Last week, a Cobourg woman won a best acting award, at a horror film festival in the United States.
Camille Stopps won the Best Actress Feature film award, for her work in the independent horror film, Alive, presented at the Nightmares Film Festival, in Columbus, Ohio. The festival promotes the horror film-making genre and celebrates the rarest, scariest, most daring and most unsettling films being created around the world.
Alive is the latest horror film from Director, Rob Grant and screenwriters Chuck McCue, and Jules Vincent. The film was shot in Calgary, Alberta. The story is about a severely injured man and woman who awake in an abandoned sanitarium only to discover that a sadistic caretaker holds the keys to their freedom and the horrific answers as to their real identity. The film recently was presented at the Calgary International Film Festival, Filmfest (Utah), and the UK Manchester Grimmfest film festival. Upcoming entries include, Blood in the Snow Canadian Film Festival, Toronto (November 22-27).
To date, reviewers have recognized the film for the strength of its acting. At the film’s US debut, film reviewer Michael Klug (September 8, 2018) said, “[Stopps] … gets amazing mileage out of the confusion of the situation. I don’t think there was one moment where she wasn’t moist-eyed, tears running down her face”. In a recent interview, Director Rob Grant said, “I met Camille at the Canadian Film Centre when we were paired up for a short film exercise … the setting and topic was unpleasant, I learned then that Camille wasn’t afraid to go to dark places [in her acting]. So when I needed to fill the female lead, I knew Camille could step up to the plate. In a project that was so physically and mentally exhausting, the villian constantly manipulating them, Camille took the brunt of it, and she wore every frame of it throughout the movie to great effect. She trusted me to push her through those dark places and still came out excited at the end of each day, so [it is] very rewarding for me as a director for her performance to get the recognition it deserves.”
Also receiving reviews, for strong performances, were costars Angus Macfadyen (who costarred in the 1995 movie, Braveheart) and Thomas Cocquerel (who acted in the 2017 movie Table 19). When asked about acting relationships on set, Ms. Stopps said, “Working with Tom and Angus was a riot. Because the characters have to go through such emotionally raw and taxing experiences on-screen, it was necessary to balance that somehow, and that came out through in a lot of laughter and fun off screen.”
Ms. Stopps is a versatile actor with past roles in film, television and commercials, and is
represented in both Toronto and Los Angeles. Past television work includes Murdoch
Mysteries, Reign and two seasons of the APTN comedy series Guilt Free Zone. Ms. Stopps
film work includes Learning to Ride (2014), Home In Time (2018), and Beginner’s Luck
(2018). Current work has seen Ms. Stopps shooting in Cuba, Calgary, and Newfoundland.
Camille Stopps graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Ryerson University’s, Theatre: Performance Dance program; and later attended Norman Jewison’s Actor’s Conservatory program at the Canadian Film Centre, also in Toronto. She grew up in Cobourg, where she attended the former CDCI West; studied dance at High Pointes Dance Academy, and as a teenager had lead roles with the Northumberland Players.
You can follow her career through Instagram (@camillestopps) and Facebook (Camille Stopps).
Author: Pete Fisher
Has been a photojournalist for over 30-years and have been honoured to win numerous awards for photography and writing over the years. Best selling author for the book Highway of Heroes - True Patriot Love
