Canadian Screen Awards nominees announced

Awards show recognizing Canadian film and TV

By Jerrison Oracion, Senior Columnist

While many people debate if either La La Land or Moonlight will get the Academy Award for Best Picture at the Oscars this year, any film could win the award for Best Film in the Canadian Screen Awards. Also, a lot of great shows have been nominated for this year’s awards. The nominations of the 2017 Canadian Screen Awards were announced a few weeks ago. These awards celebrate Canadian film and television, and it is basically the Canadian version of the Academy and Emmy Awards.

The films that are nominated are great, and all of them are strong contenders. While I know most of the films, some people may not recognize them. Most of these nominees are films that were shown in the Vancouver International Film Festival and they are released in limited release. The nominations for Best Film are Weirdos, Those Who Make Revolution Halfway Only Dig Their Own Graves, Searchers, Race, Operation Avalanche, Old Stone, It’s Only the End of the World, Hello Destroyer, Before the Streets, and Bad Seeds.

Xavier Dolan’s film It’s Only the End of the World got the most nominations with nine, despite the film being a French film with a mostly French cast. Weirdos, which is about two hitchhikers in Nova Scotia in the 1970s, got six nominations.

Those Who Make Revolution Halfway Only Dig Their Own Graves, which received Best Canadian Film at the Toronto International Film Festival last year, is about four people in Quebec becoming terrorists. A local BC film called Hello Destroyer, which is about a hockey player who is banned from his team because he broke the rules, got nominations including Best Actor for Fear the Walking Dead’s Jared Abrahamson. The Other Half is also nominated with two nominations, including Best Actress for Tatiana Maslany’s portrayal of Emily and Best Supporting Actor for Henry Czerny, who plays her father. Maslany’s other film Two Lovers and a Bear could have been nominated for Best Film, but was not selected.

In TV, there were a lot of great shows this fall. Canadian TV has been excellent this season compared to the US, where the only new shows this fall that stood out are Westworld and The Crown. Comedy is an interesting category this year because any show could win for Best Comedy. The number one new show in Canada this fall, Kim’s Convenience, received a lot of nominations including Best Comedy, Best Actor for Paul Sun-Hyung Lee, and Best Actress for both Jean Yoon and Burnaby’s Andrea Bang. Last year’s winner for Best Comedy, Schitt’s Creek, also has a lot of nominations, and so does CraveTV’s Letterkenny.

The drama category will be tough this year. Orphan Black (which will end this season) got the most nominations with 14, including Best Drama and Best Actress for Maslany for the fourth year in a row. However, it will have to battle other shows including last year’s winner for Best Drama, 19-2, History Channel’s Vikings, This Life, and Omni’s Blood & Water. Discovery Channel’s Frontier, which is about the Hudson’s Bay Company, is also nominated.

With the 150th birthday of Canada, we should all celebrate Canadian film and TV by watching them on DVD, unless you’d like to watch Letterkenny, which you need to have CraveTV to see.

The Canadian Screen Awards airs March 12 on CBC, and Howie Mandel hosting.