Film and Television Nominees for Northern Ontario Music and FIlm Awards (NOMFA) 2026 | CION

OUTSTANDING ACTOR - LONG FORMAT

Macy Smart in Everything's Going to be Great

Allison Brooks Janney is a world-renowned actress with a successful career spanning over thirty years on the stage, in film, and on television. Janney's breaktrhough role came in the late 1990s when she was cast as C.J. Cregg in the NBC political drama series The West Wing. She has since won an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a BAFTA Award, six Critic's Choice Awards, seven Screen Actors Guild Awards, seven Primetime Emmy Awards, two Drama Desk Awards and received two nominations for the Tony Award.

Buddy Smart in Everything's Going to be Great

Bryan Cranston is an actor, director, and producer recognized for hsi portrayals of Walter White in Breaking Bad and Hal in Malcom in the Middle. Cranston's performance as Walter White signficantly enhanced his career, earning him four Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series and a Golden Globe in 2014. His accoldates include seven Prime Time Emmy Awards, two Tony Awards, a Laurence Olivier Award, a Golden Globe Award, and nominations for an Academy Award and a British Academy Film Award.

Syndney Tompkins in A Breed Apart

Multi-hyphenate Joshua balances his career between acting, writing, and directing. He most recently wrapped a recurring role in Season 2 of Fox's Murder in a Small Town, which followed shooting on Paramount+'s miniseries, Unspeakable: The Murder of Jonbenet Ramsey. Prior to that, he starred in Netflix's Wayward opposite Toni Collette, which he landed immediately after shooting American Solitaire, A Breed Apart, and Little Lorraine.

Ziggy in Seeds

Kaniehtiio Horn continues to demonstrate creative versatility, by challenging herself as an actress, writer, producer, and director. Her feature directorial debut, Seeds, an Indigenous genre-bending horror which she also wrote, produced, and stars in, had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. Horn’s other credits include Lionsgate’s thriller, Alice, Darling alongside Anna Kendrick, Rutherford Falls, Reservation Dogs, and her award-winning performance in the cult comedy series Letterkenny.

Evan in We Forgot to Break Up

Lane is a musician/composer and actor based in Toronto and the star of We Forgot to Break Up. He recently released a mini EP titled What Can I Do? featuring the song “Like That” with Lauren Dillen of Burs. Lane’s currently writing for his next release and working on composition for upcoming film projects. Lane is soon to be seen in the upcoming series Slo Pitch.

Billie in Rêver en néon

Ten year-old actress, Maélya Boyd, has been acting since 2020. She has had the opportunity to showcase her talent in feature films, short films, web series’s and commercials. Her work in the feature “Neon Dreaming” has garnered her the prizes of Best Actress at the Cine Paris Film Festival (2024), the FIFEM festival in Montreal (2025) and the Festival du film canadien de Dieppe (2025).

OUTSTANDING ACTOR - SHORT FORMAT

Helen in The Space Left Behind

Barbara Saxberg is a mature actor who returned to the entertainment industry after a 25-year career with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation as an award-winning producer, editor, host & presenter. She has since booked principal and lead roles in feature length and short films, and has made several appearances on stage.

Ms. Mary in Ms. Mary

Chandel is an actor, writer and arts administrator based in Northern Ontario. A graduate of École internationale de théâtre Jacques Lecoq, University of Guelph, and Queens, Chandel has worked across Canada and abroad on various multidisciplinary shows, supporting projects onscreen, onstage and behind the scenes. In film, Chandel leads Ms. Mary and has also held lead roles in short films like Keegan’s Choice, Engage, and The Lobster.

Officer Codner in Rumspringa

Lou Mauro is an Sault-born actor with ACTRA Toronto whose notable credits include Armchair Traveller, Fitting In, The Day Lacey Called, Ripping Off Othello, and most recently Rumspringa. For over three decades, Lou has worked in Electrical Engineering & Maintenance at Algoma Steel.

Wyatt in In a Dark Silence

Joseph Schlapsi is a Northern Ontario based actor in independent films. Self-taught since they were a teen, Joseph has been praised for their portrayal of characters with dark inner worlds. Their most recent project, In a Dark Silence, won audience choice at 2025 Sault Film Festival.

Nyo in 20 Crickets

Storytelling is Maryna's way to live and cope with how fleeting and impermanent everything is. Stories we revisit are oftentimes the moments that are no longer here, but their impact on us remains.

