wind Rises” (Touchstone Pictures)
Runners-up
           “The Croods” (20th Century Fox)
           “Frozen” (Walt Disney Pictures)

BEST FOREIGN-LANGUAGE FILM
           “A Touch of Sin” (Films We Like)
Runners-up
           “Blue Is the Warmest Color” (Mongrel Media)
           “The Hunt” (Mongrel Media)

BMO ALLAN KING DOCUMENTARY AWARD
           “The Act of Killing” (Films We Like)
Runners-up
           “Leviathan” (Films We Like)
           “Tim’s Vermeer” (Mongrel Media)

ROGERS BEST CANADIAN FILM AWARD FINALISTS
“The Dirties” (Phase 4 Films)
“Gabrielle” (Entertainment One)
“Watermark” (Mongrel Media)