Aden Young and Kathleen Munroe in Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent.Steve Wilkie/Lark Productions/Supplied
A Canadian spinoff of one of American television’s most enduring franchises and a Winnipeg-set film in which Canada is reimagined as a French/Farsi melting pot lead the nominations for the 13th annual Canadian Screen Awards.
With 20 nominations, including Best Drama Series, the Citytv procedural Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent scored the highest number of CSA nods in both the TV category and the awards overall. Meanwhile, director Matthew Rankin’s critically acclaimed comedy Universal Language led the film portion of the CSAs, earning 13 nominations including Best Picture and Best Director.
Runners-up in terms of overall nominations on the TV side include CBC’s Bones of Crows, CTV’s Children Ruin Everything, and CBC’s (now cancelled) Run the Burbs, which each scored 12 nods. For film, David Cronenberg’s forthcoming Vincent Cassel-led thriller The Shrouds earned nine nominations, followed by Sam McGlynn’s comedy Deaner ‘89 and Karen Chapman’s drama Village Keeper with seven apiece.
The CSAs, which are organized by the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television, also honour the best in digital media. This year, the web series My Dead Mom led that category with eight nominations, including Best Web Program or Series, followed by Stories from My Gay Grandparents with six nods and Everybody’s Meg with four.
Director Matthew Rankin’s critically acclaimed comedy Universal Language led the film portion of the CSAs, earning 13 nominations including Best Picture and Best Director.The Associated Press
This year’s Best Picture category represents a curious mix of titles that speak to the ever-shifting state of Canadian cinema. There is a little bit of Hollywood flavour courtesy of the Donald Trump biopic The Apprentice starring Sebastian Stan and Jeremy Strong, and which was produced by Canadian Daniel Bekerman; some Quebecois content via Universal Language and the dramedy Les rayons gamma (Gamma Rays); a Canada/Tunisia/France/Norway/Qatar/Saudi Arabia co-production called Who Do I Belong To, which highlights this country’s knack for patching together international partnerships; and the dramas Darkest Miriam and Village Keeper, two English-language indie films that haven’t even been released theatrically yet. (Both arrive in select cinemas this weekend.)
Although Cronenberg’s The Shrouds earned the second-highest number of film nominations, it did not make the cut for Best Picture, a curious echo of the 2023 CSAs, when the director’s dark comedy Crimes of the Future scored 11 nods but also failed to be nominated for Best Picture.
Meanwhile, on the small-screen side, the shows up for Best Drama Series include the first season Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent, probably the buzziest show to come out of Canada in several years, even its word-of-mouth relies on familiarity with its American mothership; the CBC police drama Allegiance (produced by Lark Productions, which also handles Law & Order); the CBC series Bones of Crows, whose previous feature-film version earned five nominations at the 2023 CSAs; Hollywood Suite’s drama Potluck Ladies; and the CTV police drama Sight Unseen. This year’s Best Comedy Series nominees include the fourth and final season of CTV’s Children Ruin Everything, Crave/APTN’s Don’t Even, CBC’s One More Time and two Crave sitcoms, Late Bloomer and The Office Movers.
While the nomination hauls represented by Law & Order and Universal Language are impressive, they fall short of all-time CSA record-holders Schitt’s Creek (which received 26 TV-category nods in 2020) and BlackBerry (which earned 17 nods in 2024).
Although David Cronenberg’s The Shrouds earned the second-highest number of film nominations, it did not make the cut for Best Picture.Sophie Giraud/Touchwood
A total of 158 CSAs (including Special and Fan Choice Awards) will be handed out during a series of Toronto ceremonies running May 30 through June 1, with the number of awards down slightly from 2024, when the Canadian Academy handed out 171.
Unlike previous editions of the CSAs, this year’s marquee gala will not be broadcast on CBC television. Instead, the June 1 show will exclusively live-stream on CBC Gem, hosted by comedian Lisa Gilroy.