Stephanie Joline’s dramatic feature Night Blooms (pictured) leads the films and series nominated for the 2022 Screen Nova Scotia Awards Gala.

The annual celebration of the province’s screen sector will take place in-person for the first time since 2019, held at Casino Nova Scotia in Halifax on June 18. The gala will hand out awards from Screen Nova Scotia, Women in Film and Television Atlantic (WIFT-AT) and ACTRA Maritimes.

New for this year, the ACTRA Maritimes Awards have eliminated categories for its performance honours, including gender, format or lead/supporting roles. Instead, four winners will be selected from 20 nominated performances. The gala has also introduced two new categories: Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography, which awards individual cinematographers, and the Groundbreaking Performance Award, which honours an actor who is not eligible for the ACTRA Maritimes Award. Both awards come with a $500 cash prize.

Night Blooms (Shut Up & Colour Pictures), written and directed by Joline, picked up six nominations overall, including Best Feature Film, the WIFT-AT Best Nova Scotia Director Award for Joline, and four outstanding performance nods for Calem MacDonald, Alexandra McDonald, Jennie Raymond and Samantha Wilson.

The other nominees for Best Feature Film are Shelley Thompson’s Dawn, Her Dad & The Tractor (Picture Plant), Juanita Peters’ 8:37 Rebirth (Rebirth Films) and Bretten Hannam’s Wildhood (Rebel Road Films).

Thompson and Peters are both nominated for the WIFT-AT Best Nova Scotia Director Award for Dawn, Her Dad & The Tractor and 8:37 Rebirth, respectively, alongside Induk Lee for the short film Baduk (You First Productions) and Christine McLean for the documentary feature The New Human (McLean Media Enterprises, Dreamsmith Entertainment).

Dawn, Her Dad & The Tractor picked up five nominations in total, with three performance nods for Francine Deschepper, Reid Price and Rob Wells. Another two performance nominations went to 8:37 Rebirth for Pasha Ebrahimi and Amy Trefry, while Wildhood picked up three for Mary-Colin Chisholm, Desna Michael Thomas and Avery Winters-Anthony.

CBC legal drama Diggstown (Waterstar Entertainment, Circle Blue Entertainment) was the most-nominated series for the awards, picking up four in total, including Best Television Series and three performance nods for Vinessa Antoine, Susan Kent and Jacob Sampson.

The other three projects up for Best Television Series are CBC’s Moonshine (Six Eleven Media), APTN docuseries Spirit Talker (Rebel Road Films, Tell Tale Productions) and CBC satire This Hour Has 22 Minutes (22M Hour Productions). Moonshine picked up a second nomination for outstanding performance for Celia Koughan.

Nominees for Best Documentary Film are Jayson Taylor’s A New World of Hurt (Auguste Content, Clothesline Media), Ian Wilson’s short doc Deserted (The Lunenburg Doc Fest, Picnic Studios), Marie and Meaghan Wright’s Freedom Swell (Mirror Image Media) and McLean’s The New Human.

Up for Best Short Film are Lee’s Baduk, Dominic Fegan’s The Artistic Accountant (Make Your Day Productions), Kevin Hartford’s Breakout (Blurry Logo Productions) and Seth A. Smith’s Dust Bath (Cut/Off/Tail Pictures).

The nominees for Best Animated Series are Nickelodeon’s The Casagrandes (Jam Filled Entertainment), Family Channel’s Denis & Me (Headspinner Productions, Cartoon Conrad) and Cartoon Network’s Teen Titans Go! (Copernicus Entertainment).

Four individuals were nominated for the newly-created Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography, including Kevin Fraser, Halley Hellmich, Paul McCurdy and Jeff Wheaton.

Rounding out the outstanding performance nominations are Beth Amiro and Bob Mann for the scripted short film Second Wedding, and Koumbie and Taylor Olson for the short I Hate You, both produced by Afro Viking Pictures.

The Community Recognition Award, the Film Crew Excellence Award, and the new Groundbreaking Performance Award will all be announced at the live gala.

Image courtesy of Screen Nova Scotia