Manitoba projects rack up nominations

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This article was published 28/03/2025 (531 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoban projects and artists account for over 40 nominations at the upcoming Canadian Screen Awards, with film, television and digital media category winners to be announced in five ceremonies held in Toronto between May 30 and June 1.

Leading the pack in the film sphere is Winnipeg-born writer-director-actor Matthew Rankin’s Universal Language. The imaginative feature shot in Winnipeg and Montreal boasts 13 nominations, including best feature, original screenplay and five acting nods for its multilingual cast.

Deaner ‘89, a satellite in the FUBAR universe, follows 17-year-old Dean Murdoch (Paul Spence), a suburban hockey jock growing up in Manitoba, where the film (seven nominations) was shot in 2023. Produced by Manitoban company Eagle Vision, nominees include Spence, an ancestor of James Spence, the namesake of Winnipeg’s Spence Street, and locals Rick and Sean Skene, who are nominated for best stunt co-ordination. Winnipeg artist Doug Morrow is nominated for achievement in makeup.

Local directors Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson and Galen Johnson’s international governance comedy Rumours, produced by Manitoban company Buffalo Gal Pictures, netted four nominations, including one for lead actor Cate Blanchett and one for supporting actor Roy Dupuis.

From Opaskwayak Cree Nation, Wilfred Buck, a Winnipeg-based astronomer, is in the spotlight once again as Anishinaabe Lisa Jackson’s documentary Wilfred Buck is in contention for best editing and best sound design honours in the feature-length documentary category. The documentary was co-produced by Winnipeg’s Alicia Smith, a producer with the National Film Board.

Levels, a locally shot action flick co-produced by local company Farpoint Films, is nominated for achievement in visual effects. Altona, a B.C.-produced true crime documentary set in the Manitoba town, is up for best editing in a feature length documentary.

On the small screen, Garden Hill First Nation’s Amber-Sekowan Daniels’ coming-of-age-in-the-’90s comedy Don’t Even earned recognition in four categories, including best comedy series, for its inaugural season. Set in Winnipeg, with an opening scene on Garbage Hill, the series is co-produced by local company Frantic Films.

Other Frantic productions to earn Screen Award nominations were the long-running comedy show Still Standing (three nominations); The Great Canadian Pottery Throwdown (two nominations, including best reality/competition program or series); and the Winnipeg Comedy Festival: The Root of All Evil, which is up for best comedy special.

Bones of Crows, a Manitoba-shot CBC series co-produced by Eagle Vision, received 12 nominations.

Immigrant Kitchen, a food tourism show produced by Winnipeg’s Prairie Boy Productions, is the recipient of three nominations, including best lifestyle program or series, best host for Ali Hassan, and best direction for Winnipeg’s Jorge Requena Ramos for his work on the series pilot episode.

Local screenwriter Jessica Landry is up for best writing in the TV movie category for Obsessed to Death, a spin-class thriller.

ben.waldman@winnipegfreepress.com

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