Black Sheep Reviews presents the 2011 Mouton d'Or Awards

It is with great pleasure that I announce to you today the nominees for the 2011 Mouton d'Or Awards. This year marks the seventh year the awards have been held and this year's bunch of contenders is a strong bunch indeed. In fact, there were so many memorable performances and films this year, that the acting categories have been expanded to six nominations each. There are also two brand new categories this year. One is for Best Ensemble, which is just one more way to honour the incredible casts that collectively came together to impress right across the board in 2011. The other is for Best First Feature because I am always shocked by people who knock it out hard on their first shot behind the camera. To qualify in this category, you need not to have directed a theatrical feature prior to the nominated film. In fact, the only negative factor with this year's nominations comes from the Animated Feature category, where only two films have been nominated because of the lack of decent selections.

Leading this year's Mouton d'Or Awards is THE ARTIST, with a total of seven nominations, including one for Best Picture and Best Director. The little silent film that could is followed closely in the tally by two of the year's more sumptuously cinematic endeavours, DRIVE and THE TREE OF LIFE, both of which have earned six nods a piece, including Best Picture. The remaining two Best Picture slots go to THE DESCENDANTS and SHAME, both of which follow in third place for most nominations, totalling five each. I have seen all five of these films twice now and it will be a pleasure soaking them each in one last time before making my final decision.

It was incredibly difficult to narrow down the Best Picture nominees to only five choices, but as I ask my readers to narrow to just five, I too had to suck it up and deal. As always, I am very pleased with the selections that rose to the top of the Black Sheep Readers Choice nominees. Like last year, the five films represent a great mix of crowd pleasing offerings and the more obscure. My sincere thanks go out to all who participated by sending me their lists. It is always a great joy to see what other people appreciate and to hear why, so again, thank you for sharing with me.

You can now vote for your favourite in the poll at the top of the right sidebar. Voting will open and close weekly until the day before the Mouton d'Or Award winners are announced. This year, that day will be Saturday, February 25, 2012. Vote as many times as you like but just vote!

And so, without any further delay, ladies and gentleman, I present to you, the 2011 Mouton d'Or Award nominations ...

(Scroll over any film title for the full Black Sheep Review.)

BEST BIG MOVIE

THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN
BRIDESMAIDS
HANNA
THE HELP
THE MUPPETS

BEST little MOVIE

50/50
BEGINNERS
MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE
MELANCHOLIA
WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN

THE WORST MOVIE I SAW ALL YEAR

FRENCH IMMERSION
GREEN LANTERN
LARRY CROWNE
TRESPASS
YOUR HIGHNESS

THE BLACK SHEEP READERS CHOICE AWARD

THE ARTIST
BRIDESMAIDS
DRIVE
MIDNIGHT IN PARIS
THE TREE OF LIFE

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN
RANGO

BEST LOOKING MOVIE

THE ARTIST
HUGO
MELANCHOLIA
TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY
THE TREE OF LIFE

BEST MUSIC

THE ARTIST
DRIVE
HANNA
THE SKIN I LIVE IN
THE TREE OF LIFE

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

KENNETH BRANNAGH in MY WEEK WITH MARILYN
ALBERT BROOKS in DRIVE
ARMIE HAMMER in J. EDGAR
BRAD PITT in THE TREE OF LIFE
CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER in BEGINNERS
MAX VON SYDOW in EXTREMELY LOUD AND INCREDIBLY CLOSE

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

JESSICA CHASTAIN in THE TREE OF LIFE
MELISSA MCCARTHY in BRIDESMAIDS
JANET MCCTEER in ALBERT NOBBS
CAREY MULLIGAN in SHAME
OCTAVIA SPENCER in THE HELP
SHAILENE WOODLEY in THE DESCENDANTS


BEST ACTOR

GEORGE CLOONEY in THE DESCENDANTS
JEAN DUJARDIN in THE ARTIST
MICHAEL FASSBENDER in SHAME
GARY OLDMAN in TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY
BRAD PITT in MONEYBALL
MICHAEL SHANNON in TAKE SHELTER

