11th Canadian Screen Awards

The 11th Canadian Screen Awards, presented by the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television, honoured achievements in Canadian film, television and digital media production in 2022.[1] The ceremonies were held at Meridian Hall in Toronto from April 11–14, 2023, as part of Canadian Screen Week. Highlights of the ceremonies aired in a CBC Television special on April 16, 2023, hosted by Samantha Bee.

11th Canadian Screen Awards
DateApril 11–14, 2023 (Canadian Screen Week)
April 16, 2023 (television broadcast)
LocationMeridian Hall, Toronto, Ontario
Highlights
Most awardsFilm: Brother (12)
TV: The Porter (12)
Most nominationsFilm: Brother (14)
TV: The Porter (19)
Best Motion PictureBrother
Best Dramatic SeriesThe Porter
Best Comedy SeriesSort Of
Television/radio coverage
NetworkCBC Television
← 10th · Canadian Screen Awards · 12th →

Nominees for all awards were announced on February 22, 2023. Brother led the film nominations, with 14 nods, while the CBC/BET+ drama The Porter led in television with 19 nods.[2] Brother and The Porter would each win 12 awards, including the awards for best motion picture and dramatic series respectively.

Ceremony information

edit

After being held as a virtual event every year since 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2023 Canadian Screen Week festivities returned to being an in-person event. Genre-specific awards galas were hosted at Toronto's Meridian Hall from April 11–14.[3]

Television coverage would consist of an hour-long special hosted by comedian Samantha Bee, which premiered April 16 on CBC Television. The special featured highlights of the non-televised galas, segments highlighting the special award recipients, and the results of the Audience Choice award vote.[3] The previous year's ceremony used a similar format accompanying a series of streaming presentations throughout the week, but the results for top categories were reserved for the CBC special.[4]

The new format was described as an attempt at making an entertainment-oriented special, given the ratings difficulties that traditional awards show telecasts have faced in recent years: producer Roma Ahi stated that there would be "more emphasis this time on storytelling than there would be during a live show where audiences are watching to see what people are wearing, what is said during acceptance speeches". Ahi's partner Katie Lafferty added that "we have to be entertainment-first, and the fun is in gathering what those moments could be from the various in-person ceremonies that happen earlier in the week."[4]

The decision faced mixed reactions from several actors and filmmakers, most notably Eugene Levy, who felt that their achievements could potentially be overlooked (notwithstanding that even the live telecasts were unable to feature every single award due to time constraints).[5][4]

Category changes

edit

In August 2022, the academy announced that it would discontinue its past practice of presenting gendered awards for film and television actors and actresses; beginning in 2023, gender-neutral awards for Best Performance were presented, with eight nominees per category instead of five.[6] Some of the other acting categories, notably those for guest performance, youth performance in children's programming, television films and web series performance were already gender-neutral.[7]

Old category New category
Best Actor Best Lead Performance in a Film
Best Actress
Best Supporting Actor Best Supporting Performance in a Film
Best Supporting Actress
Best Actor in a Comedy Series Best Leading Performance in a Comedy Series
Best Actress in a Comedy Series
Best Actor in a Drama Series Best Leading Performance in a Drama Series
Best Actress in a Drama Series
Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series Best Supporting Performance in a Comedy Series
Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series
Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Program or Series Best Supporting Performance in a Drama Program or Series
Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Program or Series

Other changes included the introduction of new categories for Best Original Music in a Documentary, Best Original Song in Television, Best Picture Editing - Children's or Youth and Best Writing - Pre-School, the splitting of television music and sound categories from a simple fiction/non-fiction distinction into several new categories for particular genres of fiction and non-fiction programming, and the introduction of a revised jury process for the John Dunning Best First Feature Award.

