Quebec directors dominate best Canadian films list

Quebec filmmakers dominated a list of the year's top Canadian films, led by three directors who made a splash in Cannes last spring.

Xavier Dolan's Cannes-celebrated mother-son drama J'ai tu ma mre (I KIlled My Mother); Carcasses, Denis Ct's portrait of an elderly junkyard owner; and Denis Villeneuve's controversial film Polytechnique the first film to explore the infamous Montreal Massacre lead the Toronto International Film Festival's annual list of the year's top Canadian films.

The French-language trio led the strong list of Quebec directors who made this year's tally, joined by:

• Jacob Tierney and his high-school activist comedy The Trotsky.
• Bernard mond's La Donation (The Legacy), about a big-city doctor suddenly thrust into filling-in for a small-town colleague.
• Alexandre Franchi for The Wild Hunt, his drama set in the world of live-action role-playing games.

Rounding out the list were:

• Ruba Nadda's Egypt-set romance Cairo Time.
• Matthew Bissonette road-trip drama Passenger Side.
• Peter Stebbings's unlikely superhero comedy Defendor.
• Sherry White's multi-generational family drama Crackie.

First-time and up-and-coming directors figured largely in the 10 titles, which were selected by a national panel comprising filmmakers, film journalists, programmers and other industry professionals.

The movies by Dolan, Franchi, Bissonette, Stebbings and White were all feature-length film debuts.

"This year's list features a group of young and exciting new directors. They have made bold work, a sign that the future of our cinema is in good hands," Steve Gravestock, TIFF's associated director of Canadian programming, said in a statement.

Some of the selections have yet to be shown theatrically, with Defendor, La Donation, J'ai tu ma mere, Passenger Side, The Trotsky and The Wild Hunt all slated to hit cinemas in the first half of 2010.

The annual TIFF list "provides the opportunity to discover and celebrate these films," said festival CEO and director Piers Handling.

"It's essential for the Canadian public to stand behind the efforts of these audacious filmmakers."

Another separate panel selected the year's top 10 Canadian short films, with Pedro Pires's morbid and mesmerizing Danse Macabre and a trio of acclaimed NFB animations Cordell Barker's Runaway, Chris Landreth's The Spine and Bruce Alcock's Viva la rose among those that made the cut.

The remaining top shorts are:

• The Armoire by Jamie Travis.
• The Cave by Helen Haig-Brown.
• Five Hole: Tales of Hockey Erotica by Cam Christiansen.
• Naissances by Anne mond.
• Out in that Deep Blue Sea by Kazik Radwanski
• La Vie commence by mile Proulx-Cloutier.

To be eligible for the TIFF honour, movies made must be by Canadian citizen or resident filmmakers who work in Canada or on Canadian-financed projects. The films must either have obtained a commercial release in Canada or premiered at a major Canadian film festival over the past year.

Organizers will screen the winning selections in Toronto at the TIFF Cinemathque in mid-January. A selection of the films will also travel across Canada, including to Vancouver's Pacific Cinemathque and the Canadian Film Institute in Ottawa.