Indigenous battles win big
Films dominate Canadian Screen Awards.
An Indigenous zombie film was the big winner on the final night of the Canadian Screen Awards, while a feature film about the 1990 Oka Crisis that pitted Mohawk protesters against government forces was named Best Motion Picture.
The film awards, as well as the major television categories, were presented virtually by the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television on Thursday evening, with actors Nahéma Ricci, Stephan James and Karine Vanasse acting as “narrators.”
“Blood Quantum,” by Mi’gmaq writer and director Jeff Barnaby, won six prizes on Thursday for a total of seven overall, including Best Lead Actor for Cree performer Michael Greyeyes. The horror film, about a plague that turns its victims into zombies but spares the members of a Mi’gmaq reserve, also picked up awards for editing, visual effects, art direction, costume design, makeup and, earlier in the week, stunt co-ordination.
Besides getting the top movie award, Tracey Deer’s “Beans” also won the John Dunning Best First Feature Film Award. The semi-autobiographical movie portrays the armed standoff over a golf course expansion on disputed land in Kanesatake, Que., through the eyes of a 12-year-old Mohawk girl.
On the television side, there was no “Schitt’s sweep” as there was at last year’s Emmy Awards for the riches-to-rags CBC comedy “Schitt’s Creek.”
It did win Best Comedy Series and Best Lead Actress in a Comedy for Catherine O’Hara. It was the sixth straight CSA win for O’Hara for playing eccentric matriarch Moira Rose, a role that also won her an Emmy, a Golden Globe and a Screen Actors Guild Award. But the Best Lead Actor in a Comedy prize, for which O’Hara’s costars Daniel and Eugene Levy were both nominated, went to Paul Sun-Hyung Lee for another CBC show, “Kim’s Convenience.”
“Schitt’s,” however, was the biggest TV winner overall with eight awards, including the six prizes it won on Wednesday evening.
On the TV drama side, a new champion was crowned. CTV’s “Transplant,” about a Syrian refugee given a chance to resume his medical career at a Toronto hospital, was named Best Drama Series and star Hamza Haq was named Best Lead Actor in a Drama. That brought the show’s final tally to four awards, including earlier prizes for Best Direction and Writing in a Drama.
The Best Lead Actress in a Drama honour went to Crystle Lightning, one of the stars of CBC’s “Trickster,” a supernatural coming-of-age story based on the novel by Eden Robinson of the Haisla and Heiltsuk First Nations. “Trickster” also won prizes for makeup and production design earlier in the week.
Acting winners on the film side, besides Greyeyes, included Michelle Pfeiffer — yes, that Michelle Pfeiffer — as Best Lead Actress for her role as an aging Manhattan socialite who moves to Paris in “French Exit,” a Canadian-Irish-British coproduction based on the novel by B.C.-born Patrick deWitt.
The Best Supporting Actor and Actress winners were Colm Feore for the film “Sugar Daddy,” about a young, broke female musician who becomes an escort, and Mary Walsh for “Happy Place,” about a group of women living at a mental health clinic. “Sugar Daddy” also picked up Best Original Song for Marie-Hélène L. Delorme.
Second in awards won to “Blood Quantum” on Thursday was “Akilla’s Escape,” a film noir about a Toronto man whose gangland past followed him from Jamaica to Canada, and who tries to help a Black teenager who reminds him of himself. Charles Officer, who wrote and directed the film, won Best Original Screenplay with Wendy Motion Brathwaite. The movie also won prizes for cinematography, sound editing, sound mixing and casting.
The Best Adapted Screenplay award went to Shyam Selvadurai and Deepa Mehta for “Funny Boy,” based on Selvadurai’s 1994 novel about a Sri Lankan boy exploring his sexual identity amid tension between minority Tamils and majority Sinhalese in his home country. Mehta, who was given a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2019 CSAs, also won Best Direction Thursday for the film, which brought Toronto-born Oscar winner Howard Shore his fourth Canadian Screen Award for Original Score.
The Cogeco Fund Audience Choice Award went to Melanie Scrofano, who stars as the demon-slaying great-greatgranddaughter of Wyatt Earp in the supernatural action dramedy “Wynonna Earp.”
Also presented on Thursday were previously announced honorary awards. The Lifetime Achievement Award went to environmentalist and “Nature of Things” host David Suzuki, while late “Jeopardy!” host Alex Trebek won the Academy Icon Award.
The Earle Grey Award, which honours an actor for their body of work in television, went to Tina Keeper, known for the 1990s series “North of 60,” in which she played an Indigenous RCMP officer in a fictional Northwest Territories town.
Daniel Levy, co-creator of “Schitt’s Creek,” won the Radius Award, presented to a Canadian making waves globally in film or TV, while longtime TV writer and producer David Shore (“House M.D.,” “The Good Doctor,” “Law & Order”) got the Margaret Collier Award, which honours a film or TV writer for their body of work.
See academy.ca for a full list of this week’s winners.