Today (January 19), the two-day CANADA NOW Canadian Film Festival, organized by the Canadian Embassy in China, the Canadian Federal Film and Television Center and the UCCA Beijing Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, held a press conference at the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing. Ms. Brigitte, Senior Advisor of the Global Film and Television Exhibition of the Canadian Federal Film and Television Center, Mr. Lu Mingrui, Counselor of Public Diplomacy of the Canadian Embassy in China, and You Yang, Deputy Director of UCCA, attended the press conference.
The CANADA NOW Canadian Film Festival will feature eight unique and multi-award-winning Canadian films on January 20 and January 21. At the same time, the five directors and producers of the film will also come to the scene to share the production process of the film and interact with the audience to ask questions and interact. This will be a great opportunity for audiences and talent from the Canadian film industry to meet face-to-face. In addition, these 8 films will also be exhibited in other cities in China, so that Chinese audiences everywhere can appreciate the charm of Canadian film art.
In the following screenings, as the supporting media of the CANADA NOW Canadian Film Festival, film and television craftsmen will continue to cover the follow-up activities.
<h1>Films on display</h1>
The Beast in the Cabinet
Directed by: Stephen Dunn
Writers: Steven Dunn
Starring: Alan Abrams, Jack Fulton, Joanne Kelly
Duration: 90 minutes
Genre: Drama/Suspense
Country: Canada
Language: English
Awards:
Best Canadian Film at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival
Best Director and Best Screenplay at the 2015 Atlantic Film Festival
Best Canadian Film at the 2016 Toronto Gay Film Festival
Best Film Jury Award at the 2016 Melbourne Queer Film Festival
Best Film at the 2016 Miami Gay Film Festival
Synopsis: Oscar experienced the divorce of his parents when he was eight years old, and witnessed the tragedy of bullying comrades, and the shadows brought by the two incidents made Oscar want to love but dare not love. Oscar can only rely on the good memories of his father in the past to make a living, and the only person he can talk to is the little hamster that his mother gave him before leaving home. In high school, Oscar's friend and model Xiaojie had an ambiguous relationship with him. But since Oscar met handsome Wade while working, his ambiguity with Xiao Jie has dissipated. Oscar worries that this secret will plunge him into a tragic fate, and even more worried that his father will deny his truest self. Under the pressure of dark shadows, dream pressures, and family conflicts, can Oscar, who is hiding in the shadows, bravely go to the light?
"Hello, Executor"
Director: Kevin Fink
Writers: Kevin Fink
Starring: Ian Tracy, Sarah Cunningham, Jared Abrahamson
Duration: 110 minutes
Genre: Drama
2017 Vancouver Film Critics Association Awards for Best Canadian Film, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor and Best British Columbian Film
2017 Leo Awards for Best Director, Best Film, Best Screenplay, Best Shot and Best Actor
Best New British Columbia Filmmaker Award at the Toronto International Film Festival 2016
Synopsis: The male protagonist Tyson is an absolute power in the "Prince George Warriors" in the small league game, and his tasks in the game also include protecting skilled players. Coaches worked day and night reminding Tyson that the only way to get into a professional league was to become more aggressive. During a match, Tyson's violent behavior severely injured the opposing team members, and the incident also forced him to face pressure from the team, professional league, community and even family, and Tyson will have to struggle with the identity crisis, doubts about masculinity and alienation from the team.
The Sleeping Giant
Director: Andrew Cividino
Writers: Andrew Cividino, Brian Waters, Aaron Yegger
Starring: Jackson Martin, Nick Serino, Reece Moffitt
Duration: 89 minutes
Genre: Adventure/Drama
Best Canadian Debut at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival
2016 Canadian Screen Awards for Best Supporting Actor
2016 Vancouver Film Critics Association Awards for Best Supporting Actor, Best Director and Best Canadian Directorial Debut
Nominated for the Critics' Week Award and the Golden Camera Award at the 2016 Cannes International Film Festival
Synopsis: The coming-of-age Adam spends the summer with his parents on Lake Superior in northern Andorio, Canada. One day, he meets a pair of eccentric brothers, Riley and Nette, who jump and play on the edge of a rugged cliff without hesitation during a long vacation, accompanied by a series of debauchery. However, after discovering a sudden and heartbreaking secret, Adam begins to probe the limits of their friendship with a series of unrepentant acts that also have a permanent impact on the boys. The film vividly depicts a summer full of joy and disaster for us, exploring the topics of death, masculinity, adolescent love, friendship and sex.