OUTSTANDING DIRECTOR - LONG FORMAT

In a Violent Nature

Chris Nash is a writer, director, and prosthetics effects artist from Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. His short films and music videos have screened internationally, and in 2014 his short Z is for Zygote was included in The ABCs of Death 2. In A Violent Nature is his first feature film.

Saint City Sparrows

Kelsey is a graduate of Canadore College and has been an active performer for fifteen years, working in both theatre and film, appearing in such Northern-centric shows as Hard Rock Medical, Letterkenny and SkyMed. Saint City Sparrows is Kelsey’s screen directing debut.

The Bruce Peninsula

Born in Sudbury, Ontario, Matthew studied Motion Picture Arts at Laurentian University. Influenced by Dogme95, Mumblecore, and filmmakers like Robert Rodriguez and the Safdie Brothers, he writes and directs character-driven films that capture authentic performances and tell true-to-life stories of ordinary people's struggles and triumphs.

Phantom Line

Through a distinctly cinematic lens, Piotr Skowroński examines the tension between memory, identity, and dream. His stories unfold like recollections - intimate, imperfect, and charged with the quiet electricity of being alive.

A Sobering Story

Ryan La Via is an award-winning filmmaker and graduate of the Confederation College Film Production program in Thunder Bay, Ontario. He focuses on creating genuine, community-based stories that reflect his passion for meaningful storytelling.

OUTSTANDING DIRECTOR - SHORT FORMAT

Nooj Goji / Anywhere

Evelyn Pakinewatik (Nbisiing Anishnaabe/Irish, Nipissing First Nation) is a filmmaker and multidisciplinary artist. Evelyn’s work explores the intersection of dreams and memory and the societal distortions of interiority, relationality, and animacy.

Can You Feel It Now?

Isak Vaillancourt is an artist of Somali-French ancestry. His creative practice spans filmmaking, photography, and arts-based programming, exploring identity through the lens of Black healing, memory, and decolonization. He is the director and producer of the short films amplify (2020), Collective Resistance (2023), and Can You Feel It Now? (2025)

Lasagna Run

James Livitski is a filmmaker and artist based in Thunder Bay. His work blends humour, surrealism, and emotional honesty. Coming from a self taught creative background, his practice spans music, design, and film, including art direction for Showtime’s Yellowjackets Season 2 soundtrack. His films draw from experience and human absurdity.

Rumspringa

Miia has spent the last decade plus working as an Assistant Director across Canada and Europe in both official languages. While her career has taken her from coast to coast, her primary mission has remained championing Northern Ontario’s developing film industry through excellence and advocacy whoever the company.

20 Crickets

Zha Babaieva is a Ukrainian-Canadian filmmaker, producer, and storyteller whose work blends social realism with surreal, emotionally charged imagery. Born in Ukraine, she carries within her creative voice the tension of displacement, resilience, and cultural memory — themes that pulse through much of her work.

OUTSTANDING SCREENWRITER

All the Lost Ones

Cheryl Meyer's a Canadian Screen Award winning TV and film screenwriter originating from Northern Ontario. Her features, two of which have been shot in Northern Ontario, have been selected by TIFF, Screamfest LA, and Cannes Wscripted Screenplay List. She's received multiple accolades including Playback's 10 to Watch and Starz #TakeTheLead.

Saint City Sparrows

Kelsey is a graduate of Canadore College and has been an active performer for fifteen years, working in both theatre and film, appearing in such Northern-centric shows as Hard Rock Medical, Letterkenny and SkyMed. Saint City Sparrows is Kelsey’s screen directing debut.

Phantom Line

Through a distinctly cinematic lens, Piotr Skowroński examines the tension between memory, identity, and dream. His stories unfold like recollections - intimate, imperfect, and charged with the quiet electricity of being alive.

A Witch Named Agatha

Rebeka Herron is an award winning mixed race Latina filmmaker. She is an alumna of Capilano University's Motion Picture Program, and the Cineplex Entertainment Film Program Producers' Lab at the Canadian Film Centre. She is a member of the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television, and the Canadian Media Producers Association (CMPA).

Rebecca Hales holds an MFA in Creative Writing from UBC and is a graduate of the Canadian Film Centre’s Prime Time Television Program. Rebecca has been working to learn new ways to approach her writing and new skills that allow her to further her career in film and animation.

