Canadian Screen Awards honour film, TV
The Breadwinner, Maudie and Kim’s Convenience were among the big winners at Sunday night’s Canadian Screen Awards.
Maudie, about the life of Nova Scotia folk artist Maudie Lewis, was named best picture and also won awards for stars Sally Hawkins (lead actress) and Ethan Hawke (supporting actor).
Big winners in the television categories included Anne —a new take on the Anne of Green Gables stories, which won for best dramatic series, and Kim’s Convenience, which was named best comedy.
Sarah Gadon earned an award for lead performance in a limited series for her role as Grace Marks in the Margaret Atwood adaptation Alias Grace. Billy Campbell was named best lead actor in a limited series for Cardinal.
Several special awards were also bestowed at Sunday night’s gala in Toronto, which concluded the weeklong program of Canadian Screen Awards events. Actor/director Clark Johnson, CBC personality Rick Mercer and former anchor Peter Mansbridge were honoured for their work.
Canadian Screen Awards cohosts Jonny Harris and Emma Hunter kicked off Sunday’s show by riffing on all things Canuck.
The two did a bit on the chemistry between Olympic ice dance champions Scott Moir and Tessa Virtue, cracked cloning jokes about the Space sci-fi hit Orphan Black, and re- marked on how it took four anchors to replace Mansbridge on the CBC flagship news program The National.
“Makes me feel better that it only took two of us to replace (last year’s host) Howie Mandel,” said Harris, a CBC staple on the series Still Standing and Murdoch Mysteries.
The Breadwinner, based on Canadian author Deborah El- lis’s children’s novel about a young girl who helps her family in Afghanistan, won trophies in the pre-broadcast show including best adapted screenplay for Anita Doron.
“I think her courage and compassion started it all,” Doran said backstage of Ellis, who based her book on the testimony of Afghan women in refugee camps in Pakistan.
“Everybody on the team was making the same film with the same intention — to be authentic, to tell the truth and to tell the truth of this girl.”
Maudie’s other trophies including best original screenplay for Sherry White.
Other multiple winners early in the night included Hochelaga, Land of Souls, which was Canada’s pick for the best foreign language film category at this year’s Oscars but ultimately didn’t make the short list. It won trophies including best art direction and best cinematography.
Bahar Nouhian of the Tehran teen drama film Ava won best actress in a supporting role.
“For all the women, thank you,” Nouhian said onstage.
Efforts to eradicate sexual misconduct in the entertainment industry were a topic on the red carpet as attendees wore pins for the #AfterMeToo group, which is aimed at mobilizing reform on sexual violence in the workforce.