Polytechnique leads Canadian Genie race

Denis Villeneuve’s Polytechnique has received eleven nominations for Canada’s film awards, the Genies, which take place on 12th April in Toronto.

Polytechnique, which graphically recounts the circumstances and aftermath of the massacre of young women at Montreal’s Ecole Polytechnique in 1989, won the Toronto Film Critics Association prize for Best Canadian film of 2009.

Villeneuve’s Genie competition was close at his heels. Charles Officer’s Nurse.Fighter.Boy has ten nominations while Marie-Hélène Cousineau and Madeline Piujuq Ivalu’s Before Tomorrow has nine, and Kari Skogland’s UK-Canada coproduction Fifty Dead Men Walking has seven. All four are best picture and best direction nominees. Also nominated for direction was Bruce McDonald for Pontypool.

Best Actor nominations went to Joshua Jackson for One Week, Clark Johnson for Nurse.Fighter.Boy. Stephen McHattie for Pontypool and Paul Dylan Ivalu for Before Tomorrow. Scott Speedman received a supporting actor nomination for his role in Atom Egoyan’s Adoration.

For his part the overlooked Egoyan was nominated for best original screenplay while debut director David Bezmozgis was nominated for his screenplay Victoria Day. Nurse.Fighter.Boy earned a screenplay nod for Officer and co-writer and producer Ingrid Veninger. Jacques Davidts was nominated for Polytechnique.

Among the adapted screenplay nominees was Skogland for Fifty Dead Men Walking, an adaptation that initially drew the ire of the author of the source book, Martin McGartland, the former IRA mole.

Best actress nominations included Gabrielle Rose for Mothers & Daughters, Karen LeBlanc for Nurse.Fighter.Boy and Karine Vanasse for Polytechnique. Liane Balaban was nominated for best supporting actress for One Week.

Best documentary nominees included Paul Saltzman’s Prom Night In The Mississippi, Larry Weinstein’s Inside Hana’s Suitcase and Alan Zweig’s A Hard Name.

The awards celebrate their 30th edition this year.