BlackBerry, Sort Of, Little Bird dominate Canadian Screen Award nominations

Succession-style tech drama BlackBerry tops the nomination list for the Canadian Screen Awards' film category - not just for this year, but for any year in the awards' history.

BlackBerry pulled in 17 nods in categories including best motion picture, best di‐ rection, and best perfor‐ mance in a leading role (Jay Baruchel) and supporting role (Glenn Howerton). Those nominations pushed the Matt Johnson-directed movie - based on the rise and fall of the BlackBerry cellphone and its Canadian makers - past the previous record-holder, Brother, which went into last year's ceremony with 14 nominations, eventually win‐ ning 12.

In total, 216 feature, docu‐ mentary and short films re‐ ceived nominations for this year's Canadian Screen Awards, which were created through the merger of the Genie and Gemini awards in 2012. The nominees were unveiled Wednesday.

WATCH | BlackBerry's ex-CEO gives his opinion on the film:

Best motion picture BlackBerry Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person Infinity Pool Red Rooms Richelieu Solo

Achievement in direc‐ tion, film

Matt Johnson, BlackBerry Ariane Louis-Seize, Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person Brandon Cro‐ nenberg, Infinity Pool Henri Pardo, Kanaval Pascal Plante, Red Rooms Sophie Dupuis, Solo

But as usual, it was TV that truly led the pack this year. Limited series Little Bird and dramedy Sort Of re‐ ceived 19 and 18 nomina‐ tions, respectively, dominat‐ ing their fields of drama and comedy.

For Sort Of, which aired its final season late last year, the nominations capped an im‐ pressive record at the awards. Co-created by Fab Filippo and star Bilal Baig, it won best comedy series in 2022 and 2023.

It is now up for awards in directing, writing, editing and supporting comedy per‐ former (Amanda Cordner, El‐ lora Patnaik and Supinder Wraich). Perhaps surprisingly, Sort Of is not nominated for best comedy series this year.

Best comedy series

Bria Mack Gets a Life Let‐ terkenny Shelved Son of a Critch Workin' Moms

Best drama series

Essex County Little Bird Plan B Slasher: Ripper Trans‐ plant

Little Bird is based on the Sixties Scoop, a historical practice that saw the Canadi‐ an government remove In‐ digenous children from their families to be adopted or put into foster care. The series, co-created by Jennifer Podemski, is up for best drama series, best direction, best supporting performer (Braeden Clarke) and best lead performer (Darla Con‐ tois and Ellyn Jade), among others.

Close races

Workin' Moms was the third most-nominated series, pick‐ ing up 12 for its final season. The Catherine Reitman-fron‐ ted series has been nomi‐ nated every year since 2018. This year it competes for best ensemble performance in a comedy, best lead performer in a comedy (for both Reit‐ man and Dani Kind), best comedy series and others.

Following BlackBerry in nominations for the film cat‐ egory is Quebec's Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person, which scored 12 nominations, including best picture and best perfor‐ mance in a leading role (Sara Montpetit). Director Ariane Louis-Seize also earned a nomination, making her one of two women up for the best director award, along with Sophie Dupuis for Solo.

Earlier this week, LouisSeize received the Toronto Film Critics Association's Stel‐ la Artois Jay Scott Prize for emerging artists. The associ‐ ation's top prize - the $100,000 Rogers Best Cana‐ dian Film Award - was split between BlackBerry and Swan Song, a documentary profiling ballerina Karen Kain; however, while the Canadian Screen Awards recognized BlackBerry, Swan Song was not nominated for best fea‐ ture-length documentary.

Ted Rogers best featurelength documentary

Beyond Paper Kite Zo A: Leave the Bones The Longest Goodbye Some‐ one Lives Here Twice Colonized

Best factual series

Bollywed Cocaine, Prison & Likes: Isabelle's True Story Dark Side of the Ring Little Big Com‐ munity Thunder Bay

Other notable nominees in‐ clude Brandon Cronenberg's Infinity Pool, with 11 nomina‐ tions - equalling his father David Cronenberg's nomina‐ tion count in 2023 for Crimes of the Future. Infinity Pool is in the running for best mo‐ tion picture, best original screenplay and best perfor‐ mance in a leading role for both Mia Goth and Alexander Skarsgård.

Dani Pagliarello and Aisha Evelyna's woman-led produc‐ tion The Drop and Vivek Shraya's coming-of-age drama How to Fail as a Pop‐ star lead digital media series nominations, with five each.

Managed by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television, the 2024 Canadi‐ an Screen Awards will take place over four separate cer‐ emonies in late May - nearly six weeks later than normal.

The academy transitioned the final broadcast show into a pre-taped ceremony last year, stitching together high‐ lights from the different cere‐ monies. It led to considerable pushback, including from Schitt's Creek star Eugene Levy.

Organizers confirmed that the 2024 awards will once again be pre-taped. They will culminate on May 31 with a show hosted by comedian

Mae Martin, which will air on CBC and CBC Gem at 8:00 p.m. ET.

Other nominees include: John Dunning best first feature film award

Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Sui‐ cidal Person In Flames Kanaval Richelieu Some‐ thing You Said Last Night Through the Night

Performance in a leading role - Film, drama

Mia Goth, Infinity Pool Alexander Skarsgård, In‐ finity Pool Rayan Dieudonné, Kanaval Oyin Oladejo, Orah Am‐ rit Kaur, The Queen Of My Dreams Juliette Gar‐ iépy, Red Rooms Ariane Castellanos, Richelieu Théodore Pellerin, Solo

WATCH | The consistent success of French Canadian films:

Performance in a lead‐ ing role - Film, comedy

Jay Baruchel, BlackBerry Cody Lightning, Hey, Viktor! Félix-Antoine Bé‐ nard, Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Sui‐ cidal Person Sara Mont‐ petit, Humanist Vam‐ pire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person Magalie Lépine Blondeau, The Nature of Love Alexan‐ dra Billings, Queen Tut Susan Kent, Who's Yer Father? Chris Locke, Who's Yer Father?

Best lead drama series

Mayko Nguyen, Hudson & Rex Darla Contois, Lit‐ tle Bird Ellyn Jade, Little Bird Victor Garber, Family Law Meredith MacNeill, Pretty Hard Cases Adrienne C. Moore, Pretty Hard Cases Hamza Haq, Transplant Laurence Leboeuf, Transplant

Best lead comedy series

performer,

performer,

Meaghan Rath, Children Ruin Everything Carolyn Taylor, I Have Nothing Andrew Phung, Run the Burbs Chris Sandiford, Shelved Benjamin Evan Ainsworth, Son of a Critch Dani Kind, Work‐ in' Moms Catherine Re‐ itman, Workin' Moms