2001, 7th Annual Awards - Chlotrudis Society for Independent Film

Best Movie

Requiem for a Dream – Based on the harrowing novel by Hubert Selby Jr., Requiem is journey and a warning. The story follows four people as they destroy their lives through their addictions. The addictions are mostly drugs, but the film shows other addictions for balance: sex, television, sugar. Darren Aronofsky, the creator of 1998’s Pi , again brings his unique vision to bear on destructive characters; making you like them before simply obliterating them. He also brings the best visuals to life to immerse the viewer into the world of drugs and what it is to be affected by drugs, life and heartache. Whether you see the film as a harsh anti-drug announcement, pure brilliance or overindulgence, you will still walk away deeply moved. –hs

also nominated: Beau Travail, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Dancer in the Dark, The Five Senses , Judy Berlin, Traffic

Best Director

Ang Lee for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon – A bit of a flying kung-fu leap for director Ang Lee (considering his last three films), but a masterpiece of the genre. Top notch performances highlight Lee’s vision of just how fun a movie can be. And be sure to note: There is not a single computer generated movement. Everyone is really flying around all over the screen (thanks to wires and Lee’s perfectionism.) –pb

also nominated: Darren Aronofsky for Requiem for a Dream, Claire Denis for Beau Travail, Majid Majidi for The Color of Paradise, Eric Mendelsohn for Judy Berlin, Jeremy Podeswa for The Five Senses, Stephen Soderbergh for Traffic
Julie Taymor for Titus, Lars Von Trier for Dancer in the Dark

Best Actress

Karine Vanasse for the role of Hanna in Set Me Free – Seventeen-year-old Vanasse brings purity, depth and wit to the role of Hanna-a teenager in 1960’s Quebec struggling to make the transition from adolescence to adulthood, while dealing with a broken family at the same time. Her performance is a stunning film debut; Vanasse breathes life into this picture so effortlessly that one would think she’s an old pro. She conveys all of the tribulations of the maturation process as well as the pain caused by being a part of a dysfunctional family with beautiful honesty. Vanasse was awarded with a special Jury Congratulation for her performance from the Toronto International Film Festival. –ks

also nominated: Bjork for the role of Selma Yeskova in Dancer in the Dark, Ellen Burstynfor the role of Sara Goldfarb in Requiem for a Dream, Ayesha Dharker for the role of Malli in The Terrorist, Laura Linney for the role of Samantha Prescott in You Can Count on Me, Michelle Rodriguez for the role of Diana in Girlfight, Cecilia Roth for the role of Manuela in All About My Mother, Michelle Yeoh for the role of Shu Lien in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

Best Actor

Christian Bale for the role of Patrick Bateman in American Psycho – In his role as Patrick Bateman, Bale again tackles edgy material that challenges the limits of his craft. Based on Bret Easton Ellis’ satirical novel of 80’s decadence, Bale-as the materialist murderer-brilliantly plays the extremes of his character without resorting to camp or kitsch. His dazzling smile turns to ice before our eyes, leaving audiences to wonder whether they should laugh or cover their eyes in horror. To play one of the most gruesome characters in film history is not an easy task, but to play it satirically and with dark humor deserves the highest praise. –sd

also nominated: Daniel Auteuil for the role of Gabor in Girl on the Bridge, Jamie Bell for the role of Billy Elliot in Billy Elliot, Dan Futterman for the role of Charlie in Urbania, Denis Lavant for the role of Galoup in Beau Travail, Daniel MacIvor for the role of Robert in The Five Senses, Sean Penn for the role of Emmett Ray in Sweet and Lowdown, Mark Ruffalo for the role of Terry Prescott in You Can Count on Me, Mike White for the role of Buck in Chuck & Buck

Best Supporting Actress

Nadia Litz for the role of Rachel in The Five Senses – In Jeremy Podeswa’s multi-layered film, Litz plays a brooding teenager who loses a child left her care. In her moving and precise performance the audience sees the need for love that Rachel hides from her mother, and the bare agression of an adolescent struggling to deal with her sexuality with another similarly gender-confused young man, also played wonderfully by Brendan Fletcher. –ts

also nominated: Jennifer Connelly for the role of Marion Silver in Requiem for a Dream,Candace Evanofski for the role of Nasia in George Washington, Siobhan Fallon for the role of Brenda in Dancer in the Dark, Madeline Kahn for the role of Alice Gold in Judy Berlin, Elaine May for the role of Elaine in Small Time Crooks, Samantha Morton for the role of Hattie in Sweet and Lowdown, Lupe Ontiveros for the role of Beverly Franco in Chuck & Buck, Antonia San Juan for the role of Agrado in All About My Mother

