Canadian Screen Awards

To be eligible for nominations, a title must be either a Canadian production or co-production; international film or television projects shot in Canada without direct Canadian production involvement are not eligible. Canadians cannot receive nominations for working on foreign productions that were not otherwise eligible for CSA consideration, but foreign nationals may be nominated for work on eligible Canadian films.

A feature film must have received at least one full week of commercial theatrical screenings in at least two of the Calgary, Edmonton, Halifax, Montreal, Ottawa, Quebec City, Saskatoon, St. John's, Toronto, Vancouver, Victoria and/or Winnipeg markets between 1 January of the qualifying year and the date of the awards ceremony in the presentation year. A film may be submitted and even nominated before it has fully met these criteria, so long as it can provide satisfactory proof that the criteria will be fulfilled by the date of the ceremony.

Film festival screenings are not directly relevant to the inclusion criteria for feature films; as long as it meets the commercial screening criteria, a film may in fact have had its initial film festival premiere up to 1.5 years earlier than 1 January of the qualifying year. Although due to the more periodic nature of Canadian film distribution it may be possible for a film to meet the qualifying criteria in more than one separate year, a film may not be resubmitted to the awards committee more than once. The eligibility criteria for feature films have faced criticism from some independent film producers, however, as they effectively exclude films which pursue distribution strategies more strongly based on streaming media platforms such as Netflix or Crave — unlike the Academy Awards, where the eligibility rules permit films from streaming services.[14] Despite this conflict, films which premiered theatrically, but did not surpass the theatrical screening criteria and thus were never submitted in film categories before being released on a television or streaming platform, are eligible to receive nominations in the television categories.

Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on theatrical film distribution in 2020, special rules for the 9th Canadian Screen Awards will permit films that were commercially screened on an Academy-approved list of video on demand platforms after having been planned for conventional theatrical distribution, as well as films that were screened online as part of any Canadian film festival that proceeded virtually in 2020;[15] as well, the number of commercial theatrical screenings required for eligibility has been temporarily reduced to just four screenings in one of the regular markets. Other new changes at the 9th ceremony will include the renaming of the Overall Sound category to Sound Mixing, and the introduction of a new category for Best Casting in films.

Feature documentaries are eligible if they have received three commercial theatrical screenings anywhere in Canada within the same time period as narrative features, or if they have screened at two qualifying film festivals within the calendar year. Animated short films are eligible if they have received one commercial theatrical screening anywhere in Canada, or have been screened at two qualifying festivals, within the calendar year; live action short films are eligible if they have received one commercial theatrical screening anywhere in Canada, or have been screened at three qualifying festivals, within the calendar year. Documentary and short films are also automatically deemed eligible for nomination if they have won an award at an Academy Award-qualifying international film festival within the qualifying period, even if they have not yet met the Canadian screening criteria.

For television categories, the qualifying period corresponds more closely to the traditional television season than the calendar year, beginning 1 September of the second year before the ceremony and ending, depending on the category, either 31 August or 15 November of the year before the ceremony. An ongoing television series whose season straddles the cutoff date for its category is still eligible if it has aired at least one-third of its episodes within the eligibility period.

As of 2020, the Academy has not announced any official nickname, such as "Oscar" for the Academy Awards.[16] Many Canadian television and film critics and others have suggested potential nicknames, including the straightforward abbreviation "Screenies";[16] tributes to film and television legends including "Candys" in memory of actor John Candy,[17] "Pickfords" in honour of actress Mary Pickford and "Normans" in honour of director Norman Jewison;[17] "Angels" as a descriptive reference to the trophy's "wings";[18] and "Gemininies" as a portmanteau of the awards' former names.[16]

The Academy invited suggestions from viewers via social media, with CEO Helga Stephenson suggesting that the board would consider the suggestions and potentially announce a naming choice in time for the 2014 ceremony.[17] No formal nickname was announced at the time; numerous media outlets settled on the informal "Screenies".[19][20]

At the 4th Canadian Screen Awards in 2016, host Norm Macdonald called in his opening monologue for the awards to be named the Candys;[21] several presenters and winners followed his lead throughout the evening, referring to the award as "The Candy" in their presentation announcements or acceptance speeches, and John Candy's former SCTV colleagues Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara both endorsed Macdonald's proposal in the press room.[22] Macdonald had not sought input from the Academy itself prior to his monologue, although he ran the idea past the ceremony's broadcast producer Barry Avrich.[18] At the 5th Canadian Screen Awards in 2017, host Howie Mandel offered his own nickname proposal, suggesting that the awards be dubbed the "STDs" to stand for "Screen, Television and Digital", although his suggestion was less positively received.[23] The show is currently commonly known as the CSAs.[24]

• Best Cross-Platform Project – Children's and Youth
• Best Cross-Platform Project – Fiction
• Best Cross-Platform Project – Non-Fiction
• Best Immersive Experience
• Best Original Interactive Production Produced for Digital Media
• Best Original Program or Series Produced for Digital Media – Fiction
• Best Original Program or Series Produced for Digital Media – Non-Fiction
• Best Direction in a Program or Series Produced for Digital Media
• Best Actor in a Program or Series Produced for Digital Media
• Best Actress in a Program or Series Produced for Digital Media
• Social Innovator Award