Celebrating Canadian content at the Candys

The winners of the 2017 Canadian Screen Awards

By Jerrison Oracion, Senior Columnist

The best of Canadian film, TV, and digital content were celebrated at the Canadian Screen Awards this year. Howie Mandel hosted this year’s awards show and he had a lot of surprises during the ceremony. He talked about what the Canadian Screen Awards should be called: Last year’s host, Norm Macdonald, thought that it should be called the Candys, and Mandel said he thought that it should be called the STD. He then referenced that when he talked to some of the people in the audience, and he also talked about the rivalry between Kim’s Convenience and Schitt’s Creek.

In film, It’s Only the End of the World got Best Film and the most Candys out of any movie, with six wins. It is interesting that the film that got Best Film is a French film directed by a Canadian, since Best Film usually goes to a film from Quebec, or a co-production. No one who acted in the film attended the awards, and the only person who accepted them was one of the producers of the film.

Tatiana Maslany got two Candys, including Best Actress for The Other Half and Best Actress in a Drama for Orphan Black.

In TV, there were a lot of surprises in these categories. For Drama, Orphan Black got Best Drama, and overall it won the most Candys, with nine awards. The show will end this season in June and if you watch the show, you are probably excited to see how it will end. Also, Murdoch Mysteries got four Candys, including the Golden Screen Award for TV, which is given to the show that has the most viewers.

In Comedy, Letterkenny received Best Comedy, being the first show from a streaming service to get the award. I though they would have given it to Kim’s Convenience, which is a great show. I will have to get CraveTV and watch Letterkenny to find out why it won. Kim’s Convenience got the most comedy Candys with four, including Best Actor in a Comedy for Paul Sun-Hyung Lee, and Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy for Andrew Phung, who plays Jung’s roommate and co-worker, Kimchee.

For News, The National and CTV National News both won, in a way. The National got Best Newscast and Best Host of a News Program for Wendy Mesley, and CTV National News got Best Host of a National Newscast for Lisa LaFlamme. In local news, Global News BC got Best Local Reportage for their coverage of the recovery of a missing plane.

The Fan Choice Award went to Natasha Negovanlis, who beat two Murdoch Mysteries actors, Yannick Bisson and Hélène Joy. Negovanlis acts in a show on YouTube called Carmilla, which is about a vampire who likes women, and many people say that it is the best web show on YouTube. Personally, I voted for Paul Sun-Hyung Lee from Kim’s Convenience, who is very funny in the show, and I also voted for Letterkenny’s Jared Kheso.

There were a few other notable achievement awards. Christopher Plummer got a lifetime achievement award, and the Just for Laughs Festival got the Icon Award for their contributions to comedy.

After watching the Canadian Screen Awards, you probably want to watch Canadian content. If you’d like to see a Canadian film, I would recommend watching Weirdos, and if you’d like to watch Canadian TV, there are a lot of shows to watch, including the aforementioned Kim’s Convenience, Murdoch Mysteries, and Letterkenny.