BEST ACTRESS

GLENN CLOSE in ALBERT NOBBS
VIOLA DAVIS in THE HELP
ELIZABETH OLSEN in MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE
MERYL STREEP in THE IRON LADY
TILDA SWINTON in WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN
MICHELLE WILLIAMS in MY WEEK WITH MARILYN

BEST ENSEMBLE

50/50
BRIDESMAIDS
THE HELP
MIDNIGHT IN PARIS
TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

50/50 written by Will Reiser
THE ARTIST written by Michel Hazanavicius
BEGINNERS written by Mike Mills
SHAME written by Abi Morgan and Steve McQueen
TAKE SHELTER written by Jeff Nichols

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

THE DESCENDANTS written by Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon and Jim Rash
DRIVE written by Hossein Amini
MONEYBALL written by Steve Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin
TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY written by Bridget O'Connor and Peter Straughan
WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN written by Lynne Ramsay and Rory Kinnear

BEST FIRST FEATURE

BEAUTIFUL BOY
MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE
PARIAH
SUBMARINE
TYRANNOSAUR

BEST DIRECTOR

MICHEL HAZANAVICIUS for THE ARTIST
STEVE MCQUEEN for SHAME
ALEXANDER PAYNE for THE DESCENDANTS
NICOLAS WINDING REFN for DRIVE
LARS VON TRIER for MELANCHOLIA

BEST PICTURE

THE ARTIST
THE DESCENDANTS
DRIVE
SHAME
THE TREE OF LIFE

Thanks so much for taking the time to read through. Now, comes the hard part ... Choosing the winners!

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THE IRON LADY

THE IRON LADY
Written by Abi Morgan
Directed by Phyllida Lloyd
Starring Meryl Streep, Jim Broadbent and Alexandra Roach


Margaret Thatcher: It used to be about trying to do something. Now it’s about trying to be someone.

In 2009, Margaret Thatcher attended the unveiling of her own portrait as British Prime Minister, held at her former office, London’s 10 Downing Street. Phyllida Lloyd’s THE IRON LADY supposes it knows Thatcher’s frame of mind in the time leading up to this event. The presumption is that Thatcher’s later years are spent mostly in solitude, facing her own mortality and inevitable dementia, whiling away the hours looking back on her life. There is some element of truth to this portrayal (Thatcher’s daughter has mentioned memory loss in the press), but the question is not whether the device is appropriate or not. It isn’t even the doors that it opens that matter most. THE IRON LADY hinges on but one thing - who walks through those doors and how she walks through them.

Meryl Streep, not surprisingly, is THE IRON LADY. Her performance, as Thatcher both during her rise to power in the late 70’s and early 80’s, and during her later years, is so focused and so commanding that she seems at times to be carrying the entire film in a cart behind her with a rope over her shoulder. Not that there aren’t other standout elements of the film, the most notable of which being Jim Broadbent as her deceased husband who has come back to her life through the power of hallucination, but just that Streep’s caliber of talent is clearly in full force as this iconic political figure. It is as though the breadth in Streep’s performance somehow became entwined with Thatcher’s stature as a politician to form a cross-generational super power of feminine strength. Does Lloyd know what to do with this though?

Lloyd does spin the film a little too often in the all too obvious feminist direction unfortunately. Yes, Thatcher was the first female Prime Minister and yes, she had to fight her whole life to be taken seriously in the relentless boy’s club that is the British Parliament. When she likens her struggle as a woman to those of a soldier in battle though, I’m less inclined to take her as seriously as she deserves to be. Abi Morgan’s screenplay, which misses no opportunity to be dramatic, operating in stark contrast to the bare bones work she did on Steve McQueen’s SHAME, pits Thatcher more often against her male detractors and herself, than the very real political issues she faced during her 11 years in office, sometimes glossing over major events. While this may not make for a great biography in then end, it still makes for some fairly compelling drama. And not one moment of Streep’s performance should be missed.

