Canadian Screen Award for Best Cinematography in a Documentary

The Canadian Screen Award for Best Cinematography in a Documentary is an annual award, presented as part of the Canadian Screen Awards program to honour the year's best cinematography in a documentary film. It is presented separately from the Canadian Screen Award for Best Cinematography for feature films.

On two prior occasions, at the 1st Genie Awards in 1980 and at the short-lived Bijou Awards in 1981, awards were presented for Best Cinematography in a Documentary (Non-Feature), covering short documentaries and television programs, but not for feature documentaries. Nonetheless, the winners and nominees in those years have been included below. In the 1960s, both short and feature documentary films were sometimes winners of the Canadian Film Award for Best Cinematography, as relatively few Canadian narrative features were made in that era, but this was not continued after 1969.

1980s

Year	Nominees	Film	Ref
1980 1st Genie Awards (Non-Feature)
	Roger Rochat	Ice Birds (Le Pilier de cristal)	[1]
	Ron Orieux	Nails	[2]
	Barry Perles, Douglas Kiefer	Paperland: The Bureaucrat Observed
	Charles Stewart	Dieppe 1942
1981 Bijou Awards (Non-Feature)
	Robert Fresco	Steady as She Goes	[3]

2010s

Year	Nominees	Film	Ref
2014 3rd Canadian Screen Awards
	Patrick McLaughlin	Everything Will Be	[4]
	Geoffroy Beauchemin, Alex Margineanu, Sami Mermer, Francois Vincelette	The Sower (Le semeur)	[5]
	Nicolas Canniccioni, Jean-Pierre St-Louis	Where I'm From (D’ou je viens)
	Nicolas Canniccioni	Guidelines (La marche à suivre)
	Marie Davignon, Jessica Lee Gagné, Geneviève Perron	All That We Make (Fermières)
2015 4th Canadian Screen Awards
	Arnaud Bouquet	Last of the Elephant Men	[6]
	Thomas Burstyn	Some Kind of Love	[7]
	Daniel Grant, Amar Arhab	The Messenger
	Léna Mill-Reuillard, Étienne Roussy	Welcome to F.L. (Bienvenue à F.L.)
	Simon Schneider, Sasha Snow	Hadwin's Judgement
2016 5th Canadian Screen Awards
	John Price	I Am the Blues	[8]
	Joan Poggio	Gun Runners	[9]
	Derek Rogers	The Skyjacker's Tale
	Chris Romeike	Giants of Africa
	Van Royko	Koneline: Our Land Beautiful
2017 6th Canadian Screen Awards
	Alfonso Maiorana	Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World	[10]
	Mike McLaughlin	Unarmed Verses	[11]
	Duraid Munajim	My Enemy, My Brother
	Carlo Guillermo Proto	Resurrecting Hassan
	Vuk Stojanovic, François Jacob, Ilya Zima	A Moon of Nickel and Ice (Sur la lune de nickel)
2018 7th Canadian Screen Awards
	Nicholas de Pencier	Anthropocene: The Human Epoch	[12]
	Nicolas Canniccioni	First Stripes (Premières armes)	[13]
	Christy Garland	What Walaa Wants
	Étienne Roussy	The Other Rio (L'autre Rio)
	Matthieu Rytz	Anote's Ark
2019 8th Canadian Screen Awards
	Pedro Ruiz	Havana, from on High	[14]
	Mathieu Arsenault	Head First (Tenir tête)	[15]
	Grant Baldwin	This Mountain Life
	Léna Mill-Reuillard, Stéphanie Weber Biron, Étienne Boilard	City Dreamers
	Pedro Pires	Alexander Odyssey (Alexandre le fou)

