# Donald Brittain Award

The Donald Brittain Award is a Canadian television award, presented by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television to honour the year's best television documentary on a social or political topic. Formerly presented as part of the Gemini Awards, since 2013 it has been presented as part of the Canadian Screen Awards. The award may be presented to either a standalone broadcast of a documentary film, or to an individual full-length episode of a news or documentary series; documentary films which originally premiered theatrically, but were not already submitted for consideration in a CSA film category before being broadcast on television, are also considered television films for the purposes of the award.
The award is named in honour of Donald Brittain, a pioneering Canadian documentary filmmaker. On one occasion to date, the award has been won by a documentary film about Brittain and his importance to the history of Canadian documentary film.

## Nominees and winners
### 1990s

| Year | Nominee | Film |
| 1991 6th Gemini Awards |
| 1991 6th Gemini Awards | Island of Whales | George Johnson, Jack Silberman, Gillian Darling, Jerry Appleton |
| 1991 6th Gemini Awards | Between Two Worlds | Peter Raymont |
| 1991 6th Gemini Awards | Distress Signals | Kent Martin, John Walker, Tom Perlmutter |
| 1991 6th Gemini Awards | James Bay: The Wind That Keeps Blowing | Nancy Archibald |
| 1991 6th Gemini Awards | Transplant: The Breath of Life | Elias Petras |
| 1992 7th Gemini Awards |
| 1992 7th Gemini Awards | Timothy Findley: Anatomy of a Writer | Terence Macartney-Filgate, Don Haig |
| 1992 7th Gemini Awards | Man Alive: "Chernobyl 2" | Halya Kuchmij |
| 1992 7th Gemini Awards | On the Eighth Day: Perfecting Mother Nature | Mary Armstrong |
| 1992 7th Gemini Awards | Threads of Hope | Les Harris, Jane Harris |
| 1992 7th Gemini Awards | Women in the Shadows | Signe Johansson, Christine Welsh |
| 1993 8th Gemini Awards |
| 1993 8th Gemini Awards | Donald Brittain: Filmmaker | Adam Symansky |
| 1993 8th Gemini Awards | Adrienne Clarkson Presents: "Artemesia" | Adrienne Clarkson |
| 1993 8th Gemini Awards | Man Alive: "Held Hostage" | Halya Kuchmij |
| 1993 8th Gemini Awards | The Fifth Estate: "Odd Man Out" | Susan Teskey |
| 1993 8th Gemini Awards | The Nature of Things: "Trading Futures" | Michael Poole |
| 1994 9th Gemini Awards |
| 1994 9th Gemini Awards | Shadows and Light: Joaquin Rodrigo at 90 | Larry Weinstein, Niv Fichman |
| 1994 9th Gemini Awards | Dream Tower | Ron Mann |
| 1994 9th Gemini Awards | Hidden Children | Julia Sereny |
| 1994 9th Gemini Awards | No Man's Land | Shelley Saywell |
| 1994 9th Gemini Awards | Romeo and Juliet in Sarajevo | John Zaritsky, Virginia Storring |
| 1995 10th Gemini Awards |
| 1995 10th Gemini Awards | Ms. Conceptions | Linda Frum, Ric Esther Bienstock |
| 1995 10th Gemini Awards | The Fifth Estate: "Sealed in Silence" | David Kaufman |
| 1995 10th Gemini Awards | The Last Trip | Ina Fichman |
| 1995 10th Gemini Awards | The Negotiator | Laszlo Barna |
| 1995 10th Gemini Awards | Orphans of Manchuria | Annie Dodds |
| 1995 10th Gemini Awards | The Voyage of the St. Louis | Arnie Gelbart |
| 1996 11th Gemini Awards |
| 1996 11th Gemini Awards | Utshimassits: Place of the Boss | John Walker, Mike Mahoney, Peter d'Entremont |
| 1996 11th Gemini Awards | Fire and Water | Shelley Saywell |
| 1996 11th Gemini Awards | Scenes from a Corner Store | Sun-Kyung Yi |
| 1996 11th Gemini Awards | Summer in the Cherry Orchard | Ann Bromley |
| 1996 11th Gemini Awards | The True Story of Linda M. | Norma Bailey, Joe MacDonald |
| 1997 12th Gemini Awards |
| 1997 12th Gemini Awards | The Selling of Innocents | Elliott Halpern, Simcha Jacobovici, William Cobban |
| 1997 12th Gemini Awards | My Russian Campaign: From Montreal to Moscow | John Curtin |
| 1997 12th Gemini Awards | Mystics, Mechanics and Mindbombs | Michael Chechik, Jerry Thompson |
| 1997 12th Gemini Awards | Nowhere Else to Live | Alan Handel |
| 1997 12th Gemini Awards | Picturing a People: George Johnston Tlingit Photographer | George Hargrave, Sally Bochner |
| 1998 13th Gemini Awards |
| 1998 13th Gemini Awards | Gerrie & Louise | Phyllis Brown, Sturla Gunnarsson, David York |
| 1998 13th Gemini Awards | Confessions of a Rabid Dog | Rudy Buttignol, Gerry Flahive, Julia Sereny |
| 1998 13th Gemini Awards | Dad | Chris Triffo |
| 1998 13th Gemini Awards | Some Kind of Arrangement | Geeta Sondhi |
| 1998 13th Gemini Awards | Witness: "Between Here and Heaven" | Andrew Gregg, Wayne Abbott |
| 1999 14th Gemini Awards |
| 1999 14th Gemini Awards | Crimes of Honour | Shelley Saywell |
| 1999 14th Gemini Awards | Believing | Nicole Lamothe |
| 1999 14th Gemini Awards | The Dragon's Egg | Rudy Buttignol, Allan King, Elizabeth Yake |
| 1999 14th Gemini Awards | East Side Showdown | Peter Starr |
| 1999 14th Gemini Awards | Four Women of Egypt | Éric Michel |