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2011 CAST Awards

Awards season is one of my favourite times of the year but this current season has just been unbelievably busy for me. As a result, I have not been able to dedicate really any time to covering it, thus far. I will certainly be covering the Oscars when they're announced later this month and I will certainly be presenting my own Mouton d'Or awards shortly before that. In the meantime though, I participated again this year in the Cinema Appreciation Society of Toronto year end awards. This essentially involves mostly film bloggers submitting their favourite films from the last year and having those results tabulated by the originator of the idea, Mr. James McNally, from Toronto Screen Shots. Over 40 bloggers participated in the survey and these are the official results ... (Click any highlighted title for the Black Sheep Review.)

FILM TITLE	POINTS	MENTIONS	SEEN
1. Drive	548	31	36
2.The Artist	479	26	29
3. The Tree of Life	460	24	27
4. Attack the Block	386	25	36
5. Take Shelter	376	20	21
6. Midnight in Paris	330	24	31
7. Melancholia	306	19	26
8. Shame	284	19	28
9. Beginners	281	19	24
10. Martha Marcy May Marlene	279	20	24
11. Hanna	235	18	28
12. Café de Flore	207	9	13
13.The Raid	205	12	15
14. Blue Valentine	192	11	30
15. Bridesmaids	185	18	31
16.The Muppets	179	14	25
17. The Illusionist	174	11	22
18. The Descendants	172	11	16
19. Super 8	167	16	31
20. Contagion	167	14	22
21. The Interrupters	167	10	12
22. Tabloid	165	12	20
23. Hugo	162	10	23
24. The Trip	159	14	24
25. Meek’s Cutoff	159	10	18

I have to say that I'm very happy with the final results and not the least bit surprised to see DRIVE in first place. Seven out of the Top 10 films are also on my Top 10 so I can relate to the list. In fact the only title I think has no business anywhere near this list is ATTACK THE BLOCK really. Again though, bloggers thend to be of the geekier variety, or at least the one's in this group anyway, so it isn't a surprise to see it there. The geek factor is also why DRIVE as the best film of the year makes sense to me. All that underground, cult cinema style was bound to win out over everything else.

I was fortunate enough to participate in a podcast discussing the results of the CAST awards and you can link to that podcast here. (The CAST Awards Podcast 2011)

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Black Sheep's Top 10 of 2011!

(Click on any highlighted film title for the original Black Sheep review.
Or any highlighted name for the Black Sheep interview.)

Happy New Year everybody! I always take it easy on New Year's Day and look back at the year that was, in film and in general for my life and career. This year was a fantastic year for film and for my career, as it turns out. The films are coming up a bit later but as for my career, I finally feel this year like a real film critic. I am published regularly in Hour Community in Montreal and in Ottawa Xpress. I have been invited to participate in podcasts and am regularly on the air on CJAD 800 Montreal, the city's leading English language talk radio station. I was once again granted accreditation to cover the Toronto International Film Festival, which not only led to a plethora of amazing interviews, but also allowed me to be within 5 feet of Madonna. We didn't speak. Next time.

I took this. On my phone. She was right there!

My job as a film critic is a freelance one. It does not pay my bills. I have a day job for that. In a bank. The opportunities afforded me in my life are not those of your typical banker, I assure you. One of the greatest perks is getting to sit with and speak to filmmakers I admire a great deal. This year I spoke to people I never imagined I would. I started the year speaking with Oscar nominee, Javier Bardem, about the dark and heartbreaking triumph, BIUTIFUL. I finished the year speaking with Oscar hopeful, Michael Fassbender, about the equally exquisite, SHAME. In between, I also spoke with Morgan Spurlock, Ryan Gosling, Elizabeth Olsen, Gus Van Sant, Matthew McConaughey, Antonio Banderas and the director of this year's Oscar front runner, THE ARTIST, Michel Hazanavicius, amongst many others. I think my favourite interview I did all year was with Mike Mills, about his touching film, BEGINNERS. To speak with him about the very personal story that inspired the film was an honour. He has a beautiful soul and clearly the bravery needed to share it with others so freely.

