Roma is T.O., L.A. film critics’ best picture
Members of the Toronto Film Critics Association have named Alfonso Cuaron’s memory drama Roma the top film of 2018.
The Mexican auteur, known for Gravity and Children of Men, also received the TFCA prize for Best Director, for his film dedicated to the Indigenous nanny who helped raise him in the Mexico City neighbourhood of the title. TFCA members also gave two prizes each to Lee Changdong’s mystery drama Burning, Yorgos Lanthimos’ royal rivalry comedy The Favourite and Paul Schrader’s faith-challenging drama First Reformed.
Burning won for Best Foreign-Language Film and also for Steven Yeun ( The Walking Dead) as Best Supporting Actor.
The Favourite took Best Actress kudos for Olivia Colman and shared Best Screenplay with First Reformed, whose lead player, Ethan Hawke, received Best Actor and shared the screenplay honours, a rare tie vote for the group. Regina King was named Best Supporting Actress for If Beale Street Could Talk, directed by Barry Jenkins, who won the TFCA Best Picture prize in 2016 with Moonlight. The TFCA reached from the vastness of our endangered planet to the personal realms of fascinating women in Tehran and Paris in selecting three films that will compete for the $100,000 Rogers Best Canadian Film Award: ANTHROPOCENE: The Human Epoch ( Jennifer Baichwal, Edward Burtynsky, Nicholas de Pencier), Ava ( Sadaf Foroughi) and Maison du bonheur ( Sofia Bohdanowicz).
The winner of the country’s richest film prize will be named at the 22nd annual TFCA Awards Gala, Jan. 8, in Toronto. Runners-up each receive $5,000.