Quebec filmmakers, Woody Harrelson win at Whistler Film Festival

by Craig Takeuchi on December 7th, 2009 at 12:20 PM

The 2009 Whistler Film Festival wrapped up on Sunday (December 6) with awards being handed out to recipients ranging from Québécois fimmakers to Hollywood stars.

Like last year's festival, a Quebec film won the $15,000 Borsos Competition for Best New Canadian Feature Film. Director Sophie Deraspe won this year's award for Les Signes Vitaux (Vital Signs), a Quebec drama about a woman who goes home after her grandmother's death. The film was selected by a jury from six finalists.

The film's Marie-Helene Bellavance went on to win the best actress award, with a special jury prize going to Skidlove's Jayme Keith.

Meanwhile, Woody Harrelson added some Hollywood glamour to the proceedings when he was named best actor for his performance in Defendor (directed and written by Peter Stebbings, who hails from Vancouver), about a man who tried to battle a drug and weapons dealer by taking on a superhero persona.

Two documentaries shared the $2,500 Best Documentary Award: the Canada-France coproduction Pax Americana: The Weaponization of Space, about the arms race in space, and the Canada-China coproduction Last Train Home, which captures the hardships that life as a migrant worker has on a Chinese peasant family.

Meanwhile, Quebec's í‰mile Proux-Cloutier took the $1,000 Best Short Film Award for "La vie commence" ("Life Begins"). Kelly Ruth Mercier won the MPPIA Short Film Award—which includes $10,000 cash from the Motion Picture Production Industry Association of B.C., $5,000 cash from British Columbia Film, and $10,000 of in-kind production services—for "Move Out Clean". When the film is completed, it'll be shown at next year's WFF (December 1 to 5, 2010).

Director-producer Gerald Salmina won the $500 Best Mountain Culture Film award for the Austria-USA coproduction Mount St. Elias, which follows four skiers attempting to take on the longest ski descent in the world in Alaska.

Marc Stephenson and Cam Labine (Control Alt Delete) won Pitch Fest West with their pitch for Garbage Day, a half-hour animated comedy. The project will receive $2,000 from the National Film Board of Canada for its development.