Film & Arts
Best Local Actor
1. Roy Dupuis
2. William Shatner
3. Elias Toufexis
4. Rémi Girard
5. Kiefer Sutherland
6. Donald Sutherland
7. David La Haye
8. Larry Day
9. Michel Côté
10. Tristan D. Lalla
Looks like Captain Kirk decided to concentrate on his "music" career just in the nick of time - his stronghold on the Best Local Actor category has finally ended. After three years of coming in second place, hunky Roy Dupuis has finally claimed the top spot. Elias Toufexis, of Decoys and Brilliant fame, grabs the bronze, while in the Sutherland competition, Donald, who was ninth last year, creeps up on Kiefer.
He's dead, Jim
>> Roy Dupuis finishes off William Shatner's reign as Best Local Actor
 Roy Dupuis: the Susan Lucci of the Mirror's best-of awards or the victim of a ballot-stuffing campaign led by a splinter group of Trekkie terrorists? This is the question that has no-doubt been dogging the actor throughout his career. How could it not? Year after year, he took a backseat to William Shatner as Montreal's favourite actor. Well, those days are safely behind him now, because the people have spoken and the Mémoires affectives star is the new undisputed champ, an honour the modest actor predictably plays down.
"I'm just flattered being part of this group of nominees," says Dupuis. "And to tell you the truth, I haven't been paying much attention to the results. I mean, when you come in second, nobody calls you up to tell you, so you never hear about it."
Fair enough. But the question remains: who rocked the vote this year? Well, it wouldn't be a stretch to assume that a majority of the voters were the kind of women who get wet just thinking about Patrick Swayze in his high-waisted jeans. After all, as well as being a gifted actor, Dupuis is a walking cologne ad - what with his chiselled bone structure, deep husky voice and smoldering onscreen presence. According to Dupuis, however, his sex symbol status is pretty much wasted on him.
"It doesn't really change my life," says the 42-year-old man's man, who is calling from his work shed, where he's currently building a boat from scratch with his bare hands so he can sail around the world. "I just don't go out much anymore. But it was never something that I took advantage of... well, very much, anyway. I was always more interested in real relations. Maybe once in a while I indulged. But that was 10 years ago. I've been with the same woman for 10 years now."
His monogamous relationship with actress Céline Bonnier isn't the only area in his life where Dupuis is militantly loyal. For years now, Hollywood has been calling and Dupuis always gives the same answer: "Maybe if Montreal disappears and falls off the face of the planet. Seriously, something really drastic in my life would have to happen for me to move down there. Home for me is here and it always will be."
As for helping Captain Kirk get through this difficult time, he's on his own as far as Dupuis is concerned.
"I don't have any advice for Mr. Shatner," he says. "He's been number one all these years, I think he can handle coming in second for a change."
» Sarah Rowland |
Best Local Actress
1. Elisha Cuthbert
2. Emilee Veluz
3. Jessica Paré
4. Pascale Bussières
5. Karen Simpson
6. Lydia Lockett
7. Marie-Josée Croze
8. Magenta Baribeau
9. Isabelle Blais
10. Ginette Reno
Last year's champ Jessica Paré is surpassed by last year's No. 2, Elisha Cuthbert, the pride of Greenfield Park. New this year are Emilee Veluz, who starred in the play Miss Orient(ed) and Magenta Baribeau, aka the Queen of Montreal Goth.
Best Local Filmmaker
1. Denys Arcand
2. Ziad Touma
3. Kidnapper Films
4. Robert Lepage
5. Robin Spry
6. Pierre Falardeau
7. André Forcier
8. Erick Canuel
9. Francis Leclerc
10. Phil Price
Denys Arcand remains comfortable in the No. 1 slot, even though upstart Ziad Touma continues to nip at his heels. Erick Canuel, who conveniently released Le Survenant during the BOM polling, cracks the top 10 for the first time, while Kidnapper Films rocket into major contention - no doubt aided by this year's Mirror cover story. And finally, RIP Robin Spry. The much-loved Montreal director passed away suddenly last March, leaving behind a legacy of great locally produced films and television.
Best Play
1. Miss Orient(ed)
2. The Goat, Or Who Is Sylvia?
3. Car Stories
4. Into the Woods
5. Killing Jar Jar
6. Mambo Italiano
7. A Midsummer Night's Dream
8. Evil Dead the Musical
9. Vagina Monologues
10. The Anorak
Co-starring your No. 2 pick as Best Local Actress, Emilee Veluz, the Teesri Dunya production Miss Orient(ed) wins this year's play pageant. It's followed by one of the Centaur's edgier productions of late - if not ever - Edward Albee's The Goat, Or Who Is Sylvia, in which a man falls in love with a barnyard animal. Giddyup!
Best Dance Company/ Choreographer
1. La La La Human Steps
2. Solid State
3. Les Grands Ballets Canadiens
4. Illmatic Styles
5. 8 Count
6. Studio A
7. O Vertigo
8. Dead Doll Dancers
9. Ilona Dougherty
10. Margie Gillis
Same top three as last year. Hmmm, maybe it's time for a live, no-pops-or-pirouettes-barred tiebreaker faceoff between La La La, Solid State and Les Grands Ballets.