Special awards

edit

Recipients of the academy's special awards were announced on January 18, 2023.[8]

Film

edit
Best Motion Picture Best Direction
Best Lead Performance Best Supporting Performance
Best Original Screenplay Best Adapted Screenplay
Best Feature Length Documentary Best Short Documentary
Best Live Action Short Drama Best Animated Short
Best Art Direction/Production Design Best Cinematography
Best Costume Design Best Editing
Best Sound Editing Best Sound Mixing
Best Original Score Best Original Song
Best Makeup Best Hair
Best Cinematography in a Documentary Best Editing in a Documentary
Best Original Music in a Documentary Best Visual Effects
  •   Peter MacAuley, Kayden Anderson, Tom Turnbull and Caitlin Foster, Crimes of the Future
  • Landon Bootsma, Dexter Davey, Ashley Hampton, Milton Muller and Dmitry Vinnik, Until Branches Bend
  • Jean-François (Jafaz) Ferland, Marie-Claude Lafontaine and Charles Lamoureux, Lines of Escape (Lignes de fuite)
  • Eric Gambini, Sarah Krusch Flanagan, Louis Mackall, Virginie Strub, Andrew Joe, Gabriel Chiang and Linus Burghardt, Bones of Crows
  • Marc Hall, Babysitter
  • James Anthony Young, Cult Hero
John Dunning Best First Feature Best Casting
Golden Screen Award

Television

edit

Programs

edit
Drama series Comedy series
Animated program or series Documentary program
Children's or youth fiction Children's or youth non-fiction
Biography or Arts Documentary Program or Series History Documentary Program or Series
Lifestyle Program or Series Pre-School Program or Series
Reality/Competition series Factual Program or Series
Science or Nature Documentary Program or Series (Rob Stewart Award) Social/Political Documentary Program (Donald Brittain Award)
Sketch comedy program or series Variety or entertainment special
Talk program or series Performing arts program
TV movie Entertainment news program or series
Live entertainment special

Actors

edit
Lead performance, drama Supporting performance, drama
Lead performance, comedy Supporting performance, comedy
Performance in a television film or miniseries Performance in a children's or youth program or series
Performance in a guest role in a comedy series Performance in a guest role in a drama series
Performance in an animated program or series Performance in a variety or sketch comedy program or series

News and information

edit
News special News information series
National newscast Local newscast
News anchor, national News anchor, local
News reporter, national News reporter, local
News or information program News or information segment
Host or interviewer, news or information program or series Host, talk show or entertainment news
Host or presenter, factual or reality/competition Host, live entertainment special
Host, lifestyle Morning show

Sports

edit
Live sporting event coverage Sports analyst
Sports host Sports play-by-play
Sports program or series Sports feature segment
  •   Josh Shiaman, Rick Westhead, Nigel Akam, Darren Oliver and Michael Banani, "Left Behind" — TSN
  • Rob Dunn, Adam Fair, Kevin Fallis and Jason Wessel, "High Heat: Alli Schroder Story" — TSN
  • Tracy Britnell, Devon Burns, Owen Ewers, Richard Liani, Adam Parsons and David Midgley, "Naked" — TSN
  • Josh Shiaman, Farhan Lalji, Jacob Frenkel, Michael Banani and Jason Wessel, "Pivot: The Sheldon Guy Story" — TSN
Sports opening

Craft awards

edit
Editorial research Visual research
Make-Up Hair
Costume design Visual effects
  •   Joe Kicak and Sebastian Harder, Detention Adventure: "Negative Space"
  • Matthew J.R. Bishop, Nial McFadyen, Susan Sullivan, Cody McCaig, Stephen Curran, James Wallace, Jeff Robinson, Belma Abdicevic, Tom Perry and Steve Lowry, Odd Squad Mobile Unit: "Odd Together Now"
  • Jonathon Corbiere, Flavio de Paula, Julia Nadeau, Steve Murphy, Suzanna Brusikiewicz and Tyler Sammy, History by the Numbers: "The Roaring 20s"
  • Alex Nadon, 2022 Legacy Awards
  • Andy Powell and Raymond Pang, Super Wish: "The Floor Is Definitely Not Lava"
Production design/art direction in a fiction program or series Production design/art direction in a non-fiction program or series
  •   Réjean Labrie, Jon Van Winkle and Sara McCudden, The Porter: "Episode 101"
  • Bill Fleming, Moonshine: "44.6304N 64.0515W"
  • Ingrid Jurek, M-A Orenstein and Jenn Luckas, Sort Of: "Sort Of Janazah"
  • Bob Sher, Murdoch Mysteries: "The Night Before Christmas"
  • Brian Verhoog, Joel Guzman, Brianna Trush and Andrew Hill, The Hardy Boys: "An Unexpected Return"
Casting, fiction Casting, non-fiction

