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Sort Of leads the way at the Canadian Screen Awards with 13 nominations

Sort Of scored 13 Canadian Screen Award nominations

The CBC comedy series Sort Of is picking up where Schitt’s Creek left off, dominating the Canadian Screen Awards with 13 nominations. Bilal Baig and Fab Filipo’s affectionate, hilarious and groundbreaking show was recognized in the Best Comedy Series category with additional nods for direction and writing and pretty much every technical category.

Thirteen nominations aren’t enough, though. Sort Of was noticeably absent in the binary performance categories at the Canadian Screen Awards, despite stellar work from the cast led by Baig. They give a wry, winning performance as Sabi, a non-binary Pakistani nanny. After discussing with Baig, Sienna Films and Sphere Media decided not to submit their performance.

“It is important to us as a company that we push for inclusivity not just in the shows we create but how they are represented in the world through marketing, press and awards,” says Sort Of’s executive producer Jennifer Kawaja, in an email to NOW.  “With this in mind Sienna Films/Sphere Media Toronto have engaged in positive dialogue with the Academy about performance award categorizations, and are hopeful that there will be a change to the binary division of performance categories in the coming years.”

Sort Of is recognized in the Best Comedy Series category alongside Jann, Letterkenny, Strays and the final season of Kim’s Convenience. The send off for Kim’s Convenience includes performance nominations for key cast members Paul Sun-Hyung Lee, Jean Yoon, Andrea Bang, Simu Liu and Andrew Phung. The shows competing for Best Drama Series include Coroner, Moonshine, The North Water, Transplant and Vikings.

Night Raiders Danis Goulet Indigenous
Courtesy of Elevation Pictures

On the film side, Danis Goulet’s harrowing dystopian drama Night Raiders and the adaptation of Catherine Hernandez’s novel Scarborough scored 11 nominations each, including nods in the Best Motion Picture category. They were recognized alongside Ivan Grbovic’s Drunken Birds, Philippe Lacôte’s Night Of The Kings and Bretten Hannam’s Wildhood.

Night Raiders, a striking residential school allegory set in the near future, also garnered nominations for Goulet’s direction, original screenplay and Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers’s and Gail Maurice’s performances.

Tailfeathers was also nominated in the Ted Rogers Best Feature Length Documentary for Kímmapiiyipitssini: The Meaning Of Empathy, which is about how her community, Kainai First Nation, is healing from the opioid crisis. It’s recognized alongside Yasmine Mathurin’s One Of Ours, Melissa Fung’s Captive, Jason Sherman’s My Tree and Jean-François Lesage’s Prayer For A Lost Mitten.

Scarborough, Shasha Nakhai and Rich Wiliamson’s blistering look at community and resilience in the Galloway area, also scored nominations for direction, Hernandez’s adapted screenplay and performances from Liam Diaz, Aliya Kanani and Cherish Violet Blood.

The Academy Of Canadian Cinema & Television previously announced special awards that will be handed out at its virtual ceremonies during Canadian Screen Week (April 4-10). Those honourees include Never Have I Ever star Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, Refinery29 editor Kathleen Newman-Bremang, TSN host Kayla Grey and CBC host and producer Amanda Parris.

@justsayrad

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