Café de Flore and A Dangerous Method lead the field of nominees announced by the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television.

By Julian Carrington

Vanessa Paradis and Marin Gerrier are both nominated for Jean-Marc Vallée's Café de Flore.

The Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television announced the nominees for the 32nd annual Genie Awards this morning at dual press conferences held in Toronto and Montreal, and, fittingly, Jean-Marc Vallée’s decade-traversing dual narrative Café de Flore leads the pack. The sixth feature from the Quebecois writer-director landed 13 nominations, including Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, and Achievement in Direction. The normally ill-fated number has proved anything but for Vallée, whose 2005 film C.R.A.Z.Y. also nabbed 13 nominations and went on to win 11 awards.

Eleven was the number of nominations garnered by Best Picture candidate A Dangerous Method, from veteran director David Cronenberg, who will contest the directing category with Vallée and his fellow Quebecois writer-directer Philippe Falardeau, whose Monsieur Lazhar earned nine nominations, also including Best Picture. Rounding out the Best Picture nominees are Ken Scott’s Starbuck and Larysa Kondracki’s The Whistleblower.

Despite its inclusion in TIFF’s recent Canada’s Top 10 programme, Sarah Polley’s Toronto-set Take This Waltz earned just two nominations, for make-up and for Michelle Williams’ lead performance. In the Best Actress category, Williams will face competition from fellow international nominees in Vanessa Paradis (Café de Flore) and Rachel Weisz (The Whistleblower), as well as Canadian actresses Catherine de Léan (Nuit #1), and Pascale Montpetit (The Girl in the White Coat).

Michael Fassbender, whose ample talents were the talk of Tinseltown at this weekend’s Golden Globes ceremony, received a Best Actor nomination for his portrayal of pioneering psychoanalyst Carl Jung in A Dangerous Method. Also nominated in the category are Algerian humorist Fellag (Monsieur Lazhar), Garret Dillahunt (Oliver Sherman), Patrick Huard (Starbuck), and Scott Speedman (Edwin Boyd: Citizen Gangster.)

A full list of nominees in each of the key categories is below. The 32nd annual Genie Awards will be held Thursday, March 8 in Toronto.

• Best Picture: A Dangerous Method, Café de Flore, Monsieur Lazhar, Starbuck, The Whistleblower.
• Best Director: David Cronenberg, A Dangerous Method; Steven Silver, The Bang Bang Club; Jean-Marc Vallée, Café de Flore; Philippe Falardeau, Monsieur Lazhar; Larysa Kondracki, The Whistleblower.
• Best Actor: Mohamed Fellag, Monsieur Lazhar; Garret Dillahunt, Oliver Sherman; Michael Fassbender, A Dangerous Method; Patrick Huard, Starbuck; and Scott Speedman, Edwin Boyd: Citizen Gangster.
• Best Supporting Actor: Antoine Bertrand, Starbuck; Kevin Durand, Edwin Boyd: Citizen Gangster; Marin Gerrier, Café de Flore; Taylor Kitsch, The Bang Bang Club; Viggo Mortensen, A Dangerous Method.
• Best Actress: Catherine de Léan, Nuit #1; Pascale Montpetit, The Girl in the White Coat; Vanessa Paradis, Café de Flore; Rachel Weisz, The Whistleblower; Michelle Williams, Take This Waltz.
• Best Supporting Actress: Roxana Condurache, The Whistleblower; Hélène Florent, Café de Flore; Julie Lebreton, Starbuck; Sophie Nelisse, Monsieur Lazhar; Charlotte Sullivan, Edwin Boyd: Citizen Gangster.
• Best Original Screenplay: Anne Emond, Nuit #1; Eilis Kirwan, Larysa Kondracki, The Whistleblower; Ken Scott, Martin Petit Starbuck; Jean-Marc Vallée, Café de Flore; Ryan Ward, Matthew Heiti, Son of the Sunshine.
• Best Adapted Screenplay: Philippe Falardeau, Monsieur Lazhar; Ryan Redford, Oliver Sherman; David Shamoon, In Darkness; Steven Silver, The Bang Bang Club.
• Best Feature-Length Documentary: Beauty Day, Family Portrait In Black and White, The Guantanamo Trap, At Night, They Dance, Wiebo’s War.