The Canadian Screen Awards (CSAs) will fully transition to gender-neutral performance categories as part of a number of changes to the 2023 awards program.

The Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television (the Canadian Academy) unveiled the category shift on Thursday (Aug. 25), which will see performance categories for comedy, drama, TV movie and feature film eliminate actor and actress awards. For TV, they’ll now become Best Lead Performer and Best Supporting Performer, and for film it will be Performance in a Leading Role and Performance in a Supporting Role. As a result, the Canadian Academy has increased the number of nominations per category from five to eight.

The CSAs first introduced gender-neutral awards in 2019 for digital media, with a similar count of eight nominees per category.

The Canadian Academy’s interim CEO Louis Calabro tells Playback Daily that the move to more inclusive categories involved five years of discussions and consultations with staff members, the board of directors and 40 key industry organizations. The list includes ACTRA, CBC, the Canada Media Fund, APTN and Corus Entertainment.

He adds that the change was an important part of living up to their mandate of breaking down barriers to access the awards. “I’m hoping that this inspires people to feel comfortable and safe with the ability to be themselves when they come forward with their work,” says Calabro.

When asked about the slightly reduced number of nominations, with the merged awards resulting in eight nominees rather than 10 each, Calabro says the Canadian Academy is always open to discuss potential changes in the future. “We’re really excited to get it going this year, and if something seems amiss or there’s a missed opportunity to celebrate the industry, then we’ll talk about it with the committees, with different stakeholders and with performers,” he says.

Gender-inclusive or neutral categories are gaining momentum in film and television awards, with the Film Independent Spirit Awards in the U.S. eliminating gender-specific awards earlier this week. In Canada, the ACTRA Awards in Toronto introduced the term “gender non-conforming” to both its male and female categories, while the ACTRA Maritimes Awards merged its four acting categories into a single gender-neutral performance award with 20 nomination slots and four winners.

The Canadian Academy has also added a number of new television categories, largely for music and sound. Best Sound, Non-Fiction has been split into Best Sound, Documentary or Factual and Best Sound, Lifestyle, Reality, or Entertainment; Best Original Music, Fiction is now Best Original Music, Drama and Best Original Music, Comedy; while Best Original Music, Non-Fiction will be Best Original Music, Documentary and Best Original Music, Factual, Lifestyle, Reality, or Entertainment.

Three brand new television categories are Best Writing, Pre-School; Best Picture Editing, Children’s or Youth; and Best Original Music – Original Song.

Meanwhile, in digital media Best Video Game Narrative has been renamed to Best Video Game, while Best Children’s Video Game Narrative has similarly shifted to Best Children’s Video Game.

Calabro says the Canadian Academy has also updated its narrative sovereignty rules to transition away from self-identification. “We’ve been working hard with representatives of the ISO, and others, to come to an understanding of how we want to discuss the work coming forward in terms of authorship and authentic storytelling.”

Submissions for the Canadian Screen Awards open on Sept. 14 and close on Oct. 14. Eligibility requirements are available on the Canadian Academy website.