### 2000s

| Year | Nominee | Film |
| 2000 15th Gemini Awards |
| 2000 15th Gemini Awards | Deep Inside Clint Star | Silva Basmajian |
| 2000 15th Gemini Awards | Asylum: Falling Through the Cracks | Christopher Sumpton |
| 2000 15th Gemini Awards | Kikkik | Ole Gjerstad |
| 2000 15th Gemini Awards | Legacy of Terror: The Bombing of Air India | Rudy Buttignol, Shelley Saywell |
| 2000 15th Gemini Awards | The Holier It Gets | Rudy Buttignol, Jennifer Baichwal, Nicholas de Pencier |
| 2001 16th Gemini Awards |
| 2001 16th Gemini Awards | Breakaway: A Tale of Two Survivors | Johanna Lunn Montgomery, Johanna Eliot, Mathew Welsh |
| 2001 16th Gemini Awards | Chickens Are People Too | John Kastner, Hilary Armstrong, Marie Natanson, Charlotte Odele |
| 2001 16th Gemini Awards | In the Shadow of a Saint | Mark Johnston, Stephen Milton |
| 2001 16th Gemini Awards | Kim Campbell: Through the Looking Glass | Silva Basmajian |
| 2001 16th Gemini Awards | A Moment in Time: The United Colours of Bronstein | Judy Jackson |
| 2002 17th Gemini Awards |
| 2002 17th Gemini Awards | Offspring | Barry Stevens, Laszlo Barna |
| 2002 17th Gemini Awards | Aftermath: The Remnants of War | Peter Starr, Ed Barreveld, Michael Kot |
| 2002 17th Gemini Awards | Culture Jam: Hijacking Commercial Culture | Jill Sharpe, Lynn Booth |
| 2002 17th Gemini Awards | In the Line of Fire | Patricia Naylor |
| 2002 17th Gemini Awards | Waging Peace: A Year in the Life of Caledonia Junior High | Sally Bochner, Peter d'Entremont, Kent Martin |
| 2003 18th Gemini Awards |
| 2003 18th Gemini Awards | Return to Kandahar | Paul Jay, Nelofer Pazira, David M. Ostriker |
| 2003 18th Gemini Awards | Chinese Daughters | Dorlene Lin, Rudy Buttignol |
| 2003 18th Gemini Awards | Salvation | Kent Martin |
| 2003 18th Gemini Awards | Seeing Is Believing | Francis Miquet, Peter Wintonick, Katerina Cizek, Catherine Olsen |
| 2003 18th Gemini Awards | The Tree That Remembers | Sally Bochner |
| 2004 19th Gemini Awards |
| 2004 19th Gemini Awards | Dying at Grace | Allan King, Rudy Buttignol |
| 2004 19th Gemini Awards | Deadline Iraq: Uncensored | Stuart Coxe, Greg Kelly, Douglas Arrowsmith, Eric Foss, Aaron Williams |
| 2004 19th Gemini Awards | Dying to Be Free: Zimbabwe's Struggle for Change | David Belluz |
| 2004 19th Gemini Awards | Short Infinity | Jean Lemire, Yves Bisaillon |
| 2004 19th Gemini Awards | The Man Who Could Be King | Mark Johnston, Edith Champagne, Nancy Ing Duclos |
