The Whistleblower, directed by Larysa Kondracki won the $15,000 Borsos Competition for Best New Canadian Feature Film at the tenth annual Whistler Film Festival. The film, which had its Western Canadian premiere at the festival and stars Academy Award-winners Rachel Weisz and Vanessa Redgrave, is based on the true story of a Nebraskan police officer who takes a job working for the United Nations as a peacekeeper in post-war Bosnia.
The other 2010 Borsos Competition finalists were: Jacob Tierney’s Good Neighbours (Western Canadian Premiere), Bruce McDonald’s Hard Core Logo II (World Premiere), Maxime Giroux’s Jo Pour Jonathan (English Canadian Premiere), and Ed Gass-Donnelly’s Small Town Murder Songs (BC Premiere), and Michael Greenspan’s Wrecked.
Attenberg (dir: Athina Rachel Tsangari) won Whistler’s first ever $10,000 New Voices International Feature Competition. The film, which is from Greece and had its Western Canadian premiere at the fest, is about a dying architect and his emotionally stunted daughter who inhabit the remains of a once booming industrial community in the middle of nowhere.
The other 2010 films in the competition included Derek Cianfrance’s Blue Valentine (Western Canadian Premiere), Mike Goldbach’s Daydream Nation (BC Premiere), Mikkel Munch-Fals’ Nothing’s All Bad (Canadian Premiere), Baran bo Odar’s The Silence (North American Premiere), and Daniel Cockburn’s You Are Here (Western Canadian Premiere).
The jury unanimously recognized MARWENCOL for “its intimate portrait of an artist who lives between fantasy and reality and whose miniaturized world magnifies our own.” The film directed by Jeff Malmberg, was awarded the $2,500 Best Documentary Award.
2010 Whistler Film Festival Winners
Borsos Competition for Best New Canadian Feature Film – The Whistleblower
Borsos Competition Best Actor – Rafael Lacaille in Jo for Jonathan
Borsos Competition Best Actress – Martha Plimpton for Small Town Murder Songs
New Voices International Feature – Attenberg
Best Documentary – Marwencol
Best Mountain Culture Film – 2 Frogs in the West
Best Shortwork – Via Gori
Best Student Shortwork – Irradiate
MPPIA Short Film Award – Joanna Makes a Friend
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