The Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF) increases its celebration of artistic excellence on its 45th year, with the launch of new Luminary Awards, honouring excellence in film. The first-ever winners of this award are Markus Schleinzer, Leah Nelson, and Carrie Coon.
This award connects with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal of Good Health and Well-Being. The inclusion of this new element in the annual film festival promotes the sustained well-being of artists, as well as the survival of cultural life in Vancouver and Canada.
Executive Director of VIFF, Kyle Fostner, shared in a media release about the award that the award aims to celebrate artists dedicated to the craft of filmmaking and to strengthening cinema. "Each of these artists are exemplary contributors to contemporary film culture, and we are honoured to recognize them in this inaugural year," Fostner said about the award recipients.
All three artists have been able to stand apart through the breadth and complexity of their work.
Carrie Coon is probably best known for her standout role on The White Lotus, where she played a lawyer staying at a luxury resort in Thailand with two longtime friends, whose performance prompted audiences to ask 'what do I believe in?' Her talent has been equally visible in roles on screen with His Three Daughters and The Gilded Age, as well as stage roles in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf and Bug. At this year's VIFF, she stars in The Liberation, which follows Rita, played by Coon, who abandons her family for a women-only commune.
Markus Schleinzer is an Austrain filmmaker best-known as the casting director for Michael Haneke. His first film, Michael, is considered to be one of the most controversial films at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival. His film Rose is screening at this year's VIFF, considered a singular cinematic vision.
The final VIFF Luminary Award recipient is Vancouver-based filmmaker Leah Nelson, who is also the co-founder of Emmy Award-winning animation studio Giant Ant. In Nelson's debut Tangles, which is screening at this year's VIFF, she adapts Sarah Leavitt's popular graphic novel Tangles, which follows Leavitt's experience as her mother's Alzheimers made her unrecognizable. Nelson remakes this story for the screen, emerging with a debut film that is a sensitive and hard-hitting story about mothers and daughters.
The award itself celebrates both established and emerging artists, breaking down barriers for newer creative voices to receive equal recognition.
Screenings for these films and talks with Coon, Schleinzer, and Nelson are taking place around Vancouver, from October 4th to 11th. To find out more about the award recipients and VIFF screenings, you can visit viff.org.