Here are Toronto's top 10 film directors of all time.
David Cronenberg
Forty years of consistently shocking, original and challenging films is what puts David Cronenberg at the top of this (and many other) list(s). J. Hoberman of the Village Voice says, "Cronenberg has been, film for film, the most audacious and challenging narrative director in the English-speaking world." Not every film succeeds on sheer entertainment value, but each is always unique and adventurous.
Cronenberg founded the Toronto Film Co-op along with Ivan Reitman, and is a staunch supporter of Telefilm Canada and government funded film projects. He believes it's necessary to have a national cinema program to stand in the face of Hollywood - something he's done throughout his career. Cronenberg has received the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal, the Cannes Lifetime Achievement Award, and in 2014 was made a Companion of the Order of Canada. We're still waiting for his park.
Norman Jewison
Norman Jewison is perhaps the most highly acclaimed Canadian filmmaker of all time. He was born and raised in Toronto, attended Malvern Collegiate, and graduated from U of T. He served in the Royal Canadian Navy in WWII, and began his film career as an assistant director at the CBC. In the four decades since, Jewison's directed 42 feature films including dramas (In The Heat of the Night, The Hurricane), romantic comedies (Moonstruck), musicals (Fiddler on the Roof, Jesus Christ Superstar), caper-flicks (The Thomas Crown Affair) and sci-fi (Rollerball).
The director's legacy has been cemented with 46 Oscar nominations, 12 Oscar wins, three lifetime achievement awards, the Queen's Golden Jubilee Medal, and he's a Companion of the Order of Canada. There is a park named after Jewison - it's just east of Yonge Street.
Atom Egoyan
Stylistic, moody, pretentious, Atom Egoyan embodies Canadian art-house cinema. Egoyan was born in Egypt, raised in Victoria, and graduated from U of T. Early films like The Adjuster and Speaking Parts gained him international attention, and his non-linear narrative style refined with Exotica and won the International Critics Prize at Cannes.
The Sweet Hereafter is Egoyan's most critically successful film earning multiple wins at the Genies, Cannes, and earning a Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Director nod from the Oscars, while Ararat took home four wins at the Genie's, including Best Motion Picture. But Egoyan's biggest commercial success to date has been 2009's Chloe - a stylistic departure that gets major star support from Liam Neeson, Julianne Moore and Amanda Seyfried, handsomely set in winter-time Toronto.
Deepa Mehta
There is an interview with Deepa Mehta on the NFB website where she says, "All art is political. We all know that, and it should be. But it has to be about a story. " Over the course of her 25 year career, Mehta has proven herself to be a master storyteller presenting characters in lush, emotional landscapes punctuated with rich details and vibrant cinematography.
Her debut feature Sam & Me was a runner up for the Camera d'Or at Cannes, and Water, the final installment in her Elements Trilogy garnered nine Genie nominations and an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film. Mehta is a member of the Order of Ontario, an Officer of the Order of Canada, and was awarded the Governor General's Performing Arts Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2012.
Bruce MacDonald
Born in Kingston, Bruce MacDonald attended North Albion Highschool where he shot and screened his second feature film, Our Glorious Dead to reported worldwide box-office returns of $100 CAD. Features like Roadkill [editor's note: Canadiana perfected], Highway 61, and Hard Core Logo have established him as the King of the Canadian Road Movie. He directed the Broken Social Scene pseudo-concert doc This Movie is Broken, and 2008's Pontypool was nominated for three Genies including Best Director.
MacDonald has several TV credits including Twitch City (written by Don McKellar), Degrassi: The Next Generation, and Queer As Folk, and readily admits that he uses the higher pay of television gigs to bring the projects of Canadian writers to life. More than anything MacDonald is, perhaps, the punk-rock of Canadian cinema.
Sarah Polley
Intelligent, poised, focused - these words can be used to describe Sarah Polley's acting as much as the films she's directed. Her debut, Away From Her received nine Genie nominations, winning eight including Adapted Screenplay, Achievement in Direction and Best Motion Picture.
Following the charming, set-in-Toronto romance, Take This Walz, her documentary, Stories We Tell won Best Feature Length Documentary at the Genies and gained praise from the New York Film Critics Circle, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, and the Writers Guild of America. Polley, an Officer of the Order of Canada, has proven herself to be a deft, accomplished storyteller. Her directing career has only just begun.
Ivan Reitman
Born in Czechoslovakia but raised in Toronto, Ivan Reitman attended Oakwood Collegiate and graduated from McMaster University. In 1969, he and business partner Dan Goldberg were the first Canadians to be convicted under Canada's decency laws for producing a movie called Columbus of Sex. They were fined $300.
This smut-pioneer went on to direct Stripes, Ghostbusters, Twins, and Kindergarten Cop - collectively known as the best movies ever made. He helped launch the careers of Eugene Levy and Bill Murray, and made Arnold Schwarzenegger (intentionally) funny. He's a member of Hollywood's Billion Dollar Club.
Ruba Nadda
Born in Montreal, Ruba Nadda attended York University. After taking a six-week film production course at the Tisch School in New York, she established herself as a prolific and successful filmmaker, beginning her career with a series of 13 short films produced between 1997 and 2004, which have been shown in over 500 festivals around the world.
Amongst her four feature-length films, Cairo Time starring Patricia Clarkson took home the Best Canadian Feature Film award at TIFF and was the best-reviewed romance on Rotten Tomatoes in 2010. Clarkson also starred in her latest feature, Ocotber Gale and will work with Nadda on an upcoming series for HBO.
Don McKellar
Born in Toronto and more or less a fixture in Parkdale, Don McKellar began his career writing, directing, and acting in plays as part of the Augusta Company - a theatre group he founded alongside Daniel Brooks and the late, great Tracy Wright.
Perhaps better known for his acting (Exotica, Highway 61) and writing (Thirty-Two Short Films About Glenn Gould, The Red Violin), his directorial debut, Last Night collected awards and accolades including the Claude Jutra Award at the Genies, Best Canadian First Feature at TIFF, and the Toronto Film Critics Award for Best Canadian Film. He's directed two features since, Childstar, and The Grand Seduction - a film which earned a Directors Guild of Canada Award for Best Direction.
Michael Snow
Michael Snow creates challenging works of avant-garde cinema - non-narrative pieces that toy with conceptions of time and space. His 1967 structural film, Wavelength is plainly referred to as one of the greatest underground art-house films ever made, and was designated as a masterwork by the (now defunct) Audio-Visual Preservation Trust of Canada.
He's made 23 films over his 50-plus year career. In addition he is a musician, painter, sculptor, photographer, holographer, and installation artist. Snow is a Companion of the Order of Canada and cited as one of Canada's greatest multidisciplinary contemporary artists.
BONUS
Allan Dwan
In the nascent years of the motion picture industry, Toronto native Allan Dwan helped lay the foundation of modern cinema. His 50-year career encompassed the silent-era, the advent of talkies, and extended well into the epic Technicolor-productions of post-war Hollywood.
After directing over 400 films, Dwan was recognized as a forward-thinking innovator. His directing career includes iconic classics - Robin Hood (1922) with Douglas Fairbanks, Heidi (1937) starring Shirley Temple, and perhaps his most famous, Sands of Iwo Jima (1949) starring John Wayne. No mention of Toronto's film legacy could be complete without acknowledgement of Allan Dwan.
Photo: Julian Carrington
by PO Karim via blogTO
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