2021 Best Film Winner - Patrick Mulligan
Award Prize Sponsored by Affinity Production Group
Patrick Mulligan’s Best Film Award win for Fitful Mercies brought with it a prize that included an industry conference pass at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival. Read below to learn more about Patrick’s experience at TIFF and his reflection on making Fitful Mercies at the 2021 Digi60 Filmmakers’ Festival.
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For somebody who grew up in what might only be described as the Canadian equivalent to a small, Rust Belt city, I can't say that I ever paid much thought to the idea of making a difference through my art. Even when, in the autumn of 2019, I picked up a dslr for the first time, the idea of provoking any sort of change through my work seemed a fuzzy, intangible thing. And while I'm still a ways off from changing hearts and minds en masse through my filmmaking, my experience at TIFF 2022 has shown me that it's eminently possible to do so, regardless of one's beginnings.
Fitful Mercies, featuring Katherine Stella Duncan & Eleonora Poutliova won the Best Film Award (sponsored by Affinity Production Group) and Best Acting Award (sponsored by the Mensour Agency) at the 2021 Digi60 Filmmakers’ Festival.
My entry to the 2021 Digi60 Filmmaker's Festival, Fitful Mercies, was written with the intent to make something of a difference, and in particular, to say something about volition, and the self-affirming quality that comes with being able to make decisions for oneself. Concerning two women who both were forced to make controversial decisions about their lives, I always expected for the story to provoke a visceral response, and was pleasantly surprised to see it earn accolades for both Best Picture and Best Acting when it went up for exhibition last winter. I was more surprised still, in the days that followed the Festival, to receive an influx of messages from virtual strangers telling me how much the story had affected them. As an artist, it's the most flattering thing of all to hear that your work has struck a chord in somebody, and in receiving recognition both formally and informally for my film, I became inspired to continue exploring complex, even divisive issues in a digestible manner. At TIFF 2022, I was introduced to a number of extremely impressive films, and filmmakers in turn, that sought to do the same thing to remarkable effect.
Photos provided by Patrick Mulligan
Sponsored graciously by Affinity Production Group, I attended the 2022 Festival with a Conference Pass, and made use of it to take in industry seminars and screenings alike. Directors of poignant, assertive films such as Women Talking, The Good Nurse, and The Swimmers (to name a few) expounded on their reasons for making the films that they did, and for what reason they thought the messages highlighted therein were important, and worth considering. To see substance be valued over spectacle in that way, and receive recognition, acclaim, and budget, was extremely inspiring, and signalled to me that quality stories can be produced without being dressed up in genre attire, or being watered down with tropes. Further still, to see first-time Directors of this stripe, such as Saim Sadiq, explain how they made the jump from short films to features, without sacrificing their voice nor control in the process, has really inspired me to keep on the path I've made out for myself. And, as I now endeavor to make a feature of my own, I'm acutely aware that I need not compromise on my voice, nor my messaging, to find an audience.
I'd like to thank Affinity for sponsoring my attendance this year, and look forward to converting the inspiration I received at TIFF into efforts in the coming months.
— Patrick Mulligan
2021 Winner: Best Film Award
