Canadian Screen Awards, By The Numbers
by Ralph Lucas, Publisher
(March 2, 2015 – Toronto, ON) The third annual Canadian Screen Awards wrapped last night at one of the glitziest venues in the country, the large and lavish Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts. It was a packed house and it contained a who`s who of the Canadian film and television industries. In the media room as the pre-broadcast awards were being handed out it soon became apparent that the feature film Mommy, and the TV series Orphan Black would capture most of the awards and it was a foregone conclusion before the gala broadcast began that by the end of the night those two titles would win their categories.
Xavier Dolan’s drama Mommy swept the Canadian Screen Awards winning an incredible nine of the coveted trophies including Best Motion Picture, Best Director for Dolan. Dolan is pictured above with Producer Nancy Grant. Continuing the count, cast members Anne Dorval won for Best Actress, Antoine-Olivier Pilon took the Best Actor award and Suzanne Clément won Best Actress in a supporting role.
Orphan Black won Best Dramatic Series and Best Actress for star Tatiana Maslany, which was a repeat of last year capping a remarkable 10 awards, most of them handed out before the broadcast, which led to the speculation, which turned out to be right.
Sticking with the numbers, Producer Don Carmody was on hand to pick up the award for top grossing film at the box office for the period epic Pompeii, which was shot in Toronto. Although the award is based strictly on Canadian box office numbers, it came as a bit of a revelation when presenter Enrico Colatoni revealed that the film topped more than 100-million dollars in worldwide distribution. Pompeii also dominated in the technical awards with five wins including costume design, art direction and visual effects.
One of the highlights of the evening, in addition to Andrea Martin putting a stellar performance as host, was the appearance of recent Oscar®-winner Julianne Moore as a presenter. She was nominated for her role in David Cronenberg’s Maps to the Stars. Again looking at the numbers, the film was nominated for 11 CSAs but only picked up two. There was some suggestion that her win as Best Actress at Cannes for this film gave her an edge but as mentioned above, Mommy got in the way. The film did win Best Supporting Actor for John Cusack but he was, unfortunately, not in attendance.
Some of my personal favorites won awards last night including Torill Kove for her animated short Me and My Moulton, and Reg Harkema for his brilliantly conceived and executed documentary, Super Duper Alice Cooper.
To take a final look at the count, a total of 25 awards were presented before the Broadcast Gala, which aired on CBC. During the show another 18 Canadian Screen Awards were handed out. A complete list of the 2015 nominees and winners is available online.
Northernstars.ca congratulates all of the nominees and winners at the 2015 Canadian Screen Awards.
