Canadian Screen Award for Best Feature Length Documentary

The Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television presents an annual award for Best Feature Length Documentary. First presented in 1968 as part of the Canadian Film Awards, it became part of the Genie Awards in 1980^[1] and the contemporary Canadian Screen Awards in 2013.

Under current Academy regulations, the awards for Best Feature Length Documentary and Best Short Documentary can be collapsed into a single award for Best Documentary if either category receives three or fewer eligible submissions, but remain separate if both categories surpass three submissions.^[2]

1960s

Year	Film	Filmmakers	Ref
1968 20th Canadian Film Awards
	Never a Backward Step	Donald Brittain, Arthur Hammond, John Spotton	[1]
1969 21st Canadian Film Awards
	Good Times Bad Times	Donald Shebib, Mark McCarty	[1]

1970s

Year	Film	Filmmakers	Ref
1970 22nd Canadian Film Awards
	Wild Africa	William Bantings, John Livingston	[1]
1971 23rd Canadian Film Awards
	Les Philharmonistes	Yves Leduc	[1]
1972 24th Canadian Film Awards
	No award presented		[1]
1973 25th Canadian Film Awards
	Coming Home	Bill Reid	[1]
1974
	No award presented		[1]
1975 26th Canadian Film Awards
	Janis	F. R. Crawley	[1]
1976 27th Canadian Film Awards
	Ahô: The Forest People (Ahô au cœur du monde primitif)	Daniel Bertolino, François Floquet	[1]
1977 28th Canadian Film Awards
	The Inquiry Film: A Report on the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline	Jesse Nishihata	[1]
	Famille et variations	Mireille Dansereau, Anne Claire Poirier	[3]
	Games of the XXI Olympiad (Jeux de la XXIe olympiade)	Jacques Bobet, Ashley Murray, Jean Beaudin, Marcel Carrière, Georges Dufaux, Jean-Claude Labrecque
	Homage to Chagall: The Colours of Love	Harry Rasky
1978 29th Canadian Film Awards
	The Champions	Donald Brittain	[1]
	Fields of Endless Day	Terence Macartney-Filgate	[4]
	Healing	Pierre Lasry
	The Prophet from Pugwash	Carol Moore-Ede Myers

1980s

Year	Film	Filmmakers	Ref
1980 1st Genie Awards
	Paperland: The Bureaucrat Observed	Donald Brittain, Marrin Canell	[1]
	Dieppe 1942	Terence Macartney-Filgate	[5]
	Cities: Glenn Gould's Toronto	John McGreevy, W. Paterson Ferns
1981 2nd Genie Awards
	Some Even Fall in Love (Plusieurs tombent en amour)	Guy Simoneau	[1]
	The Dream Never Dies	William Johnston	[6]
	A Wives' Tale (Une histoire de femmes)	Arthur Lamothe
1982 3rd Genie Awards
	P4W: Prison for Women	Janis Cole, Holly Dale	[1]
	Being Different	Harry Rasky	[7]
1983 4th Genie Awards
	The Devil at Your Heels	Robert Fortier, Adam Symansky, Bill Brind	[1]
	Gala	Michael McKennirey, John N. Smith	[8]
	The Great Chess Movie (Jouer sa vie)	Hélène Verrier
1984 5th Genie Awards
	Pourquoi l'étrange Monsieur Zolock s'intéressait-il tant à la bande dessinée?	Nicole M. Boisvert	[1]
	The Ballad of Hard Times (La Turlute des années dures)	Lucille Veilleux	[9]
	Thunder Drum (Mémoire battante)	Nicole Lamothe, Arthur Lamothe
1985 6th Genie Awards
	Raoul Wallenberg: Buried Alive	David Harel, Wayne Arron	[1]
	Hookers on Davie	Holly Dale, Janis Cole	[10]
	To the Rhythm of My Heart (Au rythme de mon coeur)	Jean Pierre Lefebvre
1986 7th Genie Awards
	Final Offer	Robert Collison, Sturla Gunnarsson	[1]
	Artie Shaw: Time Is All You've Got	Brigitte Berman	[11]
	The Choice of a People (Le Choix d'un peuple)	Bernard Lalonde
	Tears Are Not Enough	John Zaritsky
	Waterwalker	Bill Mason
1987 8th Genie Awards
	Dads and Kids	Christian Bruyère	[1]
	Dream Tracks (Les Traces du rêve)	Jacques Vallée	[12]
	?O, Zoo!: The Making of a Fiction Film	Philip Hoffman
	Ranch: The Alan Wood Ranch Project	Steven DeNure, Chris Lowry
	Return to Departure: The Biography of a Painting	Kirk Tougas
1988 9th Genie Awards
	God Rides a Harley	Stavros C. Stavrides, Andreas Erne	[1]
	The Canneries	Stephen Insley. Bonni Devlin	[13]
	Dance for Modern Times	Moze Mossanen
	Elephant Dreams	Martha Davis
	To Hurt and to Heal	Laura Sky
1989 10th Genie Awards
	Comic Book Confidential	Ron Mann	[1]
	Calling the Shots	Janis Cole, Holly Dale	[14]
	Growing Up in America	Morley Markson
	A Rustling of Leaves: Inside the Philippine Revolution	Nettie Wild
	Witnesses: The Untold War in Afghanistan	Martyn Burke, David M. Ostriker

