Chinook Film Group

Last Updated Fri, 22 Sep 2006 09:33:23 EDT

CBC Arts

Deepa Mehta’s film Water will be Canada’s submission to the Academy Awards, for consideration in the best foreign language film category in 2006.

Telefilm Canada, which heads the selection process, says Water was the highest grossing foreign-language film in North America this past year, with a worldwide box office of $10 million.

The film, starring Seema Biswas, was also critically acclaimed for its strong performances and beautiful cinematography.

Water is set in India in the 1930s and centres on an ashram where widows are sent by their families. Widows were considered bad luck under ancient Hindu tradition and were not allowed to remarry.

Life in the ashram is disrupted by the arrival of a child widow and the political changes that began under Mahatma Ghandi.

The film opened the Toronto International Film Festival in 2005, won three Genie awards and first prize at the Bangkok Film Festival.

Mehta began filming Water in India, but was forced to move the shoot to Sri Lanka after several religious and political groups smashed sets and threatened her life, saying the film insults Hindu traditions.

In the foreign film category, each country may submit one film for consideration. From those, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences selects five to be nominated for the Academy Award.

The shortlist of nominations will be released in the spring.

CIFF officially kicked of with a screening of The Journals Of Knud Rasmussen- which sold out two theaters. The post screening Gala was held at the Uptown.

What Means Motley? was my choice for viewing last night and the co-writer John Ketchum was in attendance for a short Q&A after the film. The story concerns an ‘immigration scam’ that was accomplished in 1999 from Romania to Ireland. Great film- fun story, good score, interesting characters, based on a true story (which is stranger than fiction!)