9-14-03

I think I'm suffering withdrawal symptoms.

Not from film festing, but from junk food. Seriously, I ate loads and loads of crap during the festival and, now that it's over, my body is desperately craving fat, sugar and all things deep-fried. BUT (!), I have not yet come down with anything resembling PFS (Post Festival Sickness)! I am, in a word, shocked. Usually, by now, I'd be downing Nyquil and lying semi-dazed and congested on the couch. And yet... no. What's this?? Could it be that the massive amounts of additives and preservatives and heaven knows what else (beef tallow, anyone? lard? multi-syllabic chemical compounds?) I consumed actually managed to stave off germs?! Did I somehow manage to create a host environment so inhospitable that viruses everywhere just decided I was undesirable?!

If so, I say god bless McDonald's... where I ate more times in the last ten days that I have in the last year.

(Or maybe it was the fact that I obsessively washed my hands at least a dozen times a day. Who knows.)

So, as I sit here (knock on wood!) germ-free, it's time to look back on the good, the bad and the ugly of this year's event. To start off, here are the official prize winners, which were announced at a luncheon yesterday afternoon:

PEOPLE'S CHOICE AWARD:
Takeshi Kitano's Zatoichi (runners up were Go Further, the Ron Mann documentary tracking Woody Harrelson's hemp crusade, and The Corporation, a Canadian documentary examining the global impact of corporations)

DISCOVERY AWARD (FOR BEST FIRST FEATURE):
Rhinoceros Eyes (what IS it about this movie that so many people seem to love???)

BEST CANADIAN FIRST FEATURE:
Love, Sex and Eating the Bones

BEST CANADIAN FEATURE:
Les Invasions Barbares

FIPRESCI PRIZE:
Acheros Mañas's November

And, then, my own personal awards...

FAVORITE FILMS:
Mayor of the Sunset Strip, Pieces of April, Evil, Love Actually, Japanese Story

THANKS, BUT I'D RATHER NOT SEE IT AGAIN, EVER:
Rhinoceros Eyes, The Principles of Lust, Testosterone

MOST DELICIOUSLY, UNAPOLOGETICALLY FUN MOVIE:
Prey For Rock 'n' Roll—rock ON!

MOST UNEXPECTED SURPRISE:
Bright Leaves... it's a documentary about tobacco, for crying out loud! But still entertaining!

BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENTS:
Aside from the absence of Maggie Gyllenhaal, you mean? *sigh* I suppose Code 46.

I wound up seeing 32 films this year. Films about actors, writers, artists, lawyers, corporate drones, stalkers, mothers, daughters, fathers, sons, grandparents, lovers, enemies, strangers, rock stars, wannabe rock stars, people who know rock stars, thieves, murderers, serial killers, liars, detectives, mountain climbers, nuns, vampires, werewolves, ghosts, gamblers, porn stars, game show contestants, drug dealers, alcoholics and the clinically depressed. There were stories set in the past, the present and the future. Films based in reality, altered realities and fantasy, and traversing the globe from Australia to Europe to Asia and back to North America. I watched movies about love, hate, anger, repression, depression, grief, joy, confusion, fear, angst and the undeniable lure of music, and saw Antonio Sabato Jr.'s hoo-hoo dilly flapping in the breeze. In a movie, I mean, not, like, out on the street somewhere while he was buying a coffee.

A whopping 17 (!) of those 32 films I saw featured the death of a character, or a character in the process of dying. There also seemed to be an awful lot of bodily fluids (blood, vomit, pee, etc.) flying about in the films this year. And, as my friend Angela pointed out, endless streams of profanity that are gradually absorbed into the audience's own vocabulary. Three cheers for f**kin' potty mouth!

All in all another good year, save for the end of the Uptown and the ubiquity of a certain Mouthy moviegoer. As I mentioned yesterday, next year's festival will be a whole new ball game, as venues change, the fest shifts locales and adjustments are made all around.

And you just *know* I'm already waiting with bated breath.

Thanks to all my festival pals... see you next year!

:-)

— Vickie

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