Murmur (film)

Last updated
Murmur
Directed by Heather Young
Written byHeather Young
Produced byMartha Cooley
StarringShan MacDonald
Andria Edwards
CinematographyJeffery Wheaton
Edited byHeather Young
Music bySarah DeCourcy
Production
company
Houseplant Pictures
Release date
  • September 6, 2019 (2019-09-06)(TIFF) [1]
Running time
84 minutes
CountryCanada
LanguageEnglish

Murmur is a Canadian docufiction film, directed by Heather Young and released in 2019. [2] Young's full-length directorial debut, the film stars a cast of largely non-professional actors and centres on Donna (Shan MacDonald), a lonely, alcoholic woman who is ordered to perform community service in an animal shelter after being arrested for drunk driving; when she adopts an older dog from the shelter to save him from being put down, she finds new meaning and purpose in her life but becomes obsessed with saving animals to the detriment of her own well-being. [3]

Produced by Houseplant Films, the film was funded in part by Telefilm Canada [4] and the Nova Scotia Film and Television Production Incentive Fund. [5]

The film premiered at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival, [2] where it was announced as the winner of the FIPRESCI Discovery Prize. [6] In December 2019, the film was named to TIFF's annual year-end Canada's Top Ten list. [7]

In January 2020, the film won the Narrative Feature Grand Jury Prize at the Slamdance Film Festival. [8] The film won the John Dunning Best First Feature Award at the 8th Canadian Screen Awards in 2020. [9]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Toronto International Film Festival</span> Annual film festival held in Toronto, Canada

The Toronto International Film Festival is one of the most prestigious and largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, founded in 1976 and taking place each September. It is also a permanent destination for film culture operating out of the TIFF Bell Lightbox cultural centre, located in Downtown Toronto.

Dusty Mancinelli is a Canadian independent filmmaker from Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Mancinelli is primarily a director of short films. Several of his films have been shown at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) and other notable film festivals worldwide, winning numerous awards. Since 2017, he has collaborated with Madeleine Sims-Fewer. Their debut feature film Violation was shown at the 2020 Toronto International Film Festival.

Heather Young is a Canadian filmmaker based in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.

Andrew Cividino is a Canadian film director and screenwriter. He is best known for his feature film directorial debut Sleeping Giant, which premiered at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival, and for his frequent work as a director on the Emmy winning comedy Schitt's Creek, for which he won a Primetime Emmy at the 72nd Primetime Emmy Awards.

The Toronto International Film Festival Award for Best Canadian Film is an annual juried film award, presented by the Toronto International Film Festival to a film judged to be the best Canadian feature film.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeremy Lalonde</span> Canadian filmmaker

Jeremy LaLonde is a Canadian filmmaker. He is known for his work in Canadian film and television.

Gia Milani is a Canadian screenwriter and director. She attended the University of New Brunswick, and the New Brunswick College of Craft and Design, before graduating in 2001 with her Bachelor of Applied Arts in Fine Craft.

The Platform Prize is an annual film award, presented by the Toronto International Film Festival to films of "high artistic merit that also demonstrate a strong directorial vision." Introduced in 2015, the award is presented to a film, selected by an international jury of three prominent filmmakers or actors, from among the films screened in the Platform program. The program normally screens between eight and twelve films; only one winner is selected each year, although as with TIFF's other juried awards the jurors have the discretion to give honorable mentions to other films besides the overall winner.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2019 Toronto International Film Festival</span> 44th edition of the festival

The 44th annual Toronto International Film Festival was held from 5 to 15 September 2019. The opening gala was the documentary film Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band, directed by Daniel Roher, and the festival closed with a screening of the biographical film Radioactive, directed by Marjane Satrapi.

Jasmin Mozaffari is a Canadian film director and screenwriter. She won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Director at the 7th Canadian Screen Awards in 2019 for her debut feature film Firecrackers.

<i>Antigone</i> (2019 film) 2019 film

Antigone is a 2019 Canadian drama film directed by Sophie Deraspe. An adaptation of the ancient Greek play Antigone by Sophocles, the film transposes the story to a modern-day refugee family in Montreal. The cast includes Nahéma Ricci as Antigone, with Rawad El-Zein, Hakim Brahimi, Rachida Oussaada, and Nour Belkhiria. It was filmed in Greater Montreal in 2018.

Bretten Hannam is a Canadian screenwriter and film director.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aisling Chin-Yee</span> Canadian film producer, director, and writer

Aisling Chin-Yee is a Canadian film director, writer, and producer, who works primarily in Montreal and Los Angeles. In addition to her work as a producer, Chin-Yee directed the films The Rest of Us (2019) and No Ordinary Man (2020).

Madeleine Sims-Fewer is a British-Canadian independent filmmaker and actress.

The Toronto International Film Festival International Critics' Prizes, currently known as the FIPRESCI Prizes, are film awards presented by the International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI) to films screening at the Toronto International Film Festival.

The Toronto International Film Festival NETPAC Prize is an annual film award, presented by the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema to honour the best film from the Asia-Pacific region screened at the Toronto International Film Festival. The award was presented for the first time in 2012.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steve Markle</span> Canadian filmmaker

Steve Markle is a Canadian filmmaker, actor, writer, editor and producer best known for Shoot To Marry (2020), Testees (2008), and Camp Hollywood (2004).

Danis Goulet is a Cree-Métis film director and screenwriter from Canada, whose debut feature film Night Raiders premiered in 2021.

<i>Wildhood</i> 2021 Canadian coming-of-age film

Wildhood is a 2021 Canadian coming-of-age romantic drama film, written, produced, and directed by Bretten Hannam.

The TIFF Tribute Awards are an annual award, presented by the Toronto International Film Festival to honour distinguished achievements in filmmaking. Unlike the festival's regular awards, which are presented based on audience or jury voting during the festival, the TIFF Tribute Awards are presented to people or organizations selected by the board and announced in advance of the festival. Recipients are selected from among the cast and crew of the films in that year's festival lineup.

References

  1. "Murmur".
  2. 1 2 "TIFF 2019: Canadian lineup includes films by Ellen Page, Alanis Obomsawin". Now , July 31, 2019.
  3. "Award winning director Heather Young's film 'Murmur' to premiere in 2019 TIFF". Canadian Media, July 31, 2019.
  4. "Three Haligonian productions nab Telefilm feature funding". The Coast , June 27, 2018.
  5. "Halifax feature film Murmur receives funding". Halifax Chronicle-Herald , January 10, 2019.
  6. Hipes, Patrick (September 12, 2019). "Toronto Film Festival Jury Winners: 'Martin Eden', 'Murmur', 'How To Build A Girl'". Deadline Hollywood . Retrieved September 12, 2019.
  7. Norman Wilner, "TIFF announces Canada's top 10 films of 2019". Now , December 11, 2019.
  8. Patrick Hipes, "Slamdance Film Festival Winners Led By ‘Murmur’ And ‘Residue’". Deadline Hollywood , January 30, 2020.
  9. Brent Furdyk, "Canadian Screen Awards Announces Winners In Cinematic Arts Categories, Honouring The Year’s Best Movies". Entertainment Tonight Canada , May 28, 2020.