EMMYS TO CANDYS
Tatiana Maslany and Orphan Black are among the leading Canadian Screen Awards nominees,
Canada’s Oscar challenger It’s Only the End of the World and TV sci-fi series Orphan Black top this year’s nominations for the Canadian Screen Awards, a.k.a. the Candys.
It’s Only the End of the World, Xavier Dolan’s drama about a terminally ill gay man’s emotional return to his fractious family, took a leading nine nominations in the film section of the Candys, which were announced Tuesday. The movie is shortlisted in the Oscars’ Best Foreign Language Film category, with nominations to be unveiled Jan. 24.
Perennial TV winner Orphan Black, a sci-fi thriller series starring Emmy winner Tatiana Maslany as multiple clones, leads the broadcast section of the Candys with 14 nominations, including Best Dramatic Series.
Both the film and TV leaders have competitors snapping at their heels.
Race, a dramatic biopic by Stephen Hopkins about history-making Olympic runner Jesse Owens, played by Stephan James, has eight Candy noms, including Best Motion Picture.
And the TV series Schitt’s Creek has 13 nominations, including Best Comedy Series. Kim’s Convenience has 11 Candy noms, Best Comedy Series among them.
Other top film nominees are the dramas Before the Streets, Operation Avalanche and Weirdos, each with six nominations, including Best Motion Picture.
The rest of the 10 Best Motion Picture nominees are Old Stone (five nominations), Bad Seeds (four), Hello Destroyer (four), Those Who Make Revolution Halfway Only Dig Their Own Graves (three) and Maliglutit (Searchers) (two).
Besides Orphan Black and Schitt’s Creek, other top nominees in the TV/ digital categories are 19-2 and Vikings, both with nine nods; CBC News: The National and Letterkenny, both with eight; and Frontier and The Amazing Race Canada, both with seven nominations.
It’s Only the End of the World, which stars Marion Cotillard, Vincent Cassel, Léa Seydoux, Nathalie Bye and Gaspard Ulliel, was assailed by critics for its melodramatic flourishes upon its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival last May. Dolan was so rattled by the response he mused about possibly never returning to Cannes, yet at the end of the festival his film won the Grand Prix, which is second only to the Palme d’Or among Cannes honours. Now it’s Canada’s Oscar standard-bearer and a Candy leader.
Roughly half of the nominees for Best Motion Picture have yet to open in Toronto, Canada’s largest movie market.
The TV series up for Candy glory, meanwhile, are mostly both critical and popular favourites.
The Candys, the combo awards replacing the Genies for film and Geminis for TV, acquired their new nickname during last year’s telecast.
Host Norm Macdonald declared that it was finally time to make good on the long-proposed suggestion that the awards be named in honour of the late John Candy, a popular star of both Canadian films and television.
This year’s telecast is set for March 12, with Howie Mandel hosting. Canadian actor Christopher Plummer, an Oscar winner for Beginners, will be presented a lifetime achievement award at the ceremony.