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  • Oscar who?

    Toronto Daily Reporter
    Sat, May 1, 2004

    Oscar who?

    Genies won't try to copy Hollywood's hoopla By bruce Kirkland

    The Genie Awards often have been called Canada's answer to the Oscars.
    "Who's kidding who?" asks Paul Gratton, chairman of the Academy of
    Canadian Cinema & Television and an executive at Bravo in the CHUM
    Television group, which will broadcast the Genies live on a
    cobbled-together, cross-Canada network. The action kicks off a 8
    p.m. from the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.

    "It's not the Oscars," Gratton says. "We don't have the star power. We
    don't have the recognition factor."

    FUNKY PARTY

    While Mayor David Miller has proclaimed this Genie Awards Day in
    Toronto, that honour is limited. So CHUM, working with the Academy for
    a year's trial, will present the 24th Canadian film awards as a funky
    party hosted by Kids In The Hall comic Scott Thompson.

    "CHUM very specifically is trying to change the energy in the room,"
    Gratton says, "and one of the first ways we did this was to emulate
    the Independent Spirit Awards more than the Oscars.

    "Let's not try to do a traditional show. Let's throw a party because
    there is stuff to celebrate this year -- honestly! The success in
    Quebec is part of it, but the overall quality of the movies that we
    had to evaluate -- all bulls--- aside -- really was higher this year
    than in some recent years."

    After what Gratton calls "the Ararat/Spider fiasco" of 2003, the
    Academy also overhauled its faulty nomination procedures. Last year,
    Atom Egoyan's Ararat won as best picture, but Egoyan was not even
    nominated as best director. David Cronenberg won as best director, but
    his Spider masterwork was not even nominated as best
    picture. Cronenberg complained bitterly about the injustices,
    including the exclusion of his star, Ralph Fiennes, as a best-actor
    nominee.

    "It was embarrassing," Gratton says. "This system was flawed. David
    Cronenberg was extremely upset about the results and this was one of
    those cases where you say: 'I don't blame him.'

    "So we re-invented that this year as well ... There was far less
    controversy this year. There were quirks, but there weren't too many
    things in there that were manifestly bizarre."

    Going into tonight's awards, Quebec films -- riding the crest of a
    stellar year -- dominate with the eccentric comedy Seducing Doctor
    Lewis (La Grande Seduction) leading with 11 nominations. The Barbarian
    Invasions (Les Invasions Barbares), which has already won the Oscar as
    best foreign language film, and The Snow Walker, a B.C. production,
    both have nine nominations. Also nominated as best picture are Owning
    Mahowny and La Face Cachee De La Lune.

    WORTH CELEBRATING

    Says Gratton of the lineup: "There are at least three or four movies
    that did not make the cut for the five best films that I think, in
    numerous other years, would have. We've had some years where it was
    hard to come up with five worthy best-picture nominees. This year, it
    was not hard. So that's worth celebrating and drawing attention to,
    even if much of the audience is indifferent.

    "This is really a re-invention of the Genies. I don't think anyone
    expects the bun to come out of the oven fully baked the first
    year. So, what you want to see are elements that can be built
    upon. You want to avoid a total disaster.

    If it works, next year is the 25th anniversary, so it's an important
    year."
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