Canadian Screen Awards Nominations

by Nathaniel R

Nominations have been announced for the annual Canadian Screen Awards (formerly known as the Genies for film, and Geminis for TV).

Best Motion Picture  

• DRUNKEN BIRDS (6 nominations) - a Mexican man tries to find a lost love in Montréal
• NIGHT OF THE KINGS (2 nominations) - In the Ivory Coast's most dangerous prison, a new convict tries to survive the night by entertaining the prisoners with a story. [Streaming on Hulu]
• NIGHT RAIDERS  (11 nominations) - a mom joins a vigilante group to rescue her daughter [Available to rent online]
• SCARBOROUGH (11 nominations) - three poor children become friends
• WILDHOOD  (6 nominations) - a two-spirit teen runs away from home in this LGBTQ coming of age film.

Full list of nominees and a few comments after the jump...

Yes, that's two former Oscar submissions in the list, Drunken Birds which was Canada's bid for 2021 and the excellent Night of the Kings which was Ivory Coast's finalist for 2020. Night of the Kings was an international production with Canada involved which is why it's eligible here. It nabbed only two nominations -- Editing and the top prize! It's currently available to stream on Hulu.

Actress in a Leading Role 

• Aviva Armour-Ostroff - Lune
• Aliya Kanani - Scarborough
• Alana Hawley Purvis - Range Roads (Streaming on Hoopla)
• Julia Sarah Stone - Come True (Streaming on Hulu)
• Elle-Maija Railfeathers - Night Raiders

Lune is a mother-daughter drama about bipolar disorder. Come True is a thriller about a teenage runaway participating in a sleep study.

Actor in a Leading Role

Phillip Lewitzki in "Wildhood"

• Rogelio Balagtas -Islands
• Pavle Cemerikic - The White Fortress / Tabija
• Liam Diaz - Scarborough
• Phillip Lewitski - Wildhood
• Thomas Antony Olajide - Learn to Swim

Philip Lewitski might be familiar to some of you. He was a series regular on Utopia Falls and a recurring character on Vikings.

If The White Fortress sounds familiar that's because it was Bosnia and Herzegovina's Oscar submission this year. 

Actress in a Supporting Role 

Tanja Björk in "The Noise of Engines" 

• Tanja Björk - The Noise of Engines
• Cherish Violet Blood - Scarborough
• Kate Corbett - The Righteous
• Marine Johnson - Drunken Birds
• Gail Maurice - Night Raiders

Actor in a Supporting Role

Mark O'Brien in "The Righteous"

• Esteban Comilang - Islands
• David La Haye - Confessions of a Hitman
• Claude Legault - Drunken Birds
• Mark O'Brien - The Righteous
• Joshua Odjick - Wildhood

The actor Mark O'Brien (Ready or Not) co-stars in his directorial debut, an occult thriller, so he directed himself to this nomination. 

Direction

• Anthony Scott Burns - Come True
• Danis Goulet - Night Raiders
• Philippe Gregoire - The Noise of Engines
• Bretten Hannam - Wildhood
• Shasha Nakhai & Rich Williamson - Scarborough

First Feature Film

"Islands"

• Islands - Martin Edralin
• Night Raiders - Danis Goulet
• Noise of Engines - Philippe Gregoire
• Scabrorough - Shasha Nakhai & Rich Williamson 
• Sin La Habana - Kaveh Nabatian (Available to rent online) 

Islands we actually saw at a film festival. It's a good film about a shy middle aged Filipino man (Rogelio Balagtas) who is terrified that he'll be alone after his parents die.

Noise of Engines is  about a teacher who is under surveillance due to mysterious sexually explicit drawings that cause a scandal in the town.

Art Direction / Production Design

• All My Puny Sorrows
• Drunken Birds
• The Exchange
• Maria Chapdelaine
• The Time Thief

Casting

Sarah Gadon and Alison Pill star in "All My Puny Sorrows"

• All My Puny Sorrows
• Night Raiders
• The Retreat (horror movie - available to stream on Showtime)
• Scarborough
• Wildhood

All My Puny Sorrows is a drama about two sisters, one a pianist and one a writer. One of them is suicidal. So something like a Night Mother Sister? 

