Danis Goulet’s Night Raiders, David Cronenberg’s Crimes of the Future and Guillermo del Toro’s Nightmare Alley are the leading feature film contenders for the 2022 DGC Awards.

The titles scored three nominations each as the Director’s Guild of Canada (DGC) announced the feature film, documentary and short film nominees on Friday (Sept. 23). Cree-Métis filmmaker Goulet’s Night Raiders (pictured) secured a nod in the Outstanding Directorial Achievement in a Feature Film category. The film also got nominations for Best Production Design for a Feature Film for Zazu Myers and Best Picture Editing for a Feature Film for Jorge Weisz.

The dystopian drama is a Canada/New Zealand copro produced by Paul Barkin for Alcina Pictures, Tara Woodbury for Uno Bravo, Ainsley Gardiner and Georgina Condor for Miss Conception Films/Whenua Films, and co-produced by Chelsea Winstanley for Defender Films. The film won five Canadian Screen Awards in April.

Cronenberg is also in the running for Outstanding Directorial Achievement for Crimes of the Future. The famed filmmaker recently received a Donostia Award at the San Sebastian International Film Festival in Spain. The Canada/Greece copro produced by Robert Lantos under his banner Serendipity Point Films with Athens-based Argonauts Productions is also a contender for production design for Carol Spier and picture editing for Christopher Donaldson.

Meanwhile, del Toro’s Toronto-shot film Nightmare Alley, produced by Toronto’s J. Miles Dale, landed in the categories of production design for Tamara Deverell, picture editing for Cam McLauchlin, and sound editing for Nathan Robitaille, Jill Purdy, Dashen Naidoo, Josh Brown, Nelson Ferreira, Kayla Stewart, Craig MacLellan, and Kevin Banks. The feature was also nominated at the Screen Actors Guild Awards earlier this year.

The DGC announced the nominees for the television categories in August, with CBC and HBO Max’s Sort Of receiving the most nods. The organization received a total of nearly 450 submissions this year that showcase the “creativity and innovation of filmmakers thriving in the film and television industry,” according to a news release. The winners will be announced on Nov. 5 at the West Coast DGC Awards Gala in Vancouver.

Other nominees in the Outstanding Directorial Achievement category include Robert Budreau for the North Bay, Ont.-shot Delia’s Gone (JoBro Productions/Lumanity Productions); Agam Darshi for her debut feature film Donkeyhead (KarmaFilm), which was filmed in Regina last year; Zoe Hopkins for Run Woman Run (Big Soul Productions/Devonshire Productions), which was shot in the Six Nations reserve in Ontario; and Sarah Watts and Mark Slutsky for their debut feature film You Can Live Forever (Prospector Films).

In the production design for a feature film category, the other nominees are Claude Paré for Shawn Levy’s Vancouver-shot feature The Adam Project (Skydance Media/Maximum Effort/21 Laps Entertainment), and Ludovic Dufresne for Geneviève Albert’s Noémie dit oui (Leitmotiv Films).

For Best Picture Editing for a feature film, Simone Smith picked up a nod for the Arctic-set film Slash/Back, directed by Nyla Innuksuk and produced by Scythia Films. The feature film also made the Jean-Marc Vallée DGC Discovery Award Short List.

Other nominees on the Jean-Marc Vallée Short List are Kelly Fyffe-Marshall for her feature debut When Morning Comes (Sunflower Studios), who is also up for best short film for Omi (20th Century Digital/Aligned & Capture); Anthony Shim’s Riceboy Sleeps (Lonesome Heroes Productions), which won the Platform Prize at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) earlier this month; Luis De Filippis’ Something You Said Last Night (JA Productions/Cinédokké), which took the Shawn Mendes Foundation Changemaker Award at TIFF; Gail Maurice’s Rosie (Maurice/Jamie Manning/Mélanie Bray); and Ashley McKenzie’s Queens of the Qing Dynasty (Hi-Vis Films).

The other Canadian nominees for best sound editing for a feature film include Elma Bello for Renuka Jeyapalan’s Stay the Night, produced by Glenn Cockburn, Jeyapalan, and Brian Robertson; Jane Tattersall, Paul Germann, Jill Purdy, and David Caporale for Lindsay Gossling’s 13 Minutes, produced by Karen Harnisch, Travis Farncombe, and Gossling; Nelson Ferreira, Dashen Naidoo, Ève Corrêa-Guedes, Josh Brown, Robert Hegedus, Jack Madigan for Johannes Roberts’ Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City (Constantin Film); and Tyler Whitham, Krystin Hunter, Dustin Harris, Alex Bullick, Bret Killoran and Ryan Allam for Roel Reiné’s Fistful of Vengeance.

In the short film category, the nominees include Hayley Gray’s Send the Rain (Elad Tzadok); Ritvick Mehra’s Lover Boy’s Little Dream, produced by Mehra and Gerard Jacinto; Chris Strikes’ Patty vs. Patty, which he produced along with Kate Fraser and Maya Annik Bedward; Simonee Chichester’s Him & Her; and Brad Bangsboll’s Moore’s Void.

In the documentary categories, Jeremy Schaulin-Rioux’s Handle with Care: The Legend of the Notic Streetball Crew, produced by Ryan Sidhoo, and Barri Cohen’s Unloved: Huronia’s Forgotten Children, produced by Craig Baines, both received two nominations each. The two docs picked up nods for best picture editing and the Allan King Award for Excellence in Documentary.

The other contenders for the Allan King Award are: Chase Joynt’s Framing Agnes (Fae Pictures); Madison Thomas’ Buffy Sainte-Marie: Carry It On (Eagle Vision/White Pine Pictures/Paquin Entertainment); Andrew Moir’s Don’t Come Searching, which he produced with Michelle Serieux and Sherien Barsoum; and Adam Brooks’ Cliff: A Portrait of an Artist.

The other nominees for picture editing for a documentary include Nick Hector for Michelle Shephard’s The Perfect Story (Frequent Flyer Films/National Film Board of Canada) and Lee Walker for Sean Cisterna’s The Long Rider (Mythic Productions/Total Entertainment).

Image courtesy of imagineNATIVE