Can I Get a Witness? and Sugarcane join B.C. winners at Vancouver Film Critics Circle Awards
A Real Pain’s Jesse Eisenberg and Anora’s Sean Baker among international award-winners to send in acceptance videos for event at VIFF Centre
Can I Get a Witness? star Keira Jang at the VFCC Awards at the VIFF Centre.
Julian Brave NoiseCat in Sugarcane.
THE POST-APOCALYPTIC B.C. drama Can I Get a Witness? was one of the winners in the Canadian categories last night at the 25th annual Vancouver Film Critics Circle awards at VIFF Centre. It took Best BC Director and Best BC Film prizes, with Ann Marie Fleming also winning the overall Canadian prize for Best Director, Sandra Oh winning Supporting Female Actor, and lead Keira Jang on hand to accept the Telefilm-sponsored One to Watch award. In a video acceptance, Fleming paid tribute to late producer Tracey Friesen, who dedicated her work to environmental justice—a central theme of Can I Get a Witness?.
Writer, filmmaker, and student of Salish art and history Julian Brave NoiseCat was also in attendance to receive the Best Documentary award for Sugarcane, which he directed with Emily Kassie. NoiseCat heads to Los Angeles this weekend to attend the Academy Awards, where the film is nominated for the best documentary feature Oscar. Sugarcane interweaves the dark legacy of a Williams Lake residential school with NoiseCat’s own journey to reconcile with his father; when Stir reviewed it, we called it “among the most important films made on the subject to date”. In his acceptance speech, the filmmaker, who’s made history as the first North American Indigenous filmmaker nominated for an Oscar, expressed the need for nuance in the discussion of Indigenous intergenerational trauma.
My Old Ass, a coming-of-age movie set in Ontario cottage country, collected three Canadian wins at the VFCC Awards. The film won Best Picture, as well as a Best Canadian Screenplay nod for Megan Park and Best Female Actor prize for Maisy Stella.
Amid the other national prizes, Matt Johnson won for Best Male Actor in Matt and Mara and Patrick J. Adams won the nod for Best Supporting Male Actor in Young Werther.
The night stood out for all the big-name Hollywood talent that sent acceptance speeches to the VFCC via video. Among them was Sean Baker, director of Anora—the story of a sex worker caught up in breathless ride through high-end strip clubs, Coney Island candy shops, and tricked-out mansions—which emerged as the Best Picture winner. Ahead of the film’s Oscar contention on Sunday, Baker, a former regular at VIFF Centre, expressed his deep love of B.C. and appreciation for VFCC’s recognition of Anora’s lead Mikey Madison as Best Female Actor in the international category.
Writer-director Jesse Eisenberg also sent a message accepting his prize for A Real Pain’s win for Best Screenplay: “The last time I was in Vancouver was the week of the pandemic, so it’s the last place that I didn’t feel paranoid,” the star quipped. His dramedy about two cousins who reconnect while retracing their grandmother’s Holocaust journey also won Best Supporting Male Actor (Kieran Culkin). Denis Villeneuve, who won Best Director for Dune: Part Two, also sent his regards to the VFCC, recalling it had given him the same prize for his first installment.
Amid the other international honours, No Other Land collected the top international documentary prize; it screens at VIFF Centre February 21 to 25. Made over five years, the harrowing vérité film by a Palestinian–Israeli collective explores the fallout from occupation of the West Bank.
Elsewhere, A Complete Unknown took Best Male Actor (Timothée Chalamet), while The Substance’s Margaret Qualley won Best Supporting Female Actor. Flow triumphed in the competitive Best International Film in Non-English Language category. 
Related Articles
