The 12th Canadian Screen Awards were presented by the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television to honour achievements in Canadian film, television and digital media production in 2023. They were held at the Canadian Broadcasting Centre in Toronto from 28–31 May 2024, as part of Canadian Screen Week, with highlights of the final gala ceremony broadcast in a CBC Television special on 31 May 2024.[1]
Nominations were announced on 6 March;[2] television drama Little Bird led in overall nominations with 19, while Matt Johnson's film BlackBerry received 17 nominations—becoming the most-nominated film in the history of the ceremony.[3]
Ceremony information
Due to venue availability issues in Toronto, the ceremony was delayed from a provisional April scheduling to May 2024. In addition, the ceremonies were held at the Canadian Broadcasting Centre rather than Meridian Hall as in past years.[4] To streamline the event, the ceremony for children's and animated programming was discontinued, with its awards dispersed into the six remaining ceremonies.[4]
In response to criticism over the format of CBC Television's presentation of the 11th Canadian Screen Awards, the Academy announced that a television special focusing upon the final gala would air 31 May. As with the previous year's ceremony, the special was tape delayed and condensed into a one-hour format. Academy CEO Tammy Frick stated that broadcasting the special on the same day as the final gala (as opposed to the Sunday afterward) would help preserve its "energy" and immediacy, while still allowing time to edit out "industry-heavy elements" that may not be interesting to television audiences.[5][4]
The main gala was hosted by comedian Mae Martin.[6] The Canadian Screen Week events were hosted by Sarah Davis (news, entertainment and sports), Andrew Phung (television craft), Keshia Chanté (television program and performance), Anne-Marie Mediwake (documentary, factual, lifestyle, and reality), and Sabine Daniel (cinematic arts).
Category changes
Film
The Best Lead Performance in a Film and Best Supporting Performance in a Film categories were split into separate categories for comedy and drama films. They were also accompanied by a new award for Best Performance in a Live Action Short Drama. The number of nominees in each acting category remain at eight.[7] The categories for best director, best original and adapted screenplay and the John Dunning Award for best first film are now allowed to name six nominees instead of five if the number of eligible submissions reaches or exceeds nine. A new category was also introduced for Best Sound Design in a Documentary.[7]
Television
The award for Best Performance in a Children's or Youth Program or Series were split into separate new lead and supporting awards, and new awards were introduced for best ensemble performance in comedy and drama.[7]
The former category for Best Talk Program or Series, which considered talk and interview programming regardless of its topic and format, was split into distinct new categories: Best Talk Series for entertainment and cultural talk series, and Best Political News Program or Series for news-oriented shows. One-off entertainment talk specials which may formerly have been considered under the old category are now restricted to Best Entertainment News Program or Series. The former category for Best News Special was also split into two separate categories, distinguishing planned news specials about prescheduled events, such as election coverage, from breaking news specials about unforeseen news events.[7]
A new category for Best Comedy Special was introduced, with stand-up comedy specials becoming ineligible for Best Variety or Entertainment Special and Best Performing Arts Program as a result.[7]
A new category was introduced for Best Picture Editing in Animation.[7]
Digital media
The awards for Best Virtual Reality Game and Best Children's Video Game, which existed as distinct submission categories but had not consistently been presented in recent years due to high variability in the number of eligible submissions, were discontinued. All games in those categories will remain eligible for the main Best Video Game category.[7]
A new category was introduced for Best Picture Editing in a Web Program or Series.[7]
Special awards