My interviews have even led to a number of cover features for Hour Community and Ottawa Xpress. Here is a sampling (soon to be found framed on my wall).

You may already be familiar with my Top 10 Films of 2011 list, as it was already published in Hour Community. I still had a few films left to see before the end of the year and thought maybe one of those might change the final results, but alas, no. THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN sure came close but still, no. My Top 10 is a mixed bag of the big and the small, the tragic and the delightful, but most importantly, all ten of these pictures genuinely touched me in one way or another. They are all remarkable achievements in their own rights and it is my pleasure to share them with you.

In alphabetical order ... Here is Black Sheep's Top 10 of 2011!

THE ARTIST

Directed by Michel Hazanavicius

THE ARTIST defies all current rule by adhering to the rules of another era. In doing so, it recaptures an innocence and sense of magic that is sorely lacking from most of today's movies. Seeing it embraced is so wonderful because I know that the warmth I felt watching it is being spread to many unsuspecting and appreciative filmgoers.

BEGINNERS

Directed by Mike Mills

I know I said my interview with Mike Mills was my favourite of the year but I assure you I was in love with BEGINNERS before I met him. His musings about love and history are so whimsical yet they hold an unexpected weight of understanding at the same time. A second viewing simply had me basking in what a special film it is.

BRIDESMAIDS

Directed by Paul Feig

I never expected BRIDESMAIDS to make this list. I laughed when I saw it in theatres but was also torn about how realistically it portrayed the damage that permeates today's dating scene only to reinforce that love saves all in the end. I saw it again some time later. I don't know what kind of mood I was in the first time but this time, I lightened the F up and laughed my A off. My wig is off to Kristin!

THE DESCENDANTS

Directed by Alexander Payne

Alexander Payne's first film in seven years, THE DESCENDANTS, is the stuff Best Picture Oscars are made of. Or at least they should be, in my humble opinion. Payne, with the great help of his talented ensemble, let by the schleppiest George Clooney I've ever seen, has found the perfect balance between Hollywood accessibility and independent heart. It is his finest film.

DRIVE

Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn

Watching DRIVE was one of the most exhilarating experiences I've had at the movie is my life. The trailer itself gave everything away but I had somehow managed to block all of that out before seeing it. This allowed me to soak in every little morsel of Nicolas Winding Refn's genius style and Ryan Gosling's smouldering intensity. It goes from quiet to completely disquieting in no time and it gets my motor running every time I see it.

MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE

Directed by Sean Durkin

Stop balking at the title and see this movie. Sean Durkin, a first time filmmaker has created a truly disturbing experience with MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE. The way he sees the story, in fractured pieces and bizarre but beautiful angles, draws our attention directly to the breakout performance of the year. Elizabeth Olsen is just mind-blowing in this. I could not stop looking at her nor did I want to.

MELANCHOLIA

Directed by Lars von Trier

This is another title I never expected to figure into this list. I have a complicated relationship with Lars von Trier. I am sure I'm not the only one either. All the same, MELANCHOLIA, which some might call his most accessible work to date, is absolutely breathtaking from beginning to end. It is masterful filmmaking and von Trier strikes an incredibly delicate balance between the bleak, the realistic and the unexpected humour that lies in between.

SHAME

Directed by Steve McQueen

I was so moved by Steve McQueen's HUNGER that when I heard he had teamed up with Michael Fassbender again for his second feature about sex addiction, I was naturally very excited. SHAME isn't an easy experience but such are some people's stories. Fassbender's Brandon has a story some would scoff at but McQueen makes his addiction completely understandable. The fact that he does so without truly diving into Brandon's past is a compliment to Fassbender's incredible depth.

