Film industry to celebrate Screen N.S. Awards this weekend

CITYnews halifax / By Steve Gow

It will be a big weekend for the province’s film industry with the 12th annual Screen Nova Scotia Awards set to take place on Saturday.

Among those on hand at the Halifax Convention Centre to honor this year’s accomplishments will be Laura Mackenzie, Screen Nova Scotia’s executive director.

She says there is much to celebrate, noting the film industry is finally getting noticed after years of benefitting from investment and asserted structural change.

“We’re now making films that have real production value, they have real strong writing, they have strong directors, they have strong production teams behind them,” says Mackenzie. “That’s what creates this visibility not just here in Nova Scotia but across Canada and then also internationally.”

This year’s success may be best represented by the awards’ impressive Best Feature Film nominees, which includes Taylor Olson’s What We Dreamed of Then as well as current theatrical release Sk+te’kmujue’katik (At the Place of Ghosts) and the surprise box office smash, Little Lorraine.

“How could I choose (a favourite),” laughs Mackenzie, noting the other nominees include the films, Tracy & Martina: Goin’ Out West and Dancing on the Elephant. “First of all, just honing in on a shortlist from the nominations is such a challenging piece but I think when it comes to the up-and-coming filmmakers in the feature film and television categories, we have seen so much growth.”

Mackenzie adds that factual productions have made a particular impact in the local film industry, with many new productions starting up in Nova Scotia over the past five years.

“We’ve seen significant growth in the factual community,” Mackenzie notes. “In terms of shows (and) content that is new in a genre that we haven’t seen blow up in Nova Scotia, factual is very interesting.”

Among the categories receiving awards this weekend will be Best Documentary film, Best TV Series (both scripted and unscripted) as well as several production prizes, including Outstanding Achievement in Editing and the Film Crew Excellence Award.

New this year, Screen Nova Scotia will present the inaugural Best International Production Award, recognizing global productions that filmed in the province.