Best Supporting Actor

Benicio Del Toro for the role of Javier Rodriguez Rodriguez in Traffic– It’s Del Toro who most fully encompasses the circular nature of the beast in “Traffic.” He seems to carry the weight of the world on his shoulders, yet has the humor to give over to the battles not worth fighting. Caught between a rock and a hard place, he can speak volumes just staring off into space. –lc

also nominated: Chen Chang for the role of Lo in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Albert Finney for the role of Ed Masry in Erin Brockovich, Harry J. Lennix for the role of Aaron in Titus, Joaquin Phoenix for the role of Coulmier in Quills, Peter Stormare for the role of Jeff in Dancer in the Dark, Marlon Wayans for the role of Tyrone C. Love in Requiem for a Dream

Best Original Screenplay

Chuck and Buck, screenplay by Mike White – “Chuck & Buck” is a true original in more ways than one. Mike White’s screenplay delves into such issues as hiding the child within when facing the modern world, obsession and loneliness. “Chuck & Buck” is not afraid to cross boundaries not normally crossed and make its audience uncomfortable when it does so. –lc

also nominated: Color of Paradise, The, screenplay by Majid Majidi, Five Senses, The, screenplay by Jeremy Podeswa, George Washington, screenplay by David Gordon Green, Judy Berlin, screenplay by Eric Mendelsohn, State and Main, screenplay by David Mamet, Sweet and Lowdown, screenplay by Woody Allen, You Can Count on Me, screenplay by Ken Lonergan

Best Adapted Screenplay

American Psycho, screenplay by Mary Harron and Guinevere Turner, based on the novel by Bret Easton Ellis – After a long and torturish route to the screen cowriter/director Mary Harron (I Shot Andy Warhol) has delivered the adaptation of one of the most reviled novels in history. Harron and Guinevere Turner’s (Go Fish) screenplay adaptation is razor sharp, keeping the best of Ellis’ work, such as his skewering of nouvelle cuisine (swordfish meatloaf with onion marmalade!). When it was published back in 1994, I read Bret Easton Ellis’ novel alternating between whoops of gleeful laughter and disbelieving horror. How could anyone bring this novel, with its passages of violent, sadistic pornography, to the screen? Mary Harron has accomplished the unthinkable, sharpening and focusing the book’s satire and only hinting at the depravity, without losing its bite. –lc

also nominated: Beau Travail, screenplay by Claire Denis and Jean-Paul Fargeau, based on the works of Herman Melville, Requiem for a Dream, screenplay by Hubert Selby, Jr. and Darren Aronofsky, based on the novel by Hubert Selby, Jr., Titus, screenplay by Julie Taymor, based on the play by William Shakespeare, Traffic, screenplay by Stephen Gaghan, based on the miniseries by Simon Moore, Urbania, screenplay by Daniel Reitz and Jon Shear, based on the play by Daniel Reitz, Virgin Suicides, The, screenplay by Sofia Coppola based on the novel by Jeffrey Eugenides

Best Cinematography

Agnes Godard for the film Beau Travail – The French Foreign Legionnaires in Beau Travail perform their drills and exercises as if they were performing ballet. The cameras crawl in toward them exaggerating their long, lean, masculine forms. The Mediterranean sun alternates between blindingly harsh, and sumptuously warm. Godard provides the visual feast of a backdrop for this highly symbolic film. –mrc

also nominated: Hashem Attar and Mahammad Davudi for the film The Color of Paradise,Jean-Marie Dreujou for the film Girl on the Bridge, Matthew Libatique for the film Requiem for a Dream, Tim Orr for the film George Washington, Peter Pau for the film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Luciano Tovoli for the film Titus

Best Cast

The Five Senses – The cast of Jeremy Podeswa’s The Five Senses is certainly an actor-lover’s dream… if you happen to love Canadian actors. Daniel McIvor, Gabrielle Rose, Molly Parker, Phillippe Volter, Pascale Bussieres, Nadia Litz, and Brendan Fletcher are just some of the ensemble cast representing Canada. Add to the mix the remarkable Mary Louise Parker, whose naturalness and general appeal are truly underrated, and you’ve got a cast that can’t possibly miss a mark. The interweaving storylines are complex and tightly-wound, but the entire cast underplays it, lending a sense of reality, along with a slower dramatic rise. Ensemble casts don’t get much better than this. –mrcalso nominated: George Washington, Requiem for a Dream, State and Main, Timecode, Traffic

Best Short Film

Undone – A woman’s curiosity pushes her into the trash of L.A. nightlife… Undone

literally. Three kidnappers discover her while mired in their own failures. The enginges of fate rear and the morning only asks more questions. Filmmaker Kandeyce Jorden appeared in Chuck & Buck director Miguel Arteta’s Star Maps. This is her directorial debut. She is currently developing a feature project.