1990s

Year	Film	Filmmakers	Ref
1990 11th Genie Awards
	Strand: Under the Dark Cloth	John Walker	[1]
	The Devil's Hole (Le Trou du diable)	Richard Lavoie, François Dupuis, Marc Daigle	[15]
	White Lake	Colin Browne
1991 12th Genie Awards
	The Famine Within	Katherine Gilday	[1]
	Au chic resto pop	Éric Michel	[16]
	The Falls	Michael McMahon, Brian Dennis
1992 13th Genie Awards
	Deadly Currents	Ric Esther Bienstock, Simcha Jacobovici, Elliott Halpern	[1]
	The Steak (Le Steak)	Manon Leriche, Pierre Falardeau	[17]
	Wisecracks	Gail Singer, Signe Johansson
1993 14th Genie Awards
	Forbidden Love: The Unashamed Stories of Lesbian Lives	Lynne Fernie, Aerlyn Weissman	[1]
	A Childhood in Natashquan (Une enfance à Natashquan)	Yvon Provost	[18]
	Stepping Razor: Red X	Edgar Egger, Nicholas Campbell
	Titanica	Stephen Low
	The Twist	Ron Mann
1994 15th Genie Awards
	In the Gutter and Other Good Places	Cristine Richey	[1]
	André Mathieu, musicien	Jean-Claude Labrecque, Micheline Blais	[19]
	Fat Chance	Joseph MacDonald, Charles Konowal
	Folk Art Found Me	Alex Busby, Mike Mahoney
	Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance	Alanis Obomsawin, Wolf Koenig
1995 16th Genie Awards
	The Champagne Safari	George Ungar	[1]
	Motherland: Tales of Wonder	Helene Klodawsky, Signe Johansson	[20]
	Narmada: A Valley Rises	Ali Kazimi
	Silent Witness	Harriet Wichin, Christine York
	Who's Counting? Marilyn Waring on Sex, Lies and Global Economics	Kent Martin, Terre Nash
1996 17th Genie Awards
	Bones of the Forest	Heather Frise, Velcrow Ripper	[1]
	My Life Is a River (Une vie comme rivière)	Diane Cailhier, Alain Chartrand	[21]
	Power	Magnus Isacsson
	Project Grizzly	Peter Lynch
1997 18th Genie Awards
	Tu as crié: Let Me Go	Anne Claire Poirier, Paul Lapointe, Joanne Carrière	[1]
	Drowning in Dreams	Michael Allder, Tim Southam	[22]
	Erotica: A Journey Into Female Sexuality	Julia Sereny, Maya Gallus
1998 19th Genie Awards
	A Place Called Chiapas	Betsy Carson, Kirk Tougas, Nettie Wild	[1]
	The Herd	Peter Lynch, Peter Starr	[23]
	Let It Come Down: The Life of Paul Bowles	Jennifer Baichwal, Nicholas de Pencier
1999 20th Genie Awards
	Just Watch Me: Trudeau and the '70s Generation	Gerry Flahive, Catherine Annau, Yves Bisaillon	[1]
	Quest for the Lost Tribes	Simcha Jacobovici, Elliott Halpern	[24]
	Tops & Bottoms: Sex, Power and Sadomasochism	Cristine Richey

