Canadian dramas grabbed the spotlight Tuesday as nominations for the 25th Gemini Awards were handed out, with CTV’s Flashpoint leading all comers with 15 nods.

The homegrown cop series also swept the Geminis last year with a record 19 nominations and three trophies, including best drama.

Close behind in the 2010 competition is a Canadian broadcast consortium’s coverage of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games with 13 nominations (plus four for shows commissioned for the Games – two for On Home Ice, and one each for Superbodies and Sid the Kid vs. Alexander the Great).

And a host of rival dramas including HBO Canada’s Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures, the CBC mini-seies Guns, Stargate Universe and The Summit will each compete in nine juried Gemini competitions.

In the marquee best drama competition, Flashpoint from Pink Sky and Avamar Entertainment will go up against Durham County, from Muse and Back Alley Film Productions, Republic Season’s Republic of Doyle, Peace Arch Entertainment’s The Tudors and Stargate Universe’s Stargate Universe sci-fi drama.

The comedy category featured a first-time nomination for WestWind Pictures’ Little Mosque on the Prairie after being shut out of the Geminis since 2007, and an emotional nod for HBO Canada’s Less Than Kind after the recent death of co-lead Maury Chaykin.

“It has particular resonance for the Less Than Kind family this year given the recent passing of our beloved friend and creative colleague, Maury Chaykin,” Mark McKinney said Tuesday.

Less Than Kind, from Breakthrough Films & Television and Buffalo Gals Pictures, picked up eight nods in all, including three for best individual comedy performance for Wendel Meldrum, Benjamin Arthur and Lisa Durupt.

In the acting catagories, the best actor in a dramatic role competition will be fought over by Robert Carlyle and Louis Ferreira for star-turns in Stargate Universe, as they go up against Republic of Doyle’s Allan Hawco, Luke Kirby in Cra$h & Burn and Michael Riley for Being Erica.

The best dramatic actress competition will pit Lynda Boyd of Republic of Doyle and Caroline Cave of Cra$h & Burn against Hélène Joy of Durham County, Grace Park from The Border and Victoria Snow from Paradise Falls.

The best dramatic series nod going to Durham County was welcomed by co-producers Janis Lundman and Adrienne Mitchell of Back Alley Film Productions.

“We are especially thrilled for Adrienne who received her first nom for best director,” Lundman told Playback Daily after Mitchell was nominated in the best drama direction category.

The CBC rules the best news anchor competition with nods for Ian Hanomansing, Peter Mansbridge and Diana Swain.

The Gemini Awards are also entering the digital age this year after ditching printed ballots for the juried competition.

The Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television said its voting members will go online to view video content for all 107 categories, and vote via an Internet balloting system provided by Zip.ca.

Academy topper Sarah Morton insisted that the secure online viewing and voting system, using Zip.ca’s online VOD infrastructure, would preserve the “integrity and accessibility” of the Geminis judging process.

The Geminis, staged by the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television, will take place over three nights in November, and climax on November 13 with a live-to-tape broadcast on Global Television and Showcase.

Story updated Thursday, September 2 @ 10:22.