The Canadian Media Producers Association congratulates the nominees and winners recognized by the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television at the 4th annual Canadian Screen Awards CBC Broadcast Gala, which took place last night at the Sony Centre for Performing Arts.
Yesterday’s awards ceremony bookended Canadian Screen Week, a full week of awards galas and festivities in celebration of the best in Canadian film, television and digital media. Over the week’s three awards galas, CMPA member productions took home over 90 awards.
With 11 trophies to its name, Canadian-South African coproduction The Book of Negroes, produced by CMPA members Conquering Lion Productions, Entertainment One and Idlewild Films, collected the most awards over Canadian Screen Week. The miniseries, which premiered last year to record ratings on CBC, nabbed the award for best limited series, as well as recognitions for performance, writing and other technical awards.
Room, a Canadian-Irish coproduction by Toronto’s No Trace Camping Productions, won nine awards, including best film, best director, best actress, best actor and best adapted screenplay. The film was also nominated for several Academy Awards last month, which included a best actress win for Brie Larson.
Also with nine awards to its name, Not A Real Company Productions’ Schitt’s Creek was honoured with the title of best comedy series. Canadian comedy legends Eugene Levy and Catherine O’Hara also scored awards for their lead performances in the CBC series.
“This year’s Canadian Screen Awards nominees go to show the incredible breadth of Canadian talent both on and behind the screens,” said CMPA President and CEO Reynolds Mastin. “From best film winner Room to best comedy series winner Schitt’s Creek, Canadian independent producers continue to cement Canada’s international reputation as a world leader in the screen-based media industry.”
Other Canadian Screen Awards winners included Take 5 Production’s Vikings for best international series and Insight Production’s The Amazing Race Canada for best reality series. MDF Productions’ HURT collected the award for best documentary feature and LaRue Entertainment’s She Stoops to Conquer won for best live action short.
In children’s programming, which was recognized at a previous Canadian Screen Week gala, Breakthrough Entertainment’s Rocket Monkeys won best animated series and Sinking Ship Entertainment’s Odd Squad won best pre-school series. In children’s and youth programming, Epitome Pictures’ Degrassi won best fiction program, while Apartment 11’s Finding Stuff Out won the prize for non-fiction programming.
Also recognized earlier in the week were Frantic Films’ Still Standing for best factual series and SKIT Media’s Income Property for best lifestyle program.