Cinematography 

• All My Puny Sorrows
• Drifting Snow
• Drunken Birds
• Scarborough
• You Will Remember Me

Costume Design

• The Exchange
• Maria Chapdelaine
• Night Raiders
• The Time Thief
• The Vinland Club

Editing 

• All My Puny Sorrows
• Cinema of Sleep
• Drunken Birds
• Goodbye Happiness
• Night of the Kings

Hair

• Confessions of a Hitman
• The Exchange
• Maria Chapdelaine
• The Time Thief
• The Vinland Club

Make-Up

"Brain Freeze"

• Brain Freeze (horror - Streaming on Amazon Prime)
• Dangerous (available to rent online)
• Maria Chapdelaine
• Night Raiders
• The Retreat

Brain Freeze is a zombie picture. Every country is making them every year now, right? It's its own cinematic pandemic.

Music – Original Score

• All My Puny Sorrows
• Between Waves
• Cinema of Sleep
• Jasmine Road
• Motherly (horror - available to rent online) 

Music – Original Song 

• Bootlegger - “Surface Nord”
• Delia's Gone - “Ring Them Fantasy”
• Goodbye Happiness - “Drop the Rock”
• Learn to Swim - “And Then We Don't” 
• Woman in Car - “Lovers are Falling”

Sound Editing 

• All My Puny Sorrows
• Dino Diana: The Movie
• Kicking Blood
• PAW Patrol: The Movie (streaming on Paramount+)
• Scarborough

Sound Mixing

• All My Puny Sorrows
• Brain Freeze
• Night Raiders
• PAW Patrol: The Movie
• Scarborough

Visual Effects

• All My Puny Sorrows
• Brain Freeze
• Dino Dana: The Movie
• Night Raiders
• The Time Thief

Original Screenplay 

• Night Raiders
• The Righteous
• Sin La Habana
• The White Fortress / Tabija
• Wildhood

Adapted Screenplay 

• Charlotte
• Confessions of a Hitman
• Scarborough
• The Time Thief
• You Will Remember Me

Stunt Coordination 

• Dangerous
• Pretty Hard Cases - "Jellybeans"
• The Retreat
• See For Me

For this one category they mix tv and film and have less nominees. We can't figure it.

Documentary Feature 

• Captive
• Kimmapilyipitssini: The Meaning of Empathy
• My Tree
• One of Ours (streaming on AMC and Fubo)
• Prayer for a Lost Mitten

Documentary Cinematography 

• Coextinction
• Forest for the Trees
• Kimmapiiyipitssini: The Meaning of Empathy
• The Magnitude of All Things
• Prayer for a Lost Mitten

Documentary Editing 

• The Gig is Up
• I Might Be Dead By Tomorrow
• Kimmapiiyipitssini: The Meaning of Empathy
• The Magnitude of All Things
• My Tree

Short Documentary 

• Babushka
• The Brother
• Nalujuk Night
• Nuisance Bear
• Still Processiing

Live Action Short 

• Fanmi
• Girls Shouldn't Walk Alone at Night
• In the Jam Jar
• Like the Ones I Used to Know
• Ousmane

Animated Short

• Angakusajaujuq: The Shaman's Apprentice
• Boobs
• Flowing Home
• The Hangman at Home
• Meneath: The Hidden Island of Ethics

The Shaman's Apprentice and Flowing Home were Oscar finalists, but did not make the nominations in Oscar's parallel category.

The Canadian Screen Awards also have TV and Digital Media awards but that's eight times the amount of information shared here like it's the Grammys or something with an endless amount of categories.  If you're really curious you can see all the nominees here. Some of the more well-known series nominated for various prizes are Kim's Convenience, Letterkenny, Canada's Drag Race, PAW Patrol, The Hardy Boys, Vikings, and Wynonna Earp.

Comments

[Owl]

I saw Martin Edralin's Islands after its brief run at SXSW in 2021. I like it a lot: the slowness of the pace of the story is objective correlative to the icy and glacial environments of the setting and the gradual thawing of frozen emotions, only to be shattered and made whole again. I am glad non-professional actor Rogelio Balagtas got cited for his performance (he is quietly heartbreaking), and his onscreen dad - Esteban Comilang - who I think is also a non-professional actor. Such naturalness and lived-in characterisations, Islands is like a documentary.