Canadian producer Robert Lantos will be the third person to receive the Camerimage Film Festival’s producer’s award.J. Emilio Flores/The Globe and Mail
Over the 24-year history of the Camerimage Film Festival – one of the industry's top events for celebrating the work of cinematographers and film artists – the festival has only awarded its producer's award twice. Next week, Canadian producer Robert Lantos will become the third.
Lantos, the Toronto-based producer behind such films as Barney's Version, Eastern Promises and Sunshine, will receive the award at the opening night gala in Bydgoszcz, Poland, on Nov. 12.
Until now, the honour has only been bestowed to producers Richard D. Zanuck (Driving Miss Daisy) and Jeremy Thomas (The Last Emperor).
Lantos has a long, storied history with the Canadian filmmaking community, from producing such classic Canadian movies as Joshua Then and Now (1985), Black Robe (1991) and eXistenZ (1999), to serving as chairman and CEO of Alliance Communications Inc. The producer has also enjoyed an extensive collaboration with another Toronto-based filmmaker, Atom Egoyan, serving as producer for the director's Calendar (1993), The Sweet Hereafter (1997), Felicia's Journey (1999), Ararat (2002), Where the Truth Lies (2005) and last year's Remember, which starred Christopher Plummer and Martin Landau. (Remember will also screen in competition at Camerimage). This past summer, Lantos received a Governor-General's Performing Arts Award for Lifetime Achievement.
The Camerimage Film Festival runs Nov. 12 to 19, and will also honour actress Jessica Lange.
Barry Hertz