Saturday, March 1, 2008

The Canadian film industry’s major awards night, the Genie Awards, takes place on Monday. The Genie Awards begun in 1949 as the Canadian Film Awards, and current nominations include the films L’Âge des ténèbres, Away from Her, Continental, un film sans fusil, Eastern Promises, and Shake Hands With the Devil.

Notably absent from the nominations is the film Juno, an Academy Award nominee for Best Picture. Most of the lead actors in Eastern Promises and Away from Her were not Canadian, and Eastern Promises was filmed overseas. The leads of Juno, in comparison, are all Canadian, and the movie was filmed in the country, despite the financial backing for the film being from an American source.

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Juno is an excellent film and the Academy salutes its success, which reflects the work of many talented Canadians both in front of and behind the camera. Regrettably, the filmmakers decided not to enter the film into the Genie Awards.

In order to be eligible for the Genies, a film must be Canadian, as defined by CAVCO and the CRTC. These are the accepted industry standards for recognizing a film as Canadian.

Ultimately, it’s up to the filmmaker to decide whether to seek Canadian certification. It would not be appropriate for me to speculate about the reasons for a filmmaker’s decision, or why they may or may not qualify.

Sara Morton, CEO of the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television

CAVCO is the Canadian Audio-Visual Certification Office, part of the Department of Canadian Heritage. The CRTC is the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, a communications authority like the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the United States, Independent Television Commission (ITC) in the UK (excluding Wales), and the Australian Communications and Media Authority.