Canadian Screen Award Nominations

It’s Canadian Screen Week! Here’s a round up of The Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television (ACCT) inaugural Canadian Screen Award nominees. The joint film and television prizes replace the now retired Genie and Gemini Awards.

Quebec film Rebelle, about a child soldier in Africa explaining her life to the child she’s carrying, which is nominated for a best foreign language film at next month’s Oscars under the name War Witch, leads all nominees with 12 nods, including best picture, director (Kim Nguyen), original screenplay (Nguyen), lead actress (Rachel Mwanza) and supporting actor (Serge Kanyinda).

On the television side, Canadian cop drama Flashpoint picked up 10 nominations about a month to the day after its final episode aired. They include best dramatic series, best writing in a dramatic series (Aubrey Nealon) and best direction (Jim Donovan).

On the film side, Midnight’s Children, adapted from the 1980 Salman Rushdie novel, scored eight nominations including best film, director (Deepa Mehta), best adapted screenplay (Rushdie) and supporting actress (Seema Biswas). As well, Laurence Anyways, a love story between a woman and her boyfriend who yearns to become a woman, followed up its success at the 2012 Cannes and Toronto International Film Festivals, with 10 nominations, including best film, director (Xavier Dolan), actor (Melvil Poupaud), actress (Suzanne Clément – who won an award for best actress at Cannes) and original screenplay (Dolan).

For television, Bomb Girls, the Second World War drama set in a Canadian munitions factory, counts best dramatic series among its six nods, battles it out with hit bush pilot drama Arctic Air, time-travelling police drama Continuum, Flashpoint and the recently cancelled King.

For a full list of Canadian Screen Awards nominees, click here.