Zacharias Kunuk's Camera d'or winner Atanarjuat (The Fast Runner) and Lyndon Chubbuck's The War Bride both received seven nominations for Canada's Genie Awards, announced Dec. 12 in Toronto. Bruce Sweeney's Last Wedding had six nominations while five were awarded to Renny Bartlett's Eisenstein, Bernard Emond's La Femme Qui Boit and William Philips' Treed Murray. Andre Turpin's Un Crabe Dans La Tete earned four.

Both Atanarjuat, winner of the Camera D'Or at Cannes this year and The War Bride, a Canada-UK coproduction, starring UK actress Anna Friel, were nominated for Best Picture. Friel was nominated for Best Actress. Other Best Picture nominees were Eisenstein, a Germany-Canada coproduction, Treed Murray and Un Crabe Dans La Tete.

Four of the five directors of the Best Picture nominees were making their feature film debut; ironically, Turpin, the only one with previous feature experience, was not nominated for Best Direction. Best Direction nods went to Kunuk, Bartlett, Emond, Phillips and Denis Chouinard for L'Ange De Goudron.

Last Wedding and director Sweeney were conspicuous in their absence from the Best Picture and Best Direction categories. The film was one of the best reviewed films out of the Toronto International Film Festival, where it premiered this September.

Joining Friel in the Best Actress category were Sarah Polley for The Law of Enclosures, Katja Riemann for Desire, Jillian Fargey for Protection and Elise Guilbault for La Femme Qui Boit.

Best Actor nominations went to Zachary Bennett for Desire, Zinedine Soualem for L'Ange De Goudron, Peter Outerbridge for Marine Life, Brendan Fletcher for The Law of Enclosures, Chris Owens for The Uncles and David La Haye for Un Crabe Dans La Tete.

Two of the short films commissioned to celebrate last year's 25th anniversary of Toronto festival ' David Cronenberg's Camera and Guy Maddin's The Heart Of The World -- were nominated for Best Live Action Short Drama. Heart Of The World also screened at Cannes this year.

The 22nd annual Genie Awards will be presented Feb. 7, 2002 in Toronto.