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Now, you will be able to apply online (including uploading and storing corporate documents), track the status of your applications and communicate with OMDC regarding your applications through the OAP.

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 Titles mentioned below are now in post-production and should be completed by Cannes; of course some will not be ready in time but the list is an indication of the likeliest titles up for selection. It’s a very exciting list with some of my favorite directors and few surprises.

Asia: Tran Anh Hung, Norwegian Wood (Japan), Johnnie To, Death Of A Hostage (Hong Kong)Lee Chang-dong, Poetry(Korea), Takashi Miike, Thirteen Assassins (Japan), Im Kwon-taek, 101st film (Untitled) (Korea), Im Sang-soo, The Housemaid (Korea)

Canada:  Xavier Dolan, Love, Imagined

France: Bartabas, Zingaro Revisited, Xavier Beauvois, Of Gods & Men, Julie Bertucelli, The Tree, Bertrand Blier, The Clink Of Ice, Rachid Bouchareb, Hors-La-Loi, Jean-Paul Civeyrac, Des Filles En Noir, Isabelle Czajka, Living On Love Alone, Lola Doillon, Sous Ton Emprise, Jean-Luc Godard, Film Socialism, Otar Iosseliani, Chantrapas, Abdellatif Kechiche, Black Venus, Abbas Kiarostami, Certified Cop, Gilles Marchand, Black Heaven, Laure Charpentier, Gigola, Julian Schnabel, Miral, Bertrand Tavernier, The Princess Of Montpensier

Germany: Benedek Fliegauf, Womb(Germany-Hungary-France), Lars Kraume, The Days To Come, Chris Kraus, Poll, Pia Marais, Im Alter Von Ellen, Sophie Schoukens, Marieke, Marieke, Oliver Stoltz, Chanda’s Secrets, Tom Tykwer, Three

Italy: Gabriele Salvatores, Happy Family

Latin America: Patricio Guzman, Nostalgia De La Luz (Chile), Pablo Larrain, Post Mortem (Chile), Michael Rowe, Ano Bisiesto(Mexico), Pablo Trapero, Carancho (Argentina)

Middle East: Maryam Keshavarz, Circumstance(Iran), Dover Kosashvili, The Duel (US-Israel)

Eastern Europe: Marian Crisan, Morgen(France-Romania-Hungary), Kornel Mundruczo, Untitled (Hungary), Cristi Puiu, Aurora(Romania), Danis Tanovic, Cirkus Columbia(Bosnia & Herzegovina), Bela Tarr, The Turin Horse (Hungary)

Russia: Nikita Mikhalkov, The Exodus — The Fortress: Burnt By The Sun 2

Scandinavia: Susanne Bier, The Revenge (Denmark, in post-production, may not be ready) Per Fly, The Woman Who Dreamed Of A Man(Denmark-Sweden-Norway), Bent Hamer, Home For Christmas (Norway)

Spain: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Biutiful, Julio Medem, Room In Rome

UK: Stephen Frears, Tamara Drewe, Mike Leigh, (Untitled), Kevin Macdonald, Eagle Of The Ninth, David Mackenzie, The Last Word, Peter Mullan, Neds

US: Woody Allen, You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger, Darren Aronofsky, Black Swan, Gela Babluani, 13, John Cameron Mitchell, Rabbit Hole, Sofia Coppola, Somewhere, Jodie Foster, The Beaver, Terrence Malick, The Tree Of Life, Oren Peli, Area 5, Bruce Robinson, The Rum Diary, Robert Rodriguez, Machete, David O Russell, The Fighter,  Sylvester Stallone, The Expendables, Julie Taymor, The Tempest, Peter Weir, The Way Back

The three directors - Daniels, Virgo and Jewsion

Tuesday night (Feb 9th) saw the celebration of Black History Month by the Canadian Film Centre, Canada’s equivalent of the American Film Institute. Taking place at the Isabel Bader Theatre, it began with a private reception for industry guests. Then the theatre filled to capacity to greet director Clement Virgo (Rude, Lie With Me, TV’s “The Wire“), who moderated a conversation that lasted well over an hour with directors Norman Jewison (In the Heat of the Night, Fiddler on the Roof, Moonstruck) and Lee Daniels (Shadowboxer, Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire, and producer of The Woodsman & Monster’s Ball).

Many from Toronto’s filmmaking community turned up, including prominent black filmmakers such as David “Sudz” Sutherland (Love, Sex and Eating the Bones), Charles Officer (Nurse.Fighter.Boy), Powys Dewhurst (Delroy Kincaid), Alison Duke (Raisin’ Kane: A Rapumentary); writer Andrew Moodie; and broadcasters Joan Jenkinson (S-VOX) and Karen King (CanWest). The audience gave Jewison a warm ovation when he was brought out after highlights from his films were shown. Some recited along with the many familiar lines (“Snap out of it!” “They call me Mr. Tibbs!”) After some humourous awkwardness about whether they should stay onstage for the clips from Daniels’ films, the audience gave another ovation as Daniels was brought out.

Daniels expressed his love for Toronto, having been here in the fall for the screenings of Precious at the Toronto International Film Festival. It claimed the festival’s prestigious Audience Choice Award. Although I have previously written about how I think the film disappointing, there’s no denying that it has a strong emotional punch.