THE TREE OF LIFE

Directed by Terrence Malick

This year is full of surprises. Never have I seen a more polarizing film experience and when I first saw THE TREE OF LIFE, I fully understood both sides. It wasn't until a second viewing that I let the side of me that loved this film take full control and just let it rush over me. Not only is it the most gorgeous looking and sounding film I've seen all year but it is, in the right light, a beautiful poem of epic proportion. Oh, and it also gave us Jessica Chastain. For that reason alone! 

(I reviewed the film twice. The links above are to my most recent review. Click here to read the original review.)

WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN

Directed by Lynne Ramsay

I always have a hard time finding the words to describe WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN. I definitely need to see it a second time before I can fully appreciate its beauty and depth. In the meantime though, I know how it made me feel, how it sucked me in and really kept me there throughout the film, wondering what had happened and why. Tilda Swinton does it again. That woman knows from cold.

TIFF Take 2 for me! Always unbelievable.

And that's 10, in case you lost count. Thanks for all your support this past year, with your sharing on Facebook and your tweeting and retweeting, and with just your reading of my work in general. I am truly grateful. Soon it will be your turn to tell me your favourites of the year for the Black Sheep Reviews Readers Choice Mouton d'Or Award so keep an eye out for that. The full Mouton d'Or Award nominations will be announced on January 22. In the meantime, I wish you all great success in 2012!

I leave you with a list of five more excellent films from 2011 that didn't quite make the Top 10. They do deserve honourable mention though.

50/50

Directed by Jonathan Levine

PARIAH

Directed by Dee Rees

TAKE SHELTER

Directed by Jeff Nichols

TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY

Directed by Tomas Alfredson

TYRANNOSAUR

Directed by Paddy Considine

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Black Sheep interviews Michael Fassbender

AIN'T NO SHAME
An interview with SHAME star, Michael Fassbender.

It can be a bit jarring to go from watching an actor on screen one minute to seeing them sitting directly in front of you the next. It can even be somewhat awkward when you’ve just watched said actor engage in a multitude of sexually explicit encounters on film. When the actor you’re speaking with though is as effortlessly talented as Michael Fassbender is, you quickly realize there is no shame in it at all.

In SHAME, British filmmaker, Steve McQueen’s sophomore effort, Fassbender is naked within minutes of the film starting, so it seems only fitting to begin our conversation there as well. “It’s kinda embarrassing,” says the actor who has nothing at all to be embarrassed about. At this point, I laugh out loud and when Fassbender realizes I’m shocked that he was the least bit shy given how good he looks, he jokes, “Oh I see. You were having a gay old time then.” On that note, the Irish-German actor is quite the charmer, even when fully clothed.

The 34-year-old Fassbender plays Brandon in SHAME, a sex addict living in New York City. It would seem to me that if you’re going to tell a sex addict’s story on film, you’re going to need to see a little sex happen but some people, let’s call them the more conservative film critics out there, have argued that Shame not only goes too far but that it relishes in its boundary pushing. “It’s ludicrous to me,” Fassbender explains, with only a hint of outrage. “You can take someone’s head off with a cheese cutter but heaven forbid should you show a penis.”

As much as it is about sex, SHAME isn’t really about sex at all; it’s about a person with an addiction. Brandon isn’t the easiest character to like either. He uses women whenever required and he is horribly unsupportive to his sister, Sissy (Carey Mulligan), but Fassbender was never concerned people wouldn’t come around to him. “I knew people were going to like him because I liked him, because he was a guy that knew he was ill. He is a product of our time.”

Despite Brandon’s timeliness, the Motion Picture Association of America has slapped an NC-17 rating on the film, which prohibits anyone under 18 years of age from seeing it, regardless of whether they are accompanied by an adult or not. Ordinarily, this rating means box office death but SHAME wears its badge proudly and is doing well in limited release despite it. “It can be a good thing,” Fassbender says of the rating. “The most important thing is to get people talking about it. That creates curiosity and it only seems to put more bums in the seats in the end.”

