Was Connor Storrie Snubbed? Hudson Williams, François Arnaud Land Lead Actor Nods for Heated Rivalry

Hudson Williams and François Arnaud will compete for best lead performer at the 2026 Canadian Screen Awards after Heated Rivalry picked up 18 nominations on Wednesday in Toronto, but breakout co-star Connor Storrie is out of the running entirely because he does not meet the eligibility rules.

For context, the Canadian Screen Awards are handed out by the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television, recognising what it calls 'the country's top talent in the film, television and digital sectors.' The latest nominations cover the first season of Heated Rivalry, which has quietly become one of the most decorated new Canadian drama series on the circuit, and now stands as the second‑most nominated production at next year's ceremony, scheduled for Sunday, 31 May and hosted by Kim's Convenience and Run the Burbs actor Andrew Phung.

The attention on Connor Storrie is not accidental. Fans of the show have been quick to notice that while Williams and Arnaud are both named in the Best Lead Performer, Drama Series category, Storrie, who shares much of the narrative weight on screen, is missing. According to the Academy's rules, performers must be Canadian citizens or permanent residents to qualify. Storrie is neither, which makes him ineligible, regardless of how central his character might be to Heated Rivalry's appeal.

That technicality does not make the omission feel any less stark. When a series racks up 18 separate nominations, from acting to editing to sound, the absence of one of its most visible faces starts to look less like an oversight and more like a structural quirk of how Canada chooses to honour its own industry.

Heated Rivalry Dominates Canadian Screen Awards Race Without Connor Storrie

The news came after months of momentum for Heated Rivalry, which has already earned recognition at other awards shows for its first season. Here, the Academy's voters have gone all in on the drama. The series is up for Best Drama Series for producers Jacob Tierney and Brendan Brady, placing it firmly in the top tier of Canadian television.

Tierney himself emerges as one of the major individual contenders. He is nominated for Best Direction and Best Writing in a drama series, underlining how much of the show's identity is tied to his vision behind the camera as well as on the page. On the technical side, the list reads like a roll‑call of the crew who built the world that viewers have latched onto: Jackson Parrell for Best Photography, Véronique Barbe and Arthur Tarnowsky for Best Picture Editing, and an eight‑strong team of sound professionals led by Vincent Riendeau and Martin Messier in the Best Sound, Fiction category.

The nominations dig deep into craft. Aidan Leroux is recognised for Best Production Design or Art Direction, while Hanna Puley earns a nod for Best Costume Design. Visual effects specialists Simon Devault, Philippe Massonnat, Christophe Trepanier and Felix Arsenault also pick up a nomination in Best Visual Effects, a reminder that modern TV drama often leans as heavily on digital wizardry as it does on performance.

Composer Peter Peter appears twice on the list, for Best Original Music, Drama and for Best Original Music – Original Song with 'It's You'. In an awards field that can sometimes sideline music, that double recognition suggests the soundtrack has become part of Heated Rivalry's signature.

On screen, beyond Williams and Arnaud's lead nominations, the Academy has singled out a small cluster of supporting and guest actors. Ksenia Daniela Kharlamova and Sophie Nélisse are both in contention for Best Supporting Performer, Drama, while Nadine Bhabha is nominated for Best Guest Performance, Drama Series.

Casting directors Jenny Lewis and Sara Kay are also on the slate for Best Achievement in Casting, Fiction, an implicit nod to how well the ensemble has been assembled — and, by extension, how integral Connor Storrie has been, even if his name is nowhere on the official ballot.

Rules Leave Connor Storrie On The Sidelines Of Awards Glory

The question of whether Connor Storrie has been 'snubbed' is, strictly speaking, misplaced. Nothing in the nominations suggests voters turned against his performance; by the Academy's own criteria, he simply did not qualify because he is not Canadian or a Canadian resident. Those rules exist to ring‑fence a national prize for national talent, which is defensible enough. Yet the optics are awkward when a show's central trio is celebrated in practice by audiences, but only two can be recognised in theory by the industry's biggest homegrown awards.

The Academy has not issued any special statement addressing Storrie's absence, and there is no indication that Heated Rivalry's producers sought exemptions. Nothing is confirmed beyond what sits in black and white on the nominations list, so any talk of internal lobbying or disputes should be taken with a grain of salt.

Meanwhile, Tierney, notably, has also been nominated for his work as a producer on The Traitors Canada in the Best Reality/Competition Program or Series category, reinforcing his stature within Canadian television even as one of his most prominent collaborators remains outside the awards tent.

For viewers of Heated Rivalry, the 2026 Canadian Screen Awards will now carry a slightly split focus. On one level, the series has already achieved what most first‑season dramas can only hope for, with 18 nominations cutting across virtually every discipline. On another, the celebration of Canadian talent will unfold with a conspicuous gap where Connor Storrie's name might otherwise have been.