2000s

Year	Film	Filmmakers	Ref
2000 21st Genie Awards
	Grass	Ron Mann	[25]
	Cinéma Vérité: Defining the Moment	Éric Michel, Adam Symansky, Peter Wintonick	[26]
	The Fairy Faith	John Walker, Kent Martin
	Rocks at Whiskey Trench	Alanis Obomsawin
	Spirits of Havana	Bay Weyman, Peter Starr, Luis O. Garcia
2001 22nd Genie Awards
	Westray	Paul Cowan	[27]
	Obāchan's Garden	Selwyn Jacob, Linda Ohama	[28]
2002 23rd Genie Awards
	Gambling, Gods and LSD	Ingrid Veninger, Peter Mettler, Alexandra Gill, Cornelia Seitler	[29]
	Is the Crown at War with Us?	Alanis Obomsawin	[30]
	The Ring Within (Le ring intérieur)	Éric Michel, Dan Bigras
2003 24th Genie Awards
	FIX: The Story of an Addicted City	Betsy Carson, Nettie Wild	[31]
	Go Further	Ron Mann	[32]
	The Last Round: Chuvalo vs. Ali	Silva Basmajian, Joseph Blasioli
2004 25th Genie Awards
	The Corporation	Mark Achbar, Jennifer Abbott, Bart Simpson	[33]
	Mr. Mergler's Gift	Beverly Shaffer, Germaine Wong	[34]
	What Remains of Us (Ce qu'il reste de nous)	François Prevost, Yves Bisaillon, Hugo Latulippe
2005 26th Genie Awards
	Scared Sacred	Velcrow Ripper, Tracey Friesen, Cari Green, Harry Sutherland	[35]
	Thieves of Innocence (Les Voleurs d'enfance)	Paul Arcand, Denise Robert	[36]
2006 27th Genie Awards
	Manufactured Landscapes	Jennifer Baichwal, Nicholas de Pencier, Gerry Flahive, Daniel Iron, Peter Starr	[37]
	The White Planet (La Planète Blanche)	Jean Lemire, Thierry Piantanida, Thierry Ragobert	[38]
2007 28th Genie Awards
	Radiant City	Gary Burns, Jim Brown, Bonnie Thompson, Shirley Vercruysse	[39]
	Antlers (Panache)	André-Line Beauparlant, Danielle Leblanc	[40]
	Sharkwater	Rob Stewart
2008 29th Genie Awards
	Up the Yangtze	Yung Chang, Mila Aung-Thwin, John Christou, Germaine Ying-Gee Wong	[41]
	Forever Quebec (Infiniment Québec)	Jean-Claude Labrecque, Yves Fortin, Christian Medawar	[42]
	My Winnipeg	Guy Maddin, Phyllis Laing, Jody Shapiro
2009 30th Genie Awards
	A Hard Name	Kristina McLaughlin, Michael McMahon, Alan Zweig	[43]
	Inside Hana's Suitcase	Larry Weinstein, Rudolf Biermann, Jessica Daniel	[44]
	Ladies in Blue (Les dames en bleu)	Claude Demers
	Prom Night in Mississippi	Patricia Aquino, Paul Saltzman
	RiP: A Remix Manifesto	Mila Aung-Thwin, Kat Baulu, Brett Gaylor, Germaine Ying-Gee Wong

