The Canada/Ireland/Denmark coproduction The Apprentice has received three nominations for the 2025 Film Independent Spirit Awards.

The nominations are Best Director for Iranian-Danish filmmaker Ali Abbasi, Best Lead Performance for Sebastian Stan (A Different Man) and Best Editing for Olivier Bugge Coutté and Olivia Neergaard-Holm.

The film, written by U.S. journalist and author Gabriel Sherman, is produced by David Bekerman from Toronto’s Scythia Films; Julianne Ford and Ruth Treacy from Ireland’s Tailored Films; and Jacob Jarek from Denmark’s Profile Pictures along with Abbasi and Louis Tisné.

The Apprentice follows Donald Trump, played by Stan, and depicts his early real estate career as he is mentored by U.S. lawyer Roy Cohn, played by Jeremy Strong (Succession).

For the television awards, Hoa Xuande (A Stitch in Time) received a nomination for Best Breakthrough Performance in The Sympathizer, based on the book by Viet Thanh Nguyen. Canadian actor and filmmaker Don McKellar (Crimes of the Future) is a co-showrunner, co-creator, executive producer and writer on the miniseries along with director Park Chan-wook (Oldboy). The Sympathizer is also co-produced by Toronto’s Rhombus Media, HBO and A24 in association with Moho Film and Cinetic Media.

Toronto-born actor Enrico Colantoni received a nomination for Best Supporting Performance in a New Scripted Series for his work in FX’s English Teacher.

Productions shot in Canada received recognition as well including the Vancouver-shot FX series Shogun, which received a nomination for Best New Scripted Series and two nominations in Best Lead Performance for Anna Sawai (Pachinko) and Hiroyuki Sanada (Westworld). Shogun also led the Critics Choice television awards. The series is nominated in the Best Drama Series category and Sanada and Sawai were nominated for Best Actor and Best Actress, respectively; as well as Tadanobu Asano (Thor: Ragnarok) and Takehiro Hira (Rumours) for supporting actor; and Moeka Hoshi (On the Street) for supporting actress.

Lily Gladstone (Killers of the Flower Moon) also received a Best Lead Performance nomination for Hulu’s Vancouver-shot Under The Bridge. The miniseries is based on the book by Canadian author Rebecca Godfrey that tells the story of the 1997 murder of Saanich, B.C. teenager Reena Virk.

The B.C.-shot film Heretic garnered recognition as well with the film’s writers and directors Scott Beck and Brian Woods receiving a nomination for Best Screenplay.

Image courtesy of Scythia Films