Genies: Lucky seven for Sarah Polley’s Away From Her and Cronenberg’s Eastern Promises

It was a non-Egoyan kind of year at this year’s equivalent to the Academy Awards, but “Egoyan-apprentice” Sarah Polley managed to leave a long-lasting impression with her directorial debut. The actress-turned-director picked up a total of seven awards (a trio of acting awards and the cream of the crop awards of Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Director and Best Film) for Away From Her while David Cronenberg’s Eastern Promises equaled that tally winning mostly technical awards. Apart from a short film win, the ceremony blanked any wins from the French part of Canada – of course nothing stood a chance against the two popular titles mentioned above.

BEST MOTION PICTURE
AWAY FROM HER – Daniel Iron, Simone Urdl, Jennifer Weiss

ACHIEVEMENT IN ART DIRECTION/PRODUCTION DESIGN
ROB GRAY, JAMES WILLCOCK – FIDO

ACHIEVEMENT IN COSTUME DESIGN
CARLO POGGIOLI, KAZUKO KUROSAWA – Silk

ACHIEVEMENT IN CINEMATOGRAPHY
PETER SUSCHITZKY – Eastern Promises

ACHIEVEMENT IN DIRECTION
SARAH POLLEY – Away From Her

ACHIEVEMENT IN EDITING
RONALD SANDERS – Eastern Promises

ACHIEVEMENT IN MUSIC – ORIGINAL SCORE
HOWARD SHORE – Eastern Promises

ACHIEVEMENT IN MUSIC – ORIGINAL SONG
VALANGA KHOZA, DAVID HIRSCHFELDER – Shake Hands With the Devil – Kaya

PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
GORDON PINSENT – Away From Her

PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
ARMIN MUELLER-STAHL – Eastern Promises

PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
JULIE CHRISTIE – Away From Her

PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
KRISTEN THOMSON – Away From Her

ACHIEVEMENT IN OVERALL SOUND
STUART WILSON, CHRISTIAN COOKE, OREST SUSHKO, MARK ZSIFKOVITS – Eastern Promises

ACHIEVEMENT IN SOUND EDITING
WAYNE GRIFFIN, ROBERT BERTOLA, TONY CURRIE, GORO KOYAMA, MICHAEL O’FARRELL – Eastern Promises

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
STEVE KNIGHT – Eastern Promises

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
SARAH POLLEY – Away From Her

BEST DOCUMENTARY
RADIANT CITY – Gary Burns, Jim Brown, Bonnie Thompson, Shirley Vercruysse

BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT DRAMA
APRÈS TOUT – Alexis Fortier Gauthier, Élaine Hébert

BEST ANIMATED SHORT
MADAME TUTLI-PUTLI – Maciek Szczerbowski, Chris Lavis, Marcy Page