The Searcher
Director: Zaklars Kunak
Writers: Norman Cowan, Zaclairs Kunak
Starring: Benjamin Kunak, Karen Ivanu, Jonah Kuna
Duration: 94 minutes
Nominated for Best Canadian Film and Platform Award at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival
Nominated for Best Original Screenplay and Best Film at the 2017 Canadian Screen Awards
Synopsis: Set against the backdrop of a year-round icy Canadian glacier, the film Searcher tells a story of hijacking and revenge. The protagonist Kunana returns home from a hunt and finds his home in a mess, while his wife and daughter are kidnapped and the rest of his family is slaughtered. Kunana sets out for a land of white, silent glaciers, with the help of his father's soul and a diving bird named Karulik, to find his family and take revenge on the man who committed such a brutal crime...
"Poets Should Strengthen Themselves"
Director: Ann Marie Fleming
Writers: Ann Marie Fleming, Marianne Najfi
Starring: Alan Peggy, Sorry Andasru, Sandra Wu
Type: Animation
Best British Columbian Film and Best Canadian Film at the Vancouver International Film Festival 2016
2016 Vancouver Film Critics Association Award for Best Canadian Film Screenplay
Nominated for the 2017 Neo Award for Best Animated Sound
Nominated for Best Canadian Film at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival
Synopsis: Ruth, of Chinese, Persian and Canadian descent, is being invited to a poetry festival in Iran, a journey that often brings her unexpected rewards. In this poetic country, the shy Ruth, accompanied by many well-known Persian poets, gradually discovers her "hometown" in a foreign country and an amazing secret about her Iranian father, whom she thought she had abandoned, and this journey will also have an indelible impact on her.
"The Mountains and Rivers"
Director: Natty White
Writers: Natty White
Duration: 96 minutes
Genre: Documentary
2016 Vancouver International Film Festival Female Filmmaker Award
Best Canadian Documentary at the 2017 Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Film Festival
Nominated for Best British Columbian Film at the 2017 Vancouver Film Critics Association Awards
Synopsis: The hideaways of northwestern Canada have almost all of the natural wonders of the local area, and even if they need to cross the mountains, explorers will do whatever it takes to explore this wonderland on earth. Both hunters and gold diggers marvel at this piece of Land in Canada. In the form of experimental films, the documentary captures the silent changes that are unfolding in Canada's vast natural landscape, starting from the original Tartan ancestor tribe.
"Love Summer 1976"
Director: Bruce McDonald
Writers: Daniel McKel
Starring: Molly Parker, Alan Hawco, Julia Sarah Stone
Duration: 85 minutes
Genre: Drama/Road Movie
2017 Canadian Screen Awards for Best Supporting Actress and Best Original Screenplay
2017 Vancouver Film Critics Association Award for Best Canadian Film Supporting Actress
Synopsis: On the weekend of the 200th anniversary celebration of victory in the American Revolutionary War, in order to visit her eccentric mother living in Sydney, Kidd, a fifteen-year-old boy, and his girlfriend Alice embark on a backpacking road trip. At the same time as this journey began, there was also the adolescent restlessness that Kidd had to face... Influenced by black-and-white films, this film combines the innocent faces of the characters with the sad soundtrack, presenting us with a bright and moving journey of youth.
