Mark Farrell of Corner Gas is up for two Canadian Screenwriting Awards, but he’s especially excited about This Hour Has 22 Minutes. The CBC sketch show is also up for two CSAs, but this year will face less competition in the ‘comedy and variety’ category, since Gas and other sitcoms, oddly enough, now count as half-hour dramas.

‘I’m glad, because it gives a chance for 22 Minutes to get nominated as well,’ says Farrell on the phone from Halifax, where he is the showrunner on 22 during Gas’ off season. The show is prepping its last episode of the season.

The Writers Guild of Canada, which gives out the CSAs, says it wanted to move sketch shows away from half-hour series. Corner Gas has won the comedy prize three years in a row, going back to 2005.

In the one-hour drama class, Denis McGrath and Robert Wertheimer picked up nods for the first episode of Across the River to Motor City. Chris Haddock is nom’d for Intelligence, opposite Laurie Finstad Knizhnik for Durham County and Peter Mitchell for drama Sabbatical.

Among feature films, the team of Chaz Thorne and Clement Virgo is in the running for Poor Boy’s Game, alongside Travis McDonald for Normal, Mark Leiren-Young for The Green Chain and Kari Skogland for The Stone Angel. Handled by Odeon Films, Stone Angel is set for release in Canada on May 9.

Farrell, who is up for his seventh CSA award following wins for Gas, 22 Minutes and Made in Canada, will begin work on season six of Gas in two weeks. The CSAs will be handed out April 14 in Toronto.