The first special award recipients were announced in March 2024:[8] Several further special awards were announced in early April,[9] with a third round of honorees announced on May 1.[10]
Miserable Miracle (Misérable Miracle) — Ryo Orikasa, Emmanuel-Alain Raynal, Pierre Baussaron, Jelena Popović, Nobuaki Doi, Rob McLaughlin, Michael Fukushima
2023 Stanley Cup Eastern Conference Semifinals Game 1: "Will Arnett Tease" — Sportsnet – Sean Cleary, James Sharpe, Kevin Fallis, Carson Illidge, Will Arnett
"You can say Hockey is for Everyone. Or you can join the fight to ensure that’s true" — Sportsnet – Donnovan Bennett, Sam Nasrawi, Ed Hall, David Zelikovitz
Lawren Bancroft-Wilson, Liam Karp, Justin Reimer, Dmitry Vinnik, Terry Kalinich, Jeremy Stewart, Vardan Aleksanyan, Natalya MacKinnon, Alexandr Kurdyaev and Sebastian Weber, SkyMed: "Return to Base"
Marc Hall, Loïc Surprenant and Juan Manuel Pardo Salamanca, Plan B: "Episode 6"
Aaron Wright, Minas Kotsopoulos, Leila White, Michael Bitton, Joel Chambers, Iyi Tubi, Jeffrey King, Daniel Knight and Graham Tucker, Robyn Hood: "Outlaws"
Sound in a documentary or factual program or series
Paul Lucien Col, Louis Gignac, Evelio Manfred Gay Salinas, Claire Pochon, Anton Fischlin, Simon Meilleur, Éric Med Lagacé and Delphine Measroch, Little Bird: "Love Is All Around"[15]
Rob Ainsley, Rachelle Audet, Paul Germann, Martin Gwynn Jones, Jesse Fellows, Davi Aquino, Kevin Schultz and Kevin Jung, Sort Of: "Sort of Hospital Again"
David Caporale, Krystin Hunter, John Dykstra, Adam Raley, David Yonson and Marilee Yorston, SurrealEstate: "Trust the Process"
Scott Donald, John Laranger, Jill Purdy, Faustine Pelipel, Dan Sexton, Daniel Pellerin, Chris Russell and Evelio Manfred Gay Salinas, The Spencer Sisters: "The Scholar's Snafu"
David Best, Daniel Hewett, Justin Ladd, Brian Mellersch, Malcom Owen Flood, Simon Paine, Mark Krupka, Sammy Yi, Chandra Bulucon and Lisa Meitin, Canada's Ultimate Challenge: "Carcross, Yukon"
John Diemer, Scott Brachmayer, Rosie Eberhard, Eric Leigh, Rob Taylor, Kara MacKinlay, Alastair Sims and Phil Nagy, Drink Masters: "Botanical Bevvies"
Mark Krupka, Luke McLean, Brian Gallant and Lisa Meitin, The Amazing Race Canada: "This Is Going to Be a Spicy Leg"
Mark Vreeken, Jeff Kozak, Charles-Émile Beaudin and Doug McClement, Juno Awards of 2023
Richard Spence-Thomas, Tim Muirhead, Luke Dante, Katie Pagacz, Kyle Peters, Ryan Ongaro, Patton Rodrigues and Mitch Conners, PAW Patrol: "Aqua Pups Save a Floating Castle"[15]
Ryan Araki, Evan Turner, Neil Parfitt, Andrew McDonnell and Richard Spence-Thomas, Super Wish: "The Ballooniverse Pageant / The Way Back Home"
Indigenous Futures: How These Teens Are Reclaiming Their Joy — Lisa Fender, Lenard Monkman, Angelica Cooper, Jaime McMahon, Sabrina Fabian, Nina Corfu, Sophia Smoke, Janna McGinn, Philip Street, Kevin Nepitabo, Jaison Empson, Bryan Harder, Mia Rodak, Marie McCann, Sally Catto
Reviewing the television broadcast, Barry Hertz of The Globe and Mail wrote that while it still had significant problems, it had succeeded in being better than the previous year's "utter disaster".[16] He noted a technical snafu which left viewers who were watching the broadcast on the CBC Gem streaming platform unable to hear the sound for the first few minutes, and the fact that the condensed one-hour format had left too many memorable moments from the presentations on the cutting-room floor, but praised Martin as a solid host who "anchored the show with an energetic, sharp mix of self-deprecation and confidence", and noted that the highlights of the broadcast were the heartfelt special award acceptance speeches of Tonya Williams and Denis Villeneuve.[16] While granting that the 2024 awards' scheduling in May was attributable to the last-minute venue change, he also felt that even the typical April scheduling no longer makes sense, and opined that the awards should shift to being presented in February to capitalize on award-season energy, or September to capitalize on the industry activity around the Toronto International Film Festival.[16]
^ abcBarry Hertz, "The 2024 Canadian Screen Awards rebounded from last year’s disaster – once you could actually hear the show". The Globe and Mail, May 31, 2024.
Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television Note: Awards by year articles are listed here by the year of eligibility for nomination; due to variable scheduling of the ceremonies, this is not always the same year in which the awards were presented.
