For Immediate Release                                                                    

THE ARTIST LEADS VFCC INTERNATIONAL VOTE WITH FOUR NOMINATIONS

Michel Hazanavicius’ The Artist leads all films in the Vancouver Film Critics Circle’s International category with four nominations. The silent film about an actor whose career fades when talkies arrive is joined in the Best Film race by Alexander Payne’s The Descendants, which follows the relationship between a businessman and his two daughters and Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life, the story of the relationship between a flawed father and his rebellious son.

The Best Actor race has The Artist’s Jean Dujardin facing off against Shame’s Michael Fassbender and Take Shelter’s Michael Shannon.  The nominees in the Best Actress race are Elizabeth Olsen for Martha Marcy May Marlene, Meryl Streep for Iron Lady and Michelle Williams for My Week with Marilyn. 

The nominees for Best Documentary are Cave of Forgotten Dreams, Nostalgia for the Light, Project Nim, The Interrupters and Surviving Progress.  Nominated for Best Foreign Language Film are A Separation, Poetry and The Kid with a Bike. 

The full list of international nominees follows.  The VFCC nominates three films in each category with the exception of ties.

BEST FILM
The Artist

The Descendants
The Tree of Life

BEST ACTOR
Michael Fassbender, Shame

Jean Dujardin, The Artist
Michael Shannon, Take Shelter

BEST ACTRESS
Elizabeth Olsen, Martha Marcy May Marlene

Meryl Streep, The Iron Lady
Michelle Williams, My Week With Marilyn

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Kenneth Branagh, My Week with Marilyn

Albert Brooks, Drive
Christopher Plummer, Beginners

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Jessica Chastain, The Help, Take Shelter, The Tree of Life,

Melissa McCarthy, Bridesmaids
Shailene Woodley, The Descendants

BEST DIRECTOR

Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist
Terence Malick, The Tree of Life
Martin Scorsese, Hugo

BEST DOCUMENTARY
Cave of Forgotten Dreams

The Interrupters
Nostalgia for the Light
Project Nim
Surviving Progress

BEST SCREENPLAY

Woody Allen, Midnight in Paris
Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist
Alexander Payne and Nat Faxon & Jim Rash, The Descendants

Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin, Moneyball

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
A Separation
Poetry
The Kid with a Bike

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CANADIAN CATEGORY HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE RETURN OF DIRECTORS VALLÉE AND BESSAI AND A NOMINATION FOR EX-VANCOUVERITE SETH ROGEN

Café de Flore, from former Best Canadian Film winning director Jean-Marc Vallée (C.R.A.Z.Y.) will be competing with Ed Gass-Donnelly’s Small Town Murder Songs and Ken Scott’s Starbuck for this year’s edition of the Vancouver Film Critics prize.   Gass-Donnelly, Scott and Vallée will be competing with David Cronenberg of A Dangerous Method for the Best Director award.

Meanwhile, Vancouver native son Seth Rogen, who co-stars in Sarah Polley’s Take This Waltz, will be contesting the Best Supporting Actor in a Canadian Film with veterans Vincent Cassel and Viggo Mortensen. They are both nominated for A Dangerous Method.  Mortensen is also a previous winner, having won the Best Actor in a Canadian Film award for Eastern Promises. 

Carl Bessai, who directed last year’s Best BC Film winner Fathers&Sons, sees Sisters&Brothers nominated for this year’s prize in the category.  Also nominated for the award are Joel Heath’s People of a Feather and Michael Goldbach’s Daydream Nation.

A full list of nominees in the Canadian category follows.

BEST CANADIAN FILM
Café de flore
Small Town Murder Songs
Starbuck

BEST ACTOR IN A CANADIAN FILM
Mohamed Fellag, Monsieur Lazhar
Patrick Huard, Starbuck

Peter Stormare, Small Town Murder Songs

BEST ACTRESS IN A CANADIAN FILM

Keira Knightley, A Dangerous Method
Vanessa Paradis, Café de flore

Ingrid Veninger, i am a good person/i am a bad person
Rachel Weisz, The Whistleblower
Michelle Williams, Take This Waltz

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A CANADIAN FILM

Vincent Cassel, A Dangerous Method

Viggo Mortensen, A Dangerous Method

Seth Rogen, Take This Waltz

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A CANADIAN FILM
Hélène Florent, Café de flore

Jill Hennessy, Small Town Murder Songs
Hallie Switzer, I am a good person/I am a bad person

BEST DIRECTOR OF A CANADIAN FILM

David Cronenberg, A Dangerous Method

Ed Gass-Donnelly, Small Town Murder Songs

Ken Scott, Starbuck

Jean-Marc Vallée, Café de flore

BEST BRITISH COLUMBIA FILM
Daydream Nation

People of a Feather
Sisters&Brothers

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BC ANIMATION PIONEER MARV NEWLAND WINS VFCC ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

The Vancouver International Film Critics have announced that Marv Newland is the winner of the 2012 Achievement Award for Contribution to the British Columbia Film and Television industry.

Newland, who won notoriety in the 1960s for his short film Bambi and Godzilla, moved to Vancouver in 1975 and founded International Rocketship. In the company’s three decades of operation, it produced dozens of shorts, TV shows, commercials, promos, and network ID's for clients like MTV, YTV, Nickelodeon, Nick Jr., the Children's Television Workshop, Lifetime, MuchMusic and Locomotion. In addition, the company provided a home for two generations of Vancouver animators.

“I really don’t think we would have reached the level of international respect for our animated productions without Marv Newland,” said VFCC member and Reel West Magazine Editor Ian Caddell.  Newland will be presented with his award at the VFCC’s 12^th annual awards ceremony, to be held at the Railway Club in Vancouver on January 9.

The Vancouver International Film Critics include critics from print, radio, on-line and television. 

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For further information, please contact Ian Caddell at 604-730-7022 or

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