While Fassbender does see the controversy as a roundabout marketing push, he does not agree with the scrutiny itself. “Whatever rating people want to slap on it is kinda irrelevant. The fact is that I felt comfortable doing the scenes with Steve because I knew that it wouldn’t be exploitative. It’s real. It’s part of the story. It’s part of getting inside this guy’s head and where he’s coming from.”

A few cuts to the film could have brought the rating down to an R, to which Fassbender responds, “Good luck trying to convince Steve McQueen on that!” Fassbender and McQueen had previously worked together on McQueen’s debut feature, HUNGER, a 2008 film about the 1981 Irish Republican Army hunger strike, as led by Bobby Sands, whom Fassbender portrays in the film. (Incidentally, the two are scheduled to work together again on McQueen’s third feature, TWELVE YEARS A SLAVE, expected in 2014.) “He’s the only person I could have asked to do this,” McQueen tells me about casting Fassbender in SHAME. “I don’t believe he’s an actor. He doesn’t act. What he does is a different thing altogether.”

Whatever it is he does, Fassbender will be doing it for quite some time if he keeps up this pace. Upcoming projects for the Best Actor Oscar frontrunner include work with some of today’s most famed directors, from David Cronenberg (A DANGEROUS METHOD) to Steven Soderbergh (HAYWIRE) to Ridley Scott (PROMETHEUS), which is exactly where Fassbender wants his career to be. “The way it is at the moment is pretty perfect for me. I get to work with great filmmakers and that’s as simple as it gets. I just want to mix it up and keep myself guessing.”

And it would be an awful shame if he weren't allowed to continue doing just that.

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Black Sheep's TIFF11 Review

Officially, it has been eleven days since TIFF sucked me into its unique brand of vortex but I've been dedicating my time to the festival for what seems like weeks now. I caught my first pre-TIFF screening on  August 16 and finish today with my 35th and final film. Sure there is a lot of time in a month to see 35 films but more than 20 of them were in the last 10 days alone. Factor in all the writing, all the interviews and all the running around too and it is easy to see why some in the industry describe this festival as an endurance test.

I know a few people in the biz here and there but, for the most part, I keep to myself. I hear things though. I hear other journalists who have been doing this way longer than I have talk about how happy they are that its ending, complaining about everything from the free food to the films themselves. And while TIFF seems like such a burden for them, its like Christmas for me. Sure, its easy for even me to complain when I have six interviews in a day and not one of them seems to start on time, but I am always grateful for the amazing opportunities being part of this festival affords me.

Meeting Roger Ebert at big book signing

This year, I did three times as many interviews as I did last year. I met with filmmakers I admire a great deal, including Gus Van Sant, Steve McQueen and Jean-Marc Vallee. I interviewed actors I love to watch, including Ryan Gosling, Michael Fassbender and Matthew Goode. I met the reigning king of all film criticism, Roger Ebert. I even stood three feet away from the biggest artistic inspiration of my life, Madonna, on her red carpet for W.E.. Sure, I never got to fit in A DANGEROUS METHOD into my schedule and my Jessica Chastain interview was canned at the last second but that's TIFF. You can plan as much as you want, and I assure you I did a great deal of advance planning this time around, but something will always change. You just have to ride it out, wherever it takes you. And if you just sink into the journey, you will have plenty of time to appreciate it.

I took this at the W.E. red carpet. I was shaking a lot.

And now, I would like to run down my 10 favourite TIFF11 films and five least enjoyed, beginning with the latter. (Click any linked film title for the full Black Sheep Review.)


TOP 5 WORST TIFF11 FILMS I SAW
(in alphabetical order)

ANONYMOUS
Directed by Roland Emmerich
Mr. Emmerich tries to break away from the genre he is famous for with this period melodrama about the authenticity of Shakespeare's work but only ends up making yet another disaster movie.

BUTTER
Directed by Jim Field Smith
Any hope of this Jennifer Garner political satire having any bite whatsoever melts away in the first ten minutes. Though the subject is butter carving, this film never takes proper shape.

