Nora Twomey’s animated feature The Breadwinner made a strong showing this week at the Canadian Screen Awards, picking up a total of six nominations, including for best motion picture.

It marks only the second time in the history of the award, which has been presented in various iterations since 1949, that an animated feature has been nominated for the event’s top prize. The other instance was in 2005, when Sylvain Chomet’s The Triplets of Belleville was nominated for – and won – film of the year.

While The Breadwinner originates out of Ireland’s Cartoon Saloon, the film is eligible for the Canadian Screen Awards because it is an international co-production that has the involvement of multiple Canadian firms. One of its producers is Aircraft Pictures, while Guru Studio contributed artistically to the film’s production. (Both Aircraft and Guru are located in Toronto.)

Breadwinner’s other nominations were for the following achievements:

  • Adapted Screenplay: Anita Doron
  • Achievement in Editing: Darragh Byrne
  • Achievement in Music – Original Score: Mychael Danna, Jeff Danna
  • Achievement in Music – Original Song: Qais Essar, Joshua Hill – “The Crown Sleeps”
  • Achievement in Sound Editing: Nelson Ferreira, John Elliot, J.R. Fountain, Dashen Naidoo, Tyler Whitham

On the short film side, the National Film Board of Canada led the way with three of its shorts among the five nominees:

  • The Tesla World Light: Matthew Rankin (dir), Julie Roy (prod)
  • Manivald: Chintis Lundgren (dir), Draško Ivezić and Jelena Popović (prod)
  • Hedgehog’s Home: Eva Cvijanović (dir), Vanja Andrijević and Jelena Popović (prod)
  • Fox and the Whale: Robin Joseph (dir)
  • Dam! The Story of Kit the Beaver: Kjell Boersma (dir), Josh Clavir (prod)

For television, DHX Media’s Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs leads all animation projects with eight nominations, followed by five nods for Nelvana’s Hotel Transylvania series.

The Canadian Screen Awards will be presented on Sunday, March 11.

For a full list of nominees in film, tv, and digital media, see the Canadian Academy’s website.

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