Latest news with #DarkestMiriam
Hamilton Spectator
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Hamilton Spectator
‘Universal Language' leads film contenders heading into Canadian Screen Awards
An absurdist Winnipeg-set fever dream and a millennial identity dramedy are among the leading contenders heading into tonight's Canadian Screen Awards. Matthew Rankin's 'Universal Language' picked up five awards in the film categories at a ceremony over the weekend and will compete for several more tonight, capping off a multi-day celebration of Canadian film, television and digital storytelling. It's vying for the best film trophy against 'The Apprentice,' 'Darkest Miriam,' 'Gamma Rays,' 'Village Keeper' and 'Who Do I Belong To.' Jasmeet Raina's Crave dramedy series 'Late Bloomer' won four awards at a gala for scripted television on Saturday, and is in contention tonight for best comedy series. It's up against CTV's 'Children Ruin Everything,' CBC's 'One More Time' and Crave's 'Don't Even' and 'Office Movers.' Edmonton-born comedian Lisa Gilroy says there's no better time to spotlight homegrown talent as she hosts tonight's Canadian Screen Awards, airing live from Toronto on CBC and CBC Gem. 'I know how hard it is to get TV shows and movies made (in Canada), and I'm so excited to celebrate the stuff that has been made,' she said in an interview earlier this month. 'It is so good and so funny. And we deserve to party.' 'Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent,' which led all nominees overall with 20, is up for several trophies tonight. It won two awards on Saturday for best writing in a drama series and best sound in fiction. It will square off for best drama series against CBC's 'Allegiance' and 'Bones of Crows,' Hollywood Suite's 'Potluck Ladies' and CTV's 'Sight Unseen.' 'Law & Order Toronto' actors Kathleen Munroe and Aden Young compete for best lead performer in a drama series against Grace Dove of Crave's 'Bones of Crows,' Mayko Nguyen of Citytv's 'Hudson & Rex' and CBC stars Supinder Wraich of 'Allegiance,' Hélène Joy of 'Murdoch Mysteries, Michelle Morgan of 'Heartland' and Vinessa Antoine of 'Plan B.' 'Universal Language' stars Rojina Esmaeili and Pirouz Nemati are nominated for best performance in a leading comedy film role. They're up against Maïla Valentir of 'Ababooned,' Paul Spence of 'Deaner '89,' Taylor Olson of 'Look at Me,' Emily Lê from 'Paying for It,' Cate Blanchett of 'Rumours' and Kaniehtiio Horn of 'Seeds.' Up for best performance in a leading drama film role are Sebastian Stan of 'The Apprentice,' Oshim Ottawa of 'Atikamekw Suns,' Britt Lower of 'Darkest Miriam,' Carrie-Anne Moss of ':Die Alone,' Chaïmaa Zineddine Elidrissi of 'Gamma Rays,' Sean Dalton of 'Skeet,' Christine Beaulieu of 'The Thawing of Ice,' and Olunike Adeliyi of 'Village Keeper.' In a last-minute programming shift on Thursday, the Canadian Screen Awards announced it would broadcast live on television — reversing earlier plans for a streaming-only show. Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television CEO Tammy Frick previously said going online-only allowed the show to be more 'flexible.' Some top nominees had expressed disappointment in March, telling The Canadian Press that a televised broadcast is key to spotlighting Canadian talent. The Academy said the decision to return to CBC TV came down to NHL scheduling — with no playoff game on Sunday, the two-hour show could air live. This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 1, 2025.