LIKE CRAZY
Directed by Drake Doremus
This movie about two young people in love and trying to make it work with an ocean between them should have been called "Like Tedious and Insipid".

TAKE THIS WALTZ
Directed by Sarah Polley
I know a great deal of people who loved this movie about a woman torn between two men but I never really saw why other man (Seth Rogen, Luke Kirby) would want the woman (Michelle Williams) in the first place.

TRESPASS
Directed by Joel Schumacher
First of all, Mr. Schumacher has no business at TIFF to begin with. This was the funniest film I saw at TIFF and it's supposed to be a hostage thriller.

Mia Wasikowska and Glenn Close in Albert Nobbs

TOP 10 TIFF11 FILMS I SAW
(in alphabetical order)

50/50
Directed by Jonathan Levine
It'd billed as a cancer comedy but, as I've now told everyone I know, I cried five times watching this. The fantastic cast, led by Joseph Gordon Levitt, make this a must see fall film.

ALBERT NOBBS
Directed by Rodrigo Garcia
Glenn Close gives the performance of her career as a male butler in this fascinating period drama about gender identification and sexuality. She is a shoe-in for an Oscar nod and I hope the film picks up a few more for itself too.

THE ARTIST
Directed Michel Hazanavicius
Everything you've heard about this enchanting black and white, silent film is true. It is a simply told and brilliantly executed celebration of the cinema. You cannot help but feel happy when you see it.

THE DESCENDANTS
Directed by Alexander Payne
I love Hollywood storytelling when it's done right, with heart and intelligence. This George Clooney vehicle is an incredibly unique tale that reminds us that we never know what will happen in our lives that will bring us closer to ourselves and the one's we love.

DRIVE
Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn
I feel like people are all Drive'd out at this point but I personally want to see this movie again and again. It has an energy and tone to it that you don't often see come out of Hollywood. In time, this will be a cult classic.

Tilda Swinton in We Need to Talk about Kevin

MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE
Directed by Sean Durkin
This was the first film I saw for TIFF this year and it remains one of the most disturbing experiences I had throughout the entire festival. Elizabeth Olsen is incredible in her debut and I hope she is able to hold the momentum she has started until she earns an Oscar nod for this.

MELANCHOLIA
Directed by Lars von Trier
I'm not ordinarily a huge fan of this man's work but I was fully absorbed by Lars von Trier's fascinating and visually stunning contemplation on depression set against the end of the world. Somehow, despite its subject matter, it still manages to be amusing.

SHAME
Directed by Steve McQueen
Michael Fassbender will pick up his first Oscar nomination for this incredibly honest look at sexual addiction. Audiences have been somewhat polarized on this but that often tends to happen when the mirror is held up to them with such strength.

TYRANNOSAUR
Directed by Paddy Considine

Actor turned director, Paddy Considine, has written a tale of two people struggling with the misery that has consumed their lives. To say it is dark would be a grand understatement but if you can find the hope in the film, it will move you significantly.

WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN
Directed by Lynne Ramsay
This is by far one of the most striking and colourful films I saw this year. Tilda Swinton is unbelievable as a mother grappling with the love she feels for her sociopathic son. Bloody brilliant.

That's me with my pass! Always an honour.

I want to thank everyone that made TIFF11 possible for me. First of all, my editors at Hour Community and Ottawa Xpress for sending me. My boss at the bank for giving me the time off to pursue my passion. All the great PR people at Alliance, StarPR, AMPR, Fox Searchlight, Sony and eOne for all their assistance with booking advance screenings and interviews. And of course I need to thank my readers and fellow film enthusiasts for keeping the conversations going on the site, on Twitter and in person during the festival.

TIFF brings film fans from all over the world to Toronto and it is a pleasure to share this experience with everyone who truly appreciates just how rare and amazing it is. I am truly blessed to have had this opportunity for a second year and hope it comes around again next year. Thank you again for all your support and until then, Happy TIFF!

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