BlackBerry and Little Bird led the winners at the 2024 Canadian Screen Awards Gala on Friday (May 31) with a total of 14 and 13 awards, respectively.

Canadian Screen Week wrapped up Friday (May 31) with the 2024 Canadian Screen Awards Gala. The final event was hosted by Mae Martin.

BlackBerry (Rhombus Media, Zapruder Films) continued its Canadian Screen Week domination with three more wins, including Best Motion Picture, Best Performance in a Leading Role, Comedy for star Jay Baruchel, and Best Achievement in Directing for helmer Matt Johnson (pictured middle). BlackBerry broke the record set by Brother in 2023 for the most wins for a film.

The film had received 11 trophies at the Cinematic Arts Awards on May 30, including for supporting performance in a comedy, adapted screenplay and cinematography, to name a few.

Crave and APTN lumi original Little Bird (Rezolution Pictures, Original Pictures) added two more awards to its tally with Best Drama Series and Best Lead Performer, Drama Series for Darla Contois (pictured second to the right, above). During the television craft and performance awards on May 29, the series nabbed 11 awards, including honours for directing, photography, picture editing, production design and art direction, costume, makeup and hair.

The wins kept on coming for Crave originals, with Bria Mack Gets A Life (New Metric Media) winning Best Comedy Series and Canada’s Drag Race: Canada vs the World (Blue Ant Studios) took home top prize for Best Reality/Competition Program or Series. The latter series won six honours on May 30 during the Documentary, Factual, Lifestyle and Reality Awards.

“It’s a huge, huge honour, we know what this means in Canada with the likes of Eugene Levy, Catherine O’Hara, Martin Short, comedy legends, and we just won Best Comedy Series,” said creator Sasha Leigh Henry (pictured middle, left) backstage, surrounded by left to right; Mark Montefiore (executive producer), Angelique Knights (producer), Tamar Bird (producer) and Tania Thompson (executive producer). “I mean, come on!”

“As a premium television series, this is the first Black female-led series since Da Kink in My Hair fifteen years ago,” added Montefiore backstage. “There’s been a tremendous amount of initiatives trying to encourage voices we haven’t heard before, or in a long time, or at all. We did it, there are voices out there, now is not the time to stop the support. You do not plant seeds and not water it. That comes from the industry, the audience, the broadcast partners and everybody who is connected to it. Now is the time to watch the show and to spread the word, because otherwise, what are we doing here?”

The Ted Rogers Best Feature Length Documentary went to Lin Alluna’s Twice Colonized (EyeSteelFilm, Ánorâk Film, Red Marrow Media), and the COGECO Fund Audience Choice Award was given to CBC’s Son of a Critch (Project 10 Productions, Take the Shot Productions).

Rounding out the winners were Meaghan Rath with Best Lead Performer, Comedy for CTV’s Children Ruin Everything (New Metric Media), and Amrit Kaur with Best Performance in a Leading Role, Drama for The Queen Of My Dreams.

Following filmmaker Denis Villeneuve’s Icon Award, he was asked what voice he wanted to provide for Canada. “I’d say my job as a director is trying to make decent movies, good movies, if I can,” he said. “When I was a kid I remember watching Fiddler on the Roof from Norman Jewison, and I was inspired as a young man who dreamed about making movies. I don’t want to sound pretentious, but I hope I can inspire [others].”

The Cinematic Arts Awards and the Documentary, Factual, Lifestyle and Reality Awards took place on May 30, the television craft and performance awards were handed out on May 29, while the news, entertainment and sports categories were announced on May 28.

The full list of winners are available on the Canadian Academy website.

Photos by George Pimentel