With 18 nominations, Radio-Canada’s mystery series Musée Eden, about two sisters from Manitoba who run a wax museum in Montreal’s red-light district circa 1900, leads the race for this year’s Gémeaux Awards.

The nominations for Musée Eden include best dramatic series (Les productions Sovimage) direction, (Alain DesRochers), best writing (Gilles Desjardins), lead actor, drama (Vincent-Guillaume Otis, Paul Doucet, Benoît Brière), and lead actress, drama (Laurence Leboeuf, Mariloup Wolfe).

Close behind Musée Eden is Radio-Canada’s suspense series Aveux (Pixcom) which received 17 nominations. Written by Serge Boucher, who picked up a best-writing nod, Aveux follows the life of a man who left home at 18 and created a new identity. It also picked up nominations for best dramatic series and direction (Claude Desrosiers) lead actor, drama (Maxime Denommée, Guy Nadon), and lead actress, drama (Danielle Proulx, Catherine Proulx-Lemay).

As is frequently the case with the Gémeaux Awards, most of the series nominated are broadcast on Radio-Canada because rival network TVA refuses to participate. But some independent producers defy TVA and submit their programs anyway. As a result, Quebec comic Patrick Huard’s hit TVA comedy series Taxi 0-22, which is currently being adapted by HBO — the American version will star James Gandolfini (aka Tony Soprano) — picked up six nominations.

The Radio-Canada comedy Les hauts et les bas de Sophie Paquin picked up 12 nods and SRC’s drama Yamaska, 11.

The 25th annual televised Gémeaux Awards will air on Radio-Canada Sept 19. It will be hosted by Véronique Cloutier.