Rachel Mwanza of War Witch / courtesy Mongrel Media
It’s been a spectacular few days for Quebec writer-director Kim Nguyen. On Thursday his film Rebelle (War Witch) received an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Film, just one of five titles plucked from a year of world cinema. And back home today, Rebelle tops the list of films honoured by the newly created Canadian Screen Awards, with a total of 12 nominations. Shot in the Democratic Republic of Congo, his modest but affecting drama about a child soldier—portrayed by Rachel Mwanza, a girl he discovered in the street—trumped much larger Canadian productions such as Midnight’s Children, Goon and Cosmopolis.
On its tail with 10 nominations is Laurence Anyways, the story of a teacher’s transsexual odyssey by Quebec auteur Xavier Dolan. Quebec features dominate the awards with four of the six best picture nominations, the two exceptions being Deepa Mehta’s Midnight’s Children and Michael McGowan’s Still Mine. Mehta’s adaptation of the Salman Rushdie novel, led the non-Quebec field with eight nominations. Like Rebelle and Laurence Anyways, it also scored nominations for director and screenplay.
Still Mine and Nicole Robert’s l’Affaire Dumont were tied with seven nominations; both have double lead acting nods. Michael Dowse’s hockey comedy, Goon, has six nominations, including best director.
The Academy’s choices differ sharply from those of the Toronto Film Critics Associaton, which honored Sarah Polley’s Stories We Tell with its $100,000 Rogers Best Canadian Film Award for 2012. The Academy has nominated Polley’s movie in the documentary feature category. Goon, one of the TFCA’s two Rogers runners-up, didn’t figure among the Academy’s six best picture nominees; and the TFCA’s other runner-up, Denis Côté’s experimental doc Bestiaire, received no nominations from the Academy.
Heading the list of TV nominees are Flashpoint, with 11 nominations, Less Than Kind with 10, and Michael with eight. Among the nation’s news programs, CBC’s The National topped the list with six nominations.
Re-engineered by the Academy’s new CEO, former TIFF director Helga Stephenson, the Canadian Screen Awards have merged cinema’s Genie Awards with TV’s Geminis. The winners of the film and TV nominees will be announced at a two-hour inaugural gala hosted my Martin Short and broadcast live Sunday March 3, 2013 at 8 p.m. (8:30 N.T) on CBC.
Replacing the Genie and Gemini trophies is a new statuette, a spike-shaped figure with a pair of enveloping cape-like arms. The form, says Stephenson, “symbolizes two screens with the public at the core of it all. The new Canadian Screen Awards statue celebrates Canadian talent and Canadian productions, now destined for multiple screens.”
Amalgamating Canada’s film and TV awards makes sense—certainly on the film side. The Genies have been limping along for many years, and just like English Canadian cinema, they’ve had a hard time finding an audience. Film is supposed to carry more prestige than TV, but that’s worthless if a Genie falls in the forest and no one hears. Film and TV are increasingly interlocked. And hitched to the industrial power of the broadcast biz, the film awards may gain more traction. With some synergy, hopefully, Canada’s film and TV glitterati can create an entertaining prime-time awards show we can proud of. And they couldn’t have a better energizer bunny than the virtuosic Martin Short, who was dazzling in his recent turn as host of SNL.
The anomaly, of course, is that the film awards include Quebec while the TV awards do not. But Quebec television is its own industry, with its own star system. Canadian film is a smaller world than Canadian TV—it sounds counter-intuitive, but the big screen is smaller than the small screen. Yet cinema is, at least theoretically, the more universal medium. Besides, if Canadian cinema can’t claim the likes of Villeneuve, Arcand, Falardeau and Nguyen among our auteurs, we would be pretty impoverished.
