Canadian Screen Awards: Blood Quantum, The Nest, Funny Boys, etc...

by Nathaniel R

The Canadian Screen Awards, formerly known as the Genies (Film) and Geminis (TV), have been around in their current form since 2013. The indigenous zombie film Blood Quantum, currently streaming on Shudder, led the nominations for film with 10 citations but missed both picture and director. In second place, in terms of nomination tally, was Deepa Mehta's gay drama Funny Boy (which you'll remember was disqualified as Canada's submission at the Oscars since almost all of its dialogue was in English). If you watch Funny Boy on Netflix, take note that friend of TFE Arun Welandawe Prematillek, plays the teacher in the classroom scenes. The awards ceremony on May 20th will be a virtual event.

The full motion picture nominee list and where you can see some of the films after the jump [THIS POST HAS BEEN UPDATED WITH THE WINNERS IN EACH CATEGORY] ...

Best Motion Picture  

• BEANS ★ A drama about a young Mohawk girl during a violent land dispute in 1990. It's based partially on the director Tracey Deer's childhood
• FUNNY BOY A coming of age drama about a gay Sri Lankan boy and the violent conflicts between Sinhala and Tamil people in Sri Lanka in the early 80s
• NADIA BUTTERFLY A sports drama about an Olympic swimmer struggling to redefine herself after her last Olympic competition. 
• THE NEST We've discussed this marital drama set in the UK in the 1980s a few times already. Jude Law and Carrie Coon star in this film from Sean Durkin (Martha Marcy May Marlene)
• UNDERGROUND / SOUTERRAIN A french language drama about a mining explosion. Sophie Dupuis directs. You might recall that her debut Family First (2018) which also featured rising star Théodore Pellerin (Never Rarely Sometimes Always, Boy Erased) was Canada's Oscar submission a couple years ago. 

You can rent The Nest on most services and Funny Boy streams on Netflix. The others are still unavailable in the US (as far as we know). This season's Canadian Oscar submission 14 Days and 12 Nights, a last minute substitute for Funny Boy, was not eligible since it was in the running for the Canadian Screen Awards last year (although it only received a single nomination).

Actress in a Leading Role 

• Michelle Pfeiffer - French Exit ★
• Carrie Coon - The Nest
• Carmen Moore - Rustic Oracle
• Rosalie Pépin - Vacarme
• Madeleine Sims-Fewer - Violation

Violation is currently streaming on Shudder and French Exit is in theaters Friday.

Actor in a Leading Role

• Saul Williams - Akilla’s Escape
• Michael Greyeyes - Blood Quantum ★
• Alex Wolff - Castle in the Ground
• Lance Henriksen - Falling
• Joakim Robillard - Underground

You can rent Falling, directed by Viggo Mortensen, on most services. Castle in the Ground is currently on Starz. In the latter Alex Wolff (Hereditary) stars as a grieving teen who gets caught up in the opiod epidemic. 

Actress in a Supporting Role 

• Amy Groening - Bone Cage
• Agam Darshi - Funny Boy
• Mary Walsh - Happy Place ★
• Micheline Lanctôt - Laughter
• Felicity Huffman - Tammy’s Always Dying

Tammy's Always Dying is a mother/daughter dramedy on Showtime (and rentable). Not sure what Felicity (the titular character and the mother) is doing in the supporting category.

Actor in a Supporting Role

• Thamela Mpumlwana - Akilla’s Escape
• Ronnie Rowe, Jr. - Akilla’s Escape
• Stephen McHattie - Come to Daddy
• Colm Feore - Sugar Daddy ★
• Jesse LaVercombe - Violation 

Direction

• Deepa Mehta - Funny Boy ★
• Pascal Plante - Nadia, Butterfly
• Sean Durkin - The Nest
• Brandon Cronenberg - Possessor
• Sophie Dupuis - Underground 

Good to see Brandon Cronenberg here even though Possessor didn't make Best Picture; it's surely because the film is too unpleasant. But unpleasant doesn't mean undeserving!

First Feature Film

• Beans - Tracey Deer ★
• The Kid Detective - Evan Morgan 
• Tito - Grace Glowicki
• Vacarme - Neegan Trudel
• Violation - Madeleine Sims-Fewer, Dusty Mancinelli 

The Kid Detective, starring Adam Brody (as a former celebrated kid detective) and Sophie Nelisse, is rentable from most services. Tito is streaming on Amazon Prime. 