2010s

Year	Film	Filmmakers	Ref
2010 31st Genie Awards
	Last Train Home	Lixin Fan, Mila Aung-Thwin, Daniel Cross	[45]
	In the Name of the Family	Shelley Saywell, Deborah Parks	[46]
	Journey's End (La Belle Visite)	Jean-François Caissy
	Leave Them Laughing	John Zaritsky, Montana Berg
	You Don't Like the Truth: Four Days Inside Guantanamo	Luc Côté, Patricio Henríquez
2011 32nd Genie Awards
	At Night, They Dance (La nuit, elles dansent)	Isabelle Lavigne, Stéphane Thibault	[47]
	Beauty Day	Jay Cheel	[48]
	Family Portrait in Black and White	Julia Ivanova
	The Guantanamo Trap	Thomas Wallner
	Wiebo's War	David York, Bryn Hughes, Nick Hector
2012 1st Canadian Screen Awards
	Stories We Tell	Sarah Polley, Anita Lee	[49]
	Alphée of the Stars (Alphée des étoiles)	Eric De Gheldere, Hugo Latulippe, Colette Loumède	[50]
	Indie Game: The Movie	Lisanne Pajot, James Swirsky
	Over My Dead Body	Virginie Dubois, Stéphanie Morissette, Brigitte Poupart
	The World Before Her	Ed Barreveld, Nisha Pahuja, Cornelia Principe
2013 2nd Canadian Screen Awards
	Watermark	Jennifer Baichwal, Edward Burtynsky	[51]
	Hi-Ho Mistahey!	Alanis Obomsawin	[52]
	My Prairie Home	Chelsea McMullan
	People of a Feather	Joel Heath
	Vanishing Point	Stephen A. Smith, Julia Szucs
2014 3rd Canadian Screen Awards
	Super Duper Alice Cooper	Sam Dunn, Reginald Harkema, Scot McFadyen	[53]
	All That We Make (Fermières)	Annie St-Pierre, Luc Déry, Élaine Hébert, Kim McCraw	[54]
	Guidelines (La marche à suivre)	Jean-François Caissy, Johanne Bergeron, Colette Loumède
	Marinoni: The Fire in the Frame	Tony Girardin
2015 4th Canadian Screen Awards
	Hurt	Peter Gentile, Alan Zweig	[55]
	The Amina Profile	Isabelle Couture, Nathalie Cloutier, Hugo Latulippe, Michel St-Cyr, Guy Villeneuve, Colette Loumède	[56]
	Hadwin's Judgement	Sasha Snow, Elizabeth Yake, David Allen, David Christensen, Yves J. Ma, Tracey Friesen
	How to Change the World	Jerry Rothwell, Al Morrow, Bous De Jong, John Murray, Jonny Persey, Stewart Le Maréchal, David Nicholas Wilkinson, John Brunton, Barbara Bowlby
	Last of the Elephant Men	Daniel Ferguson, Arnaud Bouquet, Ian Oliveri, Ian Quenneville, Nathalie Barton, Karim Samai, Laurent Mini
2016 5th Canadian Screen Awards
	I Am the Blues	Daniel Cross, Bob Moore, Mila Aung-Thwin, Bruce Cowley	[57]
	Gulîstan, Land of Roses	Zaynê Akyol, Fanny Drew, Sarah Mannering, Yanick Létourneau, Mehmet Aktas, Denis McCready	[58]
	Koneline: Our Land Beautiful	Nettie Wild, Betsy Carson
	The Prison in Twelve Landscapes	Brett Story
	Waseskun	Steve Patry, Nathalie Cloutier, Denis McCready, Colette Loumède
2017 6th Canadian Screen Awards
	Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World	Catherine Bainbridge, Christina Fon, Linda Ludwick, Lisa Roth, Stevie Salas, Tim Johnson, Diana Holtzberg, Jan Rofekamp, Ernest Webb	[59]
	Manic	Kalina Bertin, Marina Serrao, Bob Moore, Mila Aung-Thwin, Daniel Cross	[60]
	A Moon of Nickel and Ice (Sur la lune de nickel)	Christine Falco, François Jacob, Vuk Stojanovic
	Resurrecting Hassan	Carlo Guillermo Proto, Roxanne Sayegh, Pablo Villegas, Maria Paz Gonzalez
	Unarmed Verses	Charles Officer, Lea Marin
2018 7th Canadian Screen Awards
	Anthropocene: The Human Epoch	Jennifer Baichwal, Nicholas de Pencier, Edward Burtynsky	[61]
	The Devil's Share (La Part du diable)	Colette Loumède, Luc Bourdon	[62]
	Immaculate Memories: The Uncluttered Worlds of Christopher Pratt	Kenneth J. Harvey
	Letter from Masanjia	Leon Lee
	What Walaa Wants	Christy Garland, Matt Code, Anne Köhncke, Justine Pimlott, Anita Lee
2019 8th Canadian Screen Awards
	Nîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up	Tasha Hubbard, George Hupka, Jon Montes, Bonnie Thompson, Kathy Avrich-Johnson, David Christensen, Janice Dawe	[63]
	Alexander Odyssey (Alexandre le fou)	Pedro Pires	[64]
	Gordon Lightfoot: If You Could Read My Mind	Martha Kehoe, Joan Tosoni, John Brunton, John Murray, Gary Slaight, Allan Slaight
	Invisible Essence: The Little Prince	Gordon Henderson, Michael A. Levine, Michel St. Cyr, Guy Villeneuve, Stuart Henderson, Jake Yanowski, Mathieu Amadei, Charles Officer
	Prey	Matt Gallagher, Cornelia Principe

