Adjunct professor and IMA alumnus wins $100,000 Rogers Best Film award

Kazik Radwanski, filmmaker, adjunct professor and alumnus of the School of Image Arts (IMA), has reached rarefied artistic rank. His latest film, Anne at 13,000 ft (external link) , recently won the Toronto Film Critics Association’s $100,000 Rogers Best Canadian Film Award (external link) , Canada’s richest art prize.

The film has garnered glowing reviews from critics and also received five nominations at the Vancouver Film Critics Circle, winning both ‘Best Actress in a Canadian film’ and ‘Best Supporting Actor in a Canadian Film.’ It also received an honourable mention from the jury at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), and was nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, and Best Supporting Actress at the Canadian Screen Awards in May 2020.

Shot over the course of two years, the film centres around a 27-year old daycare worker named Anne (played by Deragh Campbell) who struggles to combat the inner volatility of her undiagnosed mental health condition. After a friend’s bachelorette presents her with the opportunity to skydive, she finally feels in her element, at a great distance away from the pain in her life below. The experience affects Anne profoundly.

Radwanski’s filmmaking style – shot close-to-the-body in a disorientating manner – adds even more tension to Anne’s inner struggle. The claustrophobic camera angles capture each micro-struggle, each surge of anxiety, and each pained encounter. Unlike many films that feature characters with mental health challenges, the issue is never directly addressed or diagnosed in the film. This was a very intentional choice, says Radwanski.

The crew consulted with a number of mental health practitioners and screened the film for doctors to get their feedback on the portrayal of the struggle with mental health.

“Their feedback was amazing. They mentioned how the film is more useful if you don’t say exactly what’s going on. Rarely can you pinpoint a diagnosis,” he said. “We wanted to intentionally disorient the audience and make it harder to prejudge and label the character. There isn’t always a right and a wrong, and we wanted to empathize with the main character and the people around her.”

Focus on foundation

Radwanski’s film style mirrors his approach to the creation process of the movie itself: Intimacy. In spite of his growing film budgets, he intentionally works with a small crew, often collaborating with the same Ryerson alumni he first met during their time as students in the IMA program (graduating class 2008). Radwanski has worked with many of these collaborators for over a decade, including cinematographer Nikolay Michaylov (external link) , (external link)  editor Ajla Odobašić (external link) , and producer Daniel Montgomery (external link) .  

The team collaborated on various smaller projects as students and in fourth year Radwanski paired with Montgomery to create their first short film, Princess Margaret Blvd, in 2008. The film was named to the TIFF ‘Canada’s Top Ten’ list in 2008.

“That film started our practice outside of film school,” said Radwanski. “It encouraged us to make two or three more short films, and then our first feature length film, Tower, in 2012.”

Radwanski’s rise to success is a reminder of how film school is such a foundational experience, and how those early bonds can play such an impactful role. “Your time there is special. The collaborations you find there are really important and those creative leads that you make can really be the foundation of your practice, and how you enter the industry,” he said. “It’s this really special moment; what you tap into at film school can really go a long way.”

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