Art Direction / Production Design

• Blood Quantum ★
• Falling
• Goddess of the Fireflies 
• Guest of Honour
• The Kid Detective

Guest of Honour is an Atom Egoyan film and rentable from most services. But it didn't score to well at the CSAs as this was one of only a few nods.

Casting

• Akilla’s Escape ★
• Beans
• Blood Quantum
• Falling
• Possessor

Dierdre Bowen is double nominated (Falling, Possessor). 

Cinematography 

• Akilla's Escape ★
• Beans
• Blood Quantum 
• A Fire In The Cold Season 
• Nadia, Butterfly 

Costume Design

• Blood Quantum ★
• Falling
• Happy Place
• The Marijuana Conspiracy
• My Salinger Year 

Editing 

• Blood Quantum ★
• The Cuban 
• The Decline | Jusqu'au déclin 
• Falling
• Sugar Daddy 

Hair

• French Exit
• Happy Place 
• My Salinger Year ★
• Random Acts of Violence 
• Tammy's Always Dying 

Make-Up

• Blood Quantum ★
• Funny Boy
• The Marijuana Conspiracy
• Possessor
• Random Acts of Violence

Interesting to see an awards show that separates hair and makeup. And they only have one crossover nominee Random Acts of Violence a horror film starring Jesse Williams, Jay Baruchel, and Jordana Brewster. It's currently streaming on Shudder.

Music – Original Score

• Michele Osis, Lowell Boland - Bloodthirsty
• Howard Shore - Funny Boy ★
• Mychael Danna - Guest of Honour
• Jay McCarrol - The Kid Detective
• Janal Bechthold - Marlene 

Aw man. Very upsetting that the very terrific score for The Nest wasnt nominated since the Nest showed up in several categories. 

Music – Original Song 

• Lowell Boland, Evan Bogart, Justin Gray - Bloodthirsty - “Grey Singing in Auditorium”
• Hilario Duran - The Cuban - “El Milagro”
• Hilario Duran - The Cuban - “Mambo in Dominante”
• Marie-Hélène L. Delorme - Sugar Daddy - “Timid Joyous Atrocious” ★
• Ariane Moffatt - Thanks for Everything | Merci pour tout - “Merci pour tout”

Sound Editing 

• Akilla’s Escape ★
• Funny Boy
• The Nest
• Random Acts of Violence
• Violation

Sound Mixing

• Akilla’s Escape ★
• Beans
• Funny Boy
• Random Acts of Violence
• Violation

Visual Effects

• Blood Quantum ★
• Code 8
• French Exit
• Funny Boy
• Laughter

So um... how does French Exit make this category and not.... oh... Possessor?

Original Screenplay 

• Akilla’s Escape ★
• Blood Quantum
• The Kid Detective
• The Nest
• Underground

Adapted Screenplay 

• Bone Cage
• French Exit
• Funny Boy ★
• Goddess of the Fireflies
• Monkey Beach

Stunt Coordination 

• Blood Quantum ★
• Goddess of the Fireflies 
• Letterkenny - “National Senior Hockey Championship”
• Trickster - “Episode 105”

Hmmm. for this one category they mix tv and film? And have less nominees. Very strange. 

Documentary Feature 

• The Forbidden Reel 
• Stateless 
• Wandering: A Rohingya Story ★
• A Woman, My Mother 
• The World is Bright

Documentary Cinematography 

• The Free Ones
• Influence
• Nahanni: River of Forgiveness
• Wandering: A Rohingya Story
• Workhorse ★

Documentary Editing 

• Dave Not Coming Back
• The Free Ones
• The New Corporation: The Unfortunately Necessary Sequel
• A Woman, My Mother ★
• The World is Bright

Short Documentary 

• CHSLD - François Delisle
• êmîcêtôcêt: Many Bloodlines - Alexandra Bailey, Theola Ross
• Jesse Jams - Trevor Anderson, Alyson Richards, Alexandra Lazarowich, Penny Frazier, Kim Hsu Guise, Lizzy Karp, Christina Willings
• Mutts | Clebs - Halima Ouardiri
• Sing Me a Lullaby - Tiffany Hsiung ★

Live Action Short 

• Bad Omen - Salar Pashtoonyar
• Benjamin, Benny, Ben - Paul Shkordoff, Jason Aita
• Black Bodies - Kelly Fyffe-Marshall, Tamar Bird, Sasha Leigh Henry ★
• Cayenne - Simon Gionet
• Goodbye Golovin - Mathieu Grimard, Simon Corriveau