The TV nominees are too voluminous to list, but is the full slate films nominated for the Canadian Screen Awards:
FEATURE FILMS: NOMINATIONS BY CATEGORY
BEST MOTION PICTURE
L’AFFAIRE DUMONT – Nicole Robert
INCH’ALLAH – Luc Déry, Kim McCraw
LAURENCE ANYWAYS – Lyse Lafontaine
MIDNIGHT’S CHILDREN – David Hamilton
REBELLE / WAR WITCH – Pierre Even, Marie-Claude Poulin
STILL MINE – Tamara Deverell, Jody Colero, Avi Federgreen, Michael McGowan
ACHIEVEMENT IN ART DIRECTION/PRODUCTION DESIGN
EMMANUEL FRECHETTE, JOSÉE ARSENAULT – Rebelle / War Witch
ARVINDER GREWAL – Antiviral
ANDRÉ GUIMOND – L’affaire Dumont
DILIP MEHTA – Midnight’s Children
ANNE PRITCHARD – Laurence Anyways
ACHIEVEMENT IN CINEMATOGRAPHY
NICOLAS BOLDUC – Rebelle / War Witch
PHILIPPE LAVALETTE – Inch’Allah
GILES NUTTGENS – Midnight’s Children
BOBBY SHORE – Goon
BRENDAN STEACY – Still Mine
ACHIEVEMENT IN COSTUME DESIGN
XAVIER DOLAN, FRANÇOIS BARBEAU – Laurence Anyways
PATRICIA HENDERSON – Mad Ship
WENDY PARTRIDGE – Resident Evil: Retribution
WENDY PARTRIDGE – Silent Hill: Revelation 3D
ÉRIC POIRIER – Rebelle / War Witch
ACHIEVEMENT IN DIRECTION
MICHAEL DOWSE – Goon
XAVIER DOLAN – Laurence Anyways
DEEPA MEHTA – Midnight’s Children
KIM NGUYEN – Rebelle / War Witch
BERNARD ÉMOND – Tout ce que tu possèdes / All That You Possess
ACHIEVEMENT IN EDITING
RICHARD COMEAU – Rebelle / War Witch
RODERICK DEOGRADES – Still Mine
VALÉRIE HÉROUX – L’affaire Dumont
SOPHIE LEBLOND – Inch’Allah
KIMBERLEE MCTAGGART – Blackbird
ACHIEVEMENT IN MAKE-UP
KATIE BRENNAN, KAROLA DIRNBERGER, PAUL JONES – Silent Hill: Revelation 3D
BRENDA MAGALAS, LORI CAPUTI – Goon
CATHIE DAVIES-IRVINE, TRASON FERNANDES – Antiviral
MARLÈNE ROULEAU, ANDRÉ DUVAL – L’affaire Dumont
COLLEEN QUINTON, KATHY KELSO – Laurence Anyways
ACHIEVEMENT IN MUSIC – ORIGINAL SCORE
NOIA – Laurence Anyways
BENOIT CHAREST – Mars et Avril
DON ROOKE, HUGH MARSH, MICHELLE WILLIS – Still Mine
HOWARD SHORE – Cosmopolis
E.C. WOODLEY – Antiviral
ACHIEVEMENT IN MUSIC – ORIGINAL SONG
EMILY HAINES, JAMES SHAW, HOWARD SHORE – Cosmopolis – Long to Live
ERLAND & THE CARNIVAL – Rufus – Wanting
ERLAND & THE CARNIVAL – Rufus – Out of Sight
PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
JAMES CROMWELL – Still Mine
PATRICK DROLET – Tout ce que tu possèdes / All That You Possess
MARC-ANDRÉ GRONDIN – L’affaire Dumont
DAVID MORSE – Collaborator
MELVIL POUPAUD – Laurence Anyways
PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
JAY BARUCHEL – Goon
KIM COATES – Goon
STEPHAN JAMES – Home Again
SERGE KANYINDA – Rebelle
ELIAS KOTEAS – Winnie
PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
EVELYNE BROCHU – Inch’Allah
GENEVIÈVE BUJOLD – Still Mine
MARILYN CASTONGUAY – L’affaire Dumont
SUZANNE CLÉMENT – Laurence Anyways
RACHEL MWANZA – Rebelle / War Witch
PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
SEEMA BISWAS – Midnight’s Children
FEFE DOBSON – Home Again
ALICE MOREL MICHAUD – Les Pee Wee 3D
GABRIELLE MILLER – Moving Day
SABRINA OUAZANI – Inch’Allah
ACHIEVEMENT IN OVERALL SOUND
SYLVAIN ARSENEAULT, STEPH CARRIER, LOU SOLAKOFSKI, DON WHITE – Midnight’s Children
OLIVIER CALVERT, PASCAL BEAUDIN, LUC BOUDRIAS – Mars et Avril
CLAUDE LA HAYE, DANIEL BISSON, BERNARD GARIÉPY STROBL – Rebelle / War Witch
PHILIP STALL, IAN RANKIN, LOU SOLAKOFSKI – Antiviral
ZANDER ROSBOROUGH, ALLAN SCARTH – The Disappeared
ACHIEVEMENT IN SOUND EDITING
PIERRE-JULES AUDET, MICHELLE CLOUTIER, THIERRY BOURGAULT D’AMICO, NATHALIE FLEURANT, CÉDRICK MARIN – L’affaire Dumont
MARTIN PINSONNAULT, JEAN-FRANCOIS B. SAUVÉ, SIMON MEILLEUR, CLAIRE POCHON – Rebelle / War Witch
STEPHEN BARDEN, STEVE BAINE, KEVIN BANKS, ALEX BULLICK, JILL PURDY – Resident Evil: Retribution
SYLVAIN BRASSARD, STÉPHANE CADOTTE, ISABELLE FAVREAU, PHILIPPE RACINE – Laurence Anyways
ALLAN SCARTH, BOB MELANSON, ZANDER ROSBOROUGH, CORY TETFORD – The Disappeared
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
JASON BUXTON – Blackbird
XAVIER DOLAN – Laurence Anyways
KIM NGUYEN – Rebelle / War Witch
MICHAEL MCGOWAN – Still Mine
BERNARD ÉMOND – Tout ce que tu possèdes / All That You Possess
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
DAVID CRONENBERG – Cosmopolis
JAY BARUCHEL, EVAN GOLDBERG – Goon
ANITA DORON – The Lesser Blessed
MARTIN VILLENEUVE – Mars et Avril
SALMAN RUSHDIE – Midnight’s Children
ACHIEVEMENT IN VISUAL EFFECTS
DENNIS BERARDI, KEITH ACHESON, MICHAEL BORRETT, WILSON CAMERON, MICHAEL DICARLO, TOM NAGY, BRITTON PLEWES, SCOTT RIOPELLE, MATT WHELAN, WOJCIECH ZIELINSKI – Silent Hill: Revelation 3D
CARLOS MONZON, MARTIN BELLEAU, DOMINIC DAIGLE, NATHALIE DUPONT, GAËL HOLLARD, BENOÎT LADOUCEUR, VIVIANE LEVESQUE BOUCHARD, JÉRÉMIE LODOMEZ, ANNIE NORMANDIN, ALEXANDRA VAILLANCOURT – Mars et Avril
DENNIS BERARDI, JASON EDWARDH, MATT GLOVER, TREY HARRELL, LEANN HARVEY, JO HUGHES, ETHAN LEE, SCOTT RIOPELLE, ERIC ROBINSON, KYLE YONEDA – Resident Evil: Retribution
ÈVE BRUNET, MARC MORISSETTE, ALEXANDRA VAILLANCOURT – Rebelle / War Witch
RALPH MAIERS, DEBORA DUNPHY, JOHN FUKUSHIMA, PATRICK KAVANAUGH, BILL MARTIN, CHRIS PHILIPS, JEREMY PRICE, KENTON RANNIE, LAUREN WEIDEL – Midnight’s Children
TED ROGERS BEST FEATURE LENGTH DOCUMENTARY AWARD
ALPHÉE DES ÉTOILES – Hugo Latulippe, Eric De Gheldere, Colette Loumède
INDIE GAME: THE MOVIE – Lisanne Pajot, James Swirsky
OVER MY DEAD BODY – Brigitte Poupart, Virginie Dubois, Stéphanie Morissette
STORIES WE TELL – Sarah Polley, Anita Lee
THE WORLD BEFORE HER – Nisha Pahuja, Ed Barreveld, Cornelia Principe
BEST SHORT DOCUMENTARY
THE BOXING GIRLS OF KABUL – Ariel Nasr, Annette Clarke
THE FUSE: OR HOW I BURNED SIMON BOLIVAR – Igor Drljaca