Discernment

Ryan La Via is an award-winning writer/filmmaker and graduate of the Confederation College Film Production program in Thunder Bay, Ontario. He focuses on creating genuine, community-based stories that reflect his passion for meaningful storytelling.

OUTSTANDING TELEVISION SERIES

Indian and Cowboy

Arcane Film Group

A haunted journalist uncovers a cover-up tied to ghostly apparitions and a century-old lie that won’t stay in the ground.

In a winter-bound northern town, a string of disappearances fractures the quiet and drags journalist Sarah Beckett into a story she can’t shake - and visions she can’t explain. When Sam, a retired rail worker, brings Sarah a troubling lead, she turns to Max, an exacting historian leading a local rail revitalization project.

Itty Bitty Film Productions

In a small Northern Ontario town, four scout leaders try to offer a place of learning and empowerment to their pack of prepubescent girls. But when the group’s trip money is stolen it becomes increasingly harder not to acknowledge all the bad things going on in the rest of the world. Missing money, barking dogs, mean boys and parents that suck.

New Metric Media

The foul-mouthed, chirp-serving, mother-loving, fan favourite character, Shoresy and the Sudbury Blueberry Bulldogs of the Northern Ontario Senior Hockey Organization (The NOSHO) continue their quest to never lose again. In Season 3, Shoresy and the Sudbury Blueberry Bulldogs compete in the National Senior Tournament, facing off against teams from across Canada, like the Charlottetown Reds, Brooks Barrelmen, Vaughan Canadesi, and SOO Hunt.

New Metric Media

The foul-mouthed, chirp-serving, mother-loving, fan favourite character, Shoresy and the Sudbury Blueberry Bulldogs of the Northern Ontario Senior Hockey Organization (The NOSHO) continue their quest to never lose again. In Season 4, most of the team have left Sudbury for the summer, but Shoresy, Dolo, Hitch, Goody, Michaels continue to celebrate their National title in #SudVegas.

Piazza Entertainment

SkyMed revolves around life, death, and drama at 20,000 feet. The series follows the triumphs, heartbreaks, and tribulations of budding nurses and pilots in Northern Canada. Season 3 throws the pilots and medics into all-new challenges on the job and in their personal lives, as they welcome exciting new members – and face some hard goodbyes.

OUTSTANDING FEATURE FILM

Chad Faust

A mother who works for an ammunition manufacturing company finds out she made the bullet that killed her son.

Steven Kostanski

The Kingdom of Abraxeon is under siege by the Dreadites, heralds of the long-dead sorcerer Nekromemnon. When Deathstalker recovers a cursed amulet from a corpse-strewn battlefield, he's marked by dark magick and hunted by monstrous assassins. To survive, he must break the curse and face the rising evil. Death is just the beginning... of great adventure!

Michael Clowater

In the winter of 1970, a cantankerous, small town plumber from rural New Brunswick, must drive his beat-up work truck 1000 miles to Toronto to get his estranged, gay brother out of jail after being arrested for having sex in a public park. The two men are then forced to drive back home together at the behest of their hard-nosed mother before they kill each other. Inspired by a true story.

Jon S. Baird

There's no business like show business--for Buddy and Macy Smart that means an unpredictable life in regional theater while trying to raise their radically-different sons, Lester and Derrick. Through it all, Buddy pursues his unstoppable dreams, and Macy is left to pull it all together and keep the family afloat. As the family grapples with identity and belonging, they share a humorous, heartfelt journey of self-discovery, learning the power of owning your spotlight, no matter your stage of life.

Jason Biggs

Kevin Stanwell is an actor famous for being the mascot for erectile dysfunction ads. With his marriage on the rocks, he attempts to salvage the relationship with his wife, Suzie, by planning a trip for them to the Adirondacks. Kevin recruits his friend Ernie to stage a home invasion to make Kevin look like a hero, but when the plan goes awry, the couple finds themselves caught up in a murder investigation.

Karen Knox

In the vibrant bar scene of Toronto, a diverse group of musicians come together to form a band with a mission: to ignite a musical revolution. As they channel their individual struggles and experiences into their music, 'The New Normals' create a dynamic, rock sound that transcends gender and orientation, captivating a changing world. But as they rise to fame, personal and romantic entanglements complicate their journey.