Don McKellar 

Canada
 

Though it does deal with the announcement of the end of the world – at  midnight December 31, 1999 – and a group of friends' attempts to deal with that reality, McKellar considers it a step away from the usual way science fiction tackles the subject. 

"It follows the people so closely, the individual people," says McKellar about his approach to the subject matter. Though the overall intention is serious, McKellar insists the film comes laced with humour. "It's hard to describe. It's fairly comic and ironic. "

The world of Last Night is one where the sun shines brightest, even in the middle of the night. " It's got a really strong look, says McKellar. "The look is kind of stark in its design. Light is treated in an unusual way, high contrast (with) silver retention." He compares it to the look of Seven or Delicatessan, but with "the other side, the brightness envisioned (on screen)." That wasn't exactly easy to accomplish, adds McKellar. "It  was almost impossible to judge exactly how it would look."

Last Night is also that rare Toronto film where the city gets to play itself, instead of subbing for an American or European metropolis. That may be because McKellar is very much identified with Toronto and knows many of his actors in Last Night, such as Callum Keith Rennie, who starred in McKellar's six-part TV series Twitch City, personally. McKellar is very much a modern Renaissance man, whose credits include acting (Atom Egoyan's Exotica, Highway 61 and currently David Cronenberg's eXistenZ), writing (Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould,  The Red Violin) and theatre (The Book of Rejection).

Whatever his success at Cannes with Last Night, he says he will continue with his other endeavours, but, referring to directing, he promises, "I will do more." 
Shlomo Schwartzberg