The sports talk comedy The Dick Knost Show was named best B.C. film Saturday night at the Vancouver International Film Festival’s first-ever B.C. showcase awards, while director Matthew Kowalchuk earned a best emerging director prize for his dark buddy comedy Lawrence and Holloman.
A festival jury picked the winners from among 12 B.C.-made features and documentaries, and the prizes were handed out before the Vancouver Playhouse gala screening of another B.C.-made film, the ensemble drama Down River.
“The desire to make films here has never been stronger,” said actor Tom Scholte, star of the Dick Knost Show, in accepting that movie’s prize for absent director Bruce Sweeney. The prize comes with a $10,000 development bursary from Astral’s Harold Greenberg Fund and $10,000 post-production services credit from Finale Editworks.
Given Sweeney’s trademark lean filming style, that’ll go a long way towards launching his next film. In Dick Knost, the title character is an abrasive sports radio host who gets a lesson in humility when he suffers a career-threatening concussion. The movie marked a change from Live Bait, Dirty and Last Wedding, the three sexually-adventurous Sweeney-Scholte collaborations that launched both of their careers beginning in the mid-90s.
That fact was noted by one heckler who shouted out “I’m just glad you’re wearing pants,” as Scholte walked to the stage.
Here’s my earlier video interview with Scholte:
Kowalchuk accepted his award and thanked Lawrence and Holloman’s several producers as well as fellow director Andrew Currie, who mentored Kowalchuk through the making of his first feature.
“I hit the ground running, they made it feel like my third feature,” Kowalchuk said. His prize came with a $7,500 cash prize sponsored by the Union of B.C. Performers and ACTRA, its national counterpart, as well as a $10,000 equipment rental credit from William F. White.
Matthew Kowalchuk. (Photo by Kim Stallknecht/PNG)
Lawrence and Holloman features Ben Cotton and Daniel Arnold in a tale of a vapidly optimistic suit salesman (Cotton) who falls prey to a series of escalating misadventures when he befriends a suicidal accountant (Arnold). Kowalchuk thanked Arnold, who also co-wrote the script, an adaptation of a Morris Panych play, and he paid tribute to Cotton for the physical demands of his role.
“Ben really went above and beyond,” Kowalchuk said. “He was the man in the body cast.”
The VIFF jury also singled out writer-director Ben Ratner’s gala feature Down River for an honourable mention. The movie was a crowd-pleaser for the industry audience, with Helen Shaver starring in a story of a bohemian mentor to three young artists (Gabrielle Miller, Colleen Rennison and Jennifer Spence). The movie, which took inspiration from the nurturing spirit of the late actor Babz Chula, had a rich array of supporting players as well, including Brian Markinson, Jay Brazeau and Teach Grant, all of who pitched in for little or nothing.
“The hometown love is the most important thing,” Ratner said in introducing the film. “Once again, Babz Chula has brought us all together.”
Also earning honourable mentions were Terry Miles’ drama Cinemanovels and Twyla Roscovich’s documentary Salmon Confidential.
