Windsor International Film Fest: Sometimes an Oscar Predictor, Sometimes Just a Good Time

By Chris Knight

A funny thing happened on the film fest circuit last year.

First, the Toronto International Film Festival - which prides itself on being an Oscars bellwether - gave Mike Flanagan’s The Life of Chuck its People’s Choice Award. Yet the film did not even open until the following summer, and is not expected to receive much Academy love at the next Oscars, charming though it is.

Then, a few weeks after TIFF, the 20th-anniversary Windsor International Film Festival (WIFF) crowned its own People’s Choice winner.

The good people of Rose City picked Anora. It went on to win five Oscars, including best picture, best director (Sean Baker), best actress (Mikey Madison), best original screenplay and best film editing.

Had Toronto lost its prognosticating prowess to a city at the unfashionable western end of the 401? Had Hollywood North been bested by “South Detroit?”

A scene from Montreal, My Beautiful

Maybe. Although as a critic who this year attended his second Windsor film fest, I can attest that the stalwart organizers and many volunteers, from executive director and chief programmer Vincent Georgie on down, are not caught up in creating Oscar buzz.

The mood they espouse is more along the lines of: “Have a good time and welcome all comers.”
Sure, the website rattles off key values like integrity, education and sustainability. But you HAVE to say those words. Scratch the surface and you’ll also find homey hospitality, a robust love of movies (including a stellar lineup of French-Canadian fare) and some of the best chatter in the lines this side of — well, TIFF.

And all in a less expensive, more accessible package. You can mosey from the Capitol (a movie house since 1920) to the Armouries — a Victorian-era weapons storehouse, now part of the University of Windsor — and then to the 1,100-seat Chrysler Theatre in under five minutes, with no traffic jams to contend with.
This year’s event ran from October 23 to November 2 with a lineup of 231 features — 18 more than last year, and more than a quarter of them French-language — from 50 countries.

I only managed to catch five, but what a bunch! Tuner, with a fantastic performance by Leo Woodall, is a gripping crime-drama-music-romance-thriller. (Yes, it’s all those things.)

Take the Money and Run is a strange Danish documentary about an artist who accepted a grant, kept the cash and delivered two empty picture frames. Was it art — or just theft?

No Other Choice (which also played TIFF) is Park Chan-wook’s bonkers tale of an unemployed paper manufacturing manager who concocts a hare-brained scheme to find a new job.Then there was Two Women, a racy modern sex comedy from Quebec, based on another film of the same name from 1970. And The Cost of Heaven, from Quebec director Mathieu Denis, is a morally twisty tale about a man trying to keep his head above bankruptcy.

Those last two were among the 10 nominees for the WIFF Prize in Canadian Film, a list that also included Peak Everything (a real charmer I caught at TIFF) and the documentaries The Pitch and Shamed. This year’s $25,000 prize — and a hefty trophy that the director in her excitement almost forgot to collect — went to Montreal, My Beautiful (which also won the RBC Best Canadian Film Award at the Toronto Reel Asian festival this week).

Writer/director Xiaodan He tells the story of a 53-year-old Chinese immigrant and mother who meets a spirited young woman and embarks on a journey of self-discovery. I didn’t manage to catch it myself so I’ll let the jury speak to it.

“From the first scene, where a mother must rely on her daughter to translate the most vulnerable details of her own body, to its devastatingly elegant finale where she reclaims her voice, this film unfolds with a quiet confidence and emotional clarity that took our breath away,” the jury said in awarding the prize.

“Joan Chen gives a performance of extraordinary restraint and depth, embodying a woman whose complexity feels utterly lived in. With tenderness, humour, and fearless honesty, the film offers a love story that feels both timeless and new — one that resists familiar tropes in its portrayals of race, gender, and the immigrant experience.”'

Festival head Vincent Georgie called the film “a heartfelt exploration of identity, culture, and human connection,” adding: “This award celebrates not only Xiaodan’s exceptional talent but also the vitality of Canadian cinema that continues to inspire audiences everywhere.”

I’d be remiss if a didn’t give a shout-out to Milos Savic, the Serbian-Canadian media artist who put together this year’s WIFF montage. Preceding each screening, the short, snappy video is composed of images from all the festival’s films.

Maria Cusumano has been the editor of the montage for the past decade but handed the reins over to the equally talented Savic, who had the pleasure of hearing audience applause before the feature even began — for his moving creation!

Unable to leave the Windsor scene entirely, Cusumano pivoted to 3D graphics work, creating intros to special screenings, as well as a cheeky, 2001: A Space Odyssey-themed short that reminded viewers to vote for the annual LiUNA People’s Choice award.

All of which brings us to this year’s TIFF/WIFF People’s Choice matchup. The Toronto festival handed its prize to Hamnet, Chloé Zhao’s moving tale of William Shakespeare, his wife, and their three children, one of whom died young.

The Windsor International Film Festival chose Mr. Goalie, an American documentary whose subject is Glenn Hall. Born in Humboldt, Sask., in 1931, Hall played for the Windsor Spitfires and the Detroit Red Wings among other teams. He holds the NHL record for most consecutive games in goal — at 502, almost twice as many as the next runner-up — and earned the nickname "Mr. Goalie” for, among other things, developing the butterfly style of goalkeeping.

Will “Mr. Goalie” follow Anora, last year’s LiUNA People’s Choice Award, to Oscar fame and glory?

It doesn’t seem likely. But with the blessing of Windsor, a little festival that punches above its weight, anything is possible.