Last week TIFF made its first announcements for its 49th festival. This included unveiling select films and some of the honourees of their 6th annual Tribute Awards. This year the Tribute Awards have named an honorary chair for the fundraising gala in Sandra Oh. One of my favorite films of all time is the Sandra Oh starrer Last Night which was awarded at TIFF and for which Sandra Oh went on to win a Genie Award, so I’m always happy to see her chair anything. Though, it is humous she is doing so shortly after starring in a series titled, The Chair.
The announced films are as follows: Elton John’s documentary “Elton John: Never Too Late.” Woo Min-ho’s “Harbin” set in the early 1900s as Korean independence activists orchestrate a bold assault in Harbin, the capital of Heilongjiang, China’s northernmost province, in a daring bid to secure their nation’s freedom from Japanese oppression. Marielle Heller’s “Nightbitch” starring Amy Adams a magical-realism film about a stay-at-home mom who transforms into a dog. “The Life of Chuck,” a Mike Flanagan film based on the Stephen King short story. “Rez Ball,” a LeBron James-produced Indigenous basketball coming-of-age film. And “The Wild Robot,” the animated-film from DreamWorks, will screen with Lupita Nyong’o voicing the titular robot.
Amy Adams will also be honoured at the Tribute Awards with the TIFF Tribute Performer Award. Based on the early reactions to the film she’s attending the festival with, sight unseen from people, just based on the premise, this is the perfect year for Amy Adams to get this honour. Because she is a performer who doesn’t seem to go around selecting her roles based on likeability but based on character. In 2016 she attended the festival with two films and roles that couldn’t have been more wildly different. I was working at the Princess of Wales where both those films premiered. Arrival is still one of the festival experiences I think about the most, the sound design played to that theatre so well, amplifying the emotionality of the performance on the screen. Nocturnal Animals on the other hand, which had won the Grand Jury Prize in Venice, didn’t resonate with me, but I was still shocked that she didn’t manage to garner an Academy nomination that year for either role. While people may like being honoured for their work, I don’t think most seek out work to try and get honoured because that is a fallacy. What will happen with Nightbitch, only time will tell, but I’m happy that TIFF is choosing to honour her and her body of work as an actor when she’s coming to the festival with a work that isn’t “safe,” because I hope she keeps choosing parts that aren’t safe because that’s what’s made her such an interesting actor to watch.
Speaking of people who have made a living off of being unsafe, David Cronenberg is being presented with the Norman Jewison Career Achievement Award, which recognizes Canadians in the film industry who have made a global impact with their careers. There are few Canadians who have made an impact on a global scale as big as Cronenberg, with people emulating his style of filmmaking, so it makes sense for him to be recognized in this manner. While I hope the main focus is on his contributions as a filmmaker, I hope they acknowledge that he has been gracing the world with his talents in front of the camera as well.
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