Patricia Rozema calls the sweep in nominations of her Grey Gardens ‘incredible’ and adds with a laugh that she’s ‘relieved to be included — if there’d been 17 nominations and I hadn’t been one of them it would have been terrible.’

The made-for-TV movie, which aired on HBO April 18, drew 17 Emmy nominations on Thursday. The Toronto-based filmmaker was nominated for best screenplay with co-writer/director Michael Sucsy. Also nominated are three principal cast members: Jessica Lange, Drew Barrymore and Jeanne Tripplehorn.

Rozema says it’s inspiring that the Emmy Awards would recognize a film she sees as a ‘strange new hybrid.’ The film is inspired by and based on the 1975 documentary of the same name, by the legendary direct cinema team David and Albert Maysles. The duo set out to make a film about Jackie Kennedy’s extended family, but came across a mother and daughter, Big Edie and Little Edie Beale, who lived in a dilapidated mansion in Long Island.

The Maysles spent several weeks with the two women, capturing their tortured mother-daughter relationship. Grey Gardens has since become a cult sensation.

The HBO version — which came out on DVD on Tuesday — goes back to the ’30s, when the Edies were both wealthy aristocrats, and Little Edie was a gorgeous debutante with dreams of making it big on Broadway as an actress and dancer. The action then cuts to the ’70s, when they are living in a raccoon- and cat-infested house, and the Maysles are trying to convince them to be subjects of their latest documentary.

It is made up of meticulous recreations of scenes from the original film and speculative details about the two characters’ backstories and histories, and attempts to explain how they ended up in such a state.

‘This film really twists the genres around,’ says Rozema. ‘It’s great that this has been rewarded, because this is very unusual subject matter. I mean, it’s about two old ladies rotting in a house. Who knew this would ignite such fascination?’

Rozema concedes these are hard times for independent filmmakers, but is optimistic about her next project, a screen adaptation of The Stone Diaries, Carol Shields’ celebrated 1993 novel. The film will be produced by Niv Fichman, the screenplay is by Semi Chellas with Cynthia Scott serving as consultant.

Other Canadian-made nominees include the sci-fi Sanctuary, up for best visual effects, and The Tudors, which is in the running for best art direction in a single-camera series, best casting, cinematography and costumes.