Schitt’s Creek leads both the television and overall Canadian Screen Award nominations as the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television released its 2021 nominees across 141 film, television, and digital media categories.
The sixth and final season of Schitt’s Creek is followed by CTV’s Cardinal: Until The Night and cancelled CBC Indigenous sci-fi series Trickster in the television category with 15 nominations each.
On the film side, Jeff Barnaby horror feature Blood Quantum tops the nominations with 10, while Deepa Mehta’s Funny Boy received nine nominations and Charles Officer’s Akilla’s Escape eight.
CBC Gem digital series Bit Playas leads digital media nominations with six. Web series Hey Lady!, starring Canadian character actress Jayne Eastwood, earned five nods, while both Avocado Toast the series and Ghost BFF head into the awards with four.
Special Awards will also be presented to 11 Canadians including the Academy Icon Award, which will be posthumously presented to Alex Trebek. Other recipients include Tina Keeper, who’ll receive the Earle Grey Award; Radius Award honouree Dan Levy; Lifetime Achievement Award winner David Suzuki; and Academy Board of Directors’ Tribute honourees Robin Mirsky and Michael Donovan.
Director Nathalie Younglai, the founder of advocacy organization BIPOC TV & Film, will receive this year’s Humanitarian Award, while CTV W5 journalist Anton Koschany is the winner of this year’s Gordon Sinclair Award for Broadcast Journalism. The Good Doctor showrunner David Shore will receive the Margaret Collier Award.
Entertainment One (eOne) immersive content division Secret Location is the winner of the 2021 Media Innovation Award for VUSR, a suite of products to distribute, manage, and monetize VR content, while Bell Media streamer Crave is receiving this year’s Industry Leadership Award for its ongoing commitment to deliver premium Canadian content.
This year’s awards will be presented in seven parts, starting Monday, May 17 and culminating in a main event on Thursday, May 20. The presentations will be streamed live on Academy.ca as well as the Canadian Academy Twitter and YouTube channels.
The schedule is as follows:
Monday, May 17
7:00 PM ET – Canadian Screen Awards – News & Documentary, Presented by CBC
8:00 PM ET – CTV presents the Canadian Screen Awards – Lifestyle & Reality
Tuesday, May 18
7:00 PM ET – Canadian Screen Awards – Children’s & Animation, Presented by Shaw Rocket Fund
8:00 PM ET – Canadian Screen Awards – Digital & Immersive, Presented with the participation of the Independent Production Fund
Wednesday, May 19
7:00 PM ET – CTV presents the Canadian Screen Awards – Creative Arts & Performance
Thursday, May 20
7:00 PM ET – Canadian Screen Awards – Cinematic Arts, Presented by Telefilm Canada, Supported by Cineplex
8:00 PM ET – Canadian Screen Awards
The 2021 nominations were chosen by members of the Canadian Academy and by nominating juries, conducted virtually with representatives from the film, television, and digital media industries. The membership will now cast their votes between March 30 and April 16 to determine the winners.
The 2021 Canadian Screen Awards for Sports will be handed out in July, with nominees to be announced in June.
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