Sarah Polley’s cinematic memoir wins $100,000 Rogers Best Canadian Film Award.

Stories We Tell, Sarah Polley’s documentary investigation into her tangled family history, has won the Toronto Film Critics Association’s 2012 Rogers Best Canadian Film Award.

The award was presented to Polley by actor/director Don McKellar, a previous TFCA winner, at a gala dinner last night (Jan 8) in Toronto.

Also nominated for the award were Bestiaire, directed by Denis Côté, and Goon, directed by Michael Dowse. 

The $100,000 award is the biggest arts prize in Canada and runners-up, Côté and Dowseeach received $5,000 from Rogers Communications.

This marks the second time the TFCA has honoured Polley for Best Canadian Film; she won for her first feature, Away From Her (2006). Stories We Tell also received the TFCA’s 2012 Allan King Documentary Award, presented to Polley by TV personality Rick Mercer.

Veteran Toronto filmmaker Bruce McDonald presented the 2012 Manulife Financial Best Student Film Award to Ryerson University student Andrew Moir for his short documentary Just As I Remember, which juxtaposes the experience of two men with ALS—a father of three in the early stages of disease and his own dad who is almost completely paralyzed. The award carries a cash prize of $5,000, donated by Manulife Financial. 

Writer-director Patricia Rozema presented the TFCA’sJay Scott Prize for an emerging artist to Toronto filmmaker Nicolás Pereda (Greatest Hits). Sponsored by Deluxe, the prize is accompanied by a $5,000 cash award and $5,000 in post-production services. 

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