The Fast Runner: Filming the Legend of Atanarjuat

Chapter Six: Reviews and Awards

chaPteR sIx Reviews and Awards When Zacharias Kunuk, Norman Cohn, and the other members of the Isuma team were working on the Fast Runner project —dealing with funding delays, changes in the cast, the need to focus on a hundred things at once—they were confident that they were creating something special. That confidence was rewarded once the film was released: Despite the use of the Inuktitut language, despite the use of amateur actors, despite the focus on a part of the world generally ignored by most societies, The Fast Runner received numerous major awards and acclaim from a broad array of critics. Some of the awards and comments were mentioned in this book’s introduction, but I’ll go into greater detail here. Perhaps the most prestigious award earned by the film was the Camera d’Or award, given by the Cannes Film Festival. Awarded to The Fast Runner in 2001, the Camera d’Or (Golden Camera) award is given to the best first feature film presented in one of the Cannes selections—Official Selection, Director’s Fortnight, or International Critic’s Week. The recipient is chosen by an independent jury and the award is presented during the closing ceremonies of the festival. When asked to speak after receiving the award, Isuma producer Kunuk delivered his acceptance speech entirely in Inuktitut. In addition to the Camera d’Or, The Fast Runner received a host of other honors in 2001. The film was awarded six Genies, the Canadian equivalent of the Oscars,, including one for Best Picture. The other categories topped by The Fast Runner were Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Original Score, Best Editing, and the Claude Jutra Award, which is presented each year to the best picture by a first-time film director. Only two films in the half-century history of the Genies have won both the Claude Jutra and the Best Picture awards. 86 In addition to the Camera d’Or and half a dozen Genies, The Fast Runner earned awards at film festivals around the world. It was co-winner of the Guardian Award for Best New Director at the Edinburgh International Film Festival and was named Best Canadian Feature Film at the Toronto International Film Festival. At the Flanders International Film Festival in Ghent, The Fast Runner was awarded the “Grand Prix of the Flemish Community” for best film. The movie also received the Special Jury Prize and the Prix du Public at the Festival International du Nouveau Cinema et des Nouveaux Medias de Montreal. And it earned ctv’s Best of Fest Award at Next Fest 2001, the Digital Motion Picture Festival. The Fast Runner also was Canada’s selection for the Foreign Language Oscar award. Each country may nominate only one per year, and 2001 marked the first year in which Canada nominated a film in a language other than French. In 2002 the film earned even more awards. It received the Best Film award at the Imagine native Media Arts Festival, the Best Feature Film honors at the Santa Fe International Festival, and the Best Feature Film award at the San Diego International Film Festival . It also was given the Audience Award at the Newport International Film Festival, the Audience Award at the Lake Placid Film Forum and the Best Film, Best Actor, and Best Actress honors at the American Indian Film Festival, and was named Best Feature-Length Mountain Fiction Film at the Banff Mountain Film Festival. In addition to its long list of awards, The Fast Runner received praise from a wide range of sources. Jerry White, an associate professor of English and Film Studies at the University of Alberta, published an exceptionally well-timed interview with Kunuk in the December 2001 issue of CinémaScope. A doctoral fellow in comparative literature at the time, White prefaced the interview with an informative, if someone error-prone, description of the role The Fast Runner played in the Canadian cinematic landscape. His strongest contribution in this introduction explored the challenge The Fast Runner presented to established notions of what constituted Canadian films, indigenous films, and video projects. Reviews and Awards | 87 This challenge was manifested in the funding difficulties the film’s producers encountered by trying to create a full-length, full-budget film about indigenous culture in a language other than English or French. White notes that the new thinking required by The Fast Runner is similar to...