An absurdist comedy-drama that re-imagines Canada as a Farsi- and French-speaking country captured five Canadian Screen Awards on Saturday (May 31). Matthew Rankin, Pirouz Nemati, and Ila Firouzabadi won the Canadian Screen Award for original screenplay for Universal Language. The film’s other awards came for editing (Xi Feng), art direction / production design (Louisa Schabas), costume design (Negar Nemati), and casting (Marilou Richer and Firouzabadi).
In the film, Massoud (Pirouz Nemati) is a tour guide in Winnipeg. In two separate stories, Negan (Esmaeili) and Nazgol (Saba Vahedyousefi) find money frozen in ice and Matthew (Rankin) quits his Quebec government job.
“Structured like a Venn diagram—at the point of confluence between Jacques Tati and Abbas Kiarostami’s The Koker Trilogy—Universal Language is at once a diary film, an absurdist city symphony and a welling-up of confinement-era emotion exploring the mysterious interzone where one person ends and the rest of the world begins,” the TIFF website said in advance of its North American premiere.
Universal Language can add to its haul of Canadian Screen Awards on the second day of presentations on Sunday (June 1), when it’s up for best film (Sylvain Corbeil); achievement in direction (Rankin); and performance in a leading role, comedy (Rojina Esmaeili and Pirouz Nemati). Earlier this year, Universal Language was Canada’s entry for Best International Feature Film for the Academy Awards, making the list of 15 on the shortlist.
On top of its wins on Saturday, the film secured three nominations for performance in a supporting role, comedy (Danielle Fichaud, Mani Soleymanlou, and Vahedyousefi); veteran actor Graham Greene took home this prize for Seeds. In addition, Universal Language was nominated for make-up (Marie Salvado), with the award going to The Apprentice (Colin Penman, Brandi Boulet, and Sean Sansom).
Paying for It wins two awards
Also on Saturday, Sook-Yin Lee and Joanne Sarazen won the Canadian Screen Award for adapted screenplay for Paying For It. The film’s second award went to Gayle Ye for Cinematography.
Paying For It, which is adapted from Chester Brown’s graphic memoir about paying for sex, could win a third Canadian Screen Award on Sunday. That’s because Emily Lê, who plays Lee’s fictional persona from the book. is nominated for performance in a leading role, comedy.
Other winners in the film categories on Saturday included Jeremy Strong for performance in a supporting role, drama, for The Apprentice; Michael Toledano for best cinematography in a feature length documentary for Yintah; Torquil Campbell for original song for “Revolutionary Heart” in We Forgot to Break Up; and Mychael Danna for original score in Seven Veils. The full list of film winners is available on the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television website.
In the Canadian Screen Awards TV categories, Marie Clements won best direction, drama series for Bones of Crows. This multigenerational epic miniseries addressing Indigenous resilience also won for best picture editing, drama (Maxime Lahaie, Greg Ng, and Roderick Deogrades).
Meanwhile, Ben Addelman and Ziya Tong won for best direction, documentary program for Plastic People, which was also nominated for the Rob Stewart Award for Best Science or Nature Documentary Program or Series. That honour went to An Optimist’s Guide to the Planet with Nikolaj Coster-Waldau. The full list of TV winners is also available online.
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation will televise the Canadian Screen Awards on Sunday (June 1).
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