Canadian Screen Award for Best Lead Performance in a Comedy Film

The Canadian Screen Award for Best Performance in a Comedy Film is an annual award, presented by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television as part of the Canadian Screen Awards program, to honour the best leading performance in a comedy film.

After the academy announced in August 2022 that it was discontinuing its former gendered awards for Best Actor and Best Actress,^[1] they presented only a single award for Best Lead Performance in a Film at the 11th Canadian Screen Awards in 2023.^[2] The organization subsequently decided to increase the number of acting awards again, with the new awards separated by genre of film instead of performer gender; beginning with the 12th Canadian Screen Awards in 2024, distinct awards will now be presented for Best Lead Performance in a Comedy Film and Best Lead Performance in a Drama Film.^[3]

2020s

Year	Actor	Film	Ref
2023 12th Canadian Screen Awards
	Jay Baruchel	BlackBerry	^[4]
	Félix-Antoine Bénard	Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person (Vampire humaniste cherche suicidaire consentant)	^[5]
	Alexandra Billings	Queen Tut
	Susan Kent	Who's Yer Father?
	Magalie Lépine-Blondeau	The Nature of Love (Simple comme Sylvain)
	Cody Lightning	Hey, Viktor!
	Chris Locke	Who's Yer Father?
	Sara Montpetit	Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person (Vampire humaniste cherche suicidaire consentant)
2024 13th Canadian Screen Awards
	Cate Blanchett	Rumours	^[6]
	Rojina Esmaeili	Universal Language (Une langue universelle)
	Kaniehtiio Horn	Seeds
	Emily Lê	Paying for It
	Pirouz Nemati	Universal Language (Une langue universelle)
	Taylor Olson	Look at Me
	Paul Spence	Deaner '89
	Maïla Valentir	Ababooned (Ababouiné)

References

^ Joseph Pugh, "Canadian Screen Awards switching to gender-neutral performance categories". CBC News, August 25, 2022.
^ Jenna Benchetrit, "Brother dominates with a dozen wins on third night of Canadian Screen Awards". CBC News, April 13, 2023.
^ "Rules and Regulation Change Highlights". Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television, August 2023.
^ Etan Vlessing, "‘BlackBerry,’ ‘Little Bird’ Dominate Canadian Screen Awards". The Hollywood Reporter, May 31, 2024.
^ "BlackBerry Leads CSA Nominations". Northern Stars, March 6, 2024.
^ Samritha Arunasalam, "Here's who is nominated for the 2025 Canadian Screen Awards". CBC News, March 26, 2025.

[1] Joseph Pugh, "Canadian Screen Awards switching to gender-neutral performance categories". CBC News, August 25, 2022.

[2] Jenna Benchetrit, "Brother dominates with a dozen wins on third night of Canadian Screen Awards". CBC News, April 13, 2023.

[regs-3] "Rules and Regulation Change Highlights". Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television, August 2023.

[4] Etan Vlessing, "‘BlackBerry,’ ‘Little Bird’ Dominate Canadian Screen Awards". The Hollywood Reporter, May 31, 2024.

[5] "BlackBerry Leads CSA Nominations". Northern Stars, March 6, 2024.

[6] Samritha Arunasalam, "Here's who is nominated for the 2025 Canadian Screen Awards". CBC News, March 26, 2025.

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v t e Canadian Screen Awards
By year	2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
Canadian Film Awards (film, 1949–1978)	1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1975 1976 1977 1978
Genie Awards (film, 1979–2012)	1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990/91 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
ACTRA Awards (television, 1972–1986)	1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986
Gemini Awards (television, 1986–2012)	1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
Film awards by category	Motion Picture Lead Performance, Comedy Lead Performance, Drama Supporting Performance, Comedy Supporting Performance, Drama Director Animated Short Art Direction and Production Design Casting Cinematography Cinematography in a Documentary Costume Design Editing Editing in a Documentary Feature Length Documentary Hair Live Action Short Makeup Original Music in a Documentary Original Score Original Song Performance in a Short Film Screenplay (Original and Adapted) Short Documentary Sound Editing Sound Mixing Sound Design in a Documentary Stunt Coordination Visual Effects Golden Screen John Dunning Best First Feature Award
Television awards by category	Comedy Series Drama Series TV Movie Children's or Youth Fiction Series Children's or Youth Non-Fiction Series Pre-School Series Reality/Competition Series Leading Performance, Comedy Leading Performance, Drama Supporting Performance, Comedy Supporting Performance, Drama Ensemble Performance in a Comedy Ensemble Performance in Variety or Sketch Comedy Direction, Children's or Youth Performance, Children's or Youth Writing, Children's or Youth Casting Academy Achievement Award Donald Brittain Award Earle Grey Award Gordon Sinclair Award Rob Stewart Award
Discontinued awards	Bijou Awards (1981) Actor (1968-2022) Actor - Non-Feature (1969–81) Actress (1968-2022) Actress - Non-Feature (1969–81) Lead Performance in a Film (2022) Lead Actor, Comedy Series (1986-2022) Lead Actor, Drama Series (1986-2022) Lead Actress, Comedy Series (1986-2022) Lead Actress, Drama Series (1986-2022) Supporting Actor, Comedy Series (1986-2022) Supporting Actor, Drama Series (1986-2022) Supporting Actress, Comedy Series (1986-2022) Supporting Actress, Drama Series (1986-2022) Foreign Actor (1980–83) Foreign Actress (1980–83) Supporting Actor (1968-2022) Supporting Actress (1968-2022) Supporting Performance in a Film (2022) Theatrical Short (1949–96) Children's or Youth Program (1986-2002) Host, Children's or Youth Program (2008-2016) Individual or Ensemble Performance in a Comedy (1992-2000) Individual Performance in a Comedy (2001-2010) John Drainie Award (1968-2000) Special Achievement Foster Hewitt Award (1975-1986) Wendy Michener Award (1969-1978) Diversity Award (1992-2016) Margaret Collier Award (1986-2020)
Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television Note: Awards by year articles are listed here by the year of eligibility for nomination; due to variable scheduling of the ceremonies, this is not always the same year in which the awards were presented.