To Kill a Tiger and BLK: An Origin Story topped the documentary and factual winners at this year’s Canadian Screen Awards. To Kill a Tiger scored three awards on the film side of the CSAs including the top prize of the Ted Rogers Best Feature Length Documentary Award. It also won for music and film editing. Directed by Nisha Pahuja, To Kill a Tiger chronicles a family’s plight when a young woman and her supportive parents buck the status quo by seeking justice following a violent rape. The NFB film premiered at TIFF 2022 where it won the Amplify Voices for Best Canadian Feature. It opened theatrically this winter after its run on the circuit that included a win for Best Documentary at Palm Springs.
BLK, meanwhile, won five awards on the broadcast side: Best Direction, Factual Series for Jennifer Holness along with awards for writing, editing, photography, and music. BLK is a four-part series created by Holness and Sudz Sutherland (who picked up an award for writing), with the duo directing episodes alongside Maya Annik Bedward, who nabbed a win for Best Short Doc with Patty vs. Patty. The series explores the lives of Black Canadians from the 1600s to present, looking beyond the familiar tale of the Underground Railroad to tell stories of Black lives from all corners of the country from Vancouver to Montreal and the Maritimes.
Also netting multiple wins on the factual side was We’re All Gonna Die (Even Jay Baruchel). The playful series won four Canadian Screen Awards including Best Factual Series and Best Direction for Victoria Lean. It also won for visual research and film editing. Meanwhile, music doc Buffy Sainte-Marie: Carry It On won a pair of awards, including Best Director for Madison Thomas. On the film side, Nicholas de Pencier picked up another win, this time for Best Cinematography for Brian D. Johnson’s arts doc The Colour of Ink.
The full list of documentary and factual Canadian Screen Awards winners is as follows
Film
Ted Rogers Best Feature Length Documentary
Sponsor | ROGERS
To Kill a Tiger – Nisha Pahuja, Cornelia Principe, David Oppenheim, Andy Cohen, Anita Lee, Atul Gawande, Andrew Dragoumis
Best Cinematography in a Feature Length Documentary
Nicholas de Pencier – The Colour of Ink
Best Editing in a Feature Length Documentary
Mike Munn, CCE, Dave Kazala – To Kill a Tiger
Best Original Music in a Feature Length Documentary
Jonathan Goldsmith – To Kill a Tiger
Best Short Documentary
Sponsor | Hot Docs
Patty vs. Patty – Chris Strikes, Kate Fraser, Maya Annik Bedward
Broadcast
Donald Brittain Award for Best Social/Political Documentary Program
Sponsor | ROGERS
The Pretendians
Drew Hayden Taylor, Paul Kemp
Best History Documentary Program or Series
Underground Railroad: The Secret History
Joey Case, Nicole Hamilton, Margot Daley
Rob Stewart Award for Best Science or Nature Documentary Program or Series
Ice and Fire: Tracking Canada’s Climate Crisis
Elliott Halpern, Elizabeth Trojian
Best Biography or Arts Documentary Program or Series
Comedy Punks: Kids in the Hall
Michael MacMillan, Laura Michalchyshyn, Jennifer Harkness, Reginald Harkema, Paul Myers, Nicholas McKinney, Kimberley Creelman
Best Documentary Program
Sex with Sue
Lisa Rideout, Sam Dunn, Scot McFadyen
Best Factual Series
We’re All Gonna Die (Even Jay Baruchel)
Jay Baruchel, Gordon Henderson, Stuart Henderson, Victoria Lean, Ben Travers
Best Direction, Factual
We’re All Gonna Die (Even Jay Baruchel) – Asteroid Armageddon
Victoria Lean
Best Direction, Documentary Series
BLK: An Origin Story – Nova Scotia: Three Epic Migrations, One People
Jennifer Holness
Best Direction, Documentary Program
Buffy Sainte-Marie: Carry It On
Madison Thomas
Best Writing, Documentary
BLK: An Origin Story – Ontario: John “Daddy” Hall
Sudz Sutherland
Barbara Sears Award for Best Editorial Research
We’re All Gonna Die (Even Jay Baruchel) – Asteroid Armageddon
Victoria Lean, Jackie Carlos, Rita Kotzia, Britt Wray, Stuart Henderson, Ben Travers, Simone Zucker
Barbara Sears Award for Best Visual Research
Black Liberators WWII
Kenya-Jade Pinto, Erin Chisholm
Best Writing, Factual
Still Standing – Oxford, NS
Jonny Harris, Fraser Young, Graham Chittenden, Steve Dylan
Best Photography, Documentary or Factual
BLK: An Origin Story – Nova Scotia: Three Epic Migrations, One People
Ricardo Diaz
Best Picture Editing, Factual
We’re All Gonna Die (Even Jay Baruchel) – Asteroid Armageddon
Kirk Ramsay, Nick Taylor
Best Picture Editing, Documentary
BLK: An Origin Story – Vancouver: Hogan’s Alley
Avril Jacobson
Best Sound, Documentary or Factual
Buffy Sainte-Marie: Carry It On
Stephen Paniccia, Kane Kirton, Daniel Pellerin, Chris Birkett, Michelle Irving, Elma Bello
Best Original Music, Documentary
BLK: An Origin Story – Nova Scotia: Three Epic Migrations, One People
Tom Third
Gordon Sinclair Award for Broadcast Journalism
Lisa LaFlamme
Lifetime Achievement Award
Pierre Bruneau