The Toronto Film Critics Association (TFCA) has named BlackBerry (pictured left) and Swan Song (pictured right) as the winners of its annual Canadian film prizes.

Matt Johnson’s BlackBerry (Rhombus Media, Zapruder Films) won the Rogers Best Canadian Film Award, while Chelsea McMullan’s Swan Song (Visitor Media) is the inaugural winner of the Rogers Best Canadian Documentary.

The TFCA’s annual $100,000 Canadian film award was split into two categories for 2024 to honour both scripted and documentary films, with both awards giving a cash prize of $50,000.

The awards were handed out on Monday evening (March 4) at the Omni King Edward Hotel in Toronto.

The directors of the other nominees – Ariane Louis-Seize (Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person) and Sophie Dupuis (Solo) for best Canadian film, and Zaynê Akyol (Rojek) and Zack Russell (Someone Lives Here) for documentary – will each receive $5,000 from Rogers Communications.

BlackBerry is directed by Johnson, and written by Johnson and Matthew Miller. It follows the rise and fall of the Canadian tech company Research in Motion, which created the BlackBerry mobile device. The film stars Jay Baruchel and Glenn Howerton, with the latter winning the inaugural TFCA award for Outstanding Performance in a Canadian Film last December.

Swan Song is directed by McMullan and follows Canadian ballet icon Karen Kain as she mounts her final production as artistic director of The National Ballet of Canada.

Images courtesy of Elevation Pictures and Visitor Media