Last year’s Genies might have been called The Sarah Polley Show – the debut director and her crew walked away with seven statuettes. This year presents a horse race with new faces – in all three ‘official languages’ and Hindi. Inuktitut is recognized as an official language in Nunavut, home to the hero of Benoît Pilon’s eight-times-nominated Ce qu’il faut pour vivre/The Necessities of Life.

While Necessities of Life leads the pack, there’s no obvious candidate for a Polley-like sweep. The lineup is strong, particularly among the direction nominees, of whom three are feature directorial debuts – a good sign for the long-term health of the industry. But the nominees are also an endorsement of Canada’s film festivals. All five best motion picture nominees (four of which are in the running for best director) premiered at Toronto or Montreal.

Richie Mehta’s Amal and Carl Bessai’s Normal premiered at Toronto in 2007. Pilon’s Necessities debuted at the Montreal World Film Festival last summer – where it won three prizes, including both audience awards – and was Canada’s submission for the foreign-language Oscar. Toronto 2008 had two films: it opened with Paul Gross’ Passchendaele, while Lyne Charlebois’ Borderline (the sole directing nominee not nominated for best picture) went on to win the best Canadian first feature film award. Yves-Christian Fournier’s Tout est parfait/Everything Is Fine premiered at Berlin last year before opening in Quebec in March.

Of this year’s best picture contenders, only one ‘directed itself’ – Passchendaele. Gross was not nominated for best director. There were three other multiple nominees whose directors were passed over: Deepa Mehta for Heaven on Earth, Jeremy Podeswa for Fugitive Pieces and Léa Pool for Maman est chez le coiffeur/Mommy Is at the Hairdresser’s.

On that note, one of the curiosities of the business is that docs not only direct themselves, they make themselves. It’s never been sufficiently explained why docs are not eligible for craft awards. In the particular case of My Winnipeg, a bizarre hybrid between drama and nonfiction, the performance of the late Anne Savage is certainly worthy of a supporting nod. The Toronto Film Critics Association had no trouble choosing the film from amongst dramatic competitors as the year’s best.

While it may rankle the individuals, the fact that major names can be passed over at awards time says something about the maturity of the industry. Canada may not exactly have film royalty, but there are perennials. True, Podeswa and Deepa Mehta received screenplay nominations – he for adapted, she for original – but in previous years at the Genies, such names would have been nominated for direction by default.

Then again, this might be confusing maturity with blindness. Philippe Falardeau’s C’est pas moi, je le jure!/It’s Not Me, I Swear!, a finalist with the TFCA and a winner at Berlin and the CFTPA’s Indie Awards, received only one nomination – for editing – while Fernando Meirelles’ Blindness, surely one of the most high-profile productions in recent years, did not receive a single nomination.