Frances-Anne Solomon’s A Winter Tale took home the Tonya Lee Williams Award for Outstanding Canadian Feature at the Seventh Annual ReelWorld Film Festival‘s (RWFF) Closing Night Gala on Sunday April 15, 2007. The film also won Special Mention in the Outstanding Screenplay category at the packed awards ceremony.
Since making its world premiere as the Opening Night film on April 11th, A Winter Tale has been praised by the media and audiences alike, – with influential personalities referring to the film as “excellent,” “very compelling” and “exactly what Toronto needs.”
Caribbean film icon Leonie Forbes, who portrays the lead female character, Miss G, was also recognized by the festival. Forbes, who is known as Jamaica’s First Lady of Theatre and Film, was honoured at RWFF’s Brunch with Brilliance. This upscale event is held annually to honour a film artist of diversity who has achieved success in the Canadian film industry, despite all challenges. In addition to this great acknowledgment, Leonie Forbes also took home the festival’s prestigious Award of Excellence.
Written, directed and produced by Frances-Anne Solomon, A Winter Tale tells the emotional story of a black men’s support group that forms at a Caribbean Takeaway restaurant in Parkdale, after a ten-year-old boy is shot by a stray bullet. The film features a talented ensemble cast led by Canadian stars Peter Williams and Michael Miller, along with Caribbean stars Leonie Forbes and Denis “Sprangalang” Hall. A Winter Tale offers a brilliant perspective on the timely issues of gun violence in Toronto, set against the backdrop of a multicultural community’s unrealized hopes and dreams.
Frances-Anne Solomon is an award-winning filmmaker, writer, and producer whose credits include Lord Have Mercy! (VisionTV, 2003), Peggy Su! (BBC Films, 1997), My Mother Told Me (Channel 4, 1995) and Bideshi (British Film Institute, 1994). She is the president and artistic director of the two companies she founded: Leda Serene Films, her film/tv production vehicle, and CaribbeanTales, a prolific not-for-profit company producing educational multimedia projects. She also worked as a film and television drama producer for the BBC.
Recent projects include A Winter Tale, a feature film for Telefilm Canada and CHUM Television; Literature Alive, a groundbreaking 20-part documentary series that screened on Bravo!, Canadian Learning Television and OMNI, that showcased Caribbean-Canadian authors; and the Gemini-nominated Lord Have Mercy!, Canada’s landmark multicultural sitcom, for Vision TV, Toronto 1, APTN and Showcase.
For more information, please visit: www.awintertale.ca
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