Anthony Shim’s ‘Riceboy Sleeps’ wins Toronto critics’ award for best Canadian film | 24CA News

Anthony Shim says it hasn’t totally settled in but that his semi-autobiographical movie “Riceboy Sleeps” has received one of many greatest movie prizes in Canada.

On Monday evening, the Toronto Film Critics Association honoured “Riceboy Sleeps” with the Rogers Best Canadian Film Award.

“To have the members of the Toronto Film Critics Association select our film does feel quite surreal,” Shim, a director and actor, stated in a telephone interview Tuesday morning from Chicago.

The movie, a couple of Korean single mom who strikes to Canada, was shot within the Vancouver space and in South Korea. It premiered at each the Toronto International Film Festival and the Busan International Film Festival, and examines the stresses of rising up between two cultures.

It was included in TIFF’s 2022 Canada’s Top Ten, and its choice for the Critics Association’s award comes with $100,000, thought-about the richest annual movie prize in Canada.

Shim says he’s grateful for the financial acquire, nevertheless he hasn’t had a second to cease and take into consideration his plans for the cash.

He notes he at present as two movies in early improvement, one being an authentic piece and the opposite an adaptation of a novel.

“I’m just doing my best and kind of squeezing a little bit of time here and there, when I can, to keep the ball rolling on those projects,” he stated.

As runners-up, Clement Virgo who directed “Brother” and David Cronenberg, director of “Crimes of the Future,” every acquired $5,000.

One of the lead actors of “Riceboy Sleeps,” Ethan Hwang, accepted the award on Shim’s behalf at a gala dinner on the Omni King Edward Hotel in Toronto.

TFCA president Johanna Schneller says in an announcement that whereas “Riceboy Sleeps” is simply Shim’s second function, it “shimmers with delicacy, empathy and authenticity.”

“We can’t wait to see what he does next,” Schneller stated.

The Toronto Film Critics Association is comprised of Toronto-based journalists and broadcasters who focus on movie criticism and commentary.

“Movies like ‘Riceboy Sleeps’ are the reason the Rogers Best Canadian Film Award exists,” stated Robin Mirsky, govt director of the Rogers Group of Funds.

“Films reflect who we are, and Anthony Shim’s story resonates with so many Canadian immigrant families. It’s a testament to the idea that the more specific a story is, the more universal it feels.”

Comedian and TV character Rick Mercer introduced the $10,000 Stella Artois Jay Scott Prize for an rising artist to filmmaker Carol Nguyen.

Nguyen’s quick movies, that are drawn from her life and Vietnamese-Canadian tradition, have performed at greater than 80 movie festivals.

The affiliation gave Michelle Krasovitski the fourth annual Telefilm Canada Emerging Critic Award, noting that Krasovitski is a daughter of Soviet-era Ukrainian immigrants “who taught her to appreciate a culture of uncensored film.”

Longtime TIFF programmer Steve Gravestock, who not too long ago retired, received this 12 months’s Company 3 Luminary Award which comes with a pay-it-forward grant of $50,000 in manufacturing companies to a filmmaker of the recipient’s alternative.

Gravestock selected producer/actor Hugh Gibson of “The Stairs” and author/director Frieda Luk of “The Encounter.”

Director Charlotte Wells was awarded Best Picture, Best Director and Best First Feature for “Aftersun” whereas Paul Mescal received Best Actor for his function in that movie.

Ke Huy Quan received Best Supporting Actor for “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” filmmaker Laura Poitras received the Allan King Documentary Award for “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed” and Domee Shi received for Best Animated Feature, “Turning Red.”

– With information from Christian Collington in Toronto 

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