Winnipeg Free Press
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Winnipeg Free Press
‘Universal Language' leads film contenders heading into Canadian Screen Awards
An absurdist Winnipeg-set fever dream and a millennial identity dramedy are among the leading contenders heading into tonight's Canadian Screen Awards. Matthew Rankin's 'Universal Language' picked up five awards in the film categories at a ceremony over the weekend and will compete for several more tonight, capping off a multi-day celebration of Canadian film, television and digital storytelling. It's vying for the best film trophy against 'The Apprentice,' 'Darkest Miriam,' 'Gamma Rays,' 'Village Keeper' and 'Who Do I Belong To.' Jasmeet Raina's Crave dramedy series 'Late Bloomer' won four awards at a gala for scripted television on Saturday, and is in contention tonight for best comedy series. It's up against CTV's 'Children Ruin Everything,' CBC's 'One More Time' and Crave's 'Don't Even' and 'Office Movers.' Edmonton-born comedian Lisa Gilroy says there's no better time to spotlight homegrown talent as she hosts tonight's Canadian Screen Awards, airing live from Toronto on CBC and CBC Gem. 'I know how hard it is to get TV shows and movies made (in Canada), and I'm so excited to celebrate the stuff that has been made,' she said in an interview earlier this month. 'It is so good and so funny. And we deserve to party.' 'Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent,' which led all nominees overall with 20, is up for several trophies tonight. It won two awards on Saturday for best writing in a drama series and best sound in fiction. It will square off for best drama series against CBC's 'Allegiance' and 'Bones of Crows,' Hollywood Suite's 'Potluck Ladies' and CTV's 'Sight Unseen.' 'Law & Order Toronto' actors Kathleen Munroe and Aden Young compete for best lead performer in a drama series against Grace Dove of Crave's 'Bones of Crows,' Mayko Nguyen of Citytv's 'Hudson & Rex' and CBC stars Supinder Wraich of 'Allegiance,' Hélène Joy of 'Murdoch Mysteries, Michelle Morgan of 'Heartland' and Vinessa Antoine of 'Plan B.' 'Universal Language' stars Rojina Esmaeili and Pirouz Nemati are nominated for best performance in a leading comedy film role. They're up against Maïla Valentir of 'Ababooned,' Paul Spence of 'Deaner '89,' Taylor Olson of 'Look at Me,' Emily Lê from 'Paying for It,' Cate Blanchett of 'Rumours' and Kaniehtiio Horn of 'Seeds.' Up for best performance in a leading drama film role are Sebastian Stan of 'The Apprentice,' Oshim Ottawa of 'Atikamekw Suns,' Britt Lower of 'Darkest Miriam,' Carrie-Anne Moss of ':Die Alone,' Chaïmaa Zineddine Elidrissi of 'Gamma Rays,' Sean Dalton of 'Skeet,' Christine Beaulieu of 'The Thawing of Ice,' and Olunike Adeliyi of 'Village Keeper.' Weekly A weekly look at what's happening in Winnipeg's arts and entertainment scene. In a last-minute programming shift on Thursday, the Canadian Screen Awards announced it would broadcast live on television — reversing earlier plans for a streaming-only show. Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television CEO Tammy Frick previously said going online-only allowed the show to be more 'flexible.' Some top nominees had expressed disappointment in March, telling The Canadian Press that a televised broadcast is key to spotlighting Canadian talent. The Academy said the decision to return to CBC TV came down to NHL scheduling — with no playoff game on Sunday, the two-hour show could air live. This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 1, 2025.
Yahoo
28-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
'Severance' star Britt Lower leads Canadian film 'Darkest Miriam,' playing a Toronto librarian
Between filming Season 1 and Season 2 of the Apple TV+ hit Severance as Helly R., Britt Lower shot the Canadian film Darkest Miriam (now in theatres), from filmmaker Naomi Jaye, executive produced by Oscar-winner Charlie Kaufman. An adaptation of the novel "The Incident Report" by Martha Baillie, librarian Miriam Gordon (Lower) is dealing with the grief of her father's death, working at a branch of the Toronto Public Library, and hides behind book in this "prison" she's created for herself. While you may think that Jaye was a Severance fan who sought out Lower for the film, it's quite the opposite. In fact, the filmmaker hadn't watched Severance before the casting director brought it up. But after seeing Lower's first scene on the show, Jaye knew she was perfect for Miriam. "She's so alive and fearless and feral, and her voice is so distinct and amazing," Jaye told Yahoo Canada. "She had just finished the first season of Severance and was going to go back right after our shoot to shoot the second season. ... Who knew it would explode in the way that it did?" "But what I can say about Britt is that she is truly an incredibly talented actor. She really understands her process. She is an incredibly generous person and performer, and she understands low budget filmmaking and what that means, and what that requires. And every day she just brought everything to it." Not unlike the quick reaction Jaye had to Lower's acting, the second the filmmaker picked up Baillie's book she knew she wanted to adapt it, calling the publisher after reading just the first page. "It was love at first sight," Jaye said. "Then it was the voice of Miriam, just this character and what she went through, and the people that she met, and this meeting of tragedy and comedy in one novel." "And it was just such an interesting format. I had never seen a book written in this way before, in these very short, discrete moments. It just felt like how I feel life and process life. It's like these tiny little moments