Animated Short

• 4 North A - Jordan Canning, Howie Shia, Annette Clarke
• The Fourfold - Alisi Telengut
• The Great Malaise | Le mal du siècle - Catherine Lepage, Marc Bertrand
• Hot Flash - Thea Hollatz, Kristy Neville, Matt Code, Morghan Fortier, Brett Jubinville ★
• I, Barnabé | Moi, Barnabé - Jean-François Lévesque, Julie Roy 

The Canadian Screen Awards also have TV and Digital Media awards but that document was literally 8 times as long as what is shared above and some of it is very local so we didn't have the strength. It's like the Grammy and Emmys actually in that the non-film categories go on and on covering every possible variation of things. But here are a few things we noticed perusing that list which you can see in its entirety here.

Canadian comedy appears to travel more than Canadian drama (we've often wondered why we don't get more Canadian programming in the US since it's often in English but streaming is making it more accessible). Still we recognized just one of the drama series nominees (Vikings) compared to 3 of the comedy nominees (Letterkenny, Schitt's Creek, Kim's Convenience).

The lead actor in a drama race is a very attractive bunch and we've loved Billy Campbell our whole lives but are always losing track of what he's doing (as he does a lot of network type work in genres that aren't personal favourites like procedurals).

and Peter Knegt, who we know slightly from his days at IndieWire and from film festivals has three nominations within "Digital Media".  Congrats, Peter!

So proud of these three projects and the *stunning* people I worked on them with. Thank you so much @TheCdnAcademy and also ♥️♥️♥️ my fellow nominees @OunoMeme @romeocandido @LuciusDechausay @marchmercanti @mikebickerton @mikeyerxa @eleanorgrace @jeffhume @kc_hoard. pic.twitter.com/SMSEJPmAkP

— Peter Knegt (@peterknegt) March 30, 2021

FINAL WINNERS NOTE: In the television categories Schitt's Creek dominated winning Best Comedy Series, Best Direction, Best Writing, Best Costume Design, Best Hair, Best Casting, Best Lead Actress (Catherine O'Hara), Best Supporting Actress (Emily Hampshire). The well loved Kim's Convenience also picked up three acting prizes for Paul Sun-Hyung Lee, Andrew Phung, and Amanda Brugel

Comments

[Sean Younger]

Pfeiffer got the crumbs.

[Julian]

Carrie Coon!!!
She was outstanding in The Nest and glad to see her get some much deserved recognition.

[Robert G]

Random Acts of Violence is a solid horror film. I’m glad to see it’s technical elements embraced somewhere. Definitely not for everyone.

[Abe]

It's nice to see Akilla's Escape do so well. That was the only film I saw from TIFF last year and found it to be quite unusual and good.

[J]

At the beginning of the season, I though Viggo Mortenssen was going to get award love for Falling. I had forgotten that until I saw this list 😅

[harmodio]

Some years ago these awards were promoted under the name "Candys Awards" in honor of John Candy. It was in 2016 if I'm not mistaken and several presenters and winners called the statuette for that name. It was a trend on social media and John Candy's family was honored with the tribute.
I am surprised that the idea was not kept.

[JW]

As a Canadian, I was surprised to learn French Exit and The Nest are considered Canadian productions. Will see Michelle this weekend.

[Mirko]

Glad FUNNY BOY found some support among Canadian Awards (after all it was submitted to the Oscar at beginning). It's not Mehta's masterpiece and the controversies regarding the NOT casting of tamil thespians (even if they said that some tamil actors considered by the director didn't accept to partecipate to the project) was quite harsh. Still as an adaptaion of the (good) novel it works and it's always a pleasure to watch an Asian queer coming of age

[Glenn Dunks]

I know there is obviously much more to it, but FALLING getting a casting nominations when Viggo starred in it himself as well as direct is kinda funny.

Weird that POSSESSOR got director, casting and make-up and... nothing else? That's an odd assemblage of nominations for one of the highest profile films on the list. I wonder what Canadians didn't like about it. I do like that Canada makes this many movies in the first place. Australian award shows are basically the same five or six titles nominated in every damn caregory.

[Morgan (the 1st)]

Felicity Huffman is a borderline case but the primary lead is Anastasia Phillips. She's excellent in the film.

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