KEEP A MODEST HEAD – Deco Dawson, Catherine Chagnon
LET THE DAYLIGHT INTO THE SWAMP – Jeffrey St. Jules, Anita Lee
THREE WALLS – Zaheed Mawani, Andrea Bussman
BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT DRAMA
CHEF DE MEUTE – Chloé Robichaud, Fanny-Laure Malo, Sarah Pellerin
FROST – Jeremy Ball, Lauren Grant, Robert Munroe
LE FUTUR PROCHE / THE NEAR FUTURE – Sophie Goyette
PREMIÈRE NEIGE / FIRST SNOW – Michaël Lalancette
THROAT SONG – Miranda de Pencier, Stacey Aglok MacDonald
BEST ANIMATED SHORT
BYDLO – Patrick Bouchard, Julie Roy
DEMONI – Theodore Ushev
EDMOND WAS A DONKEY – Franck Dion, Richard Van Den Boom, Julie Roy
PAULA – Dominic Étienne Simard, Julie Roy
THEATRICAL DOCUMENTARIES & SHORT FILMS: NOMINATIONS BY CATEGORY
TED ROGERS BEST FEATURE LENGTH DOCUMENTARY AWARD
ALPHÉE DES ÉTOILES – Hugo Latulippe, Eric De Gheldere, Colette Loumède
INDIE GAME: THE MOVIE – Lisanne Pajot, James Swirsky
OVER MY DEAD BODY – Brigitte Poupart, Virginie Dubois, Stéphanie Morissette
STORIES WE TELL – Sarah Polley, Anita Lee
THE WORLD BEFORE HER – Nisha Pahuja, Ed Barreveld, Cornelia Principe
BEST SHORT DOCUMENTARY
THE BOXING GIRLS OF KABUL – Ariel Nasr, Annette Clarke
THE FUSE: OR HOW I BURNED SIMON BOLIVAR – Igor Drljaca
KEEP A MODEST HEAD – Deco Dawson, Catherine Chagnon
LET THE DAYLIGHT INTO THE SWAMP – Jeffrey St. Jules, Anita Lee
THREE WALLS – Zaheed Mawani, Andrea Bussman
BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT DRAMA
CHEF DE MEUTE – Chloé Robichaud, Fanny-Laure Malo, Sarah Pellerin
FROST – Jeremy Ball, Lauren Grant, Robert Munroe
LE FUTUR PROCHE / THE NEAR FUTURE – Sophie Goyette
PREMIÈRE NEIGE / FIRST SNOW – Michaël Lalancette
THROAT SONG – Miranda de Pencier, Stacey Aglok MacDonald
BEST ANIMATED SHORT
BYDLO – Patrick Bouchard, Julie Roy
DEMONI – Theodore Ushev
EDMOND WAS A DONKEY – Franck Dion, Richard Van Den Boom, Julie Roy
PAULA – Dominic Étienne Simard, Julie Roy
HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE TELEVISION NOMINEES:
Flashpoint (Bell Media) – 11 Nominations
Less Than Kind (Astral Media) – 10 Nominations
Michael: Tuesdays & Thursdays (CBC) – 8 Nominations
Bomb Girls (Shaw Media) – 6 Nominations
CBC News The National (CBC) – 6 Nominations
Combat Hospital (Shaw Media) – 6 Nominations
Degrassi (Bell Media) – 6 Nominations
Good God (Astral / Corus) – 6 Nominations
Hockey Night in Canada (CBC) – 6 Nominations
London 2012 Olympic Games (Bell Media) – 6 Nominations
Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town (Broadcaster: CBC) – 6 Nominations
Todd and the Book of Pure Evil (Bell Media) – 6 Nominations
Call Me Fitz (Astral / Corus) – 5 Nominations
Continuum (Shaw Media) – 5 Nominations
Cyberbully (Corus) – 5 Nominations
The 2012 Juno Awards (Bell Media) – 5 Nominations
16 x 9 The Bigger Picture (Shaw Media) – 4 Nominations