Photography

edit
Photography in a comedy series Photography in a documentary program or factual series
Photography in a drama program or series Photography in a lifestyle or reality program or series
Photography in a news or information program, series or segment

Editing

edit
Editing in a comedy program or series Editing in a dramatic program or series
Editing in a children's or youth program or series Editing in a documentary program or series
Editing in a factual program or series Editing in a reality or competition program or series

Sound

edit
Sound in a fiction program or series Sound in a documentary or factual program or series
  •   Mario Auclair, Sylvain Brassard, Christian Rivest, Guy Pelletier, Claude Champagne, Guy Francoeur, Gaël Poisson-Lemay, Simon Pelletier and Simon-Pierre Fortin Leclerc, Transplant: "Rumination"
  • Ed Douglas, David McCallum, Marvyn Dennis, Peter Thillaye, Stef Fraticelli, Jason Charbonneau, Martin Lee, Graham Rogers and Russ Dyck, The Porter: "Episode 108"
  • Paul Germann, Martin Gwynn Jones, Rob Ainsley, Bryan Day, Graham Rogers, Goro Koyama and Jenna Dalla Riva, Sort Of: "Sort Of Future"
  • Janice Ierulli, Mark Shnuriwsky, Matthew Hussey, Dave Johnson, Marco Döelle, Harvey Hyslop, Hilary Thomson and Matthew Thomson, Hudson & Rex: "No Man Is an Island"
  • Graham Rogers, Stacy Coutts, Sue Conley, Paul Germann and Zenon Waschuk, Pretty Hard Cases: "Pigeon Party"
Sound in a lifestyle, reality or entertainment program or series Sound in an animated program or series
  •   Richard Spence-Thomas, Tim Muirhead, Mitch Connors, Luke Dante, Kyle Peters, Ryan Ongaro and Patton Rodrigues, PAW Patrol: "Rescue Knights: Quest for the Dragon's Tooth"
  • Ryan Araki, Evan Turner, Neil Parfitt, Andrew McDonnell and Richard Spence-Thomas, Super Wish: "Taste Buddies / Imagination Caboose"
  • Ryan Araki, John Baktis, Andrew McDonnell and Simon Berry, Thomas & Friends: All Engines Go: "Music is Everywhere / Backwards Day"
  • Ryan Araki, John Baktis, Andrew McDonnell and Simon Berry, Thomas & Friends: All Engines Go: "Race for the Sodor Cup"
  • Todd Araki, Andrew Downton, Marcel Duperreault, Jason Fredrickson and Adam McGhie, The Snoopy Show: "Happiness Is Your Favourite Thing"

Directing

edit
Animation Children's or youth
Comedy Drama
Documentary program Documentary series
Lifestyle or information Live sporting event
Factual Reality/competition
TV movie Variety or sketch comedy program or series

Music

edit
Best Original Music, Comedy Best Original Music, Drama
Best Original Music, Animation Best Original Music, Documentary
Best Original Music, Factual, Lifestyle, Reality or Entertainment Best Original Song

Writing

edit
Children's or youth Comedy
Documentary Drama
Factual Lifestyle or reality/competition
Pre-school Variety or sketch comedy
Animation TV movie

All-platform awards

edit

One major category is currently presented without regard to the distinction between film, television or web media content.