| 2005 20th Gemini Awards |
| 2005 20th Gemini Awards | Runaway Grooms | Ali Kazimi |
| 2005 20th Gemini Awards | Bunny and Leona | Deborah Parks, John Kastner |
| 2005 20th Gemini Awards | El Contrato | Karen King-Chigbo |
| 2005 20th Gemini Awards | No Place Called Home | Peter Starr |
| 2005 20th Gemini Awards | One More River | Ernest Webb, Catherine Bainbridge |
| 2005 20th Gemini Awards | The Take | Avi Lewis, Naomi Klein, Laszlo Barna, Silva Basmajian |
| 2006 21st Gemini Awards |
| 2006 21st Gemini Awards | House Calls | Gerry Flahive, Silva Basmajian |
| 2006 21st Gemini Awards | Beyond Words: Photographers of War | Eric Foss, Stuart Coxe, Greg Kelly |
| 2006 21st Gemini Awards | Big Sugar | Stephen Phizicky, Sylvia Wilson, Arnie Gelbart |
| 2006 21st Gemini Awards | Memory for Max, Claire, Ida and Company | Kathy Avrich-Johnson, Allan King, Rudy Buttignol |
| 2006 21st Gemini Awards | No More Tears Sister | Pierre Lapointe, Sally Bochner |
| 2007 22nd Gemini Awards |
| 2007 22nd Gemini Awards | Fatherland | Manfred Becker, Laszlo Barna |
| 2007 22nd Gemini Awards | Bombay Calling | Sally Bochner, Adam Symansky |
| 2007 22nd Gemini Awards | Cottonland | Annette Clarke, Kent Martin |
| 2007 22nd Gemini Awards | EMPz 4 Life | Kathy Avrich-Johnson, Rudy Buttignol, Allan King |
| 2007 22nd Gemini Awards | Faith Without Fear | Silva Basmajian, Gordon Henderson |
| 2007 22nd Gemini Awards | Martyr Street | Deborah Parks, Shelley Saywell |
| 2008 23rd Gemini Awards |
| 2008 23rd Gemini Awards | A Promise to the Dead: The Exile Journey of Ariel Dorfman | Peter Raymont |
| 2008 23rd Gemini Awards | A Place Between: The Story of an Adoption | Joe MacDonald, Graydon McRea, Michael Scott, Derek Mazur |
| 2008 23rd Gemini Awards | Darfur: On Our Watch | Neil Docherty, Lisa Ellenwood |
| 2008 23rd Gemini Awards | Forgiveness: Stories for Our Time | Johanna Lunn, Kent Martin |
| 2008 23rd Gemini Awards | Girl Inside | Maya Gallus, Justine Pimlott |
| 2009 24th Gemini Awards |
| 2009 24th Gemini Awards | Tiger Spirit | Ed Barreveld, Anita Lee, Min Sook Lee |
| 2009 24th Gemini Awards | Air India 182 | David York, Sturla Gunnarsson |
| 2009 24th Gemini Awards | bploi wai dtaai: Leave Her to Die | Antonia Thomson, Sean Buckley |
| 2009 24th Gemini Awards | Norm | Kent Nason, Teresa MacInnes |
| 2009 24th Gemini Awards | Triage: Dr. James Orbinski's Humanitarian Dilemma | Peter Raymont, Silva Basmajian |

