Canadian Screen Awards 2020
by Ralph Lucas – Publisher
(May 25, 2020 – Toronto, ON) A totally reimagined Canadian Screen Awards (CSAs) launches tonight. Normally I’d be making sure my camera battery was fully charged, that I had the backup battery with me, an extra capture card, and a protein bar just in case I needed a power hit. Over the course of a normal week in the life of the CSAs I’d shoot upwards of 450 frames of actors, directors, screenwriters, animators, producers and all the people who make it down the red carpet and then to the awards wall.
It can be too long, there’s too much waiting, usually no chairs for us aging media types but always fun to see the regular cast of characters who cover these types of events as well as a handful of people from in front of and behind the cameras that have become, if not friends, familiar faces over the past many, many years. I covered my first awards show in 2006. This year is very very different. There is no show. Thanks to an abundance of caution the Academy behind the CSAs decided to confront the COVID-19 pandemic by making sure no one would be put at risk. The final night’s awards are usually held in what is now called Meridian Hall, formerly the Sony Centre for the Performing Arts, its capacity is listed as 3,191. You can imagine the outcome. This year the awards will be handed out in a series of virtual presentations that begin at 7:00 p.m. Eastern time each night on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter @thecdnacademy or on the Academy website itself.
Here’s what you can see over the next four nights:
Monday, May 25:
7:00 PM ET: Canadian Screen Awards for Broadcast News
(Narrator: Lloyd Robertson)
7:30 PM ET: Canadian Screen Awards for Sports Programming
(Narrator: Herbie Kuhn)
8:00 PM ET: Canadian Screen Awards for Documentary and Factual
(Narrator: Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers)
Tuesday, May 26:
7:00 PM ET: : Canadian Screen Awards for Children’s & Youth Programming, Presented by Shaw Rocket Fund
(Narrator: Maitreyi Ramakrishnan)
7:30 PM ET: Canadian Screen Awards for Lifestyle and Reality
(Narrator: Emma Hunter)
Wednesday, May 27:
7:00 PM ET: ET: Canadian Screen Awards for Crafts in Scripted Programs
(Narrator: Evany Rosen & Kayla Lorette)
8:00 PM ET: Canadian Screen Awards for Scripted Programs & Performance
(Narrator: Eric McCormack)
Thursday, May 28:
7:00PM ET: Canadian Screen Awards for Cinematic Arts
(Narrator: Théodore Pellerin)
Click here to see who and what has been nominated across the various categories for the 2020 Canadian Screen Awards.
Ralph Lucas is the founder and publisher of Northernstars.ca. He began writing about film and reviewing movies while in radio in Montreal in the mid-1970s.