Their discussion covered a wide range of topics, but focused primarily on the careers of Daniels and Jewison with respect to the role of black artists and black America. Jewison spoke of traveling in the southern states and being shocked to see how black people, many who had been asked to serve and possibly die for their country, returned to be treated with such disrespect. He mentioned that he got some heat for showing solidarity with them, for example boarding buses and “sitting where I wanted to sit.” He recounted how when he told Bobby Kennedy he was making In the Heat of the Night, Kennedy was pleased and told him “timing is everything – it’s the right time for this,” and then when Kennedy presented him the New York Critics Award for Best Picture, he repeated “what did I tell you? Timing is everything.”

Jewison admitted that he never expected that an African-American could become Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (Colin Powell) or President (Barack Obama) in his lifetime, and how proud that made “the African-American in me.” This brought one of the many big laughs of the night. Lee Daniels said, “I love this man” which he often repeated, clearly showing genuine admiration for Jewison.

Daniels was himself utterly charming and funny. He talked about how a lot of the haters he has had for each of his films, and how many of them were from the black community itself. Sometimes it was because he dealt with mix-race relations as with Monster’s Ball and Shadowboxer, or because with Precious he shows the underside of the community – not Obama and where they could be, but the ghetto where some of them came from. He also joked about haters for Billy Bob Thornton on Monster’s Ball, because he went home to Angelina Jolie, and came to work with Halle Berry.

He spoke openly about being gay, which one attendee told me was a good thing because the black community can sometimes reveal their own prejudices in that regard. Daniels laughed about how his son asked him if it was alright if he liked girls, and he had to assure him it was fine. He joked about how he didn’t have a style, that his style is “steal.” His reaction to watching the clip of Sidney Poitier slapping a white man was visceral, and he said “I’m going to use that.” Daniels chuckled at the delicate manner in which Jewison addressed giving up Malcolm X to Spike Lee after working hard to develop it, and bringing Denzel Washington on board the project. Jewison said he was impressed by Spike Lee’s passion, but did admit to fighting him on the idea that as white man he wouldn’t understand the black experience. By the end of their lunch meeting, however, he willingly gave the project to Spike.

They took a few questions from the audience as well, before they wrapped up and received one big final standing ovation. Some people left at that point which is too bad. They missed an opportunity to see a big-screen 35mm film projection of In the Heat of the Night. It looked terrific, and as Lee Daniels pointed out it stands the test of time.

It was a fun evening. It left me with a touch of sadness though, that there has been no comparable success for North American-born Asians. I doubt that there will ever be an Asian Best Actor or Actress in my lifetime. And although Ang Lee won best director, he’s not North American-born and all his Hollywood movies are about white people. Still, times are changing and there was no better proof of that than the work of Jewison and Daniels. All in all, a terrific evening, and I hope this becomes a regular event on the Toronto cultural calendar.

Written by David Eng

I have watched the Oscar’s each year since I was eleven. There were films nominate in the best picture category that I never of heard of during that year at that age. But simply by watching the Oscar’s telecast each year I felt I was being educated. I remember waiting days, months or even years to watch a film that the Academy felt was worthy of such distinction. I learnt something uniquely wonderful about each nominated film and I never question why they were nominated. But this week I started to question the list of films nominated. It seems with the inclusion of 10 instead of 5 films select, the Oscar’s are beginning to lose something precious – its authority on what should compete for best picture. This year it has break from its traditions to suit the masses.

Reviewing the list of films nominated it’s clear that only four films were special and deserving the honour of being in competition. These films are “Up in the Air”, Precious, The Hurt Locker, District 9. It is my humble opinion I believe the winner will be selected from one of these 4 tiles. Each film was unique in its delivery, well directed and acted but the most important it gripped their audiences like no other film in the best picture category (with exception to A Single Man and An Education…I’ve still yet to see out of the 10 nominees)

It would be terrible of me to discount the greatest blockbuster film of all time “Avatar”…in fact I’m quite proud of Canadian James Cameron’s achievement in producing his vision and making box office history. But when it comes to balancing its creative merit its impossible not to see that Avatar was a deeply rooted colonialist story badly scripted. Its theme and characters were far from a good representation of Native people and their culture.

Right behind Avatar is another first “UP” the animated film that open the Festival de Cannes. I felt this was the most annoying animation I have ever watched and perhaps watching it in the way it was intended could only amount to 3(D) times more annoying. But the question is why nominated it twice (Best Picture & Best Animation). It just becomes a waste of a nomination. It will certainly not win Best Picture and this meant that another film could have had the glory of that nominated slot. – Yes …sadly!

Rounding out the rest is Inglorious Bastard…not Quentin’s best film but it gave us a wonderful performance by Christoph Waltz as the funny yet clever Nazi. And props should also be given to Sandra Bullock for her performance in The Blind Side which made the film a wise choice in recognition in the Best Picture category. The last two films (A Single Man and An Education)I did not see and I reverse judgment until I do – which gives me about a month before the Oscars. 

However, if I was a gambling man I would probable put my money on “The Hurt Locker”. It is an intense war film that received a small theatrical release. No pun intended but it “literally” blew me away. Director Kathryn Bigelow deserved the DGA award and I also hope on the night of the Oscar she could walk away as best director. Equally intense was the film Precious…I did my best to spread the word on both these films. Lee Daniels is great at understanding dark complex relationship where love is still at the center of it all. Daniels is now the only second black director to be nominated in Oscar history (the first John Singleton). Up in the Air and District 9 both paint a scary reality of what plagues America (lost of  jobs) and South Africa (racism/once apartheid).

Looking back in time to a slightly educated boy – age 11, my plate would have been full with 10 nominated films to watch. What lesson would I have learnt from the Oscar’s? What brilliant secret would each film hold? Honestly, it would only remind me that less is more and it’s a shame that the Oscars still haven figured this out as yet!