TORONTO – Toronto filmmaker Johnny Ma will receive an award for his debut feature “Old Stone” at next month’s Canadian Screen Awards.
The Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television says it will give Ma the Best First Feature award, sponsored by Telefilm Canada.
He’ll receive it at the awards gala, which will be broadcast live on CBC from Toronto’s Sony Centre for the Performing Arts on March 12.
Ma wrote and directed the Chinese psychological thriller, which is also up for five Canadian Screen Awards, including best picture and best screenplay.
Chen Gang stars as a taxi driver whose life spirals out of control when he takes an injured man to hospital.
Ma was born as Nan Ma, in Shanghai, China, and immigrated to Toronto at the age of 10.
He’s now working on his second feature project, which is also set in China.
The best first feature honour was formerly known as the Claude Jutra Award. It was renamed last year after a biography accused its late namesake director of sleeping with boys believed to be 14 or 15. Jutra, whose films included “Mon oncle Antoine” and “Kamouraska,” committed suicide in 1986 after battling Alzheimer’s disease.