The Roar of Inuk
Director: Alecia Anachubari
Writers: Alecia Anachubari
Duration: 85 minutes
Top 20 Most Popular Audience Awards and Best Canadian Documentary Promotion Award at the 2016 Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Film Festival
2017 Santa Barbara International Film Festival Social Justice Award
Synopsis: The film's director takes a closer look at the most real life of the Innu people in Canada, focusing on the topic of the Inu people being violently protested by animal protection groups for hunting seals and selling fur. The Innu, who live in the polar regions, receive valuable supplies from seal hunting and ways to sustain their livelihoods, but with the voice of the international animal protection group, the collapse of seal hunting has forced the innu, who have long relied on seals, to face the decline of traditional culture, the collapse of economic income, and the dilemma of hunger and poverty. Using social media as a tool, with their unique sense of humor and sense of justice, the Innu began to join the mainstream discussion, from their own perspective as part of modern society, to express their nation's urgent need to develop a sustainable economy.
<h1>Film festival guests</h1>
Fraser Ashur (Producer)
Fraser Ash is a film, television and documentary filmmaker who graduated from Queen's University with a minor in Philosophy. Ash has been a producer at Toronto Diamond Media since 2010. In 2015, four of his films premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival: Monsters in the Cabinet (winner of Best Canadian Film), Hyena Road, Deep in the Forest and Zoom. He is also a co-producer of the Colombian television sitcoms "Every Day in The Heights" and "Sensitive Muscles," which have won four Canadian screen awards and one Emmy nomination. Ash is also the producer and producer of documentaries, having produced such films as Enemies (premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2013) and Men in Tehran (premiered at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival).
Kevin Fink (Director)
Kevin Fink was born in Vancouver and graduated from Emilica University of Art and Design. Fink is a film director and screenwriter whose first film, Hello, Executor, premiered at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival and won the Canadian Top 10 Film of the Year. At the 2017 Neo Awards, Fink won Best Director and Best Screenplay for his debut film. In addition to films, he has also directed musical films, and won the Best Director Award for "Stadium PowWow" by canadian electronic music group "A Tribe Called Red" at the MMVA Awards.
Andrew Cilvedino (Director)
Andrew Cilvedino was born in the small town of Dundas, Ontario, and studied filmmaking at Ryerson University. His short film We Ate The Last Child (2001) was selected by the Toronto International Film Festival as one of the top 10 Canadian films of 2011. His 2015 work The Sleeping Giant, based on his 2014 top ten short films, became his first feature-length film. "The Sleeping Giant" premiered at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival's Critics Week competition and won several awards, including Best Canadian Film at the Toronto International Film Festival and Best Canadian Film at the Vancouver International Film Festival.
Ann Marie Fleming (Director)
Ann Marie Fleming is a multi-award-winning filmmaker, author and artist. Her work spans a wide range of genres and focuses on topics such as family, history and memories. She has studied art at the Canadian Film Centre and the Castle Academy in Germany, taught at the Art Institute of Chicago and Emilica University of Art and Design, and has conducted workshops and lectures at universities in North America, Asia and Europe. Fleming has directed more than 30 films, winning numerous awards from the Student Film Festival to the Toronto International Film Festival. Her first comic adaptation of the documentary she directed, The Magic Life of Round Hill, won the Doug Wright Award for Best Canadian Comics and two Eisner Award nominations. Her latest film, The Poet Is Self-Reliant, is her first fictional animation work.
Natty White (Director)
Netty White is one of Canada's leading documentary filmmakers. Her latest work, Xanadu, is being screened in theaters around the world and won the Best Canadian Documentary Award at the 2016 Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Film Festival. At the same time, White also presented a video installation called "Uninterrupted", using digital image projection technology to project the migration of red salmon under the Gambi Street Bridge in Vancouver, forming an image spectacle. White's films have been distributed in major cinemas and screened in Canadian and international cinemas. As a successful female director, she has won numerous awards at major international film festivals, including the two-time Genie Award for Best Canadian Documentary, the International Documentary Association's Best Documentary Award, and the "New Film Forum" award at the Berlin International Film Festival.