Canadian Screen Awards

 ( Awards Official Website ) 

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. No formal nickname was announced at the time; numerous media outlets settled on the informal "Screenies"."Canada's Screenie nominations announced". Winnipeg Free Press, 14 January 2015.

At the 4th Canadian Screen Awards in 2016, host Norm Macdonald called in his opening monologue for the awards to be named the Candys; 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. "'The Candy' gains traction as nickname for the Canadian Screen Awards". CTV News, 14 March 2016. 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. At the 5th Canadian Screen Awards in 2017, host Howie Mandel made a recurring joke of suggesting that they be nicknamed "STDs" (an abbreviation of "screen, television, and digital", but a double entendre of another use of the abbreviation). The show is currently commonly known as the CSAs.Jackson Weaver, "The National, The Accountant of Auschwitz lead first night of Canadian Screen Awards". CBC News, May 25, 2020.

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 sometimes faced criticism from some independent film producers, however, as they effectively excluded films which pursue distribution strategies more strongly based on streaming media platforms such as Netflix or Crave from consideration in film categories — unlike the Academy Awards, where the eligibility rules permit films from streaming services.Eric Vollmers, "Calgary producer calls on Academy of Film and Television to loosen eligibility rules for Canadian Screen Awards". Calgary Herald, January 13, 2020. 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; as well, the more flexible eligibility criteria noted below, which were introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic in light of the disruptions that it caused to film distribution, remain in place as of 2024 despite the reopening of movie theatres, and thus now permit some films distributed on streaming platforms to enter film categories.

Under certain circumstances, it may also be possible for a film to be nominated in both film and television categories. For example, the 2020 documentary film One of Ours was a nominee for Best Feature Length Documentary at the 10th Canadian Screen Awards in 2022 due to its theatrical run; however, as the Academy does not present awards for best direction or best writing in theatrical documentary films, but does present awards for best direction and writing in television documentaries, its television broadcast later in the year earned Yasmine Mathurin nominations in the television categories at the same ceremony.Brent Furdyk, target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> "2022 Canadian Screen Award Nominees Announced, 'Sort Of' & 'Scarborough' Lead The Pack". ET Canada, February 15, 2022. However, a film cannot be considered in both film and television categories that directly duplicate each other; for instance, a film cannot be considered for both Best Picture and Best TV Movie.

Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on theatrical film distribution in 2020, special rules for the 9th Canadian Screen Awards permitted 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; "Canadian Screen Awards: Eligible Festivals and Online Platforms". Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television. as well, the number of commercial theatrical screenings required for eligibility was temporarily reduced to just four screenings in one of the regular markets. Other new changes at the 9th ceremony included 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 eligible Canadian or international film festival within the qualifying period, even if they have not fully 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; if it does not meet that test, then it must wait until the following year.