B.C. producer takes $10K prize at Toronto film fest

Last Updated: Thursday, September 4, 2008 | 7:45 PM ET

CBC News

Producer Rob Merilees' film Stone of Destiny, about a group of students who attempt to recover Scotland's Coronation Stone, will close the Toronto International Film Festival. (Infinity Features)

Vancouver film producer Rob Merilees's newest film, Stone of Destiny, had already snagged the closing slot at this year's Toronto film festival. But TIFF's opening day offered him another wonderful surprise: the $10,000 Canadian Film and Television Production Association's Producers Award.

Now in its third year, the honour recognizes a producer of a Canadian film featured at TIFF for his or her overall body of work.

Merilees — the Infinity Features executive whose credits also include Capote, The Snow Walker and Terry Gilliam's upcoming The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus — described winning the fledgling industry prize as "confusing, yet amazing" because the jury chose a Western-based producer.

"Typically that doesn't happen. We get left out, we get forgotten. That's why it was such a surprise," he said shortly after the Thursday afternoon award ceremony.

"It's significant because it's coming from your peers. They've seen your work — these people who do the same job you've done — and they appreciate it, they like it."

In their tribute to Merilees, the prize jury hailed him for the wide range of works he's completed, films that have won both critical acclaim and found audiences.

"I think it's very masturbatory to make films for a vacuum. We need to make films that people are actually going to see," Merilees said.

"There's no other reason to do this. It's not that lucrative. You can make a lot more money developing land. But when it comes down to it, you're a filmmaker and you want people to see what you're doing. That's pretty much the M.O. You want to do good work and you want people to see what you're doing."

Still, both he (as well as the jury members) pointed out that a producer's role typically gets little recognition, even if a film finds success.

"We pick the scripts. We work with the writers. We do creative and then we do financing on the other side. The role of producer is basically all encompassing," Merilees said.

"We develop [the film]. We raise the money. We sit with the director while we're shooting and when it's being edited," he said, adding that when a film is complete, there are still issues like marketing and promotion for producers to tackle.

Ultimately, a finished film is like "a dual baby. The director and producer are joined at the hip and we have a baby together."

At the ceremony, CFPTA chair Sandra Cunningham also announced that its board has approved the extension of the award for another five years.

Past winners have included Luc Déry (Congorama, Continental, un film sans fusil) and Niv Fichman (Passchendaele, Blindness).