Twinkle star
>> Miss Orient(ed) co-star Emilee Veluz, Best Local Actress No. 2, brings her Filipino flare to the stage
 "I know, I'm Filipino, I should be a nurse," jokes the effervescent Emilee Veluz about the Filipino-as-caregiver stereotype. "But as long as I can remember, I've had a passion for performing - I always wanted to entertain. Growing up I took singing lessons, ballet and everything that I could to educate myself on how to become a professional performer."
For Veluz, growing up a Filipino-Canadian in Montreal wasn't always just a song and dance. Like any third grader, all she wanted to do was fit in. Of course the fact that she had just moved back from a year and a half living in the Philippines didn't help. "When I came back in I really felt like an immigrant," she explains. "There was that feeling of being alienated. Being the only Filipino in your class is a bit weird."
Veluz channelled that feeling of alienation and her desire to fit in into her role as the "fresh off the boat" Filipino beauty pageant contestant Twinkle in the hit Montreal production of Miss Orient(ed) last March. Her effusive style and charming sense of humour garnered much attention and a slew of new fans. Veluz remembers one fan in particular. "After the play was over, this little girl kept staring at me, so I went over to her and asked her if she liked the play. She said, ‘I just want to be like Twinkle when I grow up!' And I was like, ‘Wow, that's awesome!'"
While role models for female Filipinos may be at the moment scarce, Veluz is steadily making a name for herself in the Canadian theatre scene. A graduate of Dawson College's professional theatre program, she's already toured eastern Canada and the U.S. with Geordie Productions and taught drama in elementary schools around Montreal.
"Because you're Asian, the first role you're going out for is prostitutes, background or nurse," she says. "So basically, if you're a visual minority, forget about TV, there's nothing really for you out there. At least in theatre you have the freedom as an artist to write your own material and present it and that's exactly what [Miss Orient(ed) playwrights] Nina Aquino and Nadine Villasin did."
Like Villasin and Aquino, Veluz is currently planning to use her distinctly Filipino perspective to infuse her own writing. "In school you have Black History Month, and Jewish historical theatre at places like the Saidye Bronfman Theatre, which is all amazing. Now I'm doing research on the history of the Philippines. We have a lot of ties with American history that I think should be known and heard."
» Raf Katigbak |
Best Spoken Word Act
1. Kalmunity
2. Catherine Kidd
3. Lydia Lockett
4. Coco Café
5. Alexis O'Hara
6. Corey Frost
7. Paula Belina
8. Euphrates
9. Vincent Tinguely
10. Norman Nawrocki
Kalmunity (not-so-calmly) shoots up to first place from No. 9, forcing Catherine Kidd, Lydia Lockett and Coco Café each down a notch. Note that Coco Café's longtime host, the lovely and talented Mahalia "Miss Thang" Verna, is stepping down in a few weeks.
Best Museum
1. Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
2. Montreal Museum of Contemporary Art
3. McCord Museum
4. Pointe-à-Callière
5. Centre for Canadian Architecture (CCA)
6. Biodôme
7. Just For Laughs museum
8. Redpath Museum
9. Train Museum
10. Planetarium
Best Gallery
1. Zeke's Gallery
2. VAV
3. Canvas Gallery
4. Massive Riot (RIP)
5. Galerie Lamoureux Ritzenhoff
6. Skol
7. Art Mur
8. Station C
9. Arts on Paper Society (old F52)
10. Clark
Zeke's hits a homer, the gallery's fourth year as number one in your eyes, even though they've slowed down on visual arts exhibitions of late. We'll have to see what Zeke has got up his sleeve for next year. Meanwhile, students strike again, holding Concordia's VAV in second place, and Kops Crew's winter HQ Massive Riot also left its mark before they closed it down last month. Let's hope they have something in the works too.
Best Art Exhibit
1. Art Matters (various locations)
2. Eternal Egypt (MMFA)
3. Montreal in the 60s (CCA)
4. Miklos Rogan (Galerie Lamoureux Ritzenhoff)
5. MMFA's permanent collection
6. William Kentridge (MAC)
7. Jean Cocteau (MMFA)
8. Edward Burtynski (MAC)
9. Max Wyse (Arts on Paper Society)
10. Luc Paradis (Casa del Popolo)
Concordia's painting/drawing/design/sculpture/video/theatre/music/etc. fest Art Matters takes the cake, with Eternal Egypt's sphynxes and pyramids and the CCA's Montreal in the 60s exhibition following close behind. Max Wyse and Luc Paradis ring in on the street level.
Best Author
1. Mordecai Richler
2. Leonard Cohen
3. Yann Martel
4. Michel Tremblay
5. Nelly Arcand
6. Nancy Kilpatrick
7. Ian McGillis
8. Joel Yanofsky
9. Bill Brownstein
10. Saul Bellow
Mordecai had a lock on this category when he was alive and death doesn't seem likely to loosen his grip any time soon. New to the list this year is goth/horror/bondage writer Nancy Kilpatrick, and in a tightly fought battle that was only decided in the final few ballots, Bill Brownstein edged out Saul Bellow.