### 2010s

| Year | Film | Filmmakers |
| 2010 25th Gemini Awards |
| 2010 25th Gemini Awards | Broke | Rosvita Dransfeld |
| 2010 25th Gemini Awards | A Dream for Kabul | Patricia Bergeron, Yves Bisaillon, Nathalie Barton |
| 2010 25th Gemini Awards | Reel Injun | Christina Fon, Catherine Bainbridge, Catherine Olsen, Ravida Din, Adam Symansky, Ernest Webb, Linda Ludwick |
| 2010 25th Gemini Awards | Up Against the Wall | Eileen Thalenberg, Gail McIntyre |
| 2010 25th Gemini Awards | Water on the Table | Liz Marshall |
| 2011 26th Gemini Awards |
| 2011 26th Gemini Awards | Life with Murder | John Kastner, Silva Basmajian |
| 2011 26th Gemini Awards | Jackpot | Michelle Latimer |
| 2011 26th Gemini Awards | Mom's Home | Maureen Judge |
| 2011 26th Gemini Awards | Tipping Point: The Age of the Oil Sands | Niobe Thompson |
| 2011 26th Gemini Awards | When We Were Boys | Mark Johnston, Amanda Handy, Sarah Goodman |
| 2012 1st Canadian Screen Awards |
| 2012 1st Canadian Screen Awards | About Her | Sissy Federer-Less, Michelle Rothstein, Scott Garvie, Alison Gordon, Phyllis Ellis, Christina Jennings, Henry Less |
| 2012 1st Canadian Screen Awards | 8th Fire | Paul Morin, Sue Dando, Peter John Ingles, Jo-Ann Demers, Kelly Crichton |
| 2012 1st Canadian Screen Awards | The Market | Ed Barreveld |
| 2012 1st Canadian Screen Awards | Prosecutor | Lea Marin, Silva Basmajian, Julia Bennett, Kelly Jenkins, Peter Raymont |
| 2012 1st Canadian Screen Awards | The Team | Kelly Jenkins, Peter Raymont, Patrick Reed |
| 2013 2nd Canadian Screen Awards |
| 2013 2nd Canadian Screen Awards | The People of the Kattawapiskak River | Alanis Obomsawin, Ravida Din |
| 2013 2nd Canadian Screen Awards | Blood Relative | Nimisha Mukerji |
| 2013 2nd Canadian Screen Awards | Herman's House | Angad Singh Bhalla, Ed Barreveld, Lisa Valencia-Svensson, Loring McAlpin |
| 2014 3rd Canadian Screen Awards |
| 2014 3rd Canadian Screen Awards | Tales from the Organ Trade | Ric Esther Bienstock, Felix Golubev, Simcha Jacobovici |
| 2014 3rd Canadian Screen Awards | The Exhibition | Robert Straight, Damon Vignale, Miho Yamamoto |
| 2014 3rd Canadian Screen Awards | The Ghosts in Our Machine | Liz Marshall, Nina Beveridge |
| 2014 3rd Canadian Screen Awards | Out of Mind, Out of Sight | Silva Basmajian, John Kastner, Deborah Parks |
| 2015 4th Canadian Screen Awards |
| 2015 4th Canadian Screen Awards | Sugar Coated | Janice Dawe, Michele Hozer |
| 2015 4th Canadian Screen Awards | 15 to Life: Kenneth's Story | Nadine Pequeneza |
| 2015 4th Canadian Screen Awards | Anti-Social Limited | Rosvita Dransfeld |
| 2015 4th Canadian Screen Awards | Danny | Annette Clarke, William D. MacGillivray, Justin Simms |
| 2015 4th Canadian Screen Awards | Human Harvest | Leon Lee, Jason Loftus |
| 2016 5th Canadian Screen Awards |
| 2016 5th Canadian Screen Awards | Guantanamo's Child | Patrick Reed, Michelle Shephard, Peter Raymont |
| 2016 5th Canadian Screen Awards | After the Last River | Vicki Lean, Jade Blair |
| 2016 5th Canadian Screen Awards | I, Pedophile | Matthew Campea, Christopher Sumpton, Robin Benger |
| 2016 5th Canadian Screen Awards | The War at Home | Deborah Parks, Shelley Saywell |
| 2017 6th Canadian Screen Awards |
| 2017 6th Canadian Screen Awards | The Secret Path | Stuart Coxe, Mike Downie, Jocelyn Hamilton, Gord Downie, Justin Stephenson, Jeff Lemire, Sarah Polley, Patrick Downie |
| 2017 6th Canadian Screen Awards | All Governments Lie: Truth, Deception and the Spirit of I. F. Stone | Fred Peabody, Peter Raymont, Steve Ord, Andrew Munger, Jeff Cohen, Oliver Stone |
| 2017 6th Canadian Screen Awards | Colonization Road | Michelle St. John, Brendan Brady, Jordan O'Connor, Shane Belcourt, Evan Adams |
| 2017 6th Canadian Screen Awards | Migrant Dreams | Min Sook Lee, Lisa Valencia-Svensson |
| 2017 6th Canadian Screen Awards | The Skin We're In | Gordon Henderson, Stuart Henderson |
| 2018 7th Canadian Screen Awards |
| 2018 7th Canadian Screen Awards | Quiet Killing (Ce silence qui tue) | Michèle Rouleau |
| 2018 7th Canadian Screen Awards | Driving with Selvi | Elisa Paloschi |
| 2018 7th Canadian Screen Awards | The Heat: A Kitchen (R)evolution | Maya Gallus |
| 2018 7th Canadian Screen Awards | The Way Out | David York, Bryn Hughes, Michelle Shephard |
| 2019 8th Canadian Screen Awards |
| 2019 8th Canadian Screen Awards | Mr. Jane and Finch | Alison Duke, Ngardy Conteh George |
| 2019 8th Canadian Screen Awards | In Search of a Perfect World | Kristina McLaughlin, Kevin McMahon, Michael McMahon |
| 2019 8th Canadian Screen Awards | The Invisible Heart | Nadine Pequeneza |
| 2019 8th Canadian Screen Awards | Village of the Missing | Paul Kemp |

