Twice Colonized won the Ted Rogers Best Feature Length Documentary last night at the Canadian Screen Awards. The award, presented by Rogers, capped off the rolling list of wins for documentaries during Canadian Screen Week. The win went to director Lin Alluna and producers Stacey Aglok Macdonald, Alethea Arnaquq-Baril, Emile Hertling Péronard, and Bob Moore.
A Danish-Canadian co-production, Twice Colonized offers an intimate portrait of Inuk activist Aaju Peter. The film follows Peter as she continues her mission to advocate for Inuit rights, including the preservation of the seal hunt, while holding strong through personal losses that illustrate the ongoing consequences of colonialism. Twice Colonized premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival and opened Hot Docs last year.
Twice Colonized also earned a Canadian Screen Award nomination for music. Previous winners from the Academy this week included Mr. Dressup: The Magic of Make-Believe and Black Community Mixtapes in the broadcast/streaming awards, and The Longest Goodbye, Swan Song, and Kite Zo A in the theatrical categories.
Last night’s awards also saw a record number of wins go to the dramedy BlackBerry. The film directed by Matt Johnson scored a whopping 14 Canadian Screen Awards including Best Picture and Lead Performance for actor Jay Baruchel. Also in attendance was Oscar nominee Denis Villeneuve who received the Academy’s Icon Award following the major success of the two Dune movies. Last night’s awards were hosted by comedian Mae Martin, whose performance was generally received as a major improvement over the previous year’s pre-taped turn by Samantha Bee.
