#leoawards

There are nine nominees for Best Motion Picture, including the Peter Ricq directed Dead Shack. The horror focuses on a group of children on a weekend getaway, who must work together to save their parents from “their predatory neighbor intent on feeding them all to her undead family.” The film has twelve nominations in total, including Best Cinematography (Christopher Kempinski), Picture Editing (Fredrik Thorsen) and Lead Performance (Lizzie Boys). On Saturday, Dead Shack took honours for Production Design (Heather Lidberg), Costume Design (Sekyiwa Wi-afedzi) and Make-Up (Meredith Lacosse). 

Adventures in Public School is another recognized nominee, up for Best Motion Picture, Direction, Musical Score, and Performances for Supporting Male, Female, and Lead Male. Starring Daniel Doheny, Siobhan Williams, Judy Greer and Andrew McNee, the coming-of-age romantic comedy reflects on parenting and teenage rebellion.

Drama Indian Horse has seven nominations, including Best Motion Picture, Screenwriting, Visual Effects, and Sound. A “survivor’s tale that foregrounds the resilience of the Indigenous Peoples of North America in the face of aggressive assimilation policies and racism,” the film is based off Richard Wagamese’s award-winning novel. 

Our province is home to a number of holiday films, and that is well reflected in the Television Movie nominations, with The Christmas Calendar leading the group with eight. This includes nods to Best Director (Allan Harmon), Screenwriting (Cookie Boyle, Walter Sawadsky), and Performances for Supporting Female (Paloma Kwiatkowski and Johannah Newmarch).

A number of previous Leo Awards winners received nominations this year, including Film Editor Jamie Alain, Casting Director Maureen Webb, and actors Jennifer Spence, Dan Payne, Jared Abrahamson.