Michelle Chong’s Best Director win at the Canada International Film Festival 2017 has come under fire for not being as prestigious as it sounds.
A report about questionable film festivals by Indie Wire, a film industry and review website, stated that the Canada International Film Festival was bought by a Las Vegas venture capitalist, along with the Nevada Film Festival, Honolulu Film Awards, and Mountain Film Festival.
More intriguingly, the report stated that these festivals were up for sale. Anyone could buy these festivals for a “price in thousands” and hold their own film festival. The report stated that latter two festivals were sold off.
(Edit: That report has since been deleted, but was previously available at http://www.indiewire.com/2013/01/an-iw-investigation-the-dark-underbelly-of-the-festival-circuit-part-2-241632/.)
Canada International Film Festival
The website of the Canada International Film Festival states that the event was held at the Edgewater Casino in Vancouver from 2009 to 2016. However, it has since transited to “an awards based, online film and screenplay competition” from 2017 onwards.
Its Facebook Page has event photos from the 2010 to 2016, but none in 2017.
The Canada International Film Festival is headed by festival director William Young, although there is no information listed about him on the website. There is also no information about the jurors at the event.
It appears that the Canada International Film Festival may have changed hands and direction this year, but it may have been a more reputable festival in previous years.
Yahoo Singapore reached out to Huat Films, the company that distributed “Lulu the Movie”, but they have not responded.
Cinematography in “Lulu the Movie”
Cinematography usually plays a big part in “Best Director” awards.
For this movie reviewer, the cinematography in “Lulu the Movie” did not immediately come across as particularly spectacular. A good portion of the film also consists of Michelle Chong in her “Lulu” persona doing interviews overseas.
Given that these interviews are ostensibly do not look staged and hence, would not have required as much direction as the dramatic portions of the film, it would appear that the award for directing would only have taken into account the narrative parts of the film.
Directing and acting — a tough act to balance
Ms Lee, a veteran director of 11 years for televisions shows such as “Police and Thief” and “The 5 Show”, shared her experiences about directing.
“Being a director, it is already quite challenging to comment on and judge the performances of your talents. To have to act and direct at the same time would require a lot of detachment.”
The 42-year-old said “As an actor, you have to immerse yourself in the character you are playing. But as a director, you have to be objective when it comes to directing a scene. I can only imagine how difficult it would be to have to be in character one minute, but have to critique that performance the next.”
However, acting and directing in the same production is not an impossible task.
Successful actor-directors
Ben Affleck is an example of an actor-director who juggled both roles magnificently. 2012’s “Argo” saw Affleck directing and starring as Tony Mendez, the title character. It won Best Picture at the 85th Academy Awards.
Quentin Tarantino is another actor-director who has starred in films he has directed, though his roles were not as major as Affleck’s in “Argo”.
Perhaps the most famous example would be Clint Eastwood, who has starred in major roles in many of the films he has directed. The most recent film where he directed and played the main character was “Gran Torino”, which was a critical and commercial success.
What’s the verdict?
While the Canada International Film Festival may have taken a drastically different direction in 2017, that does not mean it was not a legitimate film festival before that, which would be when “Lulu the Movie” was submitted for the awards.
Chong’s Best Director award for a film where she was also playing in the lead role should likewise be recognised.
But as they say, once is never, twice is always.
If Chong can replicate her success in the next film she acts and directs in, it will be indisputable evidence that she’s indeed able to perform well on both sides of the camera.
This review was written for and first published on Yahoo Singapore.
Marcus Goh is a Singapore television scriptwriter, having written for Police & Thief, Incredible Tales, Crimewatch, and Point of Entry. He’s also a Transformers enthusiast and avid pop culture scholar. You can find him on social media as Optimarcus and on his site.
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Whether it is a big or small festival, they still gave the Best Director award to Michelle Chong, a filmmaker in Singapore, and for that we are honoured,” said Diana Foo, spokesperson for Huat Films.