Still from Beans.

Congratulations to the teams behind Beans and Night Raiders on their nominations for the Toronto Film Critics Association’s (TFCA) Rogers Best Canadian Film Award.

The director of the winning film, voted by members of the TFCA, receives $100K from Rogers Communications Inc. The two runners-up each receive $5K.

Beans, written and directed by Tracey Deer (NSI Storytellers, Featuring Aboriginal Stories Program), is a coming-of-age story told from the perspective of a 12-year-old girl during the Oka Crisis. The film previously won the John Dunning Best First Feature Film Award at the Canadian Screen Awards.

Night Raiders takes place in a dystopian world where a Cree woman joins a group of vigilantes to free her daughter from the state in a military-run North America. The film was recently named to Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) Canada’s Top Ten list.

The film was written and directed by Danis Goulet (NSI Drama Prize), executive produced by Lisa Meeches (NSI Indigenous training programs advisor and NSI Storytellers alumna) and Kyle Irving (NSI Global Marketing), associate produced by Eva Thomas (NSI Totally Television) and starring Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers (NSI IndigiDocs program manager).

The award will be handed out at the TFCA gala in March.