A Canadian Screen Awards that brought marginalized voices to the fore and challenged the global political landscape saw The Apprentice, a film about a young Donald Trump, dominate the national film and TV awards on Sunday night.

Director Ali Abbasi’s Trump origin story won best movie, while Sebastian Stan, the Romanian-born American actor who plays the future U.S. president alongside Jeremy Strong as his consigliere Roy Cohn, earned top honors for best leading role.

Daniel Bekerman, co-producer of the Canada/Ireland/Denmark coproduction The Apprentice by director Ali Abbasi, said on stage in Toronto when accepting the prize “our movie shows how the young Donald Trump amassed wealth and power by finding a dilapidated building and slapping his name on it as president. We’ll see how that works out.”

Then Bekerman turned to Trump taunting Canada as a possible 51st state for the United States. “Now he wants to slap his name on this country. This is a challenge, but a good challenge, because as independent filmmakers and storytellers, what we need to do, what is our responsibility, is to tell stories with honesty that can build trust and build community. The rise of indigenous cinema in this country gives me hope. The rise of queer cinema in this country gives me hope. But we’re faced with power structures that want to silence us. It’s time to lock arms,” he added.

Bekerman added The Apprentice, which bowed in Cannes, received nominations at the Golden Globes and the Academy Awards. “But Ali, I told you, you have to come to Canada if you want to find some guts in this industry,” he said in a call-out to director Abbasi in the audience.

Politics also overshadowed the CSAs when Wet’suwet’en leader Molly Wickham, an indigenous activist, came on stage with fellow directors of Yintah, which won for best documentary and follows a decade-long fight to protect indigenous lands from fossil-fuel companies.

“The fight continues, and we will never give up. Our sovereignty is tied to our collective freedom. Land back. Free Palestine,” a fist-pumping Wickham declared as the awards show was telecast live on the CBC and CBC Gem networks countrywide.

Also Sunday night, the best movie director prize went to Andrew Rankin for Universal Language, a deadpan comedy that riffs on Iranian cinema that also earned the Directors’ Fortnight audience award in Cannes. “We all know what political moment we’re living in. Every day there are new Berlin Walls shooting up all around us and pitting us against each other in very cruel binaries. And if our film stands for anything, it stands for the fact that kindness can, in fact, be a radical gesture, and that’s really what we believe in now more than ever,” Rankin said when accepting his trophy.

Elsewhere, the best reality series award went to Canada’s Drag Race, the Canadian spin-off of the global format from Blue Ant Media for CTV. Series showrunner Trevor Boris when accepting the award said he saw the reality show as an “island of misfit toys.” “There are so many of us who are different and don’t really fit in because of who we love, or because of where we come from. But on this show, we’re normal and we just have the most fun,” Boris said.

The CTV and CW series Children Ruin Everything from New Metric Media won for best comedy, and Cate Blanchett picked up the best lead comedy performance prize for her star turn in Guy Maddin’s political horror-comedy movie Rumours. Supinder Wraich won for best lead performer in a TV drama for her star turn in Allegiance, a CBC police drama. And Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent won for best drama series after the Canadian version of the Law & Order franchise format came into the CSAs with a field-leading 20 nominations.

Kiefer Sutherland appeared on the CSAs to pay tribute to his late father, Donald Sutherland, who passed away in June 2024 after a celebrated career with credits like M*A*S*H*, Ordinary People and The Hunger Games. “Somehow this kid, and he was a kid from the Maritimes, felt like he had something to say,” he said of Donald Sutherland as a young man going to England to begin his acting craft before success in Hollywood. “He managed to forge, well, at least in my opinion, one of the most diverse, prolific and important acting careers in the history of film,” Kiefer Sutherland summed up.

In other prize-giving, the main audience award went to W Network’s The Way Home, and the kids audience award went to APTN’s Warrior Up! In special award giving, Star Wars: The Acolyte and The Good Place star Manny Jacinto received the Radius Award on Sunday night for his global impact as a performer. “Who knew that applying to random auditions on Craigslist would end up here,” Jacinto told the CSAs audience in Toronto.

And Marsha Greene, co-creator and showrunner of the CBC and BET+ drama The Porter and producer of the ABC series 10 Days in the Valley, accepted the Changemaker Award for calling out systemic racism and discrimination in Canadian TV. “We are in the time when people are questioning the validity and the necessity of this work. Some have even said our moment is over. Well, this is not about a moment. It is about a movement. I’m proud to live and work in a country that prides itself on its diversity, and I challenge all of us as Canadians to continue to move forward toward an industry that is truly inclusive,” Greene said on stage in Toronto.