The Directors Guild of Canada announced the nominees for its 2016 awards today (June 22).

The feature film category saw one first-time nominee amongst a trio of veterans, as Robert Budreau (the Chet Baker biopic Born to Be Blue), alum of both UBC and Vancouver Film School, was honoured alongside Atom Egoyan (Remember), Paul Gross (Hyena Road), and Wiebke von Carolsfield (The Saver).

The Dramatic Series category was swept by the program Vikings, as all four nominees (Ken Girotti, Kelly Makin, Helen Shaver, and Jeff Woolnough) helmed different episodes of the show.

Meanwhile, directing for comedy will see two different episodes of Schitt’s Creek (directed by Jerry Ciccoritti and Paul Fox) battle Trailer Park Boys (Cory Bowles) and the very first episode of What Would Sal Do? (Samir Rehem).

In other categories, Arvinder Grewal, a three-time nominee, will be hoping to take home a trophy for the first time, as the production designer is nominated for two separate, violent films. Hyena Road is about Canadian troops in Afghanistan, and Beeba Boys focuses on the Vancouver drug racket.

Fighting for the Allan King Award for Excellence in Documentary will be an all-star lineup of critically acclaimed films. Guantanamo’s Child: Omar Khadr, Haida Gwaii: On the Edge of the World, Ninth Floor, and Painted Land: In Search of The Group of Seven each have a strong claim to the statue.

Honourary awards will also be given out to Anne Wheeler, the Alberta-born director of Better Than Chocolate and Trina McQueen, the renowned former journalist.

The Awards will be presented on Saturday, October 22 at The Carlu in Toronto with television personality Arisa Cox serving as host.