that, when connected, make something momentous. So they can be these tiny little things that happen, or moments, ... interactions that end up having a profound effect on who you are and what your journey is going to be." Part of the story of Darkest Miriam is the title character starting a relationship with Janko Priajtelj (Tom Mercier), a Slovenian artist who is a Toronto taxi driver. But as she starts opening herself up to love, Miriam receives threatening letters, left in books at the library, which prompts her to document her feelings in library incident report forms she stashes away. But what's particularly interesting is that while many assume any love story in a film is the focus, that's not the case with Darkest Miriam. Rather, Miriam being confined and almost trapped in the library, and the feeling of breaking free, feels more central to the story. "For me it's not a story about a woman who falls in love, it's a story about a woman who chooses to live her life, chooses to break herself out of this prison she's created, the circumstance of her father's death, in this library," Jaye said. "He killed himself surrounded by books. She literally surrounds herself by books every day. So I call her an emotional suicide, where she just can't deal and ... she doesn't recognize that she's recreating the circumstance of her father's life. She's so terrified to end up like him, but yet she's doing it." Smartly, Jaye also makes room for the audience to dive into this love story, as much as they feel compelled to do so. "Janko is a huge part of that story, but the central arc of this is Miriam breaking free. It's not Miriam falls in love," she said. "But people will choose to see what they choose, and if people choose to see it as a love story, then that's beautiful. It's a beautiful love story."
CBC
28-03-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
Britt Lower explains how Severance, the circus and libraries dovetail
When Britt Lower was a kid growing up in a small farm town in Illinois, there were two places that made a big impression on her: the library and the circus. Today, those childhood interests unexpectedly dovetail with three of her most recent projects: the hit series Severance, the Canadian indie film Darkest Miriam and her 2020 short film Circus Person. While you might already be familiar with her Severance character, Helly R., Lower makes no less of an impression in the film Darkest Miriam, in which she plays a Toronto librarian living through a fog of grief. The film is an adaptation of Martha Baillie's Giller Prize-shortlisted novel The Incident Report. "I loved the format of that book," Lower tells Q 's Tom Power in an interview. "It's made of 144 incident reports that this librarian writes. It's a real thing that librarians do. When something peculiar or even just out of the ordinary happens at the library, they fill out a report…. So this book is this librarian writing her daily incident report, but they become increasingly more personal and journalistic." WATCH | Britt Lower's full interview with Tom Power: Like many children, Lower felt very connected to the library as a young person. "I feel like we all have some kind of library in our childhood memory," she says. As for her circus connection, Lower's mother is a professional face painter who brought her into the "circus-adjacent world" of Renaissance fairs, festivals and birthday parties. Along the way, she discovered that the town of Bloomington-Normal, Ill., close to where she grew up, was once known as "the trapeze capital of the world." It's also home to a large circus archive library that further fostered her fascination with the circus. "Whenever I spend time with circus performers, and I've traveled around the country and spent a fair amount of time with a variety of circuses — small-tent circuses — I like to ask them what 'circus' means to them," Lower says. "I've been collecting definitions of the circus, and some of my favourites are that circus means that everybody's welcome. Circus is risk. Circus is right now. Circus is family. Circus is a circle…. But for circus performers in particular, the word I hear most often is that circus means family." I sometimes like to think that Helly R. was born at the circus. In 2020, Lower wrote, directed and starred in the short film Circus Person. It's about a woman who runs away to join a circus after experiencing heartbreak. But at this point you might be wondering, how does this all connect back to Severance? WATCH | Official trailer for Circus Person: "After Season 1 and 2 [of Severance ], I joined two different circuses and performed in the role of a ringmaster of sorts. And it was, again, a full circle moment for me because it was two weeks after I filmed Circus Person … that I got the call from my agents to make a self-tape for a character named Helly R. It was really the spirit of making that film that I had with me when I made that self-tape. And so I sometimes like to think that Helly R. was born at the circus." It doesn't stop there. Lower says the second circus she performed in, Shoestring Circus, was located in Bellingham, Wash., which is the same town where Dan Erickson, the creator of Severance, attended college. "He actually came and saw my opening night performance in the circus", she says. "It was really special to get to see him in the audience and to be performing — sorry, again, full circle — under the tent that was actually in my short film five years prior." Lower's new film, Darkest Miriam, is in theatres now in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. It will be available on-demand as of April 15. WATCH | Official trailer for Darkest Miriam: Interview with Britt Lower produced by Lise Hosein.
