| 25th Canadian Film Awards | |
|---|---|
| Date | October 12, 1973 |
| Location | Chevalier Theatre, Montreal |
| Highlights | |
| Most awards | Kamouraska The Sloane Affair |
| Best Motion Picture | Slipstream |
The 25th Canadian Film Awards were announced on October 12, 1973, to honour achievements in Canadian film.[1]
The awards were marred by controversy, when 14 Quebec film directors signed an open letter announcing a boycott of the awards over their handling of Quebec films.[2] The signatories were Gilles Carle, Denis Héroux, Claude Jutra, Marcel Carrière, Denys Arcand, Clément Perron, André Melançon, Jacques Gagné, Gilles Therien, René Avon, André Bélanger, Jean Saulnier, Roger Frappier and Aimée Danis.[3] They expressed the view that English Canadian and French Canadian film were two different domains which could not be directly compared against each other in the same categories but instead needed to each have their own selection criteria and even their own separate awards, and criticized the funding processes of organizations such as the Canadian Film Development Corporation, the National Film Board of Canada and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.[2] The directors chose to protest even though the awards had been scheduled to be presented, as a bi-cultural event, in Montreal.[4]
Although the directors stated that they intended their letter as a "quiet" gesture, it had an explosive impact; the Canadian Film Award gala scheduled for October 12 was cancelled. An awards luncheon for sponsored and educational films went ahead, but winners in other categories were announced at a press conference,[4] and the awards were entirely cancelled in 1974, with the 26th Canadian Film Awards not taking place until 1975.[1]
Despite the boycott, several of the boycotting directors' films were named as winners,[4] although Carle's win of the Wendy Michener Award, for "outstanding contribution to the Canadian Film Awards and the Canadian film industry", was booed in the theatre.[5] But English-language filmmakers felt betrayed and angry, and producers and film distributors from Quebec, dissociated themselves from the directors' move.[4][1]
The awards faced further controversy when Slipstream was announced as the winner of the award for Best Feature Film.[4] The film's Best Feature Film win, over Kamouraska, Réjeanne Padovani, Paperback Hero and Between Friends, was widely derided by critics.[1] The Globe and Mail film critic Betty Lee acknowledged that the film showed some promise on Acomba's part, but concluded that it "sags embarrassingly under its weight of honors".[6] In its December 1973 year in review, the paper named it as the worst film of the year and singled out the Canadian Film Awards for a special "Grand Prix for General All-Around Stupidity", both for choosing Slipstream as Best Picture over four much stronger nominees and for giving the Michener Award to Carle.[7] Its victory was later cited as an indication that the boycotting directors had been correct in their beliefs that the Canadian Film Awards had a systemic bias against Quebec films.[8]