Waking Mele by Anne Misawa (USA – 25 minutes) – “Braiding dreamlife, memory and visions of ‘psychic journeying,’ Mele relates the last days of her ailing twin brother, Egg. On a road trip to find their childhood home, they are joined by Pua, who carries with him the ashes of his recently deceased father. Pua leads them through the Los Angeles wonderland – from an earthquake-damaged shelter, to a dance club on the Hollywood strip, ultimately leaving them to find their separate ways ‘home.'”

Hawaiin born filmmaker Anne Misawa is a graduate of Punahou School and earned an English degree at the University of Hawai’i.

Waking Mele is 2000’s 2nd place Chlotrudis Award winner! Congratulations, Anne!

also nominated: But Enough About Me – M. George Stevenson, Deadtime – James Brett, Final Flicker, The – Jennifer Bae, Gray Fruit – Thouly Dosios, Home – Jennifer Bae

Special Awards

Chloe Award

The Chloe Award for 2000 was given to Pedro Almodovar. “While Almodovar is nowhere near the end of his career, his amazing body of work, in directing, writing, producing, composing, and even acting, has more than proven him worthy of the

Chloe Award. Born in 1951 in the impoverished section of Spain known as La Mancha, Almodovar managed to start his impressive, outrageous and subversive film career during the oppressive dictatorship of Francisco Franco. His first feature, Pepi, Luci & Bom… was finished in 1980, and Almodovar followed-up its success by writing, producing, directing, composing the music for, acting in and even serving as set designer for his 1982 release, Labyrinth of Passion. He has gone on to release eleven more films including Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, What Have I Done to Deserve This?, Law of Desire, High Heels, and this year’s Chlotrudis nominee for best actress and supporting actress, All About My Mother. He has worked with an incredibly talented group of international actors including Carmen Maura, Antonio Banderas, Victoria Abril, Penelope Cruz and Cecila Roth. His quirky sense of originality, his outrageous antics, his emotional explorations of women and the men they love and his dynamic, yet heartfelt cinematic tales all make Pedro Almodovar the perfect choice for this year’s Chloe Award.— mrc

Gertrudis Award

The Gertrudis Award is given to Alan Cumming in 2000.”Alan Cumming is multi-talented. His impish demeanor can manifest as a delightfully funny best friend with a tragic streak, or as a depraved, ambitious emperor of Ancient Rome. These are the two powerful roles Cumming tackled this year, in Urbania and Titus respectively. Before that, Cumming conquered Broadway with his Tony-Award winning performance as the Master of Ceremonies in Cabaret for one, and in a string of movies, both independent and mainstream that show off his acting range to great effect.” – mrc

Taskforce Award

In 2000: The Taskforce Award is given to Patricia Rozema. “Rozema is a Canadian filmmaker whose films tackle

such diverse topics as search for identity, a romantic wish-fulfillment myth, and an adaptation of a classic British novel. In her first film, “I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing,” Rozema shows us the world through the eyes of a simple artist, who falls in love with a sophisticated museum curator. Blending mundane reality with a creative and imaginative fantasy world, Rozema shows us the complex nature of the human spirit. In “When Night Is Falling,” Rozema gives the fortunate viewer a lush, extravagant take on the “running away with the circus” story. With sumptuous visuals, and whimsical humor, Rozema expands her vision, transcending love and beauty. With her most recent feature, Rozema daringly blended Jane Austen’s novel, “Mansfield Park” with Austen’s own diaries, transforming protagonist Fanny Price into a feminist heroine more akin to Austen herself, than the character found in the novel. Rozema’s work with her three leading ladies, Sheila McCarthy, Pascale Bussieres and Frances O’Conner show her skill in working with actors, and her increasingly involving visuals emphasize her talented eye. Through all her varied films, Rozema maintains her sharp humor as well as her empathy with her characters. I was fortunate enough to see “This Might Be Good,” the short film she produced for the Twenty-Fifth Annual Toronto Film Festival. Using talented Canadian actors (and Chlotrudis nominees from past years) Don McKellar and Sarah Polley, Rozema creates a five-minute mini-masterpiece that captures the essence of the film festival experience. I am thrilled to honor Patricia Rozema with the Taskforce Award.– mrc

On “I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing” – It is lovely to think that we gain insight into Patricia Rozema’s character as we enjoy her portrayal of passionate and compassionate women. Her writing and direction allow the viewer’s imagination to fill in the incidentals while building a story around the characters of strong, creative women who yearn for fulfillment. — asd