Being Erica (CBC) – 4 Nominations
The Borgias (Bell Media) – 4 Nominations
CTV W5 (Bell Media) – 4 Nominations
Descending (Rogers) – 4 Nominations
John A: Birth of a Country (CBC) – 4 Nominations
Lost Girl (Shaw Media) – 4 Nominations
Love Lies Bleeding (CBC) – 4 Nominations
Magic Beyond Words: The JK Rowling Story (Astral) – 4 Nominations
Rick Mercer Report (CBC) – 4 Nominations
Romeos & Juliets (CBC) – 4 Nominations
Rookie Blue (Shaw Media) – 4 Nominations
the fifth estate (CBC) – 4 Nominations
Wrath of Grapes: The Don Cherry Story 2 (CBC) – 4 Nominations
Global National (Shaw Media) – 4 Nominations
2011 Vanier Cup (Bell Media) – 3 Nominations
2012 MuchMusic Video Awards (Bell Media) – 3 Nominations
Almost Naked Animals (Corus) – 3 Nominations
Blackstone (APTN) – 3 Nominations
Camelot (CBC) – 3 Nominations
Comedy Now! Season 12/13 (Bell Media) – 3 Nominations
From C to C: Chinese Canadian Stories of Migration (CBC) – 3 Nominations
I, Martin Short, Goes Home (CBC) – 3 Nominations
Love Shines (Astral / Corus) – 3 Nominations
Marketplace (CBC) – 3 Nominations
Producing Parker (Shaw Media) – 3 Nominations
Rated A for Awesome (Shaw Media) – 3 Nominations
Smarty Plants (CBC) – 3 Nominations
The Firm (Shaw Media) – 3 Nominations
The Listener 3 (Bell Media) – 3 Nominations
The Perfect Runner (CBC) – 3 Nominations
The Team (Knowledge Network) – 3 Nominations
Titanic (Shaw Media) – 3 Nominations
Top Chef Canada (Shaw Media) – 3 Nominations
When Dreams Take Flight (CBC) – 3 Nominations
19 Annual National Aboriginal Achievement Awards (Shaw Media / APTN) – 2 Nominations
2011 MuchMusic Video Awards (Bell Media) – 2 Nominations
2012 IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship Semi-Final (Bell Media) – 2 Nominations
8th Fire (CBC) – 2 Nominations
Artzooka! (CBC) – 2 Nominations
Being Human (Bell Media) – 2 Nominations
Canada Sings (Shaw Media) – 2 Nominations
Canada’s Handyman Challenge (Shaw Media) – 2 Nominations
CAUTION: May Contain Nuts (APTN) – 2 Nominations
CTV National News with Lisa LaFlamme (Bell Media) – 2 Nominations
Eat St. (Shaw Media) – 2 Nominations
Explosion 1812 (Shaw Media) – 2 Nominations
Extraordinary Canadians (Rogers Media) – 2 Nominations
From Spain with Love: with Annie Sibonney (Shaw Media) – 2 Nominations
Gisele Big Backyard-Movie Moments (TVOntario) – 2 Nominations
Giver (TVOntario) – 2 Nominations
Global Toronto (Shaw Media) – 2 Nominations
Hannah’s Law (Allarco) – 2 Nominations
Hell on Hooves (RAD-X) – 2 Nominations
Insecurity (CBC) – 2 Nominations
Inventions That Shook The World (Bell Media) – 2 Nominations
Kenny Hotz Triumph of the Will (Shaw Media) – 2 Nominations
King (Shaw Media) – 2 Nominations
Long Story Short: CBC Turns 75 (CBC) – 2 Nominations
Lost Years (CBC) – 2 Nominations
Love, Hate (CBC) – 2 Nominations
