Matt Johnson’s BlackBerry and Meredith Hama-Brown’s feature debut Seagrass lead the nominees of the Vancouver Film Critics Circle (VFCC) Awards’ Canadian film categories, picking up six nods each.

The Canadian and international nominees for the VFCC Awards were announced on Monday (Jan. 22), with Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer leading at six nominations.

BlackBerry (Rhombus Media, Zapruder Films; pictured) is nominated for Best Picture; Best Director for Johnson; Best Screenplay for Johnson and Matthew Miller; Best Male Actor for Jay Baruchel; and two for Best Male Supporting Actor, with Johnson up against costar Glenn Howerton.

Hama-Brown’s Seagrass (Experimental Films, Ceroma Films) is up for Best Screenplay, Best BC Director and Telefilm One to Watch for Hama-Brown; Best Male Supporting Actor for Chris Pang; and Best Female Supporting Actor for Nyah Huang Breitkreuz.

Ariana Louis-Seize’s Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person I (Art et essai), Ally Pankiw’s I Used to Be Funny (Barn 12), Nisha Pahuja’s To Kill a Tiger (Notice Pictures, NFB) and Atom Egoyan’s Seven Veils (Rhombus Media) are all up for three trophies apiece.

Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person is up for Best Picture; Best Female Actor for Sara Montpetit; and One to Watch for Louis-Seize.

Pankiw is also nominated in the One to Watch category, with I used to Be Funny also picking up a nod for Best Female Actor for Rachel Sennott, and Sabrina Jalees for Best Female Supporting Actor. Jenny Lee-Gilmore rounds out the One to Watch nominees with Overtime.

Pahuja’s To Kill a Tiger, which also earned an Oscar nomination this morning, is up for Best Picture, Best Director (Pahuja) and Best Canadian Documentary. To Kill a Tiger also picked up a nomination for Best Documentary in VFCC’s international awards.

Seven Veils, meanwhile, was nominated for Best Director (Egoyan); Best Female Actor for Amanda Seyfried; and Best Female Supporting Actor for Rebecca Liddiard.

Sherren Lee’s Float (Collective Pictures, Wattpad Webtoon Studios, Brightlight Pictures) has been nominated in two categories, including the CMPA-BC award for Best BC Film and the DGC-BC award for Best BC Director for Lee.

Film’s picking up one nomination each include With Love and a Major Organ (Best Screenplay for Julia Lederer); Hey, Viktor! (North Country Cinema; Best Male Actor for Cody Lightning); Solo (Bravo Charlie; Best Male Actor for Theodore Pellerin); The Burning Season (Banana-Moon Sky Films; Best Male Actor for Jonas Chernick); and Close to You (Best Female Supporting Actor for Wendy Crewson).

Rounding out the list of nominees are Infinity Pool (Elevation Pictures, Hero Squared, 4 Film; Mia Goth) and Testament (Cinémaginaire; Sophie Lorain) for Best Female Supporting Actor; Mr Dressup: The Magic of Make Believe (marblemedia) and Satan Wants You (Nootka St., Grand Scheme) for Best Canadian Documentary; I’m Just Here for the Riot and WaaPaKe for Best BC Film; and Re: Uniting (Flat Head Films ) and Anything for Fame (NFB, North of Now Films) for Best BC Director.

The winner of the One to Watch category will receive a prize of $1,000, courtesy of Telefilm, while the Best BC Director winner will be awarded $500, courtesy of the Directors Guild of Canada, BC District. The winner of Best BC Film, meanwhile, will receive $500, courtesy of the CMPA-BC.

The winners of the VFCC awards will be revealed on Feb. 12 at a ceremony at the VIFF Centre in Vancouver.

Image courtesy of IFC Films