TIFF Tribute Awards presser: How Denis Villeneuve learned to love streaming, and other pandemic epiphanies
By Linda Barnard
The Eyes of Tammy Faye star Jessica Chastain has made so many movies in Canada — six in Toronto; two in Montreal — she says, “I kind of feel I’m Canadian, if you guys will have me.”
There were multiple examples of how art seeps into life as six of the seven recipients of the TIFF Tribute Awards met onstage Saturday morning in Toronto for a press conference ahead of the Sept. 18 awards show (which will be broadcast on CTV and streaming on the CTV app).
The TIFF People’s Choice Award winner, often a predictor of an Oscar Best Picture nominee or winner, will also be announced during the show.
Denis Villeneuve, seen with Javier Bardem on the set of Dune, now says, “Go ahead and stream.”
Cases in point: Benedict Cumberbatch, who plays a rancher onscreen in Jane Campion’s drama The Power of the Dog, can now herd cows in real life. And Dune director Denis Villeneuve admitted that, although he’s a vocal booster of big-screen movie experiences, lockdown turned him into a streaming fan.
“We talk a lot about my love for the big screen, but I also love streaming. That’s the truth. I use it and it saved my life,” said Villeneuve, who added a shout-out to the Criterion Channel.
Andrew Garfield and Jessica Chastain in The Eyes of Tammy Faye.
Multi-Grammy winning singer Dionne Warwick, subject of the doc Dionne Warwick: Don't Make Me Over (which had its world premiere at TIFF Saturday), said she’d spent much of her lockdown time binging two series.
“One happened to be with this young man,” she said, smiling at Cumberbatch. “Sherlock Holmes.”
Chastain reported, “I watched Moonstruck, like, four times.”
Australian cinematographer Ari Wegner (The Power of the Dog), recipient of the TIFF Variety Artisan Award, joined in virtually from Dublin where’s she’s shooting director Sebastián Lelio’s adaptation of The Wonder from the novel by Irish-Canadian writer Emma Donoghue (Room).
PROUDLY SUPPORTS ORIGINAL-CIN
This year’s honourees include Chastain (TIFF Tribute Actor Award), Cumberbatch (TIFF Tribute Actor Award), Villeneuve (TIFF Ebert Director Award), Warwick (TIFF Special Tribute Award), legendary Indigenous writer-documentarian Alanis Obomsawin (Jeff Skoll Award in Impact Media) and Cree-Métis filmmaker Danis Goulet (TIFF Emerging Talent Award).
Seeing the recipients onstage was a big change from last year, when we got a look into how the famous live when everything was streamed from their homes during lockdown. Because I am covering TIFF remotely again this year, I was one step removed and live-streaming the press conference.
Several past TIFF Tribute Award recipients have gone on to win Oscars, including director Chloé Zhao (Nomadland), Anthony Hopkins (The Father) and filmmaker Taika Waititi (Jojo Rabbit). The awards are TIFF’s largest annual fundraiser, supporting year-round programing and TIFF’s new diversity, equity and inclusion initiative, the Every Story Fund.
Goulet said it felt like a homecoming to be in a theatre to see her dystopian dramatic thriller Night Raiders make its world premiere at TIFF Friday evening.
“Last night was huge. It was really emotional,” she said.
Chastain reflected on being at TIFF for the first time 10 years ago near the beginning of her film career, when Take Shelter was at the festival. It was one of six movies released that year starring Chastain.
“It’s wonderful to look back at it now because at the time, I felt a lot of anxiety, because I was getting so much attention so soon,” Chastain said.
“It felt immediately like my life changed. There was no slow, gradual entry for me,” she said, shuddering when she recalled the “death sentence as an actress” upon being the dubbed “the ‘it’ girl.”
Being at TIFF21 with The Eyes of Tammy Faye (premiering Sunday) which she stars in and also produced, marks an exciting new step in her career, Chastain said.
Prolific filmmaker Obomsawin, who has made 53 films over 54 years, spoke about her preferred method of interviewing subjects with the camera off, so she can truly listen to their stories.
“For me, it’s sacred to listen,” she said.
Obomsawin told several moving stories, including sharing a powerful memory of her childhood belief that, when she heard people talking about going to the movies, she thought “movie” was another town or country.
Cumberbatch said he went to cowboy boot camp in both Montana and New Zealand to prepare to play manipulative and secretive rancher Phil in Jane Campion’s period western, The Power of the Dog.
“That was very instructive to be in that landscape, to be near, and working with, animals and also horse riding. Being part of ranch life, and the rituals, was extremely important,” Cumberbatch said.
It clearly stayed with him. On a summer holiday on the Isle of Wight in England, Cumberbatch came across some tourists too scared to cross a field of cows and their new calves to get to the beach.
“I just went, I know what to do!” said Cumberbatch adopting his character’s American accent. “I just started herding the cow on the way. So yeah, that skill stuck as well.”