By Cecilia Nasmith/Today’s Northumberland
Film Access Northumberland and the Eye2Eye Film Festival have reported on the wrap-up of a weekend of award-winning films and performances – including local filmmaker Adrienne Eagleson winning the inaugural Bob Johnston Memorial Award for her film short A Lifetime of Love.
Eagleson also won one of two Film Forward Awards, the other going to international filmmakers Gwendal Le Glatin and Cassiel Roba for Friends of Chivirico, Coming Together.
Sunday’s closing-night gala at which these awards were presented in Cobourg’s Victoria Hall included another special offering – an in-person conversation with Executive Producer Bill House and Director Moze Mossanen, joined via live-stream by residents of Gander, Newfoundland, and their American friends featured in the film You Are Here: A Come From Away Story (a session moderated by celebrity host Teri Hart).
“What a weekend it’s been!” Festival Director Mark Johnston declared, enumerating some of the highlights. In addition to award-winning films, these include performances by local singer-songwriter Shannon Linton during the Mamma Mia sing-along screening, presentations by poets Jessica Outram, Wally Keeler and Ted Amsden, and a special Master Class with award-winning Casting Director Ron Leach.
This year’s theme was What Unites Us, and Johnston said no more fitting film could have been chosen to conclude the festival than You Are Here: A Come From Away Story.
“I was thrilled to have presented the inaugural Bob Johnston Memorial Award, honouring my late brother, to local filmmaker Adrienne Eagleson,” he added.
Presentation of this and the Film Forward Awards was adjudicated by an independent panel of judges that included Jane Gutteridge (a 45-year veteran of the film industry and Head of English Marketing and Distribution for the National Film Board) and Ron Leach (multiple-award-winning Casting Director, Acting Coach and Director).
The panel released statements on their choices.
“A Lifetime of Love is a charmingly original and unpretentious film that reveals the filmmaker’s remarkable potential for growth in the Canadian film industry,” one said.
The other statement described Friends of Chivirico, Coming Together as “a gently dignified, beautifully rendered film that presents its story with authenticity and deep respect…both visually stunning and tremendously moving.”
Other short-listed films included local filmmaker Winnifred Jong’s The Offer and Stanley Papulkas’s Hiway 13.
Along with the Mamma Mia sing-along, other featured films at the festival included Waiting For Guffman, Short Term 12, Human Flow, India In A Day and Summertime, as well as the short films Now Is The Time, Hardwood, Inner Rush, Blue Rodeo: Toe Heel Toe Heel, Five Stories, A Short Film About Tegan And Sara, Easter Eggs, Into Light, Lights For Gita, The Storm, Pysanky, Starhunters, God of Love, Roberto and School By The Sea.
Eye2Eye Programming Committee members are Leslie Benson, Graham Beer, Dave Black, Kristiane Black, Sarah Cleveland, Clark Harrop, Cathie Houston, Micol Marotti, Ross Pigeau, Alaria Ritchie, Richard Stoltenberg, Sharon Wharram Spry and Chris Worsnop.
Film Access Northumberland Chair Ross Pigeau extended the organization’s thanks to the judges’ panel and its congratulations to the winners, “who we know will be rising stars in the film industry.
“The 2022 edition of the Eye2Eye International Film Festival marked a year of growth and program development for our organization. We would like to thank the Eye2Eye Programming Committee members, led by Festival Director Mark Johnston, for their commitment to promoting FAN’s goals of connecting our audiences.
“We thank our community of sponsors, donors and area businesses who continue to support the arts in our community, and our wonderful Northumberland audiences. We hope that everyone will join us for the 2023 edition under the theme With Open Arms.”
