Writer-director Ann Marie Fleming’s Can I Get A Witness? (AMF Productions) led the nominees at this year’s Vancouver Film Critic Circle (VFCC) Awards with eight nominations.

The Powell, B.C.-shot film is set in a future where all the world’s problems have been fixed, but with the caveat that all adults have to die at 50, with teenage artists documenting the process.

The film is nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Female Actor for Keira Jang, Best Supporting Female Actor for Sandra Oh, Best BC Film and Best BC Director. Newcomer Jang (pictured) was also nominated for One to Watch.

Brooklyn, N.Y.-based Visit Films acquired international sales rights to the film, excluding Canada, last October.

R.T. Thorne’s post-apocalyptic thriller 40 Acres (Hungry Eyes Media) earned three nominations, including nods for picture and director, while Kataem O’Connor is nominated for Best Supporting Male Actor.

Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson and Galen Johnson’s Rumours (Buffalo Gal Pictures, Maze Pictures, Square Peg Films) is up for Best Picture and Roy Dupuis for Best Male Actor.

Matt Johnson and Deragh Campbell were nominated in the best acting categories for Matt and Mara (MDFF Films), directed by Kazik Radwanski.

Nathan Drillot and Jeff Lee Petr’s Telus original documentary Ari’s Theme (Salazar Films) was nominated for Best Documentary and Best BC Film.

The other Best Documentary nominees are Michael Mabbott and Lucah Rosenberg-Lee’s Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story (Banger Films, National Film Board of Canada), Dale Heslip’s Blue Rodeo: Lost Together (Cream Films), Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie’s Sugarcane (Hedgehog Films, Kassie Films), Matt Finlin’s The Movie Man (Door Knocker Media) and Mads K. Baekkevold’s The Chef and the Daruma (Wallop Film).

Liz Cairns was nominated for Best BC Director for Inedia (Experimental Forest Films, Good Question Media), while Amy Forsythe was recognized for Best Female Actor.

Canadian-American actor Patrick J. Adams and Alison Pill were recognized in the supporting categories for José Avelino Gilles Corbett Lourenço’s feature debut Young Werther (Wildling Pictures).

Matthew Rankin scored a single nomination for his screenplay for Universal Language (Metafilms).

The U.S. film My Old Ass, from Lindsay, Ont.-born director Megan Park, garnered seven nominations. Shot in Muskoka Lakes, Ont., the film’s nominations include Best Picture, director and screenplay.

The winners will be announced via a ceremony at Vancouver’s VIFF Centre on Feb. 18.

Image courtesy of Visit Films