Indian-Canadian director Deepa Meehta has been named the recipient of the Technicolor Clyde Gilmour Award by the Toronto Film Critics Association (TFCA).
Mehta will receive $50,000, which she will endow to a filmmaker of her choice. The filmmaker has not been announced yet.
“Being chosen by the Toronto Film Critics for the Technicolor Clyde Gilmour Award is gratifying, unexpected and genuinely touching,” said Mehta. “It’s a great feeling.”
She continued, “The relationship between artists and critics can certainly be fractious, but in a strange way we are inextricably connected — we all have a passion for movies (well, not all movies) and value it when they make a contribution to increasing our understanding of each other and reveal the foibles of human existence.”
TFCA president Brian D. Johnson praised Mehta for expanding “the horizons of Canadian cinema with intrepid vision. In a career spanning 25 years, her films have crossed boundaries between continents and cultures, genres and genders.”
Johnson also commented on Mehta’s legacy and observed, “As a fiercely independent female director, with a canvas that ranges from brutal injustice to Bollywood delirium, she’s shown there’s no limit to where a Canadian movie can go.”
Mehta’s most recent film, “Beeba Boys,” made its world premiere at TIFF in September. She is perhaps best known for writing and directing “Water,” which was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards in 2007. Her other credits include “Midnight’s Children,” “Fire” and “Earth.” (Along with “Water,” the latter two comprise Mehta’s Elements Trilogy.)
[via ScreenDaily]