### 2020s

| Year | Film | Filmmakers |
| 2020 9th Canadian Screen Awards |
| 2020 9th Canadian Screen Awards | 9/11 Kids | Steve Gamester, Michael Kot, Betty Orr, Elizabeth St. Philip |
| 2020 9th Canadian Screen Awards | Above the Law | Geoff Morrison, Marc Serpa Francoeur, Robinder Uppal |
| 2020 9th Canadian Screen Awards | Assholes: A Theory | Ann Bernier, Annette Clarke, John Walker |
| 2020 9th Canadian Screen Awards | Meat the Future | Liz Marshall, Janice Dawe, Chris Hegedus |
| 2020 9th Canadian Screen Awards | The Walrus and the Whistleblower | Frederic Bohbot, Nathalie Bibeau |
| 2021 10th Canadian Screen Awards |
| 2021 10th Canadian Screen Awards | Ghosts of Afghanistan | Arnie Gelbart, Julian Sher, Natalie Dubois |
| 2021 10th Canadian Screen Awards | Big News | Catherine Legge, Saman Malik, Michelle Mètivier, Sarah Peterson, Michael Gruzuk |
| 2021 10th Canadian Screen Awards | Dispatches from a Field Hospital | Matt Gallagher, Cornelia Principe |
| 2021 10th Canadian Screen Awards | No Responders Left Behind | Rob Lindsay, Jaime Sanchez, Kelly Zemnickis, Kristine Yanoff |
| 2021 10th Canadian Screen Awards | We Know the Truth: Stories to Inspire Reconciliation | Meagan Fiddler, Bertram Schneider |
| 2022 11th Canadian Screen Awards |
| 2022 11th Canadian Screen Awards | The Pretendians | Drew Hayden Taylor, Paul Kemp |
| 2022 11th Canadian Screen Awards | Come Clean | Derreck Roemer, Neil Graham |
| 2022 11th Canadian Screen Awards | Dear Jackie | Henri Pardo, Katarina Soukup |
| 2022 11th Canadian Screen Awards | Marketplace: "Crisis in Home Care" | Tiffany Foxcroft |
| 2022 11th Canadian Screen Awards | My Indian Name | Abraham Cote, Jason Brennan |
| 2023 12th Canadian Screen Awards |
| 2023 12th Canadian Screen Awards | Coming Home: Wanna Icipus Kupi | Jennifer Podemski, Ernest Webb, Tanya Brunel, Michelle van Beusekom, Daniel Morin, Catherine Bainbridge, Linda Ludwick |
| 2023 12th Canadian Screen Awards | Category Woman | Howard Fraiberg |
| 2023 12th Canadian Screen Awards | Marketplace: "Mortgage Fraud Caught on Camera" | Tiffany Foxcroft, Nelisha Vellani |
| 2023 12th Canadian Screen Awards | Naked: Sex and Gender | Michael McMahon, Kevin McMahon, Kay Siering |
| 2023 12th Canadian Screen Awards | The Passionate Eye: "Inside the Statue Wars" | Steve Gamester, Yuma Dean Hester, Elizabeth St. Philip, Michael Kot |