Stunt Coordination

Audience awards

edit
Audience Choice Shaw Rocket Fund Kids' Choice

Digital media

edit
Original Program or Series, Fiction Original Program or Series, Non-Fiction
Lead Performance in a Web Program or Series Supporting Performance in a Web Program or Series
Direction in a Web Program or Series Writing in a Web Program or Series
Host in a Web Program or Series Live Production for Social Media
Immersive Experience, Fiction Immersive Experience, Non-Fiction
  •   The Orchid and the Bee
  • Brainstream
  • Unceded Territories
  •   Lou
  • The Choice
  • Partita for 8 Voices
Video game

Reception

edit

Reception to the television special for the ceremony was mostly negative.[9][10]

Barry Hertz of The Globe and Mail called it "humourless, dispiriting, condescending, and ultimately disrespectful to anyone who was nominated or won an award". He wrote that "the program focused not on the actual nominees and award-winners, but a random assortment of Canadian stars who found fame in the United States. While I don’t begrudge the Canadian Academy from shoehorning in some familiar names via its “special awards” to goose excitement, the structure of how they were included Sunday night was shameful. There is a distinct difference between using Humanitarian Award winner Ryan Reynolds and Radius Award winner Simu Liu as Trojan Horses to get audiences aware and interested in actual Canadian film and television, and simply giving those actors gobs of screen time instead of, say, Clement Virgo's film Brother (which won a remarkable 12 awards) or the CBC series The Porter (which dominated the television category with 12 statuettes of its own). Given that there are almost 150 awards categories spread out across the CSAs, you would think that the producers of Sunday's show would deign to include acceptance speeches from a few dozen of them. But instead, we got stingily edited packages of brief messages from the winners, inserted almost as a courtesy. I'm positive that the CSAs included more clips of Liu's Marvel movie Shang-Chi than Brother."[9]

On Elamin Abdelmahmoud's radio show Commotion the following day, cultural critics Kathleen Newman-Bremang and Jesse Wente also criticized the television special as a failure, with Newman-Bremang criticizing the fact that the special had largely failed to clearly communicate who won what awards, and Wente stating that it felt like a preview trailer for the real awards ceremony.[10]

References

edit
  1. ^ "Ryan Reynolds, Catherine O'Hara to attend star-studded Canadian Screen Awards". CBC News, January 18, 2023.
  2. ^ Vlessing, Etan (2023-02-22). "Canadian Screen Awards: TV Drama 'The Porter' Leads With 19 Nominations". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2023-07-26.
  3. ^ a b Hertz, Barry (2023-02-07). "Samantha Bee to host 2023 Canadian Screen Awards, this time with gender-neutral nominations". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 2023-04-12.
  4. ^ a b c Hertz, Barry (2023-04-06). "Experimental 2023 Canadian Screen Awards ask an unusual question: Are you not entertained?". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 2023-04-12.
  5. ^ "Actors questioning Canadian Screen Awards move to pre-taped format". CBC News, February 21, 2023.
  6. ^ Joseph Pugh, "Canadian Screen Awards switching to gender-neutral performance categories". CBC News, August 25, 2022.
  7. ^ "Canadian Screen Awards to make next year’s acting categories gender neutral". The Globe and Mail, August 25, 2022.
  8. ^ Etan Vlessing, "Ryan Reynolds, Simu Liu, Catherine O’Hara to Receive Honorary Canadian Screen Awards". The Hollywood Reporter, January 18, 2023.
  9. ^ a b Barry Hertz, "Embarrassing and condescending, 2023 Canadian Screen Awards failed our film and television artists: Humourless, dispiriting, condescending, and ultimately disrespectful to anyone who was nominated or won an award, the 11th annual CSAs were painful to endure". The Globe and Mail, April 16, 2023.
  10. ^ a b Amelia Eqbal, "The Canadian Screen Awards took a big risk with their new format. Did it pay off?". CBC Arts, April 17, 2023.
edit