Women Talking, Sort Of lead DGC awards winners

Sarah Polley's film Women Talking led with four awards, followed by CBC and Max comedy series Sort Of with three.

Sarah Polley’s drama feature Women Talking and the CBC and Max original comedy series Sort Of were the big winners at the Directors Guild of Canada (DGC) awards.

The DGC held its 22nd annual awards at a gala event at the Fairmont Royal York in Toronto on Saturday (Oct. 21). Winners were announced in the feature film, television series, and documentary categories, as well as the Jean-Marc Vallée DGC Discovery award. The DGC had announced the Special Awards honourees earlier this month.

Women Talking picked up four awards, including the Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film for Polley and the directing team. The film is based on the book by Canadian author Miriam Toews and produced by U.S. prodcos Plan B Entertainment, Hear/Say Productions and Orion Pictures,

Other honours for Women Talking in the feature film category include best production design for Peter Cosco, best picture editing for Christopher Donaldson and Roslyn Kalloo, and best sound editing for David McCallum, Jane Tattersall, Alex Bullick, Krystin Hunter, and Christopher Alan King.

Sort Of (Sphere Media) led the winners in the TV series category, taking home three awards: Outstanding Directorial Achievement In Comedy Series for Fabrizio Filippo and the directing team; best production design for a comedy or family series for Ingrid Jurek for the episode “Sort Of Janazah”; and best picture editing for a comedy or family series for Sam Thomson for the episode “Sort of I Love You.”

Filippo co-created the show with Bilal Baig. The two announced in a joint statement earlier this month that the Peabody-winning series will conclude after season three, which premieres in Canada on CBC Gem on Nov. 17.

The CBC miniseries Essex County (First Generation Films), meanwhile, picked up two awards: best production design for movies for television or miniseries for Brian Kane, and best picture editing for movies for television or miniseries for Chris Mutton, Sandy Pereira and Dev Singh, both for “Episode Three.”

Aisling Chin-Yee and team won Best Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Movies for Television or Miniseries for “Episode Five” from CBC’s Plan B (KOTV). Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers and the directing team of Crave and APTN lumi series Little Bird (Rezolution Pictures, OP Little Bird) won Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Dramatic Series for the episode “Love is all Around.”

The Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Family Series was a tie between Lisa Rose Snow and the directing team of TVOKids’ Odd Squad (Sinking Ship) for the episode “Why Did The Chick Cross The Dimension? / Off The Clock,” and Jonathan Rosenbaum and the directing team of Apple TV+’s Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock, for the episode “Night of the Lights.” Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock also picked up an honour for sound editing in the family series category.

Other notable television category winners include Hulu original The Handmaid’s Tale, picking up awards for picture editing and sound editing in the dramatic series category, while Netflix’s Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities won best production design; and Netflix series Thai Cave Rescue with a sound editing honour in the MOW or miniseries category.

Quebec director Ariane Louis-Seize’s won the Jean-Marc Vallée DGC Discovery Award for her debut feature Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person (Art et essai). The film recently made its North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.

The documentary To Kill a Tiger (Notice Pictures, National Film Board of Canada) picked up two awards, including the Allan King Award for Excellence in Documentary for writer-director Nisha Pahuja, and best picture editing for a documentary for Mike Munn with Dave Kazala.

Rounding out the winners is Lisa Robertson’s SmokeBreak (Benchmark Pictures), which won Best Short Film.

Photo by Michael Gibson, courtesy of Orion Releasing