CSAs ’22: Transplant, Wynonna Earp lead scripted TV wins on night four

By Kelly Townsend, Playback

Transplant, Wynonna Earp and TallBoyz have emerged as the early scripted TV winners on night four of the Canadian Screen Awards.

The craft honours within the drama and comedy categories were announced in a virtual presentation on Thursday (April 7), hosted by actor Akiel Julian (The Next Step), as well as a virtual presentation of the performance and sketch comedy categories, hosted by actor Ennis Esmer (Children Ruin Everything).

Both Transplant (Sphere Media; pictured above left) and Wynonna Earp (SEVEN24 Films, Cineflix Studios; pictured above right), which air on CTV and CTV Sci-Fi Channel respectively, won five awards apiece within the drama category, while CBC’s TallBoyz (Accent Entertainment) swept the sketch comedy categories.

Transplant‘s awards include Best Writing, Drama Series for creator and showrunner Joseph Kay; Best Picture Editing, Drama; Best Photography, Drama; Best Achievement in Casting, Fiction; and Best Supporting Actress, Drama for Ayisha Issa.

Wynonna Earp picked up Best Supporting Actor, Drama for Tim Rozon, as well as Best Achievement in Hair; Best Costume Design; Best Production Design or Art Direction, Fiction; and Best Original Music, Fiction.

TallBoyz (pictured right) won all four sketch categories, including Best Sketch Comedy Program or Series; Best Performance, Sketch Comedy (Individual or Ensemble) for leads Guled Abdi, Vance Banzo, Tim Blair and Franco Nguyen; Best Writing, Variety or Sketch Comedy and Best Direction, Variety or Sketch Comedy for Bruce McCulloch.

Lifetime’s I Was Lorena Bobbitt (Cineflix Productions) had a near-sweep of the TV movie category, winning four out of a possible five awards, including Best TV Movie; Best Writing, TV Movie for Barbara Nance; Best Direction, TV Movie for Danishka Esterhazy; and Best Lead Actor, TV Movie for Luke Humphrey. Fellow Lifetime drama Death She Wrote (Champlain Media), meanwhile, picked up Best Lead Actress, TV Movie for Samora Smallwood. Both TV movies aired on CTV Drama channel in Canada.

History drama Vikings (Take 5 Productions, MGM) won three awards overall, including Best Direction, Drama Series for Helen Shaver; Best Visual Effects; and Best Sound, Fiction. The only other drama to pick up an award was CBC’s Coroner (Muse Entertainment, Cineflix Studios, Back Alley Films), winning Best Guest Performance, Drama Series for Tamara Podemski.

Crave’s Letterkenny (New Metric Media; pictured left) picked up the most awards in the comedy category with three, earning Best Supporting Actress, Comedy for Kaniehtiio Horn, as well as best picture editing and photography for a comedy.

The only other comedy to win multiple awards was CBC and HBO Max series Sort Of (Sienna Films), which won Best Writing, Comedy for co-creators Bilal Baig and Fab Filippo, as well as Best Achievement in Make-Up.

Another notable comedy win was Kim’s Convenience‘s (Thunderbird Entertainment) Andrew Phung (pictured right) who won Best Supporting Actor, Comedy. This is the fifth time Phung has won the award, which he has received for every season of CBC’s Kim’s Convenience. It is also the second 2022 CSA for Phung, who won Best Host, Live Entertainment Special on Wednesday (April 6) alongside Arisa Cox for their co-hosting work on the TVO New Year’s Eve special From Ontario With Love: A Celebration of Hope.

Rounding out the comedy winners were CBC’s Workin’ Moms (Wolf + Rabbit Entertainment), which won Best Direction, Comedy for Aleysa Young; CBC’s Pretty Hard Cases (Cameron Pictures) for Best Stunt Coordination; and CTV’s Jann (Project 10 Productions, SEVEN24 films), which won Best Guest Performance, Comedy for Michael Bublé.

The remaining scripted TV awards, including Best Drama Series, Best Comedy Series and the lead actor and actress categories, will be announced during the pre-recorded broadcast gala on Sunday (April 10), hosted by the stars of TallBoyz.

The cinematic arts awards, excluding Best Motion Picture and Achievement in Direction, will be announced Friday (April 8). The breakdown of the lifestyle, reality, children’s and animation category winners is available here.