The Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television is the largest non-profit professional media arts organization in Canada. With a membership of more than 4,000 emerging and established industry professionals, they are dedicated to developing, recognizing, celebrating, and advocating for Canadian talent in the film, television, and digital media sectors.
The Canadian Academy produces the Canadian Screen Awards, bringing together the screen-based industry annually to celebrate the country’s top talent in the film, television, and digital sectors at Canadian Screen Week. In 2013, the Canadian Screen Awards were born as the result of a merger of the Academy’s Gemini and Genie Awards, which, respectively, honoured English-language television and film. This year, the main awards gala will take place on June 1st, 2025, in Toronto and streamed on CBC Gem.
Still from MONGRELS.
The B.C. film nominees are:
MONGRELS: Best Original Screenplay, John Dunning Best First Feature Film Award
In rural Canada in the 1990s, a Korean family—a widower, his teenage son, and young daughter—attempts to find their way in a new land while navigating the darkness of their grief. Sonny, a huntsman, is enticed by an old friend to immigrate to Canada, where he is hired to eradicate the feral canines plaguing their town in exchange for shelter. Hajoon navigates what it means to be a man and young Hana, missing her mother, dreams up ways to make her return.
PAYING FOR IT: Adapted Screenplay
When an introverted cartoonist’s girlfriend wants to redefine their relationship, he begins sleeping with sex workers and discovers a new kind of intimacy in the process. Adapted from the Chester Brown graphic novel.
THE BIRD IN MY BACKYARD: Best Short Documentary
For 15 years, a window salesman has had a special view into the secret lives of hummingbirds as they build nests in his urban backyard in Victoria, B.C. Watch on CBC Gem.
LEVELS: VFX
After witnessing his girlfriend’s murder, a man risks everything—including reality itself—to discover the truth.
YINTAH: Best Feature Length Documentary, Best Cinematography in a Feature Length Documentary, Best Original Music in a Feature Length Documentary, Best Sound Design in a Feature Length Documentary.
Yintah, meaning “land” in the Wet’suwet’en language, tells the story of an Indigenous nation asserting sovereignty. It is the story of the Wet’suwet’en people reoccupying their territory and resisting the construction of multiple pipelines. The film follows Tsakë ze’ Howilhkat Freda Huson and Tsakë ze’ Sleydo’ Molly Wickham, along with the Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs and fellow land defenders, as they reoccupy and protect their traditional land in a decade-long battle to keep out the companies that seek to exploit it. Streaming now on CBC Gem (88 minute version) and Netflix (theatrical version).
CAN I GET A WITNESS?: Performance in a Supporting Role, Drama (Sandra Oh)
In the near future, we’ve solved all the world’s problems by turning back technology and ending life by 50. Teenage artists have to document end-of-life ceremonies. It’s Kiah’s first day on the job.
ALTONA: Best Editing in a Feature Length Documentary
This true crime documentary examines the profound effects of a deadly attack that shattered a community, and the survivor who needed to face his demons in order to answer the question: Can you forgive what you’ll never forget?
PERFECTLY A STRANGENESS: Best Short Documentary
In the dazzling incandescence of an unknown desert, three donkeys discover an abandoned astronomical observatory and the universe. A sensorial, cinematic exploration of what a story can be.
Still from BONES OF CROWS.
The B.C television nominees are:
LOWLIFES: Best TV Movie, Best Lead Performer, TV Movie (Amanda Fix)
The survival instincts of a road-tripping family are put to the test when they have no other choice but to stay the night at a remote homestead.
BUYING BACK MY DAUGHTER: Best TV Movie
A mother fights back after finding out that her missing teenage daughter was being sex-trafficked on an escort website.
ALLEGIANCE: Best Drama Series, Best Direction, Drama Series, Best Writing, Drama Series, Best Original Music, Drama, Best Original Music – Original Song (Gail Maurice, “Auntie’s Honour Song”), Best Lead Performer, Drama Series (Supinder Wraich), Best Supporting Performer, Drama (Enrico Colantoni), Best Guest Performance, Drama Series (Veena Sood)
Sabrina Sohal is a star rookie police officer who must grapple with the limits of the justice system as she fights to exonerate her falsely accused politician father, and serve her diverse hometown alongside a veteran training officer who sees her potential but doesn’t always agree with her forward-thinking methods.
BONES OF CROWS: Best Drama Series, Best Direction, Drama Series, Best Writing, Drama Series, Best Picture Editing, Drama, Best Sound, Fiction, Best Costume Design, Best Achievement in Makeup, Best Visual Effects, Best Achievement in Hair, Best Original Music, Drama, Best Lead Performer, Drama Series (Grace Dove), Best Guest Performance, Drama Series (Karine Vanasse)
Removed from their family home and forced into Canada’s residential school system, Cree musical prodigy Aline and her siblings are plunged into a struggle for survival. Bones of Crows is Aline’s journey from child to matriarch and a moving multi-generational epic of resilience, survival, and the pursuit of justice.
SIGHT UNSEEN: Best Drama Series, Best Picture Editing, Drama
Former homicide detective Tess Avery, diagnosed as blind, teams up with Sunny Patel, a remote seeing-eye guide and agoraphobe, to bring down killers who elude the police in this high-stakes detective thriller.
CURIOUS CATERER: FOILED PLANS: Best Writing, TV Movie
Goldy Berry’s Medieval feast at Hyde Castle gets interrupted by a murder. She teams up with Detective Shultz to solve the mystery before the murderer strikes again.
CAMP SNOOPY: Best Animated Program or Series, Best Direction, Animation
After discovering their troop is in danger of disbanding, Snoopy and the Beagle Scouts set off to the great outdoors to earn their badges. Meanwhile, Charlie Brown and friends enjoy their summer at Camp Spring Lake.
SNOOPY PRESENTS: WELCOME HOME, FRANKLIN: Best Animated Program or Series, Best Writing, Animation
Newcomer Franklin has trouble fitting in with the Peanuts gang. When he learns about a Soap Box Derby race, he’s sure that winning the race will also mean winning over new friends.
Discover all nominees on the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television website.