Best Magazine/Zine
1. Strut
2. Vice
3. Maisonneuve
4. Nightlife
5. Fish Piss
6. Sang Frais
7. Urbania
8. Streeteaters
9. Elle Québec
10. Clin d'Oeil
Strut prances to the top, usurping long-running winner Vice. Does that mean we're finally accepting Vice's New Yorker status after all these years? Keeping it real in third is Maisonneuve.
Best Newspaper
1. Mirror
2. The Gazette
3. La Presse
4. Le Devoir
5. Journal de Montréal
6. Hour
7. Métro
8. The Link
9. Voir
10. The Suburban
You like us! You really like us! Or maybe you thought voting for us would improve your chance of winning a prize (sorry, no). Either way, thanks. Meanwhile, the Globe and Mail would have finished in sixth place, but we decided it wasn't a local paper, more a Toronto paper, thus allowing The Suburban to squeak into 10th place.
Best Cartoonist
1. Aislin
2. Chapleau
3. Rick Trembles
4. Billy Mavreas
5. Memo
6. Dstrbo
7. Luis Neves
8. Rosen
9. Sherwin Tjia
10. Marc Bell
The Gazette's Aislin wins once again, followed by La Presse's Chapleau, while Rick Trembles, bolstered by his new Motion Picture Purgatory book, moves up two places from last year.
Best Blog
1. J. Gallagher (jgallagher.blogspot.com)
2. Montreal City Weblog (w5.montreal.com/mtlweblog)
3. Zeke's Gallery (zekesgallery.blogspot.com)
4. Blork Blog (blork.typepad.com)
5. Letters to Memphis (carnets.ixmedia.com/fred/archives/002015.html)
6. AD HOC (agencychick.typepad.com)
7. Isabel Brinck (isabelbrinck.blogspot.com)
8. Richard Martineau (voir.ca/martineau)
9. YULblog (yulblog.org)
10. ni.vu.ni.connu (martinepage.com/blog)
You picked J. Gallagher's wry observational humour as No. 1 in our first year with a Best Blog category. The newsier Montreal City Weblog follows, with Best Gallery owner Zeke's mostly art-media criticism and article word counts coming in third. Hey, reading's good for you, but don't forget to get outside and play too.
Community and
communication
>> The Kalmunity Collective is rigorous about being organic
 Any Tuesday night, producer/musician JahSun can be found right at the centre of the Kalmunity Collective vibe, kicking out a brand new/ancient formula with his drum kit and his vision. "Kalmunity to me was like a culmination of all the experience I've gotten over the years," JahSun explains. "Reggae is a very community-oriented music, and I always credit Ark of Infinity as being the granddaddy of the renewal of improv in the city - a very improv and jazz approach to the groove." It's this rigorous approach to an organic musical, spoken and sung improv sound that has put the many regular members of the Kalmunity Collective on the map.
"The show is the by-product of our intention to communicate," says JahSun. "Young urban youth need to know that playing instruments is as cool as playing a computer. It's that discipline, that meditation, that brings you to the centre of yourself. Write your poetry, express yourself in whatever form there is, because that's really what's being stifled. Bring the unity between all forms of poetry - rap, spoken word, dub poetry. That's always our goal, to show the unity in things."
The Kalmunity Collective's Organic Vibe continues every Tuesday, 8 p.m., at Café Sablo (50 St-Zotique E). $5. Also, on May 14, at 8 p.m. Kalmunity's Jason "Blackbird" Selman Presents Intimate Sky, A Quiet Night Of Duets combining poets, vocalists and MCs with members of Kalmunity at Le Cocoon (5334 De Gaspe, #801), $7, www.kalmunity.com
» Vincent Tinguely |
Best Fashion Designer
1. Philippe Dubuc
2. Lydia Lukidis
3. Ritual Design
4. YSO
5. Betty Blush
6. Nevik
7. Parasuco
8. Kitchen Orange
9. Mackage
10. Georges Lévesque (Boutique Scandale)
Menswear (and more) magnate Philippe Dubuc wins again, while jewellery maker Lydia Lukidis also holds strong in second. Sexy corset creators Ritual Designs move up a step, bumping Siphay Southidara's YSO down to fourth place.
Best Graffiti Crew
1. Kops Crew
2. ICM
3. NME
4. Roadsworth
5. HVYW8
6. HYH
7. TA (Team Autobot)
Best Festival
1. Jazz Fest
2. Just for Laughs
3. Pop Montreal
4. Fantasia
5. Art Matters
6. Fringe Festival
7. Montreal Beer Festival
8. Reggae fest
9. Divers/Cité
10. Les Francofolies
Jazz and laffs reign supreme, with the top two holding on strong, but nobody can ignore this city's rock revival and subsequent rise to international glory, some of which is no doubt owed to Pop Montreal. Considered by many as the best film fest in town, Fantasia is fourth. The Montreal Beer Festival gets bumped down a few, but c'mon, they're all beer festivals in one way or another.
