Anne with an E (CBC/Netflix), Schitt’s Creek (CBC), Letterkenny (Crave) and Cardinal: Blackfly (CTV) emerged as some of the big winners from the Canadian Screen Awards broadcast gala on Sunday night, with each claiming two prizes apiece.
Held at Toronto’s Sony Centre for the Performing Arts, the show saw Anne with an E (Northwood Entertainment) win Best Drama Series for a second time, while star Amybeth McNulty also won best lead actress in a drama series.
In addition, following the news that Schitt’s Creek (Not A Real Company Productions) has been greenit for a sixth and final season, the show picked up the prize for Best Comedy Series, besting Letterkenny, Mr. D (CBC), Second Jen (Rogers Media) and Workin’ Moms (CBC). Schitt’s Creek‘s Catherine O’Hara also scored best lead actress in a comedy, a title she’s picked up for the last three years.
“You never want to push things past the point of no return. It felt right in my gut to say ‘this is it’ and we’re going to end on a high,” said Dan Levy of the decision to end the series at six seasons.
Letterkenny (New Metric Media), meanwhile, won best writing in a comedy for the episode “Letterkenny Spelling Bee,” written by co-creators Jared Keeso and Jacob Tierney. The evening also saw Keeso earn best lead actor in a comedy. As well, Kim Coates, who stars in the New Metric and Sphère Média Plus drama Bad Blood, won Best Lead Actor, Drama Series.
There were also big acting wins for Cardinal. In the drama program or limited series category, the best lead actor and actress prizes went to Billy Campbell and Karine Vanasse, with Campbell claiming the award for a second consecutive year.
The Amazing Race Canada (Insight Productions) also took home the award for Best Reality/Competition Program or Series. The reality show won the category ahead of Canada’s Smartest Person Junior (Media Headquarters, CBC), MasterChef Canada (Proper Television, Bell Media), Knock Knock Ghost (Convergent Entertainment, OUTtv) and another Insight-produced format, Big Brother Canada (Corus Entertainment). This is The Amazing Race Canada‘s fifth Best Reality/Competition program win at the CSAs.
Meanwhile, the coveted Best Motion Picture award went to Une colonie (“A Colony”), written and directed by Geneviève Dulude-De Celles and produced by Fanny Drew and Sarah Mannering. Dulude-De Celles’ full-length film debut also walked away with the prize for best performance by an actress in a lead role for Emilie Bierre at the gala. Earlier this morning, the coming-of-age story took home Best First Feature Film at the Academy’s Cinematic Arts ceremony.
Anthropocene: The Human Epoch also earned the Ted Rogers Best Feature Length Documentary gold statue. The environmental doc from co-directors Jennifer Baichwal, Nicholas de Pencier and Edward Burtynsky was also another winner from this morning’s gala, walking away the prize for Best Cinematography for a Documentary Feature. The 2019 TFCA Rogers Best Canadian Film winner is set to bow as a Crave Original documentary next month, making its world television and streaming premiere.
The Achievement in Directing prize was awarded to filmmaker Jasmin Mozaffari for her debut feature Firecrackers. “I think I’m one of the few women to win this award. I don’t think I’ll be the last,” said Mozaffari following the win.
As well, Deepa Mehta won the Lifetime Achievement Award; comedy troupe The Kids in the Hall picked up the Academy Icon prize; Mary Walsh won the Earle Grey prize; and The Radius Award was presented to If Beale Street Could Talk actor Stephan James.