Sort Of, Night Raiders, Scarborough lead 10th Canadian Screen Award nominations

After just one season on air, CBC/HBO dramedy Sort Of has dominated the Canadian Screen Award nominations with 13 nods — the most of any individual nominee.

The acclaimed series follows gender-fluid millennial Sabi (Bilal Baig, who is also co-creator) — bartender at an LGBTQ cafe and bookstore, babysitter to a young family, and the youngest child of a large Pakistani family — as they try to balance their identities.

The Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television announced nominees for the 10th annual Canadian Screen Awards on Tuesday, with CBC's Pretty Hard Cases and CTV's Wynonna Earp nabbing 11 nominations each in the TV categories, and Night Raiders and Scarborough tied for 11 each in the film categories.

Other notable contenders include CBC shows Coroner and Kim's Convenience, as well as the films All My Puny Sorrows, Wildhood and Drunken Birds. 

WATCH | How Sort Of is breaking barriers:

'Sort Of’ creator breaks barriers with new show

3 years ago

Duration 7:55

‘Sort Of’ is the first Canadian primetime show to have a queer, trans feminine, South Asian Muslim cast as the lead performer. Our Toronto’s host Shannon Martin spoke with Bilal Baig, the show’s co-creator, co-writer and lead performer, about how ‘Sort Of’ is breaking barriers.

Here are some of the nominees:

Best Drama Series

• Coroner
• Moonshine
• The North Water 
• Transplant
• Vikings

Best Comedy Series

• Jann 
• Kim's Convenience
• Letterkenny
• Sort Of
• Strays

In the Best Drama series category, CBC shows Coroner and Moonshine received nominations, alongside Super Channel miniseries The North Water, CTV's Transplant and History's Vikings. Newcomer Moonshine follows a Nova Scotia couple whose adult children are vying for control of the family's seashore summer resort business.

Jann, Letterkenny and Kim's Convenience are no strangers to the Best Comedy Series category. Kim's Convenience received its fourth and third-consecutive nomination for Best Comedy, with each of its lead performers nabbing acting nominations, to boot. Although the beloved show wrapped its final season in 2021, its star Nicole Power plays the lead role in fellow nominee Strays, about a woman who embarks on a new career as the executive director of an animal shelter.

Best Motion Picture

• Drunken Birds
• Night of the Kings
• Night Raiders
• Scarborough
• Wildhood

Achievement in Direction

• Anthony Scott Burns (Come True) 
• Danis Goulet (Night Raiders) 
• Philippe Grégoire (The Noise of Engines) 
• Shasha Nakhai, Rich Williamson (Scarborough)
• Bretten Hannam (Wildhood)

In the film categories, both Night Raiders and Scarborough scored nominations for Best Motion Picture after making waves at the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). Night Raiders, a future-set science fiction thriller, confronts Canada's dark residential school past with a genre-bending twist. Scarborough follows three kids in the titular Toronto community who befriend each other in their struggle against systemic poverty. 

The first film has received a nomination for original screenplay, and the latter film, which is based on Catherine Hernandez's 2017 novel, will compete for adapted screenplay. Both received nods for achievement in direction, with their respective directors — Danis Goulet for Night Raiders, Shasha Nakhai and Rich Williamson for Scarborough — also tapped for the John Dunning Best First Feature Film Award.

Original Screenplay

• Danis Goulet (Night Raiders) 
• Mark O'Brien (The Righteous)
• Kaveh Nabatian (Sin La Habana)
• Igor Drljaca (The White Fortress)
• Tabija Bretten Hannam (Wildhood)

Adapted Screenplay

• David Bezmozgis, Erik Rutherford (Charlotte)
• Sylvain Guy (Confessions of a Hitman)
• Catherine Hernandez (Scarborough) 
• Fred Pellerin (The Time Thief)
• Eric Tessier (You Will Remember Me)

Among other heavily-nominated films are All My Puny Sorrows, which racked up eight nominations. The film is adapted from Miriam Toews' 2014 novel about two sisters, raised in rural Manitoba, living drastically different lives in the shadow of their Mennonite upbringing. Drunken Birds — Canada's 2021 submission to the Academy Awards — received six nominations, tied with TIFF coming-of-age feature Wildhood.

The awards will be presented over the course of six days, culminating in the Canadian Screen Awards show on April 10 at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT on CBC and CBC Gem. The ceremonies will remain virtual but will feature live acceptance speeches from winners.

Select 2022 nominees:

Film

Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role

• Rogelio Balagtas (Islands)
• Thomas Antony Olajide (Learn to Swim)
• Liam Diaz (Scarborough)
• Pavle Čemerikić (The White Fortress)
• Phillip Lewitski (Wildhood)

Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role

• Julia Sarah Stone (Come True)
• Aviva Armour Ostroff (Lune)
• Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers (Night Raiders)
• Alana Hawley Purvis (Range Roads)
• Aliya Kanani (Scarborough)

Ted Rogers Best Feature Length Documentary

• Captive
• Kímmapiiyipitssini: The Meaning of Empathy
• My Tree
• One of Ours
• Prayer for a Lost Mitten

Best Animated Short

• Angakusajaujuq: The Shaman's Apprentice
• Boobs
• Flowing Home
• The Hangman at Home
• Meneath: The Hidden Island of Ethics

Achievement in Cinematography

• Daniel Grant (All My Puny Sorrows)
• Tess Girard (Drifting Snow)
• Sara Mishara (Drunken Birds)
• Rich Williamson (Scarborough)
• Pierre Gill (You Will Remember Me)

Achievement in Editing

• Michelle Szemberg, Orlee Buium (All My Puny Sorrows)
• Dev Singh (Cinema of Sleep)
• Arthur Tarnowski (Drunken Birds)
• Yvann Thibaudeau (Goodbye Happiness)
• Aube Foglia (Night of the Kings)

Television

Best Lead Actor, Drama Series

• Peter Mooney (Burden of Truth)
• Roger Cross (Coroner)
• Victor Garber (Family Law)
• Yannick Bisson (Murdoch Mysteries)
• Hamza Haq (Transplant)

Best Lead Actress, Drama Series

• Kristin Kreuk (Burden of Truth)
• Serinda Swan (Coroner)
• Vinessa Antoine (Diggstown)
• Laurence Leboeuf (Transplant)
• Melanie Scrofano (Wynonna Earp)

Best Lead Actor, Comedy

• Paul Sun-Hyung Lee (Kim's Convenience)
• Simu Liu (Kim's Convenience)
• Jared Keeso (Letterkenny)
• Darryl Hinds (Overlord and the Underwoods)
• Jason Priestley (Private Eyes)

Best Lead Actress, Comedy

• Jann Arden (Jann)
• Andrea Bang (Kim's Convenience)
• Jean Yoon (Kim's Convenience)
• Meredith MacNeill (Pretty Hard Cases)
• Dani Kind (Workin' Moms)

Best News or Information Series

• APTN Investigates
• CBC Marketplace
• The Fifth Estate

Best National Newscast

• APTN National News
• CBC News: The National
• CTV National News with Lisa LaFlamme
• Global National

Best Reality/Competition Program or Series

• Big Brother Canada
• Blown Away
• Canada's Drag Race
• Fire Masters
• Top Chef Canada

Best Sketch Comedy Program or Series

• Humour Resources
• Roast Battle Canada
• TallBoyz
• This Hour Has 22 Minutes

A complete list of nominees in all categories is available at academy.ca.