(Toronto) BlackBerry swept nearly every award at the final gala of the Canadian Screen Awards, presented by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television.

The comedy-drama won Best Picture, while Matt Johnson took home the Best Director trophy. Actor Jay Baruchel won the award for best performance in a leading role in a comedy.

Set in 1990s Waterloo, Ontario, the film follows the Icarus-like rise of the BlackBerry mobile device and its inventors. Jay Baruchel plays company co-founder Mike Lazaridis, and Glenn Howerton plays co-CEO Jim Balsillie.

“I think there’s an ideology in this country that you can’t do the things you want and you can’t stay in Canada. I want to tell you it’s all in your head,” said Matt Johnson while accepting the Best Picture award, speaking to young Canadian filmmakers.

“This country is having a renaissance, we have role models again, and if you stick with it, Canada will have a voice in film again. It won’t be us. This movie was a joke. But it will be you. »

This brings the number of Canadian Screen Awards won by this film to 14, while BlackBerry also swept a recent cinematic arts industry gala.

“I was very lucky to be invited to [Matt Johnson’s] troupe and we created something special,” Jay Baruchel said Friday while accepting his award in a striped blazer with matching shorts and socks Hockey Night in Canada.

“I hope everyone at home can see the ingrown hairs,” he said, pointing to his bare calves. “You’re welcome, Canada. »

Other films up for Best Picture included drag drama Solo, sci-fi horror Overrun, teen romance comedy-drama Humanist Vampire Seeks Consenting Suicidal, psychological thriller The Red Rooms and drama social Richelieu.

Little Bird was the big winner among the television shows, receiving among others the prize for best drama series and that of best leading role in a drama series, awarded to Darla Contois. The miniseries collected a total of 13 awards during the week.

“I’m so excited to see so much young Indigenous talent emerging,” Toronto co-producer Jennifer Podemski said on the red carpet before the party.

“I feel like that was the point of all this, the time when it was just me in certain places […] and I’m also happy for the young people in my series, because they are here to celebrate and I’m excited for them. »

Awards for Little Bird, centered on the story of a Sixties Scoop survivor taken in by a Jewish family in Montreal, include Best Dramatic Ensemble Performance, Best Cast and Best Acting support for Braeden Clarke.

Co-produced by Ottawa’s Ms. Podemski and Hannah Moscovitch, the series features a largely Indigenous cast and creative team and entered the race with 19 nominations. The six-part tale beat out CBC’s Essex County and Plan B, Hollywood Suite’s Slasher: Ripper and CTV’s Transplant in the best drama series category.

Actress Amrit Kaur, born in Markham, Ontario, won the award for best performance in a leading dramatic role and delivered an impassioned speech calling for a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas, all while accepting the award for her role in the film The Queen of My Dreams.

Television winners included Crave’s Bria Mack Gets A Life, which beat out CBC’s Workin’ Moms, Crave’s Letterkenny, CTV’s Shelved and CBC’s Son of a Critch for best series. humorous.

“It’s been one of the show’s greatest accomplishments to be able to accurately reflect the Jamaican-Canadian immigrant experience in a contemporary way,” creator Sasha Leigh Henry said backstage about her show following a young black woman navigating life with the help of an invisible friend.

Host Mae Martin took a moment to joke about the troubled state of the local entertainment industry during her opening monologue, saying several friends had sent “encouraging” articles before the show with the headline ” Can Canadian Screen Awards save an industry in crisis mode? “.

This was certainly the case for the creators and cast of BlackBerry, the most nominated film in the 11-year history of the Canadian Screen Awards, with 17 nominations.