2020s

Year	Film	Producers	Ref
2020 9th Canadian Screen Awards
	Wandering: A Rohingya Story (Errance sans retour)	Mélanie Carrier, Olivier Higgins	[65]
	The Forbidden Reel	Ariel Nasr, Sergeo Kirby, Kat Baulu, Annette Clarke	[66]
	Stateless	Michèle Stephenson, Jennifer Holness, Lea Marin, Anita Lee, Joe Brewster, Sudz Sutherland
	A Woman, My Mother (Une femme, ma mère)	Claude Demers
	The World Is Bright	Ying Wang, Jian Ping Su, Jordan Paterson
2021 10th Canadian Screen Awards
	Kímmapiiyipitssini: The Meaning of Empathy	Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers, David Christensen, Lori Lozinski	[67]
	Captive	Mellissa Fung, Stuart Coxe	[68]
	My Tree	Jason Sherman, Sonya Di Rienzo, Aeschylus Poulos, Matt Code
	One of Ours	Yasmine Mathurin, Laura Perlumutter, Jennifer Kawaja, Andrew Nicholas McCann Smith
	Prayer for a Lost Mitten (Prière pour une mitaine perdue)	Jean-François Lesage
2022 11th Canadian Screen Awards
	To Kill a Tiger	Nisha Pahuja, Cornelia Principe, David Oppenheim, Anita Lee, Atul Gawande	[69]
	Batata	Paul Scherzer, Noura Kevorkian	[70]
	Dear Audrey	Jeremiah Hayes, André Barro, Annette Clarke
	Handle With Care: The Legend of the Notic Streetball Crew	Joey Haywood, Ryan Sidhoo, Jeremy Schaulin-Rioux, Kirk Thomas, Aron Phillips, Matt Aronson, Mark Starkey, Mario Soriano, Lizzy Karp
	Zo Reken	Emanuel Licha
2023 12th Canadian Screen Awards
	Twice Colonized	Lin Alluna, Stacey Aglok Macdonald, Alethea Arnaquq-Baril, Emile Hertling Péronard, Bob Moore	[71]
	Beyond Paper (Au-delà du papier)	Oana Suteu Khintirian, Nathalie Cloutier	[72]
	Kite Zo A: Leave the Bones	Kaveh Nabatian
	The Longest Goodbye	Paul Cadieux, Ido Mizrahy, Nir Sa'ar
	Someone Lives Here	Zack Russell, Matt King, Andrew Ferguson, Marianna Khoury, Will Goldbloom, Tinu Sinha, Will Lomoro
2024 13th Canadian Screen Awards
	Yintah	Jennifer Wickham, Brenda Michell, Michael Toledano, Bob Moore, Sam Vinal, Doris Rosso, Daniel Cross, Mila Aung-Thwin
	Analogue Revolution: How Feminist Media Changed the World	Marusya Bociurkiw, Eponine Young	[73]
	Disco's Revenge	Peter Mishara, Omar Majeed, Christina Piovesan, Noah Segal, Sam Sutherland, Dave Harris, Nile Rodgers, Vivian Scott Chew, Stanley Nelson Jr.
	Okurimono	Laurence Lévesque, Rosalie Chicoine Perreault, Catherine Boily
	Wilfred Buck	Lisa Jackson, Lauren Grant, Alicia Smith, Jennifer Baichwal, Nicholas de Pencier, David Christensen

See also

• Prix Iris for Best Documentary Film