Canadian Screen Award winners to reveal 2020 winners in virtual presentations

TORONTO — The winners of this year’s postponed Canadian Screen Awards will be revealed in a series of virtual presentations later this month.

The Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television made the announcement in partnership with CBC and CTV, and with the support of Telefilm Canada and the Canada

Media Fund.

Organizers say eight pretaped, virtual online shows will be live-streamed from May 25 through May 28 on the academy’s website and its Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube channels.

Presenters include include actor Eric McCormack, journalist Lloyd Robertson, and Toronto Raptors sports announcer Herbie Kuhn.

Last month the academy cancelled all Canadian Screen Week events and postponed the announcement of the winners due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The CBC comedy “Schitt’s Creek” has a leading 26 nominations for this year’s awards, which celebrate Canadian film, TV and digital projects.

The leading film contender is Quebec director Francois

Girard’s violin virtuoso drama “The Song of Names” with nine nominations.

There are 144 film, television, and digital media categories in total.

“As we navigate our new normal, we’ve had to rethink how we come together as a community,” Beth Janson, the academy’s CEO, said Tuesday in a statement.

May 25 virtual presentations will honour the categories of broadcast news, sports programming and documentary and factual.

On May 26, awards will be handed out for children’s and youth programming, and for lifestyle and reality.

The May 27 lineup includes awards for scripted programs.

And the May 28 presentation is devoted to cinematic arts.