CBC
28-03-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
Severance star Britt Lower takes a new job as a Toronto librarian
Social Sharing Fresh from captivating audiences with her performance in the successful series Severance, American actress Britt Lower ignites the Canadian Film Festival with her lead role in the Darkest Miriam. The Canadian drama opened the Toronto festival earlier this week and hits theatres today. For the actress, it's a plunge into the quiet storm of Miriam, a character Lower sculpted from raw emotion and lived-in physicality. Directed by Naomi Jaye and adapted from Martha Baillie's novel The Incident Report, the film follows Miriam Gordon (played by Lower), who is grief-stricken after the death of her father and lives a quiet life as a librarian at the Allan Gardens branch of the Toronto Public Library. Her life is disrupted when she begins to receive oddly threatening letters addressed to her, coinciding with a new romantic relationship with a young cab driver. Finding the right Miriam was a journey for Jaye. But as soon as she saw Lower's first scene in Severance, she knew she'd found her Miriam. The director penned a letter to the actress, who was touched by it. "On our first Zoom, we were just immediately kindred," Lower says in an interview with CBC Arts. "I think we were both in tears by the end of the Zoom. It felt like such kismet, like we were coming together and meant to tell this story together." Her connection to Miriam was immediate, she explains, noting it might sound sort of magical. "Sometimes, roles just come and tap on my shoulder and I can't look away," she says while enacting the gesture. "It's almost like they're choosing me." "I admire [Miriam's] bravery and the courage to kind of come out of her shell when life really takes her to her knees," Lower says. She was drawn to Miriam's ability to find strength in vulnerability. There is a quiet intensity Lower brings to Miriam that's rooted in meticulous character work and a profound understanding of human behaviour, allowing for remarkable authenticity. Her work in the film has led to a Canadian Screen Award nomination for best performance in a lead role. The film also earned a best picture nomination and best director nod for Jaye. Lower has a uniquely artistic understanding of her craft; she thinks of acting as making a sculpture, she says. "I'm building the inner life of the character that then informs how they move through the world." This approach extends to her collaborators. "It felt like the three of us were building Miriam's world together," she says, referring to her work with Jaye and Baillie. To ground the portrayal in reality, Lower focused on the physical aspects of Miriam's world. "Moving through the library with Martha, the writer of the book, she took me through a sort of librarian school of sorts," the actress says. "I got to move a lot of the books through collections and circulation, the actual day-to-day [tasks]." This immersive experience helped Lower understand the daily routines and physical movements shaping Miriam's existence. Toronto is baked into the DNA of the film, which features recognizable landmarks like Allan Gardens Conservatory as well as the city's bike lanes — something Lower enjoyed while filming on location. "I went biking through the city and got to feel the commuter culture in Toronto, " she says. "You have to have a kind of toughness and a protectiveness to be on a bicycle. But also the culture of biking in the city of Toronto, I think, is really respectful…. I loved biking around Toronto." Like her character, Lower herself knows the liberating feeling of stepping out of one's comfort zone. "I feel like every day is like a little leap of faith," she says. During the hiatus between filming seasons one and two of Severance, the actress joined the circus. It's something she's been obsessed with her whole life (which is perhaps unsurprising considering her mother's face-painting career and the 2020 short film Circus Person she wrote and directed). "I feel really at home at a circus, and the backlot of a circus is quite similar to the backlot of a film or a TV set. There's this kind of mobile art family that comes together to build something. But each time I do that, each new project, it's, 'Oh, I'm going to meet all these new people and make all these new friends and step into that unknown space.'" Whether she's navigating the mysteries of the severed mind, the emotional journey of a low-spirited librarian or the chaos of a circus ring, Lower eagerly ventures into new territories in pursuit of artistic growth. Her work signals a performer who's deeply invested in the art of human connection and vulnerability — be it on big-budget studio projects or this small Canadian indie film.
