Phillip Borsos

{{Infobox person

| name = Phillip Borsos

| birth_place = Hobart, Tasmania, Australia

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1953|05|05}}

| death_place = Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1995|02|02|1953|05|05}}

| nationality = Canadian

| occupation = Film director, film producer, screenwriter

| known_for = * The Grey Fox

| spouse = Beret Paulsen Borsos

| children = 2

}}

Phillip Borsos (May 5, 1953 – February 2, 1995) was an Australian-born Canadian film director, producer, and screenwriter.[https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/phillip-borsos Phillip Borsos] at The Canadian Encyclopedia, dated March 4, 2015, accessed September 2, 2019 A four-time Canadian Film Award and Genie Award winner and an Academy Award nominee, he was one of the major figures of Canadian and British Columbian filmmaking during the 1980s,{{Cite web|url=https://search-bcarchives.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/phillip-borsos-fonds|title=Fonds PR-2086. Phillip Borsos fonds}}{{Cite web|url=http://povmagazine.com/articles/view/british-columbia-from-head-hunters-to-koneliine|title=British Columbia: From Head Hunters to Konelīne |website=povmagazine.com|date=25 September 2017 |language=en|access-date=2019-06-09}} earning critical acclaim and accolades at a time when Canadian filmmakers were still struggling to gain attention outside of North America.{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Phillip-Borsos|title=Phillip Borsos {{!}} Canadian director|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|language=en|access-date=2019-06-09}}

Early life and education

Borsos was born in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia in 1953. His father was a Hungarian sculptor and his mother an English nurse. His family emigrated to Canada when he was five years old, settling in Trail, British Columbia. Borsos showed an early interest in film-making while attending high school in Maple Ridge. He acquired a 16mm Bolex camera from his father and began making short films and documentaries. After high school, he studied film at the Banff Centre School for Fine Arts and at the Vancouver School of Art, now the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design.

Career

His early work included several shorts notable for their cinematography and pacing. In 1976, he incorporated his own company, Mercury Pictures, to produce commercials and sponsored films. Borsos established himself as a filmmaker to watch in the 1970s with three assured short documentaries: Cooperage (1976), Spartree (1977) and Nails (1979). All three won Best Theatrical Short at the Canadian Film Awards, and Nails received a nomination for an Academy Award in the Documentary Short category.

In 1982, at the age of 27, he emerged as a major directing talent with his feature debut, The Grey Fox. It told the story of Bill Miner, Canada's first train robber, and starred Richard Farnsworth as Miner, along with Jackie Burroughs as his mistress. This dramatic, authentic dissection of the Canadian West won seven Genie Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, as well as being nominated for two Golden Globe Awards, including Best Foreign Film.{{Cite web|url=https://www.goldenglobes.com/film/grey-fox|title=Grey Fox, The|website=goldenglobes.com|language=en|access-date=2018-01-20}} It is still regarded as one of the best films ever made in Canada.

He followed that success with the serial killer thriller The Mean Season (1985), which starred Kurt Russell and Mariel Hemingway; and the family drama One Magic Christmas (1985), starring Mary Steenburgen and Harry Dean Stanton. Production problems dogged his biopic Bethune: The Making of a Hero (1990), which starred Donald Sutherland as Dr. Norman Bethune, and took four excruciating years to make. There were delays, crew mutinies, technical disasters and endless feuds over the script. On location in remote areas of rural China, with Chinese bureaucrats as his co-producers, Borsos was pushed to his limit. In the end, the producers froze him out of the final editing process and finished the film without him. Regardless, it received critical accolades, and earned him a Genie Award nomination for Best Director.{{Cite web|url=https://viff.org/Online/f28962-bethune-the-making-of-a-hero|title=VIFF {{!}} Bethune: The Making of a Hero|website=viff.org|access-date=2019-06-09}}

His final film, Far from Home: The Adventures of Yellow Dog, was shot on and around his summer home on Mayne Island. Based on his script, with characters named after his children, it was his most personal film, an adventure about a boy stranded in the woods with his dog. It was released in 1995, only a month before his passing, and was nominated for Best Family Feature at that year's Young Artist Awards.

Personal life

Borsos was married to his wife, Beret, with whom he had two sons.{{Cite web|url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/phillip-borsos-obituary|title=Phillip Borsos (Obituary)|website=The Canadian Encyclopedia|access-date=September 2, 2019}}

Death

In early 1994, he was diagnosed with acute myeloblastic leukemia.{{Cite web|url=http://www.northernstars.ca/borsos_phillip_tribute/|title=Tribute to Phillip Borsos|website=Northernstars.ca|date=5 May 2014 }} He died February 2, 1995, at age 41.{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/02/05/obituaries/philip-borsos-film-director-and-writer-41.html|title=Philip Borsos; Film Director and Writer, 41|date=1995-02-05|work=The New York Times|access-date=2018-01-20|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}