2020s

Year	Nominees	Film	Ref
2020 9th Canadian Screen Awards
	Ryan Randall	Workhorse	[16]
	Jean-Philippe Archibald	The Free Ones (Les libres)	[17]
	Glauco Bermudez, Mark Ó Fearghaíl	Influence
	Renaud Philippe, Olivier Higgins	Wandering: A Rohingya Story (Errance sans retour)
	Kiarash Sadigh	Nahanni: River of Forgiveness
2021 10th Canadian Screen Awards
	Marianne Ploska	Prayer for a Lost Mitten (Prière pour une mitaine perdue)	[18]
	Vince Arvidson	The Magnitude of All Things	[19]
	Nicholas Castel, Gabriel Swift, Bronson Whytcross, John Fulton	Coextinction
	Rita Leistner	Forest for the Trees
	Patrick McLaughlin	Kímmapiiyipitssini: The Meaning of Empathy
2022 11th Canadian Screen Awards
	Nicholas de Pencier	The Colour of Ink	[20]
	Noura Kevorkian	Batata	[21]
	Katerine Giguère	Scrap
	Jacquelyn Mills	Geographies of Solitude
	Étienne Roussy	Zo Reken
2023 12th Canadian Screen Awards
	Kaveh Nabatian	Kite Zo A: Leave the Bones	[22]
	Ben Giesbrecht, Luke Connor	Aitamaako'tamisskapi Natosi: Before the Sun	[23]
	Patrick McGowan, Jason Providence	Coven
	Ernesto Pardo	The White Guard (La Garde blanche)
	Étienne Roussy	Beyond Paper (Au-delà du papier)
2024 13th Canadian Screen Awards
	Michael Toledano	Yintah	[24]
	Sébastien Blais	Okurimono	[25]
	Ashley Iris Gill	Disco's Revenge
	Christopher Nunn	Intercepted
	Olivier Tétreault, Claude Demers, François Messier-Rheault	Diary of a Father (Journal d'un père)

See also

• Prix Iris for Best Cinematography in a Documentary

References

1. Maria Topalovich, And the Genie Goes To...: Celebrating 50 Years of the Canadian Film Awards. Stoddart Publishing, 2000. ISBN 0-7737-3238-1.
2. "NFB films get award nomination". Alberni Valley Times, March 19, 1980.
3. "War Brides top Bijou winner". Regina Leader-Post, October 30, 1981.
4. Eric Volmers, "Calgary's Patrick McLaughlin, Wendy Partridge reflect on Canadian Screen Award wins". Calgary Herald, March 2, 2015.
5. "Canadian Screen Awards ’15: Theatrical documentary & short film". Playback, February 16, 2015.
6. Sheldon Wiebe, "Room Full of Canadian Screen Awards!". Eclipse Magazine, March 14, 2016.
7. "2016 Canadian Screen Awards Nominees Announced". ET Canada, January 19, 2016.
8. "'Orphan Black' wins big at Canadian Screen Awards". Hamilton Spectator, March 13, 2017.
9. "2017 Canadian Screen Awards Nominees Revealed". ET Canada, January 17, 2017.
10. "Canadian Screen Awards, Thessaloniki hand out non-fiction prizes". RealScreen, March 12, 2018.
11. Pat Mullen, "Canadian Screen Awards Preview: Picks and Foolish Predictions". Cinemablographer, March 11, 2018.
12. Kelly Townsend, "CSAs ‘19: The Great Darkened Days leads film winners in Cinematic Arts gala". Playback, March 31, 2019.
13. "“Anthropocene”, “Amazing Race Canada” among Canadian Screen Award nominees". RealScreen, February 8, 2019.
14. Brent Furdyk, "Canadian Screen Awards 2020: Non-Fiction Winners Revealed". ET Canada, May 25, 2020.
15. "Canadian Screen Awards for Documentary & Factual". Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television, May 25, 2020.
16. Naman Ramachandran, "‘Schitt’s Creek,’ ‘Blood Quantum’ Triumph at Canadian Screen Awards". Variety, May 21, 2021.
17. Brent Furdyk (March 30, 2021). "Canadian Screen Awards Announces 2021 Film Nominations". ET Canada. Archived from the original on March 30, 2021.
18. Jamie Samhan, "2022 Canadian Screen Award Winners: Broadcast News And Documentary & Factual". ET Canada, April 4, 2022.
19. Brent Furdyk, "2022 Canadian Screen Award Nominees Announced, ‘Sort Of’ & ‘Scarborough’ Lead The Pack". ET Canada, February 15, 2022.
20. Jackson Weaver, "To Kill a Tiger, We're All Gonna Die and BLK emerge as top winners at CSAs' opening night". CBC News, April 11, 2023.
21. Pat Mullen, "2023 Canadian Screen Award Nominations for Documentary". Point of View, February 22, 2023.
22. Connie Thiessen, "Canadian Screen Awards winners: Cinematic Arts". Broadcast Dialogue, May 30, 2024.
23. Pat Mullen, "Canadian Screen Award Nominees in Documentary and Factual Categories". Point of View, March 6, 2024.
24. Jamie Casemore, "CSAs ‘25: Universal Language takes five at Cinematic Arts Awards". Playback, May 31, 2025.
25. Pat Mullen, "The Tragically Hip, Okurimono Lead Canadian Screen Award Documentary Nominees". Point of View, March 26, 2025.