Anthony Shim’s ‘Riceboy Sleeps’ wins Toronto critics’ award for greatest Canadian movie

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

On Monday evening, the Toronto Movie Critics Affiliation honoured “Riceboy Sleeps” with the Rogers Greatest Canadian Movie Award.

“To have the members of the Toronto Movie Critics Affiliation choose our movie does really feel fairly surreal,” Shim, a director and actor, stated in a cellphone 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 Worldwide Movie Competition and the Busan Worldwide Movie Competition, and examines the stresses of rising up between two cultures.

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

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

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

“I’m simply doing my greatest and type of squeezing slightly little bit of time right here and there, once I can, to maintain the ball rolling on these tasks,” he stated.

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

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

TFCA president Johanna Schneller says in a press release that whereas “Riceboy Sleeps” is barely Shim’s second function, it “shimmers with delicacy, empathy and authenticity.”

“We are able to’t wait to see what he does subsequent,” Schneller stated.

The Toronto Movie Critics Affiliation is comprised of Toronto-based journalists and broadcasters who concentrate on movie criticism and commentary.

“Motion pictures like ‘Riceboy Sleeps’ are the explanation the Rogers Greatest Canadian Movie Award exists,” stated Robin Mirsky, govt director of the Rogers Group of Funds.

“Movies mirror who we’re, and Anthony Shim’s story resonates with so many Canadian immigrant households. It’s a testomony to the concept the extra particular a narrative is, the extra common it feels.”

Comic and TV persona 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 Rising Critic Award, noting that Krasovitski is a daughter of Soviet-era Ukrainian immigrants “who taught her to understand a tradition of uncensored movie.”

Longtime TIFF programmer Steve Gravestock, who just lately retired, gained this yr’s Firm 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 Greatest Image, Greatest Director and Greatest First Function for “Aftersun” whereas Paul Mescal gained Greatest Actor for his function in that movie.

Ke Huy Quan gained Greatest Supporting Actor for “All the pieces All over the place All at As soon as,” filmmaker Laura Poitras gained the Allan King Documentary Award for “All of the Magnificence and the Bloodshed” and Domee Shi gained for Greatest Animated Function, “Turning Purple.”

– With information from Christian Collington in Toronto 

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