Legacy

The Whistler Film Festival annually presents the Borsos Competition, a set of juried awards named in honour of Phillip Borsos, for which Canadian films screening at the festival are eligible.{{cite web|url=http://www.whistlerfilmfestival.com/festival-info/awards-and-juries|title=Awards & Juries|website=Whistler Film Festival|access-date=7 February 2016}}{{cite web|url=http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/whistler-borsos-award-picture-day-396654|title=Kate Melville's 'Picture Day' Wins Best Canadian Feature at Whistler Film Festival|author=Etan Vlessing|date=2 December 2012|work=The Hollywood Reporter|access-date=7 February 2016}} Borsos is considered a pioneer of the British Columbian film industry, being among the early directors to utilize and highlight its abundant and visually-stunning landscapes, and helping to establish the province's reputation as Hollywood North.{{Cite web|url=http://playbackonline.ca/2016/12/22/playbacks-2016-canadian-film-tv-hall-of-fame-phillip-borsos/|title=Playback's 2016 Canadian Film & TV Hall of Fame: Phillip Borsos|date=December 22, 2016|first=Sonya|last=Fatah|access-date=2019-06-09}}{{Cite web|url=https://victoriafilmfestival.com/archive/pre2000/borsos99.html|title=VIFVF, Philip Borsos Tribute|website=victoriafilmfestival.com|access-date=2019-06-09}}

Filmography

class="wikitable sortable"

! style="width:33px;" |Year

!Film

! style="width:65px;" |Director

! width="65" |Producer

! width="65" |Writer

!Notes

1982

|The Grey Fox

|{{Yes}}

|{{no}}

|Genie Award for Best Achievement in Direction
Montréal World Film Festival Award for Best Canadian Film
Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Film
Nominated - Golden Taormina Charybdis

rowspan="2" |1985

|The Mean Season

|{{Yes}}

|{{no}}

|Cognac Festival du Film Policier TF1 Special Award

One Magic Christmas

|{{Yes}}

|Nominated - Youth in Film Award for Exceptional Feature Film - Drama

1990

|Bethune: The Making of a Hero

|{{Yes}}

|{{no}}

|Nominated - Genie Award for Best Achievement in Direction

1995

|Far from Home: The Adventures of Yellow Dog

|{{Yes}}

|{{no}}

|{{Yes}}

|Nominated - Youth in Film Award for Best Family Feature

= Short films =

class="wikitable sortable"

! style="width:33px;" |Year

!Film

! style="width:65px;" |Director

! width="65" |Producer

! width="65" |Writer

!Notes

1974

|Cadillac{{Cite web|url=http://collection.tiff.net/mwebcgi/mweb/mweb/mweb?request=record;id=223646;type=102|title=Cadillac|website=TIFF Film Reference Library|access-date=September 2, 2019}}

|{{Yes}}

|{{no}}

1975

|The Barking Dog{{Cite web|url=http://collection.tiff.net/mwebcgi/mweb/mweb?request=record;id=223645;type=102|title=The Barking Dog|website=TIFF Film Reference Library|access-date=September 2, 2019}}

|{{Yes}}

|{{no}}

1976

|Cooperage{{Cite web|url=http://www.thehazardgroup.com/cooperage/|website=The Hazard Group|title="Cooperage". A Film. Streaming Media online 17 minutes|access-date=2019-06-09}}

|{{Yes}}

|{{no}}

|Canadian Film Award for Best Theatrical Short

Nominated - Chicago International Film Festival Gold Hugo for Best Documentary

1977

|Spartree

|{{Yes}}

|{{no}}

|Canadian Film Award for Best Theatrical Short

1977

|Spartree/Making the Film{{cite book |first1=Blaine |last1=Allen |editor1-last=Beard |editor1-first=William |editor2-last=White |editor2-first=Jerry |date=June 2002 |title=North of Everything: English-Canadian Cinema Since 1980 |page=106 |url=https://www.uap.ualberta.ca/titles/350-9780888643902-north-of-everything |language=en |publisher=University of Alberta Press|isbn=978-0-88864-398-8}}

|{{Yes}}

|{{no}}

1979

|Nails{{Citation|website=National Film Board of Canada|title=Nails|url=https://www.nfb.ca/film/nails/|access-date=2019-06-09}}

|{{Yes}}

|{{no}}

|Genie Award for Best Theatrical Short
Nominated - Academy Awards for Best Documentary, Short Subjects
Nominated - Genie Award for Outstanding Direction in a Documentary (Non-Feature)

1979

|Racquetball{{cite book |first1=Blaine |last1=Allen |editor1-last=Beard |editor1-first=William |editor2-last=White |editor2-first=Jerry |date=June 2002 |title=North of Everything: English-Canadian Cinema Since 1980 |page=106 |url=https://www.uap.ualberta.ca/titles/350-9780888643902-north-of-everything |language=en |publisher=University of Alberta Press|isbn=978-0-88864-398-8}}

|{{Yes}}

|{{no}}